The next evening, the Morgans invited the guests to a wienie roast at the old pond. “We do this every year right after the fair,” Sarah explained to Jessie. “Everyone roasts their own hot dogs, and then we sit around the camp fire and sing. I guess you could say it’s a Sunny Oaks tradition.” She and Danny were setting out crocks of baked beans and platters of potato salad on a long picnic table. Benny plunked down a giant vat of sauerkraut, and Violet arranged jars of mustard and relish.
“I think the fire’s just about ready,” Henry said. He and Mr. Morgan had built a camp fire from hickory logs and tossed a few pine-cones on top to give it a woodsy scent. “Mmm, it smells good,” Violet said.
“It’ll make the hot dogs taste even better,” Benny piped up. As usual, he was starving!
“Why don’t you help yourself, Benny?” Mrs. Morgan said. “The rest of the guests are starting to wander over.” She handed him a hickory switch and he stuck a hot dog on the top. “Just remember to hold it over the flames, not in them.”
Benny accidentally let his first hot dog turn black on one side, but he was so excited that he ate it anyway with plenty of mustard and ketchup. The second one was even better because he had figured out how to rotate the hot dog so it cooked evenly.
“This is a beautiful spot,” Jessie said to Danny. The sun had already set over the pond, and they were sitting under a willow tree, balancing paper plates on their laps.
“This is where Dad takes Wind Dancer for his exercise,” Danny said, keeping his voice low. “You see that trail between the pine trees over there?” Jessie nodded. “It’s the old bridle path, and it runs all the way around the pond. Wind Dancer gets a good workout, and it’s really safe. No one can spot them.”
“I hope you’re right,” Jessie said, a little shiver going down her back. She knew that Wind Dancer would never be completely safe as long as the two horse thieves were around.
After Benny had finished a second helping of blueberry cobbler, he stood up and stretched. A twinkling of lights at the edge of the pond caught his eye and he nudged Violet. “Hey, look at the lightning bugs,” he said. “There must be a hundred of them over there in the forest.”
“Oh, they’re pretty. I love the way they blink on and off.” Violet scrambled to her feet. “Let’s go over and see them.” After they carefully threw away their paper plates, Violet and Benny headed for the dense pine forest that ringed the old pond. The grown-ups were having coffee, and they knew it would be another hour or so before the camp songs started.
As they started to walk around the pond, Benny taught Violet what he had learned about the constellations. “You see that little group of stars all stuck together? That’s the Seven Sisters,” he said proudly. “Henry said it’s one of the easiest ones to spot. That’s the very first constellation he taught me.”
“Oh, I think I see the Big Dipper,” Violet said. “Or is it the Little Dipper?” She brushed aside a pine branch and noticed that the sharp needles clung to her sweatshirt.
Benny tilted his head to one side. “No, you’re right, it’s the Big Dipper. I like that one, because it looks just like its name. Some of the other ones are hard to pick out.”
“That’s funny,” Violet said in a strange voice. She was staring at the blanket of pine needles on the ground.
“What’s wrong?”
“Look over there,” she said, tugging at Benny’s arm.
Benny shrugged. “It looks like the pine needles are all mushed down, that’s all.”
“Those are tire tracks,” she said.
Benny stared, his eyes round. “I knew it! Henry said I was dreaming, but I knew I was right.” Quickly, he told Violet about seeing lights around the pond one night. “They weren’t ghost lights, they were headlights!”
“Someone was out here snooping around,” Violet said. Her voice was shaky. “Do you think we should follow the tracks and see where they lead?”
Before Benny could answer, a shout went up from the direction of the camp fire. “Fire!”
“That sounded like Henry,” Violet said, grabbing Benny by the arm. “We better see what’s up!”
They started to race back to the picnic area and then realized that everyone was heading in the opposite direction.
“Oh, no,” Benny wailed. “The fire must be back at the farm.”
“It’s at the stable!” Violet shouted. She pointed to a thick coil of black smoke above the roof of the stable.
By the time they had dashed back to the stable, the smoke was gone and a small group of people had gathered around Jed Owens.
“What happened?” Violet asked Danny.
“It was a false alarm,” Danny said. “But it’s a good thing Jed was here to take care of it.”
“So the stable wasn’t on fire after all?” Benny asked. He stepped into the middle of the circle and looked right at Jed Owens.
“Luckily it was just a tin drum filled with garbage,” the young man told him. “Somebody must have tossed a match into it, and some dried twigs and leaves ignited.”
“That was a careless thing to do,” Mr. Morgan said gruffly.
“It sure was,” Jed agreed. “I’m just glad that I caught it in time.”
Benny was puzzled. “But how come you were here? Didn’t you go to the cookout?”
Violet thought that Jed looked a little uncomfortable. “No, you see, I wasn’t feeling very well, and I decided to stay in my room and rest. I had just started reading, when I thought I smelled smoke. So I ran right outside and put out the flames.”
Violet had a nagging feeling that something was wrong, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Everything Jed said made sense, but why did she feel so uneasy?
In the middle of the night, the answer came to her, and she sat straight up in bed. “The pine needles!” she said out loud.
“What?” Benny sat up sleepily and rubbed his eyes.
“Nothing,” she said quickly. “Go back to sleep.” She waited until he fell back on the pillow and then sat up, her chin cupped in her hand. Now she knew why she had felt something was wrong the whole time Jed Owens was talking. His sweater was covered in pine needles, just like her sweatshirt! The story about reading in his room was a lie. She knew exactly where he had been—in the pinewoods, spying on them! But what was he up to? And who had set the fire?
|