Fenton Prentice

Fenton Prentice is an elderly art patron whose unease about unexplained intrusions draws the boys into the mystery of the missing Carpathian Hound. His connection to the sculpture is personal as well as practical: Edward Niedland made it especially for him, and Prentice’s willingness to lend it for an exhibition preceded its disappearance.

Identity and Introduction

Prentice first appears as a thin, silver-haired man descending from a balcony overlooking the courtyard. He has been expecting the boys and identifies himself to Jupiter Jones, then tells Mrs Bortz that they do not need her. The brief exchange establishes Prentice as the person seeking their help, while the guarded circumstances of his request soon give the meeting a more ominous cast.

The Reported Haunting

When asked what is happening, Prentice glances over his shoulder as though someone might be listening and speaks almost in a whisper. He says that he is being haunted: someone enters his apartment while he is away, leaves his belongings out of place, and has at least once left a desk drawer partly open after reading his letters. The details make the haunting concrete without proving a supernatural cause. Prentice describes signs of intrusion and the violation of his private papers, leaving the boys to determine what lies behind them.

The Carpathian Hound and Its Recovery

Prentice’s central loss is the Carpathian Hound, a crystal-and-gold sculpture Edward Niedland made especially for him. The piece had been finished a month earlier but had not yet been delivered. Niedland wanted to include it in a show of newer work at the Mailer Gallery, and Prentice had agreed to let him exhibit it; now the sculpture was gone. Prentice’s account links the mystery to an object with a specific history, not simply to an unexplained disturbance in his apartment.

When Jupiter Jones brings the Hound up from the courtyard pool, Prentice recognizes it at once and receives it in an excited whisper. He turns the roughly six-inch sculpture over in his hands: a heavily muscled dog with a massive square head, gold-rimmed round eyes, gold flecks like froth on its crystal jowls, and a human skull between its feet. A long gilt cord is tied around its middle. Jupiter explains that the burglar lowered the figure into the pool on that cord and let it rest on the bottom; against the blue-and-gold tiles, the cord was difficult to see. The recovery resolves the object’s apparent disappearance through concealment in plain sight, while restoring to Prentice the work made for him.