“That’s crazy!” Tori Smitts cried, pulling against the police officers who were holding her.
One of the police officers shook her head. “I’m afraid it isn’t, Ms. Smitts. We expected your partner, Mr. Map, to slip the ring to you when you grabbed him this time. We saw it happen.”
“It worked the first time,” Mr. Bellows said. “But it won’t work now.”
Seeing Mr. Bellows, Ms. Smitts’s eyes widened.
The other officers led the thief over to the others. His hat was gone and the handkerchief covering his face had been pulled around his neck. He was a pale man with piercing gray eyes and a thin, pointed chin.
“Meet Marvin Map,” the police officer said.
“I told you it wouldn’t work a second time, Marvin,” Ms. Smitts gasped.
“Be quiet,” Mr. Map ordered.
“We know you have the ring,” Benny said to Ms. Smitts. “You should give it back. And the necklace and the bracelet.”
“It wasn’t my idea,” said Ms. Smitts.
Mr. Map gave Ms. Smitts a disgusted look. “I don’t have the ring,” he said. “She does. She has the necklace and the bracelet, too.”
Ms. Smitts and Mr. Map glared at one another for a moment. Then Ms. Smitts reached into her pocket and pulled out the ruby ring. She put it into Mr. Bellows’s outstretched hand.
“The necklace and the bracelet are at my house,” she said. “In the back of a drawer in the basement.”
“Mr. Map gave you the necklace and the bracelet when he ran out of the antique shop, didn’t he?” Jessie asked.
Ms. Smitts nodded. “I managed to keep the lock on the glass case from snapping shut after Mr. Bellows showed the necklace set to Mr. Darden. That’s how Marvin got it out of the glass case so fast. But he didn’t have time to give me the ring. Mr. Bellows ran up behind me and I saw a police officer coming. Marvin had to run. When he did, he crashed into the bicycle. I saw him slip the ring into a box of cereal.”
“It should have been safe there,” Mr. Map growled.
“I tried to get it back right away,” Ms. Smitts went on. “But you wouldn’t throw the open box of cereal away.”
“Who broke into our house and stole a box of cereal?” Benny asked, looking from Mr. Map to Ms. Smitts.
“That was me,” Mr. Map admitted. “But the dog started barking, so I just grabbed a box of cereal and ran.”
Watch growled softly, as if remembering what had happened.
“You left footprints when you knocked over a flowerpot,” Jessie said.
“You dumped the cereal out by the boxcar,” Henry said.
Mr. Map nodded. “It was useless. The ring wasn’t in there. I remembered seeing other boxes of cereal when I ran into the bike. I figured I must have gotten the wrong box of cereal.”
“So you came back and saw us with the cereal when we were in the boxcar,” Violet said. “I felt someone watching us.” She shuddered at the memory.
“No, that was me,” said Ms. Smitts.
“That’s why the footprint we found by the stream was so much smaller,” Jessie said. “You made it.”
Nodding, Ms. Smitts said, “I doubled back to the boxcar and grabbed the cereal. But the ring wasn’t in that box, either.”
“We figured you hadn’t found it yet, or you would have realized what it was and gone to the police,” Mr. Map put in. “So I went back that night to check your garbage.” He made a disgusted face. “Nothing!”
“We didn’t know what else to do,” Ms. Smitts added, “so we started following you. And today you found the ring in the cereal box.”
“But we didn’t,” Henry said. “We found the ring the very first day.”
“You did?” Ms. Smitts said.
“Yes. We didn’t know it was a ruby ring. Benny gave it to Violet. She was wearing it when we went to visit you at the Karate Center,” Jessie explained.
“Oh, no! You mean this was all a trick?” cried Ms. Smitts.
“Yes,” Henry said. “When we realized that we had the ring and how it got into the cereal box, we set a trap using a new box of cereal — and the police.”
“See?” Benny said. “We did solve the mystery after all.”
“It was a dirty trick!” Mr. Map shouted. “Sneaky.”
“No, it wasn’t. What was sneaky was stealing the jewelry from Mr. Bellows,” Henry said.
“That’s right,” Benny added. “You were wrong. Stealing is wrong.”
“Mr. Map, Ms. Smitts, my advice to you is that you listen to what Benny Alden just said. It might keep you out of trouble in the future. Let’s go,” one of the officers said.
The police led the two thieves away.
“I have to go with the police,” Mr. Bellows said. “To identify the necklace and the bracelet.” He took a small box out of his pocket and carefully put the ring inside. “How can I ever thank you?”
“We’re glad we could help,” Henry said.
Mr. Bellows shook hands with Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Soo Lee. But when he got to Benny, Benny dropped to his knees. “Look!” he said. He picked something up from the cereal that had spilled across the picnic blanket.
It was a small silver cardboard star.
“It’s the last star,” Benny said happily. “Now I can send away for my detective’s badge!”
The next day was Grandfather’s birthday. But Violet and Benny had one thing to do before helping with the preparations.
“Hurry,” Violet said. “We haven’t got much time.”
“Here’s the mailbox,” Benny said. He opened it and dropped the envelope inside. He peered through the opening to make sure the letter had gone in. It was addressed to the cereal company. Inside were all the silver stars that Benny needed to get his detective’s badge.
They walked home quickly from the mailbox on the corner and hurried around to the boxcar.
Inside, Jessie was spreading a tablecloth across the old table. In the middle of it, she put a vase with flowers that she had picked that day. Outside, Soo Lee was hanging pinecones coated with glitter and paint and tied to ribbons on a small red maple tree near the boxcar. Benny ran to help her.
“Violet, would you hand me the tape, please?” Henry asked. “I dropped it.”
Violet hurried to pick up the tape and hand it to her brother. He taped the corner of the poster above the door. It said, HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDFATHER.
At that moment, Mrs. McGregor came out the back door. In her hands she held a beautiful cake, with pink and lavender roses and green leaves made of sugar. On top of the cake were blue candles.
“That is the best birthday cake I’ve ever seen,” Violet said, clasping her hands together.
“And the most delicious one you’ll ever eat,” Mrs. McGregor assured her. “Until my next one. Now, who wants to help me bring out the punch?”
“I will,” said Benny. He skipped alongside Mrs. McGregor as she went back to the house. “I could lick the frosting bowl for you,” he volunteered.
Mrs. McGregor laughed.
Henry looked at his watch. “Cousin Alice and Cousin Joe will be here in ten minutes,” he said.
They all worked faster than ever. At last Violet tied a big bow on the Japanese maple tree.
A car pulled into the driveway.
Quickly everyone jumped into the boxcar and pulled the door closed.
Peering through a crack, they saw the back door open. Then they saw Mrs. McGregor gesture toward the boxcar.
“Do you think he suspects anything?” Jessie whispered.
“Not yet,” said Henry. He held on to Benny to keep him from jumping out of the boxcar too early. Benny held on to Watch.
Grandfather, Mrs. McGregor, Alice, and Joe walked toward the boxcar.
“Now!” whispered Henry.
Jessie pushed open the boxcar door and they all leaped out.
“Surprise!” they all shouted, and Watch barked loudly.
Then, as Mrs. McGregor, Alice, and Joe joined in, they all began to sing “Happy Birthday.”
Grandfather’s mouth dropped open in surprise. But when everyone had finished singing, he began to laugh.
“Are you surprised, Grandfather?” Benny asked.
“I sure am,” his grandfather answered. He looked at Joe and Alice. “Did you know about this?”
Joe and Alice nodded. Alice said, “That’s why we invited you to come visit — so there would be time to decorate the boxcar.”
Benny said, “Do you want some cake? Mrs. McGregor made it. It’s your favorite kind.” He paused and added, “Mine, too.”
Laughing, everybody went into the boxcar. Grandfather Alden blew out the candles on his cake. He cut it and gave everybody a piece, while Henry and Jessie poured the punch and Violet passed out the napkins.
“Let’s eat our cake and drink our punch outside under a tree,” Jessie said.
“Yes,” Violet agreed. “I know just the tree.”
“Come on, Grandfather,” Benny said.
When they reached the tree, Grandfather said, “My goodness! Another surprise!”
“It’s a Japanese maple tree,” Henry said. “We picked it out ourselves.”
“It’s a wonderful tree. And it has some very fine decorations,” Grandfather said.
“We made those,” Soo Lee told him.
They sat down in the grass under the new tree and ate their cake and drank punch. Mrs. McGregor gave Watch a special dog biscuit that she had saved for the birthday celebration.
“With the sun shining through the red leaves of this maple, they are the color of rubies,” Grandfather declared, looking up at his birthday tree.
“Some rubies,” Violet said. “Not all rubies are red.”
“Speaking of rubies,” said Joe, “Alice and I have something to show you.”
Alice reached into her shoulder bag and pulled out the latest edition of the Greenfield newspaper. “Your names are on page one,” she told the Boxcar Children.
Sure enough, the newspaper had printed the whole story of the stolen jewels and how Henry, Jessie, Violet, Benny, and Soo Lee had helped find and capture the robbers. The story even mentioned Watch.
“We’ll have to save this,” Henry said.
Benny sighed.
“What’s wrong, Benny?” asked Violet.
“I wish I had my detective’s badge,” Benny said. “I could have worn it when we solved the case. Then I would have been a real detective.”
Jessie laughed. “Oh, Benny. You don’t need a detective’s badge to be a real detective. You are one already.”
“Really?” asked Benny.
“Yes!” declared Jessie.
“Not only are you all real detectives,” said Grandfather Alden, looking around, “but you are my favorite detectives in the whole world. You are the very best.”
“Is that true?” Benny asked.
“It certainly is, Benny,” Grandfather said. “It certainly is.” |