“What is it?” Henry called breathlessly.
“Look,” said Jessie. She stepped back and Benny pointed dramatically.
Violet and Henry stared. Then Violet said in a hushed voice, “Maybe there really is a lake monster.”
“Yes,” said Jessie, trying to sound calm.
Violet held the camera up and took a picture of one of the footprints. Then she took a photograph of the crushed bushes and broken twigs around it. Moving carefully, she took another photograph of the footprint from a different angle, and then another.
Jessie used a tape measure to measure one of the footprints. “This one’s thirteen inches long,” she said, “and seven and a half inches wide.”
“That’s big, isn’t it?” asked Benny.
“Yes,” answered Jessie.
Then Henry took the candles out and lit one. He used it to melt the other candles into the outline of a footprint. When he was finished, he had used up all the candles. Carefully he snuffed out the stub of the candle he’d been using. He dipped the end of the match into the lake and put the match and candle into his pocket. He didn’t want to start a fire — or be a litterbug.
“We have to let the wax harden now, before we lift the cast up,” said Jessie.
“Maybe we should look for more clues,” Violet suggested.
“Good idea,” said Henry.
The four Aldens spread out and looked around carefully. They didn’t see any more trampled bushes or broken limbs in the woods near the footprints.
“That means she didn’t come from the woods,” said Jessie.
They found several large rocks that had been knocked over and some sharp scratches in the sand that looked as if they had been made by claws. “She could have done that,” said Henry.
“Yes,” agreed Jessie. “But why did she come out of the water here? And why did she go back in?”
“Maybe when Watch growled, she heard him and it scared her,” suggested Benny.
“But if Watch was growling at Lucy, why was he facing in the other direction part of the time when he was growling?” Jessie went on. “Remember? He went to the other end of the porch.”
“Maybe Lucy was swimming away,” said Henry. He checked the cast of the footprint. The wax had hardened. Very carefully Henry lifted the wax out of the footprint. Sand and grit were embedded in the bottom of the cast. He held both hands under the enormous wax impression so that it wouldn’t break.
Violet pulled some branches over all the footprints. “We should show them to Dr. Lin,” she suggested.
“Yes,” Jessie said. “But first let’s take this cast up to the cabin and put it in a safe place,” said Jessie. “We don’t want anything to happen to it.”
They took the cast up to the cabin and Jessie put it in the lower drawer of the bureau in the room she and Violet were sharing. Then, although it was early, they went to Dr. Lin’s cabin.
But Dr. Lin wasn’t there.
“I wonder where she is so early in the morning,” said Violet.
Henry looked down at the wet grass in front of the cabin. “I don’t know. But I don’t think she’s been here all night.”
“Why?” asked Benny.
“Look at the wet grass,” said Henry. “We made a trail through it when we walked up to the cabin door. But there was no trail before we got here.”
“You’re right!” Jessie said. “Do you think she’s all right?”
“What if Lucy got her?” Violet said.
“Lucy wouldn’t do that,” said Benny.
“I’ll write a note and we can leave it on her door,” said Jessie. “I think we should talk to Dr. Lin before we do anything else. After all, she is a scientist.”
“Yes,” said Henry. “Maybe now that we have a cast of the footprint, she’ll listen to us and help us solve this mystery.”
CHAPTER 7
A Monster Bite
“This is good,” said Benny. “I was hungry.” He finished the last bite of his sandwich and looked over the picnic spread out on the flat rock by the lake.
The Aldens and Nicole were hiking around the lake again, looking for clues. The Aldens hadn’t told anyone about the footprints except Nicole. They were still waiting for Dr. Lin to get back to her cabin. Nicole had told them that Dr. Lin often went away for overnight camping trips while she was doing research. “She always tells Nora,” Nicole explained. “That’s so if she gets lost, they’ll know to go look for her.”
“That’s good,” said Benny.
When they had run into Drew earlier, Benny had immediately told him of their plans to hike around the lake. “So if we get lost,” he explained, “you’ll know where to look.”
Drew had nodded. “Good for you. You’re already learning important lessons in wilderness safety,” he said. “I’ll tell Nora, too.” He paused. “It is beautiful here,” he said, almost to himself. Then he said, “Stop by the lodge before you go on your hike. I might have a surprise for you.”
The surprise had been a picnic lunch that Drew had made especially for them.
Benny now picked up another peanut butter and jelly sandwich. “Drew is a great cook,” he said happily.
“This is good,” agreed Jessie. She was eating a sandwich stacked high with tomatoes, lettuce, and cheese, and a delicious pasta salad. “It was nice of him to make lunch for us. He even remembered Watch.”
Hearing his name, Watch wagged his tail and kept on chewing on the giant dog biscuit that Drew had packed into the lunch in a brown paper bag that said FOR WATCH.
“I didn’t like Drew at first,” said Violet. “But now I think he’s not so bad. It’s hard to get used to a new place and new people. Maybe he’s just shy.” Violet could understand that. She was a little shy herself sometimes.
They ate in silence for a while. Then Nicole glanced out over the water. “Look,” she said. “Someone has taken one of the canoes out on the lake.”
Henry picked up the binoculars and peered through them. “It looks like your brother,” he told Nicole.
“Jason? I don’t believe it!” Nicole said.
Henry handed her the binoculars. Nicole peered through them and said in a surprised voice, “It is Jason. That’s the first time this whole summer he has taken the canoe out. Maybe he’s starting to like it here after — oh, no!”
“What?” asked Henry.
“His boat just turned over. We have to help him!” gasped Nicole.
She jumped up and began to run back along the trail toward a spot closer to the canoe. She was still holding the binoculars.
The Aldens jumped up, too. Looking out over the lake, they could see the bright green bottom of the canoe upended on the water.
Jessie squinted. “I think I see Carl.”
“Come on,” said Henry, “let’s go help.”
The Aldens ran after Nicole. Just as they caught up with her, they saw Carl and Jason wading out of the lake near the trail. Wildman stood on the shore, half in and half out of the water. He was barking.
“Jason, Jason, are you all right?” Nicole cried.
“Of course I’m all right,” said Jason. He sounded angry. “I had a life jacket on and I can swim.”
Carl growled, “Yes, but if you’d been hit on the head when you fell out of the canoe, it could have been worse for you.”
Jason reached the shore and pulled his arm free from Carl. “I don’t need your help,” he said crossly.
Nicole said, “Jason, Carl helped you. He didn’t know whether or not you were hurt. He went in the water after you. He saved your life. He’s a hero!”
Carl’s deeply tanned cheeks reddened. “None of that, now,” he said. “I’m no hero. I did what anyone would have done if they saw someone fall out of a canoe.”
“I didn’t fall out of my canoe!” Jason almost shouted.
“Then what happened?” Jessie asked.
“Someone grabbed my paddle and pulled me out. And turned the canoe over!” Jason said. He held up the paddle angrily. “It
happened too quickly for me to see who did it.”
Everyone froze.
Then Violet said in a soft voice, “Jason, what happened to your paddle?”
Jason looked at the paddle for the first time. His eyes widened. He let go of the paddle, and it would have fallen except that Henry caught it.
The tip of the paddle looked as if someone — or something — had taken a huge bite out of it.
“Lucy!” gasped Nicole. “Lucy bit your paddle. Lucy turned your canoe over.”
Carl stood as still as a statue. Now he seemed pale beneath his ruddy tan. “It’s not possible,” he whispered.
Jason recovered his wits. “You’re right. It’s not.” He glared at Nicole. “Is this your idea of a joke?”
“A joke?” Nicole’s voice rose. “A joke?” she repeated. “I would never do something like that.”
“Besides, how could she?” Henry said reasonably. “She was with us.”
“Maybe you’re all in it together! Maybe you would do anything to prove that some phony monster is real,” said Jason.
“We didn’t turn you over! We were having a picnic,” said Benny.
“Besides, none of us is wet,” Jessie pointed out. “Even if one of us was able to swim out to your canoe and turn you over, we would be wet now.”
“And we saw a footprint, too,” cried Benny. “Of Lucy’s. On the beach. She’s real. It wasn’t us who grabbed your paddle. It was Lucy.”
Jason looked from one of them to the other. Then he said, “Somebody did this to me. And it wasn’t the monster. In fact, the only monsters I see around here are you little kids.”
With that, he turned and walked away. His sneakers made squishing sounds as he walked.
Carl still hadn’t moved. His gaze was fixed on the paddle that Henry held. Then he began to shake his head slowly.
“Are you okay?” Jessie asked him.
Carl looked up. He seemed surprised, as if he hadn’t expected to see them.
“Are you cold? We have a blanket with us. I could go get it for you,” Violet volunteered.
“No, thank you,” said Carl.
“You were right about the lake monster, Carl,” said Henry.
“Yes, Lucy is real,” said Benny. “No matter what Jason says. We had a footprint already. And now we have this paddle to prove it.”
Carl gave Benny an odd look. Then, without speaking another word, he disappeared into the woods, with Wildman right behind him.
As they walked back to the lodge to return the napkins and blanket and thermoses from the picnic, they met Nora coming out of the storage building.
She frowned when she saw the Aldens and Nicole. “Jason told me what happened,” she said. “Is this some kind of joke you kids are playing?”
“No,” said Henry.
“There is no monster,” said Nora. “I practically grew up on this lake. I know it. I would have known if there was anything like a monster in it. There isn’t.”
“Then what took a bite out of this?” asked Jessie, holding up the paddle.
“It got caught on a rock. Or a branch under the water,” said Nora.
“Or bitten by a lake monster,” said Nicole.
“Oh, my goodness! What happened to the paddle?” asked a woman’s voice. It was the young woman who had checked into the lodge the day before.
“Nothing,” said Nora. “Someone turned a canoe over in the lake. I’m about to paddle out and tow it home.”
The man with the woman peered at the paddle. “It looks as if those are teeth marks,” he said.
“They might be,” said Benny. “They might have been made by the lake monster.”
“Lake monster? What lake monster?” cried the woman, looking very alarmed.
At that moment Dr. Lin came hiking into the clearing in front of the lodge. “There you are,” she said to the Aldens and Nicole. She held up the note Jessie had written. “What is all this about finding footprints left by the monster of Lake Lucille?”
CHAPTER 8
Suspects and Clues
“There is no monster!” Nora practically shouted.
“That does it,” the man said. “We’re checking out of here. We don’t need to stay in a place where people think they have seen monsters.”
“But — ” Nora began.
“And we’ll want a full refund,” the man went on.
Nora’s lips tightened. “Fine. I’ll give it to you right now. Come on.” Her chin held high, she led the couple back into the lodge.
“We have a paddle, too. Lucy bit it,” said Benny.
Dr. Lin looked down at the paddle and raised her eyebrows. “It certainly looks as if something might have bitten it,” she said. “Now why don’t you show me these footprints you were talking about. The originals first, and then the cast.”
Quickly they led the way back to the beach. “Right here,” said Benny proudly. He pulled back the protective covering of branches that they had left over the footprints early that morning and pointed.
“Where?” asked Dr. Lin, squatting down.
Benny looked down. His eyes got big. His mouth turned down in disappointment.
The footprints were gone!
“They were here this morning!” Jessie cried. “We all saw them.”
Dr. Lin stood up. “Well, whatever you saw, they’re not here now.”
“We still have the wax cast,” said Violet.
“Yes. We can show you that. And we took photographs and measured it, too,” said Henry.
But when Jessie took the wax cast of the giant foot out of her drawer and brought it into the main room of the cabin to show Dr. Lin, the scientist didn’t look surprised or impressed at all.
She studied it thoughtfully. After a long moment she said, “It is very big and you did a nice job of making a cast of whatever this is.”
“It’s Lucy’s footprint,” said Benny.
“If it is, it is certainly a most unusual footprint,” said Dr. Lin. “In all my studies, I have never come across any animal that had both the webbed feet of a duck and the enormous claws of a tiger. This footprint looks as if it were made by two entirely different species . . . or one. My guess is that it is only one species of animal.”
“Which one?” asked Henry.
Dr. Lin looked up to meet his gaze. “Human,” she said simply. “I’m sorry. I’ve said all along that the existence of a lake monster was not possible. This only proves me right.”
With that, Dr. Lin turned and left the cabin.
“She’s wrong,” Benny burst out. “Lucy is real. I know she is.”
“I don’t know what to believe anymore, Benny,” said Jessie. “We need some more information. We need to do some more research on Nessie and Champ and on the kinds of animals scientists think they might be.”
“But how?” asked Violet.
“We’re going to take a trip to town,” said Jessie.
“To the library,” guessed Henry.
“But how?” asked Violet.
“We’ll get Nora or Drew to take us,” said Jessie. “Remember what Nora told us? They go to town every Thursday. And tomorrow is Thursday.”
That night at dinner, the Aldens asked Nora if they could get a ride to town the next day.
“To Saranac Lake?” asked Nora. “Sure. What for?”
“We want to go to the library,” said Jessie.
To their relief, Nora didn’t ask them why. She said, “I rely on library books to get me through the winters. Saranac Lake has a nice library.”
After saying good-bye to Watch and Grandfather the next morning, the Aldens found themselves in the big old pickup truck with Drew. He didn’t talk much as he drove. Instead he leaned forward, clenching the wheel tightly and staring at the road. Not until they had reached the outskirts of Saranac Lake did he relax.
“There’s the post office,” he said as he drove down the street. “And the hardware store. And over there is a bookstore. We’ve even got a health food store.”
The Aldens were surprised. “I thought you didn’t like it here,” said Benny. “But you sound like you do.”
Drew looked surprised and then a little embarrassed. “It grows on you,” he said, almost as gruffly as Carl. “Here’s the library. I’ll meet you at the health food store in an hour.”
The Aldens liked the library at Saranac Lake. They quickly found a book with more information about the Loch Ness Monster.
“Look. It says loch is the word they use in Scotland for ‘lake,’ ” said Violet. “The two words do sort of sound the same.”
Henry picked up another book. “And look at this,” he said, keeping his voice low because they were in a library. “Here’s a drawing of what the Loch Ness Monster is supposed to look like. Some people say she is related to a certain kind of dinosaur.”
“Dinosaurs are extinct. Aren’t they?” asked Benny.
“Yes,” said Jessie.
Violet whispered, “Dr. Lin.”
Her brothers and sister looked up.
“What?” asked Henry.
Holding up a piece of paper, Violet repeated, “Dr. Lin. Here’s a piece of paper with her name at the top. See? It says, ‘From the desk of Dr. Kisha Lin.’ ”
“Where did you get that, Violet?” asked Jessie.
“Out of this book. It was marking the place where I was reading about the Loch Ness Monster,” said Violet.
The Aldens studied the piece of paper. “Look. It’s a list of all the books that have information about Nessie and Champ,” said Henry. “It looks as if Dr. Lin has been doing research on them, too.”
As she peered at the paper, Violet said, “But look at the date on the piece of paper. If she was doing research on Nessie or Champ because of Lucy, it was weeks before we got here, at the very beginning of the summer.”
The Mystery of the Lake Monster Page 4