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The Mystery of the Magic Circle Page 4
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6
The Magic Circle
“YOU DON’T FIND nightshade in the ordinary kitchen!” said Jupiter Jones. He was sitting behind the desk in The Three Investigators’ headquarters, an ancient mobile home trailer that was hidden away behind heaps of artfully arranged junk in a far corner of The Jones Salvage Yard. Pete and Bob had returned from the library, where Jupe had sent them to do some research while he was out with Beefy. Jupe had just finished telling them of his visit to the Bainbridge ranch.
“Nightshade is a name for a whole family of plants,” Jupe went on. “Many of them are narcotic poisons, and some of them were once used in magic rituals.”
“Madeline Bainbridge must be a real weirdo,” said Pete. “Poison in her kitchen and a private cemetery out in the back!”
“It isn’t a cemetery now,” Jupe pointed out. “It used to be one. But there was something eerie and unreal about the place. It gave me the creeps.”
“A cemetery and strange herbs,” said Bob thoughtfully. He took his notebook out of his pocket. “It fits. It fits beautifully!”
Bob began to flip through his notes. “I looked up magic and witchcraft because Bainbridge had that story about the director, Alexander de Champley, being a wizard. It must have been important to her, or she wouldn’t have taken time to draw the pentacle of Simon Magus in the manuscript.
“Now there are several different kinds of witches. There’s the Hallowe’en kind, who is sort of a comic-strip hag with warts on her chin. Then there are the evil ones, the sorcerers and witches who can do dreadful things because they worship the devil. He helps them out, according to the superstitious, and I guess there’s no limit to what you can do if Satan is backing you.”
Pete scowled. “I don’t believe a word of it,” he said, “but would you hurry up? I don’t like hearing about stuff like that.”
“Okay, then you’ll like the rest better,” said Bob. “There’s a form of witchcraft called the Old Religion. People who practise it say that it goes back to very ancient times. It’s a sort of fertility cult—it has a lot to do with growing things and harvests. It’s kind of nice, really. The witches believe that they have the power to make things happen because they’re in tune with the power of the universe. They’re organized into groups called covens, and each coven has thirteen people in it. They meet at special places, like a crossroads. An even better place is—guess where?”
“A … a cemetery?” said Jupe after a second.
“Right!” said Bob. “When they meet they have regular rites. They eat freshly gathered food and they worship Selena, or Diana, the moon goddess. They perform their rites at night, not because they’re wicked, but just so the neighbours won’t see them and gossip. The rituals can be performed at any time, but there are four main feasts, called Sabbats, every year. An Old Religion witch always attends the Sabbats. These happen on April thirtieth, August first, October thirty-first—which is our Hallowe’en, of course—and the second eve of February.”
Bob closed his notebook. “That’s all I got today. There’s more, and we can take some of the books out of the library if we need to. I just wonder, if someone wanted the Bainbridge manuscript suppressed, could it be because that person was a witch? It could be someone in the film colony who either was a member of the Old Religion and didn’t want it known, or perhaps someone who was a Satanist.”
Pete shivered. “If we do have a witch mixed up in this, I hope it’s one of the Old Religion witches,” he said. “I don’t think I want to mess with anybody who worships the devil.”
Jupiter nodded. “A Satanist could be a person who is completely without a conscience,” he said. “Or he could be a person who is somewhat simple-minded. In either case, he could be dangerous. But what did you do, Pete, while Bob was reading about witches?”
“I was reading about Madeline Bainbridge,” said Pete. “I went back into the microfilm files.”
The Second Investigator took an untidy sheaf of papers out of his pocket and began to read his pencilled notes.
“She came here from Fort Wayne, Indiana, when she was eighteen. She’d won a beauty contest and the prize was a trip to Hollywood. Alexander de Champley spotted her while she was touring the Film Art Studio. Three weeks later she had a contract with Film Art and was set to play Mary Queen of Scots in Champley’s version of the picture. That’s some kind of an all-time record for getting discovered and cast in a motion picture.”
Pete looked up at his friends. “All the stories said she was very, very beautiful.”
“She’s still beautiful,” said Jupe. “I saw her today. Anything more, Pete?”
“Just general stuff,” said Pete. “She seems to have been a pretty quiet person. She didn’t get into scandals. She made a lot of very good pictures. Most of her roles were historical, like Cleopatra and Catherine the Great. She had the best leading men, but she never bothered with them much once a picture was finished. She didn’t make lots and lots of friends. She was sort of a loner, and there was never any gossip to link her romantically with any actor until the last of her leading men—Ramon Desparto.”
“What about him?” asked Bob.
“He died shortly after he finished making the picture The Salem Story. That was a very strange picture about the witch trials in Salem and—”
“And there we have witchcraft again,” interrupted Jupe.
“Right. But this movie was very hokey. The plot was weird. Bainbridge played a Puritan maiden who is accused of witchcraft, and who saves herself by running away with an Indian brave so that she doesn’t get hanged. Ramon Desparto played the Indian brave, and he also got engaged to Madeline Bainbridge just before shooting started on the picture. There was some nasty talk that the engagement was just to help his career. He got engaged a lot to his leading ladies. Not long after The Salem Story was finished, he was killed in a car accident. It happened after a party at Bainbridge’s ranch, and Bainbridge had some kind of nervous collapse. She never worked again. She bought up all of her pictures and spent the next thirty years keeping out of sight.”
“And avoiding her old friends?” said Jupiter.
“There may not have been that many old friends,” said Pete. He unfolded a photocopy of a picture that he had tucked in with his notes and handed it across the desk to Jupe. “This picture was taken at the Academy Awards dinner the year The Salem Story was made,” he said. “That group of people is called ‘Madeline Bainbridge’s magic circle’ because they’re the ones she spent her time with. There aren’t so many. Marvin Gray isn’t in the picture, though.”
“He wasn’t a friend then,” Jupiter reminded Pete. “He was still just the chauffeur.”
Jupe studied the picture and read the caption. Madeline Bainbridge and the darkly handsome Ramon Desparto sat at the head of the table. On the star’s other side was Jefferson Long, looking very young and handsome. The caption identified a man named Elliott Farber as Bainbridge’s favourite cameraman. An actor named Charles Goodfellow sat next to an actress named Estelle DuBarry. Nicholas Fowler, a scriptwriter, was there, and so was Clara Adams, who sat next to a character actor, Ted Finley. Janet Pierce was identified as costume designer for the Salem picture, and Lurine Hazel and Marie Alexander were actresses. A very plain girl named Gloria Gibbs stared straight ahead, and was referred to as Desparto’s secretary.
“How interesting!” said Jupiter Jones. “A magic circle indeed! There are thirteen people here, and thirteen at a table is considered unlucky—unless you are a witch. For a coven, thirteen is the right number!”
Jupe beamed at his fellow investigators. “Bob, your notes indicate that August first is one of the four great Sabbats of the year. This happens to be the first of August. Was Madeline Bainbridge a witch? Is she still a witch? If so, who is in her coven today? There’s one way to find out! Who’s game for a ride up the coast to the Malibu hills tonight?”
“Hey, that’s crazy!” cried Pete. Then he grinned. “What time do we start?”
 
; 7
The Creature in the Dark
IT WAS DUSK when The Three Investigators reached the spot where the narrow gravel road to Bainbridge’s ranch crossed the paved mountain road that wound up through the Malibu hills. Jupe stopped, resting on the seat of his bike. Pete and Bob drew level with him, and Jupe pointed to the left.
“The Bainbridge place is down that way,” he said. “I’ve gone over a map of this area. There are several places where a coven could meet, if Bainbridge is going to pay attention to the rules. One is this crossroads right here. One is the grove of trees behind her house—the place that was once a cemetery. And one is about half a mile north of her house, where two footpaths meet. I suggest we spread out to make sure we don’t miss Bainbridge if she leaves her property.”
Jupe dug into a knapsack that was strapped to the handlebars of his bicycle. “There’s a dog, so we’ve got to be careful,” he warned. “We can’t get too close to the house. I brought the walkie-talkies.”
He produced three small radio sets which he himself had rigged up in his workshop at the salvage yard. Each set was a little larger than a regular transistor radio, and consisted of a combined speaker and microphone. There were also three belts with copper wire sewn to them, and each had a lead-in wire which could be plugged into a radio. The belt with the wire acted as an antenna, and the little radios operated like Citizens’ Band radios, broadcasting for about half a mile. When the user wanted to speak into the microphone, he pressed a button on the side of the radio set. When he wanted to listen, he released the button.
Jupe handed a radio set to Bob, and one to Pete. “I’ll watch from the hill behind that haunted-looking grove,” he said. “Bob, you can hide in among the lemon trees between the road and the house. Pete, your post can be on the north side of the house—that’s the left side. There’s a field there with some tall grass that you can use for cover. If Madeline Bainbridge leaves the house tonight, we’ll spot her no matter which way she goes. Keep an eye out for cars, and for other people walking around. They might lead us to a Sabbat.”
The other two boys murmured in agreement and took the radios. The three then rode down the gravel road to the front gate of the Bainbridge ranch. There they hid their bikes in the tall grass beside the road, and separated. Bob’s slim figure disappeared among the lemon trees. Pete went on down the gravel road towards the north side of the property. Jupe trudged up through the fields, skirting the house and the grove of live oaks. On the hillside behind the grove he found a clump of manzanita. He crouched behind the shrub and held his walkie-talkie to his mouth.
“This is One,” he said softly. “Come in, Two.”
He released the button on the radio and listened. “This is Two,” said Pete’s voice. “I’m in the field to the north of the house. I see lights in the house, at the back, and I see people moving around inside, but I can’t tell what they’re doing. Over.”
“Stay put,” ordered Jupiter. “How about you, Three?”
“I can see the front of the house from the lemon grove,” said Bob. “It’s all dark. Over.”
“Now we wait,” said Jupiter. “Over and out.”
He leaned back against the hillside and studied the grove oaks which completely hid the ranch house from view. The trees looked even more sinister by moonlight than they had that afternoon. The moon was climbing into the sky now, casting intense black shadows under the gnarled limbs.
The radio in Jupe’s hand crackled.
“This is Two,” said Pete. “The lights in the house have just gone out. Now there are some little lights out in the back. Over.”
A tiny light flickered in the dark woods below. Then Jupe saw a second light. Then a third.
Jupe pressed the button on his radio. “They’re moving into the live-oak grove,” he said softly. “I can see candles.”
He waited. The candle lights moved beneath the twisted trees. Then the movement stopped and the candles glowed steadily. And there were more lights.
“I’m going in closer,” said Jupe into the walkie-talkie. “You stay just where you are for the moment.”
He released the button on the radio and slipped out from behind the manzanita. He half-slid down the hillside until he reached level ground behind the Bainbridge house. Then, like a chubby shadow, he stole from bush to bush until he was at the edge of the stand of oak trees. He paused, looking towards the candle flames that burned inside the grove. There were dozens of lights now, forming a circle, and for a moment Jupe could see only the candles against the darkness that pressed in around them. Then, beyond the candles appeared a woman who stared straight ahead into the night. It was Madeline Bainbridge. Her long, white-blonde hair was loose on her shoulders, and she wore a wreath of flowers on her head. She moved slowly forward into the circle of light.
There was a movement beyond Madeline Bainbridge. A second woman appeared out of the darkness. She carried a tray that was heaped high with fruit. It was the woman Jupe had seen with Madeline Bainbridge that afternoon. Jupe knew she must be Clara Adams. She entered the circle of light and put the tray down on a table draped with a black cloth.
Another face glimmered in the dark wood. It was Marvin Gray. He, too, wore a wreath of flowers on his dark hair. Jupe realized that he could scarcely see Gray’s body. The man wore a black robe. So did the two women. They were invisible in the night except for their faces and for the circlets of flowers that crowned their heads.
“I will draw the circle,” intoned Marvin Gray. His hands moved, white against his black robe. The blade of a knife glinted in the candlelight.
Jupe backed away from the ghostly woods and the strange trio under the branches. When he felt it was safe to speak, he pressed the button on his walkie-talkie. “Pete? Bob? I’m in the field just behind the grove. I’m pretty sure there’s a Sabbat going on here.”
“Be right there,” said Bob.
“Me, too,” Pete said.
Pete appeared in a very few minutes, coming as quietly as a ghost. Then Bob came stealing towards them through the night.
“There are only three people, but they’re getting ready for some sort of ceremony,” Jupe told his friends. “Marvin Gray has a knife.”
“I read about that today,” said Bob. “He’ll draw a circle on the ground with the knife. Witches believe that the circle increases their power.”
“Let’s watch,” said Jupiter.
Bob and Pete silently followed Jupe in among the trees, looking nervously ahead. What strange rites were they about to witness? They saw the three white-faced people standing in the ring of candlelight. They saw Madeline Bainbridge lift a cup high and close her eyes as if she were praying. The boys held their breath.
Then, suddenly, Pete uttered a small, wordless cry of terror. For out of the darkness, some silent-footed beast had come to stand beside him. For an instant the creature was still. Pete could feel its hot breath on him. Then it growled, low and ominously.
8
Murder by Magic?
“WHAT’S THAT?” cried Marvin Gray. “Who’s there?”
The three boys froze, and the growling went on and on.
Clara Adams put her hands to her mouth and gazed out from the circle of light. Madeline Bainbridge did not move. She was like a carving in ivory and ebony. From somewhere beneath his black robe, Marvin Gray pulled out a flashlight. He charged towards The Three Investigators and the flashlight snapped on. Jupe saw that the animal standing near Pete was a dog—the sleek Doberman he had seen that afternoon. Obviously the animal had been trained to hold intruders motionless, but not to attack unless greatly provoked; it made no more to harm Pete.
“What do you boys think you’re doing here?” demanded Gray.
Jupe felt Gray’s gaze on him and his heart sank. How could he explain to this man that Beefy Tremayne’s young cousin, who had been such a polite visitor that afternoon, had returned after dark to spy on Gray and the two women?
“Who’s there, Marvin?” called Madeline Bainbridge. br />
“Bunch of kids. They probably came up from Malibu,” said Gray. “Ought to call the sheriff and have them thrown in the clink!”
Jupe’s heart began to beat wildly. Was it possible that Gray didn’t recognize him?
“Hey, mister,” said Jupe. “Call the dog, huh?”
“All right, Bruno,” said Gray. “Here, boy!”
The dog stopped growling and went to Gray.
“Now what are you doing here?” asked Gray again. “Can’t you see this is private property?”
“Not in the dark,” said Jupe boldly. “We were hiking in the hills. We got off the path and we couldn’t find our way back.”
“Marvin!” Madeline Bainbridge sounded impatient. “Let the boys go, and come back. You’re holding us up!”
Jupiter looked past Gray to Madeline Bainbridge. Then he glanced at Gray. Gray looked hesitant. He obviously couldn’t decide what to do.
Jupe started towards Bainbridge. “We’re really very sorry,” he said. “We didn’t mean to disturb you.”
“The circle!” gasped Clara Adams. “He’s profaning the circle!”
Jupe went on towards the table where the women stood, repeating his apologies. One hand was at his belt, unfastening the antenna of the walkie-talkie. With the other hand he held the little radio set at his side, out of sight of the women. He was quite near the table when the antenna came away from his waist. He stumbled on something in his path and fell, stretched out full length on the ground, his head and shoulders almost under the table.
“Marvin!” cried Madeline Bainbridge.
Jupe’s hands disappeared for a moment under the black cloth that draped the table. Then he pulled himself to his hands and knees. “Sorry,” he said again. “That was clumsy of me. We didn’t mean to upset you, honest. If you could just point us in the direction of the road …” Jupe got to his feet.