The Alley
ELEANOR ESTES
ILLUSTRATED BY
EDWARD ARDIZZONE
ANODYSSEY/HARCOURT YOUNG CLASSIC
HARCOURT, INC.
Orlando Austin New York San Diego Toronto London
Copyright © 1964 by Eleanor Estes
Copyright renewed 1992 by Helena Estes Silo and Rice Estes
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be
mailed to the following address: Permissions Department, Harcourt, Inc.,
6277 Sea Harbor Drive, Orlando, Florida 32887-6777.
First Harcourt Young Classics edition 2003
First Odyssey Classics edition 2003
First published 1964
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Estes, Eleanor, 1906– .
The Alley/Eleanor Estes; illustrated by Edward Ardizzone.
p. cm.
"An Odyssey/Harcourt Young Classic."
Sequel: The tunnel of Hugsy Goode.
Summary: Ten-year-old Connie, who lives in the Brooklyn neighborhood
called The Alley, investigates a burglary with her friend Billy Maloon.
[1. Alleys—Fiction. 2. Friendship—Fiction. 3. Brooklyn (New York,
N.Y.)—History—20th century—Fiction. 4. Mystery and detective
stories.] I. Ardizzone, Edward, 1900– ill. II. Title.
PZ7.E749Al 2003
[Fic]—dc21 2003045290
ISBN 0-15-204917-7 ISBN 0-15-204918-5 (pb)
Printed in the United States of America
A C E G H F D B
C E G H F D (pb)
CONTENTSTo the memory of
Mama Sadie
1
THE VIEW FROM THE SWING
11
2
CONNIE IVES
22
3
BILLY MALOON
33
4
KATY'S LAWS
47
5
CALM DAYS BEFORE THE BURGLARS
59
6
THE DAY OF THE BURGLARS
72
7
ARRIVAL OF THE POLICE
81
8
TELLING IT TO THE ALLEY
93
9
CLUES
102
10
MR. FABADESSA'S SLANT
117
11
THE TRIAL IN THE CIRCLE
126
12
BULLY VARDEER AND THE BULLET-HEAD MAN
151
13
WINDING UP THE TRIAL
169
14
CASING-JUST IN CASE
183
15
THE FOUND NICKEL
192
16
THE J. I. PENCIL
208
17
ALLEY CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC
220
18
A DAY OF IMPORTANCE
236
19
WHERE BILLY MALOON WAS
252
20
ALL SOLVED
267
21
MAY I COME IN?
280
The Alley! To hear the name, you might think it an awful place to live—no sunshine, no light, with tin cans around, perhaps, and dreary old blown-about newspapers. Not this Alley, though. Gardens, flowers, pretty little red brick houses joined one to another; butterflies in summer, a squirrel sometimes in winter, and swings ... that was what this Alley had. Connie thought the Alley the most beautiful place in the whole world to live in, and of all the little houses there, she thought hers the prettiest. They might look alike on the outside, but on the inside each one was as different as the people who lived in them.
From her jungle gym in her little back yard, where she was swinging, Connie had a wonderful view of the Alley, the best view of the Alley that there was.
There were twenty-seven little houses in the Alley. They all had blue-green picket fences between them, and they all had their own little gardens. At the end of each garden was a higher fence than the fences between the houses. Each house had a gate into the Alley from its own back yard. These little houses were on the campus of Grandby College, in the heart of the city of Brooklyn. The Alley was shaped like a T, a T turned sideways, like this—
. Eight houses were on one side, the long side of the —, and they faced Story Street. The Ives—Connie and her family—were in number 175 of Story Street. There were eight houses opposite them, and these faced Waldo Place. That made sixteen houses, leaving eleven. These eleven houses made up the top part of the
and faced Larrabee Street. Billy Maloon lived in the exact middle house of these eleven houses on Larrabee Street, and his view of the Alley was next best to the one from Connie's swing. From his bedroom window, or from the little roof outside it, he could see all the way to the Circle at the end of the long part of the
; and to his left and his right, he could see the two beautiful locked iron gates at the two ends of the top part of the
.
In the Alley there was more space than you might think to ride bikes in, and at the bottom end of the
was the Circle, excellent for turning around in and excellent for games.
Every yard had flowers. Now it was May, and the flowers were tulips, irises, lilacs. In the corner under the dining-room window of Connie's house, there were even a few violets and, under the rose bush, some lilies of the valley. On some of the fences, there was honeysuckle, but it was not in blossom yet. The lilacs were in blossom, though. There were purple ones in the Gwatkins' yard, opposite Connie's. In June the roses would be out. Almost every garden had roses. In Connie's yard, they were white. They were trying to spread all over the yard, and you had to watch out for the thorns, not let the little children crawl under the branches to pet the cats asleep there.
The Alley—the little houses on the Alley—was an oasis in a great city of good people and of dangerous people. In this city, there were some burglars. "But then, that is life," thought Connie. "In the old days, they had Indians, wild animals, pirates, and dragons. They had witches. Now—burglars. You have to take the bad along with the good." But Connie never thought much of the burglars there might be outside the Alley. She thought mainly of life inside the Alley, in the beautiful, fragrant Alley. Her life was made up mainly of school and Alley.
Connie was ten, and she was in grade five in school. She was known in the Alley as "the swinger" because, whenever she could be, she was usually swinging. "Connie Ives, the famous swinger," Katy Starr always said. Katy was a year and a grade older.