Summer Rider

by Bonnie Bryant

  Lisa sighed. “I don’t think so, Stevie.”

  “Why not?” Stevie dodged to avoid a thornbush. “I’m sure the two of you could manage to find a nice, private little clearing of your very own.” She grinned. “Maybe Melissa and what’s-his-name would even share theirs.”

  Lisa didn’t answer, but that didn’t slow Stevie down one bit.

  “If you and Todd get together, he’ll probably get you your very own skateboard for Christmas,” Stevie mused. “Wouldn’t that be romantic? Or better yet, maybe he’d get a skateboard built for two!”

  Carole glanced back at Lisa, who was behind her on the narrow trail. Lisa’s eyes were downcast, and Carole wasn’t sure if it was because she was watching her step or because she was uncomfortable with the topic under discussion. It was definitely time to change the subject.

  “You know, I was just thinking about the horse show,” she said, interrupting whatever Stevie was starting to say about Todd’s biceps. “You know how Max always makes us write down our goals before shows? I think we should do that for this show, too, even though he’s not here to make us.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Lisa said, thinking of her own secret goal—to win the show-jumping competition. She knew it wasn’t a goal Max would approve of. He liked them to concentrate on improving their own performance, not on competing with other riders. But Lisa didn’t care.

  Stevie just shrugged. “I guess we could do that,” she said. “Do we have to write them down, though? I don’t think I brought a single pen to camp.” She gave Lisa a teasing glance. “Unlike some people, I wasn’t planning to do any schoolwork here.”

  Lisa ignored the barb about her reading list. She was still thinking about the horse show. “I can’t believe we have less than two weeks left to get ready for the show,” she said.

  “Me either,” Carole said with a grin. “I can’t wait! So what do you think your goal will be, Stevie?”

  “I’ll have to think about it,” Stevie said. “Maybe keeping Belle focused during equitation. She always concentrates when we’re jumping or doing dressage, but during the easier stuff she sometimes gets distracted.”

  “That sounds good,” Carole said, kicking a large pinecone out of her path. “What about you, Lisa?”

  Lisa shrugged. She knew her friends wouldn’t approve of her real goal any more than Max would. “Just to do my best, I guess,” she said quietly, thinking of Piper. “My very best. No excuses.”

  Carole gave her a quick glance. Something about Lisa’s expression bothered her. “Don’t you want to make it something more specific?” she asked. “You said something the other day about lengthening Major’s stride after a turn—how about that?”

  “We’ll see,” Lisa said. “What about you, Carole?”

  Carole suspected that Lisa was trying to take the focus off herself, but she wasn’t sure why. She thought for a second as the three girls climbed over a large boulder in their path. “I think my main goal for the show will be to really concentrate on acting as a team. I’m going to try to pay even more attention than usual to how Starlight is reacting to things.”

  “Are you sure that’s possible?” Stevie said. “You guys are such a team already that it’s sometimes hard to remember you’re two separate critters.”

  Carole smiled. “There’s room for improvement in any relationship,” she reminded Stevie. But she was still thinking about Lisa’s goal. She opened her mouth to change the subject back to that, but Stevie spoke up first.

  “Speaking of relationships,” she said, “Todd told me he just broke up with his last girlfriend at the end of the school year. So this is definitely the time to snag him, Lisa—on the rebound.”

  Lisa just sighed again. “So, what do you think happened to Barry?” she asked quickly.

  Carole couldn’t help smiling a little. This time there was no question about it—Lisa was definitely trying to change the subject. And this time Carole couldn’t blame her.

  Luckily Stevie didn’t suspect a thing. Todd was forgotten as soon as she started discussing the mystery.

  “He must have gone the other direction coming out of the mess hall,” she said. “Maybe we can track him down before class.”

  Carole looked at her watch again. “Not unless you’ve suddenly developed the power to stop time,” she said. “We’re going to be late as it is.”

  “Well, maybe after class, then,” Stevie said. “After all, even you two skeptics have to admit now that something funny is going on with him.”

  “I guess so,” Carole admitted. “But I’m not sure we should be interfering in it, whatever it is.”

  Lisa nodded. They were almost to the edge of the woods now, and she was already shifting her thoughts from Barry to her upcoming riding class. “If Barry is having some kind of personal problem, I’m sure he doesn’t want us poking our noses into it.”

  “He would if he thought we could help him,” Stevie argued. “And I’m sure we can. We’re The Saddle Club, remember? Just because Barry isn’t a member doesn’t mean we should forget our rule about helping people.”

  The girls stepped out of the woods behind the mess hall. “Hold on a second,” Carole said. She bent down, yanked off her sneaker, and dumped out a pebble and a small twig.

  While Carole put her shoe back on, Stevie glanced around. “Hey, look,” she said. “There’s Barry.”

  Carole and Lisa looked where she was pointing. Barry was standing on a small hill near the other end of the meadow. The girls knew that the hill had a great view of the entire camp. From there you could see the entire meadow, the stables and paddocks, and most of the cabins. Even the swimming pond was partially visible through its screen of trees.

  “What’s he doing?” Carole asked. Even though Barry wasn’t close enough to hear them, she found herself whispering.

  Stevie shrugged. “It looks like he’s just enjoying the view.”

  “He looks awfully serious, doesn’t he?” Lisa said. “Kind of thoughtful. Maybe even a little sad.”

  “You’re not going to go bother him again now, are you?” Carole asked Stevie.

  “I guess not,” Stevie said. As much as she wanted to find out what was going on, she didn’t feel right about disturbing Barry when he looked the way he did just then. “Anyway, we have to get to class.”

  “Good,” Carole said, turning away from Barry and going to change into her boots.

  Stevie paused before following, glancing once again at the camp-director. “I’m going to find out what’s going on, though,” she said quietly. “I won’t give up until I do.”

  “I REALLY SHOULDN’T be doing this,” Lisa said as she tightened Major’s girth. It was Wednesday, and Carole and Stevie had just convinced her to come on a trail ride with them during the free hour between breakfast and their first morning classes. “I still haven’t finished Jane Eyre.” She had fallen asleep the night before trying to read the book under her covers with her flashlight. This morning the flashlight’s batteries had been almost dead. Luckily her mother had packed a spare set in her suitcase.

  “We’re doing you a favor,” Stevie replied. “All that reading can’t be good for your eyes.”

  Lisa didn’t answer. She led Major to the mounting block and swung aboard, feeling guilty about wasting this time when she could be doing something more worthwhile. Still, she didn’t want to worry her friends. She knew they thought she was working too hard. And she comforted herself with the thought that she could practice lengthening and shortening Major’s strides as she rode. Hadn’t one of the instructors said that every ride was a learning experience for the horse?

  The only thing Stevie was thinking about learning as she rode Belle toward the woods was Barry’s secret. “I can’t believe Barry is keeping such a low profile,” she commented. “He must know we’re on to him. But does he have a guilty conscience, or is he just shy?” Despite her best efforts, Stevie hadn’t been able to track Barry down after classes on Monday, and he hadn’t shown up for di
nner. On Tuesday he had been just as scarce. He had come to lunch, but he had spent the whole time talking with Betty. There had been no chance for Stevie to talk to him alone. She had checked his office in the rec hall several times during the day, but he was never there.

  As the girls rode toward one of their favorite trails, Stevie sighed. “I even thought about trying to talk to Betty about this,” she said. “She and Barry are good friends. I thought she might know what’s going on.”

  Carole looked worried. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? I know they’re friends, but if Barry hasn’t told her what’s wrong—if anything is wrong—I’m not sure it’s your place to do it for him.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Stevie said with a shrug. “Betty is so busy these days she barely has time to say hello. When I tried to start a conversation with her yesterday, she had to run off in the middle of a sentence to help Mike the stable hand with some hay bales. It almost makes me miss the days when this place had more staff than it knew what to do with.”

  Her friends nodded. In past years, Moose Hill had been known for its large staff, which meant that campers hardly had to lift a finger to take care of their horses. This year, The Saddle Club had arrived to find that the staff had been drastically cut, even though there were more campers and horses than ever before. The girls didn’t mind a bit, since they were used to taking care of their own horses at Pine Hollow. But they knew some of the campers weren’t happy about the new system.

  “I haven’t seen that car around since Monday, have you?” Carole asked, slowing Starlight to a walk as the trail got narrower.

  “Nope,” Stevie replied. “But I’m watching for it.” She paused and frowned, glancing at Belle’s head. The mare had both ears cocked forward as if listening to something up ahead. Stevie cocked her head to one side, listening intently. “Do you hear something?”

  Carole glanced at Belle, then at Starlight, who had just cocked his own ears forward. “I don’t, but it looks like they do,” she said. “Don’t forget, their ears are better than ours.” The horses didn’t seem particularly frightened, so Carole wasn’t worried about encountering anything dangerous. “It’s probably just another group out for a trail ride.”

  Lisa listened, too. “I think I hear something,” she said after a moment. “It’s a humming noise.”

  “We’d better watch out for bees,” Carole said, thinking of the horses. A sting could panic them, and that could be dangerous in the forest.

  Then Stevie heard it, too. “It’s not that kind of hum,” she said. “It sounds more like a machine or something.” The girls kept quiet as they rode, listening to the sound. It grew louder with every step the horses took, and as it did, Starlight and Belle grew more nervous. Major, who was a very calm horse, didn’t seem frightened, but his ears stayed pricked forward, monitoring the sound.

  “It’s definitely a machine—more than one, it sounds like,” Carole said. She had to raise her voice to be heard over the steady thrum of motors. “Are we anywhere near a road?”

  “I think there’s a dirt fire road that crosses the trail up ahead,” Lisa said. “But that noise doesn’t sound like cars, or even a fire engine.”

  Just when the girls thought they would have to turn back to keep Belle and Starlight from panicking, they turned a corner on the trail and saw the source of the noise. Several bulldozers and other pieces of construction equipment were moving along the dirt road Lisa had mentioned. A white car brought up the rear of the odd parade. As the girls pulled their horses to a stop, the car pulled around the other vehicles and roared past, moving too quickly for the girls to see who was inside. Within seconds it was out of sight around a bend in the dirt road, and the sound of its motor was swallowed by the steady throb of the other vehicles’ powerful engines.

  Carole had to work hard to keep Starlight from bolting when the white car raced by. After a moment she managed to get the big bay gelding under control, though he continued to snort and roll his eyes nervously. Carole thought ruefully that all the teamwork in the world didn’t make much difference when a car sped by only a few feet in front of a horse’s nose. “What on earth is going on here?” she asked, speaking loudly to be heard above the bulldozers.

  “I have no idea,” Stevie said, tightening the reins to keep Belle from whirling around and racing away from the noise of the heavy machinery, which suddenly seemed louder now that they were outside the protection of the trees. “We’re still on camp property, aren’t we? Of course we are,” she quickly answered her own question.

  “They’re probably just passing through,” Lisa suggested. She glanced at her friends’ horses. “In any case, we’d better turn back before the horses get any more upset.”

  “Just a second.” Stevie dismounted and handed Carole her reins. “Take them back into the woods where it’s quieter. I’ll be there in a minute.”

  “Where are you going?” Carole asked.

  “To find out what’s going on,” Stevie replied.

  While Carole and Lisa took the horses back into the trees, Stevie hurried across the clearing. She yelled to the driver of the lead bulldozer, but she couldn’t make herself heard over the roar of the motor. Running a safe distance ahead of the machine, she jumped into the road and waved her arms.

  The driver looked startled. He brought the big machine to a stop and climbed out, leaving the motor idling. “Who are you?” he called.

  Stevie hurried forward to meet him. “I’m Stevie Lake,” she said. “I’m staying here at Moose Hill.”

  “Where?” asked the man. “Oh, you must mean that camp.”

  Stevie nodded. “My friends and I were out for a ride, and we heard your motors. Since we’re still on camp property, we were wondering who you are.”

  “Fair question, I guess,” said the man. “My name’s Bill.” He jerked a thumb toward the other machines, which had stopped behind his bulldozer. “The boys and I have orders to take these dozers into a field about a mile from here so they’ll be ready to start clearing and building.”

  “Building what?” Stevie asked. “Who authorized this?”

  Bill shrugged. “Don’t ask me. I’m not the foreman. I just follow orders.”

  “Is the foreman here?” Stevie asked.

  “Nope,” Bill said. “You just missed him—he was in the car that just left. Now if you’ll excuse me, we’ve got to push on.”

  Stevie stepped out of the road as Bill climbed back into the bulldozer’s cab and put the machine into gear. A moment later the whole line of construction equipment was on the move again.

  Stevie found her friends waiting for her a short distance down the trail. “What’s going on?” Carole asked as Stevie mounted.

  “I don’t know,” Stevie said. She reported what Bill had said.

  Lisa glanced at her watch. “We’d better head back,” she said. “We don’t want to be late.”

  The girls started riding back toward camp. “Do you think this is more of Moose Hill’s improvements?” Carole asked. The camp had had some additions made to its grounds that year, including new cabins and tennis courts.

  Stevie shook her head. “The field he was talking about must be a good three or four miles from the main part of camp,” she said. “That’s too far away to be building anything.”

  “Then what are they doing here?” Lisa asked.

  “That’s what I intend to find out,” Stevie replied grimly.

  A FEW MINUTES later the girls were knocking on the door of Barry’s office. It opened and Barry peered out. “Girls?” he said. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in your riding classes?”

  “We have a few minutes before they start,” Stevie replied. “Right now we need to ask you a question. What are those bulldozers doing out in the woods?”

  Barry frowned. “Bulldozers? You saw bulldozers?”

  Carole nodded. “They were driving down the fire road that crosses the west trails.”

  Barry was beginning to look angry. “I c
an’t believe it,” he muttered. “They shouldn’t be there yet.”

  Yet? The three girls exchanged glances. What did he mean?

  Barry stomped over to his desk and picked up the phone. He dialed a number, then waited, tapping his foot impatiently. He seemed to have forgotten about the girls. Stevie took that as an invitation and led the way into the office.

  Finally someone on the other end of the line picked up the phone. “Hi, this is Barry from Moose Hill,” Barry said. “I just heard the equipment is in the woods here already. I can’t have my campers out there running into—” He stopped and listened to what the other person was saying. “I see. Well, I don’t like it. I don’t like it one bit. And I don’t understand how a few days is going to make that much difference. The session is over in a week and a half, and then—” He paused again. “Well, all right. But they’d better not start working until the session ends and the deal is signed.” With that, he slammed down the phone without saying good-bye.

  Stevie waited for what she felt was a respectful amount of time. But when Barry still didn’t seem to notice The Saddle Club standing there, she cleared her throat. “Ahem. Is there something you’d like to share with us?”

  Barry looked up, startled. “Oh! I forgot you were here,” he said. “I guess there’s no point in lying to you.” He took a deep breath. “Moose Hill is being sold.”

  The three girls gasped. “What?” Carole cried. “What do you mean, sold? Who bought it? What are the bulldozers for?”

  Barry rubbed his temples as if his head hurt. “It’s kind of a long story.”

  Stevie sat down in one of the chairs by Barry’s desk. “We have time,” she said. Actually, their riding classes were starting in five minutes, but Stevie had the feeling that this story was worth being late for.

  “All right.” Barry waved a hand at the other chairs. “Have a seat, girls.”

  Carole and Lisa sat down. As she waited for Barry to begin, Carole found herself clutching the arms of the chair so hard that her fingers hurt. She forced herself to relax.