Summer Camp Mystery

by Gertrude Chandler Warner

  Henry was proud of his sister for keeping her cabin’s secret. “Okay, Violet. Hey, there’s Zach. We’d better all leave.

  “Oh, hi,” Henry said when Zach came out of the camp office with an armload of papers. “Anything for me?”

  As usual, Zach answered Henry with as few words as possible. “No.”

  Henry turned to Benny. “Let’s go to the playing field. I told Dave I’d drop you off. Afterward I’ll be at the cabin.”

  “Can’t I help finish some of those shark heads?” Benny asked.

  “Shhh.” Henry pointed to Zach. He was still nearby, reading notices on the camp bulletin board.

  “Oops,” Benny whispered before he and Henry left.

  After dropping off Benny at the field, Henry returned to Driftwood Cabin. He looked around, and then he crawled under the cabin. He had hidden several trash bags filled with cardboard, paint, and materials from the arts and crafts room. He was still under the cabin with his legs sticking out when he heard Rich’s voice nearby.

  “Surprise inspection!” Rich announced, laughing. “I know you Dolphins want to win the Olympics, but you don’t have to clean under the cabin, whoever you are.”

  “Ouch!” Henry cried as he bumped his head crawling out backward. “It’s me.”

  Rich gave Henry a once-over. “Henry, good thing this is cabin inspection, not Junior Counselor inspection. You’re covered with dirt and pine needles.”

  Henry looked down at himself. His knees and elbows were sandy. He had cobwebs in his hair. There were pine needles stuck to his clothes. “Sorry, Rich.”

  “I didn’t expect to find anyone here,” Rich said. “Everybody’s at activities. What were you doing under the cabin, anyway? Did you drop something down there?”

  “Oh, I . . . uh . . . had a free period,” Henry began, “and came here to work on our costumes. I, uh . . . lost a sewing needle through the floorboards.”

  Rich thought this was funny. “Did you really expect to find something that small down there, Henry? Ginny and I should check under all the cabins. That’s probably where all our lost things go.”

  This made Henry nervous. “Uh, no. There’s nothing but pine needles under there.” He brushed himself off and went up the porch stairs. He hoped Rich didn’t get any more ideas about checking under the cabin. “I’ll stand out on the porch while you do the surprise inspection. I don’t want to mess up the cabin after we just cleaned it.”

  Rich went inside. “Looking good, Henry. Beds tight. Trunks under the bed. Towels hung up on the railing. Flags on the . . . bed! The flags! What are they doing on your bed?”

  Henry forgot about messing up the cabin. He raced inside. What was Rich talking about? “My campers were trying to make a new Camp Seagull flag, but they didn’t get very far.”

  Rich unfolded the large cloth flag he’d found on Henry’s bed. “I’d say your campers did a pretty good likeness of the camp seagull. Take a look.”

  Henry couldn’t believe his eyes. “That’s the real flag that was missing!”

  “Here’s the other one,” Rich said, unrolling the Stars and Stripes. “How come you were keeping them in your cabin? These belong in Evergreen Lodge.”

  Henry shook his head in confusion. “They weren’t here this morning. Honest, Rich. I have no idea how they landed on my bed. I’ve been searching for them ever since they disappeared.”

  Rich was smiling.

  “What?” Henry asked, more confused than ever.

  “Well, now that the flags turned up on your bed, I’m going to give you back ten of the twenty points you lost for losing them,” Rich told Henry.

  Henry gave Rich a thumbs-up. “Whew! That’s a relief. Thanks.”

  “But,” Rich went on, still grinning, “you lose ten points for having stuff on your bed — the flags — and a pile of pine needles and a trail of sand on the floor. Now you can go back to crawling around under the cabin. Funny way to spend your free period.”

  After Rich left with the flags and his Olympics clipboard, Henry sat down on his bed. That’s when he noticed something in the cabin mailbox on the wall. A piece of paper was sticking out that hadn’t been there in the morning.

  Henry took the paper. “A schedule change,” he said. Then an idea hit him. “I bet Zach delivered this when I went to the playing field with Benny,” Henry said to himself. “I wonder if he had anything to do with those flags showing up.”

  CHAPTER 10

  Costume Night

  The girls in Birch Cabin gathered around Violet. “Can you be my costume Buddy?” a girl named Maggie asked. “You helped me with the candy dish I made in pottery. I need a Buddy again for my costume. Kim’s too busy.”

  Kim raced around the cabin looking for pins and glue and scissors for her own costume. “Hurry up with the girls, Violet,” she said. “We have to be at Evergreen Lodge soon. I want to be at the front of the costume parade. The Styrofoam on my headpiece doesn’t look right. I’m supposed to be a scary alien, but I look like a television set.”

  Kim wasn’t the friendliest counselor at Camp Seagull. The girls weren’t sure whether or not to laugh. Finally, they couldn’t help it. Kim did look like a Styrofoam television set, not a space alien.

  Kim finally looked pleased with her campers. “Well, now I know I’m going to win for best costume idea. Usually campers just dress up like ghosts or witches, but being space aliens is much better. Uh-oh! Where’s the spaceship? You need to put on your spaceship, Violet. Oh, I’m ready to scream, but I can’t, or we’ll lose points.”

  Violet calmly walked to the broom closet. “Here it is.”

  “It’s beautiful, Violet,” Maggie said.

  Indeed, the spaceship Violet had made was a silvery beauty. She had covered two long sheets of poster board with silver paint. There was an opening for her face and a spaceship window drawn around it. All Violet had to do was sandwich herself between the two sides.

  “It’s nice,” Kim said. This was the first time she’d said anything kind to Violet.

  In Driftwood Cabin, Henry had his hands full with some very confused Dolphins.

  “Why am I a lobster?” one boy asked as Henry put on red gloves that were supposed to be claws. “I thought I was going to be a space alien.”

  Benny’s eyes grew larger than usual. “Somebody might copy our idea. That’s why we made something different — to fool them.”

  “Who?” the lobster camper asked.

  “We don’t know for sure,” Henry said. “So we decided to change into secret costumes. Now promise you won’t bite anyone.”

  The sea creatures laughed. They had fun waving their cardboard fins and claws at one another.

  Cedar Cabin was filling up with underwater creatures, including a goldfish, a horseshoe crab, and even a scary stingray.

  “We just have to wait for Lizzie to get here,” Jessie said. “She’s helping her dad with the ferry. He’s making a few trips to bring out all the parents and grandparents for Costume Night.”

  “Lizzie’s going to be surprised when she finds out she’s a sea turtle, not an astronaut,” Daisy said.

  Jessie smiled as she put on her own dolphin headpiece. “Shhh, I think she’s coming up the steps.”

  “What’s going on?” Lizzie asked when she stepped inside. “Am I in the wrong cabin or something?”

  Jessie found the poster-board turtle shell she had made in secret. “It’s a sea turtle costume. See, you just tie it around your waist.”

  “We’re supposed to be aliens, not sea turtles!” Lizzie cried. “I promised.”

  “Promised whom?” Jessie asked in a serious voice.

  Before Lizzie could answer, the girls heard more footsteps.

  “Shut the door,” Jessie said. “It might be one of the Seals coming to take a look. “Who is it?” she asked when there was a knock at the door.

  “Benny the Whale and Henry the Shark,” a boy’s voice answered. “Open up, or well swallow your cabin!”

  The girl
s burst into giggles.

  Jessie opened the door.

  “Time to go,” Henry said, speaking through his shark head. “The rest of my cabin is outside.”

  “Hey, where’s your costume, Lizzie?” Benny asked. “Aren’t you going to be a sea turtle like Jessie told me?”

  The sea turtle costume lay on Lizzie’s bed, untouched. Instead, she grabbed her astronaut helmet. “I’m not going to Costume Night as a sea turtle. This is my costume.”

  The campers entered Evergreen Lodge cabin group by cabin group. Kim led her Seals at the front of the costume parade. She had a big confident smile when the audience cheered the space aliens. The Birch Cabin campers stepped to the side to watch the rest of the parade.

  Pirates and goblins and even a couple of campers dressed as Monster Rock paraded in. Campers cheered for one another.

  When Henry’s and Jessie’s Dolphins came in, the cheers were the loudest of all.

  Then Benny tapped Jessie’s dolphin fin to get her attention. “Look at Kim. Her face is all red. She’s not clapping anymore. She’s too mad to clap.”

  “What’s going on, Lizzie?” Kim asked when the Dolphins passed the Seals. “You told me the kids in your cabin were coming as space aliens!”

  The Dolphins turned around. Lizzie had joined the parade, after all — not as an astronaut but as a sea turtle! She actually liked the sea turtle costume better.

  Ginny and Rich had been standing near Kim’s group and had overheard her question to Lizzie.

  “What do you mean, Kim?” Ginny asked. “Did Lizzie tell you what the Dolphins were planning to wear? Please explain yourself.”

  Kim’s space alien headpiece fell sideways on her head. She sputtered and tried to straighten it out.

  “Does anyone know what’s going on?” Ginny asked. “I’m going to have Rich make an announcement to the audience that we are serving refreshments first. In the meantime, I want to get to the bottom of this.”

  Jessie stepped away from her campers. “Did you find the letter we put in your mailbox, Ginny? It might explain this mix-up better than what anyone tells you.”

  Rich overheard this. He handed Ginny the Aldens’ letter. Ginny read it over and looked at Henry and Jessie, puzzled. “You mean you knew Birch Cabin was going to copy your costumes? Why would you think that?”

  “Because they copied Jessie’s Big Idea,” Benny blurted out.

  Kim seemed to shrink back when Benny said this.

  “Was Me and My Buddy really Jessie’s idea, Kim?” Ginny asked.

  Kim nodded. “Yes. I couldn’t think of anything good for that or for the costumes, either. I’m just good at sports, not the new things you and Rich want us to do. Everything is different from the way Camp Seagull used to be. Lizzie told me about Me and My Buddy, so I raced to your office to make sure I submitted it before Jessie got hers in.”

  “What about you, Lizzie?” Ginny asked. “Did you have anything to do with that — and with telling Kim about the Dolphins’ costumes?”

  Lizzie looked like a very unhappy sea turtle. “I did tell Kim about Me and My Buddy so her group would win, not the Aldens’. And I told her about the Dolphins being space aliens, too. But the Aldens fooled everybody.”

  Jessie looked at Lizzie. “We can’t figure out why you don’t seem to want us to have a good time at Camp Seagull.”

  Lizzie stood there, not saying anything. That’s when Zach Pines stepped forward from the crowd of campers. “It’s not hard to figure out. Lizzie and I were supposed to be overnight campers. Then, at the last minute, Ginny and Rich gave our overnight places to you. My dad’s family owned Camp Seagull for a long time, and now Ginny and Rich have taken it over.” Zach put his arm around his sister, which wasn’t too easy to do because of her turtle shell.

  “I was worried I’d never get to be an overnight camper,” Lizzie said. “There are four of you and only two of us. So I did things that would make everybody think you shouldn’t be counselors. Then maybe you wouldn’t be asked back.”

  “Did you take the flags, too, Lizzie?” Henry asked.

  Lizzie looked confused. “The flags? No.”

  “I did,” Zach confessed. “Just for a little while. Then my dad found them in my room at home. He put them back in your cabin yesterday. Flag Ceremony was my favorite job, but then the Gullens gave it to you. My dad and other people in my family always did Flag Ceremony. That’s my uncle playing on the bugle tape. I know it doesn’t sound as good as Henry’s bugle, but it sounds good to us.”

  Rich walked over to Zach. “I tried to take some responsibility away from you so you could enjoy camp more and not work so hard. I didn’t realize I had hurt you. Next year, you can be in charge of Flag Ceremony again.”

  “We didn’t know you were upset about not being overnight campers. We promise we’ll make room for you next summer,” added Ginny.

  “And Zach, I’ll teach you how to play the bugle,” Henry said. “That reminds me — what about our trunks? Did you leave our trunks behind on purpose the first day? Or was it you, Kim?”

  Kim and Zach shook their heads.

  “I was so busy, I just forgot them on the beach,” Kim said. “I guess I was glad that you would lose points for the Dolphins because you didn’t remember to take your trunks. But it wasn’t on purpose.”

  “Same here,” Zach confessed. “I saw them on the beach before my dad started the ferry. But I didn’t do anything to get them, either. Sorry.”

  “How about the monster footprints?” Jessie asked.

  Lizzie and Kim exchanged looks.

  “I did that!” Lizzie said. “It’s allowed. Ever since there was a Camp Seagull, we could do pranks to make people scream. You and Rich didn’t change that, did you, Ginny?”

  “Not really,” Ginny answered. “Even when I worked at the camp when I was your age, we had pranks about the monster of Camp Seagull. But not on the first couple of nights. We weren’t supposed to scare the new campers until after they were settled in.”

  “We weren’t scared!” the Dolphin girls of Cedar Cabin cried.

  “But I am. Some of you are very scary!” Ginny said, looking around at the sharks, stingrays, and space aliens. “I really don’t know which group should take the costume prize.”

  The score between the Seals and the Dolphins was very close. The Dolphins only needed fifty points to win and the costume contest was worth a hundred points. If Ginny automatically let the Dolphins win because of Kim’s poor sportsmanship, that would be unfair to the Seal campers. Ginny turned to Kim, Lizzie, and Zach, and continued, “I don’t want the Seals or the Dolphins to be penalized by your actions. But I do think that the three of you owe the camp an apology for your behavior during this Olympics.”

  The three nodded in agreement.

  Benny broke the tension when he piped up, “I’ve got a good idea. It’s not a Big Idea, but a little one ’cause I’m only six.”

  “What is it?” Rich asked.

  “Let the people who are watching us in the audience vote,” Benny suggested. “They can write down which team they think has the best costumes. Then we can count up the votes.”

  Rich and Ginny looked at each other.

  “You were wrong, Benny,” Rich said. “That is a Big Idea.”

  After Rich made the announcement about the voting, Ginny handed out slips of paper to the audience. Then Rich sent around some of the campers to collect the votes.

  After refreshments, Ginny came out with her soup pot and her serving spoon and banged them together.

  “The votes are in! Rich and I will now give the award to the team for the best costumes,” she announced.

  “Drumroll, please,” Rich said.

  Ginny banged on the soup pot.

  “The Best Costume Award goes to . . . the Dolphins!”

  Since Jessie was dressed as a dolphin, she led her group up to the stage. “Thank you,” she said to Rich and Ginny when they put a medal around her dolphin neck.

  “The Do
lphins are also our Olympic winners!” Ginny announced. “Here’s the gold medal.”

  Jessie pushed Benny forward. “You thought up the costume voting, Benny. You go over and get the medal.”

  Ginny was careful when she lowered the medal over Benny’s head. She didn’t want to disturb the cardboard tube he was wearing as part of his whale outfit.

  “Let’s hear it for the Dolphins!” Rich said.

  “Let’s hear it for whales, too!” Benny said.

  About the Author

  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.

  The Boxcar Children Mysteries

  THE BOXCAR CHILDREN

  SURPRISE ISLAND

  THE YELLOW HOUSE MYSTERY

  MYSTERY RANCH

  MIKE’S MYSTERY

  BLUE BAY MYSTERY