The Yellow House Mystery (5 page)
After a supper of potatoes, they were all glad to go to bed. They were still hungry, but they were warm and dry.
From his tent Joe called goodnight to the girls. Then he said, “Notice the wind.”
“What’s the matter with the wind, Joe?” asked Benny sitting up. “Oh, I see what you mean. There isn’t any.”
“That’s right,” said Joe, laughing. “It has just stopped blowing. Tomorrow will be a fine day, I think. Just you wait and see.”
But Benny sat up again. He called out, “Hi, Jessie!”
“What do you want, Benny?” Jessie called back.
“Let’s call this Potato Camp, because we didn’t eat anything here but potatoes.” After that, the children always called it Potato Camp.
T
he next day was fine, just as Joe had said. It was so fine that the children could hardly believe there had been such a storm. But how hungry they were!
“No breakfast today,” Joe called in a loud voice. “Think you can take it?”
“Oh, sure,” said Benny. “But I hope we can have some dinner.”
“Well, I think we can,” said Joe. “We can surely find something to eat when we get to Old Village.”
“That’s where we’ll find Bill,” said Benny happily.
Henry and Alice started with a will to take down the tents. Violet and Benny began to roll up their blankets. But Joe did nothing. He sat down on a log and seemed to be thinking. This was not like Joe at all.
“Let him alone,” said Alice quietly to the children. “Just go on packing. He’ll soon help, too.”
But Joe didn’t begin to pack. Instead he called them all to stop packing and come to him for a minute.
“I want you all to understand why I took you way up here,” he said. “Maybe for nothing. Benny just said, ‘That’s where we’ll find Bill.’ Now I don’t really think we will find Bill. I never thought so. I think Bill must have died long ago. The boss at the lumber camp had never heard of him. Mr. Long and Mr. Hill hadn’t either and they both have been around here many years.”
Joe stopped and smiled at Benny. Then he went on. “I don’t
really
think we’ll find the tin box either.”
“Why are you telling us all this, Joe?” asked Violet in her gentle voice. “Are you afraid we’ll be disappointed?”
“You’re exactly right!” said Joe quickly. He looked at his little cousin. “I don’t want you to be disappointed because you can’t solve the mystery. When we get to Old Village, I don’t know what to do next. I thought maybe we might get a clue to the tin box, but we may not.”
“I don’t care, Joe,” shouted Benny. “I’ve had enough fun just camping, even if we don’t find Bill.”
“Oh, yes, we’ve all had fun, Joe,” Jessie broke in.
Joe’s face brightened. “Did you really?” he asked. “Even if we don’t find a thing? I hope so. That’s why I brought you so far. I thought we’d have fun anyway.”
“Don’t you worry any more, Joe,” said Henry. “Camping is the thing we like to do best in the world. It makes us think of Boxcar days and last summer on Surprise Island. But you don’t mind if we still look for clues, do you?”
“Mind—no!” said Joe. “I expect to look for clues myself. Just don’t be disappointed, that’s all.”
Then Joe hurried around and began to pack with a will. This time the children were glad to see a smile on his face.
“We’ll paddle faster today,” he told them, “because we are so hungry. We can’t see Old Village from here, because the lake turns. But we ought to get there by noon.”
Into the canoes went the things again, and into the canoes went the six people. Off they went on the last part of their long journey. They paddled for a long time.
All at once Benny asked, “Joe, what would happen if I put a Grey Ghost fly on a line and threw it in the water behind the canoe?”
“Well,” answered Joe smiling, “you might lose your rod, and then again you might catch a fish.” He was delighted to give Benny something to do. Then the boy would not feel so hungry.
“I’m going to try it,” said Benny. This time he put on the fly right. Then he threw the line out behind the canoe.
“What are you trying to do? Break your rod?” shouted Henry from the other canoe.
“No,” called Benny. “I’m fishing.”
On they went. Benny watched his line for a while.
Suddenly Henry shouted, “There goes your rod!”
Benny jumped and caught it just as it was about to slide out of the canoe.
“Boy! You’ve got a big one,” cried Joe, stopping to look back. “Pull him in slowly, Ben! Don’t you lose him! Don’t get excited, whatever you do!”
Violet smiled. Joe was as excited as Benny.
How the big fish did fight to get away! But Benny played him carefully, and slowly brought him to the side of the canoe.
“Want me to help, young fellow?” asked Joe.
“Please,” said Benny. He was afraid he would lose the big fish.
Joe leaned out and pulled it quickly into the canoe.
“A big lake trout! And a beauty,” he cried. “He will feed us all. Too bad you didn’t catch him yesterday.”
“Isn’t that always the way!” cried Benny. “We starved yesterday, and now just as we get near a store, we catch a fish.”
“Never mind,” said Joe. “We’ll eat him yet.”
He took up his paddle again. It was almost noon when they went around the last look. Then they could see a road that came right down to the beach from Old Village.
“Here we are at the end of Bear Trail,” Alice said, laughing; “and we have found neither a clue nor Bill. Joe, aren’t you excited now?”
“Excited? Yes, I am,” said Joe. “I’m hungry, too. Look ahead at the beach. See that man waiting to meet us? Someone always meets canoes.”
Joe and Henry paddled faster without knowing it. Soon the canoes slid up on the beach. The man helped pull up the canoes.
“Hello, strangers,” he said. “Taking the Bear Trail trip?”
“Yes,” said Joe. “Right now we are looking for some place to eat. These children are almost starved. Is there any place to eat in Old Village?”
“Yes, sir!” said the man. “I run it myself. I call it Jim’s Place. I’m Jim Carr. I’ll cook you anything you want. Bacon, ham, deer, hamburger—”
“Oh,
hamburger!”
yelled Benny. “I want hamburger!”
“So do I,” laughed Jessie.
Jim laughed too. “Leave your things,” he said. “Nobody will take them. My place is right up on the road.”
The children saw it at once. There was a board over the door, saying in black letters, JIM’S PLACE. They all walked down the road toward it.
“I suppose most of the campers eat with you?” asked Joe.
“Right,” said Jim. “They stay overnight sometimes. Then they go back to Mr. Long’s store by road.”
“We may do that,” said Joe.
Jim’s Place was the biggest house in Old Village. As they went in, they looked around. Everything was very clean. There were three tables, and a delicious smell of onions in the air.
“I won’t be long,” said Jim. “Sit down and make yourselves at home. Hamburger and onions and potatoes for everybody.”
They sat down and looked at each other. They could hardly wait. Soon Jim came in with big white plates filled with hot food. “Eat all you want,” he said. “More in the kitchen. I just made two big apple pies. Maybe I can find some cheese to go with it.”
Everyone began to eat. Never did food seem so good to the hungry children. “You see, we didn’t have any breakfast,” Benny said to Jim.
Jim laughed.
“That’s really true,” said Joe. “We got caught in the rain, and lost most of our food.”
“Too bad,” said Jim. He went into the kitchen to get a pie. Soon a whole pie had disappeared, and also some fine yellow cheese he had found.
“Oh, I do feel better,” cried Violet. “I’m ready for anything.”
“Glad to hear that,” said Henry, looking at her. “You do look a little better.”
Then Alice said to Joe, “We ought to stay in Old Village for one night, anyway. I think Violet ought to sleep in a bed in a house.”
“You can do that all right,” answered Jim Carr with a laugh. “You see that little old house across the street? I don’t really own it, but I take care of it. It has been empty for many years. When campers want to stay overnight, I let them use it. I bought a lot of folding cots. The campers don’t seem to mind sleeping three in a room.”
Jessie stopped to count. “We wouldn’t either,” she said.
“Right!” said Alice with a smile at Jessie. “You and Violet and I in one room, and Joe and Henry and Benny in another.”
“There are two rooms,” said Jim. “Three with the kitchen.”
Henry said, “My! Everything is working out well, isn’t it, Joe? Is there anything interesting to see in Old Village, Jim?”
“Oh, yes,” said Jim smiling. “Some people go hunting for deer and moose. Then there’s an old hermit over in the woods. Lives all alone. People like to catch sight of him, he looks so queer with his long white beard. Then there are Indians up the road. They make baskets to sell. People always go and watch them make baskets when they stop over.”
“Oh, let’s go up and see the Indians,” said Jessie. “Do they mind? Are they old?”
“No, they don’t mind. They like it. Yes, one of them is very old. He has lived there all his life. Loves to talk.”
“Ho-hum,” said Benny looking at Henry.
“That’s what I say too,” said Henry softly to Benny. “You mean the old Indian might give us a clue?”
“Maybe,” said Benny, smiling to himself.
Henry paid for their dinner, and they all went off up the road.
“Joe,” began Jessie, excitedly, “maybe this old Indian has heard of Bill, long ago. We can ask him.”
Soon they could see an Indian girl sitting on the steps of an old house making a basket.
“My, doesn’t she work fast!” said Alice. “See her fingers fly.”
“I wish I could learn to do that,” said Violet.
“You can. I will teach you,” said the Indian girl who had heard every word. “It is not hard at all. See, I have just started this basket. See—I go in and out, over and under, with this sweet grass.”
The girl worked slowly so that Violet could see what she did. Soon she held out the basket. “You try it now,” she said.
Violet took the basket, and soon her clever fingers were going in and out, over and under, just as the Indian girl had done.
“Wonderful, Violet!” said Alice. “You can do anything with your fingers.”
“Yes, she can,” said Henry smiling. Then he thought surely Benny would say something about his sister Violet as he always did.
He looked around. But Benny was nowhere to be seen.
“Oh,
where
is Benny?” he called.
“Benny! Ben-
ny!”
shouted Joe as loud as he could.
But there was no answer. Benny had disappeared.
I
t was true. Benny was not there.
“Oh, what has happened to Benny?” said Jessie, beginning to cry.
“Now, don’t let’s get upset,” said Joe’s strong voice. “I think I know what has happened. Benny has gone off by himself to find the hermit. He hasn’t been gone long, and we can surely find him. Don’t you cry, Jessie. We’ll go and hunt for him.”
“Wouldn’t we save time by asking Jim?” asked Henry.