The Camp-Out Mystery

by Gertrude Chandler Warner

  “Or maybe he was too tired after helping Grandfather to wheel it all the way back to his cabin,” Jessie suggested.

  Benny sighed. “Well?” he asked. “Is it a clue or not?”

  Everyone laughed.

  When they were nearly at Hildy’s cabin, Andy Watts came up the path toward them. He looked worried. “Well, hello,” he said. “I hope there hasn’t been another accident.”

  “Oh, no,” Henry said. “We’re just … exploring.”

  “We’re looking for clues,” Benny piped up.

  “Clues?” Mr. Watts repeated.

  Benny nodded. “All kinds of strange things have been happening.”

  Mr. Watts listened attentively as the children told him everything that had happened. Then, he said, “My, oh, my! How awful!”

  “It’s not that awful,” Benny said. “We like mysteries.”

  “This is one you may not solve,” Mr. Watts said. “It’s been going on a while. Other campers have complained about the same things.”

  “Except for the Changs, we haven’t seen any other campers,” Jessie said.

  Mr. Watts nodded. “Yes, that’s what I mean,” he said. “No one stays long. They’re afraid to stay.”

  “Oh, we’re not afraid,” Benny said.

  Mr. Watts edged away. “I have to be going,” he said. “Remember, if your grandfather decides to leave, I’ll be happy to help. He should be home where he can get his proper rest.”

  After he had gone, Violet said. “Maybe Mr. Watts is right.”

  “If Grandfather wanted to go home, he’d say so,” Henry reminded her.

  “Let’s ask Hildy if she knows what’s been happening,” Jessie suggested.

  “She probably won’t even talk to us,” Benny said.

  Hildy was outside her cabin, bent over something on an old table. The children called out to her. She didn’t look up. They moved closer to her. She was fiddling with an old kerosene lantern.

  “May we speak to you?” Henry asked politely. “Some strange things have been going on—”

  “Loud music and lights and missing food,” Benny put in.

  “We thought you might have seen or heard something that would help us figure it out,” Jessie said.

  Hildy glared at them. “Imagination pure and simple,” she said. “As if it isn’t bad enough that my lantern is broken—”

  “At least you have a lantern,” Benny interrupted. “Someone took ours.”

  Hildy grabbed the lantern off the table. “Stop pestering me with your silliness,” she snapped. She marched to her cabin door. “Go back to the city where you belong! I don’t want you here!” She slammed the door behind her.

  “You see?” Benny said. “She doesn’t want us here.”

  “Mr. Watts said we should go home, too,” Jessie reminded him.

  “That’s different,” Benny argued. “He was thinking about Grandfather.”

  “We should be, too,” Violet said. “We’ve been away a long time. He might need us.”

  Grandfather was reading when they returned to camp. “Something happened while you were away,” he said.

  The children looked at each other. What now? they wondered. They looked all around, but they didn’t see anything different.

  Grandfather laughed and pointed to the maple tree.

  Violet caught her breath. “It bloomed!” she exclaimed.

  Earlier, the tree was full of buds. Now, it was full of small tight clusters of green flowers. Other trees seemed to be blooming, too.

  “Spring has sprung!” Benny commented.

  The night was beautiful, too. The sky was clear and the stars were bright.

  After supper, Violet got out her violin. She played several pieces. The one everyone liked best was “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”

  Finally, everyone went to bed. They were so tired that they fell asleep quickly. No one heard the loud music that sounded through the still night or saw the lights that cut through the surrounding darkness.

  CHAPTER 13

  More Trouble

  “Yoohoo!” someone called.

  “Is it morning already?” Benny asked.

  Henry crawled out of his sleeping bag and looked out the tent window. “It’s Doris,” he told the others.

  The children piled out of the tent.

  “Well, good morning,” Doris said. She set a box down on the picnic table.

  “Good morning,” the children greeted her.

  Grandfather came out of the tent leaning on Andy Watts’s walking stick.

  “James Henry Alden,” Doris said. “Just what do you think you’re doing? You should be resting.”

  Settled on a picnic bench, Mr. Alden laughed. “Coming to visit an old friend,” he answered. “That’s what I’m doing. And what are you doing? Hiking all this way when you have a store to run?”

  Doris sat across from him. “Andy stopped in late yesterday. He told me about your fall. I thought you might need a few things.” She turned to Henry. “There’s a bag of ice in there. You’d better put it in the cooler before it melts.”

  Henry nodded and took out the ice.

  Jessie glanced into the box. “You brought pancake mix!” she exclaimed.

  “I figured you’d probably used yours up by now,” Doris said.

  “Somebody took our box,” Benny said. “We haven’t had a single pancake.”

  “Someone took your pancake mix?” she said, but she didn’t sound too surprised.

  “That’s not all!” Benny told her what had been happening.

  “Hmmm,” was all she said.

  “We asked your sister about it,” Jessie said, “but she just told us to go home.”

  Doris nodded and glanced away. “Yes, that’s what I was afraid of,” she said more to herself than to the children. When she saw them all looking at her, she said, “What I mean is, other campers have complained about these very same things.”

  “That’s what Andy Watts said,” Violet piped up. “He told us we should go home.”

  Doris got to her feet. “Maybe it would be best if you left,” she said. “I’ll be happy to help you pack up right now.”

  “Oh, no, thank you, Doris,” Grandfather said. “We’re staying.”

  “Well, I was just thinking of you,” Doris said firmly. “It can’t be much fun putting up with all that noise and such.”

  “Can you stay and have breakfast with us?” Jessie asked.

  “I have to get back,” Doris answered. “I have some … business to take care of.” At the edge of the camp she turned to face them. “I wish you’d change your mind about leaving, James.”

  Grandfather laughed. “An Alden doesn’t change his mind easily,” he said.

  Doris frowned. “All right,” she said, “but you may be sorry.”

  “What did she mean by that?” Violet asked when Doris had gone.

  “Oh, that’s just Doris’s way,” Grandfather said. “She was always very serious.”

  “We should put her on our list,” Benny said.

  “List?” Grandfather asked.

  “We were trying to decide who could be doing all those strange things,” Henry explained.

  “We forgot about Doris,” Jessie added.

  “Well, you can keep her off your list,”Grandfather told them.

  “But she did act strangely,” Henry said.

  “She didn’t sound at all surprised about the missing pancake mix or any of the other things,” Violet said.

  Mr. Alden shook his head. “It’s not Doris,” he said. “She would never think of such things.”

  The children had a wonderful time playing in the forest and taking care of Grandfather that day. Only at night when the music sounded and the lights appeared did they think about solving the mystery. But, by then, they were too tired to try to figure things out.

  The next morning, Jessie noticed they were low on bread. “That’s strange,” she said. “I was sure we had enough for a few more days.”

&
nbsp; “Someone must have taken it,” Benny said.

  Henry said, “I guess we’ll just hike to the store for more.”

  “Not me,” Benny said. “I want to stay here. Grandfather promised to read me a story.”

  “You and Violet go,” Jessie suggested. “Benny and I will stay with Grandfather.”

  She made a grocery list, and Violet and Henry set off toward the store. They met the Changs in the parking lot. They were packing their van.

  “Are you leaving already?” Henry asked.

  “Yes, we are,” Mr. Chang answered.

  “And none too soon,” Mrs. Chang added. “With all that loud music, we haven’t had a decent night’s sleep since we’ve been here.”

  Violet was surprised. “But I thought you hadn’t heard the music.”

  “We didn’t hear it the night you mentioned,” Mr. Chang told them. “We were too tired to hear anything that night.”

  “There were those mysterious lights in the forest,” Mrs. Chang said. “And our food is missing. It’s been no picnic; that’s for sure!”

  “The last straw was finding an arrow holding a message in a tree at the edge of our camp,” Mr. Chang said.

  “The same things have happened to us!” Violet told them.

  “Well, we’ve had enough,” Mr. Chang said. “Be careful. Something is very wrong here.”

  CHAPTER 14

  Hildy Disappears

  At the store, Doris was pacing the floor. “You didn’t see Hildy anywhere along the way, did you?” she asked Violet and Henry when they arrived.

  “No, we didn’t,” Henry said. “Were you expecting her?”

  “This is her shopping day,” Doris answered. “She always comes in early so she won’t run into any other customers. There’s been no sign of her. I’m getting worried.”

  “And she doesn’t have a phone,” Violet commented.

  “No, and I can’t leave the store—it’s delivery day,” Doris said.

  “We could stop to check on her,” Henry offered.

  “Oh, would you?” Doris sounded relieved.

  “Sure,” Violet said. “But she probably won’t want to see us.”

  “I wouldn’t ask you to do it,” Doris said, “it’s just that … well, I’m worried.”

  With her help, the children gathered the things on Jessie’s list. Then, promising to be careful, they hurried off.

  Henry and Violet raced into camp.

  Breathing hard, Henry announced, “Something’s happened to Hildy!”

  “Whoa! Slow down,” Mr. Alden said to them. “You look as though you’re being chased.”

  Jessie and Benny took the grocery bags from their brother and sister and set them on the table.

  “Sit down,” Jessie said. “Catch your breath.”

  They sank to the picnic bench. Benny sat between them.

  Grandfather hobbled over and sat down, too. He gave the children time to calm down before saying, “Now, tell us what happened.”

  Violet started at the beginning. “We met the Changs in the parking lot,” she said. “They were leaving because they couldn’t stand the music and the other things that have been happening.”

  Henry picked up the story. “And then we went to the store. Doris was upset because Hildy hadn’t come in for her groceries.”

  “Maybe she’ll be in later,” Grandfather said.

  Violet shook her head. “Doris said today is her shopping day, and she always comes in first thing.”

  “We said we’d check her cabin,” Henry told them. “But we wanted to bring the groceries back first.”

  “And get you two and Watch,” Violet said to Jessie and Benny.

  “That was smart,” Grandfather said. “There’s safety in numbers. I only wish I could go with you.”

  “Oh, don’t worry, Grandfather,” Henry said. “We’ll be all right.”

  Benny shot to his feet. “Well, what are we waiting for?”

  The four children hurried along the stream path. Watch yapped at their heels.

  Hildy’s cabin looked deserted. The children approached it slowly. At the door, Henry knocked.

  No response.

  He knocked again. “Hildy!” he called. “It’s the Aldens. We have a message from Doris.”

  Still no answer.

  “Try the door,” Jessie suggested.

  Henry turned the knob. The door was unlocked.

  Slowly, cautiously, Henry pushed the door. It creaked as it swung open.

  A few bars of light from the window fell across the cabin floor. Otherwise, the cabin was dark.

  “Hildy?” Henry called softly.

  He stepped inside the cabin. The others followed. Watch ran around sniffing.

  Pointing to a small table under the window, Benny said, “Look! Our missing lantern!”

  A battery-powered lantern stood in the center of the table.

  Henry took a few steps forward. “It looks like our lantern all right,” he said.

  “There are lots of lanterns like that,” Violet said.

  “But Hildy had a kerosene lantern,” Benny reminded them.

  “And it was broken,” Jessie remembered. She went to the table and picked up the lantern. She turned it over. “It’s our lantern, all right,” she said. She showed the others the name Alden scratched on the bottom.

  “Hildy took it!” Benny concluded. “She is the one behind everything!”

  Henry wasn’t convinced. “But our lantern was missing before we saw Hildy with her broken one.”

  “Maybe she already had our lantern here in her cabin,” Violet suggested.

  “But if she had our lantern, why would she be so upset about hers being broken?” Jessie asked.

  “We don’t have time to think about it now,” Henry said. “We promised Doris we’d find Hildy.”

  They went back outside. Benny and Watch ran around the outside of the cabin looking for some sign of Hildy, but they found nothing.

  “Maybe she’s on her way to the store right now,” Violet suggested. “Or already there.”

  “In that case, we’re wasting our time,” Jessie said. “Let’s go back to camp.”

  “Not yet,” Henry said. “I think we should look around a little more.”

  “Let’s go to Andy’s,” Benny suggested. “He might know where Hildy is.”

  They ran over the hill, Watch in the lead.

  Andy’s place was closed up tight. Even the windows were shuttered.

  When the children knocked, there was no answer.

  “They’re both missing!” Benny said.

  CHAPTER 15

  The Prisoner

  Henry stepped back from Andy’s cabin. “The way it’s all boarded up, it looks like he’s left for good,” he observed.

  They trooped around the side of the cabin. In back, they saw the wheelbarrow leaning against the wall.

  “What’s that over there?” Benny asked.

  “It’s a bale of hay with something on it,” Violet observed.

  A square white card was pinned to the bale. Painted on it were several circles, one inside the next.

  “It’s a target,” Henry said. “The kind archers use to practice.”

  “Bow and arrow practice?” Benny asked.

  Jessie knew what he was thinking. “Just because Mr. Watts likes archery doesn’t mean he’s the one who put that arrow in the maple tree,” she said.

  “That’s right,” Henry agreed. “Someone could have taken the arrows from him.”

  “Maybe Andy and Hildy are in this together,” Benny said. “Maybe that’s why they’re both missing.”

  Watch pricked up his ears. He stood listening, and then he loped off toward the cabin.

  The children followed him.

  “He heard something,” Jessie said.

  Whining softly, Watch scratched at the door.

  Henry knocked loudly. “Mr. Watts!” he called. “Are you in there?”

  When no one answered, Benny put his ear to
the door.

  “There’s someone in there,” he whispered. “I can hear something.”

  The door opened a crack. Andy Watts peeked out.

  “Oh, children,” he said. “I’m sorry I didn’t hear you.” He yawned. “I was napping.”

  “We’re looking for Hildy,” Henry told him. “Have you seen her?”

  “No, no, can’t say that I have,” he answered.

  A muffled thump sounded from inside.

  Mr. Watts cleared his throat loudly and began coughing.

  “I—uh—can’t talk to you right now,” Andy said. “You run along and I’ll see you later.”

  He closed the door but not before they heard someone yell, “Help! Help! Help me!”

  “That’s Hildy’s voice,” Jessie said.

  Henry knocked furiously. “Mr. Watts! What’s the matter?! What’s going on in there?!”

  Henry started away from the cabin. “Come on!” he said. “We’ll get the ranger!”

  Just then they heard a car approaching.

  “It’s coming from over there!” Benny ran toward a thick stand of trees. He dashed through them, the others close at his heels.

  Beyond was a dirt road. The children waved frantically at the oncoming truck. It pulled up beside them and stopped.

  Doris hopped out. “What’s the matter?” she asked.

  “Hildy,” the children said at once. “She’s locked in Andy’s cabin!”

  Doris leaped out of the truck.

  They all ran back the way they’d come.

  Doris pounded on the cabin door. “Andy Watts, come out here this instant!” she demanded. “Or we’re going to break this door down!”

  The door flew open. “All right! All right!” Andy said. He came outside, trembling.

  Doris dashed into the cabin.

  The children waited at the door.

  Andy Watts paced back and forth. “Oh my, oh my,” he kept mumbling to himself.

  Finally, Doris came out with Hildy at her side. Hildy looked furious.

  “Now, Andy Watts, let’s hear your explanation for all of this!” Doris demanded.

  CHAPTER 16

  The Confession

  Andy took a deep breath. “I didn’t mean any harm,” he said. “I just wanted to give them a taste of their own medicine.”