The Yellow House Mystery

by Gertrude Warner

  “Race horses!” cried Benny. “Did they race?”

  “Yes, they raced while my father was living. My father was your great-grandfather, you know. Bill loved the horses, and he was a good, kind man. But I must tell you he was weak.”

  “Not very strong, you mean?” said Benny.

  “No, Benny,” said Mr. Alden sadly. “I don’t mean that at all. He was a very strong man. He could lift the boat. I mean he had a weak will. Anybody could tell him what to do.” Mr. Alden stopped.

  “Don’t tell us, if you don’t want to!” begged Jessie.

  “Yes, I want to tell you now. I’m afraid Bill was a coward. He would do anything his brother Sam told him. His brother had some bad friends.”

  The children were suddenly very quiet. They knew that this was a sad story for their grandfather to tell.

  “Let me go and get Watch, please!” cried Benny. “I’ll be right back.”

  Everyone had to smile as Benny disappeared into the kitchen. They knew that Benny always wanted the dog when things did not go just right. He came back at once with Watch running after him.

  “Lie down, old fellow,” said Henry. Watch lay down beside Benny and put his head on his paws.

  “Well, one evening,” Mr. Alden went on, “Bill’s wife, Margaret, noticed that Bill seemed to have something on his mind. He would not talk about it. After she had gone to bed, she heard a queer grating noise in the front room where Bill was. She got up and went to see what he was doing.

  “There he sat, reading the paper. The noise had stopped. He asked her what she wanted and she told him about the queer noise. He said it must have been the waves on the rocks.

  “But it wasn’t waves, and Margaret knew it. She began to be very much worried. She went back to bed and pretended to be asleep, and the noise began again.”

  “Didn’t she ever find out what it was?” asked Benny.

  “No, Benny, she never did. To this day, nobody knows what Bill was doing in that front room. This went on for two nights. The next night Margaret smelled something queer. She thought it might be paint. But when she came out, Bill was not painting. He was reading.”

  “Then one night he went out to the barn to see the horses, and he never came back.”

  “Never came back?” asked Violet.

  “No. Margaret waited an hour. Then she took a light and went out to look for him. He had given the horses water, but he had left the barn door open. The rowboat was gone. Then Margaret telephoned to me. I got up and dressed and found a policeman. Captain Daniel took us over to the island in another boat. But of course it was dark and we couldn’t find a thing.”

  “No clues?” said Benny.

  “That’s right—no clues,” said Mr. Alden. “Next day the island was full of policemen. They looked under the barn, under the dock, all through the woods. But they couldn’t find Bill. They found Bill’s rowboat a few days later. It was tied up at another dock about a mile away on the mainland.”

  “Did they radio the news?” asked Benny. “And get the F.B.I. men?”

  “Oh, think, Benny!” said Henry. “There weren’t any radios then.”

  “Oh, I forgot that,” said Benny. “But at last they found him, didn’t they?”

  “No, they never found Bill.” Mr. Alden stopped and then went on again.

  “Margaret thought the clues were the queer smell and the grating noise in the front room. So the police went all over the little yellow house. They thought they might find a letter. Margaret thought she had seen Bill reading one.”

  “You mean maybe a letter frightened Bill?” said Henry.

  “Yes, that’s right. But they never found one. They took up the rugs. They hunted all through the desk. They even went down the chimney with a light.”

  “Did they take up the floor boards?” asked Henry.

  “No, they didn’t take them up. But they looked at every board in the house. There was dust between every two boards.”

  “Why didn’t they put a notice in the newspapers?” asked Violet.

  “They did. We had a notice in the paper every day for two years. But nothing ever came of it.”

  “I’m so sorry for Margaret,” said Violet. “She must be old now.”

  “Yes, my dear,” said her grandfather with a smile. “She seems old to you, I know.”

  “Seems old?” said Violet. “Do I know her?”

  “Yes, you all know her very well,” said Mr. Alden. “She is Mrs. McGregor.”

  “Mrs. McGregor!” shouted all the children. They could not believe it. For Mrs. McGregor had taken care of them, and listened to their troubles ever since they had come to live with their grandfather. They could not think of her as young, or as anyone in a mystery.

  At last Henry said, “I suppose she couldn’t live alone on the island, and so Great-grandfather gave her a home here?”

  “That’s right. He asked her to come here to live with us as our housekeeper, and the next year he died. She has lived here ever since. We never talk about Bill now, and nobody has ever been inside the yellow house since that time.”

  “It’s such a lovely little house!” cried Jessie. “It’s too bad it’s such a sad place and nobody can live there.”

  Henry sat up and put his hand on his grandfather’s knee.

  “Grandfather!” he said, “couldn’t we go into the little yellow house? I do wish you’d let us. Just let us look around. We might find something.”

  Mr. Alden looked at Henry and smiled. “You’re a good boy, Henry. But do you really think you could find anything when the police couldn’t?”

  “No, I suppose not,” said Henry.

  But just the same, all the children kept looking at their grandfather.

  Suddenly he leaned forward. “Do you really want to go?” he asked.

  “Oh, yes!” they all answered.

  “Well, all right. You may go. You may hunt around all you like, and see what you can find.”

  Then Benny said, “I don’t want to go.”

  “You don’t want to go!” shouted Henry. “Why not?”

  “Well, I think it would be mean to go without Joe and Alice,” said Benny. “They won’t come home from their wedding trip for two weeks.”

  “Is that all?” cried Jessie. “You scared me, Benny. I thought you really didn’t want to go.”

  “We’d all like to wait,” said Violet. “It will be much more fun if Joe and Alice go with us.”

  “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we found something? Some clue?” cried Henry.

  “Yes, it would,” said Mr. Alden. “But I don’t think you will. Don’t talk about this to Mrs. McGregor yet, will you?”

  “We won’t,” promised Henry. “Look, Benny, you won’t tell, will you?”

  “I never tell secrets, do I?” asked Benny. “I never told where Joe and Alice went on their wedding trip, did I?”

  “Do you know?” asked Henry, in great surprise.

  “Of course I do.”

  “You do?” said Mr. Alden. “I don’t know myself. Nobody told me.”

  “They told me I could tell you two days after the wedding. That’s right now.”

  “Well, where did they go?” cried Jessie.

  “They went to our barn on Surprise Island,” said Benny. “That was another surprise, because they are so near, and everyone thinks they are far away.”

  “Just think of that! Our very own barn where we stayed last summer!” cried Jessie.

  “That’s right,” said Benny. He was delighted to surprise even his grandfather.

  “Well,” said Henry, “now I can hardly wait for them to come home.”

  “I shan’t sleep a wink tonight,” said Jessie. “I shall be thinking of Joe and Alice, and the little yellow house.”

  They all expected to stay awake all night, but they were soon all sleeping quietly, even Watch.

  CHAPTER 4

  The Tin Box

  It seemed a long time to the four children before Joe and Alice came home. B
ut at last they drove up to the front door in a new station wagon.

  “It’s Joe!” shouted Benny. “He’s got a new station wagon!” He ran down the steps. “Oh, Joe, why did you buy a station wagon when there are only two of you?”

  “Guess!” said Joe, laughing. He jumped out and gave his hand to his beautiful young wife.

  Then the other children ran out to see Joe and Alice. Everyone was laughing and talking at once. They took bags and boxes and went into the house. Watch barked and jumped around, to show how glad he was to see Joe again.

  “I bet you got a station wagon so we could go too,” cried Benny.

  “That’s right,” said Alice, smiling at him. “Won’t we have a lot of fun in that station wagon!”

  “We know where to go first,” Benny went on. “Want us to tell you?”

  “Children, children! Do let Alice sit down one minute,” said Mr. Alden as he came out into the hall. “You have lots of time, you know. Come in, Alice, and let them talk.”

  But the children could not wait. Before they knew it, they were telling all about the mystery of the little yellow house.

  “What a story!” said Joe. “I’ve wondered about that house myself. I’d like to go inside.”

  “We waited for you to go with us,” said Henry.

  “Will you both go?” asked Jessie.

  “Of course we will,” said Alice.

  Joe laughed. “Well,” he said, “it looks as if we would go right back to Surprise Island.”

  “Today?” cried Benny.

  “Yes, today!” said Joe and Alice together.

  Mr. Alden laughed. “Let’s have lunch first,” he said.

  “You’re right, Grandfather,” said Violet. “Alice ought to see the presents in her house. Beautiful dishes and things. They came after the wedding, Alice.”

  “Lots of food, too,” said Benny. “All in tin cans. A whole ham. And whole chickens and things. But won’t you eat lunch with us just today?”

  “Of course we will,” said Joe. “You can show us the tin cans when we come back from the island. How will that be?”

  “Fine,” said Benny. “We can go to the dock in the new station wagon. I guess Captain Daniel will be surprised to see us.”

  “I guess so, too,” laughed Joe. “We just said good-by to him.”

  Soon it was time for lunch. Henry was thinking what to take to the yellow house. “I shall take my tools,” he said to Jessie, as he sat beside her at the table. “Maybe we’ll need them. I don’t think of anything else, do you?”

  “A flashlight,” said Joe, who had heard them. “There aren’t any lights there.”

  “Oh, thank you, Joe,” cried Jessie. “I’m glad you don’t think we are silly to go.”

  “Indeed I don’t. It sounds very interesting. Alice thinks so, too.”

  “You did pick out a very nice girl,” said Benny.

  “Thank you, Benny,” said Alice laughing.

  “Is there room for me?” asked Mr. Alden, to everyone’s surprise.

  “Room for you!” said Violet going over to her grandfather. “There’s always room for you!”

  Just the same, they were all surprised and delighted that Mr. Alden wanted to go.

  “There are chairs for you to sit in,” said Benny. “I saw them through the window. Oh, I wish we were there this minute.”

  In about an hour, Benny had his wish. The whole family left the boat at the dock on Surprise Island, and now stood at the front steps of the little yellow house. They went up the four wooden steps. Mr. Alden himself opened the door. They went in the front room and looked around.

  There was a table in the middle of the room. Old papers were on it. There was a fireplace with a brick chimney painted white on one side of the room. There was a desk on the other side. Everything was covered with dust.

  “This is the very room where Bill sat reading the paper, Joe,” said Henry.

  “The queer grating noise came from this room,” said Jessie.

  “Now,” began Henry, “let’s look around and see what could make a grating noise.”

  “The drawer in the table,” said Alice.

  “The drawers in the desk,” said Mr. Alden.

  “The boards in the floor,” said Jessie.

  “The chimney,” said Benny.

  Everyone looked at the strong brick chimney and smiled at the little boy. But Henry said kindly, “That’s right, Benny.”

  “We’ll look at every brick,” said Benny.

  “Yes, you look at every brick,” said Jessie. “You remember the police looked down the chimney with a light, Benny?”

  “Yes, I remember, but they looked at the floor boards too, and all the other things you said.”

  “That’s right, too,” said Joe. “Now, what’s first?”

  “The table drawer,” said Henry, pulling it out. “Not much here.”

  “It grates when you pull it,” said Alice.

  There were two pens in the drawer, two fish hooks, and an old paintbrush.

  “The paint!” shouted Henry.

  “I don’t think this is paint, though,” said Joe. He smelled the paintbrush. “I think this is whitewash.”

  Everyone was excited. “Maybe we’ll find something new, after all, Grandfather,” said Jessie. “Did the police know this was whitewash?”

  “No, I don’t think so,” replied Mr. Alden. “They would have taken the paintbrush with them if they had thought it was a clue. The police did not work as well in those days as they do now. You can take the drawer to pieces if you want. Something may be hidden in the cracks.”

  Henry tapped the drawer with his hammer, and soon took off the sides. But there was nothing there.

  “The desk next,” said Mr. Alden. “Two drawers in that.”

  “Maybe a secret drawer,” said Joe.

  They took out both drawers and put them on the table. “A pen. Some old writing paper. That’s all,” said Henry.

  “Now, look at the floor boards,” said Jessie. “We can take up the rugs.”

  There were two small rugs. Joe looked at them carefully. Then he rolled them up and put them on a chair. The whole family went to work. Mr. Alden sat and watched. Each one took a stick and looked in every crack. Up and down the room they went on their hands and knees.

  At last Joe said, “All done. I don’t think these floor boards have been moved. I don’t think the clue is there.”

  “Well, then, my chimney!” shouted Benny. “Every, every brick!”

  “That will take many days,” said Henry laughing. “First we’ll tap every brick. You all listen and see if any brick sounds different from the others.”

  “Let me tap,” said Benny. “I thought of the chimney.”

  “Well,” said Joe, “let him tap, Henry. Let me show you, Ben. Tap like this.” Joe struck a brick lightly once or twice.

  Benny got down on the floor. He started with the first brick. “Tap. Tap. Tap-tap,” went his hammer. Then he took the next brick. He tapped just the way Joe had shown him. At last the family sat down, smiling. There were so many bricks.

  Suddenly Jessie jumped up. “I think that one sounds different!” she said. She got down beside Benny.

  “I don’t,” said Henry. “Tap it again, Benny.”

  “Tap. Tap. Tap-tap,” went the hammer.

  “Well, maybe not,” said Jessie. “I thought it did the first time.”

  In a few minutes Violet said, “Listen again to that one! That one sounds different to me.”

  “It’s right over the first one, Violet,” said Benny. “Right over the one Jessie heard.”

  But it did not sound different to anyone else.

  “Go on, my boy,” said Mr. Alden leaning forward. “Keep on tapping.”

  The children all looked up at their grandfather. They were surprised to see that he was excited and very white.

  Benny began on another row of bricks. Then it was Mr. Alden himself who said, “Stop there! Tap again!”

  �
�That last one is different,” cried Joe. “Give me the hammer a minute, Ben!”

  But Joe did not use the hammer. He just looked at the brick.

  Benny was looking at it too. “Whitewash!” he whispered.

  “Whitewash,” said Joe. “I do believe that this brick has been taken out and put back again.”

  “Can you take it out, Joe?” Alice asked excitedly.

  “I’m going to try,” answered Joe. “We don’t want the whole chimney to come down.”

  “Here’s the screwdriver,” said Benny.

  “Just what I want,” cried Joe. “Yes, this brick has certainly been taken out!” He put the screwdriver at the edge of the brick and tapped it with the hammer. Out came dried whitewash.

  “What did I tell you?” cried Benny. “New whitewash. Not like the old.”

  More dried whitewash fell out with every tap of the hammer. “This has certainly been painted to look like the other bricks,” said Joe. “But the whitewash is different.”

  “Now pull it out, Joe!” shouted Benny.

  Joe took hold of the brick and pulled. It made a queer grating noise, as he worked it out. At last it came out and fell on the floor.

  “Look in the hole! Look in the hole!” yelled Benny. “There’s a letter in the hole.”

  Joe could hardly believe what he saw. But there was the letter. He took it out and read it.

  “What in the world does this mean, Uncle James?” he asked, as he handed it to Mr. Alden.

  “Read it aloud!” cried the children.

  Mr. Alden read:

  Dear Bill,

  Thanks for the money. I can make it three times as much if you will help me. Some friends of mine know how. Meet me at your little house in Maine. (Bear Trail) Then you can pay Mr. A. and get your part of the rest sure. Look in the tin box. Hide this.

  S.M.

  “Well, my dears,” said Mr. Alden, “now we have a real mystery.”

  Jessie said, “And we don’t know any more than we did.”

  “Bear Trail,” said Benny. “I wonder where that is.”