The Yellow House Mystery Read online

  “No,” cried Benny, “don’t tell us after all, Mr. Hill. We’ll watch you build it, and then we’ll know what it is.”

  “Not a bad idea,” said Henry. “Don’t forget we still have to find that branch with two forks in it.”

  Mr. Hill could see two or three branches like that, but he said nothing. He just smiled and let the children find a tree for themselves.

  “Well, well!” said Henry at last, looking up at a tree. “There is a branch growing both ways. I never knew they grew like that.”

  “Cut it just below that fork, Henry,” said Joe.

  Soon the branch was cut. Joe and Henry cut branches of evergreens and carried them back to camp for beds.

  Then Mr. Hill and Joe put everyone to work. “We must get everything done before the sun sets,” said Mr. Hill. “It gets very cold up here at night. You’ll be glad of your warm blanket rolls. Benny—is that your name? You come and hold these two trees for me.”

  In no time the two little forked trees were standing in the ground with a long pole between them. The branch was soon hooked over the pole. Mr. Hill put the water pail on the hook. “You can push this branch to one side, you see,” he said. “Sometimes I get two or three to cook with.”

  “I can see how that works,” said Benny. “The water gets hot while you cook supper.”

  “Is the hot water to wash dishes in?” asked Violet.

  “That’s right, and for anything else you want to wash.”

  “Maybe hands,” said Henry, laughing and looking at his hands.

  “It’s good clean dirt, though,” said Benny, looking at his own hands. “Smells good. Just like evergreens.” Then he forgot all about his hands, for Mr. Hill began to make the shelter-half to keep the wind from the fire.

  “This would keep rain out, too, if we had any rain,” he said to Benny. “And this is the baker where we cook the cornbread.”

  “Oh, that’s a funny dish,” said Benny. “How does it work?”

  Mr. Hill laughed. “You set it up with this open side toward the fire, see? The inside gets very hot, and cooks the cornbread a fine even brown on top. Then after supper, we can set it up on this other end, and wash dishes in it.”

  “Well, isn’t that clever?” cried Henry. “Benny won’t mind washing dishes in that.”

  “Now somebody had better go and find some wood,” said Mr. Hill. “We must get a fire going right away.”

  Benny jumped up and worked hard getting wood for the fire. He was getting hungry.

  Meanwhile Joe and Henry put up the two small tents. Alice and Jessie laid the evergreen branches in the tents for beds.

  “Where will Mr. Hill sleep?” asked Jessie.

  “Oh, he has his own tent,” Joe answered. “It will take him about one minute to put his tent up and make his bed and go sound asleep.”

  “I hope he won’t go to sleep before he makes that cornbread,” said Alice.

  “We’re going to have ham and eggs, too,” said Mr. Hill.

  “But we haven’t any eggs,” said Benny.

  “No, but I have,” said Mr. Hill with a laugh. “I brought along a few things. Just for your first day. Then tomorrow morning I have to leave you.”

  How delicious the ham did smell when Mr. Hill put it in the big pan and it began to get brown. Then he dropped in twelve eggs. Joe said he could eat at least two, while Henry said he could eat three.

  “Real butter!” cried Jessie, as Mr. Hill took it out. “Do you remember the first time we had real butter in the boxcar?”

  “Cornbread isn’t much good without butter,” said Mr. Hill.

  Violet began to set the table with tin plates. Soon they were all eating their first meal in camp.

  At last Joe said, “The cornbread is gone and the ham is gone. Can anyone stay awake long enough to wash the dishes?”

  “I can, if we can use that funny dish,” said Benny. He watched Mr. Hill put the hot water from the pail into the baker. “But I’m so sleepy I could go to sleep standing up.”

  Soon the dishes were washed and put away.

  Alice, Violet and Jessie had one tent, and Henry, Joe, and Benny had the other. They spread their blanket rolls on the beds of evergreen boughs. Before long the moon looked down on a sleeping camp.

  But softly through the woods walked a large black animal. He smelled people. He smelled food, too. So he walked very quietly.

  There was the side of bacon hanging in a tree, up high. That was easy. He could stand up. Maybe he could pull it down. He loved bacon. Up went one front paw and the bacon began to swing back and forth.

  The animal was not the only one awake. Mr. Hill had heard the visitor. This was the very minute he had been waiting for. “Joe!” he called from his own tent. “We have a visitor.”

  Joe woke up suddenly. “I’ll tell the children,” he answered. “Henry, wake up!” Then Henry was awake. “Jessie!” he whispered. Then everyone was awake.

  “Oh, dear!” said Violet sitting up. “What is it?”

  CHAPTER 8

  The Lumber Camp

  The moon was almost as bright as day.

  Mr. Hill whispered, “Look out very quietly.” Very slowly the other tent flaps opened.

  The children saw the large black bear but he did not hear them or smell them. He did not smell anything but the bacon. Back and forth it swung as he hit it with his big paw.

  “Don’t be afraid, Violet,” whispered Alice. “The bear won’t hurt us. He is afraid of us.”

  Just then the bacon fell at the bear’s feet. Down he went on all fours again. He lay down and began to chew the bacon.

  “Ho-hum!” thought Benny. “There goes our bacon.”

  Just then Mr. Hill flashed a light in the bear’s face. The bear jumped up and ran off into the woods as fast as he could run.

  “Didn’t he look funny!” laughed Benny. “But he left our bacon.”

  “That was a wonderful sight,” said Henry. “I am certainly glad that Mr. Hill happened to wake up.”

  They were soon asleep again. They did not know that Joe had asked Mr. Hill to come because he could show them a big black bear. They did not know that Mr. Hill and the bear were good friends. The bear knew that he would find food wherever Mr. Hill was.

  The next morning Mr. Hill said as he and Joe made a fire, “I must leave you after breakfast. When you start off, you’ll soon come to a lumber camp.”

  “I wish you would leave that baker to wash dishes in,” said Benny.

  “Yes, I brought it for you,” said Mr. Hill with a smile. He washed the bacon well, and cut it in thin pieces. Soon it was cooking in the pan over the fire. Hot cereal and canned milk seemed delicious in the cold morning air. Mr. Hill made “quick bread” in the little baker. As soon as the bread was done, the children began to hear many bluejays in the trees.

  “They want our breakfast,” said Mr. Hill, looking up. “Wait until we sit down and then see how near they will come. Throw some pieces on the ground.”

  The air was full of bluejays. Six or seven beautiful birds flew to the ground. The children could almost touch them.

  “Come on, everybody,” said Benny at last. “I want to see that lumber camp.” He began to pick up the dishes, making the birds fly back into the trees.

  Jessie laughed. “What a housekeeper you are all of a sudden,” she said. “Let’s all help.”

  Soon the camp was all clean again. Everything was packed in the canoes, and Mr. Hill gave them each a push.

  “Thanks, Mr. Hill,” said Joe to his old friend.

  “Thanks for everything,” Jessie called back as the two canoes went smoothly down the lake.

  The children waved until Mr. Hill turned and went into the woods.

  “He was nice, wasn’t he?” said Violet.

  “All Maine guides are nice, Violet,” laughed Joe.

  Fish were jumping here and there in the water beside the canoes.

  “Oh, can’t we go fishing today, Joe?” asked Benny.

  “
We’ll have to go fishing,” said Joe, “unless we want to eat beans for three days. When we get around two or three ‘looks’ we’ll stop and fish.”

  “Two or three what?” asked Benny.

  “Looks,” replied Joe. “See that turn in the lake? You can’t see around it yet. They call that a look.”

  “That’s a good name for it,” said Jessie. “What do we fish with?”

  “Didn’t you see the fishing rods Mr. Hill brought us?” asked Benny. “He brought two, one for each canoe. We can take turns fishing.”

  “We fish with flies,” Joe told them. “Not real flies. I have a box of Grey Ghosts in my pack. They look like real flies to the fish. So they go after them and get caught.”

  The canoes passed the next look and the next. Then Joe called back to Henry, “Want to stop and fish?”

  “You bet!” called Henry. “You’ll have to show us how.”

  “Alice knows how,” called Joe. He stopped paddling. “She’ll show you and Violet.”

  The two canoes floated together as Joe and Alice each put a pretty Grey Ghost fly on their lines. Then Joe whipped his line out over the water.

  “That’s nice, Joe,” cried Benny. “Isn’t it easy? When you get a fish, let me try, will you?”

  “Sure,” said Joe, smiling. “Sit very still now.”

  “Oh, look,” cried Jessie. “You’ve got a fish, Alice! Pull it in!”

  “Not so fast,” answered Alice. “You have to play these fellows.” She pulled her line in very slowly and carefully. Everyone watched her land the large fish and take it off the hook.

  Then Joe caught one. Benny could hardly wait.

  “Now it’s my turn,” he cried.

  “Right,” said Joe. “You saw me whip the line over the water. Now you do it.”

  Benny took the rod. He lifted it just as Joe had done. “Whip!” went the line. But it did not go out over the water. It went backwards over his head.

  “Look out!” cried Joe to Alice. But he was too late. The hook caught fast in her hair and pulled it down over her face.

  “Oh, Alice, your pretty smooth hair!” said Violet.

  “I’m sorry, Alice!” called Benny. “I don’t see how I did that.”

  “Never mind,” said Alice. “I ought to have been watching. Everyone misses the first time. Violet will soon get the hook out.”

  Violet leaned over at once and worked the hook out. “Don’t do that again, Benny,” she said.

  “It’s not as easy as it looks, Benny, to whip that line out,” said Jessie. “You’d better let Joe do the fishing.”

  “No, not at all,” Joe answered. “Let him try again. He ought to learn.”

  Benny fished and fished. But he found it worth while when he caught three trout. He looked at every spot on the fish as if he had made it himself.

  At last Joe said, “We have enough fish now. The men at the lumber camp will want to feed us. But it’s nice to have our own food, too.”

  “See the logs in the water over there,” said Alice. “The men at the camp roll the logs into the water and they float down by themselves.”

  When the children started off again, they began to hear the sound of axes. Soon they could hear a great crash when a tree fell. At last they heard a lumber man calling to them, “Hi! Hi!”

  They all waved to him. “Paddle in, Henry,” said Joe. “We’ll stay here tonight.”

  The man seemed very glad to see them. Right away he asked them to stay to dinner.

  “Yes, we’ll be glad to,” said Joe. “We have a lot of fish here, but we’d like to put up our tents in your camp for the night.”

  “Fine!” said the man, who was the boss. “Hi, Cookie! We have company.”

  The cook looked up with a laugh. “Come in! Stay as long as you want. You like beans?”

  Benny went up to the cook. “We just love beans,” he said. “But we got a lot of fish. I’ll show you the ones I caught.”

  “You can’t tell them apart,” said Henry.

  “Oh, yes, I can,” said Benny. “I caught three, and I know every one. I caught this one, and this one, and this one!”

  “They look just alike to me,” said Cookie, with a smile.

  “Cook them for the little boy, Cookie,” said the boss. “Fix them all up.”

  When dinner was ready, Cookie let Benny ring the bell. The lumber men came crashing through the bushes.

  “They always hurry that way to their dinner,” said Cookie.

  The men made room for the visitors. There were three tables full of people. Baked beans and quick bread made a fine dinner.

  After dinner the boss said, “You show the visitors how we cut the trees, Bill.”

  “Bill!” whispered Violet to Joe. They all looked to see which man was Bill. But they knew right off it was not the Bill they were hunting for. He was too young.

  The afternoon went by too quickly. After a supper of their cooked fish, they went to bed in their own tents. The lumber men had little log houses.

  “Don’t be surprised if you hear porcupines,” said the boss. “They like the grease around here, and they come most every night.”

  “What do they sound like?” asked Henry.

  “Like pigs,” said the boss. “They squeal and they chew. When they chew it sounds like someone sawing wood.”

  When the camp was quiet Henry woke up suddenly. He thought it was morning and the men were sawing. Then he heard many loud squeals, and said to himself, “It’s porcupines!”

  But the squeals had wakened all the rest, and both tent doors opened.

  “What a noise,” whispered Jessie. “Where are they?”

  “See that ball?” asked Alice. “Right by the table? That is a porcupine. He is chewing the table to get the grease.”

  There were five porcupines in all, eating and squealing. When the children had watched them for a long time, Joe said, “We must get our sleep. They’d better go.” Then he flashed a light at them. They rolled into balls and kept very still.

  But when Joe flashed the light again, they went hurrying away into the woods.

  “Well,” said Jessie, lying down again, “we see our most interesting sights in the middle of the night.”

  “I hope they won’t come back,” said Alice. “Because Joe says tomorrow will be a hard day.”

  But even Joe had no idea how hard the next day was going to be.

  CHAPTER 9

  Almost Starving

  After the day in the lumber camp, the morning seemed to come in no time. Then men were awake and working before the sun. When everyone was dressed, Joe took the children to find the boss.

  “I wonder if you ever heard of a man named Bill McGregor,” he said to the boss.

  “He’s lost,” said Benny.

  “Lost? How old a man?”

  “About seventy, now,” answered Joe. “He has been gone for many years. But we just found a letter saying he might have gone on Bear Trail.”

  “This is part of Bear Trail,” said the boss.

  “Yes, I know,” said Joe. “That’s why we came. This Bill was a very strong man, so I thought maybe he had worked years ago in lumber camps.”

  “Well, I’ll ask my men,” said the boss. “I’ll find a way to let you know if I hear anything.”

  “We are going to stop at Old Village,” said Joe. “If you do hear anything about this man, send someone down by canoe. I’ll pay for it.”

  “I guess not!” laughed the boss. “Too bad if I couldn’t help you out. I’ll be glad to let you know anything I hear. You have two looks and a carry before you get to Old Village Lake.”

  “Breakfast!” called Cookie, ringing the bell. Soon the men were eating great plates of quick bread. But Cookie had made beautiful brown pancakes for the visitors. They ate them with butter and brown sugar.

  “I’ll help paddle today, Henry,” said Alice.

  “Thanks,” said Henry. “We’ll get along faster that way.”

  After breakfast everything was p
acked up again and put in the canoes. The children did not forget to thank Cookie and the kind lumber boss. Very soon they were on their way down the lake. The day was beautiful. They saw two interesting things. They paddled around the first look and saw a moose swimming to shore as fast as he could. Around the next look they saw a beautiful deer standing in the bushes.

  “I like to go around these looks,” cried Benny. “I’m glad we came. Now what’s next, Joe?”

  “Well,” answered Joe with a funny smile, “soon we’ll get out and carry the canoes.” He winked at Jessie.

  “Can I carry one?” asked Benny.

  “No, certainly not,” said Joe. “Henry and Alice will carry one with the things still in it. That will be right side up. Then I will carry the other upside down on my head. You and Violet will have to carry some bags. Not as much fun as you think.

  “You see this lake stops just ahead. But there is a very big lake not far from here. That’s the last lake for us.”

  Henry and Joe soon pulled both canoes up on the shore. Alice took one end of a canoe under her arm, and Henry took the other. Benny laughed and laughed as Joe put the other canoe upside down on his head and walked off down the path. Benny and Violet came after with the bags.

  It was not very far, and Alice was glad, because the canoe was heavy. Everyone sat down by the next lake to rest.

  “What a beautiful day this is!” cried Jessie. She could not help it. The lake was the biggest one they had seen. The water was very blue and the trees were very dark green.

  “Let’s rest a long time,” said Joe. “We have a long canoe trip ahead of us. There are not many good places to land for dinner.”

  But at last he got up and they were on their way again. This time they did not paddle out to the middle of the lake. It was too far.

  “Stay near land, Henry,” said Joe. “Then we won’t have so far to paddle.” But when he said this, he did not know how lucky they were going to be.

  The two canoes were going along smoothly. Nobody thought of rain. Suddenly Joe looked up at the sky.

  “Look up, Henry!” he called.

  Just at that minute the wind began to blow. All of a sudden the smooth lake was very black. Soon it was all covered with small waves, then big ones.