Rory looked puzzled as he rode along with the Aldens on their bikes.
“What’s the matter?” said Jessie.
“How do you get up to your attic?” asked Rory. “I don’t remember any stairs to an attic.”
Benny heard Rory’s question. He said, “The attic stairs are behind a narrow door.”
“That’s why you didn’t know about the attic,” Jessie said. “We never go up there.”
When they reached home, they put their bikes away and ran straight upstairs to the narrow door to the attic. Jessie opened the door and they began to climb.
“The stairs are steep,” said Rory. “Oh, what a dark place! I suppose those are just shadows over by the chimney, Ben?”
“Yes, they’re only shadows,” replied Benny. “This place looks spooky enough to have any number of clues. We’ll really have to look.”
“You’re brave, Ben,” said Rory. “I would never come up here alone. That’s sure.”
“Neither would I,” said Benny. “I haven’t been up here for years.”
The attic had only two windows, one at each end. They didn’t do much good. It was very dim in the attic, and there were no electric lights to turn on.
“Let’s start by the chimney,” said Henry. “There isn’t much up here after all.”
“Now wouldn’t you know that!” exclaimed Jessie. “An attic is always supposed to be full of junk and old chairs and things. It’s almost empty up here.”
“Probably Grandfather had a grand clearing out,” Henry suggested. “I hope no one threw away my old electric train. I’d like to have it for the sake of old times.”
“Come here, Henry,” called Benny from behind the chimney. “Here’s a box with your electric train. It’s on the floor.”
Violet said, “Oh, Benny, we don’t care about the train. We want to find Stephanie’s dollhouse. Where can it be?”
“Wait!” Benny called. “It’s so dark back here I can’t see much. But I just think maybe I’ve found something else.”
Jessie said, “It’s almost too much to hope the next clue is still somewhere up here.”
Benny called, “It is the dollhouse!”
Henry said, “The first thing is to move that dollhouse out into the light. Come on, Ben, help me.”
Henry and Benny moved the wooden house out into the center of the attic. The light from one window fell on it.
The whole front of the dollhouse was open so that a little girl could play with it. She could walk the dolls from one room to another.
The house was dusty, and Jessie found an old cloth and wiped off the roof and the four little rooms.
When she dusted in the biggest room, Jessie stopped. She pulled something out and said, “This shoebox probably holds the furniture.”
Violet took off the cover and found that Jessie was right. This was certainly Stephanie Shaw’s doll furniture. Scraps of cloth from Miss Rachel’s shop had been used to cover chairs and other pieces.
“Isn’t this pretty?” said Jessie, holding up a tiny sofa covered with soft blue material.
“Yes,” said Benny, who was not interested in furniture. “But what we want are coins—or another clue.”
“Now, Ben, just be patient,” said Rory. “We have to do this little by little. If we don’t we’ll miss the clue. You take out the drawers from this dresser.”
“Stephanie never made that,” Benny replied, taking the piece of doll furniture. “Somebody bought this. It has the name of the toy company stamped right on the back. And I can’t find anything that looks like a clue.”
“Well, here is a toy clock,” said Jessie. “It winds up and everything. Look, the key is still inside.”
She took the key and wound the clock. The children were fascinated to hear the tiniest bell striking five.
They looked carefully at every piece of furniture and found nothing. They looked in all the small rooms and poked down the little wooden chimney. Henry even turned the dollhouse over to look under it.
“I was wrong about a clue here,” Benny said. “There’s nothing here. No note. No coins.”
Suddenly it grew so dark in the attic that everyone had to give up.
“But only for today, Violet,” promised Benny. “Tomorrow the hunt will go on.”
But as it turned out, they did not go right up to the attic the next morning. Very early the Aldens’ telephone rang.
Benny answered it and knew the voice right away. It was Mrs. Wren.
“Oh, yes, Mrs. Wren,” Benny said. “It’s not too early. Is there something special?”
Rory was standing near Benny. He put his hand over his mouth to keep from asking, “What is it?”
Benny was saying, “You want to see us? We’ll come over on our bikes.”
Then Mrs. Wren said something and Benny listened. He answered, “No, we didn’t find anything in the attic. Nothing at all that helped us . . . Oh! You think so? . . . Yes, we’ll have our breakfast first.”
Benny waited while Mrs. Wren spoke, then he said, “Please don’t talk that way, Mrs. Wren. You are not silly. You are very good to call us.”
By this time the whole family was listening. As Benny said “Good-bye,” Henry asked, “What is it, Ben?”
“Is something wrong?” Jessie asked.
“I don’t know. Mrs. Wren is upset about something. She kept saying she was silly. ‘A silly old woman’ is what she said.”
“Well,” said Violet, “it must be something important or she would never have had the courage to call us so early.”
Mr. Alden was already sitting at the breakfast ta-ble. He said, “I take it your Mrs. Wren wants to see you again.”
“That’s right, Grandfather,” said Benny. “I can hardly eat.”
Everyone smiled at that. Benny could always eat. But Rory didn’t understand. He said, “You’d better eat, Ben. I can eat my breakfast all right.”
So the bacon and eggs and toast disappeared.
In a short time Mr. Alden got up to leave for his office. The Aldens and Rory were starting out on their bicycles for the Jenny Wren Shop.
As soon as they came into the little store, Mrs. Wren greeted them. “Oh, I am sorry to bother you!” she said. “I shouldn’t have called you so early.”
Violet took Mrs. Wren’s hand and said, “You aren’t bothering us. I think you are the only person in town who can help us.”
“I am getting so forgetful,” Mrs. Wren said. “That’s why I’m so glad my niece runs the shop for me now. But Jenny isn’t here yet.”
Benny was afraid that Mrs. Wren was forgetting why she had called. He held his breath.
But she went on, “I’m so forgetful, especially when I’m excited. And I was excited yesterday when you came and asked about the blue cloth. I was so surprised!”
“We understand,” Jessie said quietly. “I’m sure you never thought anyone would ask for that little note left with you so long ago.”
Mrs. Wren shook her head. “I had given up the idea long ago. And then when you did come, I forgot that I had another note.”
“Another note?” Benny asked. He could hardly believe what he had heard.
“Yes, Stephanie left two notes with me. She told me to give the first one to the person who asked for the blue cloth. I was to give the second note when someone gave me a coat button.”
Everyone looked surprised. Then Henry said, “I think I know. Stephanie probably had three or four treasure hunt clues. Like the one in the dollhouse that we couldn’t find. Somehow that clue must have been lost.”
Rory nodded his head and said, “Maybe another clue that said ’Take a button to Miss Rachel’ was hidden somewhere.”
“That’s a good guess,” Benny said. “But Mrs. Wren, you will let us have the second note, won’t you?”
“Oh, yes, I have it right here,” and Mrs. Wren gave Jessie a folded paper.
Jessie read in a clear voice, “‘Come on, Papa. Look on the back of the house. Outside, inside. Can’t you solve my puzzle? Keep it if you wish.’”
Jessie looked up, frowning.
“That’s just silly,” Benny said quickly. “It doesn’t sound like Stephanie or anybody else. It’s just a bunch of words.”
Nobody said anything. They all looked at Benny. Soon he said doubtfully, “Maybe it isn’t meant to say anything. Maybe . . .”
“Maybe what?” Rory demanded.
“Maybe it’s a hidden message—a code.”
“Now you’re talking, Ben,” said Henry. “That may be what it is.”
Mrs. Wren had been looking at the children and listening. Now she said, “If it turns out to be a secret message, will you let me know? And tell me if you find the coins?”
“It’s easy to promise that,” said Jessie. “Of course we will let you know. If you hadn’t saved these little notes all these years there would be no chance of finding the Blue collection.”
“But we haven’t found it yet,” Henry said.
“We will,” Benny said.
“Let’s go back to your house and study the note,” said Rory. “It has to mean something.”
When the Aldens reached home, Violet said, “Let me copy that paper. If it is in plain printing it may look different to us.”
“You’re welcome to copy it,” Benny said. “I still don’t think it means much the way it is. Who could look on the back of a house?”
“What house?” Rory asked. “We looked all over that dollhouse. Nothing there.”
Henry said slowly, “If it means the back of the house she lived in, we’re out of luck. Grandfather had the house all changed. He added rooms at the back. Remember what he told us?”
Violet was busy copying the words. She had taken a stiff card and was printing in large letters with black ink. She put one sentence on each line. It made the words look quite different.
Benny read the words slowly,
“Come on, Papa!
Look on the back of the house.
Outside, inside.
Can’t you solve my puzzle?
Keep it if you wish.”
The Aldens looked at each other. It was true. The words did not make any sense.
Benny held the cardboard out as far from his eyes as he could. Then he shouted, “I have it! Just look at the first letters of the sentences! Read the first letters down.” He laughed and handed the card back to Jessie.
“Of course,” she said. “Now I see it. C-L-O-C-K, clock! The first letters spell clock. It is just as plain as it can be—if you know what you are looking for.”
Everyone told Benny how smart he was.
“But what does clock mean?” asked Rory. “We looked at the dollhouse clock so many times that I can tell you every bump on the paint.”
Jessie said, “I’m sure there’s no clock belonging to the Shaws still in the house. Oh, dear! And I thought we were so close to finding the Blue Collection!”
Henry said, “Wait a minute, Jessie. Don’t give up! We found Stephanie Shaw’s dollhouse in the attic. Perhaps there’s a little clock of hers up there, too.”
Benny laughed, “Wouldn’t it be fun if there was a cuckoo clock up there? And the little bird in the clock had a message for us? From Birds Lane!”
Henry said, “There’s one way to find out. Let’s look.”
“Attic again,” said Rory cheerfully.
They climbed the steep attic stairs. They looked around in the attic. It was so bare that once again the search seemed hopeless. |