The Mystery of the Alligator Swamp (7 page)

“Like what?” asked Billie sharply.

Travis shrugged.

“How about a piece of pie and something to drink up at the restaurant?” Billie asked, turning her back on Travis.

“Okay,” said Benny. “And we can eat our sandwiches, too.”

“Now that all the excitement is over, maybe I’ll have a piece of pie at the restaurant myself. If that’s okay, Billie,” Travis said.

“Everyone’s invited,” said Billie. But she didn’t sound pleased.

“Good. I want to hear all about your lost guests. Of course, with only me and the Aldens left here as guests at your camp right now, I guess it’s not such a problem. Still, getting lost in the swamp is bad business,” Travis said.

“Not if you’re found,” said Violet.

Only Travis laughed.

When they sat down at the long table in the restaurant, Travis pulled up a chair and joined them, just like that. Benny leaned over and whispered to Violet, “He’s invited to have pie, but does he have to sit with us?”

“Shhh! We have to be polite,” Violet whispered back.

“Oh, all right,” said Benny. “But I don’t know if I like him. I think he’s glad we got lost.”

Just then, Beau came out with pie in one hand and a stack of plates in the other. He set the pie in the middle of the table and began cutting fat slices for everyone.

“Mmm,” said Benny. “Peach pie.”

“Beau made it,” Billie said proudly.

“It was nothing, Gram,” said Beau, blushing a little.

“He’s making my birthday cake for my birthday party this weekend,” Billie went on. “A surprise.”

“The cake and a few other surprises,” said Beau. He blushed harder.

The children couldn’t help but think of the conversation they had heard between Beau and Travis that morning. Was that about one of the surprises he had planned for his grandmother’s birthday?

“My grandson — he’s an artist and a chef,” said Billie. “This pie is a work of art just as much as any of your paintings on these walls.” She motioned to them.

The Aldens looked around. “You painted all these paintings?” asked Violet.

“Most of them,” said Beau.

Travis looked up at a large painting that had a wall to itself at one end of the room. It was a swamp scene and very beautiful. He looked from the painting to Beau and raised his eyebrows.

Beau looked away.

“They’re wonderful,” said Grandfather.

“Thank you,” said Beau, blushing more. He cleared his throat, then said, “So how did y’all get lost, anyway?”

“We followed the map,” said Jessie. “But then the map didn’t match the arrows, so we followed the arrows. And then suddenly we were lost.”

“So then we stayed where we were,” Henry said.

Beau nodded. “It’s the right thing to do. Otherwise, you just get more lost — and harder to find.”

“Having all the channel markers and arrows moved around didn’t help,” said Gaston.

“What?” asked Travis.

“What I said,” Gaston retorted. “Someone had been playing with the swamp markers. It was enough to get anyone lost who didn’t know their way around.”

“I’ll go out and fix it first thing tomorrow,” Beau said.

“I’ll help,” Eve volunteered.

Gaston said, “I thought you were helping Swampwater, since Rose is going to be away.”

“He won’t mind if I help Beau tomorrow morning,” Eve said. “Especially since I went on all the tours with him today.”

Travis pushed his chair back. “It’s been an exciting day here at the camp, I’ll say that. Ghost alligators, lost camp guests, boats with bites taken out of them.” He shook his head. “I hope I won’t be too scared to sleep tonight.”

“I don’t think you need to worry about that,” said Billie.

She didn’t return Travis’s smile. After a moment, he left.

“I don’t like him!” Benny burst out.

“Shhh!” Jessie said.

“I don’t think he cares if anybody likes him or not,” said Beau. “All he cares about is getting what he wants.”

“The fishing camp,” said Henry.

“Right,” said Beau. “Among other things.” His gaze shifted until he was staring at the large painting at the end of the restaurant.

“Well, he’s not going to get it,” Billie said. “Ghost or no ghost. Let’s not waste any more time thinking about that.”

“Who do you think changed all the signs in the swamp?” Violet asked.

“Tourists,” said Gaston.

“If tourists did that, wouldn’t they get lost themselves?” asked Jessie.

Gaston turned to look at her. “You’re right,” he said, sounding surprised.

“So it had to have been someone who knows his or her way around the swamp,” said Henry.

“Right again,” said Gaston.

“Well, that could be anybody who lives around here,” said Billie. “But it had to have been done today. Gaston and I were over there fishing yesterday afternoon and the signs were fine.”

“Yep,” said Gaston.

“And I had a couple of fishermen come in later this morning from that part of the swamp and they had no problem, so whoever did it had to have done it between lunch and the time you got over there, James,” Billie said to Grandfather Alden.

Under her breath, Eve said, “The ghost alligator.”

“What?” said Jessie, startled.

Eve glanced at Billie as if she didn’t want her to overhear. “The ghost alligator,” she said. “You were going to Crying Bayou to try and catch it, right? The ghost paid you back by turning all the signs around.”

The next day, the Alden children walked down the road toward Swampwater’s museum. But they weren’t going to the museum. They were going to follow the path that Beau had sneaked down the day before, after his mysterious meeting with Travis. The children knew that Beau and Eve had gone to put all the signs and channel markers back where they belonged. That would take a long, long time.

“It couldn’t have been Eve who turned all the signs around, because she was on that swamp tour with Swampwater. We passed her, remember?” Violet said.

“But she left right after we got back from our swamp tour yesterday morning,” Jessie said. “She was in a big hurry, too.”

“I wonder where she went. And I wonder if she got back in time to help Swampwater and Rose on their morning tours,” said Henry.

“It sure sounds as if Beau and Travis are in this together,” said Violet. “Especially after what we heard yesterday.”

“It did sound as if Travis were trying to get Beau to agree to help him buy the restaurant from Billie,” agreed Violet.

“I like Beau,” Benny said, skipping ahead. “I don’t like Travis.”

“It is hard to believe Beau and Travis could be behind all this,” admitted Violet with a sigh.

“It’s almost as hard to believe that Gaston or Swampwater might be,” said Henry.

“Wait a minute,” said Jessie slowly. “What about Rose?”

“We almost forgot about Rose,” said Henry. “Maybe because she hasn’t been around since yesterday morning.”

“She said she had the afternoon off,” Benny said. “I remember.”

“She did,” said Henry. “Swampwater also said she wasn’t around for the afternoon tour when we talked to him at the museum.”

“Here,” said Jessie. She stepped to one side of the road and pushed the bushes aside. Ahead lay a faint path leading into the shadows of the swamp. The path looked firm enough, but dark water surrounded it.

They stared for a moment. Then Henry said, “I’ll go first. Jessie, you bring up the rear. Violet, Benny, you stay in the middle. Everybody watch out for snakes.”

“And alligators,” said Violet in a small voice.

“And ghosts!” Benny said happily.

They began to walk. They stopped talking. Henry broke off a stick and used it to test the trail ahead of them.

A turtle plopped off a nearby log into the water as they passed, making them all jump. But they didn’t see any snakes, alligators, or ghosts.

Gradually the path grew wider and there was less water. More light seemed to shine through the branches above them.

Then suddenly they saw a little cabin standing in a clearing in the middle of the swamp.

“Oh!” said Violet in surprise. Somehow this wasn’t what she had expected to find at all.

Benny pushed past Henry and walked boldly into the clearing.

“Benny, wait,” said Jessie. But Benny was already testing the front door of the cabin. It wasn’t locked. He pushed it open and stepped inside.

“Wow!” he said.

His brother and sisters were right behind him. They all stopped to stare. Light streamed through skylights in the roof of the tiny cabin. Along one wall, a table made of a wide, thick board on two sawhorses held all kinds of paint and painting tools. Canvases were propped all around the other walls and under the table. A very large canvas covered with a cloth stood on an easel in the center of the floor.

“This must be Beau’s art studio!” exclaimed Violet.

Walking forward, Jessie raised a corner of the cloth that covered the painting. She smiled a little. “I think I’ve found one of the surprises Beau is planning to give Billie for her birthday,” she said.

They crowded around to peer at the painting. It was beautiful. It showed someone fishing in an old pirogue in a bayou at the first light of dawn. Brighter than the sun was the hair of the person fishing.

“That’s a painting of Billie in her boat,” said Benny. “It looks just like her.”

“It’s amazing,” said Henry. “Billie’s going to love it.”

Letting the cloth drop back over the painting, Jessie said, “Well, we’ve solved one little piece of the puzzle. But we still haven’t solved the mystery.”

“Let’s go to Swampwater’s museum and look for more clues,” Benny said. He didn’t really think they’d find more clues, but he wanted to see the museum.

“Okay,” said Henry. “Maybe we can find out where Rose is. That might be a clue.”

“Or it might just be her day off,” said Jessie.

“Let’s go,” said Benny, tugging at Henry’s sleeve.

At the museum, they found Swampwater — and Gaston. Gaston looked angry.

“Hi,” said Jessie. “We brought Benny to see the museum. He didn’t come yesterday because he was taking a nap.”

“I wasn’t taking a nap. I was just resting my eyes,” Benny corrected her.

“Step right on in. I’ll be with you in a moment,” said Swampwater.

“No, no, don’t let me keep you,” said Gaston crossly.

“Why don’t you join me, Gaston? It’s cool in the museum. It would cool you off,” said Swampwater.

“I don’t want to be cooled off!” snapped Gaston. “I’m angry, and with good reason!”

“Why?” asked Benny.

“My binoculars. My brand-new binoculars — gone!” he almost shouted.

“You lost them?” asked Violet.

“I did not! They were stolen,” he fumed. “Stolen!”

“How could they be stolen?” asked Swampwater. “You never take them off. Billie and I think you might sleep with them on.”

He was teasing, but Gaston didn’t think it was funny. He gave Swampwater a sour look and said, “I took them off and put them in their box last night, in the car. It was after we got back from finding the Aldens here. Then I went inside for pie.”

“That’s right, you weren’t wearing them,” said Henry. “I noticed.”

“Were they still there last night after you had pie?” asked Jessie.

“I thought they were,” said Gaston. “But it could have been just the empty box. That’s what I found this morning when I went out to my garage — an empty box.”

“So someone could have taken them last night at the restaurant or from your garage,” said Jessie.

“Not my garage,” said Gaston. “It was locked. The only way in is through the door that leads from my kitchen into the garage, or with a key to the garage door. And no one broke into my house or garage last night.”

“Maybe someone borrowed them,” said Swampwater. “Did you ask Eve?”

“Hah. Anybody with any sense knows I’m not going to lend those binoculars to
anybody
,” Gaston said. “No, someone’s a binocular thief. And just
wait
until I get my hands on whoever did it!”

He turned. “I’ll walk with you down to your boat,” said Swampwater. “You kids can go on into the museum if you like. I’ll be right back.”

The children were glad to go into the cool room that housed the museum. Benny went from exhibit to exhibit while they all talked about what they had just learned.

“Whoever stole those binoculars had to have been someone at Billie’s camp,” Jessie said. “If it happened last night, it had to have been at Billie’s, right?”

“Someone staying at Billie’s,” said Benny. “Travis.”

“He is the only other guest besides us,” Violet said. “Plus, he left before anyone else did. It would have been easy for him to just reach into Gaston’s car and take them.”

Benny said, “That makes Travis a chicken thief and a binocular thief.” He sounded pleased at the idea.

“What do you mean?” asked Henry.

“Someone’s stealing chickens from Billie’s restaurant. And someone took the binoculars. Two thieves and they are both Travis!” said Benny.

“Oh, Benny,” said Violet. “We don’t know that. It doesn’t make sense. Why would Travis steal chickens?”

“To help make Billie go out of business,” said Benny.

“I don’t think a few missing chickens are going to put Billie out of business,” Henry said. “But I’m willing to believe a sneaky fellow like that Travis could have taken Gaston’s binoculars. But believing isn’t proving. We don’t have proof.”