The Boxcar Children Mysteries: Books One through Twelve (36 page)

“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.”

Bill was still asleep when they got into the station wagon again. He was still asleep at lunch time. They did not wake him for lunch.

“He needs sleep more than food now,” said Joe.

“I do hope he isn’t sick,” said Alice in a worried voice.

“I don’t think he is,” said Joe. “I think he’s had just too much excitement. It is such a change from not talking at all.”

“It shows us we’ll have to be very careful of Bill,” said Jessie. “But I can hardly wait to ask him the end of that story.”

Bill slept almost all the afternoon. As they came near home, they had to wake him up. When they drove up to the door of their grandfather’s house, Bill was sitting up very straight.

Mr. Alden was sitting on the porch in a big chair. Beside him was Mrs. McGregor. They were waiting.

Bill leaned forward to look. “It’s my Margaret!” he said, almost crying. “She has the same beautiful blue eyes!”

Joe and Henry helped the old man out of the car and up the steps.

“Bill!” cried Margaret. She put both arms around him and led him to her chair. “It’s all right, Bill! It’s all right!” she said, over and over.

Just then there was a very loud noise from upstairs. It seemed to come from Jessie’s room. It was Watch. He came rushing down the stairs and out of the door, barking and barking. He could not believe that his four children had come back to him again. At last he lay down by Jessie’s feet, tired out.

“Now I guess he will eat his meals,” said Mr. Alden. “As for Mrs. McGregor, she hasn’t eaten a good meal since you all went away.”

Benny said, “I think it’s funny. We have so many people that can’t eat. I don’t have any trouble eating
my
meals.”

“Now that we’re all together again, Benny,” said Grandfather laughing, “everyone will be all right. I think I shall eat better myself. We have things for supper that you like best. There is hamburger for you. Bill always liked fish best and that’s what he’ll have. There’s ham for Joe and apple pie for Jessie.”

“No pie for me?” asked Benny, taking his grandfather’s hand.

“What do you think?” teased his grandfather. “I don’t believe anyone will go hungry tonight.”

It was wonderful to see Bill eat. With his Margaret beside him again, he seemed like a different man.

“I feel better and better,” he said.

After supper the family sat again on the porch.

“Joe,” whispered Benny, “couldn’t we talk to Bill now? He seems all right to me.”

“You can try,” said Joe. “We’ll soon see how he takes it. We can stop if he gets too upset.”

Benny went over then to Bill and Margaret. He put his hand over Bill’s.

“We want to ask you just a few more things, Bill,” he said. “Are you too tired?”

“No, little boy,” said Bill. “I don’t think I shall ever be tired again. Ask me anything you want.”

Benny looked at Joe. Joe smiled back at him.

Then Benny said, “We want to know something more about your brother. How was he going to make the money three times as much?”

“I didn’t know myself at first,” answered Bill. “But later I found out he was going to give it to some friends of his to bet on the horse races.”

“Oh, but he might have lost it all!” cried Henry.

“Yes, I know that now,” said Bill. “His friends were bad people, I’m afraid. Sam would have been all right if his friends had let him alone. But he always did what they said, and I always did what my brother Sam said.”

He looked around sadly. “One night after Sam was killed, these men came up to Maine. They hunted all over my house, but they couldn’t find the money. I didn’t know where the tin box was myself. But they didn’t believe me. They tried to make me tell, and we had a great fight. But at last they went away, and I never saw them again.”

“Were they the ones who told you the barn was burned?” asked Mr. Alden.

“Yes. They didn’t want me to go home and tell all I knew, so they told me Margaret was dead.”

“I suppose that finished you,” said Benny.

Bill smiled at him. “Yes, that finished me. I didn’t want to live any more without Margaret, and I didn’t want to see people. Besides, I couldn’t come home without the money, so I went into the deep woods to live alone forever.”