The Aldens spotted the Dragon’s Mouth Motor Court right away. A huge green dragon was outlined in lights from the top of its head to the tip of its tail. Instead of breathing fire and smoke, this dragon flashed the words: COZY CABINS HERE.
“How are we going to sleep with that big flashing sign?” Benny asked.
Mr. Alden laughed. “Don’t worry about that. The owner, Mr. Howe, gave you a cabin in back. Wait until you see it.”
Mr. Alden drove through the motor court. Small cabins encircled a swimming pool and playground. “Our cabin is up on Little Nose Cliff. Someone wanted to rent it, but Nelly Stoner made sure Mr. Howe set it aside for us.”
Mr. Alden pulled up next to an old green car in the parking lot at the bottom of the cliff. In a flash, Benny was out of the station wagon and up the steps leading to the cabin. At the top, he shouted down to everyone. “Hey! This cabin is built right into the rock!”
After the long climb up, Violet joined Benny. “We’ll be just like a bear family living in a cozy den,” she said when she looked around.
Benny ran to the back room where two beds were set against a stone wall. “Neat! I never slept inside a rock before.”
Jessie put down her suitcase. “You and Henry take this room. Violet and I will sleep on the fold-out couch in the front room.”
“I knew you children would find this cabin very snug,” Grandfather said. “You know I have to be away to do some business for the next few days. Mrs. Stoner and Mr. Howe will be right in the motor court if you need anything. She said she’ll keep an eye on you.”
Henry carried his suitcase and Benny’s into the bedroom. “We won’t need a thing, Grandfather. There’s a stove, a refrigerator, and a sink, too.”
Violet hugged her grandfather. “I’m glad we’re staying here and not in a fancy hotel. It’s like being in our own house.”
“This is almost as much fun as our boxcar,” Benny said.
After Mr. Alden left, Jessie unpacked the picnic basket and the cooler the family brought on all their car trips.
“Mmm,” Benny said, watching every bit of food Jessie put away in the refrigerator. “What’s for supper tonight?”
“Looks like ham and eggs,” Henry said, helping Jessie. “And I’ll make some fried potatoes, too.”
Soon everyone was busy cracking eggs, peeling potatoes, and cutting up the leftover dinner ham Mrs. McGregor, their housekeeper, had sent from home.
“Let’s eat out on the little porch,” Violet suggested. “There are four chairs and a table out there.”
Though it was dark outside, the Aldens didn’t mind eating outdoors at all. Jessie found a length of string and tied one end to a hook on the porch ceiling and the other end to her flashlight. “There. Now we have an overhead lamp. I’ll light one of the candles I bought and put it in the middle of the table. That way we can see our food.”
“Nothing is nicer than eating outside,” Violet said when she sat down. “This reminds me of living in our boxcar.”
“Only now we get to sleep on real beds instead of straw,” Henry said.
After supper, the sounds of singing crickets outside and clinking silverware inside filled the air. The children dried the dishes together. It had been a long day. They were ready for bed.
Benny had opened his mouth to yawn when something—a noisy, rumbling something—hit the porch roof.
“What’s that?” Henry yelled over the rattling sound. He ran to the front door but didn’t open it. “It sounds like rocks falling on the roof. Let’s stay inside so we don’t get knocked on the head.”
Jessie put her arms around Benny and Violet. The children stared out the front window as small rocks tumbled down. No one moved. Finally the noises stopped.
Henry slowly opened the door and the children tiptoed out to the porch. “Maybe there was an animal climbing overhead,” he said, trying to see in the dark, “and that sent a bunch of rocks down.”
Everything was quiet now except for the sound of a very loud motor down below in the parking lot.
“Look, there’s a car driving away,” Jessie said to Henry. “Do you suppose there were rock climbers on this cliff?”
Henry shook his head. “Pretty foolish ones if they were out at this hour. Rock climbing is dangerous enough in daylight, let alone at night. Let’s tell Mr. Howe what happened.”
When the Aldens went to the registration desk, they found Mr. Howe snoring in his easy chair. His reading glasses were still perched on his nose, but his newspaper had fallen to the floor.
“Mr. Howe, Mr. Howe,” Henry called.
Mr. Howe kept right on snoring.
Violet read a small sign on the counter. “It says ‘Ring bell for service.’ ”
When he heard the bell, Mr. Howe’s blue eyes flew open so fast that his reading glasses fell off his nose. He shook himself awake, then brushed back the few strands of hair on his head.
“Can I help you, folks?” he said. “Need a cabin?”
Jessie stepped up to the desk. “Our grandfather rented us a nice cabin, Mr. Howe. He said to see you if we needed anything.”
Mr. Howe stared at the Aldens. It took him a while to figure out who these children were. “Of course, of course. Your grandfather told me you’d be arriving. Hope you like Little Nose Cabin. I usually don’t rent it out to families. Don’t want children getting hurt up on Little Nose Cliff or throwing rocks down. But Nelly Stoner told me you all were careful.”
Jessie wished she didn’t have to tell Mr. Howe about the falling rocks. “Um, we just—um—we just came down to tell you—uh . . .”
“. . . how much we like our cabin,” Henry said, stepping up to the counter. “Thanks for letting us have it. We just wanted to say hi.” With that, Henry signaled the others to go outside.
“But I thought we were going to tell Mr. Howe about the falling rocks,” Jessie said on the way back to the cabin.
“We were,” Henry whispered. “Then he mentioned he doesn’t usually rent the cabin to families. I don’t want him to think we were throwing rocks or anything. Let’s see if we can figure out by ourselves what happened.”
“It’s too dark to do anything tonight. Let’s go to sleep,” Jessie said, leading the way back with her flashlight. “Tomorrow is our rock hunting day.”
“These steps feel as if they got steeper while we were gone,” Benny said in a tired voice. “I wish this cabin had an elevator.”
“Whew. Finally,” Henry said when they opened the front door.
“Hey!” Benny yelled, suddenly a lot more awake. “How did my suitcase get out here? I put it away in the closet.”
“I put mine there, too,” Violet said, spying her blue duffel bag in the middle of the room.
Henry opened all the drawers of the bedroom dresser. Then he checked his suitcase, which was also in the middle of the bedroom. “That’s strange. Nothing’s missing—not money, not our camera. Hey, wait! Where’s my headlamp? I’m pretty sure I left it right on the dresser.”
The children checked the whole cabin. Henry’s headlamp was nowhere to be found.
Henry shrugged. “As far as I can tell, somebody moved all our luggage from the closet. Unless I left my headlamp in Grandfather’s car, I think somebody took it. The question is, why would anybody want it?”
“I don’t know,” Jessie said, “but I’m double locking this door right now.”
Everyone decided it was too late to figure anything out tonight and got ready for bed. Benny crawled under his covers and said to Henry, “I’m sleeping with my suitcase right under this bed.” But before Henry could say anything, Benny had drifted off to sleep.
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