The Boxcar Children Mysteries: Books One through Twelve (21 page)

Henry and Morris looked under the rocks into a tiny cave.

“How in the world did you boys get in there?” asked Henry.

“The stone came off,” said Benny. “It was like a door, and we pulled it away. It was awfully heavy.”

“Say, you fellows climb out of there and let us go in,” said Morris. The little boys obeyed at once and the two older boys crawled in and looked around. They saw a big stone table with an old bottle on it.

“Let’s take out the bottle,” said Henry. “There may be something inside.”

“Look, Joe,” said Morris. “See what Ben and Mike found.”

“There’s a paper inside the bottle,” said Henry. “Shall we take it out?”

“Why not?” said Joe, turning it over. “Maybe there’s a name on the paper.”

“Let me get the paper out with my knife,” said Henry. The mouth of the bottle was just wide enough for the knife. Henry pulled the paper out easily and read, “’If found, give to J. Alden. Six feet from cross to red rock, and three feet down. J. A. and R. W.’”

“Grandfather must have left it here when he was a boy,” said Henry, “but I don’t see any cross.”

“I do,” said Mike. “It’s right over there.” He pointed at a strange rock. It did look like a cross.

“And there’s the red rock!” cried Violet. “See!”

“This will be easy,” said Morris. “You run a string from the cross straight to the red rock. Then what does it say?” He looked at the paper again. “Six feet. Well, six feet from the cross you dig down for three feet. There must be something
there.”

The children were excited as they tied the string to the red rock. Joe showed them where six feet would be. Then they took turns digging with a spoon. With Watch and Spotty to help, they dug a hole three feet deep, but there was nothing in it but water. After an hour’s digging they had still not found anything.

“We can dig some other day,” said Henry at last. “It may be down twelve feet since the paper is very old.”

All the children but Mike were tired and were glad to sit down on the grass. The little fellow still sat beside the hole with Spotty, digging away with the spoon. Then suddenly he began to shout.

“It’s mine, all mine, because I found it. You can’t say it isn’t, because you all stopped digging.”

When the children ran to the hole, they saw Mike pulling out a black box covered with wet sand. And Mike went right on shouting.

“I found the cave, too, and made Ben help me take the door off, and I found the cross and I dug out the box, and it’s mine!”

“Don’t talk so much. Of course it’s yours, Mike,” said Henry. “Why don’t you open it?”

It was not hard to do this, because the box was very old. Mike pulled off the cover with his fingers, and the children saw a pile of old money. Mike put the money, one piece at a time, in the cover of the box.

“Just five dollars!” said Morris. “What a lot of money, Mike!”

“Grandfather will give him a five-dollar bill,” said Jessie. “I think he would like to keep this old money he put here when he was a boy. Wouldn’t you like to have a new five-dollar bill, Mike?”

“Y-yes, of course,” said Mike who had never had even a dollar bill before in his whole life.

Just then, the children heard a shout coming over the water. Then they noticed a boy in a rowboat who was standing up, shouting, and pointing at the water.

A dark head showed for a minute and then went out of sight.

“There’s somebody in the water, too!” cried Morris.

Henry heard Joe say to himself, “I’m well, now. I’m not afraid.”

Joe took off his shoes, jumped into the water, and swam very fast. “Bring the boat here!” he shouted to the boy in the boat.

But the boat went right past him.

“Oh, come back, Joe!” cried Benny.

“He’ll come back, all right,” said Morris. “He’s a wonderful swimmer! Look!”

As Morris spoke, Joe swam under water suddenly. When he came up he was pulling the boy to the rowboat. It seemed hours before Joe finally got the boy into the boat and pulled himself in.

“Good for Joe!” shouted Henry. “I hope he got there in time.”

“Everybody ought to know how to swim,” said Morris. “That boy was afraid. He just stood there and yelled. He couldn’t even bring the boat over when Joe asked him to.”

All this time Mike had not said anything. He stood very still as he looked out over the water. The little fellow seemed to have turned to stone.

“Why are you so scared?” asked Henry.

“I think it’s Pat,” said Mike, still staring at the boat.

“Pat? Who is he?” asked Henry.

“He’s my brother,” said Mike. “He’s eleven years old. I think he was the one in the water.”

“You can’t see that far,” said Morris. “What makes you think so, Mike?”

“Well, I told him there would be something to eat at this picnic, and that maybe we’d play ball.”

“I begin to see,” said Henry, looking at Morris. “Do you know who the other boy is?”

“Maybe Johnny,” said Mike. “I told Johnny, too, and he knew about a rowboat he could get.”

“How did they get the boat?” asked Morris.

“They just
took
it,” said Mike.

“What an awful thing to do!” shouted Henry. “Besides, they can’t swim or row.”

It did seem so, for Joe was rowing. One boy was out of sight in the boat, and the other boy sat at one end. When Jessie saw the boat coming, she called to Marjorie, “Let’s run to the barn and get some blankets and towels.”

“Good for you, Jessie!” called Joe when the girls brought the blankets. “Lay them down on the other side of the fire.”

Jessie and Marjorie spread out the blankets, while Henry and Morris caught the boat as it landed on the beach.

“It is Pat,” said Mike in a frightened voice. “Isn’t it, Johnny?”

“Yes,” said Johnny. “But he’ll be all right. This man said so.”

“He’s lucky,” said Henry. “Lucky that Joe knew how to swim.”

Pat was very still when the boys helped Joe lift him out of the boat and roll him in a blanket by the fire.

“We won’t talk to him now,” said Joe, rubbing the boy’s hair with a towel. “We’ll let him sleep first. He’s all tired out.”

“I guess you won’t have to talk to him,” said Johnny, who was very white. “We won’t ever take a boat again.”

“No, I don’t believe you will, either,” called Joe, as he went back to the hut for dry clothes.

Just then, Mike said, “Pat didn’t get any dinner. Will you heat up the chowder for him, Henry?”

“He can’t eat when he’s sound asleep, can he?” asked Morris.

“No, but he’ll wake up when he smells the chowder,” said Mike. “Maybe I could have some more myself, because I didn’t eat much lunch.”

“Ho, I should say you didn’t!” said Morris. “Only three bowls full!”

“I’ll tell you what we can do,” said Joe, who had come back wearing dry clothes. “We have just enough to play ball, if Mike is eating and doesn’t want to play.”

“Oh, I want to play! I want to play!” shouted Mike, jumping up and forgetting about the cut on his foot.

And so all the children played ball. Later, there was more chowder for everyone, and Pat did wake up when he smelled the food.

“This is the best picnic I’ve ever been to,” said Mike, passing his bowl again.

“Hold on, there!” warned Joe. “Don’t give him any more, Henry. Six bowls of chowder in one day are enough for one small boy.”

Just then Captain Daniel came with the boat to take the children home. And now Benny began to cry because his friend was going.

“Ho! What are you crying about, Ben?” asked Mike. “I wouldn’t cry at nothing.”

So nobody cried when the company started for home in the boat. When Mike could not hear Benny’s answer, he put his two hands up to his mouth and shouted, “Spotty can run—faster—than—Watch!”

“Well, Benny, don’t you care,” said Henry. “Just be glad the day is over with no more trouble.” “You’re right,” said Joe. “What a day!” Then Henry remembered that Joe had said he was well again. And when Henry told Jessie about it later, she thought it was very strange, too.

I
wish Mike would come over every day,” said Benny one morning.

“Well, I don’t!” said all the others at once.

Henry looked up. “I think we can get along without any company at all.”

“You don’t call Joe company, do you?” asked Violet.

“Oh, no,” said Henry. “He’s just one of the family. Why? Did you want to invite him to eat with us?”

“No,” said Violet slowly. “But today he said I would be ready to play to you after my lesson.”

“Have him stay to supper,” said Jessie. She looked at Henry.

“Benny, come here,” said Henry. “Did you know that today is your birthday?”

“No,” said Benny, walking over to his brother.

“Well, it is,” Henry went on, “and now what do you want for a present? We will buy it for you.”

“Cream,” said Benny.

“Do you mean ice-cream?” asked Henry.

“No, I don’t. I mean cream in a bottle like milk. A big bottle ... not a little one.”

“That’s a queer kind of a present,” said Violet.

“You want to drink it?” asked Jessie.

“No, I want to put it on some blackberries, like Peter Rabbit.”

“We’ll get a big bottle of cream then, Jessie,” said Henry, laughing.

Benny began to jump around the barn and yell.

“Benny,” said Jessie, “Violet is going to bake you a birthday cake before she takes her lesson.”

“Is she?” asked Benny, giving a last yell. “I want to watch her make my cake.”

Violet got out her cooking things. She laid everything she needed on the pie-board.

“We will put the candles around the cake,” said Violet.

“I want a candle in the middle,” said Benny.

“Yes, but we want to save the middle—” Violet stopped suddenly.

“Never mind,” said Jessie. “Benny doesn’t know what we want to save the middle for.”

The cake looked wonderful. And when Violet took it out of the oven, Benny said, “It smells just like a birthday cake.”

Before she put the frosting on, Violet put the cake on two plates to get cold.

“Let’s sit down,” said Jessie, “and have a quick lunch of bread and milk. Then Henry can get the cream and candles, and Violet can take her lesson while I wash the dishes.”