The Grub-And-Stakers Move a Mountain Read Online Free PDF Page B

show was over. Before the Eastern Tailed Blue had waved its azure wings in farewell she was on her feet, ready to grab her biscuit tin and flee.
    Then Hazel Munson stepped quietly into her way and murmured, “Can I give you a lift?”
    This apparently commonplace offer stopped Dittany dead in her tracks. Hazel Munson knew perfectly well Dittany didn’t need a lift and Hazel was not one to put herself forward. Without hesitation Dittany climbed into Hazel’s car, slammed the door, and said, “Okay, what are you going to tell me that you don’t want anyone else to hear?”
    Hazel chuckled. “I thought I was being subtle. Let’s get out of here first.” She gunned her motor and swung around the corner.
    “I don’t know if there’s anything in this or not but, anyway, we had the Strephs over to dinner last night. They’d just got back from skiing in the Laurentians and naturally they wanted to tell us about their trip.”
    Dittany nodded. The Strephs and the Munsons were always doing strenuous things either separately or together.
    “Anyway,” Hazel went on, “while I was cutting the pie, Jim Streph said out of a clear blue sky, ‘Don’t you think it would be great to have maybe five or six really nice homes up on the Enchanted Mountain?’ Dittany, I tell you I sat there with the pie knife in my hand and my mouth hanging open. Then I blurted out, ‘No, I think it would be awful!’
    “So Jim didn’t say any more and Margery asked for another cup of coffee, which surprised me very much because she always claims coffee keeps her awake. Though after the time she and I were sharing a tent and two raccoons got to fighting outside and she snored through the whole rumpus, I personally doubt if anything could.”
    “In other words, she was trying to change the subject?”
    Hazel shrugged. “Margery doesn’t go in much for tact as a rule. She’s more for letting it all hang out, as the kids say. But if she thought Jim’s career might be involved-it sounds silly talking like this. I don’t know why I’m wasting your time.”
    “Hazel, you’re not. Jim Streph is an architect, isn’t he? Hasn’t he done some work for Andy McNasty?”
    “Why, yes. He’s designed four or five of those development tracts for McNaster Construction. Oh, Dittany! Look, maybe you’d better invite me in for a cup of tea, not that I need it but somebody’s sure to come along and see us talking like this and, after all, the Strephs are good friends of ours.”
    “Consider yourself invited. I could use something myself.”
    Hazel wiggled her somewhat too generous bosom out from behind the steering wheel, followed Dittany into the shabby roost of the Henbits, and headed for the tapestry-covered spring rocker everybody always tried to grab before somebody else beat them to it. As she plumped herself down, they heard a dismal, “Aw-oo!” from the rear of the house.
    “That’s just Ethel wanting her snack,” Dittany explained. “She and I generally have tea and dog biscuits about now. I have the tea and she gets the biscuits. Hold on a second, will you? If I don’t shut her up, she’ll sit there and howl till the Binkles come home.”
    Dittany sped kitchenward. The howling stopped. Moments later she was back with a tray bearing a bottle, two glasses, and a plate of sweet meal biscuits. “She gets bored, poor thing. I thought we might as well open the last of the sherry Bert gave me at Christmas when he and Mum were here. I’ve been saving it for an emergency and if this isn’t one, tell me what is, eh?”
    Hazel took a sip. “It’s lovely,” she pronounced, but not with untrammeled joy. “Dittany, you don’t honestly think McNaster would try to steal the Enchanted Mountain?”
    “After what he did to the Hendryx place?” Dittany took her own glass and curled up on the grape-carved sofa where she always sat if she had to be polite about the rocker. “Hazel, you know as well as I what that man’s capable of. He bought