Free Mandie and the Secret Tunnel by Lois Gladys Leppard Page B

resumed his seat. Mandie took her place again, and then introduced each one around the table. “This is my friend, Polly Cornwallis. This is Bayne Locke, Mrs. Snow, and her daughter, Ruby. Now do help yourselves, Dr. Woodard, there’s plenty to eat.”
    “Yes, I can see there is,” Dr. Woodard said, piling his plate high, and turning to Joe who kept his eyes glued on Polly. “Joe, dig in, boy.”
    “Oh, yes, sir,” Joe answered and began filling his plate, still stealing glances at Polly who was openly staring at him also.
    “Where are you from, Dr. Woodard?” Bayne asked him.
    “We live near where Amanda comes from, in Swain County,” he answered between mouthfuls of green beans and cornbread. “Had to come to Franklin on some business and just thought we’d drop in to see how she was getting on.”
    “You know that Uncle John died?” Mandie questioned.
    “Died? Why, no, I hadn’t heard. When? What happened?” Dr. Woodard asked.
    “He died right after I came here,” she told him. “He was in Europe.”
    “It was very sudden, doctor, from what his lawyer told me, and he was buried overseas,” Mr. Bond added.
    “Well, I’m very sorry to hear that,” the doctor replied. “Your ma and sister are fine, Amanda. I saw them at the store yesterday.”
    “Oh, Dr. Woodard, please don’t tell them where I am!” Mandie begged, as she quickly studied the doctor’s face. “You—you haven’t already, have you?”
    “Well, as a matter of fact, I have, Amanda. But, now don’t you worry. It’s all right with your ma, if you want to stay here—but then, what’s going to happen now that your uncle is gone?”
    “You
told
her?” Mandie felt betrayed.
    “Yes, I had to. There was a posse out looking for you all over Nantahala Mountain after you ran away from the Brysons. Just happened you had written Joe where you were going,” Dr. Woodard told her. “I didn’t want to, Amanda, but I had to. Those men were wasting their time. But like I said, your ma doesn’t care if you stay here. She told me so. Will you stay on here, now that your uncle is dead?”
    “Yes, I will,” Mandie replied. “Mr. Bayne Locke says he is my uncle’s nephew and Mrs. Snow says she is his niece. But, we haven’t found the will yet, so we don’t know what he left to whom.”
    “Well, that’s a nice kettle of fish. Can’t find the will, eh?” The doctor continued eating as he turned to Mr. Bond. “Say he has a will to be found yet?”
    “That’s right. His lawyer believes it’s somewhere in this house but we haven’t turned it up yet,” Jason Bond told him. “And until we do, nothing can be settled.”
    Dr. Woodard turned to Bayne Locke and Mrs. Snow.
    “I don’t recollect Jim and John Shaw having any other living close relatives,” he told them.
    “That’s because my mother, who was John Shaw’s sister, Martha, died when I was born,” Bayne told him.
    “When you were born? Now, let me see, you must be twenty-two or twenty-three?”
    “Twenty-two.”
    “Well now, twenty-two years ago I was in schoolwith Jim Shaw and he didn’t have a sister. As a matter of fact, I had known the family probably four or five years before that.” The doctor was emphatic about this.
    “Sorry, but he did have a sister and I am her son,” Bayne Locke smiled crookedly at the doctor.
    The doctor grunted his disapproval and turned to Mrs. Snow. “And you claim to be a niece? He didn’t have any niece except Amanda here.”
    “Well, I don’t know who you think you are, but I guess I know who I am.” Mrs. Snow jumped up from the table and threw down her napkin. “Come on, Ruby, we have things to do.” And they left the room in a hurry.
    “Guess she’s mighty sensitive about it,” Dr. Woodard mumbled.
    “You’re absolutely right, Doc,” Jason Bond told him. “I know these people are not kin to John Shaw, none of them excepting Amanda here, but I got to get proof before I can put them out. And that proof should be on