by Stan
Brother didn’t feel at all as if he were in heaven. But riding wasn’t as scary as he had thought it would be. Though he was very high off the ground, his horse seemed calm and careful. He felt relieved. Now he could relax, and his friends would never even know how nervous he had been about riding.
Just then something happened that changed everything. Flash had started to grow restless at his end of the arena. He turned his head this way and that. He did this whenever he felt well rested and ready to return to the ring. Just as Brother was passing him, Flash gave his rope a tug that pulled the whole railing from the wall. It fell to the ground with a clatter, which made Flash rear up on his hind legs and whinny.
The clatter and whinny frightened Brother’s horse. Suddenly it broke into a gallop and headed across the arena. The other horses followed.
“Rein in!” roared Miss Mamie. “Rein in!”
Sister, Queenie, Babs, and the rest quickly reined in their horses, slowing and stopping them. But Brother panicked. He let go of the reins and lost his balance. As he fell, his foot caught in the stirrup. Luckily, an assistant dashed over, grabbed the reins, and pulled Brother’s horse to a stop.
Brother wasn’t really hurt. But he was very frightened and embarrassed. The assistant helped him to his feet and steadied his horse so that he could get back on.
“That’s right!” called Queenie McBear. “When you take a spill, get right back on the horse!”
“Yeah!” the other students agreed.
But Brother didn’t want any part of their advice. Miss Mamie could see that. After dusting him off, she walked with Brother out of the arena and down the path to the office.
Chapter 6
Brother’s New Friend
Brother sat in the office with his head bowed. He was afraid that Miss Mamie would be hard on him about not getting back on the horse after his fall. The big, gruff riding teacher stood in front of him, hands on hips. He looked up sheepishly and said, “I’m sorry, Miss Mamie. I should have got back on.”
“Nonsense,” said Miss Mamie. “That ‘get back on’ stuff is a lot of bunk. What’s important is that you’re not hurt. How about a mug of hot chocolate?”
“Sure,” said Brother. “Thanks.” He felt better already. Miss Mamie was still gruff and loud. But somehow she was gruff and loud in a gentle way.
Miss Mamie dug an old hot plate out of the clutter on her desk and made hot chocolate for Brother and herself. “Mind if I ask you something personal?” she asked.
“Go ahead,” said Brother.
“Were you maybe just a little bit afraid of horses even before you got thrown?”
“Maybe,” Brother admitted. “A little.”
“Well, there’s nothing strange about that,” said Miss Mamie. “Sometimes I think the cubs who aren’t afraid of horses are the strange ones! You know, when I was a cub and started riding, I was scared to death of horses. Here’s your hot chocolate.” Miss Mamie looked over at the wall. It was full of championship photos and winner’s cups. “But I grew up in a riding family, so I didn’t have any choice but to overcome my fears.”
“But you became a great rider,” said Brother, sipping his hot chocolate. “A champion.”
“I guess I did,” said Miss Mamie. “But I’ll tell you something: I was real scared at the start.”
“Did you ever get thrown?” asked Brother.
“Did I ever!” said Miss Mamie. “I can’t count how many times. But I never got badly hurt until that last one. It was nine years ago. I was riding in a steeplechase—that’s a race with jumps. My horse landed short at a water jump. Broke my leg in two places. It didn’t heal right. I guess you noticed my limp.”
Brother nodded.
“Haven’t been on a horse since,” said Miss Mamie.
“In nine years?” said Brother. “Why not?”
Miss Mamie stared off into space for a moment. Then she looked at Brother as if she had forgotten he was there. “Scared, I guess,” she said. “So, what’ll it be? You gonna keep riding or call it quits? It’s up to you. You don’t have to take lessons just because your sister’s taking them. Of course, if you want to keep going, we’ll be mighty glad to have you.”
Brother thought for a moment. A few minutes ago he had been scared and embarrassed But after talking with Miss Mamie, he felt a whole lot better about riding. And he felt a lot better about Miss Mamie, too. Even though he hadn’t known her long, he knew he had found a good friend. “I’ll keep going,” he said finally. “I think I can handle it.”
“I know you can,” said Miss Mamie. “But you just rest up right here for the time being. You can get back on that horse when your next lesson comes around.”
The door opened and Gus poked his head in. “You all right, Brother?” he asked.
“Fine,” said Brother.
“Glad to hear it.” Gus came in and handed the mail to Miss Mamie. “I think you ought to look at this one right away, Miss Mamie,” he said, pointing to the letter on top of the stack of mail. “It’s from those Property Management folks.”
Miss Mamie just glared at Gus. “What in tarnation happened to that railing!” she barked.
“Came clear off the wall,” said Gus. “The bolts must have been loose.”
“How could you let those bolts get so loose?” said Miss Mamie. “Students could have been badly hurt.”
“But I didn’t let them get loose, Miss Mamie,” said Gus. “I check those bolts once a week like clockwork. Until today we’ve never had so much as a wobble from that railing.”
“Well, from now on you’d better check them twice a week,” said Miss Mamie. “What’ll parents think? I’ll tell you what they’ll think. They’ll think that this place isn’t safe. That kind of accident can hurt cubs … and hurt business, too. How would I pay that mortgage on time?”
“I still think you’d better look at this,” said Gus. He pointed to the letter again.
Miss Mamie opened it. As she read, her face sagged. She let out a long sigh and slumped in her chair. Finally she hauled her heavy body from the chair and limped out of the office.
Gus picked up the letter from the desk and read it. “Oh, my goodness,” he said.
“What’s wrong?” asked Brother.
“Plenty,” said Gus. “But it’s not something a cub could understand.”
“Please, Gus. Tell me,” said Brother. “Maybe there’s some way I could help.”
“I doubt it,” said Gus. “But here’s what’s goin’ on. Miss Mamie took out a mortgage to buy this place. Got it from the bank—”
Mortgage, thought Brother. What the heck is a mortgage?
“Well,” continued Gus, “she’s been in arrears lately—Mamie’s a great horsebear, but she’s not much of a businessbear—”
Arrears, thought Brother. What the heck is arrears?
“But that wasn’t a problem. At least, not until these Property Management people took over the mortgage. Now they’re threatening to foreclose. If she doesn’t pay up in thirty days, they’re gonna take her place away.”
Mortgage? Arrears? Foreclose? Gus was right. It wasn’t something a cub could understand.
But Gus was still talking. “And now we’re having these danged accidents. Why, if I didn’t know better, I’d say someone was trying to close Miss Mamie down—trying to put her out of business. Dang it!”
Now it was as if Gus were talking to himself. It was as if Brother weren’t even there: “Maybe this place is haunted!” he said. Then, with one more “Dang it!” he slammed the letter down on Miss Mamie’s desk and stormed out of the office.
But of course Brother was still there. And while he couldn’t quite understand everything that was going on, it sure sounded like a mystery. Just the sort of mystery Grizzlock Holmes solved in story after story.
But this wasn’t a story. This was real life, with a very real Miss Mamie about to lose her riding academy.
That’s when a very interesting thought came to Brother. What would
Grizzlock Holmes do to solve the Case of the Haunted Riding Academy? For one thing, thought Brother, he would focus on details—details like the letter. Then Brother did something he knew he wasn’t supposed to do. He read someone else’s mail.
There were those words again—and lots of others. Brother knew what Grizzlock Holmes would do if he didn’t understand something. He’d talk it over with his smarter brother, Grizzcroft Holmes. Now, Brother Bear didn’t have a smarter brother, but he did have a smarter cousin, Cousin Fred. Brother tore a piece of paper from Miss Mamie’s notepad and wrote down these words: mortgage, arrears, and foreclose.
Cousin Fred, who read the dictionary for fun, would know what they meant. That would be a beginning, at least.
Chapter 7
Dictionary Fred Strikes Again
“Mortgage,” said Fred as he and Brother walked to school the next morning. “The transfer of property to a creditor as a security for repayment of a loan.”
“Hunh?” said Brother.
Luckily, Cousin Fred knew not only the meaning of the word. He also knew something about the real-estate business. “It’s like this,” he told Brother. “Years ago Miss Mamie decided to buy the old run-down riding academy out by Forbidden Bog. But she didn’t have enough money. So she borrowed the money from Great Grizzly National Bank. She has to pay all that money back before she really owns the property. That can take many years. Miss Mamie pays back a little bit of the loan each month—that’s the mortgage.”
“What’s ‘arrears’?” asked Brother.
“Behind on her payments,” said Fred. “If that happens, the bank can foreclose. That means the bank takes charge of the academy and sells it to someone else.”
“But the bank doesn’t own Miss Mamie’s mortgage,” said Brother. He had suddenly remembered what Gus had told him. “Something called Property Management owns it.”
“A property management company,” said Fred. “Hmm, interesting. Someone must have bought Miss Mamie’s mortgage from the bank and hired Property Management to handle Miss Mamie’s payments. Perfectly legal.” He smiled. “Is your head spinning yet?”
“Yeah,” said Brother. “But I think I’m catching on. Thanks.”
“Glad to be of help,” said Fred.
“Listen, there’s another way you can help,” said Brother. “Come out to the academy with me tomorrow after school. While I’m having my riding lesson, you can sort of sniff around the place where the accidents happened. Maybe you can sniff out a few clues. If someone doesn’t put a stop to these accidents, Miss Mamie is sure to lose the academy.”
Cousin Fred thought that maybe Gus was just getting forgetful in his old age. But Brother seemed so sure that something else was causing the accidents. Fred agreed to help.
Chapter 8
Fear of Falling
At dinner that evening, Brother asked Papa what he thought of the mysterious accidents at the riding academy.
“So Gus swears he didn’t cause them,” said Papa with a chuckle. “Sounds to me like he’s just making excuses for not doing his job.” Papa swallowed a mouthful of grilled brook trout. He frowned. “Funny thing, though. Gus and I have been friends a long time. And I’ve never known him to do sloppy work.”
Brother told Papa about Miss Mamie’s problem with her mortgage.
“Dear me, that’s awful,” said Papa. “But not surprising. Miss Mamie is a great old horsebear and a terrific riding teacher. But as good a horsebear as she is, that’s how bad a businessbear she is. There’s no way she can make a profit from those small fees she charges. Her place is a mess. There’s no insulation. Her heating bills must be enormous. By the way, I hear you had a little problem yourself at the academy. About staying on your horse?”
Brother just nodded. He didn’t really want to talk about that. But Sister was still angry that he had teased her about being afraid of spooky stories.
“A little problem?” she said. “He sat on that horse like a sack of potatoes. Then the horse shied and he let go of the reins and fell off. You know what I think?”
“That will be enough, Sister,” said Mama.
“I think he’s scared,” said Sister. “Just plain chicken scared.”
“Oh, yeah!” said Brother. “Well, if I’m scared, at least I’m scared of something real. Not like you—scared of silly imaginary things like ghosts.” He made a scary face and reached out toward Sister. “Who-o-o-o! I’m the Galloping Ghost of Forbidden Bog and I’m gonna get you-o-o-o!”
Sister let out a scream and ran into the living room.
“That’s enough!” bellowed Papa. “Back to the table!”
Sister came back into the dining room and sat down. She glared at her brother.
“Now listen, you two,” said Papa. “It isn’t fair to tease others about their fears. Because everyone is afraid of something.”
“Everyone?” asked Brother.
“That’s right.”
“What are you afraid of, Papa?” asked Sister.
Papa grinned. “Your mama.”
Mama pretended not to hear Papa’s remark.
“And what are you afraid of, Mama?” asked Brother.
“What I’m afraid of,” said Mama, “is that if you don’t stop this silly teasing, I may lose my temper!”
The cubs quickly finished their dinners and hurried off to do their homework.
Chapter 9
Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire
The next afternoon, Brother, Sister, and Cousin Fred rode a special bus out to Miss Mamie’s Riding Academy. So many cubs from Bear Country School were taking riding lessons this spring that Gus had hired a school bus for after-school lessons.
As the bus neared the academy, Brother told Fred, “Now remember: you pretend that you want to sign up for lessons. And after Gus shows you to the office, you slip out and go sniffing around for clues.”
Fred didn’t answer. He was sniffing at the air through the open window.
“I get it,” said Brother. “Sniffing for clues. Very funny. But all you’ll get from here is a whiff of horses.”
“Not horses,” said Fred. He was still sniffing. “Smoke. And not burning leaves’ smoke. Wood smoke.”
“Hey, he’s right,” said Sister, who was sitting behind them. “Maybe it’s a forest fire!”
“In a swamp?” said Brother.
Just then the bus turned into the academy driveway. There was a big red fire engine parked beside the office. It looked as if the firefighters were getting ready to leave. In front of the office stood Miss Mamie, Gus, and Fire Chief Barnes. When the bus came to a stop, the cubs piled out and crowded around the three grownups.
“It started in the stable fuse box,” Chief Barnes was saying. “Lucky we got to it before it could do much damage. Gus, you’d better call an expert the next time you want to do more than change a fuse in that thing.”
“I didn’t touch that fuse box,” Gus protested.
“Sorry, Gus,” said the chief. “Knowing you’re a handybear, I figured you must have—”
“I swear I didn’t,” said Gus.
“All right, all right,” said the chief. “Don’t get yourself in an uproar.” He turned to Miss Mamie and said, “My inspection turned up a dozen more fire hazards, ma’am.” He looked down at his notepad. “Bales of rotting hay stacked in the stables, a pile of oily rags in a corner of the toolshed, an unsafe extension cord attached to the hot plate in the office, an exposed wire dangling from the back of the loudspeaker in the riding arena …”
As Chief Barnes read on, Miss Mamie’s face sagged. When he had finished, she shook her head and said, “I can’t understand it, Chief. I don’t remember ever putting an extension cord on that hot plate.”
“And I never piled oily rags in the toolshed,” said Gus. “And when hay gets too old, I throw it out—pronto!”
“Anyone else work here?” asked the chief.
“Just my teenage assistants,” said Miss Mamie. “But they only work with the horses.
”
“Wish I could figure it all out for you, Miss Mamie,” said Chief Barnes. “But I’ve got to get back to the fire station. In the meantime, I’m going to issue you an official order to correct these problems. After seven days, I’ll come back to inspect the place again. If the problems haven’t been corrected by then, I’ll have to shut the place down. Sorry, Miss Mamie. Just doin’ my job.”
Miss Mamie nodded. She was staring off into space again, as if her thoughts were a million miles away.
When Chief Barnes and the firefighters had gone, Miss Mamie looked around at her students and said, “I’m afraid I have to cancel today’s lesson.”
“No, Miss Mamie!” everyone cried. They all loved riding lessons. Even Brother was disappointed. Since his fall it had taken him a couple of lessons to get used to his horse, but he was already beginning to enjoy riding.
“And not just today’s lesson,” added Miss Mamie. “All lessons are canceled until these fire hazards are taken care of.”
“But why?” asked Brother. “Chief Barnes gave you a whole week.”
“As long as there’s even one fire hazard at my academy, the place isn’t safe enough for lessons. I may be a businessbear, but I won’t gamble with the safety of cubs. Even if I end up losing this place.” She shook her head sadly. “It’s looking more and more like the darn thing is jinxed anyway.”
With that, Miss Mamie limped off toward the stables. She left Gus and the cubs standing in the driveway staring at one another.