The Yellow House Mystery

by Gertrude Chandler Warner

  For one long minute Joe stopped paddling and looked sharply along the shore. “Get to shore, Henry!” he shouted. “Just as fast as you can! Land between those two large trees.” He had to shout, for the wind was making a terrible noise.

  They turned both canoes. By now they could hardly sit up. Alice paddled without a word. Henry’s canoe went first. Then it began to rain. The rain fell so fast that in one minute they were all wet through. But they thought of nothing but getting to shore.

  “You can make it, Henry!” yelled Joe. “There is room for us both to land. Get over to one side!”

  Henry and Alice paddled under the branches of the two trees and drove their canoe up into a very small opening.

  “Get out quickly!” cried Alice. “Pull our canoe out of Joe’s way, so he can land, too.” They did so. Even Violet helped. Then they waved to Joe.

  “O.K!” he shouted as he began to paddle straight in. Just then a big wave hit his canoe sideways and washed the bags of food and dishes into the lake.

  “Never mind!” he yelled. “Let them go, Benny, and sit still!”

  Then with one strong push he drove his canoe up beside Henry’s. He looked at his young wife, who was very white.

  “Thank goodness!” said Alice. “We are all safe!” She put her arm around Violet who was shaking with fright.

  “We’ll have to do something right away,” said Henry, taking one look at his gentle little sister. “We’re really in a fix. All our food is gone.”

  “Are we going to starve, Joe?” asked Benny.

  “Starve? No. But I guess we are going to be very hungry.”

  “Just almost starve,” said Benny.

  “Let’s not stand here in the rain talking,” said Jessie. “We still have our tents and our blankets. And we still have our shelter-half. We must think of some way to get Violet dry and warm.”

  “I’m all right,” said Violet. But she did not look all right. She was still shaking.

  Henry and Joe looked around. They could see nothing but trees and bushes. There was no path. There was no other open place.

  “Not a very good place to land, or make a camp,” said Henry, much worried.

  “All woods and bushes,” said Benny. “But we could cut down some trees and bushes. We still have our axe.”

  “Thank goodness for that,” said Henry. “Let’s have it.”

  “Don’t cut here,” said Joe. “The ground is too wet for a camp. Let’s try to find a better place. You go that way, Henry, and I’ll go this. Hunt around, and don’t get lost.”

  Before long they both came crashing back. But now Joe was smiling.

  “Water!” he shouted. “There’s a spring up there, and quite a good place. We can make it do. We’ll have to. We won’t need to cut down many bushes and there is room for the tents and a fire.”

  “How can you build a fire in the rain?” asked Benny.

  “Don’t forget we have the shelter-half,” said Joe. “You bring in some big stones and some dry wood, and you’ll see.”

  “All the wood is wet,” said Benny.

  “Not on the under side it isn’t,” Henry told him. “Look at Jessie, with that axe!”

  As fast as Jessie cut down bushes, Alice pulled them away. Joe and Henry put up Mr. Hill’s shelter-half as fast as they could. Soon Joe had a fire going. He made Violet sit down before it, putting a blanket over her knees.

  “Thank you, Joe,” said the little girl. “The fire feels so nice and warm.” She did not shake any more.

  “Good!” cried Henry. “That shelter-half is wonderful. It keeps the wind off the fire, too.”

  “Can I go back to the canoes and see if I can find any food?” asked Benny.

  “Good boy!” said Joe. “A fine idea. You may be a Maine guide yet.”

  “I’ll go with you, Benny,” said Alice suddenly, after a look at Joe. “We might even get hold of one bag.”

  Off they went, while Joe and Henry put up the tents. The big trees kept off a lot of the rain, and the inside of the tents was quite dry.

  Jessie took the blanket rolls inside before she took off the straps. “Anyway,” she said, “we have a warm, dry place to sleep, even if we don’t have anything to eat.”

  Joe was thinking. He was worried. He knew it would be hard for the children to go a whole day and night without eating.

  Meanwhile two people were really having fun—Alice and Benny. They could see the one bag of food as it lay under the water not far from shore. The wind was blowing so hard that every wave brought the bag nearer to them.

  “If I could only get hold of it!” said Benny. “It has potatoes and tin cans in it. Let’s have the fishing rod.”

  “You’d break it,” said Alice. “Here’s a long stick.”

  “Please let me walk into the lake, Alice,” begged Benny. “I’m as wet as I can be already. I don’t have to go in very far.”

  “Well, all right,” said Alice slowly. “It isn’t very deep here. Go easy, now.”

  What a funny feeling that was. Benny stepped into the lake very slowly. He went in up to his knees. He had the big stick in one hand and he held the branches of the trees with the other. He tried and tried to get hold of the bag. He did not give up until he had hooked the stick into the handle of the bag. Then he pulled carefully. The bag almost floated. Then he caught it with his hand and pulled it to shore.

  “Oh, Benny, dear!” cried Alice. She was so glad she almost cried. “How glad Joe will be!”

  They both took hold of the bag and pulled it to camp.

  “Look here!” shouted Benny. “Potatoes!”

  “Wonderful! Potatoes!” they all said. They opened the bag and took out what was left. Their flour was gone, the salt was gone, the sugar was gone. But there were the potatoes and all the cans of milk.

  “No dishes,” said Benny. “They were all in the other bag.”

  “Never mind dishes!” cried Violet. “Just think of having potatoes, Benny. We can cook potatoes without any dishes.”

  It was long past noon, and everyone began to work.

  “Roll the potatoes into the fire, right here,” said Joe. “They will burn, but never mind. We have to eat something. We can put spring water in the milk and drink that, too.”

  “How can we put spring water into a can of milk?” Benny asked. “It’s full of milk already.”

  Henry had an idea. He rushed off to his own canoe. Soon he was back with the water pail and his big knife. “Now we’ve got a dish,” he said. “We can put the milk and water in this pail, and we’ll open the milk cans with this knife.”

  “Then the cans will be empty,” broke in Benny.

  “And we can use them for cups,” finished Jessie.

  “Well,” said Benny, “anyway, we’re not starving. Just almost starving.”

  CHAPTER 10

  Potato Camp

  It’s better to lose the food than the tents, isn’t it, Joe?” asked Jessie.

  “It certainly is,” answered Joe, feeding the fire. “We will get along all right for one night. This rain will stop as suddenly as it began. I think by tomorrow morning we can get back on the lake.”

  Jessie thought that out. “Does that mean we must have dinner, and supper and breakfast here, Joe?”

  Joe winked at her. “Right,” he said. “But I guess we won’t have much breakfast.”

  “Let’s eat half the potatoes for dinner and the rest for supper,” said Jessie, thinking. “But we have no butter, and no salt. Just potatoes.”

  “Better than nothing, Jess,” said Henry, looking at his sister. “You always make the best of things. Now, let’s get lots of wood. We can’t get much wetter. Then when we do get dry, we won’t have to go out in the rain again.”

  By the time the potatoes were done, there was a big pile of wood in Joe’s tent and there were six hungry people sitting by the fire.

  With a long stick, Joe and Henry pulled the potatoes out of the fire.

  “Two each,” said Jessie. She
gave them out. That is, she rolled two potatoes to each one. “Now let’s put the canned milk in the water pail with some spring water.”

  “What a dinner!” cried Benny. “I don’t like canned milk when I’m home. But it tastes all right here.”

  It was certainly queer not to have any dishes except a water pail and milk cans. But even as the wind kept on blowing and the rain kept on falling, everyone was very happy to have tin cups and a water pail.

  “We are pretty lucky to have anything to eat,” said Violet. “If you hadn’t found the bag, Benny, we wouldn’t be eating now.”

  The children opened the hot potatoes with sticks. They ate them with small sticks.

  “Awfully hot, aren’t they?” said Henry, burning his fingers. “But aren’t they delicious!”

  “We have to eat slowly this time,” said Joe. “Make them last as long as you can.”

  “No dishes to wash,” said Benny. “Too bad we lost that funny little baker.”

  Then Joe said, “Let me tell you just what we have to do, children.”

  Everyone looked up and listened.

  “This is a very long lake as you see,” began Joe. “But if we start very early tomorrow morning, we ought to get to the end of our trip before noon.”

  “Where do we come out, Joe?” asked Jessie.

  “We come out in a very small village,” answered Joe. “When I was here, there were only a few houses and a store.”

  “What is the name of this place?” asked Henry.

  “I don’t think it has any real name,” said Joe, thinking. “They just call it Old Village. Most of it is very old. Only one or two houses were built when the Indians lived there.”

  “After we get to Old Village, you don’t know where to go next?” asked Benny.

  “No, I don’t,” said Joe. “That is the end of Bear Trail.”

  “Well, never mind,” said Henry. “Something is sure to happen. We may find the tin box, or even Bill. I can hardly wait to find clues.”

  Joe did not answer. He was thinking.

  “I do wish we had saved some of our fish from yesterday,” said Jessie. “We had enough left to go with our potatoes for supper.”

  “That’s all right, Jessie,” said Benny, taking his last drink of milk. “I’m not hungry at all.”

  They all laughed. “That’s because you have just eaten your dinner,” said Violet. “You’ll be hungry again at supper time, and then again at breakfast.”

  “O.K.” said Benny. “Then I suppose we’ll really starve without any breakfast at all.”

  “Not quite,” said Alice, smiling at the boy.

  The wind was still blowing and the rain still came down. The children put sticks on the fire, and drank the spring water in the pail. Jessie had washed out the tin cans and they drank water because the milk was all gone.

  After a supper of potatoes, they were all glad to go to bed. They were still hungry, but they were warm and dry.

  From his tent Joe called goodnight to the girls. Then he said, “Notice the wind.”

  “What’s the matter with the wind, Joe?” asked Benny sitting up. “Oh, I see what you mean. There isn’t any.”

  “That’s right,” said Joe, laughing. “It has just stopped blowing. Tomorrow will be a fine day, I think. Just you wait and see.”

  But Benny sat up again. He called out, “Hi, Jessie!”

  “What do you want, Benny?” Jessie called back.

  “Let’s call this Potato Camp, because we didn’t eat anything here but potatoes.” After that, the children always called it Potato Camp.

  CHAPTER 11

  Old Village

  The next day was fine, just as Joe had said. It was so fine that the children could hardly believe there had been such a storm. But how hungry they were!

  “No breakfast today,” Joe called in a loud voice. “Think you can take it?”

  “Oh, sure,” said Benny. “But I hope we can have some dinner.”

  “Well, I think we can,” said Joe. “We can surely find something to eat when we get to Old Village.”

  “That’s where we’ll find Bill,” said Benny happily.

  Henry and Alice started with a will to take down the tents. Violet and Benny began to roll up their blankets. But Joe did nothing. He sat down on a log and seemed to be thinking. This was not like Joe at all.

  “Let him alone,” said Alice quietly to the children. “Just go on packing. He’ll soon help, too.”

  But Joe didn’t begin to pack. Instead he called them all to stop packing and come to him for a minute.

  “I want you all to understand why I took you way up here,” he said. “Maybe for nothing. Benny just said, ‘That’s where we’ll find Bill.’ Now I don’t really think we will find Bill. I never thought so. I think Bill must have died long ago. The boss at the lumber camp had never heard of him. Mr. Long and Mr. Hill hadn’t either and they both have been around here many years.”

  Joe stopped and smiled at Benny. Then he went on. “I don’t really think we’ll find the tin box either.”

  “Why are you telling us all this, Joe?” asked Violet in her gentle voice. “Are you afraid we’ll be disappointed?”

  “You’re exactly right!” said Joe quickly. He looked at his little cousin. “I don’t want you to be disappointed because you can’t solve the mystery. When we get to Old Village, I don’t know what to do next. I thought maybe we might get a clue to the tin box, but we may not.”

  “I don’t care, Joe,” shouted Benny. “I’ve had enough fun just camping, even if we don’t find Bill.”

  “Oh, yes, we’ve all had fun, Joe,” Jessie broke in.

  Joe’s face brightened. “Did you really?” he asked. “Even if we don’t find a thing? I hope so. That’s why I brought you so far. I thought we’d have fun anyway.”

  “Don’t you worry any more, Joe,” said Henry. “Camping is the thing we like to do best in the world. It makes us think of Boxcar days and last summer on Surprise Island. But you don’t mind if we still look for clues, do you?”

  “Mind—no!” said Joe. “I expect to look for clues myself. Just don’t be disappointed, that’s all.”

  Then Joe hurried around and began to pack with a will. This time the children were glad to see a smile on his face.

  “We’ll paddle faster today,” he told them, “because we are so hungry. We can’t see Old Village from here, because the lake turns. But we ought to get there by noon.”

  Into the canoes went the things again, and into the canoes went the six people. Off they went on the last part of their long journey. They paddled for a long time.

  All at once Benny asked, “Joe, what would happen if I put a Grey Ghost fly on a line and threw it in the water behind the canoe?”

  “Well,” answered Joe smiling, “you might lose your rod, and then again you might catch a fish.” He was delighted to give Benny something to do. Then the boy would not feel so hungry.

  “I’m going to try it,” said Benny. This time he put on the fly right. Then he threw the line out behind the canoe.

  “What are you trying to do? Break your rod?” shouted Henry from the other canoe.

  “No,” called Benny. “I’m fishing.”

  On they went. Benny watched his line for a while.

  Suddenly Henry shouted, “There goes your rod!”

  Benny jumped and caught it just as it was about to slide out of the canoe.

  “Boy! You’ve got a big one,” cried Joe, stopping to look back. “Pull him in slowly, Ben! Don’t you lose him! Don’t get excited, whatever you do!”

  Violet smiled. Joe was as excited as Benny.

  How the big fish did fight to get away! But Benny played him carefully, and slowly brought him to the side of the canoe.

  “Want me to help, young fellow?” asked Joe.

  “Please,” said Benny. He was afraid he would lose the big fish.

  Joe leaned out and pulled it quickly into the canoe.

  “A big lake trout! An
d a beauty,” he cried. “He will feed us all. Too bad you didn’t catch him yesterday.”

  “Isn’t that always the way!” cried Benny. “We starved yesterday, and now just as we get near a store, we catch a fish.”

  “Never mind,” said Joe. “We’ll eat him yet.”

  He took up his paddle again. It was almost noon when they went around the last look. Then they could see a road that came right down to the beach from Old Village.

  “Here we are at the end of Bear Trail,” Alice said, laughing; “and we have found neither a clue nor Bill. Joe, aren’t you excited now?”

  “Excited? Yes, I am,” said Joe. “I’m hungry, too. Look ahead at the beach. See that man waiting to meet us? Someone always meets canoes.”

  Joe and Henry paddled faster without knowing it. Soon the canoes slid up on the beach. The man helped pull up the canoes.

  “Hello, strangers,” he said. “Taking the Bear Trail trip?”

  “Yes,” said Joe. “Right now we are looking for some place to eat. These children are almost starved. Is there any place to eat in Old Village?”

  “Yes, sir!” said the man. “I run it myself. I call it Jim’s Place. I’m Jim Carr. I’ll cook you anything you want. Bacon, ham, deer, hamburger—”

  “Oh, hamburger!” yelled Benny. “I want hamburger!”

  “So do I,” laughed Jessie.

  Jim laughed too. “Leave your things,” he said. “Nobody will take them. My place is right up on the road.”

  The children saw it at once. There was a board over the door, saying in black letters, JIM’S PLACE. They all walked down the road toward it.

  “I suppose most of the campers eat with you?” asked Joe.

  “Right,” said Jim. “They stay overnight sometimes. Then they go back to Mr. Long’s store by road.”

  “We may do that,” said Joe.

  Jim’s Place was the biggest house in Old Village. As they went in, they looked around. Everything was very clean. There were three tables, and a delicious smell of onions in the air.

  “I won’t be long,” said Jim. “Sit down and make yourselves at home. Hamburger and onions and potatoes for everybody.”