The Mystery of Monster Mountain

 
14
The Burning Mountain
 “But why, Jupe?” asked Hans. “Why must we stay close to the inn?” He climbed up the ladder out of the swimming pool excavation, leaving Konrad below.
“I’d rather not explain right now,” said Jupe. “It would be terribly embarrassing for you — for all of us — if I were wrong. Trust me, please. Just stay here in case I need you.”
“Sure, we trust you, Jupe,” said Hans. “Okay. Have a good time at the campground,” he added uncertainly.
Jupe rejoined Bob and Pete, who had just informed Cousin Anna that they planned to be away for the rest of the day. Quickly the boys gathered what they needed for dinner from their campsite in the pine grove. As they worked, Jensen drove up and Smathers appeared from the trees across the road. Both men climbed onto the front porch of the inn and plopped onto chairs.
Jupe grunted at the sight of them. “I hope they stay right where they are,” he said. “I don’t know yet how they fit into this.”
“Into what, Jupe?” demanded Pete. “What’s going on?”
“Later, later,” said Jupe impatiently.
The boys were just leaving when Joe Havemeyer walked out onto the front porch.
“Hey, where are you boys going in such a hurry?” he called. His voice was jovial but he looked at them suspiciously.
“Blast!” muttered Jupe. He assumed his best dumb-kid expression and strolled deliberately over to the porch. “We’re going down to the campground for a cookout,” he said blandly.
“You kids sure have a lot of excess energy,” commented Havemeyer. “We ought to keep you right here at the inn and put you to work… work… ”
Havemeyer stopped talking, and his face took on a yellowish tinge. Jupe blinked. Then he realized that it was not Havemeyer who had gone yellow; it was the light which had changed. He looked up to see a thick, billowing cloud of smoke which hid the sun.
“There!” Pete pointed. North of the inn, on the pine-clad slopes beyond the campground, the smoke was thicker and darker.
All at once they could see flame. A flake of ash floated down and settled on Havemeyer’s hair. Jensen and Smathers left the porch for a better view.
“It’s blowing this way,” said Havemeyer. It was almost a whisper. The man seemed paralyzed, gripping the porch railing.
There was the roar of a car on the road. The car that had been parked in the campground when the boys came down the mountain was skidding and bumping up toward the inn. Pete raced out, wildly waving his arms, and the car screeched to a stop.
“How bad is it?” Pete shouted to the man.
“Going like crazy!” yelled the man. “You’d better get out of here. Woods are like tinder. Dropped a cigarette and the wind caught a spark and the next thing I knew the whole hillside was burning.”
Hans ran out from behind the inn. “Anna!” he shouted. “Anna! Konrad! Come quick. The mountain is on fire!”
The woman in the car cried, “Harold, let’s go!” The man stepped on the gas and started so suddenly that his wheels spun on the dusty road.
“Hans! Konrad!” Joe Havemeyer was moving now. He ran down the front steps of the inn and seized a garden hose that lay coiled near the porch. “The ladder!” he shouted to Hans. “Get the ladder. We’ve got to wet down the roof.”
A deer broke from cover across the road and ran blindly up the drive, past the startled humans, toward the ski slope.
“Dear heaven!” Mr. Smathers was so upset that his voice was almost a croak. “Those dreadful people. Criminals! Murderers!” The wildly excited little man scampered after the deer.
“Where are you going?” Mr. Jensen grabbed at Smathers’ arm.
A frightened squirrel dashed past Jensen and Smathers and up the ski slope.
“Let me go!” shouted Smathers. “Don’t you see? The animals are heading for the high country.”
“But the fire’s coming this way,” warned Jensen. “You’ll be trapped up there.”
Smathers pulled away from the younger man. “I have to go,” he said, and he sprinted toward the slope.
Cousin Anna ran from the house. “Joe!” she cried. “Joe, we have to get out.”
 “No!” Havemeyer had the water turned on. He backed away from the faucet and aimed the hose toward the roof. “We have to save this place. I know we can save it if we stay with it.”
Konrad came up and took Anna’s arm. “We will take our cousin and we will get out,” he told Havemeyer. “Anna, you come with us, huh?”
Anna turned and looked at the fire. It seemed quite close now, less than a mile from the inn. The wind was hot, and ash speckled the ground.
“You come with us,” said Konrad again.
Anna nodded.
“Jupe,” said Konrad. “Pete. Bob. Get in the truck.”
“Wait a minute!” said Jupiter Jones.
“We cannot wait.” Konrad started to lead Anna to the parking area. “Get in the truck!”
“But we have to find Anna,” said Jupe.
“What?” Konrad stared at Jupe, then at the woman next to him. She froze in an attitude that had something fiercely defensive about it. It seemed to Jupe that she went pale, but he could not be sure in the murky light.
“Where is Anna?” he demanded.
Havemeyer let the hose drop. “You’re crazy!” he said.
Jupe ignored him. “You are Mrs. Havemeyer,” he said to the woman called Anna. “Where is Anna Schmid? Tell me. Quickly!”
“Where is Anna Schmid?” Jensen looked like a man who had been struck and stunned. “You are not Anna Schmid?” he said to the woman.
She straightened and seemed to get some grip on herself. “I was Anna Schmid,” she said. “Now I am Anna Havemeyer. You know that.” She looked Jensen squarely in the face. “I was Anna Schmid, and I will go with my cousins.”
“No!” Jupe took two quick steps toward her.
She broke then, and started to run toward her ear.
“Hey!” Jensen ran, too, reaching for her shoulder. “One second there.”
Anna dodged and stumbled as Jensen’s hand caught at her, and she fell. The fair hair with its circle of braids came off like some bizarre hat and rolled for a foot or two before collapsing into a limp heap. Instantly Anna was up again and running. The boys saw that under the wig she had short, bleached hair.
“You are not Anna!” cried Hans.
Konrad caught the woman as she tugged at the door of her car. “Where is my cousin?” he said. He sounded as if he might strike her. “Where is Anna?”
The woman cringed back against the car.
 “There’s a cabin up near the meadow, isn’t there?” said Jupe. “Is she there?”
The woman nodded.
Konrad released her, and a second later he and Hans and The Three Investigators were racing up the slope toward the high country.
 
15
The Monster
Smoke was thick on the upper meadow when the boys reached it. Jupiter felt that his lungs would burst. He dropped to his knees in the long grass and turned his face away from the hot wind that swept across the mountainside. Ahead of him and to the right, a cougar stalked from the trees, stood for a second as if tasting the scorched air, then ran to the west, to the barren cliffs beyond the trees.
Konrad tugged at Jupe’s elbow. “Get up. Quick. Show us where is Anna.”
Jupiter stumbled up. Pete was already running across the meadow, making straight for the woods on the far side. Bob ran after, trying valiantly to keep up with Pete. Running with the two boys were animals. Jupe saw that the entire meadow was alive with large and small creatures, all fleeing wildly from the threat of the fire.
“Hurry!” urged Konrad. Hans was ahead of them, following Pete and Bob.
Jupe nodded and forced his trembling legs to carry him across the meadow.
It seemed to Jupe that his legs were made of lead, that he was struggling as if trying to run through deep water. He saw Pete and Bob ahead of him, waiting at the edge of the trees. He stumbled and Konrad grabbed his arm.