Snowbound Mystery (6 page)

Watch came over and sat down and never moved.

Benny said, “Mr. Nelson is the one who should sit down. He carried Puggsy most of the way.” Benny pushed a chair under Mr. Nelson, who dropped into it and leaned back and shut his eyes.

Puggsy was feeling the best of anyone, but even he was pretty tired. Benny put him into his own sleeping bag and propped him up against a chair.

“Well, well,” said Benny. “You came to help us!”

Mr. Nelson nodded. “We tried to, anyway. We were worried about you when it kept on snowing. We didn’t know whether you ever got home or not.”

Henry nodded, “We might not have.”

“I said I was coming to look for you early this morning, but Barbara said she’d come, too. She would be worrying that I was lost. Of course we had to bring Puggsy.”

“I’m so thankful you got here!” Jessie shivered. “You might have been lost in the snow.”

“We did fall twice, but we got up,” said Tom Nelson.

Jessie had a sudden thought. “Are you hungry?” she asked.

“Am I hungry!” shouted Puggsy. “I haven’t had anything to eat for a million years.”

Henry laughed. “That sounds like you, Ben,” he said.

“Well,” said Tom Nelson, “it has been a long time. We started out with a big sack of food for you, but we had to leave it in the snow.”

Jessie said, “Violet, I’m sure we can eat that stew now. It’s all cooked anyway, and it is nice and hot. Now, take seats at the table. I’ve found three more dishes for chicken stew.”

“Chicken stew?” said Puggsy. “I’ve never heard of that.”

“It’s delicious,” said Benny.

“Well, if you say so,” said Puggsy, looking at him.

They all began to eat the chicken stew. Mr. Nelson said, “How thankful we are to be here!” He drew a long breath.

While the others were eating more stew, Violet and Jessie made the snow ice cream. They mixed the soft, white snow with the milk and sugar and currant jelly. It was a lovely pink color.

“Wouldn’t Grandfather laugh at this ice cream!” said Benny. Then he told the Nelsons about the message from Mr. Alden that had come over the Greenfield radio station.

“But Grandfather didn’t know that you were coming,” he added.

Just then everyone heard a strange humming sound outdoors.

“What’s that?” asked Jessie. She stopped to listen.

“A helicopter!” shouted Benny. “I know that sound! Where’s my jacket?” He was out of the door in a second, putting on his jacket as he ran. Henry was right behind him.

The sound grew louder. The helicopter seemed to be standing still in the air right above the hunters’ cabin.

“The pilot can’t land here,” Benny said. “What’s he going to do?”

“Get back, Benny!” shouted Henry. “The pilot is throwing something out.”

Bump! Something hit the cleared spot where the boys had shoveled.

“Hay!” Benny exclaimed. “Just the way they throw hay out to cattle lost in the snow. But how did Grandfather know about the deer? We can’t eat hay.”

But now Tom Nelson was outside, too. He said, “Benny, it’s a haylift. There’s something inside the hay. They put the hay around it for a soft landing. It’s a good thing you shoveled out this place! That showed the pilot that you can pick up anything he drops.”

The helicopter flew low and the pilot waved both arms. The helicopter made such a noise the boys couldn’t hear a word. The pilot hovered over the cabin. Suddenly he held a blackboard out of the door.

C
AN’T LAND.
M
ESSAGE IN HAY.
B
ACK IN
2
HOURS.

The boys nodded their heads back and forth, and waved their arms again.

Off flew the helicopter.

The boys dragged the bale of hay into the narrow path. The others were watching from the window. Then the boys dragged the bale into the house and everyone began to pull off the hay.

“Don’t go too near the fire with that hay!” said Jessie. “We don’t want a fire as well as a blizzard.”

Then they found the packages.

“Canned milk,” said Henry. “And canned peaches.”

“Loaves of bread,” said Jessie.

“And a bag of sugar and lots of hamburger meat,” said Benny. “And that’s all. It’s lucky that the sugar was wrapped in the hay. We would have sugar all over everything if the bag had broken.”

“And now where’s the message?” asked Henry. “That’s most important of all.”

“Here it is,” said Benny. “A card all done up in plastic.”

Henry read it aloud:

From Your Grandfather:
The State Police and the Highway Department will get you home as planned. Find something big for a message. Print what you need in large letters. Lay the sign on the snow. The pilot will come again and drop whatever you need. Tell me how you are.

“What can we write our message on?” asked Jessie.

“Oh, dear,” said Violet. “We haven’t anything big enough! And no paint or ink.”

“Let’s look around,” said Benny. He sat down and began to look at everything in the room. Jessie went into the bedrooms to look. Nothing was big enough. There was not even a big calendar on the wall.

The Nelsons tried to think, too.

“It can be either light or dark,” said Violet, “if it is big enough.”

“What will you print with?” asked Puggsy.

“Wait until we settle our first problem, Puggsy,” said Henry. “We must find a big card or something.”

Benny had looked all around the living room and at last his eyes came back to the window.

“Look!” he said. He pointed to the dark green window shade.

“Oh, Benny,” cried Violet. “The very thing! It’s the only thing in this whole cabin that’s big enough.”

Henry stood on the window seat and took down the shade. He unrolled it on the floor.

“You stand on this end, Puggsy,” he said. Benny was already standing on the other end. It was perfect for a big sign!

“Now Problem Number Two,” said Henry. “We will have to print with something white. And we haven’t any chalk. A prize to the one who thinks of something that will work.”

“I’d like to get that prize,” said Puggsy.

His mother said, “Well, then start thinking, Puggsy.”

It was Violet who came up with an idea at last. She said, “I’m not sure it will work. But we can try one letter and see.”

“What are you going to print?” asked Barbara Nelson. “What do you need?”

“We need three sleeping bags for you,” Jessie said. “You will freeze if we don’t get something before night. Now, what’s your idea, Violet?”

“I’ve done this before,” said Violet, “but never so big. Print the letters with water first. Then shake on the salt thickly, and when it dries shake off the loose salt.”

“I bet it will work,” said Benny. “Let’s try. Violet, you’re the best printer and painter. Start with an
S
as big as this.”

He traced a letter about four inches tall for Violet.

“We’re lucky to have water,” said Benny. He brought a cupful of water. Jessie set down the box of salt.

Violet went down on her hands and knees. She dipped her finger many times in the water and made a big, wet figure 3. Then she shook on plenty of salt. “Let it dry a minute,” she said. “I’ll go on with the
S
for sleeping bags.” Everyone watched her.

After the letter
S
was made, Violet said, “Now let’s shake the salt off the 3.”

Henry lifted the corner and shook the salt into the fireplace. A beautiful white figure 3 stayed on the shade!

“Good, good!” shouted Benny. “It works! I knew it would!”

When “3 S
LEEPING
B
AGS
” had been written, Jessie said, “We ought to tell Grandfather why we want them. I think just the word Nelsons would be enough. He’ll know they came to help us.”

Violet was already printing “3 N
ELSONS
.” She said, “I’m going to say ‘F
INE
.’ Grandfather will know that we mean we are all fine.”

Benny said, “Say thanks for the hay. He will think that is funny.”

“Yes, I think he will,” said Henry, laughing. “And he’ll know it’s you, Benny. It sounds like you. It will do him good.”

When the sign was done, Henry said, “Let’s put it out now. The pilot may come early.”

“Maybe we’ll have to put stones on the corners,” said Benny, putting on his jacket.

“And where will we ever find stones in all this snow?” asked Tom Nelson.

“Our nut cracking stones!” said Jessie. “Better take four with you. Then you won’t have to come back.”

There was not much wind now, and it had stopped snowing. The boys laid the big sign on the snow. The wind lifted the corners a little, so they put a flat stone on each corner.

“That’s neat,” said Benny. Then he stopped short. “Henry,” he said, “let’s get that hay and put it out here for the deer.”

“Good!” said Henry. “They will find it after we go in.”

This idea pleased Jessie. She cleaned up the floor. Tom Nelson helped the boys carry the hay out and put it near the bird feeder.

“Listen!” said Benny, turning around again.

“Yes!” said Henry. “The helicopter is coming—lucky we put our sign out right away. The pilot’s a little early.”

The family inside heard the helicopter, too. They all tried to look out the window at once.

On came the pilot until he hovered right over the boys. They saw him laugh as he read the message. He had his blackboard ready. “B
ACK IN
O
NE
H
OUR
.” Then away he went.

The boys rolled up the window shade and took it in. As Benny hung up his jacket he said, “We can brush off the salt later. That shade will be as good as new.”

“Let’s wash the dishes while we wait,” Barbara said.

“Not you,” said Jessie. “You just watch.”

But Barbara Nelson was already piling up the funny empty dishes.

“Isn’t it a good thing we heated water, Jessie?” asked Violet. “It’s just right for the dishes.”

Tom Nelson felt better now. He had eaten something. He said, “Henry, just where do you think those squirrels are?”

“Come into my bedroom and you’ll hear them yourself.”

Benny and Puggsy went with them, and right near the chimney they could hear scratchings and scramblings.

“Well,” said Tom Nelson, “I should say there was a mama squirrel up there as well as papa. They must have several children with them. You see the young ones are spring squirrels, and now they are just as big as their parents. I think they plan to live here all winter.”

Henry laughed. “And we spoiled their plans. We bother the squirrels instead of their bothering us. They came here first.”

“Exactly,” said Tom. “They’re afraid now. Those squirrels probably have a bushel of nuts up there and a beautiful nest. Goodness knows what it is made of.”

Benny said, “I’d like to see that nest. The ceiling is just made of thin boards, isn’t it? Couldn’t you make a hole in the ceiling, Henry?”

“I could, but I won’t,” said Henry. “We don’t want a family of squirrels coming down to live with us.”

Puggsy said, “Dad, do you think the squirrels were down here once?”

“I don’t think these squirrels were,” Tom Nelson said. He looked around uneasily and went on, “But I think some squirrels got into the big room of the cabin once. We found a newspaper that seemed to have been chewed by squirrels, but no squirrels.”

Henry said, “Maybe a hunter shooed those squirrels out and didn’t throw away the old newspaper.”

“That’s what I thought,” Tom said, and he still looked troubled. “Squirrels can do a lot of harm to books and papers.”

“There’s not much they can hurt here,” Henry said. Then he remembered that there was something important—something mysterious—the Nelsons wanted to find here. Perhaps it was something squirrels could destroy. Why didn’t Tom tell the Aldens what it was? They could show him the code. But he kept his secret.

“We’re lucky this cabin has a good roof over us and the squirrels,” said Benny. “The snow is four feet thick. It looks just like a big birthday cake that’s mostly frosting.”

“Four feet!” said Tom. “Yes, it must be. That is a big load for this little roof.”

He didn’t know that some of that snow was falling through the hole the squirrels had made in the roof. It was piling up in the attic.

CHAPTER
9

Missing Piece

I
n about an hour the two Alden boys went out to wait for the pilot. They were not a minute too soon, for the pilot was early. Suddenly they heard the roar of the helicopter. It hovered right over them.

The pilot waved to them. First he dropped the bundle of sleeping bags. They were covered with plastic.

“They won’t get wet,” said Benny. “They landed better than the hay did.”

Both boys looked up at the pilot and waved their arms. Up and off went the helicopter.

The boys took in the plastic bundle. Henry found the snaps and took off the plastic cover. There were two big sleeping bags and one little one.

“How did Grandfather know Puggsy was so small?” asked Benny.

“Well,” answered Tom, “I must tell you that Mr. Alden telephoned me before you came to stay in the cabin. He asked me if somebody was always in the store. So of course I told him about my wife and Puggsy. I told him we lived over the store.”