Willard smiled as the Aldens approached. “On your way out?”
“We’ve been wondering about this building,” Jessie told him.
“Wonderful old place, isn’t it?” the man said. “Solid as a rock. They don’t build ’em like this anymore.”
“Are there things about it people don’t know?” Violet asked.
“Ahhh, this grand old place keeps its secrets.” Willard’s eyes twinkled.
“What secrets?” Benny asked.
“If I told you, they wouldn’t be secrets, would they, now?”
“You could tell us,” Benny said. “We won’t tell anyone.”
Willard threw his head back and laughed. “I’ve been sworn to secrecy. I’m sorry,” he said.
Just then several people came in. Willard went to greet them.
The Aldens looked around the lobby. Was there anything here that might help in their search? Henry noticed two doors. Painted the same color as the walls, they were barely visible.
“Wait here,” he whispered. Hoping Willard wouldn’t notice, he slipped across the lobby. He tried one door and then the other. Both were locked.
CHAPTER 11
Buried Treasure
Disappointed, the Aldens went back upstairs.
Just inside the apartment door, Violet picked up something. “What’s this?” She held it in her open hand. It was fuzzy and black.
“It looks like some strange caterpillar,” Jessie said.
Benny took it between two fingers. He held it under his nose. “Do I look like the man with the mustache?”
Jessie laughed, then grew serious. “Let me see that.” She turned it over. “The back is covered with something — dried paste or glue.”
All at once, the four Aldens came to the same conclusion: “It’s part of a disguise!”
“The man in the overalls wore it!” Jessie said.
“That would explain why the mustache was crooked. The glue was dry, so it no longer stuck as well,” Henry said.
Violet took the object from Henry. “But it isn’t big enough to be a mustache. It’s more like” — she put it above her eye — “an eyebrow!”
Jessie sank to a chair. “Do you suppose …”
“Yes! That’s it!” Henry said. “The man with the mustache and the one with the bushy eyebrows — they’re one person!”
“The same person!” Violet said.
“What person?” Benny asked.
“Whoever was up here while we were talking to Willard,” Henry said. “Whoever dropped the eyebrow — that person!”
“Chad has a key,” Jessie reminded them.
“We would have seen him come into the building,” Violet said.
“Unless there’s another way in,” Henry added.
“Maybe he hid somewhere in the hall until we went out,” Benny suggested.
Jessie’s mind took her in another direction. “Chad was never with us when we saw that strange man,” she said. “But he was always nearby.”
Slowly, the others understood her meaning. Chad could be the man in the disguise!
“But he never wore overalls,” Henry said.
“Maybe he carried them in his knapsack,” Benny said.
“Where would he have changed into them?” Henry persisted.
They were getting nowhere. Every question about the man led to several new questions. Finally they sat down with the clues and began listing everything they knew.
Violet puzzled over the lines “Buried deep/Beneath the rest.”
“The X is marked on this building. Do you think there could be something underneath it?” she asked at last.
Henry thought about that. Then he remembered: “Chad told us Chicago has a lower level.”
“With train tracks and everything,” Benny added.
“Maybe it runs under this building,” Jessie said.
Benny sprang out of his chair and headed for the door. “Let’s go find out!”
Downstairs, Grandfather Alden huddled with someone wearing bib overalls — a man with a mustache and one bushy eyebrow! Talking intently, the two stepped out of sight. By the time the Alden children reached the outer lobby, the men were gone.
“They didn’t go out the front door,” Violet said. “We would’ve seen them.”
Henry was baffled. “But they couldn’t just … disappear!”
“Look, Henry!” Jessie pointed to the doors Henry had tried earlier. One of them was open.
“Let’s ask Willard where it leads,” Violet suggested.
But Willard was busy outside.
And Benny was already across the room. His brother and sisters followed. They slipped through the door and came upon a stairwell. They heard voices below, and then … nothing.
Taking the lead, Henry crept down the stairs. The others stayed close behind him.
At the bottom of the stairs was another door. Slowly, cautiously, Henry cracked it open and peeked into the dimness beyond.
Henry let out a soft whistle. Then he said, “Wow!”
“What is it, Henry?” Jessie murmured.
Henry opened the door. There in the murky light was a lone railroad coach!
Stunned, they moved outside to the walkway. They wondered where the car had come from and why it was there.
After a long silence, Violet said, “‘A place like home’! The clue was about our home in the boxcar!”
“‘Resting on/A bed of stone,’” Jessie quoted.
“Gravel, or stone, is used to make railroad ties stable,” Henry said.
“We’ve solved the final clue!” Violet said.
But the mystery was yet to be fully explained. They still had no idea who was behind this strange treasure hunt — or the reason for it.
Henry motioned them to stay where they were. He sneaked up onto the observation platform and peered through a window.
“What do you see?” Violet asked.
Suddenly a voice behind her said, “I see you’ve found the treasure I think best.”
Jessie, Violet, and Benny spun around. Their mouths dropped open in surprise. “You!”
Jacob Piper pulled off a fake mustache and one bushy eyebrow.
Just then, Grandfather appeared on the platform beside Henry. “I told you, Cob,” he said. “My grandchildren are smart. I knew they’d figure out our little game.”
Jacob Piper and Grandfather! Together, they were responsible for this baffling mystery!
Mr. Piper climbed onto the platform. “Come on aboard.”
Astonished, the children followed him.
Cob swept his arm in a circle. “Welcome to my home.”
Benny stared at him. “You live here?”
Cob laughed. “It’s very comfortable,” he said. He proudly showed them everything: a desk that opened into a large table; chairs that turned into beds; a stainless steel kitchen, where something bubbled on the compact stove.
“That smells good,” Benny said.
“Spaghetti sauce for our supper,” Cob told him.
Questions swirled through the Aldens’ minds, but they were too amazed to ask them. Still, the two men provided answers.
Grandfather said, “When I told Cob you like mysteries, he planned this treasure hunt.”
“It was a good way for you to see my favorite city,” Mr. Piper told them. “But I was afraid you wouldn’t solve it. I wanted to tell you. Your grandfather and I argued about it.”
That explained the telephone calls.
“I was worried about the whole thing,” Mr. Alden continued. “I didn’t know how I was going to give you the clue at the Water Tower. Fortunately, Jessie, you dropped the maps. I slipped the envelope in with them.”
“And I just missed seeing Chad at the Art Institute,” Mr. Piper said.
Henry found his voice. “So Chad didn’t know.”
Mr. Piper shook his head. “I was afraid he’d give it away.”
“How about Willard?” Benny asked.
“He knew something was going on, but he nev
er figured it out.” Cob held up the mustache. “I’m not very good at this disguise business.”
Benny snickered. “I never saw a crooked mustache before.”
“I didn’t know it was crooked!” Cob laughed.
Now Henry knew what caused Cob’s rash. “You’re allergic to the glue.”
Cob nodded. “And I couldn’t make it stick. Today I lost an eyebrow.”
“We found it in the apartment,” Violet told him.
Cobb nodded. “I thought I might find something in the apartment to tell me how close you were to finding this car.”
“Not very close,” Jessie said.
“Oh, you’re good detectives,” Grandfather said. “You would have figured it out.”
Now that all the puzzle pieces were in place, Cob gave them a new challenge. “See if you can set the table for eight.” He turned to Mr. Alden. “James, you and I will cook.”
Benny counted. There were six of them. “Who else is coming?”
“Chad and Willard,” Cob answered. “They didn’t know it, but they played important parts in our little game.”
It was tight, but they all fit. During dinner, the Aldens told Chad and Willard about the mystery and how they had solved it.
“I knew you were looking for something,” Willard said.
Chad just kept shaking his head. “Dad, you planned all this?”
“And more,” Mr. Piper said. “I’ve saved the best part for last.”
Benny jumped in his chair. “Tell us! Please!”
“This is my own private train car,” he began. “It belonged to my grandfather. He was in the railroad business. After he retired, he brought it to his backyard.”
“We have a boxcar in our backyard,” Violet said.
Mr. Piper nodded. “So James told me. And just like you, I played in it every chance I got.”
Benny looked around. “This is much fancier than our boxcar.”
“It didn’t always look like it does today,” Cob said. “Time and weather had done their work. Then one day I decided to restore it.”
“By yourself?” Jessie asked.
“Yes,” Cob answered. “It took a long time. After I had finished it, I thought, why not live in it? It’s been here ever since. It’s my hobby — the only way I relax from the paper business. I rent the track. I travel in it, too. That’s my final surprise: I have a trip planned for next week.”
The Alden children’s minds raced ahead of him. They exchanged excited glances.
Cob laughed. “You are quick,” he said. “I can tell you’ve guessed it. After you’ve seen the rest of the city, we’ll hook this car to an eastbound train and take you home to Greenfield!”
The Aldens laughed with delight.
Willard laughed, too. “I’d say you Aldens found what you were looking for!”
“Much more!” Violet said.
Mr. Piper raised his glass. “A toast to buried treasure.”
Henry looked around the table at his sisters and brother, Grandfather, the Pipers, and Willard. These people were his family and friends. They were the real treasures. He raised his glass. “And to those in plain sight,” he said.
GERTRUDE CHANDLER WARNER discovered when she was teaching that many readers who like an exciting story could find no books that were both easy and fun to read. She decided to try to meet this need, and her first book, The Boxcar Children, quickly proved she had succeeded.
Miss Warner drew on her own experiences to write the mystery. As a child she spent hours watching trains go by on the tracks opposite her family home. She often dreamed about what it would be like to set up housekeeping in a caboose or freight car — the situation the Alden children find themselves in.
When Miss Warner received requests for more adventures involving Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden, she began additional stories. In each, she chose a special setting and introduced unusual or eccentric characters who liked the unpredictable.
While the mystery element is central to each of Miss Warner’s books, she never thought of them as strictly juvenile mysteries. She liked to stress the Aldens’ independence and resourcefulness and their solid New England devotion to using up and making do. The Aldens go about most of their adventures with as little adult supervision as possible — something else that delights young readers.
Miss Warner lived in Putnam, Connecticut, until her death in 1979. During her lifetime, she received hundreds of letters from girls and boys telling her how much they liked her books.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1998 by Albert Whitman & Company
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The Windy City Mystery Page 6