Mystery of the Stolen Sword (8 page)

Veronica rolled her eyes, but everyone else laughed.

The next three nights, Benny walked out to the orchard, sometimes alone, sometimes with Henry, Violet, or Jessie. Each night he heard a long, low boo. On the third night, Jessie convinced him it was really an owl when her flashlight spotlighted the bird in the tree.

“But what about that hissing sound Violet and I heard?” Benny asked.

“It could have been a snake,” Jessie said. “But I bet it was the sound of leaves rustling.”

“That’s what Violet said.” Benny sounded extremely discouraged. “You don’t really think there’s a ghost, do you?”

“No, I don’t,” Jessie answered.

Benny looked so crushed that Jessie put her arms around him.

The following morning, it rained. “Why don’t we go to the shed to explore that buggy,” Jessie suggested.

“Sure,” Benny said. “I’ll go.”

“Be my guests,” Seymour said, chuckling. “Let me know if you find anything interesting.”

“There’s tons of cool stuff in this buggy,” Benny said as he looked through a box that held some old spinning tops, marbles, and a set of wooden blocks with letters and drawings carved into them.

“I bet those blocks are handmade,” Jessie said. “Someone must have carved them for his children.”

“Do you really think so?” Benny held up a block with the letter
D
carved on one side, and a dog on the other.

“It would have been a great way to teach a little kid the alphabet,” Henry remarked. He sat inside the buggy poring over some old letters he had seen in one of the wooden chests.

Jessie and Violet were beside the buggy, carefully trying on old hats and petticoats they had found in the steamer trunk.

Benny blew dust off a marble and then dropped it. It fell inside the buggy. As he bent down to look for it, he noticed a long leather bag near his feet. Part of the bag was under a wooden box. Benny moved the box out of the way so he could pick up the bag.

Henry looked up from his reading. “That’s a saddlebag,” he told Benny. “People used to put them across a horse’s shoulders in front of the saddle while riding, to carry stuff.”

“Neat,” said Benny. “Let’s see what’s in it.” Benny pulled out a newspaper, very yellowed with age, that practically crumbled to pieces as he set it down. Then he took out an old seed catalog, and finally a letter in a long white envelope. The letter was addressed to Mr. Gideon Curtis!

“This letter has never been opened,” Benny said. “Should we read it?”

“Maybe we should let Seymour open it,” Henry suggested. “It’s addressed to his ancestor.”

“Look, it’s got a Virginia postmark,” Jessie said, looking over Benny’s shoulder. The feathers in her hat tickled his nose.

“Aaa-choo!”

“A Virginia postmark,” Henry said, reaching for the letter. “Maybe it’s from Joshua!”

The Aldens lost no time finding Seymour. He was sitting at the kitchen table having a cup of coffee with Grandfather and Rose.

“I never knew there was a saddlebag in that buggy,” Seymour said as he opened the letter, which was written in ink. “It
is
from Joshua!”

“What does it say?” Benny was so impatient, he was hopping up and down.

Seymour cleared his throat and began reading:

Virginia

18 November 1865

Dear Cousin,

It has now been eight years since I last saw you. I have not written because I was still very angry we could never come to an agreement about your father’s sword & armor collection, & then the War began. I left your house in a huff, & it has taken me years to stop being so angry. I regret the time we’ve lost, when we once so enjoyed each other’s company, but so be it. I am writing now to tell you I plan to leave the country. The War has left my house and land in ruins & there is nothing left for me here. I plan to go abroad & hope to settle in Australia.

Cousin, as I will probably never see you again, I write to wish you well. Love to Sybil, Theodore, and Alice.

Faithfully yours,

Joshua

“My goodness. And this letter has been in the barn all the time! Gideon never opened it. He must have picked up his mail on horseback one time, put it in his saddlebag, and then forgot about it,” Rose suggested.

“It’s strange he would have forgotten a letter from Joshua,” Seymour said. “Maybe he wasn’t the one who picked up the mail.”

“He never knew his cousin had forgiven him,” Violet said.

“Australia. No wonder no one ever heard from him.” Seymour couldn’t believe it.

“I guess that means Joshua was never really a ghost,” Benny said sadly.

“I’m afraid not, Benny.” Seymour shook his head.

“Maybe the ghost isn’t really Joshua?” Violet teased.

Benny perked up. “I never thought of that.”

Everyone laughed.

G
ERTRUDE
C
HANDLER
W
ARNER
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 books.

The Boxcar Children Mysteries

T
HE
B
OXCAR
C
HILDREN

S
URPRISE
I
SLAND

T
HE
Y
ELLOW
H
OUSE
M
YSTERY

M
YSTERY
R
ANCH

M
IKE’S
M
YSTERY

B
LUE
B
AY
M
YSTERY

T
HE
W
OODSHED
M
YSTERY

T
HE
L
IGHTHOUSE
M
YSTERY

M
OUNTAIN
T
OP
M
YSTERY

S
CHOOLHOUSE
M
YSTERY

C
ABOOSE
M
YSTERY

H
OUSEBOAT
M
YSTERY

S
NOWBOUND
M
YSTERY

T
REE
H
OUSE
M
YSTERY

B
ICYCLE
M
YSTERY

M
YSTERY IN THE
S
AND

M
YSTERY
B
EHIND
THE
W
ALL

B
US
S
TATION
M
YSTERY

B
ENNY
U
NCOVERS
A
M
YSTERY

T
HE
H
AUNTED
C
ABIN
M
YSTERY

T
HE
D
ESERTED
L
IBRARY
M
YSTERY

T
HE
A
NIMAL
S
HELTER
M
YSTERY

T
HE
O
LD
M
OTEL
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
H
IDDEN
P
AINTING

T
HE
A
MUSEMENT
P
ARK
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
M
IXED
-U
P
Z
OO

T
HE
C
AMP
-O
UT
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY
G
IRL

T
HE
M
YSTERY
C
RUISE

T
HE
D
ISAPPEARING
F
RIEND
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
S
INGING
G
HOST

M
YSTERY IN THE
S
NOW

T
HE
P
IZZA
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY
H
ORSE

T
HE
M
YSTERY AT THE
D
OG
S
HOW

T
HE
C
ASTLE
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
L
OST
V
ILLAGE

T
HE
M
YSTERY ON THE
I
CE

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
P
URPLE
P
OOL

T
HE
G
HOST
S
HIP
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY IN
W
ASHINGTON
, DC

T
HE
C
ANOE
T
RIP
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
H
IDDEN
B
EACH

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
M
ISSING
C
AT

T
HE
M
YSTERY AT
S
NOWFLAKE
I
NN

T
HE
M
YSTERY ON
S
TAGE

T
HE
D
INOSAUR
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
S
TOLEN
M
USIC

T
HE
M
YSTERY AT THE
B
ALL
P
ARK

T
HE
C
HOCOLATE
S
UNDAE
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
H
OT
A
IR
B
ALLOON

T
HE
M
YSTERY
B
OOKSTORE

T
HE
P
ILGRIM
V
ILLAGE
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
S
TOLEN
B
OXCAR

T
HE
M
YSTERY IN THE
C
AVE

T
HE
M
YSTERY ON THE
T
RAIN

T
HE
M
YSTERY AT THE
F
AIR

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
L
OST
M
INE

T
HE
G
UIDE
D
OG
M
YSTERY

T
HE
H
URRICANE
M
YSTERY

T
HE
P
ET
S
HOP
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
S
ECRET
M
ESSAGE

T
HE
F
IREHOUSE
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY IN
S
AN
F
RANCISCO

T
HE
N
IAGARA
F
ALLS
M
YSTERY