“I guess I owe you an explanation,” Rob said. He put his walking stick down and sat by the Aldens in the long grass.
“You’ve just found one of the most valuable private collections of early American coins in the country,” he continued.
“Was it stolen about a year ago?” Henry asked, remembering the conversation in the pizzeria.
“Yes.” Rob nodded. “From Mr. Orville Withington. He hired me as a private detective to try to find it.”
“So you’re not a burglar?” Benny sounded very relieved.
“Benny,” Jessie groaned.
Rob chuckled. “No, Benny, I’m not, but I don’t blame you for being suspicious of me.” He sighed. “You see,” he explained, “I really couldn’t tell anyone my identity.”
“What made you think the coins would be hidden here in the woods?” Aunt Jane asked.
“Well, it was a hunch, really,” Rob answered. “To answer that question, I think I’d better start at the beginning.”
Aunt Jane and the Aldens nodded and waited, a bit impatiently, for him to go on. Rob leaned against the big granite boulder and continued his story.
“You see, Mr. Withington is a very wealthy and also a very kind man. I always thought that some of the people who worked for him took advantage of his good nature.”
“You think someone who worked for him took the coins?” Henry asked.
“Yes,” Rob answered. “Even the police strongly believed it was an inside job, and there were a number of possibilities. Mr.Withington employed a cook, a maid, a housekeeper, a chauffeur, a personal secretary, several gardeners, and an illustrator.”
“An illustrator?” Violet asked.
“Yes, she was doing drawings of the coins to be published in a book. The collection was stolen before she could finish.”
“Who did Mr. Withington suspect?” Jessie wondered.
“Well, he didn’t really suspect anyone at first. He’s very trusting,” Rob said. “But the police thought the robbery must have been done by someone who knew Mr. Withington’s habits extremely well. Nothing but the coins were taken, and nothing else in the house was disturbed.
“When Mr. Withington hired me,” Rob went on, “I checked up on all the people who worked for him. The illustrator, the chauffeur, and two of the gardeners had been with him less than a year. All the others have worked for him for a very long time and are like his family.”
“Like Mrs. McGregor is to us,” Bennywhispered to Jessie. She nodded at her brother.
Rob cleared his throat. “Right after the robbery, the illustrator left rather suddenly. At first, Mr. Withington thought it was because there was no more work for her.”
“Do you know anything about her?” Violet asked.
“Mr. Withington showed me a picture of her, since I couldn’t interview her as I had the others. Her name was Eliza Fallon. She looked like Angela, but in her picture, she had shorter hair.”
“You think Angela and Eliza Fallon are the same person?” Henry asked.
“Yes,” Rob said. “When I met her yesterday, I was pretty sure, but I needed some evidence. I tried to follow her, but it was hard with this ankle.” Rob looked down at his leg and winced.
“Where did you see her go?” Benny asked.
“When she left the bunkhouse, she went into the woods,” Rob said. “She didn’t stay long before she headed quickly to her canoe. When I arrived at the lake, she had alreadytaken off. I followed her a bit along the shore then came back to these woods to see if I could find any clues.”
“Did you find anything?” Violet asked softly.
“Well, no. It was dark by then and all I had was my flashlight. You’re the ones who found something.” Rob looked very proud of the Aldens.
“Did you see her take our equipment?” Henry asked.
“No, I didn’t.” Rob shook his head. “So you see, I still have no solid proof against her.”
“That’s too bad.” Benny looked disappointed.
“How did you know to look for her here?” Aunt Jane asked.
“Mr. Withington told me Angela loved to go canoeing in this part of the country,” Rob explained. “She particularly liked to go by the old abandoned house on Timberwolf Lake.”
“That’s the house we saw on our first night of the trip,” Jessie exclaimed.
“So, did Mr. Withington suspect Angela—or Eliza?” Violet asked.
“Well, of all his employees, he finally admitted she was one of the most suspicious. I decided to take a trip up here on a hunch I might find something. It’s been almost a year since the coin collection was stolen,” Rob said.
“Do you suspect any of the other new employees?” Jessica wondered.
“Well, the two new gardeners are still working for Mr. Withington and seem very honest. The chauffeur, however, suddenly disappeared a few weeks ago.”
“What did this chauffeur look like?” Jessie asked.
“He was a big man with blond hair and a loud voice.”
“Hey, wait, that sounds like Matt,” Benny shouted.
“That’s just what I was thinking.” Aunt Jane nodded at Benny.
Jessie, Aunt Jane, and Benny told Rob about meeting Matt and Bill in the storm. They also told him about Lorenzo Espinosa.
Rob listened closely. “We always thought more than one person might be involved in stealing that collection. I wonder…” His voice trailed off.
“What do you think we should do now?” Henry asked.
“We should try to get these coins safely to the nearest town—White Pine, I believe,” Rob answered.
“That’s where we’re meeting Grandfather,” Benny said.
“Good,” Rob nodded. “We shouldn’t talk to anyone before we get the coins safely into the hands of the police.”
When Aunt Jane and the Aldens arrived at the bunkhouse with the coins, they saw smoke coming from the chimney.
“Look, there are some other campers here.” Violet sounded worried.
“Jessie and I will take the coins and hide them,” Rob said. “We don’t want to take any chances.”
Henry slowly opened the door.
“Well, hello again!” a loud voice greeted them. Matt and Bill were seated on the couch in front of the fireplace. Both of them were covered with red blisters.
“I see you found your family.” Bill nodded toward Violet and Henry.
“You must have been bitten by lots of mosquitoes,” Benny observed.
“We camped in some poison ivy,” Matt said ruefully as he scratched his arm.
“Say, you wouldn’t happen to have any lotion we could put on it?” Bill asked.
“No.” Aunt Jane shook her head. “We didn’t bring any.”
“Didn’t you know to avoid it?” Benny asked.
“Yes, but … uh—” Bill started.
“It doesn’t matter,” Matt said. “We’re heading for home this afternoon anyway. We don’t want to do any more camping for a while.”
“Oh, did you finish mapping the canoe routes already?” Aunt Jane asked.
Matt and Bill looked at one another. Bill even stopped scratching his arm. They seemed to have no idea what she was referring to. “Yes, we did,” Matt finally answered.
“We should really be going,” Bill said with a pointed look at Matt.
“Yes,” Matt agreed, a little too quickly. “It was good to rest here by the fire awhile. So long.”
“Good-bye,” the Aldens called as Matt and Bill went out the door.
“I wonder what that was all about,” Aunt Jane said, puzzled.
“Why did they even come in the bunkhouse and build a fire, if they were planning to leave right away?” Violet asked.
“Maybe they didn’t expect us to be here.” Henry bent down to tie the shoelaces on his sneakers.
“Didn’t you say they were park rangers?” Violet asked.
“That’s what they told us,” said Aunt Jane.
“I can’t believe that two rangers would camp in poison ivy,” Violet pointed out.
“Even I know better than that!” added Benny.
At that moment, Rob and Jessie came in.
“Matt and Bill were just here, but they had to go,” Benny explained.
“Yes, I know. We saw them leave,” Rob answered. “I recognized one of them. He was Mr. Withington’s chauffeur.”
“Where are the coins?” Henry asked.
“They’re right here.” Rob pulled the brown leather pouch from the inside pocket of his jacket. “We decided it was safer to keep them with us.”
“Do you think they left because we were here?” Benny asked.
“I don’t know, Benny. I just hope they don’t make any trouble for us before we get to White Pine,” Rob said grimly. |