“This place looks like our boxcar,” Benny remarked as he stepped inside the cabin.
“It does!” Violet agreed. “It’s got a shelf with dishes, same as our boxcar.”
“Only we didn’t have a fireplace,” Henry said.
“Our boxcar was cleaner, too,” Jessie added. Cobwebs draped the rafters and the plank floor was littered with leaves. The place needed a good sweeping!
“I wonder who lived here,” Henry said, wiping a circle of dust from the single window.
Benny was exploring the stone fireplace. He stuck his head up into the chimney.
“Benny, get out of there!” Jessie scolded. “You’ll get filthy.”
“Hey, look what I found!” Benny said.
He came out from the chimney holding a long, gray strip of something. It looked like a piece of fragile, old paper.
“What is that?” Jessie asked curiously.
Henry took the strip from Benny. “What a beauty! It’s a snakeskin.”
Violet jumped backward, alarmed.
“The snake is long gone,” Jessie assured her. “He just used the rough rocks in the chimney to help shed his skin.”
Violet shuddered. “Let’s go. Rachel isn’t here. I don’t think anyone has been here in a long time.”
But Jessie wasn’t so sure. As they hurried out the front door, her foot kicked a cane-bottomed rocker. Always neat, she bent to straighten the piece of furniture.
Her hand brushed a square of pale blue paper.
“Henry, Benny!” she exclaimed. “This looks like that gum wrapper you found in your room.”
Henry examined the scrap. “It’s the same brand of gum. And it’s not dusty. Someone has been here. And recently!”
“Maybe it was Rachel,” Jessie said. “She chews a lot of gum.” But if Rachel had been here, Jessie wondered, why did she leave? And where was she now?
Back at the college, the Aldens hurried into the main office. Randy Merchant was manning the radio. He held the earphones cupped over one ear.
“Has Rachel been found?” Violet asked him anxiously.
He shook his head. “One search team returned for supplies, but the rest are still out there.”
“We can take over,” Henry told Randy.
“Great,” Randy said, handing Henry the earphones. “I have to set up the observatory for tonight.”
“I forgot,” Jessie exclaimed. “Tonight is the party.”
“People from town will be here, too,” Randy said. “Even if Rachel isn’t found, the show will go on.”
“Don’t remind me,” groaned a voice from the doorway. Mark Jacobs came in, looking rumpled. “I’m the narrator.”
“How did the search go?” asked Randy.
Mark just shook his head.
“Tough break,” said Randy as he left.
Wearily, Mark collapsed into a chair. “What a terrible day. No sign of Rachel. And my latest notes are missing from the desk in my room. I’m supposed to present my paper tomorrow and I don’t have the data I need in order to finish it.”
“Is it that important?” Violet asked.
“Yes, it is. I’ve been working all year on my big discovery.”
Benny pulled the tattered snakeskin from his pocket. “You can show them this. I found it, but you can have it.”
Mark managed a smile. “Thanks, Benny. That’s a great specimen, but my discovery is in the field of astronomy,” Mark ran a hand through his rumpled hair. “I can’t help thinking how strange it is that my notes disappeared at the same time as Rachel. Did you kids know that Hazel thinks Rachel planned to leave? Some of her clothes are gone.”
Henry considered this new information. It was odd that Rachel and Mark’s notes disappeared at the same time. But why would she have taken Mark’s notes with her? After all, she had no use for them.
“Is there anything we can do?” Jessie asked.
Mark smiled. “Thanks, but you’re already helping with the search. And Hazel told me you’re serving breakfast tomorrow. You don’t have to worry about my troubles. All is not lost.”
“What do you mean?” asked Benny.
“I keep a second set of notes hidden in the observatory. That set doesn’t have my latest data, but it’s a start,” Mark replied. “I’m going back out to search for Rachel until dinnertime. Then I’ll skip dinner and work on my paper at the observatory. And I’ll be there tonight for the meteor shower.”
A noise outside the door caught Benny’s attention. It sounded like someone choking.
Mark stood up. “Got to hit the trail. My team should have fresh provisions by now.”
As Mark headed out the door, he bumped into Eugene.
“There you are,” Eugene exclaimed in an overly loud voice. “We’ve been wondering where you were. Our team is set to go out again.”
“Wish us luck,” Mark said.
As soon as the young men were out of sight, Henry said, “There’s something weird about Eugene Scott.”
“I think so, too,” Violet agreed. “He acts like he’s friendly, but he’s really not.”
Henry nodded. “You’ve hit the nail on the head, Violet. Eugene is a big phony. He pretends to like Mark, but he’s really his rival.”
“What’s a rival?” Benny asked. He rolled his snakeskin neatly and placed it in his pocket. He couldn’t wait to show it to Grandfather.
“It means they are in competition with each other,” Jessie explained. “Like in a race.”
Suddenly the radio crackled.
Henry sat up straight, pulling the microphone toward him. “This is Eagletop,” he spoke anxiously into the microphone, remembering the code name. “Is anyone out there?”
After more squawks and static, a voice said, “This is A Team, Eagletop. It’s getting dark. We’re coming in. I’ve already signaled the other teams to abandon the search.”
“Eagletop reads you,” Henry said. “Over and out.” Slowly he pulled off the headphones.
Dr. Porter came into the room. “I heard from the hall. You children have been a big help. My thanks to you.”
Grimly, the Aldens left the main building. After cleaning up in their dorm rooms, they met in the dining room.
A steam-table buffet had been set up along one wall. Hot dishes gave off delicious aromas.
“Mmmm,” Benny said, first in line as always. “Macaroni and cheese.”
“Don’t take more than you can eat,” Violet advised him.
When their plates were filled, they headed toward a table. Grandfather was waiting for them.
“I’m going to dine with my grandchildren tonight,” he said.
Just then Able Porter rushed up. “I have wonderful news! Rachel Cunningham just called.”
“She did?” Jessie asked, astonished. “Is she okay?”
“Where is she?” Violet wanted to know.
Dr. Porter raised a hand to halt the questions. “She’s fine. She’s at her grandparents’ house on the other side of the mountain.”
“Why did she leave?” Henry asked.
“She would only say that she had personal problems,” Dr. Porter replied. “And that as soon as she worked them out, she’d return to the college.”
Grandfather poured iced tea for everyone. “This is very peculiar, Able. Why couldn’t Rachel tell you before she left? We thought something had happened to her.”
“I know,” Dr. Porter agreed. “I told her about the search team. She apologized but wouldn’t tell me anything more. But she sounded good. I’m so relieved she’s okay.”
Jessie wondered if that was true. She couldn’t stop thinking about the gum wrapper she’d found in the abandoned cabin. Suppose Rachel had dropped the wrapper on purpose, as a clue? Maybe she had been kidnapped. Maybe her kidnapper forced Rachel to make that call to Dr. Porter.
Before she could voice her concerns, Grandfather said, “It’s nearly time to go to the observatory.”
“That’s right!” Henry said. “Tonight’s the shower.”
“I already took one bath today,” said Benny, joking.
The meteor shower was a big event. Students from Mountvale College hiked up the trail or drove up the mountain to the observatory. Families from the town rolled up in pickup trucks.
People set up lawn chairs or spread blankets on the grassy knoll around the observatory building.
“We won’t be using the telescope tonight,” Randy Merchant explained as he led the Aldens and Dr. Porter into the dome room. “The best way to view meteors is with the unaided eye. They move too fast to track with a telescope.”
Lawn chairs had been set up in rows around the telescope. Faculty members and special guests were filling the seats.
“Make yourselves comfortable,” Randy told the gathering crowd. “Lie back so your neck won’t get tired.”
The Aldens sat down and tilted their chairs.
“I feel like I’m at the beach!” Violet said with a giggle. She claimed the seat at the end of the row, next to Randy’s desk.
Randy pushed a button on the wall. The domed roof slid open all the way.
Stars glittered in the night sky. The show was about to begin. |