“I don’t know what you’re talking about now,” complained Mr. Evans.
“Me either,” said Benny.
“I think I know who took the diamond and hid it in the chandelier. Now all we have to do is set a trap and catch the thief … with your help, Mr. Evans,” Henry added.
“Help you?” said Mr. Evans.
“Yes,” said Henry. “And if you do, maybe the police will go easier on you.”
“Plug me in,” said Mr. Evans. His smile was a little more genuine now. “That was a joke.”
“Mr. Pound, come in,” said Mrs. Teague.
“What’s this? The children visiting you have actually found the diamond?” said Mr. Pound. Out came his handkerchief. He mopped his face.
“Did I say that when I called? I’m sorry. I should have said they found some new clues,” said Mrs. Teague.
“Oh,” said Mr. Pound. He sounded relieved. “Where are they?”
“They had to go to the store to get some more dog food for Watch,” said Mrs. Teague. “Their grandfather went with them. I’m here by myself, except for Mr. Evans, at the moment.”
“Mr. Evans?” asked Mr. Pound.
“The electrician. But he’s out drinking a cup of coffee in the kitchen,” said Mrs. Teague.
Crouched behind the kitchen door, Violet whispered, “Do you think he believes Mrs. Teague?”
“Shhh,” warned Jessie.
“Shhh,” Benny said to Watch, tightening his hold on the dog’s collar.
“Why don’t you sit in the dining room and … Oh, dear, I hear the phone ringing in my study. You just sit right here and I’ll be right back.” Mrs. Teague pulled out a chair, nodded at Mr. Pound, and hurried out of the dining room.
She was barely out of sight down the hall before Mr. Pound jumped to his feet. He climbed onto the chair and stretched his arm up toward the chandelier. He frowned. He leaned sideways and peered at the rows of dangling crystals.
“It’s got to be here,” he muttered.
“Now,” said Jessie.
Mr. Evans pushed open the kitchen door and walked into the dining room, letting the door almost close behind him. He looked up at Mr. Pound. Mr. Pound looked down at him.
“Looking for something?” said Mr. Evans.
“I, er … well,” said Mr. Pound.
“You know,” said Mr. Evans, “I’m an electrician, and while I was wiring the dining room, I noticed something very interesting about that chandelier.”
“What?” said Mr. Pound.
“This,” said Mr. Evans, pulling the Elizabeth Star out of his pocket.
“That’s the Elizabeth Star,” said Mr. Pound. He grew very pale.
“I wondered how it got up there,” said Mr. Evans.
“That’s mine,” said Mr. Pound, getting down off the chair. “You must give it to me.”
“I think I should give it to the police. Maybe there’s a reward,” said Mr. Evans.
Mr. Pound took out his handkerchief and wiped his face. He looked ill. “No need to do that,” he said. “Yes, I hid the Star. And I’d like it to stay hidden. I couldn’t bear to lose it.”
“Go on,” said Mr. Evans.
“So maybe we could make a deal,” said Mr. Pound.
“And maybe not,” said Henry, pushing open the kitchen door.
CHAPTER 10
A Thief’s Regret
“You!” Mr. Pound staggered back as the children came out of the kitchen and Mrs. Teague and Grandfather Alden came in from the living room. “What are you doing here?”
“Catching a thief,” said Jessie. “A thief who stole from himself.”
Mr. Pound looked around wildly. For a moment, it seemed as if he might try to run out the door. Watch growled a little under his breath.
Then Mr. Pound collapsed onto the chair. “It’s true. It’s all true. I’m sorry I deceived you all. My company … it’s in trouble. I thought if the Elizabeth Star disappeared, I could collect the insurance. And I would still get to keep it. It was my wife’s. It’s all I have left of her. I couldn’t bear to let it go.”
“That was wrong,” said Benny.
“I know,” said Mr. Pound.
“No one tampered with the alarm,” said Henry. “You must have punched in the right code to open the door, then reset it and punched in the wrong code. That’s why the alarm went off.”
Mr. Pound nodded. “And then I broke the glass case and took the diamond. The sound of the alarm covered the sound of the breaking glass and no one noticed what I was doing in all the confusion.”
“Where did you hide it?” asked Violet.
Mr. Pound held up his handkerchief. “In here. I wrapped the handkerchief around my hand to break the glass. Then I wrapped the star inside the handkerchief.”
“And then, when you were downstairs, you hid the diamond in the chandelier,” said Jessie.
“Yes. I thought of that at dinner. It seemed like a brilliant idea at the time. I had no idea how hard it would be to get the diamond back.…” His voice trailed off.
“That’s why you kept sitting in the dining room the other day,” said Benny. “You were going to take the diamond back. But I stopped you.”
“Yes, you did,” said Mr. Pound. He sighed heavily. “I didn’t mean to do this. I had been planning to sell the Elizabeth Star to save my business, but the thought of losing it made me so terribly sad. It was Kathryn’s, you see. It’s all I have left of her.”
Mr. Pound stared into space a moment before he went on. “But after I met you children in the elevator and invited you to come see the Star, the idea came to me: If I could fool the police into thinking the Star was stolen, I could save my business with the insurance payment and still keep the Star. I thought you’d be the perfect witnesses. After all, you were just children. You wouldn’t notice what was really going on.”
“But we did,” said Jessie.
“Because we’re children and detectives,” said Benny. “Very good detectives.”
“That’s true,” said Mrs. Teague. “If you’d asked me, I could have told you. After all, I was there when the Aldens solved the mystery at the dog show.”
“Mr. Pound,” Violet said softly, “may I ask you something?”
“Of course, Violet. I owe you that at least.”
“You tried to keep the Star hidden and all to yourself, but didn’t you tell us your wife wanted people to see it? That she wanted to share it?”
“That’s very true, Violet.”
“Well, I know a place where lots of people would see it — the Museum of Natural History, with the other beautiful gems.”
“And there are lots of kids there,” said Benny. “Mrs. Teague told us you liked children.”
Mrs. Teague looked embarrassed, but Benny went right on talking. “And the museum’s so close you could visit the Elizabeth Star whenever you wanted to and you could see all those children, too.”
Mr. Evans put the diamond on the table in front of Mr. Pound. Mr. Pound looked at the Elizabeth Star for some time, then looked up at Mr. Evans. “I guess we’d both better talk to the police,” he said.
“I think it would be the right thing to do,” said Henry.
“I think if you confess,” Grandfather put in, “you’ll be able to work something out so you don’t go to jail. After all, you haven’t yet actually reported it missing to your insurance company, have you?”
Mr. Pound shook his head. “No, I haven’t.”
Grandfather went on, “And Mr. Evans here did cooperate, finally. If you don’t press charges against him perhaps the police will drop the case.…”
When Mr. Pound had left, Jessie said to Mr. Evans, “Thanks for your help in solving the mystery.”
“Glad to do it,” said Mr. Evans. “An honest electrician, that’s me.” He emphasized the word honest and added, “From now on.”
“Good,” said Violet, smiling at him.
“Hey, I saw the light,” said Mr. Evans. “That’s a joke.”
“In the chandel
ier?” asked Benny, puzzled.
Everyone laughed. And, as usual, Benny laughed, too, although he wasn’t quite sure why everyone was laughing.
The Aldens spent their last day in New York City hunting for souvenirs and packing. By late afternoon they were waiting in the lobby with Mrs. Teague for the hired car that would take them to the train station when the elevator doors slid silently open.
“Look out,” cried a familiar voice. And out came Lydia into the hall. But this time, she didn’t have five French bulldogs on a leash. She had a huge Irish wolfhound.
“Woof,” said Watch, and stopped, unsure of himself. Even he had never seen a dog that big.
“Don’t worry. Erin — that’s her name — is very friendly,” said Lydia, pulling on the leash.
Erin sat down.
“Is Erin one of your new dog clients?” asked Violet.
“Yep. And guess what? I just got a part in a new play. Diamonds and Hearts. On Broadway!” said Lydia.
“Congratulations,” all the Aldens said at once.
“You’ll have to come see it. It opens at Christmas. And you know why I got the part?” she went on.
“Your lucky crystal?” asked Henry.
“Well, that, maybe. And the dog who has a starring role liked me!” Lydia beamed. “I guess it’s all my experience with dogs. Critt’s Critters is going to make me a star!”
Erin stood up.
“Okay,” Lydia said to Erin.
“Lydia,” said Jessie quickly, “a few nights ago, after you walked the French bulldogs, you stayed upstairs a long time. What happened?”
Lydia thought a moment, then grinned. “Jill got away, out in the hall. It took me almost twenty minutes to catch her, the little rascal.”
“Another mystery solved,” said Jessie, grinning.
“Speaking of mysteries,” said Lydia, “did you hear about Mr. Pound? It’s in all the papers. His stolen diamond was found and he’s going to donate it to the Museum of Natural History. Can you imagine giving such a valuable thing away? I bet there’s a story behind that news item!”
“I bet there is,” said Henry, and the children exchanged smiles.
At that moment, Lydia noticed the luggage for the first time. “You’re leaving?” she said.
“It’s time to go home,” Grandfather Alden said.
Mr. Saunders came in. “Your car is ready,” he said.
“Come back soooon,” Lydia said as Erin the wolfhound pulled her through the door.
“Yes, come back soon,” said Mrs. Teague. She hugged everybody, even Watch.
And Mr. Saunders actually waved as the hired car pulled away from the building.
Violet sighed as she looked out of the window of the train. The lights of New York City stretched across the skyline.
“Like diamonds,” said Benny, looking out over her shoulder.
“We had fun, didn’t we?” said Henry.
“Yes,” said Violet. “I hope we come back.”
Grandfather, who was sitting across the aisle, heard Violet. “I guess New York doesn’t seem so big now, does it, Violet?”
“It’s still big,” said Violet. “But most of the people are pretty nice.”
“Don’t worry,” said Benny. “We’ll be back. There are about a million mysteries in a big city like New York. And somebody’s got to solve them.”
Violet smiled. “Who else? The Alden Family Detective Agency, of course.”
GERTRUDE CHANDLER WARNER discovered when she was teaching that many readers who like an exciting story could find no books that were both easy and fun to read. She decided to try to meet this need, and her first book, The Boxcar Children, quickly proved she had succeeded.
Miss Warner drew on her own experiences to write the mystery. As a child she spent hours watching trains go by on the tracks opposite her family home. She often dreamed about what it would be like to set up housekeeping in a caboose or freight car — the situation the Alden children find themselves in.
When Miss Warner received requests for more adventures involving Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden, she began additional stories. In each, she chose a special setting and introduced unusual or eccentric characters who liked the unpredictable.
While the mystery element is central to each of Miss Warner’s books, she never thought of them as strictly juvenile mysteries. She liked to stress the Aldens’ independence and resourcefulness and their solid New England devotion to using up and making do. The Aldens go about most of their adventures with as little adult supervision as possible — something else that delights young readers.
Miss Warner lived in Putnam, Connecticut, until her death in 1979. During her lifetime, she received hundreds of letters from girls and boys telling her how much they liked her books.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1999 by Albert Whitman & Company
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THE BOXCAR CHILDREN SPECIALS
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