“That was so mean of him,” said Jessie angrily as soon as they were out of his hearing.
“I know. He shouldn’t make fun of us for being thirsty,” said Soo Lee.
“Well, he doesn’t like us. Or the bike race,” Henry said.
“And maybe he’s the one who emptied all the water out of the jugs,” said Violet. “Maybe he and Ms. Whatney did it.”
“He was wearing a navy blue T-shirt, almost the exact same color as the crew members’,” Violet said.
“He could have slipped up onto the truck and into the back of it and opened all the spigots,” Jessie said. “I wonder if anybody noticed anything suspicious.”
“We can ask when we reach the riders’ camp tonight,” said Benny. “And look for clues.”
“I think that is an excellent idea,” agreed Henry. “But first we have to get there.”
At the next stop, in a small park by a river, the Aldens found lunch waiting for them and all the riders.
“This is good,” said Benny, eating the graham crackers he’d found in the lunch bag he’d taken off a lunch table. “And look! An orange. And a sandwich. And the sign says I can go back for seconds.”
“I don’t think we have to worry about you going hungry on this ride,” said Henry, smiling at his younger brother.
“No,” agreed Benny happily. “And now there’s plenty of water, too.”
He and Henry ate slowly. Grandfather, who had been riding in the back, came to join them. But Soo Lee, Violet, and Jessie finished quickly.
Jessie jumped up. “Let’s get going!” she said. “I’m not tired anymore.”
“Having lunch helped,” agreed Soo Lee.
Violet stood up and stretched. “You want me to wait with you?” she asked her brothers and grandfather.
“Go on ahead,” Henry said. “We’ll catch up with you later.”
“Okay,” said Violet. She threw away her trash from lunch, fastened her helmet, and followed Soo Lee and Jessie out of the picnic grounds.
The riders were more spread out now, pedaling in clumps of two or three. They stopped more frequently to rest.
They passed a mileage marker and Violet checked her map. “We don’t have much farther to go,” she said.
“Good,” said Soo Lee. “We’ll get to camp in plenty of time, and we won’t have to ride in the sweep wagon.”
“Yeah,” said Jessie. “No sweep wagon for me!”
They rode on. And on. The sun began to go down. Violet’s legs ached and Jessie had finished all her water. Soo Lee gave Jessie some of her water, but Soo Lee’s bottle was getting low on water, too.
Violet slowed to a stop. “We haven’t passed any other riders in a long time,” she said.
“We must be way ahead of them,” said Jessie.
But Violet shook her head. She said, “We haven’t passed the last water stop, either. We should have reached that by now. And we haven’t seen anyone along the side of the road with signs to cheer us on, like we did before.”
“There’s another arrow,” said Soo Lee. “It’s pointing straight ahead.” Then she said slowly, “Wait a minute.” Soo Lee walked her bike up to the sign. She leaned over to look at it. She could see it was torn at the corners—it must have been stapled down. But there weren’t any staples on the old wooden post. Instead, the paper had been stuck hastily on the end of a rusty nail.
“This sign looks like it came from somewhere else,” she said. “As if it had been just torn off and placed here.”
“You’re right!” said Jessie.
Violet had pulled out her map. She studied it. She looked up. “We’re supposed to be on County Road Eighteen,” she said.
Jessie said, “Uh-oh.” All three of them turned to stare at the street sign they had just passed. It said ROUTE 76.
Henry, Benny, and Grandfather waited by the entrance to the camp. Henry kept looking at his watch. Benny waved and cheered as a rider pedaled slowly in.
“It’ll be dark soon,” said Henry. “Where can they be?”
“They’ll be here,” Grandfather said.
Henry glanced at his grandfather and Benny. He was sure Grandfather was right. He had nothing to worry about. But he couldn’t help it. He knew how fast Jessie had been riding. And all three of them had left right after lunch. He hadn’t seen them since then.
“If they had a flat tire or bike trouble, wouldn’t we have passed them on the road?” he said.
“Maybe they stopped for water at someone’s house,” Benny said. “And we passed them then and didn’t see them.”
“Maybe,” said Henry.
Grandfather said, “Even if they are having problems, the sweep wagon will pick them up.”
“Not the sweep wagon!” Benny said. “Then they can’t be in the raffle.”
The sun was down. It would be dark soon. A few riders were still trickling in as the other riders who had gathered cheered them on.
A crew member said to another crew member, “I bet the next thing we see is a sweep wagon fall of riders.”
“You’re right. I see it, just coming over that hill way up the road,” said the other crew member.
“Jessie!” cried Benny, jumping up and down.
Sure enough, Jessie came pedaling into the camp. Right behind her were Soo Lee and Violet.
Jessie pulled to a stop and spun to look back down the road. “We beat it!” she gasped. “We beat the sweep wagon.”
She, Violet, and Soo Lee were all breathing hard.
“What took you so long?” Henry asked.
“We were getting just a little bit worried,” put in Grandfather.
“Got lost,” panted Soo Lee. “Tell you about it at dinner.”
“Dinner,” said Benny. “Where’s dinner?”
“This way, Benny,” said Grandfather.
“I’ll show you where to check your bikes at the bike corral,” said Henry. “And walk you to your tents. They’re right across the row from Grandfather’s and mine.”
“I’m staying with you, Jessie,” said Benny.
Jessie managed a smile.
The sweep wagon rolled into camp and the crew began to close the camp gates.
Jessie turned. Her eyes widened. “It’s a whole tent city,” she said. “It’s huge.”
“I guess you’d better show us around, Henry/’ said Violet, “or we might get lost again!”
Grandfather smiled and took Benny’s hand. “We’ll meet you at dinner,” he said.
“Someone changed the signs,” Jessie concluded. She, Soo Lee, Henry, and Violet stood in a long, long line that snaked from the dining tent all the way across the park where the tent city had been set up.
The line hadn’t moved in a long time. Some of the riders had sprawled in the grass, waiting for dinner. The last light of day was fading in the west.
“We weren’t the only ones who got lost,” Violet said. “But we met the others on our way back and told them, and they turned around. So they didn’t have to ride as far as we did.”
“Sabotage,” said Henry. “Someone wanted you to get lost. Or to not finish.”
“Maybe they wanted to wreck the whole ride,” said Benny.
“Maybe—” Violet broke off. “Look,” she said. “Remember that man we saw this morning, talking to Ms. Whatney and Ronald? He just walked out from behind the dining wagon. And he’s headed this way.”
The man was still wearing his scruffy coat and backward hat. He walked slowly, his eyes traveling over the tent city: the riders, the tents set up for dining and repairing bicycles and selling Eagle Mountain T-shirts. The man saw the Aldens watching him and raised his eyebrows.
The outdoor lights came on, and now they could see him clearly. He was older than he had first appeared to be.
“Are you a rider?” Benny blurted out.
“No,” said the man. “But I can see that you all are. How’s it going?”
“We’ve had some bad luck today, but it’s fine,” said Jessie stoutly.
The man’s eyebrows rose higher. “Bad luck? You’ve had good weather. Looks like a great volunteer crew.”
“Not enough water at the first stop,” said Henry. “Someone sabotaged it.” He watched the man closely as he spoke. The man didn’t appear surprised.
“Really,” he said.
“And someone put up signs that made us get lost,” Soo Lee said. “We almost didn’t make it back to camp before the sweep wagon.”
“Oh?” the man said.
“And someone stole my brother’s bike the night before the race and wrecked it,” Benny put in.
“Hmmm,” said the man, looking at Henry. “But you’re here.”
“The bike shop gave us a tandy bike,” Benny explained.
Now the man changed expression. He looked puzzled.
“A tandem bike,” Henry explained. “Lent to us by our bike shop, Greenfield Wheels.”
“Ah,” said the man. “Well, you’ve had some tough luck. But it could be worse.” He drew back one corner of his mouth in what might have been a smile and walked away.
“He’s weird,” said Soo Lee.
“Definitely,” agreed Jessie.
“Do you think he sabotaged the water and moved the signs?” Henry mused. “Nothing we told him seemed to surprise him.”
“You’re right,” Jessie said, staring after him. The man went around the corner of a tent and, following two signs that said BIKE CORRAL and INFORMATION TENT, he disappeared.
Jessie shivered. “Did you hear what else he said?” she asked. “He said, ‘It could be worse.’ That sounded like a threat.”
“It did,” Soo Lee said softly. And although it was a warm night, she shivered a little, too.
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