The Boxcar Children Mysteries Box Set
Page 32
When everything was gone, Benny said, “Aunt Jane, did you know Mike could stand on his head?”
“No, I did not,” said Aunt Jane.
“He can stand on his head forever,” said Benny.
“Now, Benny, not forever,” said Henry.
“But you never saw him,” said Benny.
“I’ll show you!” cried Mike. He put his head on the rug, and slowly lifted himself in the air.
“Good!” cried Aunt Jane. “That’s wonderful, Mike.”
Spotty went over to his young master, lay down and put his head on his paws. He shut his eyes.
“Spotty thinks you are going to stay there forever, Mike,” said Jessie.
“I am,” said Mike. His voice sounded funny, upside down.
“That’s enough, old boy,” said Henry. “Come on down!”
“Oh, no,” cried Benny. “He can stand there forever, I tell you!”
“But I don’t want him to stand there forever,” said Aunt Jane. She could not help laughing. “It isn’t good for you, Mike!”
“Why not?” asked Mike. “I don’t mind.”
“Yes,” said Benny, nodding his head. “Mike can stay there all night, unless he goes to sleep.”
“I could go to sleep standing on my head,” said Mike, upside down.
“Oh, come on, Mike,” said Henry. “Get up! You’ve been there long enough!”
But Mike did not move. “I’m very comfortable,” he said. “You can all read a book. And I’ll just stand on my head and rest.”
At last Aunt Jane begged him to stop. “Please, Mike!” she said. “I believe you can stand there a long time.”
“All night?” asked Mike. “Do you believe I could stand there all night?”
“Yes! Yes!” cried Aunt Jane. “Only do come down! It’s a wonderful trick.”
So Mike stood on his feet at last, and fixed his hair. “I could have stayed there a lot longer,” he said.
Then Henry made Watch do his tricks. Watch sat up and begged. He “spoke.” He was a “dead” dog. He shook hands with everybody. Then Maggie gave him a big bone.
The boys did tricks all the evening. They had only two fights. Then Mike said suddenly, “Aunt Jane—” Then he stopped.
“Go on,” said Aunt Jane.
“Well, I ought to say, Miss Alden,” said Mike.
“No, you call me Aunt Jane. I wish you would.”
So Mike went on. “Aunt Jane, you gave me that newspaper, you know.”
“Yes, I did.”
“Well, you said you didn’t look at it. Will you look at it now?”
“Certainly I will, if you want me to,” said the lady.
“It’s just the picture,” said Mike, taking it out of his pocket. “Just look at my brother, Pat, and remember I was right here, standing beside him. But the picture cut me off.” Mike pointed. He gave the picture to Aunt Jane.
But Aunt Jane suddenly saw the picture of the short man. She frowned. Then she cried, “I know that man! He is one of the men who tried to buy my ranch. I’d know him anywhere!”
Henry was excited. “That was last summer. It was the time you were alone in the house. We all went to the store, and the men came while we were away. Are you sure, Aunt Jane?”
“Of course I’m sure!” cried Aunt Jane. “I never liked those three men. I’d know them anywhere.”
“Well, Mike, what do you think about that!” shouted Benny.
Just then the telephone rang. It was for Benny.
“Hello,” said Benny.
“This is Mr. Carter,” said the voice. “You can tell the rest about this. We found a lot of wires behind the mine. Someone was going to blow it up. Thanks to you and Mike, we got the wires out.”
“Good!” said Benny. “And listen to this! Aunt Jane knows the man in the picture. He is the man that just got out of jail, I bet.”
“What? What? I’ll be right down,” said Mr. Carter.
When he came down, he asked Aunt Jane many questions. At last he said, “We know the man, and we can prove it. I don’t think it will be very long now. We just have to find him.”
CHAPTER 13
The Party
Mr. Carter had said, “It won’t be long now.” But it was longer than he thought. Nobody saw the man. Benny and Mike were always watching, but they never saw him. There seemed to be no stranger in town.
The pie business was doing well. Every day Mrs. Wood and the girls made sixty pies. The boys sold them all.
“We are making money,” said Jessie. “People are very good to us. And the insurance helped.”
“Yes, my dear,” said Mrs. Wood. “I think I can earn a good living this way.”
“Yes,” said Violet. “We have so much practice, we can make them faster and faster!”
“It was a very good idea,” said Henry, “having Mike’s Mother’s Place. I never get tired of selling pies. The men are so glad to get them.”
Mrs. Wood said, “When you go back to school, I can hire two girls to help me. I know two nice girls.”
“Some day we ought to have a party,” said Jessie. “The people have been so kind.”
“A Pie Party!” cried Benny. “Give everybody a pie.”
Mrs. Wood laughed. “Not a whole pie, Benny,” she said. “We could give everybody a piece of pie, and some coffee.”
“And milk,” said Benny.
“Well, all right, milk,” agreed Mrs. Wood.
“Have it Saturday night, when all the men could come,” said Violet.
“Have it this Saturday night!” shouted Benny.
“We can ask Mr. Carter and Mr. Gardner,” said Henry.
“And we can make pies all day,” said Jessie, “and have the party in the evening.”
Everyone thought this was a fine idea. When they told Mr. Gardner he laughed. He said, “Go ahead. I’ll help you. It will surely be very lonesome here when you four Aldens go back to school in the Fall.”
Mrs. Wood and Jessie and Violet wore white. They made white caps.
They made white caps for the boys, too. They made big white aprons. The boys got a printing set and printed MIKE’S MOTHER’S PLACE on the front of their big aprons. They had many cans of milk and hot coffee.
Then the people began to come to the party. The two dogs ran around having a wonderful time. They loved everybody, and they were good dogs.
There were plenty of chairs, because Mr. Carter had sent them. He sent movies too.
He said, “I have some beautiful pictures of the South Seas. The people will like to see the banana trees and the monkeys.”
When it was dark, the movies began. The people sat in rows and watched the show. They clapped and laughed at the monkeys. Watch had a chair between Jessie and Benny. He watched the picture with the rest. Next came Mike and then Spot. Mr. Carter sat on the end near the door. All the windows were open and the door was open. Benny whispered to Mike, “This would be a good time for somebody to blow up the mine.”
“No, the watchmen are there,” Mike whispered.
Mike put his arm around Spotty’s neck. Everyone looked at the picture except Mike. He never knew why he looked out the door, but he did and Spotty looked too. He saw a man walking slowly by. Then suddenly he felt the hair on Spotty’s neck move. Spotty looked at the door and growled.
Mr. Carter heard Spotty growl. He jumped up, and dashed out of the door. Mike and Spotty dashed after him.
They all saw a man running in the darkness. But Spotty could run faster than the man. Soon he caught the man’s leg. He held him, growling, until Mr. Carter came. Mike never knew how strong Mr. Carter’s hands were.
The watchmen ran up and soon the man was taken away.
“The man in the blue hat!” cried Mike.
“Yes, Mike, I think it is,” said Mr. Carter. “Spotty knew him.”
“Spotty ran faster than he did in the race,” said Mike.
“I guess he did,” said Mr. Carter. “Now, Mike, don’t say a word. Just go back quietly
.”
“Can’t I tell Ben?” asked Mike.
“Yes, if you whisper. Don’t let anyone else know about this. It will spoil the party.”
CHAPTER 14
Ben or Mike?
When Mike and Spotty went back, Mike whispered, “Ben, we just caught the man in the blue hat.”
“You did?” said Benny. “Did he have on a blue hat?”
“He didn’t have on any hat at all,” said Mike. “I told you he wouldn’t.”
“I wish you had told me before,” said Benny. “Watch and I would have come, too.”
“I had no time,” said Mike. “Sh-h-h, don’t say a word!”
Then the show was over. The lights went on. Everyone sat around eating pie and drinking coffee. Mr. Carter came back very quietly.
The boys looked at him but they did not say a word.
“It’s all over,” Mr. Carter whispered to Mike and Benny.
“Where is that man?” asked Mike.
“Well, he is in jail again. This time he will stay there,” said Mr. Carter. “That man was wanted in four states! You boys helped me a great deal. And best of all, you did not talk.”
“Wait till I tell Henry!” cried Benny. “He thinks I can’t stop talking.”
“I’ll tell him myself,” smiled Mr. Carter. “And Jessie will like to know, too. She’s a mother to you, Benny.”
“Yes, I know,” said Benny.
“She always keeps care of you, Ben,” said Mike.
“Takes care of me,” said Benny.
“Well, takes care, then,” agreed Mike. He didn’t even start to argue. Benny was quite surprised.
With everyone gone, the Woods, the Aldens and Mr. Carter were left alone in the big room.
Mr. Carter said, “Please sit down, all of you. I want to tell you something.”
When they were quiet, he said, “The hunt for the man in the blue hat is over. The man has been caught, and the mystery is solved.”
“Oh, how?” asked Aunt Jane in excitement.
Then Mr. Carter told her about the man. He told her about Spotty growling.
“You don’t need to growl any more, Spotty,” said Mr. Carter. He patted the dog’s smooth head. “The man has gone away.”
“Well, I am glad,” said Violet softly. “I know it was exciting for the boys, but I didn’t like it at all.”
“No,” said Mr. Carter, looking at Violet with a smile, “neither did I.”
“Well,” said Mike, “now it’s all over, it was my mystery, wasn’t it?”
“Oh, no, it wasn’t!” cried Benny. “It was mine!”
“My dog found the blue hat!” shouted Mike.
“But my dog helped him. And Watch found the tin can!” said Benny.
Then Mike suddenly stopped. He said, “Yes, Ben, I think it was your mystery after all. Because it was your mine.”
“Well,” said Benny slowly, “maybe it was yours, because it was your house that burned up.”
“Well, well!” said Henry, smiling at Mike. “How you have changed, Mike!”
“That’s what I say,” said Mrs. Wood. “Mike is getting to be a very nice, thoughtful boy. He doesn’t argue so much. I said it did him good to play with Benny.”
Henry laughed. “And you remember I said it was good for Benny to play with Mike! They are quite a pair.”
“Yes, boys, you are quite a pair,” said Mr. Carter. His eyes began to twinkle. “Let me give you something to think about. Maybe you two boys will be together next summer, too. But not here.”
“Where,” cried Jessie, “will we all be together?”
“Well, you children will all be together, but the rest is a secret.”
“Oh, a secret? Grandfather’s secret, I suppose,” said Henry. “He is always a little ahead of us.”
“Yes, I can tell you that much. You children and Mike, and your grandfather are included in the secret.”
“And Spotty and Watch?” asked Mike.
“Yes, Watch, but not Spotty.”
The children were thinking hard. They had no idea what it was all about.
Jessie asked the last question. “Will you be there, too, Mr. Carter?”
“No,” said Mr. Carter. He looked at Jessie with a funny little smile. “And I shall certainly be very sorry for myself.”
After that, Mr. Carter shook his head at every question. He would not tell another thing.
Then Mike said, “I’m not going to ask Mr. Carter any more. He don’t want to tell us, I mean doesn’t.”
“Well, well, you’re learning, Mike,” said Henry. “Maybe you’ll be a schoolteacher yet.”
“Oh, no, I won’t. I’m going to be an FBI man,” said Mike.
“Yes, and he may,” said Mr. Carter. “He and Benny talk all the time. But I want you all to know that they know when to keep still.”
Benny was thinking. Then he went over to Mr. Carter and put his hand on Mr. Carter’s shoulder. “I think this really was Mike’s mystery,” he said. “It was his dog that found the hat. And he would have found it if I had stayed home with Grandfather, and never come out here at all.”
“Good for you, Benny,” said everyone.
“What a kind boy you are, Benny,” said Mrs. Wood.
“That was good of you, Ben,” said Mike. “Thank you.”
Mike was so polite that everyone laughed. But it was Mike’s mystery forever and ever.
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 book. And so she continued the Aldens’ adventures, writing a total of nineteen books in the Boxcar Children series.
The Boxcar Children Mysteries
THE BOXCAR CHILDREN
SURPRISE ISLAND
THE YELLOW HOUSE MYSTERY
MYSTERY RANCH
MIKE’S MYSTERY
BLUE BAY MYSTERY
THE WOODSHED MYSTERY
THE LIGHTHOUSE MYSTERY
MOUNTAIN TOP MYSTERY
SCHOOLHOUSE MYSTERY
CABOOSE MYSTERY
HOUSEBOAT MYSTERY
SNOWBOUND MYSTERY
TREE HOUSE MYSTERY
BICYCLE MYSTERY
MYSTERY IN THE SAND
MYSTERY BEHIND THE WALL
BUS STATION MYSTERY
BENNY UNCOVERS A MYSTERY
THE HAUNTED CABIN MYSTERY
THE DESERTED LIBRARY MYSTERY
THE ANIMAL SHELTER MYSTERY
THE OLD MOTEL MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE HIDDEN
PAINTING
THE AMUSEMENT PARK MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE MIXED-UP ZOO
THE CAMP-OUT MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY GIRL
THE MYSTERY CRUISE
THE DISAPPEARIN
G FRIEND MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE SINGING GHOST
MYSTERY IN THE SNOW
THE PIZZA MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY HORSE
THE MYSTERY AT THE DOG SHOW
THE CASTLE MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE LOST VILLAGE
THE MYSTERY ON THE ICE
THE MYSTERY OF THE PURPLE POOL
THE GHOST SHIP MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY IN WASHINGTON, DC
THE CANOE TRIP MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE HIDDEN BEACH
THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING CAT
THE MYSTERY AT SNOWFLAKE INN
THE MYSTERY ON STAGE
THE DINOSAUR MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE STOLEN MUSIC
THE MYSTERY AT THE BALL PARK
THE CHOCOLATE SUNDAE MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE HOT
AIR BALLOON
THE MYSTERY BOOKSTORE
THE PILGRIM VILLAGE MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE STOLEN
BOXCAR
THE MYSTERY IN THE CAVE
THE MYSTERY ON THE TRAIN
THE MYSTERY AT THE FAIR
THE MYSTERY OF THE LOST MINE
THE GUIDE DOG MYSTERY
THE HURRICANE MYSTERY
THE PET SHOP MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE SECRET MESSAGE
THE FIREHOUSE MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY IN SAN FRANCISCO
THE NIAGARA FALLS MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY AT THE ALAMO
THE OUTER SPACE MYSTERY
THE SOCCER MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY IN THE OLD ATTIC
THE GROWLING BEAR MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE LAKE MONSTER
THE MYSTERY AT PEACOCK HALL
THE WINDY CITY MYSTERY
THE BLACK PEARL MYSTERY
THE CEREAL BOX MYSTERY
THE PANTHER MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE QUEEN’S JEWELS
THE STOLEN SWORD MYSTERY
THE BASKETBALL MYSTERY
THE MOVIE STAR MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE PIRATE’S MAP
THE GHOST TOWN MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE BLACK RAVEN
THE MYSTERY IN THE MALL
THE MYSTERY IN NEW YORK
THE GYMNASTICS MYSTERY