Haunted Cabin Mystery (2 page)

Jessie looked at him and smiled. “You must read a lot to know things like that.”

He smiled. “I do,” he said. “But it's my business, too. I write articles for newspapers. I'm always looking for interesting things to write about. I'm Paul Edwards. If you're the Alden children, we'll be having meals together. I saw your names on my table list.”

“Look,” Benny cried, pointing back toward the city. Fireworks had begun to explode above the tall buildings of St. Louis. Rockets and bright flashes rose into the sky on both sides of the river.

“I wish Grandfather could see this,” Violet whispered.

Benny was leaning against Henry by the time the fireworks ended in a giant burst of color that filled the sky. The ship began to move. “I'm thirsty,” Benny said, his voice suddenly sad. “And I just remembered that I forgot something important.”

Jessie laughed and opened her bag. “It couldn't be this, could it?” she asked, handing him the pink cup he had kept ever since finding it in the dump when they lived in the boxcar.

He smiled, taking it from her with both hands. “Thank you, Jessie,” he said softly, his voice happy again.

She hugged him. “Now what do you say we go to bed so we'll all be perky tomorrow?”

“If you say so,” he said. “But I'm not at all sleepy.” He grinned at himself when a wide yawn caught him right in the middle of his words.

Mr. Edwards was right. He was assigned to their table along with some other friendly people. They all agreed that bacon and eggs had never tasted better than that morning.

Up on deck, they watched a tiny tugboat moving upstream, pushing a huge barge of lumber past them. The sailors on the tug shouted and waved their caps at the children as they passed. Jessie looked down and saw Mr. Jay watching them from the deck below. The minute he saw her looking at him, he turned on his heel and walked away.

“We have a mystery man,” Jessie whispered to Henry.

“What's the mystery about him?” Henry asked.

“His name is Mr. Jay, and no matter where we are, I see him staring at us,” she said. “But the minute I look at
him,
he gets away as fast as he can. It's almost as if he were spying on us but didn't want us to know it.” “He never smiles,” Violet added. “And he's the only man on the ship who isn't really polite to us.”

Henry frowned. “That
is
mysterious,” he said. “Be sure to point him out to me the next time you see him.”

That night after sunset, Mr. Edwards led them to the very top of the boat where the pilots worked. “See how they play those beams of light across the water in front of us?” he asked.

“What would happen without them?” Jessie asked.

“The boat could get stuck on a sandbar,” he said, “and have to be pushed off. In the old days, outlaws often lurked along the river. Sometimes they came aboard and robbed people.”

“Like pirates?” Benny asked. “I know about pirates.”

Mr. Edwards nodded. “About the same,” he said. “Wolf Island up ahead was well known for the bad men who hid there to attack passing boats.”

“Do you write about things like this in your articles?” Jessie asked.

He nodded. “I just published a story about a half a million dollars in gold coins that's supposed to be buried up there south of Hannibal in one of those valleys.”

“That's where we're going,” Benny told him, practically bouncing out of his chair.

Mr. Edwards laughed. “Stories of buried treasure never seem to die away, but nobody ever finds any gold, either.”

There was so much to see and do that the day passed quickly.

After Jessie and Violet pointed out Mr. Jay to the boys, Henry agreed that he seemed to be everywhere.

“Like outlaws along the river,” Benny said.

“Well, not exactly,” Henry laughed, but he wondered. Why would a stranger like that be spying on them and then act as if he were afraid they would recognize him?

“Have any of you ever seen this Mr. Jay anywhere before we got on board?” Henry asked.

“Never,” they agreed, shaking their heads.

Before they knew it, the ship was being towed to shore at Hannibal. Jessie sighed. “This was such fun that I hate to see it end.”

They said good-bye to Mr. Edwards and thanked him for his wonderful stories. Then, their suitcases in hand, they streamed off the boat with the other passengers.

CHAPTER 3

Cap and Doodle

A
fter they left the ship, the children decided that they needed to call Cap Lambert the very first thing.

“Can I just sit some place and wait?” Benny asked. “My legs feel funny when I walk.”

“Mine do, too,” Jessie said. “Those are our ‘sea legs.' We'll get our land legs back right away.”

The girls and Benny sat on a bench while Henry went to use a public phone. They were barely settled before he was back. “Cap Lambert's phone has been disconnected,” he said, frowning thoughtfully.

“Oh, that's not good at all,” Violet said. “If he's been injured, he needs a phone.”

“And it means that Grandfather wasn't able to call him to say we were on the boat. He must not even know we're coming,” Henry said. “It's not very nice just to surprise him.”

“I know he'll be glad when he sees us,” Benny said. “Grandfather said it was only three miles to his house. That's not very far for us to walk.”

“You're right, Benny,” Jessie said. “But remember, Cap Lambert has been hurt. If he isn't expecting us, he may not be prepared. I think we should take some groceries.”

Benny jumped up. “That's a
great
idea,” he said. “They had everything I liked on the ship except peanut butter.”

“Do you have your land legs back?” Jessie asked.

Benny nodded and raced into the store to prove it. The grocer watched them with interest as they picked out things they all liked. Along with the regular groceries, like dried milk, cocoa, spaghetti, and tomato sauce, they bought some treats — cinnamon candy, marshmallows, and, of course, peanut butter, a large jar. While the grocer added up their bill, Henry picked up a lamp and looked at it. It had a funny smell.

“That's a kerosene lamp,” the grocer told him. “They come in mighty handy where there isn't any electricity.” He looked at the bags of groceries and frowned. “Surely you're not aiming to carry all this clear out to Lambert's?”

“There are four of us,” Henry reminded him.

“No matter,” he said. “I might find you a ride with somebody going that way.”

The children looked at each other, then Jessie smiled at him. “That's very nice of you,” she said. “But we like walking. But we need to know the way to find Owl's Glen.”

A little later, as they set off with a suitcase in one hand and a bag of groceries in the other, Henry spoke quietly. “Look back,” he said. “Isn't that Mr. Jay watching us there by the post office?”

Jessie glanced back, nodding. “You're right,” she said.

“Where?” Violet asked. But by the time she turned, he had turned away and disappeared down the side street.

“I don't like it when people spy on us and I don't know why,” Benny said.

“None of us do,” Jessie told him. “But we won't have to wonder about him any more. Our boat will go back down the river to St. Louis this afternoon. He'll be on it, and we'll probably never see him again.”

“I do like mysteries, though,” Benny admitted.

The road to Cap Lambert's was mostly downhill. Tall bushes and trees grew close to its side, shutting off the light. The road crossed a stream that was marked P
OSSUM
C
REEK
. By the time they saw a log cabin up ahead, it was getting dark.

“Do you suppose that's Cap's place?” Jessie asked, stopping. The chimney of the low cabin sent a thin wisp of blue smoke into the sky. The giant pine trees cast such a deep shade that the cabin's porch was in full darkness.

“I don't hear any owls,” Benny said, setting down his suitcase and groceries. “But let's stop and see anyway. My legs are tired of this road. It sure is dark here. Maybe the cabin is haunted.”

Jessie laughed. “Benny! What an imagination you have.”

As Henry unlocked the gate, a sudden screeching came from the porch. With a flash of red and a beating of wings, a brightly colored rooster flew squawking down the walk at them. Benny yipped with delight and ran to meet the rooster.

“Doodle,” Benny cried, kneeling, forgetting his fears.

The rooster stopped with his wings still spread. As he cocked his head at Benny, a gruff voice came from the porch. “Get back here, Doodle, you crazy rooster. What's going on out there, anyway?”

Before anyone could answer, Benny had run up to the porch. “You must be Cap Lambert,” he said in a rush. “How did you get hurt, anyway? I hope you're feeling better.”

“What is this?” the old man asked, peering at him from the shade. “Go away, whoever you are.”

The girls looked at each other with wide eyes as Henry stepped forward to join Benny. “We're the Alden children,” he said.

The man on the porch was sitting in a high-backed chair. His bandaged leg was propped on a stool. A pair of crutches leaned against the wall. He looked terribly old in the dim light. His gray hair stuck out under his cap, and his full curling beard was gray, too. “I guess my message didn't reach you. That's a pity.”

“Oh, but it did!” Benny said. “We came anyway.”

The rooster had come back up the walk. He flapped up to sit on Cap's shoulder and stare at the children.

“You must be Benny,” Cap Lambert said. “Your grandfather told me you were a talker.”

Benny nodded and turned to introduce Henry and the girls.

“You got my telegram and came on anyway?” Cap asked when he had nodded at each of the children. He was frowning a little. “What was that Alden thinking of?”

“It was our idea,” Jessie admitted. “We had to talk Grandfather into letting us come.”

“You should have saved your breath,” Cap Lambert grumbled. “I'll have to turn you around and send you right back. There's no one here to care for you, and it's not safe around here anyway.”

“Oh, but we came to take care of
you,
”
Violet said, telling him how they had convinced their grandfather. He listened, still frowning.

“You make a fair case,” he finally admitted. “I've been afraid to go out on the rough ground with this bad ankle. I called the mailman in to send that telegram for me and haven't left the cabin. There was enough feed in the bins to take care of the chickens for a while, and the eggs
can wait in the nests. My horse Pilot gets his water from a spring-fed trough and has plenty of hay. The garden and orchard just have to tend themselves.”

“We're good with chickens,” Benny told him. “And horses, too. We learned out on Aunt Jane's ranch.”

Cap looked at them and sighed. “There's nothing to do tonight, I guess. You might as well take your things inside. We'll worry about getting you back to town tomorrow. I suppose you're hungry, too.”

“I'm always hungry,” Benny told him, grinning.

“But you don't have to worry about food,” Jessie said quickly. “All of us like to cook, and we brought things for dinner. Henry and I will fix it while Benny and Violet help you inside.”

Jessie's plan worked perfectly. By the time Cap was installed in his rocking chair by the hearth, the water was boiling for spaghetti, and tomato sauce was simmering on the back of the old wood stove. Violet found a red-and-white-checkered cloth for the round oak table and went outside to look for some flowers for a centerpiece. As she picked a bunch of wild daisies at the edge of the woods, she heard a kitten mew. She stood very still, looking for it, but she never did find it.

Cap Lambert sniffed the air and winked at Benny. “I believe I'm as hungry as you are, Benny,” he said. “I've been getting along on cold things I could rustle for myself.”