The Canoe Trip Mystery

  “Careful,” Henry warned. “You don’t want all the stones around it to fall out, too.”

  “This is the only stone that’s loose,” Jessie pointed out.

  Slowly, Jessie and Violet wiggled and pried the stone until it came out from the wall of the well.

  “Is there anything behind it?” Benny asked.

  “Yes, I see something,” Jessie reported excitedly. She reached in the hole and slowly pulled out a brown leather pouch.

  “Wow, it’s really heavy,” she said as shedropped it onto the ground.

  They all sat in the long grass by the well and watched Benny unbuckle the pouch. Inside were almost one hundred gold and silver coins.

  “Oh, some of these coins are so pretty,” Violet exclaimed. She held up a silver coin with an oak tree engraved on it. “This one is dated 1652.” She laid the coin on a rock.

  “Most of them seem to be early American colonial coins,” Aunt Jane said. She fingered a large gold piece from the 1700s with an eagle on it.

  “Look at this one!” Henry almost shouted. He held up a heavy gold coin. It had an engraving of a sunrise coming up over mountains on one side. On the back was an eagle with a shield and the date—1787.

  “Do you know what that is?” A familiar voice spoke behind them. Without waiting for an answer, the voice continued. “It’s a famous gold doubloon. Some collectors would do anything to get their hands on it.”

  The Aldens turned to find Rob staring at the coins laid out on the rock.

  CHAPTER 9

  Rob’s Story

  “I guess I owe you an explanation,” Rob said. He put his walking stick down and sat by the Aldens in the long grass.

  “You’ve just found one of the most valuable private collections of early American coins in the country,” he continued.

  “Was it stolen about a year ago?” Henry asked, remembering the conversation in the pizzeria.

  “Yes.” Rob nodded. “From Mr. Orville Withington. He hired me as a private detective to try to find it.”

  “So you’re not a burglar?” Benny sounded very relieved.

  “Benny,” Jessie groaned.

  Rob chuckled. “No, Benny, I’m not, but I don’t blame you for being suspicious of me.” He sighed. “You see,” he explained, “I really couldn’t tell anyone my identity.”

  “What made you think the coins would be hidden here in the woods?” Aunt Jane asked.

  “Well, it was a hunch, really,” Rob answered. “To answer that question, I think I’d better start at the beginning.”

  Aunt Jane and the Aldens nodded and waited, a bit impatiently, for him to go on. Rob leaned against the big granite boulder and continued his story.

  “You see, Mr. Withington is a very wealthy and also a very kind man. I always thought that some of the people who worked for him took advantage of his good nature.”

  “You think someone who worked for him took the coins?” Henry asked.

  “Yes,” Rob answered. “Even the police strongly believed it was an inside job, and there were a number of possibilities. Mr.Withington employed a cook, a maid, a housekeeper, a chauffeur, a personal secretary, several gardeners, and an illustrator.”

  “An illustrator?” Violet asked.

  “Yes, she was doing drawings of the coins to be published in a book. The collection was stolen before she could finish.”

  “Who did Mr. Withington suspect?” Jessie wondered.

  “Well, he didn’t really suspect anyone at first. He’s very trusting,” Rob said. “But the police thought the robbery must have been done by someone who knew Mr. Withington’s habits extremely well. Nothing but the coins were taken, and nothing else in the house was disturbed.

  “When Mr. Withington hired me,” Rob went on, “I checked up on all the people who worked for him. The illustrator, the chauffeur, and two of the gardeners had been with him less than a year. All the others have worked for him for a very long time and are like his family.”

  “Like Mrs. McGregor is to us,” Bennywhispered to Jessie. She nodded at her brother.

  Rob cleared his throat. “Right after the robbery, the illustrator left rather suddenly. At first, Mr. Withington thought it was because there was no more work for her.”

  “Do you know anything about her?” Violet asked.

  “Mr. Withington showed me a picture of her, since I couldn’t interview her as I had the others. Her name was Eliza Fallon. She looked like Angela, but in her picture, she had shorter hair.”

  “You think Angela and Eliza Fallon are the same person?” Henry asked.

  “Yes,” Rob said. “When I met her yesterday, I was pretty sure, but I needed some evidence. I tried to follow her, but it was hard with this ankle.” Rob looked down at his leg and winced.

  “Where did you see her go?” Benny asked.

  “When she left the bunkhouse, she went into the woods,” Rob said. “She didn’t stay long before she headed quickly to her canoe. When I arrived at the lake, she had alreadytaken off. I followed her a bit along the shore then came back to these woods to see if I could find any clues.”

  “Did you find anything?” Violet asked softly.

  “Well, no. It was dark by then and all I had was my flashlight. You’re the ones who found something.” Rob looked very proud of the Aldens.

  “Did you see her take our equipment?” Henry asked.

  “No, I didn’t.” Rob shook his head. “So you see, I still have no solid proof against her.”

  “That’s too bad.” Benny looked disappointed.

  “How did you know to look for her here?” Aunt Jane asked.

  “Mr. Withington told me Angela loved to go canoeing in this part of the country,” Rob explained. “She particularly liked to go by the old abandoned house on Timberwolf Lake.”

  “That’s the house we saw on our first night of the trip,” Jessie exclaimed.

  “So, did Mr. Withington suspect Angela—or Eliza?” Violet asked.

  “Well, of all his employees, he finally admitted she was one of the most suspicious. I decided to take a trip up here on a hunch I might find something. It’s been almost a year since the coin collection was stolen,” Rob said.

  “Do you suspect any of the other new employees?” Jessica wondered.

  “Well, the two new gardeners are still working for Mr. Withington and seem very honest. The chauffeur, however, suddenly disappeared a few weeks ago.”

  “What did this chauffeur look like?” Jessie asked.

  “He was a big man with blond hair and a loud voice.”

  “Hey, wait, that sounds like Matt,” Benny shouted.

  “That’s just what I was thinking.” Aunt Jane nodded at Benny.

  Jessie, Aunt Jane, and Benny told Rob about meeting Matt and Bill in the storm. They also told him about Lorenzo Espinosa.

  Rob listened closely. “We always thought more than one person might be involved in stealing that collection. I wonder…” His voice trailed off.

  “What do you think we should do now?” Henry asked.

  “We should try to get these coins safely to the nearest town—White Pine, I believe,” Rob answered.

  “That’s where we’re meeting Grandfather,” Benny said.

  “Good,” Rob nodded. “We shouldn’t talk to anyone before we get the coins safely into the hands of the police.”

  When Aunt Jane and the Aldens arrived at the bunkhouse with the coins, they saw smoke coming from the chimney.

  “Look, there are some other campers here.” Violet sounded worried.

  “Jessie and I will take the coins and hide them,” Rob said. “We don’t want to take any chances.”

  Henry slowly opened the door.

  “Well, hello again!” a loud voice greeted them. Matt and Bill were seated on the couch in front of the fireplace. Both of them were covered with red blisters.

  “I see you found your family.” Bill nodded toward Violet and Henry.

  “You must have been bitten by lots of mosquit
oes,” Benny observed.

  “We camped in some poison ivy,” Matt said ruefully as he scratched his arm.

  “Say, you wouldn’t happen to have any lotion we could put on it?” Bill asked.

  “No.” Aunt Jane shook her head. “We didn’t bring any.”

  “Didn’t you know to avoid it?” Benny asked.

  “Yes, but … uh—” Bill started.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Matt said. “We’re heading for home this afternoon anyway. We don’t want to do any more camping for a while.”

  “Oh, did you finish mapping the canoe routes already?” Aunt Jane asked.

  Matt and Bill looked at one another. Bill even stopped scratching his arm. They seemed to have no idea what she was referring to. “Yes, we did,” Matt finally answered.

  “We should really be going,” Bill said with a pointed look at Matt.

  “Yes,” Matt agreed, a little too quickly. “It was good to rest here by the fire awhile. So long.”

  “Good-bye,” the Aldens called as Matt and Bill went out the door.

  “I wonder what that was all about,” Aunt Jane said, puzzled.

  “Why did they even come in the bunkhouse and build a fire, if they were planning to leave right away?” Violet asked.

  “Maybe they didn’t expect us to be here.” Henry bent down to tie the shoelaces on his sneakers.

  “Didn’t you say they were park rangers?” Violet asked.

  “That’s what they told us,” said Aunt Jane.

  “I can’t believe that two rangers would camp in poison ivy,” Violet pointed out.

  “Even I know better than that!” added Benny.

  At that moment, Rob and Jessie came in.

  “Matt and Bill were just here, but they had to go,” Benny explained.

  “Yes, I know. We saw them leave,” Rob answered. “I recognized one of them. He was Mr. Withington’s chauffeur.”

  “Where are the coins?” Henry asked.

  “They’re right here.” Rob pulled the brown leather pouch from the inside pocket of his jacket. “We decided it was safer to keep them with us.”

  “Do you think they left because we were here?” Benny asked.

  “I don’t know, Benny. I just hope they don’t make any trouble for us before we get to White Pine,” Rob said grimly.

  CHAPTER 10

  The Rapids

  “I hope we made the right decision to leave tomorrow instead of right away,” Jessie said worriedly.

  The Aldens and Rob were seated around the fireplace in the bunkhouse, eating dinner. They planned to leave very early the next morning for White Pine.

  “Jessie, look at the weather,” Henry said. He scraped the last bit of beef stew off his plate. “We couldn’t have gotten very far in all this rain.”

  “I just hope we won’t run into Angela or Matt.” Violet frowned. She put her plate down and curled up on the soft rug in front of the fire.

  Aunt Jane yawned. “After we clean up, I think we should stop worrying and go to bed,” she said. “Remember, we have to be up very early tomorrow.”

  The sun was just rising when Aunt Jane and the Aldens pushed their canoes into the lake the next morning. Aunt Jane had assured Henry they would be all right using just one paddle for each canoe.

  Henry sat in the back of his canoe. To keep it on course, he paddled first on the left, then on the right, then on the left again. Aunt Jane did the same in her canoe.

  Rob carried the coin collection with him. He sat in Henry’s canoe behind Violet.

  By noon, the two canoes reached the small rapids. “I can’t believe this is the last part of the trip already,” Benny said. He sounded sad.

  “Just be glad we’ve found the coins and so far no one has bothered us,” Jessie said.

  “I’m afraid you spoke too soon.” Aunt Jane pointed in front of them. Up ahead, they saw a large wooden canoe with red lettering on the sides. It was Angela!

  “Oh no,” Jessie groaned. “Henry, look up ahead!” she called to the other canoe.

  Rob rummaged in his day pack for his binoculars. “She’s alone,” he said. “We’ll be all right.”

  “She may not even know we have the coins,” Violet said.

  “Let’s stop here for a minute,” Aunt Jane called to Henry. She wanted to study the rapids.

  “Look, Henry. See how small the waves are? That means the current isn’t very strong. We’ll be all right, even with just one paddle for each canoe.”

  “Yes.” Rob smiled at Henry. “Just keep the canoe going in the same direction as the current and we’ll be fine.”

  Aunt Jane took the lead. Henry followed.

  “Hey, this is fun!” Benny exclaimed. Small waves splashed against the canoe and sprayed his face.

  He looked back at Henry’s canoe. He could see that Henry, Violet, and Rob were enjoying the rapids, too. Then he looked ahead for Angela’s canoe.

  Already, they had caught up to her. Her canoe had too much equipment in it and was riding very low in the water. When she went over the rapids, a lot of water went into her canoe. It sank lower and lower.

  While Benny watched, Angela’s canoe hit a rock under the water and rolled over. She was thrown out into the current.

  “Help! Help!” she screamed.

  “Aunt Jane, Henry, look!” Benny yelled.

  Henry had already seen what had happened. He headed his canoe toward the shore. Aunt Jane followed.

  Angela was in the water, struggling against the current.

  “Angela!” Henry yelled from the shore. “Try to get to that rock!” He didn’t know if she heard him or not. She may have had the same idea because she slowly swam to the big gray boulder and clung to it.

  Henry waded into the water and threw hera long rope. After several tries, Angela finally caught it. She clung to the rope while Henry and Rob pulled her in to the shore.

  Angela’s knees and elbows were bleeding. Her face was bruised. She shivered from the cold water.

  Jessie grabbed a sleeping bag to wrap around her. Aunt Jane and Violet found bandages in the first-aid kit and put them on her worst cuts. Rob gave her hot coffee from his thermos.

  “My canoe, can you save my canoe?” Angela asked.

  “I’m afraid not,” Rob answered. “Your canoe was swept downstream.”

  “But all my equipment was in it,” Angela said in despair. “I’ve lost everything.”

  “Well, at least you’re alive and not too badly hurt,” Rob said gently.

  “Yes.” Angela nodded. “Thanks to you all. You’ve been nicer to me than I deserve after the way I’ve treated you,” she said.

  “What do you mean?” Rob asked.

  “Well, I tried to scare you all away. I didn’t want anyone to find … .”

  “Find what, Angela?” Rob prodded her a little.

  “Oh, never mind. I’m not myself right now.” Angela became quiet.

  Everyone could see Angela was very tired. No one had the heart to ask her any more questions.

  Angela changed into some of Aunt Jane’s dry clothes. When she was ready, the others bundled her into Henry’s canoe and headed quickly for White Pine.

  “We should get you to a doctor,” Violet told her.

  Angela shrugged. “I’m not badly hurt,” she said.

  When they arrived at the dock in White Pine, they were met by Grandfather, the local sheriff, and Lorenzo Espinosa.

  “Grandfather!” Benny ran to him and was swept up in a big bear hug.

  “It’s good to see you!” Grandfather smiled warmly.

  “Your grandfather was worried about you. A motorist just reported a canoeing accidentin the rapids,” the sheriff explained.

  “Yes, I was afraid something had happened to you.” Grandfather gave Benny another hug.

  “I was worried, too,” Lorenzo said. He looked very happy to see the Aldens again. “I was in town filing a report with the sheriff about all the strange happenings in the woods,” he explained.

/>   “Oh, Grandfather, we have so much to tell you!” Benny exclaimed.

  “So I gather.” Grandfather ruffled Benny’s hair. “Lorenzo was just telling me about some of your adventures.”

  “I see something did happen to one of your party.” The sheriff nodded toward Angela. Rob and Henry were helping her out of the canoe onto the dock. Angela still held Jessie’s blue sleeping bag around her shoulders.

  “I’ll need to ask all of you some questions about the accident,” the sheriff said. He gently led Angela to a big wooden picnic table by the dock. The others followed.

  Angela told the sheriff her canoe had hit a rock and tipped over. She praised AuntJane, the Aldens, and even Rob for rescuing her. “They saved my life,” she said. She looked as if she were near tears.

  When the sheriff finished his questioning, Rob turned toward him. “I’m a private detective,” Rob explained. He showed the sheriff his detective’s license. Angela stared at it with her mouth wide open.

  “I would like to turn in a valuable coin collection these children found on their canoe trip.” Rob pulled the brown leather pouch from his jacket pocket. “It’s Mr. Orville Withington’s collection.”

  The sheriff nodded. “I know about that case.”

  Angela gasped and turned very pale. “How did you ever find it?” she sputtered.

  “What do you know about this?” the sheriff asked sharply.

  Angela didn’t answer. Instead, she put her hands in front of her face and burst into tears. She cried for a long time. Jessie quietly handed her some tissues. Everyone else looked a little uncomfortable.

  When she began to calm down, the sheriff said, “I’m going to have to ask you some more questions.” He pulled out his notebook. Angela nodded and gulped.

  “I stole Mr. Withington’s collection,” she began in a low quavery voice. “Matt—Mr. Withington’s chauffeur—and I had planned the robbery for a long time.” Angela sniffed and blew her nose.

  “So you are Eliza Fallon,” Rob said.

  Angela nodded. “Yes, that’s a made-up name. My real name is Angela Tripp.”

  “How did the coins end up in the woods?” the sheriff asked.