The Castle Mystery

by Gertrude Chandler Warner

  Violet and Benny sat themselves on opposite sides of a fancy S-shaped curved sofa. The seats were placed so that the two Aldens were nearly face to face.

  “It’s called a conversational sofa. This is how young ladies and gentlemen socialized in the old days,” Carrie said. “Between dances a young lady and a young man might chat with each other while sitting on this sofa.”

  With that, Benny bolted from the funny-shaped sofa. No one would catch him talking to a girl at a dance!

  Henry came in with a box of cleaning supplies.

  Carrie looked around the room. “You know, I think for this afternoon, we should just work on polishing up the woodwork. Let’s leave the rest of the dust cloths on the furniture for now.”

  The children set to work. The boys began on the wood trim around the windows and doorways. Henry was tall and could polish the high door frames and the tops of the cabinets. Benny was just the right height to reach down and dust off everything that was low.

  Carrie and the girls rolled up their sleeves. They removed the dust covers from two large oak tables and several small tables. There was plenty to do.

  When the afternoon light began to fade, Carrie put down her polishing rag. “Whew, we got quite a bit done. We can finish in here tomorrow.”

  “And maybe we can clean those tall windows,” Jessie added. “This room would be much brighter if the windows weren’t so dusty.”

  “That sounds like a good plan, Jessie,” Carrie said. “Now I want you children to take the rest of the afternoon off. You’ve done plenty of work for one day.”

  Benny put down the feather duster. “Do you think we could start looking for the violin in here, Carrie?”

  Carrie smiled. “I don’t see why not! Of course, Mr. Tooner said he made a complete search of every nook and cranny in the castle. But the poor man has so much else to do, I can’t imagine he checked everywhere.”

  “I hope not,” Benny said. “I mean to find that violin myself!”

  Benny Alden didn’t waste any time. He opened every cabinet and looked inside every bookcase. He gently tugged on each painting. Maybe there was a secret safe hidden behind one of them!

  “Nuts!” he said when he was almost through. “There are no good hiding places in here, Carrie.”

  But Benny was wrong. There was at least one very good hiding place in the great hall. Under a dust sheet covering a big chair, which Benny hadn’t thought to check, sat someone who had been listening to every word.

  CHAPTER 5

  Something Lost, Something Found

  At breakfast the next morning, everyone met with Carrie to plan the day’s work. She was pleased at how quickly jobs got done with the Aldens’ help. Still, it took some coaxing to get everybody to work together.

  “I’m sending Sandy to town. We’re very low on groceries,” Carrie announced. “Who else would like to go?”

  No one spoke up. Mr. Tooner stared at Sandy in that odd way he had. Tom kept on scribbling something in his notebook. As for the Aldens, they were full of other plans.

  “It’s such a fine day,” Mr. Alden said, “I’m going to do some clean-up work on the grounds.”

  “Jessie, Violet, and I are going to tackle those big windows in the great hall,” Henry told Carrie.

  “What about you, Benny?” Carrie asked.

  “I’m going to search for the violin! I’ll finish looking in the great hall. If it’s not there, I’m going to search the castle high and low!”

  This got everyone’s attention right away.

  First, Sandy spoke up. “Maybe Benny should come shopping with me after all. I … uh … I mean, there’s so much to carry.”

  Mr. Tooner, who never said much, asked for Benny’s help, too. “Well, I could use a boy to hammer a few things.”

  Even Tom needed Benny all of a sudden. He put down his pen next to his notebook. “I’ll put you to work. Why don’t you box up some of the books in the great hall so I can catalogue them? I’ll put a carton in there right now.” With that, Tom rushed upstairs.

  Benny didn’t know what to say. Why did everyone need him just when he wanted to explore the castle? He stopped eating his pancakes and looked up at Carrie.

  “There seems to be a great demand for a hardworking boy like you!” Carrie said with an encouraging smile. “But don’t worry. There aren’t too many books left in the great room. You’ll still have plenty of time to explore afterwards.”

  Before Sandy went out, she said to Benny: “Well, as long as you’re poking around, see if you can find the charm bracelet I lost the other day. I think it must be in the dining hall.”

  “Okay,” Benny agreed, though that wouldn’t be nearly as exciting as finding a valuable violin.

  After Mr. Tooner and Mr. Alden left, Carrie and the children tidied up the kitchen.

  “Well, I’m glad everyone has a job,” Carrie said. “And I’m glad Sandy won’t be underfoot. I keep finding her here, there, and everywhere.”

  “Well, today I’m going to be here, there, and everywhere,” Benny said with a smile.

  The children gathered up some buckets, sponges, rags, and cleaning supplies.

  “Henry, why don’t you put everything in the dumbwaiter, and we can send it up to the first floor?” Carrie asked. “I don’t like carrying a lot of things on the narrow back stairs.”

  Henry opened the doors to the dumbwaiter. The children could hear a man’s voice traveling down the passageway: “… just figured out how to stop all this snooping around. But I need to know if you have a buyer.”

  The voice faded out before the children heard anything else.

  “Whose voice is that?” Jessie asked.

  Henry thought. “I’m not sure if it’s Tom or Mr. Tooner. Probably Tom, since he talks to a lot of antiques dealers.”

  There was so much to do, no one had time to puzzle out who or what they had overheard. The children stacked their cleaning supplies inside the dumbwaiter. Benny pulled the rope to send it upstairs.

  In the great hall, everyone had a job to do. First, Henry took down the heavy velvet draperies.

  “I’ll take them outside and hang them,” Carrie said. “There’s a stiff breeze coming off the lake. That will blow some of the dust from these old curtains.”

  Violet helped Jessie remove the dust sheets from the rest of the furniture. “Goodness, look at this!” Violet cried, pulling a sheet off a big chair. She held up Sandy’s missing charm bracelet.

  “Why would Sandy’s bracelet be in this chair?” Benny wondered.

  “Most of this furniture has been covered up since we arrived,” Henry pointed out. “There are some strange things going on in this old castle,” Jessie said.

  Violet’s face was pale. “Ever since we got here, I don’t like going by the rooms where the furniture is covered up. If there’s a breeze blowing or anything, the sheets move and … I don’t know. I sometimes have the feeling someone is hiding under them.”

  Benny looked up at Violet. “Me, too!”

  Henry could tell that Benny and Violet were still a little nervous. He pulled a dust sheet off the last piece of furniture. “There, now it looks pretty normal in here, doesn’t it?”

  “Normal for an old castle,” Violet said. She felt a little better now that everything was uncovered.

  Benny felt better too. He settled himself down to work in front of a bookcase. Carrie had been right. There weren’t too many books left to pack up for Tom. In fact, Benny wondered why Tom even needed him for such a simple job.

  “Look!” Benny said. “Here are some albums with pictures of the castle a long time ago.”

  Benny got the boring work out of the way quickly. He dusted off old books and boxed them. Then he picked up a big green leather photo album. Inside were old black-and-white photos taken around Drummond Castle. There were some boys his very own age on ponies in front of the castle stable. There was a beautiful greenhouse with a wedding party posed in front of it.

  Then, in one photo,
Benny saw a familiar face. “Come here,” he called out to Henry and his sisters. “Doesn’t this look like Mr. Tooner?” He pointed to a thin young man with a serious look on his face.

  “I think it is,” Jessie said. “And, look, he’s holding a violin in the picture. There seems to be some kind of square dance out in the stables.”

  Violet took a look. “I don’t think that could be the Stradivarius — not at a country dance.”

  “Aw, shucks,” Benny said. “Why not?”

  “Sorry, Benny,” Violet said. “This looks like a fine fiddle Mr. Tooner is holding, but he’s playing with other country musicians in this picture. They wouldn’t use rare instruments.”

  “Nuts!” Benny said.

  Jessie wanted to cheer up Benny. “Well, there is a clue in the picture staring right at you.”

  “What is it, Jessie? Tell me. Please,” Benny begged.

  “It’s Mr. Tooner, of course. Now we know that he plays the violin. Maybe he’s the one we have heard playing.”

  “I still wish this was the violin everybody is looking for,” Benny said. “Maybe I’ll find an even better clue.”

  Benny didn’t have to wait long for a better clue. In fact, he was holding one right in his hands. “What does this paper say, Jessie? It fell out of one of the books Tom told me to pack. I can read print but not handwriting. Can you read it to me?”

  Jessie took a look at the paper Benny was holding. “Hmm. I’m not sure what this is, some sort of map. I guess we should have Carrie take a look at it.”

  The other children looked over Jessie’s shoulder as she turned the map this way and that.

  “It looks like someone was trying to scribble down directions,” Henry said when he studied the paper.

  “Directions to what?” Benny wanted to know.

  “I can’t figure it out,” Henry said. “Maybe it’s nothing much. But why don’t we try to match up some of the places on this map?”

  “Hooray!” Benny said. “I like following maps.”

  With an adventure ahead of them, the Aldens finished their work in no time. Soon the windows of the great room sparkled. And Benny had a box of books for Tom when he came in to get them.

  “Still here, I see.” As usual Tom had an annoyed look on his face when he spoke to the children.

  “We were careful with all these old things,” Jessie explained. “Benny was especially careful with the books you wanted.”

  “Fine, fine,” Tom said. “Well, move along then. I have work to finish in here myself. Carrie said to tell you to take the rest of the morning off if you’re finished. So you can leave now.”

  “That’s what we were about to do,” Violet said. “We just need to help Jessie and Henry gather up the window-washing things.”

  Tom seemed to want the room to himself. He shifted from one foot to the other until the children finally left.

  Carrie was sitting at the kitchen table going through old papers when the children returned there.

  “Look what Violet found!” Benny flashed Sandy’s charm bracelet in front of Carrie. “It was on one of the chairs that was covered up.”

  Carrie sighed. “Ah, that Sandy. She’s always leaving things around. She starts a job, then next thing I know she begins something else. I really wish the foundation had sent someone over who was already trained. Or that there were more Aldens to go around!”

  “Don’t tell that to Tom Brady,” Henry said as he dumped the water bucket into the sink. “He seems to think there are already too many Aldens. He couldn’t wait to shoo us out of the great hall.”

  “He didn’t give Benny so much as a thank-you for packing up all those books for him,” Jessie said.

  Carrie got up from her work to give Benny a big squeeze. “Well, here’s a hug and a thank-you, Benny,” Carrie said. “I guess Tom just likes to be by himself. I’m sure he appreciates what you did. I find that many people who work with old things like to work alone. I suppose Tom enjoys browsing through all the books he finds to see what treasures they might hold.”

  Benny waved the paper they had found in one of the books. “Here’s a treasure we found in an old book. It’s a map, and we’re going to see where it goes.”

  Carrie checked the paper to see if it was old or valuable. “I bet that’s something William Drummond drew up for his children. Like that drawing inside the suit of armor. He was always sending his children on treasure hunts. So go ahead,” Carrie said cheerfully. “But save the paper. I doubt it’s valuable, but when you’re finished with it I’ll file it away with some of the other personal papers I’ve found. That looks like a morning’s adventure.”

  “I sure hope so!” Benny cried.

  CHAPTER 6

  Benny Finds Two Treasures

  Mr. Alden was out on the grounds when his grandchildren spotted him. They couldn’t wait to tell their grandfather about the map.

  Watch dashed over from the garden to greet the children.

  “Watch has been whining for you children to come outdoors all morning.” Mr. Alden called out. “I’m afraid he finds gardening rather dull. You probably have something far more exciting for him.”

  “We sure do, Grandfather,” Benny said. “We found a map in an old book. We’re going on a treasure hunt. The greenhouse is where it starts.”

  “That’s right over there,” Grandfather pointed. “Only it’s not really a greenhouse anymore but the skeleton of one.”

  The children went inside the empty framework. Anyone could see there wasn’t anything hidden or secret about where they were standing.

  “Let’s go to the next place on the map,” Benny suggested.

  “That’s the stable we saw in the picture,” Jessie said. “Let’s take a look.”

  The children skipped over to an old building not far from the greenhouse. There were several empty horse stalls inside, but that was all.

  Benny’s face fell.

  “Let’s walk back and forth to see if the floor sounds hollow any place,” Henry suggested when he saw Benny’s disappointment. “You never know. There might be a secret passage that leads someplace.”

  The children walked in small steps. If there was a secret trap door they were going to find it. Benny walked up and down the length of the stable. There was nothing.

  “Come on, buddy,” Henry said. “Let’s go to the next place on the map.”

  Jessie began to wonder if the map was not a treasure map at all. She felt sorry for Benny. She knew he was counting on an adventure today. That’s when she got one of her good ideas.

  “We’ll make our own treasure hunt,” Jessie told Benny. “Violet and I will run ahead and hide some treats for you and Henry to find. Meet us back here in about twenty minutes. We’ll give you back the map, and you and Henry can follow it. What do you think of that?”

  “I think the treasures should be something to eat!” Benny suggested. “We couldn’t eat that old violin anyway.”

  While they waited, Henry and Benny decided to see what Grandfather was doing. When they returned to the garden they were surprised to see him with Mr. Tooner.

  “Is your treasure hunt over already, boys?” Mr. Alden asked. “I don’t see you carrying a bag of gold! Well, come see how a professional gardener does things. Do you mind, Mr. Tooner?”

  Mr. Tooner went about his work without greeting the boys. “Now the first thing you do with a lilac bush is you look for the old wood,” he said gruffly. “That’s what you cut — like this.” Mr. Tooner snapped off a branch with his pruning scissors.

  “Henry, why don’t you give it a try?” Mr. Alden suggested.

  Henry took the scissors from Mr. Tooner and started to cut.

  “Nope. Not that high, my boy. Cut it right down to the ground,” Mr. Tooner explained. “That’s the way.”

  Mr. Tooner supervised the boys as they took turns. “Now you don’t want to hack a growing thing like this the way some people do. You cut some of the old growth — not all of it, mind you — to make way
for the new. Now you folks can do the rest.”

  Mr. Alden and his grandsons watched Mr. Tooner slowly walk back to the castle.

  “Well, boys, I’m glad you came along when you did,” Mr. Alden said. “There’s nothing I like better than learning something new from a fine gardener.”

  “I thought I didn’t like Mr. Tooner, but now I do,” Benny announced.

  “I couldn’t agree more,” Mr. Alden said. “I noticed Mr. Tooner always seemed to be around wherever I looked. So I asked him to show me a few things. That’s often a good way to make friends with a stranger.”

  Henry pruned some of the other lilac branches. “Did Mr. Tooner talk about Drummond Castle?”

  “Just how to properly prune these lilacs,” Mr. Alden said. “Mr. Tooner makes every word count. Not much for chitchat and such. But that’s fine with me. I told him we were only here to help out, and he could teach us how to do what needs doing.”

  “I’m glad to know Mr. Tooner is such a good teacher, Grandfather,” Henry said. “I wish he would show me how to play a tune on the fiddle.”

  Mr. Alden looked puzzled. Benny explained. “We found a picture of Mr. Tooner at a dance a long time ago. He was holding a fiddle. We think we heard him practicing the other night.”

  “That wouldn’t surprise me a bit,” Mr. Alden said. “He’s got fine hands for it. Now where are Jessie and Violet? I think Benny’s had enough of gardening.”

  “And not enough of treasure hunting,” Benny agreed. “It seems longer than twenty minutes.”

  Henry checked his watch. “It is longer than twenty minutes. Let’s go back to the castle and see what’s holding them up.”

  Violet and Jessie were nowhere around when the boys went to the castle. Carrie said the girls had come in to get a bag of hard candy and two flashlights, and had then run off again.

  “Here’s a flashlight for you boys,” Carrie said.

  Benny took the flashlight from Carrie. “Where were the girls going that they might need one?” he asked.

  “Let’s check upstairs,” Henry suggested. “They might still be here getting their jackets or something.”