Reaching the foyer, Jake struggled to free himself, but his throat was clamped by a hard forearm.
The thief took a last step toward the door when a new noise intruded.
From the sweep of the main staircase, a baying howl flowed. A low brown shape hurtled down the steps, a furry torpedo.
“No, Watson!” Jake gasped out.
The old basset hound was past his fighting prime. At fourteen years, he was almost deaf and half blind. He must have slept through all of the commotion until the booming gunshot woke him up and sent him charging.
Leaping off the last step, Watson flew to Jake’s defense.
But he was no match for the strong thief. Jake’s captor swung out his arm like a club and struck Watson in the shoulder, knocking the dog to the side.
Jake went blind with anger. Free of the choking arm, he ripped open the red belt that tied his uniform and shimmied out of his jacket, leaving the giant holding nothing but cloth.
Once free, Jake twisted and dropped to his back on the floor. He kept hold of his jacket’s sleeve and yanked with all his strength.
The skeleton, caught by surprise, got pulled forward. Jake kicked up with both feet, hitting the man square in the face. Under one heel, bone crunched.
With a cry of surprise and pain, the thief let go of the jacket and stumbled over the door’s threshold and down the front steps outside.
Morgan came running up. “Stay down!” he yelled to Jake, and dashed for the door.
But the thief’s partner already had the car running. Jake heard the engine roar. Morgan’s pistol cracked, but tires spun through gravel.
Jake sat up in time to see the sedan fishtail around the circular drive, crash through a section of garden, then blast away down the driveway. One of Morgan’s shots shattered the rear window, but the sedan kept going and disappeared over a wooded hill.
They’d both gotten away.
Morgan returned, his face beet red. He pointed at Jake. He plainly wanted to yell, to bluster; but instead he kept his words as taut as a bowstring. “Next time I tell you to keep out of sight, boy, bloody do it.”
Jake nodded, relieved.
Morgan crossed to the library. Uncle Edward was tied to an office chair. One of his eyes was swollen shut, his lower lip split and bleeding. But from the flush in his face, he was plainly more angry than hurt. Morgan and Aunt Matilda set about freeing him.
A whimper drew Jake’s attention to the other side. Watson came limping up.
“Oh, no …”
Jake slid on his knees across the limestone floor to meet him. Watson wagged his tail, panting hard, tongue hanging. He looked more embarrassed than wounded. Still, Jake ran his hands over Watson’s side to be sure. He felt no broken bones or ribs. Likely he was only bruised.
Jake hugged the old dog. He was more brother than hound. “I’m so sorry, Watson.”
Morgan appeared behind him. “It wasn’t your fault.”
Jake stared up at him, then down the main hall. Half of the cabinets had been smashed open, the contents scattered or crushed, priceless treasures that went back generations: pinned beetles and rare butterflies, stuffed extinct specimens, precious artifacts and totems from around the world, fossils from every era and epoch.
How much had been lost forever?
His voice was dull with shock. “Then whose fault was it?”
Jake swung to face his aunt and uncle. Aunt Matilda had straightened her cap and tucked her white curls back into order. She had already fetched an ice pack for her husband. Edward had it wrapped in a towel and pressed it over his swollen eye. He had never looked more frail.
Jake’s heart ached.
Edward and Matilda were not really his aunt and uncle. The married couple had been friends of Jake’s grandfather and had managed Ravensgate Manor for three generations. With no surviving relatives to look after Jake and Kady after their parents disappeared, the elderly couple had taken over their guardianship, while continuing to oversee the estate. The pair were as doting as any parents and sometimes as stern.
“What did the thieves want?” Jake asked.
Edward answered. He’d recovered his spectacles from the floor, but they were broken. “That’s just it. It made no sense. They kept asking about your father’s watch. The gold anniversary pocket watch.”
Jake felt his stomach sink. Now he knew whose fault all of this was. He only had to look in a mirror.
Matilda shook her head. “We tried to tell them that it had vanished with Richard and Penelope, but they wouldn’t believe us.”
Jake glanced down the hall toward his parents’ cabinet. It was still intact. And lucky for that. Jake had hidden the watch inside the cabinet, where it belonged. For safekeeping, he had placed it inside an ancient Egyptian funerary jar on the bottom shelf.
After returning from Pangaea, Jake and Kady had made a pact to keep their adventures secret, to tell no one about the discovery of the pocket watch. Who would have believed their story anyway?
Morgan growled. “So the watch isn’t here?”
After all that had happened, Jake almost caved in and told the truth. But suspicions still jangled through him. He did not fully trust Morgan. Could all of this have been a clever ruse? A fallback plan if the thieves failed to find the watch? It seemed odd that Morgan should show up here so suddenly. For that matter, what was the head of security for Bledsworth Sundries and Industries even doing in North Hampshire, Connecticut?
Jake remembered something his father had once told him: all you have to do to keep a secret is to do nothing at all. Of course, his father had been talking about the silence necessary to protect an archaeological dig site. Still, Jake took that advice now.
He said nothing.
Morgan shook his head. “Then you’re right. It makes no sense. Lucky I was keeping tabs on your family.”
“What?” Jake gulped out, shocked and surprised. “Why?”
“Because Bledsworth Sundries and Industries cleans up its own messes.”
“What do you mean?”
“I fear the event we sponsored at the British Museum last April and the publicity generated by your appearance may have stirred up unwanted attention aimed your way. Since you returned home, we’ve been keeping tabs. Then, two days ago, my local sources picked up chatter of a possible burglary attempt. I came out to investigate.”
Jake wasn’t entirely buying it. “So that was you back in town, wasn’t it?” He couldn’t keep an accusatory tone out of his voice.
Morgan’s face tightened with what looked like shame. “I’m afraid so. And I’m afraid that incident with the automobile was also my fault.”