The next morning Benny lay in bed wondering what excuse he could give to get back to the bus station. He couldn’t think of anything.
He wondered what had happened to Jud and Troy after Mr. Pickett had driven off with them. Would they get to the town meeting? What were they planning to do?
Benny wondered about Frank, too. Frank had said someone was too big for him to fight. What did that mean? He was a chemist. Maybe he had a new kind of paint he wanted Mr. Pickett to make.
There was a lot going on that Benny did not understand. He wanted to listen, to ask questions, maybe to help.
Then Benny thought, “Our raincoats! We left our raincoats at the bus station. Hooray!”
He dressed quickly for breakfast. But to his surprise he found everyone dressed and eating breakfast, too.
Benny began, “Henry, guess what? We forgot—”
“Our raincoats,” finished Henry. “We were just talking about that. We’ll have to go back and get them.”
“We should call Frank before we start off,” Jessie suggested. “We have to be sure that our raincoats are still at the bus station.”
The telephone lines had been repaired after the big storm. Soon Benny was speaking to Frank on the telephone.
“Yes,” Frank told him. The raincoats were there. He was wondering if he should mail them to the Aldens.
“Oh, no,” Benny said. “That’s too much trouble. My big brother Henry can drive over today and get them. Will this morning be all right?”
To Benny’s surprise, Frank didn’t like that idea at all. He said he had planned to be away from the station for two hours.
“I’m sorry,” Benny said. He didn’t want Frank to be angry with the Aldens. “We don’t want to be any bother. We can come later and get our raincoats.”
This time Frank agreed.
Benny hung up the telephone and turned around to the others. He said, “I don’t understand Frank at all. You’d think he’d be glad to have us get the raincoats. I don’t think he wants us to come at all. He sounds as if—as if he’s hiding something. I wonder what’s going on.”
“Perhaps he wants to go fishing,” Jessie suggested. “I don’t think the bus station keeps him very busy.”
Benny shook his head. “Why wouldn’t he say he’s going fishing? There’s nothing wrong with that. We would understand.”
Henry had been thinking. He said, “There is that big town meeting about the paint factory tonight. I wonder if Frank plans to go.”
“Remember how we saw Mr. Pickett at the bus station last night,” Benny said. “Maybe he came to see Frank. It was an accident he caught the boys passing out those papers.”
“Frank doesn’t trust those boys,” Jessie said. “He likes to keep his own secrets.”
Benny agreed. “You remember how he asked what in the world we were doing when he came back after the storm and saw the chair under the shelf. He thought we were fussing around with his things. Really, we were wrong. We had no right to look at Frank’s things, even if we didn’t touch them.”
“Do you think those chemistry books have anything to do with this mystery?” asked Jessie.
“Well, we won’t find out what’s going on while we sit here,” Henry said. “We’ve never even seen Mr. Pickett’s paint factory. Maybe we should visit it and then get our raincoats from Frank.”
“Good idea,” said Benny. “Let’s go.”
It was a fine summer day. The storm of yesterday seemed like a bad dream. The Aldens were glad to have an excuse to drive out in the country and visit the bus station again.
“I’m glad we decided to do something,” Violet said. “I can’t stay at home on a day like this.”
“Neither can I,” said Benny, laughing.
Henry did not follow the road the bus took to Plainville Junction. He chose a back road that crossed the red bridge near the bus station.
“It is a lovely river,” Jessie said. “Grandfather called this country empty. But it isn’t really. Remember Jud and Troy’s wildlife exhibit at the fair? I never knew so many kinds of plants and animals could be found in such a little space.”
Suddenly they noticed a flight of wild ducks overhead. The ducks all dropped down into the river and dived to the bottom to find food. However, they came up right away, flapped their wet wings, and flew up the river, flying very low.
“Honk! Honk!” they cried.
Jessie said, “Look at that! The river is spoiled. The ducks can’t find food. I hope the chemicals won’t hurt them.”
“I don’t think they stayed long enough,” said Henry. “Just look at that triangle of ducks. They always follow the leader.”
All the ducks except the leader were honking. Then all at once they stopped and the leader honked all alone. “Honk! Honk! Honk!”
Benny laughed and said, “The leader keeps saying, ‘Well, if you all want to pass, go on!’ ”
Henry looked up the road toward the bus station. He slowed down suddenly. He saw a bright-colored pickup truck parked beside the road near the station. He could just make out the words “Pickett’s Perfect Paints” on the back of the truck.
Benny saw the truck, too. “Looks as if Frank has company,” he said. “Do you think that’s why he didn’t want us to come?”
“I don’t know,” Henry said. “Might be. I’ll drive past the station slowly. Let’s see if it looks closed.”
Violet could see the bus station better than the others.
“There’s a card in the window,” Violet reported. “It says ‘Buy tickets on bus.’ I think the station is closed.”
“That’s funny,” Benny said. “I’m sure I saw somebody going around the station.”
“I’ll park the car where it can’t be seen from the station,” Henry said. “Then we’ll walk back and take a look around.”
“Maybe someone’s up to some mischief,” Benny said. He thought about the weeds and the chemistry books. Did they have something to do with the paint factory? Or were they for something else? Perhaps someone from the paint factory wanted to find out.
The big trees along the road hid the Aldens as they walked toward the bus station. No one talked. They didn’t know what to expect. Perhaps nothing at all was going on.
“Look!” whispered Benny, and he pulled Jessie out of sight behind a tree.
A man who moved like a gray shadow came around the small building. When the Aldens could see him better, they found he was wearing gray coveralls. It was a work uniform of some sort. A big paint can was stitched on the back of the suit.
Yes, it had to be somebody from the paint factory, Benny decided. Then he had an idea. Could it be Mr. Pickett dressed up as a worker? What could he want?
The man stood on tiptoe and looked in the window at the side. He knocked gently against the glass. Was he planning to break it?
The stranger walked around to the front door. He tried to open it. The door was locked. He pushed. Then he used his shoulder, but the door did not open.
The Aldens watched from behind the trees. Suddenly the man seemed to give up. He turned around and sat down on the doorstep.
“What now?” Benny whispered.
The man felt in a pocket. He pulled out a piece of paper. Then he felt in other pockets until he found a pencil. He sat still for a moment, then he began to write. |