The Marvelous Inventions of Alvin Fernald Page 3

  Hitching up his belt, he crawled out the window and started letting himself down the side of the house. Halfway down he bumped the house. He hung there motionless for a minute, but there wasn’t a peep from inside. At last he let himself down to the end of the rope, kicked his feet wildly, and let loose. His foot struck something soft just before he hit the ground.

  “Ouch!” said a voice. “Can’t you watch where you’re going, Alvin?” It was the Pest, of course, standing there in her nightgown.

  Alvin’s nerves were jumpy. At first he was startled, then angry. “Criminently, can’t I do anything without you spying on me? You go right back to bed. And do it quietly so the folks won’t hear you.”

  “I’m going with you, Alvin.”

  “No you’re not. You’re going back to bed!”

  “If you don’t take me along I’ll holler just as loud as I can. Like this.” The Pest opened her mouth as if she were going to scream.

  “Ssssh!” said Alvin. “Do you want the folks to hear you?”

  “Yes.”

  Alvin thought for a minute. There didn’t seem to be any way out of it. “All right, but remember, this is your own idea to tag along. Don’t blame me if anything happens. And you’ve got to promise you won’t get in our way.”

  “Won’t get in your way,” she repeated.

  Alvin walked down the moonlit street with his sister at his heels. When he got to Shoie’s house, he dodged from tree to tree, imitating the guys on television. He reached the gravel driveway and crept along the side of the house until he was just beneath Shoie’s second-floor window. He picked up a stone and pitched it up through the window. It made a terrible clatter inside, but nothing happened.

  Alvin tossed a bigger stone toward the window. In the darkness, he couldn’t see where it went and was just stooping over for another when it came down and hit him on the ear.

  “Ouch!” he said, then clapped his hand over his mouth. He rubbed his ear for a minute, then tossed another stone. There was a crash of broken glass inside the house. Lights began winking on all over the second floor.

  Alvin pushed his sister behind some bushes and crouched beside her. He heard a door open in the room above his head.

  “Wilfred!” said Shoie’s mother, who always called him Wilfred. “Wilfred, are you all right?”

  “Yeah, I’m okay, Mom.”

  “For heaven’s sake, what happened to your mirror?”

  There was a long pause. Then Shoie’s voice said, “I guess I was dreaming, Mom. I guess I was dreaming about playing baseball, and maybe I threw a wild pitch.”

  “How many times have I told you not to take that ball and glove to bed with you?”

  “I won’t do it again, Mom.”

  “Good heavens, what a mess. Well, leave it until morning. But don’t walk around in here without your shoes, Wilfred. You’ll cut your feet on all that broken glass.”

  “I won’t, Mom.”

  One by one the lights in the house winked out. Shoie’s head popped through the window. “I’ll be down in a minute,” he whispered.

  Soon Shoie appeared at the window. He came out backwards, climbing down until he was hanging onto the window sill, his legs dangling in space. Then he started swinging his body back and forth.

  Just as Alvin thought Shoie couldn’t hang on another second, the swinging feet reached far out and touched the roof of the back porch. Shoie scrambled onto the roof, crawled to the corner of the house, and shinnied down the downspout, landing on his feet beside them.

  “Well done, oh Mighty Athlete,” said Alvin. “But how will you get back up?”

  “Got the front door key in my pocket,” whispered Shoie. “I just did that for show. Boy, you should see what you did to my mirror.”

  “Sorry, old bean.”

  “You’re forgiven, old man.”

  “Quite so, old bean.”

  “Let’s get on with our plans, old man.”

  “Quite so, beans,” said the Pest.

  “Sssssh!” said Alvin.

  He led the way down to the corner, then up the street toward the old Huntley place.

  By the time they left the last street light and were moving through the darkness, Alvin wasn’t so sure he wanted to go through with his plan. To tell the truth, he was downright scared, but he couldn’t let the others know it. He had done too much talking to back out now.

  “Alvin, let’s go back,” said Daphne.

  The sudden sound of her voice made Alvin jump sideways, but he quickly recovered and kept right on jumping back and forth down the sidewalk, as though that were part of his plan.

  At the iron fence Alvin paused for a moment, then climbed to the top. He took a deep breath and leaped into the black shrubbery below. A moment later Shoie was standing beside him. This time, Alvin noticed, the Pest waited until they were inside before she slipped through the bars. She pressed up against Alvin, shivering in her thin nightgown. Alvin felt a little shivery, too.

  “We’ll keep together,” he announced in a whisper.

  That suited the others fine.

  They crept through the shrubbery and weeds until they could see the old house. Suddenly they all stopped.

  “Look!” said Shoie.

  “EEEEEEEeeeeee” Daphne started to scream, and Alvin clamped his hand over her mouth.

  Up in one of the towers a dim light was moving, casting spooky shadows across the windowpanes.

  For a long time they squatted there in the weeds, watching. The shadows moved back and forth across the window. At last the light winked out.

  “Whew,” sighed Shoie.

  “Looked like ghosts,” said Alvin.

  “Ghosts!” repeated Daphne in a whispered shriek. “I’m going home to Mommy!” Alvin grabbed her arm and held her until she stopped shaking.

  “Maybe we all ought to go home,” suggested Shoie.

  Alvin felt the same way, but he didn’t want to show it. Finally the magnificent brain began analyzing the situation.

  “Can’t be ghosts,” he said. “In the first place, there isn’t such a thing as a ghost, and in the second place, ghosts wouldn’t be drinking coffee and eating hamburgers.”

  “That’s right,” whispered Shoie.

  “So it must be people. And if it’s people, we’re going to find out what they’re doing. We’re going through with our plan.”

  Alvin acted a lot braver than he felt as he sneaked through the weeds toward the house. He kept glancing back over his shoulder to make sure the others were following. He didn’t know what was in front of him, but he wanted something familiar behind his back.

  At the rickety steps to the porch they stopped and glanced up at the gloomy house. In the moonlight it looked more than ever like a deserted castle.

  “What are you going to do, Alvin?” asked Shoie.

  Alvin didn’t know exactly what he was going to do, so he crouched there as though he were deciding which of several plans to use.

  A light suddenly moved into the big room almost directly in front of them, the room with the broken window.

  The three figures at the bottom of the steps could have been statues as they watched the light shining eerily on the dusty window. They could hear muffled voices, but couldn’t make out any of the words.

  For long minutes they crouched there, watching the light move back and forth and listening to the voices. Finally, Alvin got a cramp in his big toe and stood up.

  “I’m going to take a look,” he whispered, reaching around his back for his Electric Periscope. In the darkness he tried to untie the string, but the knot wouldn’t come unsnarled. And the more he worked with the knot, the higher it slipped around his neck, until it started to bite into his skin. He was beginning to gasp when Shoie saw that he was in trouble. Shoie’s two strong hands broke the string.

  “Argle,” said Alvin, trying to get his voice back. He took a deep breath and rubbed his neck. “Thanks for saving my life.”

  “Let’s go home, beans!” whispere
d the Pest.

  “Quiet,” said Alvin. He crawled up the steps, then squirmed across the porch floor on his stomach. He could hear the rustle of Shoie and the Pest behind him.

  Alvin was afraid to look directly into the window. He figured whoever was inside would spot his white face through the pane. But if he could only get the Electric Periscope into position, it wouldn’t be seen nearly so easily.

  Lying beneath the window, Alvin took a deep breath and eased the top of the Periscope above the window sill. He peered into the hole at the bottom.

  For a minute Alvin couldn’t make out a thing. Slowly, he turned the Periscope. The chewed-up sofa, the battered old piano appeared. He turned the Periscope farther. There, right in front of his eyes, was the back of a man’s head.

  Alvin turned the Periscope still more. This time he was almost blinded by the beam of a large flashlight lying on the table. And beside the table he could see another man, a short man with a thin face and long hair. The man’s lips were moving, and Alvin could hear his voice but couldn’t understand a word that was said. And there was no sign of old Mrs. Huntley.

  He shifted the Periscope back to the other man and saw him walk across the room to the sofa. There he did a strange thing. He started ripping the sofa cushions apart. The stuffing seemed to fly all over the room. When the last cushion was in shreds, the man threw the rags to the floor in a gesture of disgust.

  At the sound of a voice Alvin swung the Periscope back to the first man. He was walking across the room to the piano. He lifted the piano lid, pointed the flashlight inside, and looked for a long time. Then he slammed down the lid. Both men sat down again, the flashlight on the floor at their feet.

  “What’s going on?” Shoie whispered in Alvin’s ear.

  Alvin didn’t want to give up the Periscope, but he had to admit that Shoie deserved a look. He handed it over and crouched there, thinking. Of one thing Alvin was certain. The two men were searching for something, and were angry because they couldn’t find it. What could it be?

  The Pest snuggled up against him and said in his ear, “Let me look, Alvin.” Her shrill little voice seemed loud on the moonlit porch.

  “No,” he hissed. He grabbed the Periscope from Shoie and had another look himself. The men were still seated in their chairs, talking.

  “I want to look, Alvin,” insisted Daphne.

  “No!” He pushed her hand away.

  “I’m going to look,” she announced. She reached up for the Electric Periscope, grabbed it at the top and began pulling.

  To Alvin, it seemed that the world caved in on him in a fraction of a second. A new beam of light suddenly spotlighted the two men inside the house. Instantly, Alvin realized in horror that it was the beam from the Periscope. His sister must have pushed the switch while she was trying to grab it out of his hands.

  Alvin couldn’t seem to tear his eye away from the Periscope. He saw the thin-faced man leap from his chair and rush toward the window. A moment later the man was so close that all Alvin could see were the buttons on his coat.

  Shoie reached the steps first and didn’t bother to run down them. He flew through the air and landed in the weeds. Daphne tumbled into the bushes at his heels. Alvin was halfway across the porch when he realized that he had dropped his great invention. He was back at the window in two steps, grabbed his Periscope, and ran for his life. His foot touched just one step on the way down, and at that instant he heard the door open behind his back.

  Alvin ran through the weeds faster than he had ever run in the school relays. His feet barely touched the ground. He expected to hear someone shout at him, but all he heard was the swish of feet running through the weeds at his back.

  He saw a white figure moving just ahead of him. As he passed his sister he reached out an arm and snared her around the waist. He half-dragged her toward the street. Now the footsteps were swishing along at his heels.

  In the dim moonlight he spotted Shoie atop the fence. He shoved Daphne through the bars, then leaped upward. The Mighty Athlete caught him by the collar, and Alvin felt himself lifted to the top of the fence. Something grabbed one leg of his trousers from below. He jerked his leg free, and both boys dropped to the other side of the fence.

  The Pest was already racing down the street toward home, her nightgown flapping around her legs. Alvin and Shoie sensed two faces pressed against the bars, but they didn’t even take the time for a glance as they chased after Daphne.

  A voice called through the darkness, “Come back, kids. We won’t hurt you. Come back!”

  The boys were too scared even to turn around. At the corner Shoie peeled off and headed toward home without a word. Alvin followed the Pest through the door and crept upstairs at her heels. He heard her run into her room on tiptoe, then the creak of her bed.

  For once in his life Alvin remembered to push the hidden button outside the door that disconnected the Foolproof Burglar Alarm. Inside the room, he shut the door as quietly as he could, dropped the Electric Periscope on his workbench, ripped off his clothes and hopped into his pajamas.

  Only when he was under the covers did Alvin feel safe. And even then a frightening thought crept into his mind. Suppose the two men had chased them down the street and saw which house they went into? Suppose, even now, they were creeping around downstairs trying to find him?

  Alvin threw back the covers, leaped across the room and flipped the switch to connect the Foolproof Burglar Alarm once more. He raced over to the window and hauled up the Portable Fire Escape.

  Then he dived back into bed and pulled the covers over his head.

  Chapter 5

  THE SUPERSECRET EAVESDROPPER

  For a moment after the Silent Waker Upper jerked at his toe, Alvin had the feeling that he’d dreamed the whole adventure — that it was just another nightmare. Then he looked over at the Electric Periscope on the workbench and realized that it had really happened.

  Alvin dressed slowly. This morning, for some reason, he didn’t want to go out on his paper route. Particularly, he didn’t want to ride down the street in front of the old Huntley place.

  When he slipped into the Pest’s room, all he could see was a little ball under the covers. Her room was a sight to behold. Daphne’s mother had fixed up the room with all the frills that should be dear to a girl’s heart. At the windows were Priscilla curtains, and a dust ruffle ran around the bottom of the bed. In one corner was a dressing table with a matching ruffle around it. Ballerinas danced daintily across the wallpaper. But Daphne was a tomboy. Her worn baseball glove and half-inflated football rested on the dressing table, jet airplanes hung from the ceiling by invisible threads, and she had covered most of the ballerinas with baseball trading cards. No question about it, Daphne was a tomboy.

  Alvin turned back the blanket and saw her lying there sleeping peacefully. Gently, he put his hand over her mouth. Her eyes opened slowly and she blinked a couple of times. Suddenly, she was staring up at him, her mouth wide open as she remembered what had happened.

  “Sorry to wake you up,” he said in a low voice, “but I wanted to warn you not to tell Mom or Dad about what happened last night. If you do, they’ll probably make us stay in for weeks, and you’ll have to do the dishes every meal.”

  “I think they should know,” said the Pest.

  He tried to think of something that would keep her from talking. “If you tell,” he said, “if you tell, I — I — well, I won’t ever let you look at any of my inventions again.”

  He could see her working this threat over in her mind. Always, she had been fascinated by his inventions.

  Finally she said, “If I don’t tell, will you promise to show me every invention you ever make?”

  He nodded his head. “Every single one.”

  “Even if you live to be a hundred?”

  “Even if I live to be a hundred,” he promised.

  “Cross your heart?”

  He crossed his heart.

  “Well, okay. But if you don’t keep
your promise, I’m going to tell right away.”

  Alvin was a little slower than usual on his paper route that morning. In the first place, Shoie didn’t show up to help him. And somehow he didn’t have any desire to use his Paper Slinger.

  When he finally forced himself to ride down the street in front of the old Huntley place, he pedaled as fast as he could. He had the feeling someone might be watching him. Once he glanced toward the bushes, but didn’t see anything.

  Later that morning Alvin went to work on an invention that had been in the back of his mind for quite some time. It was an Automatic Lawn Mower Guider. Even though he was allowed to use Dad’s power mower, he still hated to mow the lawn.

  He was about to give his new invention a test when Shoie came walking down the street.

  “Hi, old bean,” said Shoie. “What are you doing?”

  “Working on my Automatic Lawn Mower Guider,” said Alvin.

  Neither of them asked the question that had worried both of them all morning. Where was old Mrs. Huntley? She kept popping up in Alvin’s thoughts, but their adventure of the night before had been so scary he didn’t want to say anything about her. He was certain his parents would punish him if they found out he had been sneaking around the old house at night. In the back of his mind, Alvin knew that sooner or later he’d have to face up to the problem of old Mrs. Huntley. But right now he couldn’t force himself to say anything about her.

  He went right on working on his invention. He dug a hole in the middle of the front lawn, put an old piece of fence post in it, then stomped back the dirt so the fence post stuck a couple of feet out of the lawn. He went to the garage, wheeled out the power mower, and put it way out on the edge of the lawn. Unfastening his mother’s clothesline from the clothes poles, he tied one end of the rope to the lawn mower, the other to the post.