Mystery Behind the Wall Read Online Free

He thought she left the collection somewhere in the house. You see, Stephanie thought she would be coming back. But she didn’t.”
    “Why didn’t the professor write to her and offer to send her the Blue Collection?” Henry asked.
    “That’s easy to answer,” Mr. Alden said. “He didn’t know her address.”
    Jessie laughed. “Well, that is a pretty good reason. Rory and Benny found only the empty coin case. Maybe the coins in the Blue Collection were stolen. Then again, maybe the boys didn’t search deep enough.”
    Benny and Rory looked at each other. They were both thinking of the small hole in the closet wall.
    “That hole isn’t very deep, Ben,” said Rory. “Perhaps the coins are still there! We were so excited to find anything that we stopped looking when we found the cloth case.”
    The boys raced upstairs followed by all the Aldens, even Grandfather. Benny rushed into the closet while everyone stood still outside. They were wondering if Benny would find anything else hidden behind the wall.

CHAPTER 4
    Is That All?
    R ory held his breath as Benny reached into the hole in the closet wall. Benny was so excited that he almost let the pliers fall into the hole.
    “Paper!” he said. “Hear it rustle?”
    “Don’t tear it, Benny,” said Rory. “It must be very old.”
    “There’s a lot of it,” Benny said. By now he was able to touch the paper with his fingers. “It feels like a book without a cover.”
    “Pull it out!” Rory said.
    “Here, you try,” Benny replied. “It’s not as easy as you think.”
    “I’ll try,” said Rory. “But it’s in your house and it belongs to you, whatever it is.”
    Rory took the pliers and got a good grip on the papers. Out came a notebook without any cover. It was bent and wrinkled. The paper looked yellowed and old.
    The two boys moved into the light. Benny held the papers out for Grandfather and the others to see. He said, “Homemade! Poor Stephanie! She had to make her own book.”
    “But what kind of book is it?” asked Violet.
    Three rusty pins held together four pieces of school paper folded twice.
    “Don’t open it, Ben,” said Rory. “Let’s give it to Granda just as it is.”
    Mr. Alden was very careful with the paper book. He sat down at a table in Rory’s room.
    On the first page he read in big printing, MY JOURNAL BY STEPHANIE. Inside, the writing was something like an old lady’s and also like a small child’s.
    “Please read what it says,” Jessie said.
    “Yes,” Benny said. “Maybe there’s a clue about the Blue Collection.”
    So Mr. Alden read what had been written so long ago. Rory and the others listened. They tried to imagine the little girl in her room, writing slowly about herself.
    “I am ten years old and I think I should start a journal. I will never show it to anybody, so I can write what I choose.
    “To begin with, I have dark brown curly hair and brown eyes. I look like my father, and I like the things he likes. My mother loves to go to parties in pretty clothes. I don’t go to parties.
    “Once my father and mother and I started to church. A man with a camera came along and took our picture. My father wanted the picture. He bought it and I had it framed to surprise him.
    “Now a journal has to know everything. I do not go to school, but my father has a teacher for me. I do not have any playmates, so my father helps me with a collection of coins. I made the case of blue cloth because I like blue. The sewing is not very good because nobody ever taught me how and I just picked it up, and besides I wasn’t ten when I began.
    “My father gave me some money and I bought the blue cloth from Miss Rachel. She is a very young woman, but she has a little shop and sells all kinds of things like cloth and pins and needles. I can talk to Miss Rachel. She’s my friend.
    “But I like to collect coins. I am always looking around for different coins. Sometimes Miss Rachel watches for a special penny I want, or a nickel