The Castle Mystery Read Online Free Page B

Jessie was pointing. A pretty little stone house was built right into the side of a cliff.
    â€œIt’s almost like those Indian dwellings we saw out West,” Violet said. “Only this one is like a cottage. I wish we could go see it.”
    â€œThat must be Mr. Tooner’s cottage,” Jessie explained. “From what Carrie said, I thought it was attached to the castle. But it’s all by itself.”
    â€œAnd so is Mr. Tooner,” Violet said.
    A cold wind began to blow across the lake. The picnic was over. Even Benny was ready to get back to work. On the return trip up the footpath, he went right by the cave entrance. He didn’t even stop to make an echo.
    Carrie was waiting in the kitchen with a clipboard. “I hope you’ve had fun. This afternoon we’re going to tackle the great hall. The Drummonds held banquets and dances in there,” Carrie told the children. “Now the room isn’t used, but somebody … well, I’d like to see it filled with guests again. But first we need to fix it up.”
    Violet wasn’t keen on this plan. The great hall was full of big white shapes that looked like ghost chairs and ghost tables. She didn’t even like to walk by that room. In fact, when she walked in, Violet thought she saw a sheet-covered chair move.
    A minute later, she felt very silly when Carrie began to pull back the draperies and open the windows for fresh air. The room began to look more normal. Carrie removed the dust sheets from a few pieces of furniture.
    â€œNow look at this beautiful sofa,” Carrie said. “Try it out, Benny. You too, Violet.”
    Violet and Benny sat themselves on opposite sides of a fancy S-shaped curved sofa. The seats were placed so that the two Aldens were nearly face to face.
    â€œIt’s called a conversational sofa. This is how young ladies and gentlemen socialized in the old days,” Carrie said. “Between dances a young lady and a young man might chat with each other while sitting on this sofa.”
    With that, Benny bolted from the funny-shaped sofa. No one would catch him talking to a girl at a dance!
    Henry came in with a box of cleaning supplies.
    Carrie looked around the room. “You know, I think for this afternoon, we should just work on polishing up the woodwork. Let’s leave the rest of the dust cloths on the furniture for now.”
    The children set to work. The boys began on the wood trim around the windows and doorways. Henry was tall and could polish the high door frames and the tops of the cabinets. Benny was just the right height to reach down and dust off everything that was low.
    Carrie and the girls rolled up their sleeves. They removed the dust covers from two large oak tables and several small tables. There was plenty to do.
    When the afternoon light began to fade, Carrie put down her polishing rag. “Whew, we got quite a bit done. We can finish in here tomorrow.”
    â€œAnd maybe we can clean those tall windows,” Jessie added. “This room would be much brighter if the windows weren’t so dusty.”
    â€œThat sounds like a good plan, Jessie,” Carrie said. “Now I want you children to take the rest of the afternoon off. You’ve done plenty of work for one day.”
    Benny put down the feather duster. “Do you think we could start looking for the violin in here, Carrie?”
    Carrie smiled. “I don’t see why not! Of course, Mr. Tooner said he made a complete search of every nook and cranny in the castle. But the poor man has so much else to do, I can’t imagine he checked everywhere.”
    â€œI hope not,” Benny said. “I mean to find that violin myself!”
    Benny Alden didn’t waste any time. He opened every cabinet and looked inside every bookcase. He gently tugged on each painting. Maybe there was a secret safe hidden behind one of them!
    â€œNuts!” he said when he was almost through. “There