When she entered the Camp Club Girls chat room, she and Alexis saw that the other girls were already there.
Bailey: Hi Betty Boo and Lexy.
Elizabeth: You know I hate that name. And Lexy? That’s a new one. =0
McKenzie: We were just talking about you. Kate was telling us the stuff you texted her all day.
Elizabeth: Did Kate send you the photos of the bed, too?
Sydney: Yeah, that thing’s amazing. I wish I was there to push it for you!
McKenzie: I don’t see why they just don’t race horses. Beds don’t make sense. If you guys go back there next year, maybe I could come down with my horse. There’s a jousting club not too far from here. Maybe I could learn to joust.
Elizabeth: That would be cool. Did you guys find anything out?
Kate: I looked up Princess Amelia. I found out that she was in love with a stable hand.
Bailey: Maybe he’s the one who taught her to ride horses.
Kate: Maybe. Tradition is that she wrote him letters. After she died, the stories say he couldn’t find her last letter. He spent the rest of his life looking for it.
McKenzie: What happened to him?
Kate: Well, actually he died not too long after Amelia. Of some sort of plague.
Sydney: That happened a lot in those times. People died suddenly. He might even have died in the saddle! Bailey: What are you going to do next? Elizabeth: As I texted you earlier today, Alexis saw weird stuff at the bridge last night. We’re going to try to keep an eye on the bridge tonight.
Kate: Do you have your automatic recording camera with you that you used at Miss Maria’s nature park? You know—when you were trying to catch the dinosaurs in action? If so, you can set it up to try to catch any action.
Elizabeth: No, we don’t have one of those.
Kate: Do you want me to overnight a spycam to you?
Elizabeth: I think we’ll be okay.
When the girls got off the computer, they weren’t tired at all. On the contrary, they were quite excited. They sat at the window for hours waiting for the mysterious person in the rowboat.
He didn’t come.
It was one o’clock in the morning, and both girls were asleep on the windowsill. Suddenly Alexis jumped.
“What?” said Elizabeth, immediately awake. “Did you see something?”
“No,” said Alexis. “That man in the lobby! I just remembered where I’ve heard his voice before!”
“Oh. Where?” asked Elizabeth. She relaxed back into her chair.
“Elizabeth, I heard it in the alley! Remember? The two voices were talking about—”
“No way!” Elizabeth sat straight up again.
“Yes way! I have no idea how they are going to do it, but those two men are going to steal the golden coach!”
Priceless or Useless
The girls had breakfast in the hotel restaurant with Alexis’s grandma. Alexis still didn’t feel the girls had enough information to tell her grandmother what was happening. Still, she was nervous about the speculations she and Elizabeth had. The fact that the con men had gotten jobs at the hotel would make it easier for them to steal the carriage. She had no idea how they could do it, but it still worried her.
Alexis knew her grandma would know what to do, but she still didn’t feel confident enough to tell her everything. She wondered what she would say about the idea of the carriage being stolen.
“Grandma,” said Alexis, as the waitress filled her glass of orange juice. “Why is there so little security around the carriage? What would happen if someone tried to steal it?”
Grandma Windsor chuckled.
“Darling, that carriage is huge! No one would be able to get it out of the hotel unnoticed. But even if they could, what would they do with it?”
“Well, it’s valuable, isn’t it?” asked Elizabeth.
“In its own way, yes,” said Grandma Windsor. “But I don’t see why anyone would want it. It’s the only replica of its kind, so you couldn’t sell it to anyone. It would be too easy for the police to track it down again.”
“Well, what about a collector or something? Someone like you, who really likes history and stuff?” asked Alexis. She was remembering the many old trinkets her grandmother brought back from her travels. Her house was full of them. Again Grandma Windsor laughed.
“A real collector or historian wouldn’t want a replica. Deep down, it’s only a fake. Would a literature professor be content with a new version of Shakespeare, if there was a possibility they could hold the original? No. Anyone can walk into a bookstore and get a copy of Romeo and Juliet for less than five dollars. But the original? Priceless.”
“So replicas are worthless?” asked Alexis.
“Now, I didn’t say that,” said Grandma Windsor. “Take Michelangelo’s statue of David, for instance. If you walk up to the statue in the plaza, you will enjoy its beauty. You may take pictures and go on your merry way, but if that’s as far as you went, then you missed the truth. You have only seen a replica—a smaller shadow of the true art of Michelangelo. The real statue is inside, hidden away from the damaging elements. But the replica is not worthless, Alexis. It is still beautiful; it’s just not as beautiful. It does not have the same history.”
The waitress was back, refilling Grandma Windsor’s glass of tea this time.
“So, besides the fact that it is almost impossible to get the coach out of this building unnoticed, I simply don’t see why someone would want to steal it in the first place. That is why there isn’t much security around it. The hotel has never felt that it was threatened.”
But it is threatened! Alexis wanted to scream. But after all Grandma Windsor had just said, she thought it would sound silly to voice her thoughts.
After they finished eating, the girls left Grandma Windsor and walked toward Bill and Mary’s shop. The bridge was still crawling with engineers, and they would have to wait until night before looking for the rowboat again. So no matter how tempting the mystery surrounding the bridge was, Alexis was going to focus on the carriage for a while.
Alexis knew Jerold and Jim were the same people she had overheard in the alley earlier in the week. But she was starting to have doubts about other things. Would it really be possible for Jerold and Jim, those silly-looking “float builders,” to steal the golden coach? There was no way they could remove it without someone noticing. As soon as it was missing, someone would sound the alarm. They wouldn’t make it very far.
And why were they planning to steal it in the first place? They had said it was worth millions, but Grandma Windsor claimed the carriage wasn’t worth much at all. Sure, it was probably expensive to make, but you could always build another one. It wasn’t like the original coach back in London, which was covered with real gold.
“There’s only one way to know for sure if they are going to steal the carriage,” said Alexis as they turned down the narrow street to Bill’s. “We have to investigate these two guys.”
“You mean spy on them?” asked Elizabeth, smiling.
“Well, yes,” laughed Alexis. “Investigating just sounds a lot better! We’ll work on the bed for a bit and then go back to the hotel. They’re making the float near the ballroom. It shouldn’t be too hard to find them.”
In the back room of the antique shop, the girls admired their castle. It only needed a couple of touch-ups. Alexis was attaching fake fish to the bed skirt-moat when the bell on the front door jingled. She heard a girl’s voice say, “Hello, Uncle Bill.”
The voice didn’t sound friendly.
Alexis and Elizabeth poked their heads through the curtain and saw a slim brunette standing with her hands on her hips.
“Hello, Emily,” said Bill. “Shouldn’t you be in school?”
“I heard you have someone driving your bed,” the girl said, ignoring his question. Her face was scrunched up, like she smelled something gross.
“Yep, sure do,” said Bill. He sounded friendly, but his stiff shoulders told Alexis he had
put his guard up. “What brings you down here? Need something for a costume?”
“Eew, gross! Like I would use any of this junk for my costume!” Emily picked up a silver teaspoon with her forefinger and thumb, like it was covered in grime.
“I don’t understand what makes you love other people’s old stuff so much. Like this spoon.” She held it up to the light and then looked around the table where it had been sitting. “It’s all dingy, and there’s only one. What on earth would anyone do with only one spoon?”
“Actually, if you look at the handle—”
But Emily didn’t. She rolled her eyes and tossed the spoon toward Bill. He fumbled, and it fell to the ground. Alexis stepped through the curtain to pick it up and hand it to him.
“Who are you?” asked Bill’s demanding niece.
“This is Alexis,” said Bill. “She’s the one racing my bed this Saturday.”
Alexis smiled and waved. Emily’s eyes narrowed to tiny slits.
“Well, she’d better be careful,” she said, stepping closer. “The driver who tried to beat me last year ended up in the hospital with a broken arm. And I don’t lose.”
Emily turned and stormed out of the shop. Alexis was sure she would have slammed the door if it hadn’t been for the automatic spring that caught it and made it close gently.
“What was that all about?” asked Elizabeth.
“Oh, don’t mind Emily,” said Bill. “She’s just mad because I wouldn’t let her use my bed in the race. She thought I would for sure, since she’s family. My brother’s kid. Ever heard the term ‘spoiled rotten’? Well, that’s Emily for sure.”
“Why wouldn’t you let her race it?” asked Alexis.
“You heard her, didn’t you?” said Bill. “She put a guy in the hospital last year—slammed into his bed on the last turn and sent him flying into the crowd. You’re not supposed to touch anyone else’s bed. Emily told the judges it was an accident, and they believed her and gave her the prize.”
“But you didn’t believe it was an accident?” asked Alexis.
“Do you, Alexis? I can’t have anyone representing my shop doing risky things that might bring bad publicity.”
Bill was right. Alexis had just met Emily, and she was pretty sure Emily would have broken someone’s arm to get what she wanted.
“Well, she can have the prize for all I care,” said Alexis. “I just want to race!”
“That’s right,” said Elizabeth. “It’s like Psalm 37:1 says, ‘Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong.’ No matter what happens, we’ll have a blast.”
“And you’ll have the best bed out there!” said Bill. “That thing should be in the parade! It’ll be better than any other float!”
Bill still held the small spoon that Emily had tossed at him. He placed it on the table, but Alexis picked it up.
“What were you about to say about the spoon, Bill—before Emily interrupted you?” asked Alexis. Bill smiled. It reminded Alexis of her grandmother’s smile when she asked her about history.
“Look at the handle,” he said. Alexis held the spoon up in the light, and Elizabeth came close to look as well. A small pink stone shaped like an oval was mounted on the end of the handle. Upon the oval stone a face had been carved. It was the silhouette of a young beautiful woman.
“Who is it?” asked Elizabeth.
“Princess Amelia, the youngest daughter of—”
“King George the Third!” gasped Alexis.
“You’ve heard her story then?” asked Bill.
“Pieces of it,” answered Alexis. “My grandmother told me some of the stories surrounding her. Something about Princess Amelia and a young man she was forbidden to marry.”
“That’s what she is most known for,” said Bill. “They say the law would have allowed her to marry him after she turned twenty-six, but that was pretty old to be married back then. Her letters may have told him that she would wait. If she hid a letter to give him, no one knows if he ever found it. This spoon is a rare piece. Since Princess Amelia was never a queen, it is quite strange for silverware to have her picture on it. Maybe she really was her father’s favorite.”
“Wow!” said Alexis. “That means this spoon is more than two hundred years old!”
“Why do you keep that out on a table?” asked Elizabeth. “Shouldn’t it be locked away somewhere?”
Bill laughed.
“Probably. A lot of the stuff in my store is more valuable than people think. Like Emily, many think it’s just junk—like an indoor yard sale.”
“Well, I think it’s brilliant,” said Alexis. She looked at the spoon again. Was it just her imagination, or did the picture on the spoon look like the girl from her dream? Her imagination was running wild again.
“Hey, look!” cried Elizabeth. Alexis followed her pointed finger toward the large window. Outside, three familiar figures were walking through the alley.
“It’s Dr. Edwards—and those two workmen from the hotel!” Alexis looked at Elizabeth and lowered her voice so Bill couldn’t hear. “If we follow them, we might find out more about their plan for the carriage.”
“They probably won’t talk about it with Dr. Edwards around,” said Elizabeth. “Maybe he’ll leave.”
Alexis nodded. “See ya later,” she said to Bill. “It’s getting to be lunchtime.”
“I’m getting hungry myself,” said the shop owner. “See you girls later.”
Alexis and Elizabeth waved good-bye and left the shop. They were just in time to see the end of Dr. Edwards’s walking stick disappear around a corner. They followed, and after a couple of turns their prey entered a small deli.
“Well, it is lunchtime,” said Alexis. “Feel like a sandwich?” Elizabeth smiled. The girls allowed a couple more people to enter before they did. They didn’t want to be directly behind Dr. Edwards in line in case he recognized them.
After ordering turkey sandwiches and grabbing a couple bags of chips, Alexis led Elizabeth to a booth that hid them from the three men but was still close enough so they could hear everything that was being said.
“I thought you said this job was going to be easy,” said the taller of the two men.
“I thought the job was going to be easy, Jerold,” said Dr. Edwards. “But circumstances have changed.”
“Well, I hope we’re getting paid more,” said Jerold.
“Yes, yes,” said Dr. Edwards testily. “Don’t worry about the money! It will come!”
“I don’t know what you want with that thing anyway,” said another voice. It must have been Jim. “It’s a fake. How can it be worth much money?”
Dr. Edwards sighed. Alexis was sure that if she could see him, his eyes would be bulging in exasperation.
“It’s not the carriage itself that is priceless,” he said, dropping his voice to a whisper. Alexis had to stop chewing her chips so that she could still hear him. “It’s something hidden within it.”
Alexis stared across the table at Elizabeth. She, too, had stopped chewing. They sat still, straining to hear every word.
“I have reason to believe that an original document, hundreds of years old, has been hidden somewhere within the carriage. The document, my dear fellows, is what’s priceless. The carriage just happens to be the hiding place.”
The thieves seemed to be happy with the doctor’s explanation, because all Alexis and Elizabeth heard after that was the chomping and slurping of the two men eating.
The girls finished their food and slipped out the front.
“So that’s why Dr. Edwards wants the carriage! He thinks something is hidden inside of it!” said Elizabeth.
“Yeah,” said Alexis. “A priceless document. What if it was Princess Amelia’s letter?”
“Why would Princess Amelia’s letter be hidden in a replica?” asked Elizabeth. “The real carriage, maybe, but there’s no reason for it to be in Arizona. Your imagination’s running away with you again, Alex.”
“You’re righ
t,” said Alexis. “But wouldn’t it be cool? No matter what the document is, it’s obviously worth a lot of money. And it has a rightful owner. I bet if Dr. Edwards were the rightful owner, he wouldn’t have to steal it.”
“I know,” said Elizabeth. “We have to keep him from stealing it. But how are we supposed to do that when we don’t know where it is?”
“Easy,” said Alexis, smiling wide. “We just have to find it before he does.”
Encounter in the Costume Shop
“How on earth are we supposed to do that?” asked Elizabeth. “You saw how that deputy guy reacted when we were just looking at the carriage. What do you think will happen if we actually try to touch the thing? Or search it for an ancient letter?”
“We’ll just have to be careful,” said Alexis. “It might be difficult, but we don’t have a choice. If the document exists, it belongs in a museum—not in Dr. Edwards’s personal collection.”
They walked toward the hotel, thinking about how best to search for the hidden paper. Alexis was so deep in thought that she ran right into a sidewalk display in front of the costume store. She and Elizabeth struggled to dust off the white, curly wigs and hang them back up before anyone noticed.
“Let’s go in here,” said Alexis. “We need costumes for the bed race and parade, don’t we?”
“Definitely!” squealed Elizabeth. They walked in and were immediately hidden in a maze of silk dresses, old-fashioned shoes, and jesters’ hats.
“It looks like it’s almost all medieval,” said Elizabeth.
“Good,” said Alexis. “We have to match our bed. It’s a castle. What do you think we should be?”
“We could be knights,” said Elizabeth, walking over to a suit of armor. “This looks so real!”
“It also looks like it weighs a hundred pounds!” laughed Alexis. They continued through the store, yelling back and forth whenever they found something interesting. Before long they were trying on everything they could reach, making each other collapse in fits of giggles. Alexis grabbed a garish jester’s hat with six floppy tentacles and jingle bells everywhere. She smashed it onto her head and spun around.
Alexis and the Arizona Escapade Page 6
