The Boxcar Children Mysteries: Books One through Twelve (78 page)

“Well!” said Benny, when the man had gone by. “He’s a queer character.”

“He did look at us sideways,” said Violet. “I saw him when he was far down the street.”

“But why should he almost bump into Jessie?” Henry asked. “He might have knocked her down if she hadn’t moved quickly. A queer character is right, Ben.”

“I think we notice everybody now,” said Violet. “We think they are a part of our mystery.”

Suddenly everyone was thinking about the noise in the night. It had been real!

“Right!” said Henry. He took Violet’s arm as they went into the store. “You are always right.”

There was only one person in the store. It was a boy of about Henry’s age. Under his arm he had a college book. Henry knew it at once.

The girls started to buy groceries, but Henry gave the boy a friendly smile and said, “I noticed your book. Do you go to college?”

“I certainly don’t,” said the boy loudly. Then he went out of the store and banged the door.

“Hey, what’s the matter with
him?”
asked Henry. He stared after the boy.

“He’s looking for trouble, that feller!” said Benny. His voice sounded just like his grandfather’s.

Mr. Hall said, “He doesn’t have to look for trouble. He’s got trouble.”

“What trouble?” asked Henry. “He looks so cross at everybody.”

“Well, his father won’t let him go to school,” said Mr. Hall.

“School?” cried Benny. “He
wants
to go to school, and his father won’t
let
him?”

“That’s right,” said Mr. Hall.

Benny said, “Didn’t that boy go to high school?”

“Oh, yes, he had to go to high school. It’s the law. He’s very smart, especially in science. He got through high school at sixteen.”

“Well,” said Henry, “he is smart, then. But he’s looking for trouble. It wouldn’t hurt him to be polite to a stranger.”

“He isn’t polite to anybody,” said Mr. Hall. “I try to be nice to him, but you see how he acts. He doesn’t want friends.”

“Now
that
is too bad,” said Benny. “Everyone ought to have friends.”

“I guess it isn’t hard for you to make friends,” said Mr. Hall. He laughed.

“No, it isn’t,” said Benny. “I’m lucky. We’re all lucky.”

Henry was quiet. At last he said, “I wish we could do something with that father. A boy like that ought to go to college if he wants to.”

“He wants to all right. That’s all he thinks about—college—college—and I guess whatever lives in the sea. He’s always picking up shells or bits of seaweed. Now I say if any boy wants to learn, let him learn.”

“Right,” said Benny. “There are lots of boys I know that don’t want to learn.”

“I don’t think you can do anything with his father,” Mr. Hall said. “You’re not the first people who have tried.”

Then the four Aldens thought of the same name—Grandfather. But they did not say it. Grandfather knew how to get things done.

“That boy is another queer character,” said Benny. “Two cross people in ten minutes.” Benny did not see many cross people.

Then Mr. Alden said, “By the way, Mr. Hall, our dog barked in the night. We feel that someone was prowling about. I thought I’d see the police today.”

Mr. Hall shook his head. “No police in this town,” he said. “Never had any trouble here.”

“No police!” said Mr. Alden. “I never heard of such a thing. Who looks up a mystery?”

“Nobody, I guess. Never had a mystery either.”

As the Aldens drove home, they were all thinking.

Grandfather said, “I suppose I could send for John Carter.”

“Oh, please don’t,” cried Benny. “We want to find out for ourselves. No police, no Mr. Carter, no help at all!”

“Very well,” said Grandfather with a smile.

“We’ll have to solve the mystery, Ben,” said Henry.

“Maybe we can do it better than Mr. Carter can,” said Benny.

“Oh,” said Jessie. “Somebody thinks he’s pretty smart, Mr. Benny! But we all know that Mr. Carter is right there. He would come to help us in a minute.”

When they reached the lighthouse with the groceries, Jessie said, “I wonder just the same about that black-eyed man and the cross boy. Could one of them have anything to do with our mystery?”

“I don’t see how,” said Benny. “But you never know. Maybe they are cooking up something or other.”

Benny didn’t know then how near he was to the truth.

J
essie boiled a dozen eggs and a dozen potatoes. She put them in the refrigerator. By noon she had made an enormous potato salad. She had bought rolls and butter and a cherry pie.

“Let’s eat lunch out on the rocks,” she said. “It’s too hot in the lighthouse. You carry the salad, Henry. And, Benny, you carry the cherry pie and the knife.”

They found a fine seat for Grandfather that just fitted him. “Really, this is an easy chair,” he said, “made out of rocks.”

The other seats were not so easy. The rocks were sharp. The table was not very flat either.

“I have an idea,” shouted Benny suddenly. “Let’s find stones and make five easy chairs. Then build up the table with a flat stone. And then get some cement and fill in the cracks.”

“A wonderful idea, Ben,” said Henry. “A small bag of cement would be enough. We’ve got plenty of sand.”

“I saw a place where they had cement,” said Violet. “Some men were building a driveway.”

“Where?” asked Benny.

“Well, don’t you remember when we came from Aunt Jane’s there was a big new gas station where some men were building a driveway?”

“I remember it,” said Mr. Alden. “It was right beside a little fish market.”

“Let’s go the minute lunch is over,” said Benny.

“Lunch is over for me right now,” said Mr. Alden. He ate the last of his cherry pie. “The ocean will wash away the crumbs.”

Jessie and Henry picked up all the dishes and washed them in the sea. Then Henry backed the car out and they all went down to the little fish market. Sure enough, the men were at work on the driveway. Bags of cement were lying around.

“Where can we buy some cement?” asked Henry, stopping the car. He put his head out of the window.

“How much do you want?” asked the man who was the foreman.

“Well, we want to make some seats and a table down on the rocks by the lighthouse. How much would you think we’d need?”

“Take this small bag,” said the foreman. “Bring back what you don’t want.”

Henry said, “Is it three parts of sand to one part of cement?”

“Right,” said the foreman. “You can borrow this hoe if you want.”

“That’s neat!” cried Benny. “I’ll hoe!”

“Wish I could come and help you,” said the man, smiling. He looked at the laughing family. They all laughed again. Henry lifted the bag into the car, and Benny took the hoe.

“I’ll put the cement on Violet’s feet,” said Henry. But he was joking.

Then the Aldens noticed that one of the men was staring at them with big, black eyes. It was the same man who had almost bumped into Jessie.

When he saw that they knew him, the man turned his back and began to work again.

After they had driven away, Jessie could not help saying, “That was odd seeing that man again.” Everyone agreed.

“Stop at the store, Henry, and buy a trowel,” said Grandfather. “You’ll have to smooth the cement and carry it to the rocks.”

When the Aldens got back to the lighthouse they went to the rocks at once. The only seat which was comfortable already was Mr. Alden’s. They walked around trying to find big rocks of the right shape. Benny sat down on every seat he could find to try it. Then the boys began to carry big stones and the girls took the little stones to fill the cracks. At last they had five seats around a fine table.

Henry began to mix the cement. “Not with salt water,” he said. “We must have fresh water.”

He found a big rock that was shaped like a tub. He mixed the cement in that.

“Now let me hoe it, Henry,” begged Benny. “I know just how to do it. I watched the men.”

“Don’t mix up too much at first,” said Jessie. “It will get hard before we finish all the seats.”

“Isn’t this fun?” cried Benny, hoeing away. “Just like making mud pies. Let’s do Violet’s seat first. She has such a comfortable looking chair already.” So they carried the cement in a newspaper and Benny plastered the seat and smoothed it with the trowel.

“Isn’t that wonderful!” said Violet. “I’d love to try it.

“Better not,” said Henry. “Let it dry overnight.”

Then Jessie and Henry took turns with the trowel, and at last they all helped Benny with his own seat and the table.

“Let’s make places for cups on the table,” said Violet. So when the cement on the table was soft and smooth she pressed a cup into it in five places. The mark made a wonderful saucer. The cup could not fall off.

“Plates, too!” said Benny.

With a stick he drew B for Benny, J for Jessie, V for Violet, H for Henry, and G for grandfather beside the plates.

The cement was almost gone, but they took the bag back to the workmen and Henry paid the foreman for it. He gave back the hoe. They noticed that the black-eyed man was not there.

“I’m glad,” said Benny as they drove back, “I don’t like him anyway.”

“I wonder who he is,” said Mr. Alden.

It was not too long before he found out.

I
t was delightful to sit on the beach that evening even though they could not use their new seats. The family sat there long after supper watching the sunset.

Gulls flew overhead and landed on the rocks near by.

Suddenly Henry said, “It’s queer how sleepy we get.”

“It’s the sea air,” said Mr. Alden. “Go to bed anytime you want.”

In fact, the whole family went to bed at nine o’clock and were asleep very soon after.

The Conley town clock struck as it always did. Ten, eleven, twelve. And then Watch began to whine. His hair stood up along his back and around his neck. He began to howl.

“No, Watch,” said Benny. “If you’re going to howl every night at midnight, you might as well go home. You’re no help to us.”

But Watch went right on howling.

“I wonder if someone is cooking in that little house,” said Henry.

“No one’s there,” said Benny. “We would have heard him go crunch, crunch, crunch on those little stones.”

“That house is all boarded up anyway,” said Jessie. “The door must be locked and the windows don’t open. Nobody could be in there.”

“Someone might take off a board and get in a window,” said Henry. “Then he could put the board back every night. Tomorrow we’ll take a look.” Benny wanted to go right down. But just then Watch began to quiet down. He gave a last growl and went to sleep.

“You’re a funny dog,” said Benny. “See that you keep still the rest of the night.”

But it was not Watch who kept Jessie and Violet awake a little longer. When Jessie turned out her light she looked out of her window. In the moonlight she saw a woman walking quietly away. Her feet did not go crunch, crunch. She walked softly in the tall beach grass.

Jessie called quietly to Violet. She came and looked out, too.