“Benny!” shouted Violet.
Jessie ran up to her. “Where’s Benny?” she asked.
“Help,” squeaked a little voice from nearby. “Help! Help!”
“It’s Benny,” gasped Violet.
“Help!” Benny called again.
“Benny? Where are you?” Violet called.
“Over here!” Benny said.
They scrambled down through the bushes and tumbled out onto the Blizzard Trail near the cabin. Benny was sitting in the middle of the trail.
“Oh, good,” he said. “There you are! I was afraid you were lost.”
“We weren’t lost! We thought you were!” said Jessie indignantly.
“No,” said Benny. “I dropped my flashlight and it went out. Or I might have caught the ghost.”
Maris burst out of the bushes behind them and skidded to a stop. “Benny! Violet! Jessie! What on earth is going on?”
“Here’s your flashlight, Benny,” said Violet. She reached over and picked it up. “But I think it’s broken.”
“Is everybody all right?” Henry shouted from the door of the cabin. They could see him against the light from the stove inside. He was holding a flashlight, too, waving it back and forth like a searchlight.
“We’re fine!” Maris called. “We’re on our way back.” To Benny she said, “Are you hurt?”
“Nope,” said Benny. He jumped to his feet. “I almost caught the ghost!”
“Ghost! I don’t want to hear it. At least, not until we get back to the cabin. Then you can tell me what happened,” Maris said.
They went back to the cabin. Henry had put another log on the fire and it was warm inside. Everyone sat down, and Violet and Benny told about the tapping sound on the cabin wall.
“Tapping?” Maris repeated. “That was no ghost. It was a tree. A branch.”
“I don’t think it was,” Jessie said.
“Me either,” said Violet.
“It sounded like a person,” said Benny. “Or the ghost of a person. Like this.” He leaned over and tapped on the cabin wall. “Only it came from outside.”
“And it moved around the cabin, like someone was circling us, tapping on the walls,” said Jessie.
“And then when I ran out, I saw something run into the woods. Toward the trail. But I tripped and dropped my flashlight and everything got dark, so I stopped chasing it,” Benny added.
“You saw a ghost, Benny?” asked Henry.
“Well ... no ...” Benny admitted. “But I did see something run into the woods.”
Maris pressed her hand to her forehead. “I don’t believe this,” she said, almost to herself. “Why would anyone be out here in the middle of nowhere, tapping on the cabin walls?”
“I don’t know, but whoever or whatever it was, I bet you all scared them away,” said Henry.
“Maybe it was whoever took your boots,” said Benny. He paused. “Except I don’t think a ghost would come out during the day to take someone’s old boots.”
“No, no, no,” said Maris. “Stolen boots, ghosts tapping on walls. What is going on? If I didn’t know better, I’d say this mountain really was haunted.”
No one spoke for a long minute. Then Jessie said, “Haunted, or maybe someone who doesn’t want us here is trying to scare us away.”
“But why?” said Maris.
“Carola doesn’t want a trail up here,” Violet reminded Maris.
“Neither does Bobcat,” Jessie added.
But Maris was shaking her head. “No!” she said again. “I don’t believe Bobcat would do something like this. Or Carola, either.”
“Both of them knew you were coming up here,” Jessie argued. “Either one of them could have flattened your truck’s tires out in front of the diner.”
“And both of them are skilled enough to hike around in the woods, day or night, without getting lost,” Henry said. “Carola could have followed us up here and taken our food. And my boots. And tapped on the walls.”
“Or maybe Bobcat never really went back down the mountain,” said Violet.
Henry took a deep breath. “Or there might be another reason that someone is trying to scare us away,”
“Like what?” said Maris.
“Maybe someone has found Stagecoach George’s treasure,” said Henry.
To Henry’s surprise, Maris suddenly laughed. “No one’s ever going to find that treasure, Henry, even if it does exist. People have been looking for years,” Maris said. “Enough mysteries, okay? Let’s get to sleep. We’ve got lots of work to do in the morning.”
“But—” Benny began.
“No,” said Maris firmly. “Not another word about ghosts or mysteries or treasure or anything else.”
So Benny kept quiet. But he knew that all the Aldens would get up extra early in the morning to look for clues.
Even though they got up at sunrise, the Boxcar Children didn’t find a single clue.
“Those smudges in the mud behind the cabin here could be footprints,” Jessie said. She sighed. “And we could have made them ourselves in the dark.”
“Do you really think someone could have found the hidden treasure?” asked Violet.
“I know someone is trying to scare us away,” Henry said. “I just don’t know why.” Just then someone in front of the cabin shouted, “Wake up in there, you sleepyheads!”
The Aldens hurried toward the sound of the voice. They found Carola and Rayanne standing in the clearing.
“Carola! Rayanne!” Jessie exclaimed. “What are you doing here?” |