“Yoohoo!” someone called.
“Is it morning already?” Benny asked.
Henry crawled out of his sleeping bag and looked out the tent window. “It’s Doris,” he told the others.
The children piled out of the tent.
“Well, good morning,” Doris said. She set a box down on the picnic table.
“Good morning,” the children greeted her.
Grandfather came out of the tent leaning on Andy Watts’s walking stick.
“James Henry Alden,” Doris said. “Just what do you think you’re doing? You should be resting.”
Settled on a picnic bench, Mr. Alden laughed. “Coming to visit an old friend,” he answered. “That’s what I’m doing. And what are you doing? Hiking all this way when you have a store to run?”
Doris sat across from him. “Andy stopped in late yesterday. He told me about your fall. I thought you might need a few things.” She turned to Henry. “There’s a bag of ice in there. You’d better put it in the cooler before it melts.”
Henry nodded and took out the ice.
Jessie glanced into the box. “You brought pancake mix!” she exclaimed.
“I figured you’d probably used yours up by now,” Doris said.
“Somebody took our box,” Benny said. “We haven’t had a single pancake.”
“Someone took your pancake mix?” she said, but she didn’t sound too surprised.
“That’s not all!” Benny told her what had been happening.
“Hmmm,” was all she said.
“We asked your sister about it,” Jessie said, “but she just told us to go home.”
Doris nodded and glanced away. “Yes, that’s what I was afraid of,” she said more to herself than to the children. When she saw them all looking at her, she said, “What I mean is, other campers have complained about these very same things.”
“That’s what Andy Watts said,” Violet piped up. “He told us we should go home.”
Doris got to her feet. “Maybe it would be best if you left,” she said. “I’ll be happy to help you pack up right now.”
“Oh, no, thank you, Doris,” Grandfather said. “We’re staying.”
“Well, I was just thinking of you,” Doris said firmly. “It can’t be much fun putting up with all that noise and such.”
“Can you stay and have breakfast with us?” Jessie asked.
“I have to get back,” Doris answered. “I have some … business to take care of.” At the edge of the camp she turned to face them. “I wish you’d change your mind about leaving, James.”
Grandfather laughed. “An Alden doesn’t change his mind easily,” he said.
Doris frowned. “All right,” she said, “but you may be sorry.”
“What did she mean by that?” Violet asked when Doris had gone.
“Oh, that’s just Doris’s way,” Grandfather said. “She was always very serious.”
“We should put her on our list,” Benny said.
“List?” Grandfather asked.
“We were trying to decide who could be doing all those strange things,” Henry explained.
“We forgot about Doris,” Jessie added.
“Well, you can keep her off your list,”Grandfather told them.
“But she did act strangely,” Henry said.
“She didn’t sound at all surprised about the missing pancake mix or any of the other things,” Violet said.
Mr. Alden shook his head. “It’s not Doris,” he said. “She would never think of such things.”
The children had a wonderful time playing in the forest and taking care of Grandfather that day. Only at night when the music sounded and the lights appeared did they think about solving the mystery. But, by then, they were too tired to try to figure things out.
The next morning, Jessie noticed they were low on bread. “That’s strange,” she said. “I was sure we had enough for a few more days.”
“Someone must have taken it,” Benny said.
Henry said, “I guess we’ll just hike to the store for more.”
“Not me,” Benny said. “I want to stay here. Grandfather promised to read me a story.”
“You and Violet go,” Jessie suggested. “Benny and I will stay with Grandfather.”
She made a grocery list, and Violet and Henry set off toward the store. They met the Changs in the parking lot. They were packing their van.
“Are you leaving already?” Henry asked.
“Yes, we are,” Mr. Chang answered.
“And none too soon,” Mrs. Chang added. “With all that loud music, we haven’t had a decent night’s sleep since we’ve been here.”
Violet was surprised. “But I thought you hadn’t heard the music.”
“We didn’t hear it the night you mentioned,” Mr. Chang told them. “We were too tired to hear anything that night.”
“There were those mysterious lights in the forest,” Mrs. Chang said. “And our food is missing. It’s been no picnic; that’s for sure!”
“The last straw was finding an arrow holding a message in a tree at the edge of our camp,” Mr. Chang said.
“The same things have happened to us!” Violet told them.
“Well, we’ve had enough,” Mr. Chang said. “Be careful. Something is very wrong here.” |