The Boxcar Children Mysteries: Books One through Twelve (54 page)

Everyone thought this was a fine idea. When they told Mr. Gardner he laughed. He said, “Go ahead. I’ll help you. It will surely be very lonesome here when you four Aldens go back to school in the Fall.”

Mrs. Wood and Jessie and Violet wore white. They made white caps.

They made white caps for the boys, too. They made big white aprons. The boys got a printing set and printed MIKE’S MOTHER’S PLACE on the front of their big aprons. They had many cans of milk and hot coffee.

Then the people began to come to the party. The two dogs ran around having a wonderful time. They loved everybody, and they were good dogs.

There were plenty of chairs, because Mr. Carter had sent them. He sent movies too.

He said, “I have some beautiful pictures of the South Seas. The people will like to see the banana trees and the monkeys.”

When it was dark, the movies began. The people sat in rows and watched the show. They clapped and laughed at the monkeys. Watch had a chair between Jessie and Benny. He watched the picture with the rest. Next came Mike and then Spot. Mr. Carter sat on the end near the door. All the windows were open and the door was open. Benny whispered to Mike, “This would be a good time for somebody to blow up the mine.”

“No, the watchmen are there,” Mike whispered.

Mike put his arm around Spotty’s neck. Everyone looked at the picture except Mike. He never knew why he looked out the door, but he did and Spotty looked too. He saw a man walking slowly by. Then suddenly he felt the hair on Spotty’s neck move. Spotty looked at the door and growled.

Mr. Carter heard Spotty growl. He jumped up, and dashed out of the door. Mike and Spotty dashed after him.

They all saw a man running in the darkness. But Spotty could run faster than the man. Soon he caught the man’s leg. He held him, growling, until Mr. Carter came. Mike never knew how strong Mr. Carter’s hands were.

The watchmen ran up and soon the man was taken away.

“The man in the blue hat!” cried Mike.

“Yes, Mike, I think it is,” said Mr. Carter. “Spotty knew him.”

“Spotty ran faster than he did in the race,” said Mike.

“I guess he did,” said Mr. Carter. “Now, Mike, don’t say a word. Just go back quietly.”

“Can’t I tell Ben?” asked Mike.

“Yes, if you whisper. Don’t let anyone else know about this. It will spoil the party.”

W
hen Mike and Spotty went back, Mike whispered, “Ben, we just caught the man in the blue hat.”

“You did?” said Benny. “Did he have on a blue hat?”

“He didn’t have on any hat at all,” said Mike. “I told you he wouldn’t.”

“I wish you had told me before,” said Benny. “Watch and I would have come, too.”

“I had no time,” said Mike. “Sh-h-h, don’t say a word!”

Then the show was over. The lights went on. Everyone sat around eating pie and drinking coffee. Mr. Carter came back very quietly.

The boys looked at him but they did not say a word.

“It’s all over,” Mr. Carter whispered to Mike and Benny.

“Where is that man?” asked Mike.

“Well, he is in jail again. This time he will stay there,” said Mr. Carter. “That man was wanted in four states! You boys helped me a great deal. And best of all, you did not talk.”

“Wait till I tell Henry!” cried Benny. “He thinks I can’t stop talking.”

“I’ll tell him myself,” smiled Mr. Carter. “And Jessie will like to know, too. She’s a mother to you, Benny.”

“Yes, I know,” said Benny.

“She always keeps care of you, Ben,” said Mike.

“Takes
care of me,” said Benny.

“Well,
takes
care, then,” agreed Mike. He didn’t even start to argue. Benny was quite surprised.

With everyone gone, the Woods, the Aldens and Mr. Carter were left alone in the big room.

Mr. Carter said, “Please sit down, all of you. I want to tell you something.”

When they were quiet, he said, “The hunt for the man in the blue hat is over. The man has been caught, and the mystery is solved.”

“Oh, how?” asked Aunt Jane in excitement.

Then Mr. Carter told her about the man. He told her about Spotty growling.

“You don’t need to growl any more, Spotty,” said Mr. Carter. He patted the dog’s smooth head. “The man has gone away.”

“Well, I am glad,” said Violet softly. “I know it was exciting for the boys, but I didn’t like it at all.”

“No,” said Mr. Carter, looking at Violet with a smile, “neither did I.”

“Well,” said Mike, “now it’s all over, it was my mystery, wasn’t it?”

“Oh, no, it wasn’t!” cried Benny. “It was mine!”

“My dog found the blue hat!” shouted Mike.

“But my dog helped him. And Watch found the tin can!” said Benny.

Then Mike suddenly stopped. He said, “Yes, Ben, I think it was your mystery after all. Because it was your mine.”

“Well,” said Benny slowly, “maybe it was yours, because it was your house that burned up.”

“Well, well!” said Henry, smiling at Mike. “How you have changed, Mike!”

“That’s what I say,” said Mrs. Wood. “Mike is getting to be a very nice, thoughtful boy. He doesn’t argue so much. I said it did him good to play with Benny.”

Henry laughed. “And you remember I said it was good for Benny to play with Mike! They are quite a pair.”

“Yes, boys, you are quite a pair,” said Mr. Carter. His eyes began to twinkle. “Let me give you something to think about. Maybe you two boys will be together next summer, too. But not here.”

“Where,” cried Jessie, “will we all be together?”

“Well, you children will all be together, but the rest is a secret.”

“Oh, a secret? Grandfather’s secret, I suppose,” said Henry. “He is always a little ahead of us.”

“Yes, I can tell you that much. You children and Mike, and your grandfather are included in the secret.”

“And Spotty and Watch?” asked Mike.

“Yes, Watch, but not Spotty.”

The children were thinking hard. They had no idea what it was all about.

Jessie asked the last question. “Will you be there, too, Mr. Carter?”

“No,” said Mr. Carter. He looked at Jessie with a funny little smile. “And I shall certainly be very sorry for myself.”

After that, Mr. Carter shook his head at every question. He would not tell another thing.

Then Mike said, “I’m not going to ask Mr. Carter any more. He don’t want to tell us, I mean
doesn’t.”

“Well, well, you’re learning, Mike,” said Henry. “Maybe you’ll be a schoolteacher yet.”

“Oh, no, I won’t. I’m going to be an FBI man,” said Mike.

“Yes, and he may,” said Mr. Carter. “He and Benny talk all the time. But I want you all to know that they know when to keep still.”

Benny was thinking. Then he went over to Mr. Carter and put his hand on Mr. Carter’s shoulder. “I think this really was Mike’s mystery,” he said. “It was his dog that found the hat. And he would have found it if I had stayed home with Grandfather, and never come out here at all.”

“Good for you, Benny,” said everyone.

“What a kind boy you are, Benny,” said Mrs. Wood.

“That was good of you, Ben,” said Mike. “Thank you.”

Mike was so polite that everyone laughed. But it was Mike’s mystery forever and ever.

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 book. And so she continued the Aldens’ adventures, writing a total of nineteen books in the Boxcar Children series.

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