The Yellow House Mystery (8 page)
“Well,” said Alice, “he says he is Bill McGregor now.”
“He talks, does he?” asked Jim. “I can hardly believe it. It must seem strange. He’s a nice, gentle old man. I always was sorry for him. I always tried to feed him up when he came out of the woods.”
“That’s what we came for,” said Jessie. “Something to feed to him. That hot soup would be just the thing.”
“Jes-
sie!
” Benny called from across the road. “Bill’s awake and he’s hungry.”
“Take some bread and butter, too,” said Jim with a laugh. “That’ll do him good.”
Alice and Jessie hurried back. Bill was sitting up in a chair. He looked rested.
Jessie put a little table in front of him, and set down the hot soup and a plate of bread and butter. Bill ate as if he were half-starved.
“You don’t look as thin as you did, Bill,” said Benny. “A little fatter.”
Everyone laughed, even Bill himself. “I don’t think he grew very fat on one bowl of soup,” said Jessie. “But you do look better, Bill, sure enough.”
“I feel better,” said the old man, looking into the girl’s kind face. Then he looked around at the other friendly faces. They were all smiling at him.
“I suppose Mrs. McGregor won’t know you,” said Benny.
“I will know her,” said Bill, “even if she is old.”
“She might like you better without your long beard,” said Benny.
“Sh-sh, Benny,” said Jessie.
But Bill’s feelings were not hurt. He even laughed a little. “My beard can be cut off,” he said. “Then I will look like Bill McGregor instead of an old hermit.”
“Jessie!” said Benny, all of a sudden. “Where did you get that soup? I’m awfully hungry.”
“What do you know!” cried Henry. “It’s long past noon and we were so excited we forgot our own dinner.”
“Don’t worry,” said Jessie, getting up at once. “We’ll soon fix that.”
T
he family sat down on the steps the next morning after breakfast.
“I want to go home,” said Benny suddenly.
“We all want to go home,” said Henry. “But how can we? We can’t take Bill in a canoe. Four people are too many.”
“We’ll have to get to Mr. Long’s store some way,” said Jessie. “If only we had our station wagon.”
“Let’s wait a little while,” said Joe. “Maybe something will happen.” He winked at Alice.
Benny rushed over to Joe and shook his shoulder. “What are you winking at Alice for?” he cried.
“Don’t you wish you knew?” teased Joe. He rolled Benny over in the grass.
“Get up and look what’s coming, boys,” called Alice. She pointed up the road. Coming around the corner was their very own station wagon.
“It’s the station wagon!” shouted Benny. “That’s Mr. Long driving and his boy is with him.” Benny began to jump up and down. He waved with both hands.
Mr. Long soon saw him, stopped at the little house, and got out. He laughed to see the children so surprised.
“You didn’t hear us, did you?” he said. “Joe and I made a lot of plans up at my store that first day.”
“Henry, I was sure you heard us,” said Joe, laughing. “I had just asked Mr. Long to meet us here in six days, when you suddenly came around the corner.”
“No, I didn’t hear a word,” said Henry, smiling. “But Mr. Long came on the right day. We do want to go home.”
“I never thought I would want this trip to end,” said Violet. “But now I want to get home to see Grandfather, and we all want to get Bill home to Mrs. McGregor.”
“Don’t tell me you have found Bill!” said Mr. Long, much surprised.
“Oh, yes,” said Benny. “Remember Dave Hunter, the hermit?”
“Yes,” said Mr. Long, “you mean he is Bill?”
Jessie said, “Yes, and it’s going to be a big surprise for Mrs. McGregor. Joe, shouldn’t we send a telegram to Grandfather?”
“Good for you, Jessie,” said Joe. “We’ll do that, just as soon as we find a place.”
“Come on,” shouted Benny. “Let’s go.”
The little house was soon full of people rushing around, rolling up bed rolls. They put things into the back of the station wagon, while Jim packed a big lunch for them to eat on the way home.
Jessie took the money out of the tin box and put it carefully into her handbag. “I’ll take care of this,” she said.
“We carry that money around as if it were just pieces of old paper,” said Violet laughing.
“It is,” said Benny, as he carried his bed roll to the station wagon.
“Why not let me cut off that long beard, before you go, Mr. McGregor?” asked Jim, when he came over with the lunch. “I can cut it for you.”
“How do you feel about it, Bill?” asked Joe. “Do you want it off?”
“Of course I do,” said Bill. “Don’t you remember I said I would look more like Bill McGregor?”
So the family all watched Jim as he cut off Bill’s long beard, then shaved him.
“What a change!” said Joe. “You certainly look fine, Bill.”
“A fine-looking man,” said Jim. “Look at yourself, Mr. McGregor.”
“Yes, you’ve got a nice smooth face,” said Benny. “Mrs. McGregor will like you better this way.”
“Oh, dear,” said Jessie suddenly, “we forgot all about the two canoes. We can’t leave them here.”
“Yes, you can,” said Mr. Long. “That’s why I brought my boy with me. We can paddle them back. Don’t worry about the canoes or the tents. We’ll take them with us.”
Benny took Bill’s hand, and said, “You’ll be surprised, Bill, when you see where Mrs. McGregor lives. Grandfather’s big house is very nice.”
Bill smiled at the little boy. “I know that house very well,” he said.
“What are you going to do about this house, Dave—Bill, I mean?” asked Jim Carr. “And your cabin in the woods?”
“You can have them both,” said Bill quietly. “You were always very kind to me, and gave me things to eat when I didn’t even say thank you.”
“That’s all right,” said Jim. “And thank
you.
Nobody ever gave me two houses in one day.”
At last everything was ready. Bill sat in front with Benny and Joe who was going to drive. Alice and Violet sat behind them. Henry and Jessie sat on the back seat.
“Now we’re really going home!” shouted Benny. “We did find Bill and we did find the money, Joe. Won’t Grandfather be glad!”
Joe turned the station wagon around, and the children waved good-by until they were out of sight of Old Village.
“Little boy,” said Bill suddenly, “how much money was in that tin box?”
“It was all hundred-dollar bills,” said Benny. “And it was four thousand dollars in all.”
“Four thousand dollars,” said Bill in great excitement. “That’s exactly right. Who did you say put it there?”
“We aren’t sure,” said Joe, kindly. “You must tell us that.”
“I’m afraid it was my own brother, Sam,” Bill told them sadly. “I understand the whole thing now.”
“Tell us,” begged Jessie. “Tell us everything you know.”
“Well,” began Bill in a weak voice, “did you hear about the horses? I sold two fine race horses for Mr. Alden.”
“He was not our grandfather,” said Jessie. “That Mr. Alden is dead.”
“Oh, dear. I suppose so,” said Bill. “He is Mr. Alden to me, because I worked for him. Your grandfather is James Alden. Well, my brother Sam told me to give him the money, and he could make three times as much. So I gave it to him.”
“That was when you lived on the island,” said Henry.
“Yes, he told me not to say a word, but to come to Maine and soon I could come home with a lot of money to pay Mr. Alden.”
“And what did you do next?” asked Alice.
“I came up here to meet my brother,” said Bill. “And then I heard he was killed by a car. I hunted all over my house for a tin box. But I never could find it. His friends didn’t know where it was. So I shut up my little yellow house, and went to live in the woods.”
“Yellow? You mean your yellow house on Surprise Island?” asked Henry, wondering.
“No, I mean my yellow house right here in Old Village.”
“But the house we were in is brown, Bill,” Jessie told him kindly.
“Well, yes, my dear,” said Bill, almost whispering. “It is brown now. But it used to be yellow. It has been painted since then.”
T
he family had not gone very far when suddenly Joe stopped the car by the side of the road.
“What’s the matter?” asked Henry.
“Bill’s getting too tired,” answered Joe quietly. “This is all too much of a change for him. I’m going to fix a bed on the back seat so he can lie down.”
Benny looked up at Bill and saw that it was true. The old man was very white, and his hands were shaking.
“Oh, dear,” said Jessie. “We talked to him too much. He isn’t used to it.”
She and Alice helped Joe make a soft bed of blankets on the back seat. Bill did not say a word. Joe and Henry took his arms and helped him out of the front seat and into the back. Bill lay down at once and shut his eyes, as if he were very glad to lie down.
The three girls took the middle seat and Henry got up in front beside Benny.
“He’ll be all right,” said Joe, looking back at Bill. “You can talk all you want to. I think he’ll sleep.”
“Let’s send that telegram to Grandfather at the next village,” said Jessie. “What shall we say?”
“Ten words,” said Benny.
“No, you can send fifteen,” said Henry. “Let’s make up a telegram as we ride. We should certainly begin, ‘Found Bill and the money.’“
“Five words,” said Violet, counting.
“‘All coming home today,’” said Jessie. “That’s four more. Nine so far.”
“Then we can have six more words,” said Benny. “We ought to say, ‘We may be late for supper.’ “
“We certainly will be late for supper,” said Joe.
Then Alice said, “Benny, don’t you think we should say something about Bill, like ‘Weak and tired’? Then Mrs. McGregor won’t expect the big strong man who used to lift the boat.”
Benny counted on his fingers for a few minutes. Then he cried, “We can say it this way. ‘Found Bill and money. Bill very weak. All coming home today late for supper. Hello.’”
“Wonderful, Benny!” said Joe, laughing. “Your grandfather will know you made up that telegram for sure. I always like to say hello at the end of a telegram!”
Henry said, “Now Benny, don’t forget what you said. Keep saying it over and over until we come to a village.”
This gave Benny something to do. When they did stop at a village he could remember every word.
As the girl wrote down the telegram, Jessie cried, “Henry, let’s say it’s from the Boxcar Children!”
The girl stopped writing, and looked up in surprise. “Are
you
the four children who lived in a boxcar?” she asked.
“Yes, we did,” said Benny. “We had fun.”
“And you found your grandfather at last,” she cried. She looked from one smiling face to another. “I read about you in the paper. But I never expected to see you.”
“This telegram is to our grandfather,” said Benny. “And you can say it’s from the Boxcar Children, and Alice and Joe. He’ll know.”
“Yes, I guess he will,” laughed the girl. “I’ll send it right off. It will get to him in an hour.”
“Fine,” said Henry, paying for the telegram. “Now let’s get on our way.”