Violet traced her light along the ceiling. Suddenly, she sat up, gasping. “I just thought of something.”
“What, what?” they all demanded.
“Okay, pretend we wake up tomorrow morning and find a strange dog right here in the bunkhouse. How do we know who it belongs to?”
“Dog tags?” asked Benny.
“No tags,” said Violet. “Just dog.”
“Then, we wouldn’t know whose dog it was,” said Jessie. “We don’t live around here.”
“Exactly!”
“So?” asked Benny.
“Sooooo,” said Violet, “the man who brought Honey and Bunny back said he found them in his pasture. But he’s never been to the Dare to Dream Ranch. How did he know they belonged here?”
“Horse tags?” said Benny, giggling. He always giggled when it was far past his bedtime.
“I’m serious,” Violet said.
“He couldn’t have known,” said Jessie. “What if he’s not a neighbor at all? What if he’s a thief?”
“He’s not,” Henry yawned. “Because thieves steal things.” He yawned again, which made everyone else yawn. “Thieves don’t bring things back.”
“Like the thief who stole my new camera,” said Jessie.
“I’ll bet it was that man out at the old barn,” said Benny. “He didn’t like you taking pictures of the rescue horses.”
“It can’t be him,” said Violet. “Cookie said that Slim’s volunteers stay out at the old barn. They never come to the main house. The camera thief has to be someone who wouldn’t look suspicious walking into Cookie’s office.”
“Like Cookie?” asked Benny. The others groaned. “Like us?”
Violet sighed. “It would have to be someone who comes in and out a lot, like Slim or Alyssa, Kurt or Bucky.”
Henry yawned. “I saw Slim driving off to buy medicine for the horses,” he said. “So it couldn’t be him. But I don’t know where Kurt went after we fixed the fence. And I don’t know where Alyssa was before she took us on the trail ride. And Bucky could have been anywhere.”
The children felt sad. They didn’t want to accuse someone they knew of stealing the camera. But none of them could think who else it might be.
The weary children switched off their flashlights and pulled their blankets tight. One by one they fell fast asleep. Benny struggled to stay awake. But his eyelids finally grew heavy, too.
Smoke! The smell of it woke the children at dawn. They leapt from their bunks and ran to the window. “There!” cried Violet, pointing to an orange glow in the distance. They raced to the ranch house to tell Cookie. She was already busy in the kitchen baking biscuits for breakfast.
“It’s all right,” she told them. “Kurt and the men are at the fire pit. Every few days, they burn brush at sunup, when the air is still. That keeps the fire from spreading. If you like, you can ride out and take a look-see before breakfast.”
The children quickly dressed and saddled up, then rode out across the ranch until they reached a big open field. A powerful fire roared in the middle. Ranch hands tossed old branches and brush into the flames. They wore kerchiefs over their mouths and noses. Kurt drove a tractor in a wide circle around and around the fire. A big rake hooked to the back of his tractor raked the dirt to keep the fire from spreading. The children’s horses snorted and backed up nervously. “This must be where Kurt brought the locust branch that crushed the fence,” said Henry.
Violet thought of her sketch. “Henry,” she said, “there are only three big trees near that fence. And they are all maple trees. There isn’t a locust anywhere near there. Someone brought the locust branch there. Someone dropped it on the fence.”
They watched Kurt driving the tractor. The ranch manager saw the children and drove over. He pulled his kerchief down. His face was sooty from the smoke. The ends of his blond moustache drooped from the heat.
“Get those horses away from here,” he said, scowling. “Did Alyssa send you out here?”
“Alyssa?” asked Jessie.
Kurt snorted in disgust. “She doesn’t even know that horses can panic around smoke. She’s the worst wrangler I’ve ever seen. If Cookie had hired my friend for the job, this ranch would be run right! Now, get those horses away from here.” He pulled up his kerchief and drove the tractor back to the fire.
The children rode slowly back to the ranch house. “Do you think Kurt turned Honey and Bunny loose?” asked Jessie. “To make it look like Alyssa couldn’t take care of the horses?”
“He did blame her for letting them escape,” said Violet.
Henry looked at the scratches on his hands. “Honey and Bunny didn’t have any scratches. Which means they escaped before the branch fell on the fence. Kurt could have cut the fence wire, turned the horses loose, then dropped the branch on the fence.”
“And maybe he stole Dragon to make Alyssa look even worse,” said Jessie.
“Shouldn’t we tell Cookie?” asked Violet.
“We have no proof,” Henry said. “We need to think of a way to find some.”
CHAPTER 9
A Computer Connection
“Did anyone call about Dragon?” asked the children as they walked in to breakfast.
“Not yet,” said Cookie. “But it’s still early. Not everyone has seen our flyers.” The children ate quietly, then went to do their chores. “Please, ring the cowbell if anyone calls,” said Jessie.
“I will,” promised Cookie. All morning, the children listened for the bell, but it didn’t ring until it called the ranch hands to lunch.
At lunchtime, Cookie set a big platter of chicken on the table. “I talked to a friend who works at the newspaper. He said I should bring him one of our flyers and he’ll put it in tomorrow’s paper.” She pressed her lips together. “He said a couple of other people have called him the past few days about missing horses. It looks like horse thieves might be working in this area.”
The children stared at the food in their plates. Not even Benny was hungry.
Cookie wiped her hands on her apron. “Today is Alyssa’s day off, but you four can go on a ride by yourselves after lunch. It will help take your minds off Dragon. I’ll bring the flyer over to the newspaper.” She took off her apron. “Try to eat a little something,” she said, leaving. “I’ll see you later.”
Benny nibbled a chicken leg. Henry made a sandwich from the peanut butter and jelly Cookie kept on the table. Violet sipped vegetable soup. Jessie pushed a cucumber around her plate. “It’s so hard to sit here doing nothing,” Jessie said. Suddenly, she jumped up. “I know what we can do!” And with that, she ran to Cookie’s office and turned on the computer. The others gathered around as she typed in the words “Stolen Horses.” The screen filled with websites listing missing horses. Jessie typed Dragon’s description on one website after another.
Every time Jessie went to a new website, the children looked at the photos of missing horses. Some of the horses had been found. Some were still missing. Jessie clicked to a new website. Violet gasped. “Oh!” she said, pointing to a photo.
“It’s Lots-o’-Dots!” cried Benny. Sure enough, there on the screen was Benny’s little spotted horse. The writing under the photo said:
POLKY-DOTS
MISSING FOR ONE MONTH
from Edie’s Bead Shop, Big Piney, Wyoming
Our friendly horse is so much more than a pet. Everyone who visited our little bead shop loved our funny little Polky-Dots. He often walked right through our shop to say “Howdy” to our customers. Polky-Dots loves his treats and will poke his nose right into your pocket looking for a sugar cube or apple or carrot. If you have seen our wonderful horse, please call Edie’s Bead Shop.
“That’s why he had beads stuck in his hooves,” said Benny.
Henry picked up the phone and called the number for Edie’s Bead Shop. A woman answered.
“I’m calling from the Dare to Dream Rescue Ranch,” Henry told her. “Polky-Dots is safe and happy.” The children hear
d the woman laughing and crying. “Polky-Dots must have wandered away from your place,” Henry explained. “Then someone rescued him and sent him here.” Henry listened for a few minutes. His smile disappeared.
“What’s wrong?” asked Jessie, as he hung up the phone.
Henry looked troubled. “The woman said Lots-o’-Dots didn’t walk away. She said someone broke into her barn and stole him last month.”
Jessie pointed to the address on the screen. “Edie’s Bead Shop is in Wyoming,” she said.
“And Benny said the truck that brought Honey and Bunny back had Wyoming license plates.”
“Was that truck pulling a small silver trailer with dinosaur stickers on it?” Henry asked.
Benny’s mouth dropped open. “How did you know?”
Henry explained, “Because the thieves also stole the bead store owner’s trailer. She said her little boy liked to decorate the trailer with dinosaur stickers.”
Benny gulped. He’d been face to face with a horse thief and didn’t even know it! He thought about the red-haired man with the backward baseball cap. “But the man wasn’t stealing Honey and Bunny,” said Benny. “He was bringing them back.”
Henry paced the small office. Walking back and forth helped him think better. “Maybe,” he said, “he wanted to throw us off the trail. Maybe he really wanted to steal Dragon. If we thought Honey and Bunny just walked away, we would think Dragon walked away, too.”
Jessie looked at the computer picture of Lots-o’-Dots. “Why would someone bring a stolen horse here to the ranch?”
Henry paced faster and faster. “What if the thief didn’t bring Lots-o’-Dots here to stay? What if he’s hiding him here until he can sell him?”
“Sell!” cried Violet. “Oh, Jessie, remember when we were taking pictures of horses in the west pasture and the man in the striped shirt tried to stop us? And an envelope full of money fell out of his pocket.”
Henry stopped pacing. “What if the thief brought Lots-o’-Dots and other horses here to hide them until he can sell them? What better place to hide a horse than on a horse ranch?”
“Cookie said the west pasture hadn’t been used in years, “Jessie said. “Until Slim decided to use it for his rescue horses.”
“Maybe the rescue horses need to be rescued,” said Benny.
“Let’s ride out there and take a look,” said Henry. “Let’s see what horses are out in the old barn.”
Violet looked unsure. “Shouldn’t we wait for Cookie?”
“She might not be back for hours,” said Jessie. “What if stolen horses are in the old barn? What if Dragon is out there? The thieves could take him away by the time Cookie comes home. We have to go right now!”
They went to saddle their horses but Lots-o’-Dots was not in the corral. “Maybe he’s in the pasture,” Henry said. “We don’t have time to look for him now.” Henry quickly saddled another little horse for Benny.
The four children rode out across the ranch. They saw many horses grazing in the pastures. But Lots-o’-Dots wasn’t among them.
Far off, in the west pasture, a long silver truck stood near the old barn. “I saw that truck before,” Benny said. “It has holes in the side so the cows can breathe.”
“It’s a horse trailer, too,” said Henry.
“It could be bringing in new rescue horses,” said Violet.
“Or stolen ones,” said Henry.
The children rode their horses through a field of tall hay toward the trailer. The truck’s back gate was down. But, instead of taking horses off, the man in the striped shirt was loading a white horse onto the truck.
“I saw Slim riding that horse,” said Benny. “Slim says he’s a good rider. But he holds onto the saddle horn with both hands.”
The man in the striped shirt gripped the horse’s bridle. He pulled the horse up the ramp into the truck.
“That’s the man who yelled at us for taking pictures,” said Violet.
Henry held up his hand. Everyone stopped. The man went back into the barn and soon led out a beautiful gray horse with a white patch on its nose. Its tail was white and black.
“That’s Buttercup,” whispered Jessie, “the stolen horse on the purple flyer! She’s been here the whole time!”
“We need to get closer,” Henry said, “but I don’t want that man to see us.” Henry climbed off his horse and let go of the reins. He motioned the others to do the same. The horses walked off.
“They’ll run away,” said Benny.
“They’ll look for a place to graze,” said Henry. “We’ll find them later.”
The children crouched low, moving silently through the tall hay. Soon, they were close to the barn.
“Come on, you stubborn horse!” a man growled. The children fell to their stomachs so that they were hidden by the hay. They peered out as a man tugged a big black horse out of the barn.
Jessie’s hands flew to her mouth. “Dragon!”
“Where?” Benny whispered.
“Right there.” The horse was all black. There was no big white dragon on its back. “I’m telling you, it’s Dragon,” said Jessie.
“The shoe polish,” said Henry. “They used that black shoe polish to cover his white dragon. That way, even if someone saw him, they wouldn’t recognize him.”
“I would,” said Jessie. “I’d know him anywhere.”
Dragon wouldn’t get into the truck. He reared up, whinnying. The man yanked the reins. “Come on!” he shouted. “Git in there!” He yanked the reins again.
Jessie started to get up but Henry pulled her back down. “Not yet. Wait until they’re inside the trailer. Then we’ll all make a run for the barn.” They watched as the man pulled Dragon up the ramp. It seemed to take forever. Finally, Dragon disappeared into the trailer.
The children raced from the field to the barn. Inside, four horses stood tied near the door. “Lots-o’-Dots!” said Benny, hugging his horse.
“Not now.” Henry pulled his little brother into one of the back stalls. The children huddled in a dark corner as the man walked into the barn. They held their breath as he untied a pretty red horse and led it out to the truck. A piece of paper was tacked to the stall wall. Someone had written a list of horses: Palomino, quarter horse, gray Arabian, brown spotted pony. “These are the horses he’s stealing,” said Henry. “We have to stop him.”
Jessie jumped up. “I can slow him down!” She darted to the last three horses and untied their ropes. Then she slapped them on the rear. They bolted out of the barn.
The man on the truck saw the horses escaping. “Hey!” he yelled. He jumped off the truck, chasing them. “Hey!”
The children peeked out from the barn. The man ran one way, then the other. “Roy!” the man yelled. “Come help me!”
The children ducked back as the truck door swung open and the driver stepped down. He had bright red hair and wore a white baseball cap turned backwards.
“That’s the man who brought back Honey and Bunny,” said Benny. “He drove the trailer with the dinosaur stickers.”
The man in the striped shirt captured one of the horses and led it back to the truck. “Help me catch the other two,” he snarled.
“No way,” said the red-haired man. He leaned against the truck, laughing. “My brother and I steal ’em and we pay you to take care of ’em. It’s your job to load ’em into the truck.”
“You and your brother are the sorriest horse thieves I ever did work for,” said the man in the striped shirt, chasing the last two horses. He kept stopping to catch his breath. Benny stared at the driver’s Adam’s apple. It bobbed up and down, just like Slim’s.
“He must be Slim’s brother,” said Benny. “Slim has black hair, but the hair on his arms is red.”
“He disguises himself,” Jessie said, “the way he disguises these horses.”
The man finally captured a silver horse that had stopped to nibble fruit from a crab apple tree. Only Lots-o’-Dots was still loose.
“W
e have to do something,” said Benny.
“I have an idea,” said Henry. “Violet, you go around to the front of the truck. Talk to the driver.”
The shy girl blinked. “What will I talk about?”
“Anything,” said Henry. “Just make sure you stand facing the truck. He’ll have to turn his back to it while he talks to you. That way he won’t see us.” Henry put his hands on Benny’s shoulders. “I need you to go out in the field and call Lots-o’-Dots. He’ll come to you. The man out there will try to chase you away. Stall him as long as you can.”
“What about me?” said Jessie.
Henry smiled. “You’ll come with me. It’s our turn to steal some horses.”
The children waited until the man in the striped shirt jumped off the truck and began chasing Lots-o’-Dots. “Now,” said Henry.
Violet took a deep breath and walked around to the front of the truck. “Hello,” she said. Her voice came out like a squeak.
The driver whirled around. “Where did you come from?”
“The city,” she said. “Greenfield. In Connecticut. Of, course, this is Connecticut, too. But Greenfield is very far away. I’m a tourist. And, um, I’m interested in horses. And, um, I was wondering if you could tell me—um—something about horses and …” Violet kept talking and talking as fast as she could. She had no idea what she was going to say next until the words popped out of her mouth.
Meanwhile, Benny ran out to the pasture. The man in the striped shirt was trying to catch Lots-o’-Dots. But the little horse kept trotting away. The man’s shirt was all sweaty. He ran slower and slower. “Come back here,” he shouted. But Lots-o’-Dots didn’t listen.
“Here, boy,” called Benny. The little horse looked up. Benny waved. Lots-o’-Dots pranced over to him.
“Hey, kid,” the man ran toward Benny, panting. “Gimme … that horse. You shouldn’t … be out here,” he gasped.
While the two younger children kept the men busy, Henry and Jessie dashed up the ramp into the truck. It was packed tight with horses. Their reins were hitched to poles on both sides of the truck. “Untie them,” whispered Henry.