"Sir, do you have a message for Amanda Shaw?" thirteen-year-old Mandie anxiously asked the clerk behind the counter of the telegraph office in London, England.
"I jolly well might have, miss." The man smiled back. " Are you Miss Amanda Shaw?"
"Yes, Sir, I am." Mandie shifted her white kitten, Snowball, from one arm to the other as she rummaged in her drawstring bag for the piece of paper the messenger had brought to her on the ship. Mandie's friend Celia reached for the kitten. "Let me hold him," she offered, taking snowball. Mrs. Taft, Mandie's grandmother, Senator Mortan and the girls' friend, Jonathan, waited as Mandie finally pulled the paper out of the her bag and handed it to the clerk.
"Your messenger brought this to me on the ship I just got off of," Mandie told the man as he read the paper. "You see, it says you have a message for me." "That it does, miss," the man agreed. He turned to a row of pigeonholed behind him. "It's probably from the United States," Mandie informed him as he checked each slot. "I don't know anyone here in England, so it must be from back home." "Ah here we are miss," he said, withdrawing a small sheet of paper from the last opening. "Nope, it's not from the United States. Came from right here in London." He handed her a paper. Mandie's bright blue eyes quickly scanned the message. She looked puzzle as she read it aloud, " 'welcome to Europe. We are certain you will have an adventure some time.' " She turned to her grandmother. "But it doesn't say who it's from." Mrs Taft read the few words on the paper and then asked the clerk, "Do you have the name of the person who sent this to my granddaughter?"
"No, madam, it isn't on the paper," the man replied. "I know it isn't on the paper, but do you not have a record of people who send messages?"Mrs. Taft insisted. "Begging your pardon, madam, but that message was here when I came to work tonight. I only log in the messages that come in while I am on duty," the man explained, smiling at Mandie. "Is there no way to find out who sent it?" Mandie wanted to know. The man glanced at an open book on the counter. "I fear not, miss," he replied. "Your name is not on the day's record here." He flipped the ledger around for Mandie to look at it. Senator Morton stepped forward to look at the ledger. "Evidently there has been a slip-up somewhere," he said. "Perhaps we'll learn the sender's name later. Now I have a message to send, if you please."
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MANDIE AND THE FOREIGN SPIES
AdventureMandie, Celia, Mrs. Taft and Senator Mortan arrived safely in London and take Jonathan, the young stowaway from Mandie and the Shipboard Mystery, along with them. A telegram from an unknown source is waiting for Mandie and an unexpected message has...
