Part 12 (1/2)
”He hasn't heard anything from Socker?” Djuna asked.
”Not yet,” Tommy said. ”He- Oh, here he is now.”
”Hi, Trix,” Cannonball said. He talked with Trixie for a moment about Spitfire and then Trixie said, ”Could you run Djuna and me out to the hospital?”
”Surest thing you know,” Cannonball said. ”Are you coming along, Tommy, or are you going to the circus?”
”I think I'll go to the circus, if it's all right,” Tommy said anxiously.
”Okay,” Cannonball said, and added sternly, ”When the circus is over, you come back. I'll be parked here.” He turned to Djuna. ”What,” he asked, ”are you going to do after you go to the hospital with Trixie?”
”I think,” Djuna said, ”I'll go back to our room at the hotel and take a nap. I-I don't feel so well.”
”That's the first smart thing I've heard you say today,” Cannonball said enthusiastically. ”I think a nap is just what the doctor ordered.”
”I'm going to stay at the hospital with Spitfire for a time, if they'll let me,” Trixie said. ”I'll stop in at the hotel and pick Djuna up on my way back.”
”Fine,” Cannonball said. ”Let's go!”
On the way to the hospital Cannonball told Djuna that he was going to stop at the State Police substation on the way back to the circus grounds and have them send out a hush-hush alarm for Socker Furlong.
”Then it is true that you think something might have happened to Socker!” Trixie cried from the back seat where she was sitting. Cannonball had thought that he was talking quietly enough to Djuna, who sat beside him, so that Trixie couldn't hear.
”Well,” Cannonball said. ”We-”
”I told Trixie about the phone call for Socker this morning and what Mr. Canavan said about it,” Djuna interrupted to say. ”She knows.”
”But, Cannonball!” Trixie pleaded. ”What's it all about? Why all the hush-hush and-”
”You tell me!” Cannonball growled. ”I think they just got their orders mixed up in Socker's office. I think-”
”Well, why don't you get that night city editor on the telephone at home and find out if he called Socker this morning?” Trixie wanted to know.
Cannonball looked at Djuna and Djuna looked at Cannonball and then not either one of them dared look at Trixie.
”Maybe she's got something there, eh, kid?” Cannonball said. ”I'll get him out of bed this time, as soon as I get to the station.”
When they arrived at the hospital Cannonball let Trixie and Djuna out and then he went out of the hospital driveway with his siren screaming.
Trixie and Djuna went inside and Trixie said to the sympathetic girl who was behind the desk, ”I want to take my son in to see his father. It will be all right, won't it?”
”Why, yes, I think so,” she replied. ”Just a minute.” She went out and talked to the woman sitting at the day supervisor's desk and then came back and nodded her head. ”Okay,” she said. ”Don't stay too long.”
They walked down a long corridor to the last door on the right-hand side that had a sign on it reading: NO VISITORS.
Trixie knocked lightly on the door and a girl in a white uniform opened it. She held the door wide and after they were inside she said, ”I'll be back in a moment,” and went out into the corridor and closed the door behind her.
”Say, Trixie!” Djuna said excitedly. ”Would you go out and keep that nurse outside until after I get through talking with Spitfire?”
”Well, Djuna,” Trixie said. ”Suppose-”
”Please, Trixie!” Djuna said.
Trixie nodded her head, but before she went out she stepped over to the bed and leaned over the figure that was lying there swathed in bandages and said, ”h.e.l.lo, darling. I've brought Djuna, Socker's friend, with me. He wants to talk with you. Is it all right?”
Djuna, leaning over the bed beside Trixie, looked into Spitfire's gray eyes. He nodded his head up and down and then he winked at Djuna.
”Jeepers! You're marvelous, Mr. Peters!” Djuna said and the bandaged head rolled from side to side and the eyes were very stern-looking.
”He wants you to call him Spitfire,” Trixie said with a sob in her voice and Spitfire nodded his head up and down and winked at Djuna again.
”Okay, Djuna. You take it from here,” Trixie said and she opened the door and disappeared.
Djuna climbed up on the high bed beside Spitfire, opened his blouse and pulled out the tiny white elephant that dangled on the cord around his neck. Spitfire's eyes opened wide when he saw it and Djuna said, ”Do you remember when you said, 'The white elephant' to me after you fell yesterday?”
Spitfire nodded his head up and down, eagerly.
”I saw it shoot across the track when you struck and scooped it up,” Djuna said.
Spitfire grinned.
”I didn't tell anyone about it, or what you said, except Tommy Williams,” Djuna said. ”I didn't know what to do. Then I remembered the iron elephant that is painted white that old Mr. Grant had on his lawn and Tommy and I went up there last night to look at it, thinking that might be the one you meant. We didn't find anything, but young Mr. Grant surprised us while we were there. I didn't know what he might do to us, so I told him that you had gasped, 'The white elephant' to me when you fell. He thought I meant the white iron elephant on the lawn and he let us go.”
Spitfire's gray eyes had filled with alarm as Djuna told him what he had said to Mr. Grant, and then he grinned as he realized how Djuna had fooled Grant with the iron elephant.
”This morning,” Djuna went on, ”Cannonball drove Tommy and me over to Edenboro, where we live, to get some clothes. While I was changing my clothes in my bedroom your black charm dropped out of my pocket and my little black Scottie-he has awful strong jaws-found it and began to chew on it. Some of the outside black and some of the plaster came off and I saw that there was something else inside. So, I took a knife and sc.r.a.ped the rest off and found this little white elephant.
”I looked at it carefully,” Djuna went on, ”and found these numerals on the legs. I think they are the combination to a safe, or something. Is that right?”
Spitfire's eyes gleamed as he nodded his head up and down.
”Is the safe up in old man Grant's house?” Djuna asked.
Again Spitfire's head went up and down.
”On the top floor?” Djuna asked.
Spitfire shook his head from side to side.
”The second floor?”
Again Spitfire shook his head.
”The first floor?”