Boxcar Children 62 - Mystery of the Lake Monster

by Warner, Gertrude Chandler

  Henry’s cheeks flushed. “We’re not little kids. And we don’t believe in monsters.”

  “Jason, Mom and Dad and I are here. It’s time for dinner,” said a girl’s voice.

  The Aldens turned to see a girl who was about Violet’s or Jessie’s age standing in the doorway of the library. Like Jason, she had black hair and brown eyes. Her hair was pulled back in a long dark braid. She gave the Aldens a friendly smile. “Hi, I’m Nicole. Nicole Dubois. We’re staying with my mom and dad in Moose Cabin for the whole summer. Who are you?”

  “I’m Henry Alden, and these are my sisters, Jessie and Violet, and my brother, Benny,” said Henry. “We just got here. We’re in Black Bear Cabin.”

  “I’m glad you’re here,” said Nicole. “Now I’ll have someone to do things with. Jason never wants to do anything but sit in the library and read. And the only other person staying here is Dr. Lin. She is a biologist who is doing research.”

  “There’s nothing to do here except read,” said the boy. “This place is so boring.”

  “It’s not boring, Jason!” Nicole cried. “It’s fun to hike and swim and fish and take the canoe out on the lake.”

  “Little kid stuff,” said Jason with a yawn. He stood up and walked out of the room. “Anything would be better than being here — even summer school.”

  Nicole rolled her eyes. “He’s going to college this fall,” she said. “Suddenly he thinks he’s so grown-up.”

  “Most grown-ups don’t act like that,” Jessie blurted out. Then she stopped, embarrassed. “Sorry,” she said.

  “That’s okay,” said Nicole. “I have to go to dinner, but maybe I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Okay,” said Henry.

  “We’re in the library to do research on the monster,” Benny said suddenly. “Do you believe in monsters?”

  Nicole’s eyes widened. She stepped forward. “You’ve heard about Lucy?” she asked in a low voice.

  “Lucy?” asked Violet.

  “The monster of Lake Lucille,” said Nicole.

  “Have you seen her?” asked Jessie. “Have you seen Lucy?”

  Nicole whispered, “No, I haven’t. But I know someone who has.”

  CHAPTER 3

  Here Be Monsters?

  “Who?” Jessie asked.

  “Nicole, come on,” a woman’s voice said.

  “I can’t tell you right now. I have to go. But I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow. Meet me at the beach tomorrow morning!” Nicole said in a low, rapid voice. Then she ran out the library door.

  “So the monster is real,” said Violet. “Oh, no!”

  “We’d better get to work doing research,” said Henry. “The more we know, the better.”

  The Aldens searched for information in the lodge’s library for a long time. But the library was small, so they didn’t find very much.

  “We should go,” said Benny the next morning when he had finished his big breakfast in the lodge dining room.

  “Whoa. Where do you want to go in such a hurry?” asked Grandfather.

  “To the beach,” said Benny.

  Grandfather took a sip of coffee. “Don’t go in the water until I get there,” he said. “There’s no lifeguard.”

  “Okay,” said Benny.

  The Aldens put on their bathing suits, put on T-shirts and shorts, picked up their towels, and went down to the beach. At one end of the half-moon of shore was a small dock with four canoes pulled up onto the land next to it. At the other end Nicole sat waiting for them.

  She jumped up when she saw them. “You’re here at last!” she cried dramatically.

  “Have you seen Lucy?” asked Benny. He put his hand up to shade his eyes and peered out at the lake.

  “No. But Carl Nielson has!” said Nicole.

  “Carl Nielson? We met him yesterday,” said Henry. “He’s the one who told us about Lucy.”

  Nicole’s face fell. “Really? So you know all about what happened,” she said.

  “No,” Jessie said. “He just told us about Lucy. He wouldn’t tell us if he had seen her or not.”

  “And then Nora told us there was no monster,” added Violet.

  “Nora’s saying that because she’s afraid the monster will scare away the guests at Lucille Lodge,” said Nicole.

  “Not many people are staying here,” observed Henry. “Maybe they are scared to come visit.”

  “Maybe,” said Nicole. She shrugged. “I wish I could see the monster, like Carl did.”

  “Where did he see it?” asked Henry.

  “What did it look like?” asked Jessie at the same time.

  “Did it chase him?” Benny chimed in.

  “Over by the big rock across the lake. It had a small head and a long neck and a sort of hump on its back. He was in his boat fishing and it tried to turn him over.”

  “How did he escape?” asked Violet, horrified.

  “He threw Lucy all of his fish. While she was eating them, he rowed back to shore and jumped out of the boat. When he looked back, Lucy was gone,” Nicole told them.

  “Maybe she wasn’t trying to turn him over,” said Benny. “Maybe she was just trying to play.”

  “Well, I don’t want to ever play with a monster,” said Nicole. “But I’d like to see her!”

  “Me too,” said Benny.

  “I would, too,” said Jessie, and Henry nodded.

  Violet said, “Maybe I wouldn’t.”

  “But Violet, if we could see her, we could prove she exists,” Henry argued.

  Violet didn’t look convinced. “I don’t know,” she said. “Lots of people have seen Nessie and Champ and that didn’t prove that they were real.”

  “Nessie and Champ?” asked Nicole. She listened carefully as the Aldens explained what they had read.

  “We thought we should do some research,” Jessie concluded.

  “Research . . .” repeated Henry, looking thoughtful, “research.” Then he snapped his fingers. “I’ve got it! We have to have proof that the monster exists. Scientific proof.”

  “But how do we do that?” asked Jessie.

  “I’m not sure,” said Henry. “But maybe we could ask Dr. Lin.”

  “Because she’s a scientist?” asked Benny.

  “That’s right, Benny,” his brother answered.

  Violet said, “But we don’t know Dr. Lin. What if she doesn’t want to help us?”

  Nicole spoke up. “She’s not very friendly.”

  “We won’t know until we try,” said Jessie. “Where is she staying, Nicole?”

  “In Elk Cabin,” said Nicole. “She picked the last one at the very end.”

  “Come on, then,” said Jessie. “Let’s go.”

  Dr. Lin was just coming out of her cabin as the Aldens walked up the trail to her door. The Aldens remembered seeing her reading in the dining room.

  “Hello,” called Henry.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked. She closed the door behind her. She was wearing khaki hiking shorts, heavy socks, heavy boots, a long-sleeved T-shirt, and a cap. She had a pack on her back, and a camera and a pair of binoculars around her neck.

  “We wanted to ask you a few questions,” Jessie said.

  “About what?” Dr. Lin asked. “Who are you?”

  “We’re the Aldens. We’re here for a visit. And this is Nicole —” Henry began to say, but Dr. Lin interrupted.

  “Never mind. I know who Nicole is. And I don’t need to know who the rest of you are. I haven’t got time.” Dr. Lin pushed past them and started walking up the path away from her cabin.

  “Wait,” said Benny. “It’s important. It’s about the monster.”

  Dr. Lin stopped. Slowly she turned. “Did you say ‘monster’?”

  “Yes. The one Carl Nielson says he saw,” Nicole said. “Do you know anything about it?”

  “Why would I?” asked Dr. Lin, frowning. She started to turn away. “Besides, monsters don’t exist.”

  Henry said quickly, “But if
you wanted to prove that one did exist, how would you do it? Scientifically, I mean.”

  That surprised Dr. Lin. “Oh,” she said. “Hmmm. Well, you’d need evidence. Scientific evidence. Castings of the tracks of the animal. A photograph. Tufts of fur. Or the animal itself.”

  “Alive?” asked Benny doubtfully.

  Dr. Lin shrugged. “If possible . . . but I can’t tell you how to catch a monster. I have serious field research to do.”

  She turned again and walked quickly up the trail.

  The Aldens and Nicole looked at one another. Nicole said, “I have my camera. But we have to find the monster to make a picture.”

  “It might be easier to find Lucy’s tracks,” said Henry. “But what’s a casting?”

  “We can go back to the library at the lodge,” suggested Jessie. “Maybe we can look it up there.”

  “Here,” said Henry. “This book talks about how to make casts of animal tracks. You can use all kinds of materials — like wax. You melt it into the track and when it hardens, you have a cast of the animal’s footprint.”

  Jessie read over Henry’s shoulder. “Listen to this! It says that you can tell all kinds of things from a footprint — like how tall the animal is and whether it walks on two legs or four.”

  “We have lots of wax,” said Benny excitedly. “We have all those candles in our cabin.”

  Violet nodded and took the book back to its place on the shelf.

  Just then, they heard angry voices outside the half-open door of the library.

  “I don’t care, Drew. That’s one of the best things about Lucille Lodge. It’s not some fancy tourist hotel. The people who come here really love the mountains. They don’t come to watch TV and order room service.”

  “Nora, be reasonable. We need to attract more business. And the way to do that is to modernize. Tear down the cabins and build new ones that have running water and —”

  “No. We have enough business. We have enough money to live on. What more do we want?” Nora asked.

  Drew said, “You’re impossible.”

  “If you want more money, I’m surprised you didn’t think we should sell it when we got that offer,” Nora asked.

  “Maybe we should have,” Drew snapped. They heard heavy footsteps stomp away. Then they heard Nora sigh and walk slowly after her husband.

  CHAPTER 4

  A Sound in the Dark

  When they were sure that Nora and Drew were gone, the Aldens and Nicole came cautiously out of the library.

  “Are they going to sell Lucille Lodge?” asked Benny

  “I hope not, Benny,” said Violet.

  “If we catch the monster, it won’t get a chance to scare away business,” said Benny. “Then Nora won’t have to sell the lodge.”

  “First we have to prove there is a monster,” said Jessie.

  “Or that there isn’t one,” Violet said.

  “But if there isn’t a monster,” asked Nicole, “why is Carl saying that there is one?”

  “It’s part of the mystery,” said Henry. He smiled. “And we like mysteries.”

  “Yes. We’ve solved a lot of them,” said Benny. “Let’s hurry and get the candles so we can solve this one!”

  But although the Aldens and Nicole spent the whole day looking around the lake, they didn’t see a single sign of Lucy.

  They did find Carl again, however, just before it was time to go back to the lodge for dinner — or rather, Carl found them. He appeared as silently and unexpectedly as he had the day before.

  “What are you looking for? Did you lose something?” he growled. They looked up from their search along the shoreline to see Carl and Wildman standing in the shadow of a huge tree.

  “Hi,” said Benny. “We’re looking for monster tracks.”

  “Monster tracks? And have you found any?” asked Carl.

  “No,” said Benny. “We found all kinds of tracks, but none of them are monster tracks. At least, I don’t think they are.”

  “Here are some tracks,” said Violet. She pushed aside a low branch that overhung the lake.

  Carl walked closer and glanced down. “Raccoon,” he said. “They’re nocturnal animals. That means they mostly come out at night.”

  “Like owls?” asked Benny.

  “Yes. And opossums. Deer, now, they move around most in the early morning and the early evening.”

  “Is Lucy a night creature or a day creature?” asked Violet.

  “Why would I know that?” asked Carl.

  “Because you’ve seen her,” said Nicole.

  “Seen who?” Carl asked.

  “The lake monster — Lucy,” said Nicole. “You told me so. Remember?”

  “That’s right. Nicole told us about how you escaped,” Jessie said. “Did that happen at night or in the morning?”

  “In the early morning it was,” said Carl at last.

  “If we were going to set a trap to catch Lucy,” said Henry, “how would we do that?”

  “Well, instead of setting a trap, my suggestion would be to take a picture of her,” said Carl. “Good luck to you. Come, Wild-man.” As before, the man and the dog seemed to almost melt away and disappear into the trees.

  “Found any monsters yet?” Jason asked with a sneer as the Aldens walked past his family’s table after finishing dinner at the lodge that night.

  “No. Not yet,” said Benny.

  “Well, don’t stop looking. At least it keeps Nicole from bothering me all day long,” said Jason.

  Nicole made a face at her brother.

  “See you tomorrow, Nicole,” said Jessie.

  “Right,” said Nicole.

  “Jason’s going to be sorry he was mean to us and to his sister when we find Lucy,” said Benny.

  “If Lucy really does live in Lake Lucille,” Violet said. “After all, Dr. Lin said that it wasn’t possible, and she ought to know. She’s a scientist.”

  “Even scientists aren’t always right, you know,” said Grandfather Alden. “Not too long ago, scientists said that the idea of traveling in space was nothing but science fiction. And you see how wrong they were.”

  Henry said, “That’s true. We have to keep open minds until we can prove that Lucy does exist — or that she doesn’t.”

  “But if she’s not real, then why would Carl say that he saw her?” asked Benny.

  “It’s a two-part mystery,” said Jessie as they reached the door of their cabin. “One: does a monster live in the lake and how do we prove that she does? Two: if we prove there is no monster, why did Carl say he saw one?”

  Watch came running up to them, wagging his tail happily.

  “Let’s take Watch for one more walk before bed,” suggested Henry.

  “Good idea,” said Grandfather Alden. He handed Henry the flashlight he had been carrying. “Everyone take a flashlight.” Grandfather had taken a flashlight with him to dinner in case they had needed it on the walk home. But they hadn’t, since the summer days were long. Now, however, it was getting dark fast.

  Benny attached Watch’s leash to his collar.

  “We won’t go far,” Jessie told their grandfather. “Just a little way along the Lakeside Trail, and then we’ll come back.”

  The Aldens went out into the night. Stars shone brightly above. A faint breeze brushed the leaves on the trees.

  “I like it here,” declared Violet. “Even if there is a monster in the lake.”

  Jessie said slowly, “You know, I’ve been thinking. Maybe it isn’t a two-part mystery. Maybe it’s a three-part mystery.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Benny. “What’s part three?”

  “Maybe Carl really did think he saw a monster. But it wasn’t a monster. Maybe someone is trying to make everyone believe there is a monster in Lake Lucille.”

  “But who would do a mean thing like that?” asked Violet.

  Just then they heard a long, low sound.

  “What’s that?” said Benny, stopping in his tracks. Watch looked toward
the lake.

  “Look at Watch,” said Jessie. “It came from the — ”

  The noise came again, a sound almost like the mooing of a cow, but more eerie. Watch barked once, sharply, and pulled on his leash, straining to get down to the water.

  “It’s coming from the lake,” said Henry. “Let’s go.” He raced as fast as he dared back along the main trail and turned down the first trail that led to the lake — the one that went right past Dr. Lin’s cabin.

  Just as they reached the beach, the long, low sound came again. Henry shone his flashlight out over the water and the sound faded away.

  “What was that?” asked Violet.

  “I don’t know,” said Jessie. “But it sounded as if it came from out in the lake.”

  “Do you think someone is out there?” asked Benny.

  “Someone. Or something,” answered Jessie.

  Just then an angry voice behind them said, “What is going on here?”

  The Aldens turned to see Dr. Lin standing on the edge of the beach at the foot of the trail that led down past her cabin. She was wearing sneakers and a bathrobe over her pajamas and holding a flashlight in one hand.

  “Dr. Lin!” exclaimed Henry. “What are you doing here?”

  “I asked you first,” said Dr. Lin crossly. “But if you want to know what I am doing here, I came out to investigate why a herd of noisy children would run past my cabin in the middle of the night.”

  “It’s not the middle of the night,” cried Benny. He paused. “Is it?”

  “For me it might as well be. I go to bed very early because I get up early to do my work,” said Dr. Lin. “I was sound asleep when you came crashing by.”

  “I’m sorry,” said Henry. “We didn’t mean to wake you up.”

  “We heard a noise from the lake,” said Jessie.

  “And we wanted to see what it was,” Violet finished.

  “A noise? What noise?” Dr. Lin cocked her head to listen. Everyone stood very still, even Watch. For a long moment no sound could be heard at all except the whisper of the wind through the trees. Then faintly and far away they heard hooting.