Mystery Behind the Wall Read Online Free Page A

or dime. My father gives me coins, too.
    “I used to have five dolls. But now I am older, and I have given them away. Sometimes I wish I had them back, especially my baby doll with the long clothes and silk socks. I used to think she was real because she shut her eyes. I wish I hadn’t thought I was too old for dolls. But I suppose coins take the place of dolls as one grows older. Anyway, I still have my dollhouse for little dolls.
    “I hope that when I grow up I shall write a wonderful book like Heidi and everybody will read it. I can do that and collect coins, too.
    “My father said to me, Stephanie, you are a very smart little girl. Why don’t you think up some kind of hard puzzle that nobody can solve? Then hide it somewhere. So that is what I am going to do, a puzzle with hard clues and everything.
    “I think I can make up a puzzle that nobody can solve, not even my father. I will make it easy at first and that will fool him.”
    Mr. Alden stopped and looked around.
    “Don’t stop,” Benny said. “Go on.”
    “That’s all,” Mr. Alden said. “I have read it all to you. There is nothing more.”
    Jessie said, “Well, it does sound like a little girl’s diary. I wrote some things like that once, too.”
    “Oh, dear!” said Rory. “I thought we were going to learn some great secret about the house and my room.”
    “So did I, Rory,” said Mr. Alden with a rather sad smile.
    “What shall we do with the journal?” Benny asked. “It won’t do any good to put it back where it came from.”
    Violet said, “Let me keep it. I’ll put it in a safe place.”
    Grandfather handed Violet the papers held together with the rusty pins. Then he went downstairs.
    Rory said, “I guess we can put the pliers away. We won’t need them.”
    Benny nodded. “There isn’t any use in looking for the coins in the wall. I’m sure someone found them and stole them, just the way Jessie said.”
    “But we can’t be certain the coins were stolen,” Rory said. “I don’t think they were. I think those coins are still hidden someplace. But what good is that if we can’t find them?”
    Benny said, “Well, let’s think for a minute. How did Stephanie put the things in the wall in the first place?”
    “She didn’t saw a hole the way we did,” Rory said.
    “No, I’m sure she didn’t do that,” Benny said. “Let’s take another look.”
    So Benny got his flashlight again and both boys began to look carefully at the back wall of Rory’s closet.
    The wall was made of narrow boards fitted together. Small nails held the boards in place.
    Suddenly Benny said, “Look, Rory!” and pointed to a place where a nail was missing. The empty nail hole was easy to see. And the nail at the other end of the board was very loose.
    Rory ran his finger around the small nail. It wiggled a bit, just like a loose tooth. He tried to pull the nail out, but it was a little rusty.
    “Here,” Benny said. “Use the pliers to hold the head of the nail. Maybe if you try that it will come out.”
    And the nail did! After that it was easy to pull the narrow board away. There was the empty space that held the coin case and the sheets of the journal Stephanie had written. The hiding place was near enough to the hole the boys had made to let them reach into it.
    Benny looked thoughtfully at the loose board. He said, “I guess Stephanie must have discovered this hiding place and decided to use it for a secret place of her own.”
    “And somebody else found it and took out the coins,” said Benny. “Too bad.”
    “I tell you what we can do,” said Rory. “Let’s look all around my room before we go to dinner.”
    Benny began to smile. He said, “You are right, Rory. If a board was loose in the closet, maybe there’s some other hiding place.”
    The boys got down on their hands and knees. They began to crawl along the floor, looking for a loose board.
    “Can we roll up the rug?” Rory asked.
    “Sure,” Benny said.
    But there were no