The Brown Fox Mystery (4 page)

“It’s a lovely little town, and a beautiful lake,” Miss Annie said. “I hope you boys are going to like it.”

“
Like
it?” said Tommy. “Gee whitakers! How could anyone help from liking it? Look at the sailboat, Djuna!”

“I see it,” Djuna said. “I—”

“You better go up to the baggage car and get Champ, Djuna,” Miss Annie said. “We’re almost at the station.”

“Jeepers! I’m so excited I almost forgot him,” said Djuna and he scuttled down the aisle.

Clarabelle Smith was standing on the station platform with her mother and they were both gazing anxiously up at each window of the coaches as the train pulled into Lakeville. Clarabelle was wearing a starched yellow dress and a yellow hair ribbon in her hair and she looked very prim and proper until she saw Miss Annie, Tommy and Djuna standing in the aisle of one of the coaches as the train was coming to a stop. When she saw them she jumped up and down and began to squeal and then she ran alongside the train so that she’d be right at the bottom of the steps when they descended.

“Welcome to Silver Lake!” Clarabelle shouted as they started down the steps.

“Hoddy-doddy!” Tommy shouted back.

Mrs. Smith, whose name was Martha, hurried up the platform to hug and kiss Miss Annie when she alighted, while Clarabelle and Tommy and Djuna and Champ jumped up and down a few times to greet each other. Then Clarabelle hugged Miss Annie and everyone began to talk so fast about so many different things that no one knew what anyone else was talking about.

But after a few minutes everyone calmed down and Miss Annie began to dig around in her handbag for the checks for their luggage.

“I suppose we can get a taxi right here at the station that’ll take us to our cottage?” Miss Annie said to Mrs. Smith. Mrs. Smith, who looked very young for her age and had a warm charming smile, shook her head.

“No, indeed,” she said. “Of course you
could
take a taxi but the road is very bad. Everyone who lives on the lake travels by boat. I’ve arranged with Captain Riley, Captain Ben everyone calls him, to take you and your things over to your cottage. Clarabelle is going with you but I’ve got to hurry home because I’m having some people in for luncheon. I’ll go over to the dock with you and introduce you to Captain Ben. You’ll like him. He’s a darling!”

“Did you hear
that?
” Tommy whispered to Djuna. “She said
everybody
travels by boat.”

“What kind of a boat, Mrs. Smith?” Tommy asked.

“Captain Ben has a motorboat,” Clarabelle said. “He delivers mail and groceries and ice, and everything to people who have cottages on the lake.”

“Golly, maybe we could ride around with him some,” said Djuna.

“Of course you can,” Clarabelle said as she tossed her yellow hair ribbon. “I ride with him lots of times. All the way round the lake.”

“Oh, boy!” said Tommy.

“Here, Djuna,” Miss Annie interrupted, holding out the checks for their bags. “You boys get our stuff and take it where Mrs. Smith tells you.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Djuna said as he took the checks.

“Perhaps you’d like to get some supplies at Scatterly’s store to take with you now,” Clarabelle’s mother said to Miss Annie. “That’s where everyone shops. It’s just across the street, on the water front, where Captain Ben keeps his boat.”

“Well, I don’t know,” said Miss Annie doubtfully. “I’d sort of like to see our cottage first, then I’ll know better what I want to order. After I see the cottage I’ll know better what we want to eat there,” she added and smiled.

“The reason I suggested getting something now,” Mrs. Smith said, “is because, if you don’t order now you’ll miss Captain Ben’s morning delivery, and you’ll have to walk back to the store to give your order for this afternoon because none of the cottages have telephones. There is a rowboat that goes with your cottage, but Mr. Scatterly said it wouldn’t be ready until tomorrow.”

“Oh, I see,” said Miss Annie. “How long a walk is it from our cottage to the store?”

“About a mile,” Mrs. Smith told her.

“Well,” said Miss Annie, “I think we’ll walk back and give our order after we’ve looked the cottage over. I know the boys are dying to see the cottage, and I am too.” She turned and pointed at a large frame building that was painted white and had a sign over the steps that read: SILVER LAKE HOTEL. “Could we get some lunch there, when we walk back?”

“Oh, of course,” said Mrs. Smith, and for a moment she looked distressed. “I don’t see why I didn’t remember to order some stuff for you from Scatterly’s so that you’d have something in the house when you got there! I was going to have you all come to our house for luncheon and I
did
remember that I’d asked some people a couple of weeks ago. I’m awfully sorry, Miss Annie. I—”

“Don’t you worry your pretty little head about it,” Miss Annie said. “The boys and I would sort of like to explore a little by ourselves anyway.”

“Okay, Miss Annie,” Djuna said. “We have all of our stuff.”

Djuna and Tommy each had two fairly good-sized suitcases, and Clarabelle was carrying one and the precious green tackle box. Djuna was also hanging onto Champ’s leash very tightly because he remembered the time Champ had taken off after a cat near a railroad station and it had taken him nearly a half hour to catch him.

“Glittering glories!” said Miss Annie. “You boys can’t carry two suitcases apiece. Here, Djuna, give me one of them. Martha,” she said to Mrs. Smith, “you take one of the suitcases Tommy is carrying.”

“Of course,” said Mrs. Smith, but she didn’t look very pleased at the idea.

Mrs. Smith led the way down a street for half a block until they came to a corner. Across the street, beside the post office, was a store that had the name SCATTERLY’S printed across the window in large letters. Next to the post office was a wide open space that was covered with wide planks to make a platform about a hundred feet square, and jutting out from the platform were three or four narrow docks.

They crossed the street and followed Mrs. Smith down the length of the platform to a dock where a tubby little twenty-foot motorboat, that was nearly half as wide as it was long, was tied up alongside.

Standing on the dock, beside the boat, was a short, stocky man with gray hair and dancing brown eyes who wore a blue cap with a black visor that had a gold anchor stitched on the front.

“Captain Ben,” Mrs. Smith said, “this is Miss Annie Ellery, and Djuna, and Tommy Williams. They are the people who have taken the Crimmins cottage.”

“Howdeedo, Miss Ellery,” said Captain Ben, and his sun-tanned face spread into a very pleasant grin as he gave Miss Annie a smart salute. He shook hands with both Djuna and Tommy and said, “Hey! Where’re your fishin’ poles?”

“Jeepers, can’t we buy any here?” asked Tommy anxiously.

“Certain’y you can buy ’em here,” said Captain Ben. “Right there in Scatterly’s store. Got a fine selection o’ the best.” He turned to Miss Annie and said, “Would you like to go over to your cottage now?”

“Why, yes, I would like to,” said Miss Annie, and she smiled. “We’re anxious to see it.”

“We’ll get right along,” Captain Ben said and he went nimbly down the ladder to the tubby little motorboat that had
Little Buttercup
lettered on the stern and on the bow.

“Now, if you boys’ll just pass them bags down to me I’ll stow ’em away, and then when you git aboard we’ll be gettin’ along,” said Captain Ben from the deck of his boat.

The engine of the
Little Buttercup
was in the stern cockpit, and the wheel was up forward, enclosed in a little cabin. Most of the space between the wheelhouse and the engine, except for two seats that ran along the sides, was taken up by a wooden well, in which Captain Ben carried ice and groceries, or anything else that anyone wanted, to the cottages around the lake.

After Captain Ben had stowed away their luggage, Miss Annie, Clarabelle, Djuna and Tommy climbed down the ladder to the deck of the boat while Captain Ben got the engine started. When the engine started Champ barked at it a couple of times, and when it didn’t bark back he lost interest and plopped down on the deck and went to sleep.

“Just loosen up them moorin’ lines, boys,” Captain Ben said to Djuna and Tommy. “When I say ‘Cast off,’ haul in the lines and we’ll be on our way.”

“Yes, sir!” they said and unfastened the mooring lines, keeping their lines loosely around the mooring post on the dock until Captain Ben took his place at the wheel and said, “Cast off!” Then each hauled his line in and coiled it on the deck, the way Mr. Boots had taught them to do, as Captain Ben threw the propeller into gear and the
Little Buttercup
chugged slowly away from the dock on the waters of Silver Lake.

Captain Ben very carefully steered the
Little Buttercup
around the several small sailboats and motorboats that were anchored off the Lakeville landing while Djuna and Tommy watched him through the wheelhouse windows with feverish interest.

After Captain Ben had skillfully cleared all the boats at anchor, and had opened his throttle a little wider to gather speed, the two boys looked all around them at the little cottages nestling in the woods all the way around the lake, and the little piers jutting out into the water from each of them.

“How big is the lake?” Tommy asked Clarabelle, and added before she could answer, “You could put Lost Pond at Edenboro right down in the middle of it and you wouldn’t even notice it!”

“Pooh!” said Clarabelle. “Lost Pond is just a little bit of a thing. It’s over two miles from Lakeville landing to that big icehouse you see at the other end,” she told them, pointing.

“Where is our cottage, Clarabelle?” Miss Annie asked.

“Right over there,” she said, pointing again. “It’s just about in the middle on the east side of the lake.”

“Then that icehouse at the other end is north,” Djuna said, “and Lakeville is at the south end.”

“I guess so,” said Clarabelle. “How did you know?”

“You said our cottage was on the east side,” Djuna explained. “When you face north, your right hand always points east, and your left hand west.”

“Oh,” said Clarabelle, and she pointed again. “Our cottage is right over there on the west bank, right across the lake from yours.”

“How wide is it across there?” Tommy asked. “I’ll bet I could swim it.”

“I bet you couldn’t,” said Clarabelle. “It’s just about a mile and nobody can swim a mile.”

“For Pete’s sake!” Tommy said. “Anybody who can swim can swim a mile. Someday I’ll get Djuna to row our boat and I’ll swim across to show you.”

“Not without my permission, Tommy Williams!” said Miss Annie sternly.

“Oh, I’d ask you first, of course,” Tommy said as Captain Ben threw his engine out of gear and eased the
Little Buttercup
alongside a wooden dock that was only about six inches above the level of the water and jutted out from the shore about fifteen feet.

“Just drop the loops on them short lines, fore and aft, over them cleats at each end of the dock, boys,” Captain Ben said from the little cabin. “I had to rig up them lines and put cleats on all the docks to make my deliveries easier,” he added as Tommy and Djuna sprang to obey him.

Miss Annie’s eyes were shining brightly behind her spectacles as she gazed at the screened porch that ran across the front of the little white house at the edge of the woods and said, “My, but it looks sweet and cool.”

“It is, ma’am,” said Captain Ben. “You’ll like it. It is one of the nicest cottages on the lake.” He reached in his pocket and brought out a key and extended it to Miss Annie. “Here’s the key to the kitchen door,” he said. “I’d like to show you around, but I got to get back and get loaded up for my morning deliveries. You’ll find everything shipshape, ma’am. Will you be needing anything this morning?”

“No, thank you,” said Miss Annie with a smile. “We’re going to walk back and put in an order for this afternoon. Where is the road back to Lakeville?”

“Just behind the house. There’s a path that leads out to it,” said Captain Ben. “If you leave before I get back, leave your screen door to the back porch open so’s I can drop you a piece of ice. I don’t deliver no ice in the afternoon.”

“That’s very thoughtful of you,” Miss Annie said, and she turned to Clarabelle. “Are you going to walk back with us, or are you going back with Captain Ben?”

Clarabelle made a face and said, “I have to go back with Captain Ben so I’ll be in time for lunch. I’ll have to sit there for
hours
with those people who are coming. But I’ll come back when Captain Ben delivers your things this afternoon,” she finished brightly.

They stood and watched Captain Ben while he backed his motorboat away from the dock and swung it around in a wide arc to head for the Lakeville landing, then they went up the gravel path that led up to the front porch and around the side of the house to the back door.

They went through the tiny screened back porch that was just large enough to hold an icebox, a small table on which stood a five-gallon can of kerosene, a mop and two buckets.

Inside the kitchen they found a shining four-burner gas stove, with a broiler and a large oven, over which Miss Annie exclaimed enthusiastically, that was fed with gas piped in from a tank behind the house. There was a gas heater for heating hot water and a large white sink with an extra tub for washing. Beside the two French windows, that looked out on the cool shade of the back yard, there was a drop-leaf table with four kitchen chairs, and beside the table was a large cupboard that contained all kinds of dishes and cooking utensils.

Off the kitchen was a homey bedroom with a double bed, a dresser with a large mirror, a bookcase full of books and a large comfortable chair. “This,” said Miss Annie as soon as she saw it, “will be my bedroom because I’ll always be the first one up in the morning.”

There was another door leading from the kitchen into the living room, which was spacious and was paneled with pine sheathing. There was a cozy-looking fireplace, and on each side of the fireplace there were wide bookshelves, filled with books, reaching almost to the ceiling. Off the living room were two more smaller bedrooms, each with a single bed, and the other things that go in a bedroom, and between them was a bathroom.