The attic was dark and gloomy. The day was cloudy. Not much light came in through the small windows at each end of the attic.
“Where can we look?” asked Rory. “All I see is the dollhouse. And we know the dollhouse clock doesn’t have a secret.”
Benny just shook his head. It looked as if the treasure hunt had come to an end. The lost Blue Collection would never be found.
“What do you think, Jessie?” asked Henry. “I guess we might as well go downstairs.”
But Jessie was looking hard at something. She said slowly, “When you found the dollhouse behind the chimney, was there anything else there?”
Benny said, “It was dark, but I think the dollhouse was the only thing.”
“Well, I am going to feel behind the chimney,” said Jessie. “If I can’t see anything, perhaps I can feel something.”
“You’re more than welcome,” replied Benny. “It’s really too dark for me. I like to see what I’m touching.”
Rory laughed at Benny and said, “There could be something scary. I read a story about a skeleton in an attic.”
“Not in this attic,” Benny said. “Mrs. McGregor would have swept it out.”
Stepping carefully, Jessie moved toward the back of the big chimney. The shadows were very dark. She asked, “Rory, why do you have to talk about skeletons? I know there can’t be one here. But it is scary.”
“I’ll look,” Henry offered.
But Jessie said, “No, I’m here. Wait—”
Jessie put out her hand toward the back of the chimney. She did not touch bricks. She touched smooth wood.
“There is something back here!” Jessie exclaimed. “It’s a piece of furniture or something tall and thin. Now what can it be?”
“Oh, I wish I had my flashlight,” Benny said.
“I can feel carved wood and some glass,” Jessie said. “And a little knob.”
Jessie did her best to see what was hidden in the shadows. “Rory!” she called. “I’ve found something with a face and hands!”
“Bones?” asked Rory, and now he did not sound so brave.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you, Rory,” Jessie said. “I think there is a big clock here. A grandfather’s clock.”
“A real clock!” Benny said. “That has to be the clock Stephanie meant.”
“Careful, Ben,” Henry said. “It might be the clock. But don’t count on it.”
Jessie called, “It’s too dark to see the clock back here. Henry, maybe you and Benny can move it.”
She stepped back. The two boys carefully lifted the tall clock out into the small space where it was light.
Violet found the cloth they had used to dust the dollhouse and she dusted the old clock. It was really a handsome grandfather’s clock.
“Now where would Stephanie hide a clue in a clock?” asked Jessie.
“In the back,” Rory suggested. “She’d hide the clue where it wouldn’t be seen.”
“Yes,” Henry said. “I don’t suppose the clock was in the attic when Stephanie hid the clues for her treasure hunt.”
There was a door on the back of the clock. Benny tried to open it, then Rory tried. At last Henry tried. He rattled the knob a little, and the door came open.
The Aldens and Rory all looked in the open space. It was a wonderful hiding place for a message. But it was empty.
“Oh,” Benny said. “Someone else found the clue. Now we’ll never know where Stephanie’s treasure is.”
Violet looked quietly at the old clock. She walked around to the front. She said, “I don’t think a girl like Stephanie could have put anything in the back of the clock. She wouldn’t have been able to move it. And if she did, I don’t think she could have opened that door.”
“That’s so,” Benny agreed. He too walked around the clock, looking at it from all sides.
Henry said, “I can open the glass door in front of the clock face. Stephanie could have reached it if she stood on a chair.”
He opened the door and looked at the face and the clock hands. He could see no message at all.
“What about the glass door where the pendulum is?” asked Benny.
Rory said, “Ben, you don’t have to open it. You can just look in. I can’t see a thing.”
“Let’s just open it anyway,” Benny said. “I wonder if we need a key? No, it opens all right.”
The big pendulum moved a little when Benny touched it carefully. Two heavy weights hung from chains.
“Could Stephanie have put some sort of message behind the weights?” Jessie asked.
“It’s too dark to see,” Rory said.
“I should go and get my flashlight,” Benny said. “Come on, Rory, help me find it.”
Henry said, “All right. You get the flashlight. We’ll sit here on the attic stairs and tell ghost stories.”
Jessie said, “Henry, don’t make jokes. We really do want to find Stephanie’s message—if there is one.”
“I think it must be lost,” Henry said. “Or maybe this isn’t the right clock.”
Rory and Benny were soon back with the flashlight.
“Stand back,” Benny said. He flashed the light around the inside of the clock. Nothing.
“Benny!” Violet said. “Don’t look in the clock. Shine your light on the door. I thought I saw something.”
Benny shone the light on the inside of the door. Along the wooden frame the Aldens saw something folded. It was tacked to the inside of the door frame.
“See what it is,” Benny said.
“Let me take the tacks out,” Henry said. And in a moment he had the folded paper loose. He gave it to Violet. “See what it says,” he told her.
Violet unfolded the paper and the Aldens stared. There was a message in large faded printing. It was surely done by Stephanie.
Violet read aloud, “This is the end. Look on the back of the house, but don’t break the glass.”
“What in the world!” shouted Benny. “What glass?”
“What house?” asked Jessie. “This house?”
“Or the dollhouse?” suggested Violet.
But Rory said, “We’ve looked the dollhouse over until I know every inch of it. Besides, it doesn’t have any glass.”
“That’s so,” Violet agreed. “And I’m sure Stephanie can’t have meant the glass door in the front of the clock face. Let’s go down to Rory’s room and try to think. We haven’t any more clues. This is the last one.”
The children left the tall clock where it was and clattered down to Rory’s room. Rory and Henry sat on the floor, but Benny made himself comfortable in a soft armchair. “Now let’s think what Stephanie meant by the back of the house,” Benny said. “This house?”
“Maybe this house,” said Jessie. “The message says to look at the back of the house.”
Violet shook her head. “It says ‘on the back of the house.’ That isn’t quite the same thing.”
Benny said, “Well, I think Jessie has the best idea so far. Let’s go out and look at the back of the house.”
“I don’t think it will do us much good,” Henry said. “You have to think how long ago Stephanie left that clue. I can’t see how it could still be on the back of the house.”
“Perhaps so,” Jessie agreed.
But Benny said, “You may be right, Henry. But if we go out and look, we might get some new ideas.”
“I’ll come too,” Rory offered.
So the Aldens and Rory went downstairs and around to the back of the big house.
“Grandfather added the rooms on the back of the house after he bought it from the Shaws,” Henry said. “I guess most of the back was changed.”
“The part where the attic is wasn’t changed,” Benny said. “I’m sure of that.”
They stared up at one of the small attic windows. “‘Don’t break the glass,’” Rory said.
“Do you think Stephanie could have hidden the clue on the outside of the house near the attic window?” Benny asked.
“How could she do that?” Violet asked. “She’d have to crawl out of the window. She would never have done that.”
“I guess that is true,” Benny had to agree.
Violet said, “I have an idea. We have to try to think the way Stephanie did. Maybe we can guess where she hid that clue.”
Jessie nodded. “I’m sure Stephanie must have chosen some place she could get to easily.”
Rory said, “I think the clue must have been put inside the house somewhere. But perhaps it could be seen from the outside.”
“Between the screen and the window glass,” Violet suggested. “That would be easy for Stephanie to do.”
“It would be too easy to find,” Benny said. “Anybody could have found it. Violet, please read how the clue begins. I’ve forgotten.”
Violet unfolded the paper and read, “‘This is the end.’”
“There,” Benny said. “I think this must be the last clue. This clue should lead us to the place where the coins were hidden. If that’s so, it had to be a safe place.”
Henry shook his head. “Benny, the more I think about it, the more I think the Blue Collection will stay a mystery. Too bad.”
“I guess so,” Jessie said.
Even Violet said, “I have to give up, too.”
Soon Rory and Benny found themselves alone behind the house. Everyone else had gone off to do something.
“Let’s go back to my room,” Rory suggested. “If we’re going to think, we might as well be comfortable.”
Up in Rory’s room, Benny said, “Let me think. Coins aren’t very big.” He pulled a quarter, two dimes, a nickel, and four pennies out of his pocket. He made a little stack of them.
Rory said, “Stephanie had more coins than that.”
“You’re right,” Benny said. “There are more pockets in the blue cloth coin case. But even that many coins wouldn’t take up much room.”
Benny and Rory stared at the coins. Where would a ten-year-old girl have thought of hiding a stack of coins?
“But what did she mean by ‘on the back of the house’ and ‘don’t break the glass’?” asked Benny.
“I give up,” Rory said. “It’s too much of a mystery for me.”
“Well, I don’t give up,” Benny said. “I just need to think about something else for a while. Let’s ride our bikes over to 5 Birds Lane and tell Mrs. Wren how close and how far we are from the collection.”
“It’s better than sitting here,” Rory said. |