Boxcar Children 54 - Hurricane Mystery Read online

“It looks awfully close to us,” said Violet.

  “The hurricane is moving closer to the South Carolina coast,” said the announcer. “Residents may have to begin evacuation procedures. Stay tuned — ”

  Just then the lights all flickered and went out.

  “Oh, no!” cried Benny. Then he hugged Watch and said, “Don’t worry, boy. We have flashlights.”

  Even as Benny spoke, Mrs. Ashleigh turned her flashlight on. Then she lit candles and set them in the middle of the table. She gave flashlights to Henry and Grandfather Alden so they could go to their bedrooms and change into dry clothes.

  “When you come back down,” Mrs. Ashleigh said, “we’ll get a puzzle out of the closet and put it together at the kitchen table by candlelight.”

  “Sort of like camping out and sitting around a campfire,” said Jessie bravely.

  “May I pick out the puzzle?” asked Benny.

  Mrs. Ashleigh nodded. “Take a flashlight to the den. The puzzles are in the cabinet there.”

  “I know where they are,” said Violet. “Jessie and I brought them back downstairs and put them there.”

  “You can come help me and Watch pick out a puzzle, then,” said Benny. The walk from the kitchen to the den in the dark, with the storm roaring outside, was a little scary. But now that Violet was coming with him, Benny wasn’t worried. He turned on his flashlight and pointed it down the hallway. “Just follow me.”

  When Benny and Violet returned to the kitchen, Henry and Grandfather were sitting at the kitchen table.

  “We picked out a good puzzle,” said Benny. “With five hundred pieces.”

  “It’s a picture of a garden,” added Violet, thinking of the Pirate’s Gate on the fence by the garden outside.

  Jessie, who was standing near the kitchen window, leaned over to look out. But the shutters had been closed and she couldn’t see anything. She began to worry. What if the thief came and stole the gate in the middle of the hurricane? They wouldn’t even be able to hear it.

  As if reading her thoughts, Henry said, “No one could be out in weather like this, could they, Grandfather? The wind is blowing too hard.”

  “I don’t think so,” said Grandfather.

  Jessie didn’t think so, either. But still, she decided to listen very, very carefully for the thief, just in case.

  Mrs. Ashleigh finished putting batteries in the radio and set it on the kitchen counter. They listened as the announcer said, “Still no decision to evacuate . . .”

  Then Mrs. Ashleigh turned the puzzle upside down on the table. “Let’s get to work on this puzzle,” she said.

  Outside, the storm screamed and howled. Rain battered the house and rattled against the shutters. But inside the house, in the flickering light of the candles, the Boxcar Children were able to stay calm and brave. As the hours passed, even Watch settled down, curling up beneath Benny’s feet as Benny sorted out pieces of the puzzle and fit them into place.

  Then suddenly Watch raised his head.

  Henry looked up. “Do you hear that?” he asked.

  Violet looked up, too. She cocked her head. “It’s not as noisy,” she said. “Is the storm going away?”

  “I think it is,” said Grandfather.

  Mrs. Ashleigh reached over and fiddled with the dials of the radio. Static crackled through the air. Then the announcer’s voice said, “The hurricane has veered away from the coast. It is going out to sea. Evacuation will not be necessary. Stay tuned for further details.”

  Benny dropped the puzzle piece he was holding. “Is the hurricane gone?” he said.

  “Almost,” said Jessie.

  “Hooray!” said Benny. “Hooray! Do you hear that, Watch? We don’t have to worry anymore.”

  But Watch didn’t agree. He ran out from under the table and leaped at the kitchen door and began to bark with all his might.

  CHAPTER 10

  Stop, Thief!

  Jessie jumped to her feet. “It’s the trap!” she cried. “Quick, open the door!”

  Grandfather and Mrs. Ashleigh looked very surprised as the four Aldens rushed toward the kitchen door. “Everyone get a flashlight,” said Henry.

  “Hurry! Or they’ll get away!” Violet said.

  “What’s going on?” asked Grandfather Alden.

  “We’ve found the pirate’s treasure,” said Benny. “Only someone’s trying to steal it.”

  With Grandfather and Mrs. Ashleigh right behind them, the Boxcar Children rushed out of the kitchen door and through the backyard toward the gate.

  Henry led the way to the door. “We set a trap to catch a thief,” he said over his shoulder.

  They all turned their flashlights toward the gate.

  “It’s gone!” cried Violet. “Oh, no! It’s gone!”

  “Look. There it is!” gasped Jessie, pointing with the beam of her flashlight through the rain and wind.

  In front of the house, two figures were struggling to lift the gate into the back of a blue van.

  “Stop! Stop, thief!” shouted Henry, running as fast as he could.

  Barking madly, Watch ran, too. He leaped up and caught the pants leg of one of the thieves.

  “Oww! No! Get away!” a woman’s voice shouted. She kicked at Watch and tripped.

  The other thief dropped his end of the gate into the mud and began to run. The woman fell, still holding onto the gate. The gate tipped over on her, trapping her in a puddle.

  But Henry caught the escaping thief by one arm and Jessie caught him by the other. “Oh, no, you don’t,” said Henry. “You were trying to steal our gate.”

  “No! Let me go,” the man said.

  “It’s Jackie,” gasped Violet, bending over the woman. “Jackie James! Oh dear! Are you hurt?” Violet tried to lift the gate off Jackie, but it was too heavy.

  “No, I’m not hurt! Mike Carson, don’t you dare leave me here like this,” cried Jackie, struggling to get out from under the gate. “This is all your fault!”

  “Mike Carson? Jackie’s partner?” said Mrs. Ashleigh. “Jackie, Mike, what’s going on?” She looked completely bewildered.

  It was indeed Mike. He stopped trying to pull free from Henry and Jessie. His shoulders slumped. Slowly he turned to face the Aldens and Mrs. Ashleigh.

  “Someone get me out of here,” said Jackie. She was still caught beneath one side of the gate. She was covered with mud. Her rain hat had blown off and her hair was stuck to her head. She looked angry.

  “We can’t stay out here,” said Henry. “I think we’d better go in the house.”

  “Yes,” agreed Grandfather Alden. “I’d like to hear what’s going on.”

  “I would, too!” exclaimed Mrs. Ashleigh.

  “Don’t try to run away,” Benny warned as he helped his grandfather and Violet and Mrs. Ashleigh lift the gate off Jackie.

  Watch barked.

  “I won’t,” said Jackie angrily. She scrambled to her feet.

  She stalked ahead of them into the house. Looking sheepish, Mike picked up one end of the gate and helped the Boxcar Children carry it.

  “We should put it inside the kitchen door,” said Jessie. “So no one can try to steal it again.”

  They carried the gate inside and leaned it carefully against the wall while Mrs. Ashleigh got towels so everybody could begin to rub themselves dry.

  Henry pointed to the chairs and said to Jackie James and Mike Carson, “You can sit down if you like.”

  “Thanks,” said Mike.

  “Humph!” said Jackie, reluctantly sitting beside him and folding her arms.

  “I think we should all sit down,” said Grandfather Alden. “Ellen and I would like to know what’s going on.”

  “We found the treasure,” Benny burst out. “Mr. Fitzhugh’s pirate treasure!”

  Mrs. Ashleigh shook her head. “Oh, Benny. That’s not possible. That’s just an old story that people made up. It’s not really true.”

  “Yes, it is,” said Jessie. “Mr. Fitzhugh really did hide a tre
asure. He hid it where he could see it anytime he wanted. You’ve been looking at it every day your whole life, too.”

  Wrinkling her brow and looking confused, Mrs. Ashleigh said, “What are you talking about?”

  Violet pointed at the Pirate’s Gate. “It’s there. It’s in the Pirate’s Gate. The Pirate’s Gate is made of gold!”

  Mrs. Ashleigh’s mouth dropped open in amazement. “Made of gold? That’s impossible,” she said.

  Jackie burst out, “It would have been mine. I was so close! How did you know? How did you figure it out?”

  Jessie folded her arms. “First you tell us how you knew about the gate.”

  “I didn’t right away,” said Jackie sulkily. “I thought there might be more truth to the legends of Mr. Fitzhugh’s pirate’s treasure than most people believed, but I didn’t connect it to the gate.”

  “But weren’t you trying to steal it when we first found you and Diana putting it into the truck that day?” asked Jessie.

  “That gate is a valuable antique in its own right. When the high tides of the hurricane washed it into my yard, I knew that I could sell it for a lot of money to an antiques dealer who wouldn’t ask any questions about where it came from. Then my money problems would be over.” She frowned at the Aldens. The shadows from the candles flickered across her face. “Diana offered to help me with it. But she didn’t recognize the gate. She’s just a carpenter! And then, as I was loading it into the truck, I realized it wasn’t just an old wrought-iron gate. There was something funny about it, something that I couldn’t put my finger on. A little piece of the ship had been chipped away, leaving a little hollow place. But before I could take the gate away safely — ”

  “We came along,” said Violet. “And made you give the gate back to Mrs. Ashleigh. That’s why you were so rude to us.”

  Jackie shrugged. “I still didn’t realize what that gate was made of. I thought that something in the design of it was a clue to where the treasure was hidden. Or maybe that a clue or map was actually hidden in the hollow ship. I knew the ship was cast iron and thought it sounded hollow when I accidentally banged it against my truck.”

  She glanced over at the gate, then looked away as if it pained her to look at it. She went on, “Because I’m a history buff, I knew that Ellen had papers dating back from Mr. Fitzhugh’s time, including plans for the house and designs for the gate. I thought if I could just get a look at those papers, I might be able to piece together the clues, come up with a map for the treasure.”

  “So you invited us to a carriage tour and broke into the house while we were gone,” said Violet.

  “Yes,” Jackie said.

  Mike said, “I was supposed to keep you busy while I searched.” He glanced at Jackie.

  “When I opened the window and climbed through,” Jackie continued, “I accidentally knocked most of the papers off the desk. A gust of wind came through and did the rest. I barely had time to find the design and start tracing a copy when you came back.”

  “With Mike following us. Dressed in a gray raincoat, right?” guessed Jessie.

  “Yeah,” Mike said. “I heard you say something about a treasure hunt and a map. So I followed you and stole the map. But it wasn’t a real map.”

  Jackie gave him a disgusted look.

  Mike sighed. “I’m Jackie’s partner in the tour guide business,” he said. “And in the hunt for the treasure. We were going to split it fifty-fifty.”

  “Then I studied the design I’d copied — I remembered that hollow sound and realized the gate was filled with gold. After all this time, the pirate’s treasure was right there in front of my nose,” said Jackie.

  “That’s when you tried to break into Mr. Farrier’s shop,” said Henry.

  “And failed,” said Jackie.

  “We thought the old iron fence might be made of gold, but it wasn’t,” added Mike.

  “You found out because you came back to look. You hit the hinges with a hammer,” said Violet.

  Mike nodded. “We couldn’t do anything else but keep an eye on you, then. Or hope I could persuade Mr. Ashleigh to convince his mother to sell us the house, gate and all.”

  “Forrest didn’t know about this?” his mother cried out.

  “No. He didn’t even know who I was,” said Mike. “Just that I represented somebody who would pay a lot of money for the old house.”

  “You kept watching us and saw Mr. Farrier deliver the gate. Then you saw us hang it up,” Jessie said.

  “We didn’t think you knew!” said Jackie, glaring at the Boxcar Children. “I thought you’d think that this hurricane had blown it away. And we could have gotten away with it, too.”

  “If we hadn’t set the trap,” said Violet quietly.

  Jackie’s cheeks turned a dull, angry red. “Ooh, that trap,” she muttered.

  “What do you want to do?” asked Jessie. “Should we tell the police?”

  Mrs. Ashleigh looked dazed. “I don’t know. I don’t know what to do. But I think Jackie and Mike should leave.”

  The two gate thieves got up and walked to the door. Mike said to Mrs. Ashleigh, “I’m sorry. I knew it was wrong and I did it anyway. I’m sorry.”

  He went out.

  Jackie lifted her chin. “It was pirate’s gold. It was stolen in the first place. How can you steal what’s already been stolen?”

  She and Ellen Ashleigh stared at one another. Then Jackie said, so softly that they could barely hear her, “I’m sorry, too. That’s what I get for being greedy.”

  She followed Mike, closing the door behind her.

  And at that very moment, the lights came back on.

  CHAPTER 11

  The Hurricane Gate

  It was time for the Aldens to go back home to Greenfield.

  “It seems as if we just got here,” said Violet. “Time went so fast!”

  Mrs. Ashleigh patted Violet’s shoulder. “Hard work and solving mysteries makes time go extra fast,” she said.

  “We didn’t finish all the work,” said Henry, looking around. “And that last big storm didn’t help.”

  Diana, who was repairing one of the front window shutters, said, “Don’t worry. I can take care of the rest.”

  “We don’t have to leave right this minute, do we?” asked Benny.

  “No, Benny,” Grandfather told him. “Not until after lunch.”

  “And you’ll be back, Benny, won’t you? For the special exhibit in the museum. The Pirate’s Gate is going to be the main attraction. I expect the newspaper will even want to interview you again,” said Mrs. Ashleigh.

  “Okay,” said Benny. He added, “Will we have our picture in the paper again, too?”

  Everyone laughed.

  “Maybe,” said Mrs. Ashleigh.

  All four Alden children, and Watch, too, had had their picture in the newspaper along with Mrs. Ashleigh. Beneath the picture was a story with the headline the secret of the pirate’s gate. Mrs. Ashleigh had donated the gate to the museum along with the papers that she and the Aldens had finally gotten organized. The story had told all about how Henry, Jessie, Violet, Benny, and Watch had figured out the secret. It had even mentioned Diana’s name, because she was the one who’d first told them about the Golden Gate Bridge. And there had been a whole separate article about Mr. Farrier, since he’d known the secret, too, and since he was an expert on cast-iron and wrought-iron work.

  But the story hadn’t said anything about Jackie and Mike. Mrs. Ashleigh understood that Jackie was desperate for money, so she hadn’t called the police. But she had warned them that if anything else at all suspicious ever happened again, she would.

  They hadn’t seen Jackie or Mike since then. But another, more recent article in the newspaper had been about how Hoofbeats of History was for sale because the owners were moving. Neither Jackie nor Mike’s picture had been included with the article.

  Again and again, Mrs. Ashleigh looked at her watch, then down the street.

  “Are you expecting
someone?” asked Jessie.

  Just then a car pulled up out front. Forrest Ashleigh got out. He was holding a big box.

  “I thought I’d come to lunch,” he said. He held up the box. “And I brought desserts. Chocolates, from a wonderful store in Charleston.”

  “Chocolate is my favorite thing,” said Benny. He thought for a moment and said, “One of my favorite things.”

  Watch wagged his tail. Benny looked down at him. “No, Watch,” he said. “Chocolate is not one of your favorite things. Chocolate is very bad for dogs, remember? You like dog biscuits.”

  Forrest came up the walk and stopped at the foot of the steps. He looked up at the Aldens and Diana and his mother. Today, he wasn’t wearing a suit and tie. He was wearing jeans and an old shirt and he didn’t look so much like a banker.

  “But aren’t you supposed to be at work, dear?” Mrs. Ashleigh said. “Shouldn’t you be wearing your suit?”

  “I’m taking a little time off,” said Forrest. “Thinking of making some changes.” He smiled up at his mother. “I was wondering if you would let me stay here for a while. I used to have so much fun on this island when I was a kid.”

  “Of course. As long as you don’t start talking to me about selling it,” said Mrs. Ashleigh.

  Forrest shook his head. “I was wrong. You have good friends and good neighbors. And you have a family. Even if a hurricane does blow this house away, it can’t change that. And that’s what is important.”

  Ellen Ashleigh nodded. “Yes,” she said. “I’ve always known that. I’m glad you see it now, too.”

  Diana slapped the side of the house affectionately and they all jumped a little. They had forgotten Diana was there, working on the house. “This old house is solid as a rock,” she said. “It’ll take more than a hurricane to flatten it.”

  “Oh! I forgot to introduce you. Diana, this is my son, Forrest. Forrest, Diana Shelby. She’s a carpenter — and a neighbor and friend — who’s helping me fix my house,” said Mrs. Ashleigh.

  “A carpenter. Now, that’s an interesting job,” said Forrest. He went up to Diana and held out his hand. He smiled at her. She smiled back. They shook hands.