Mystery of the Star Ruby (4 page)

After paying their entry fees, the Alden children, Sybil, and Jonathan took the trail down to the stream where digging was allowed.

Jonathan opened a small shed and brought out spades, buckets, and mesh trays.

Sybil put on her straw hat and waved her spade. “I’m going over there,” she said. “Bet I find the biggest stone!”

“We’ll go below those boulders,” Jonathan told the Aldens. “Rubies and sapphires are heavy stones. They are more likely to collect behind big rocks than wash downstream.”

They sat down on the grassy bank and removed their shoes and socks. Then, with squeals and shrieks, they waded into the rushing stream.

“This water is
cold
,”Jonathan exclaimed.

“We found that out yesterday,” said Jessie. She almost added that when they went wading yesterday, someone stole her backpack.

But then she recalled the scrap of cloth. Suppose Jonathan had taken her pack. He
did
mention at dinner that he had changed his shirt.

“Don’t dig big holes,” Jonathan instructed. “Fill your buckets about half full, then rinse in the trays just like you do on the flume line. Remember, rubies and sapphires are dense and will settle in the bottom of your tray.”

“Maybe one of us will find a star ruby,” said Violet.

Jonathan nodded. “Maybe, Violet. You never know.”

Cecil Knight came halfway down the trail. “I forgot to give you the key to the shed,” he called to Jonathan.

“It’s okay,” Jonathan called back. “The shed was unlocked.”

Henry wondered if Cecil Knight normally left the equipment shed unlocked overnight. But he forgot his concern as he got to work.

Benny liked digging in the creek. He filled his bucket quickly, then began rinsing and sorting.

“I have lots of pretty rocks,” he said to Jonathan. “But I don’t know if anything is good.”

Jonathan pulled a dark red stone from his shirt pocket. “I brought this old garnet to test with.” He picked a pinkish stone from Benny’s tray and rubbed it across the surface of the garnet.

“It didn’t leave a mark,” Benny said, watching closely.

Henry came over. “That’s because the garnet is harder than your stone, Benny. If you had found a ruby, it would have scratched the garnet.”

“Henry’s right,” said Jonathan. “Gem-stones are rated by hardness. A diamond is at the top of the scale since it is the hardest stone. The softest stone, talc, is at the bottom. Any stone scratches talc, but only another diamond can scratch a diamond.”

“I read about that in the museum,” Henry said. “Rubies and sapphires are just below diamonds on the hardness scale.”

Benny was confused with all this discussion. “So what did I find?”

“Rose quartz,” Jonathan said.

“That’s a nice stone,” Jessie told her little brother.

“Yeah, but we can’t win the contest with it,” Benny said, disappointed.

Jonathan scooped ore into his tray. “I was hoping to find something really unusual for my fiancée’s ring. So far, I haven’t had much luck, either.”

Henry straightened up from digging. He thought he saw a shadow among the pine trees along the trail. Something flashed in the bright sun. A mirror? Who would be shining a mirror up there? Had Cecil come back?

Just then Benny cried, “Hey! I found something really good this time!”

Jonathan examined Benny’s find. “Hmmm. This does look interesting.”

The others stopped working and came over.

“What is it?” asked Violet. “Let’s check the hardness.”

Jonathan rubbed Benny’s stone against his garnet. “Oops!”

He dropped Benny’s stone, which fell with a plop into the creek.

“My rock!” Benny fished around in the water.

Everyone searched along the bottom, but Benny’s stone was gone.

“I’m sorry, Benny,” Jonathan apologized. “My fingers were wet. Your rock just slipped.”

“It’s okay,” said Benny.

The kids all went back to digging and rinsing. Soon their collection bucket had several small sapphires and pinkish garnets Jonathan said were rhodolite garnets.

“I think it’s time to break for lunch,” Jonathan said. He called to Sybil, “Time to eat!”

Sybil waded over. “I hope you kids had better luck than I did.” She rattled her plastic container. “I found a few sapphires, but nothing bigger than a grain of rice.”

“We found sapphires, too,” said Jessie.

Just as Jessie stooped to pick up their collection bucket, Sybil’s foot flew out and knocked it over.

“Our rocks!” Benny plunged his hands to the creek bottom, but the stones were swirling downstream.

“I’m so sorry!” Sybil said. “I just lost my balance. I can’t believe how clumsy I am.”

Jessie couldn’t believe it, either. Sybil hadn’t lost her balance. She had kicked the bucket over. It was definitely no accident.

Sybil and Jonathan walked ahead of the Alden children on the way to the restaurant.

“Something funny is going on here,” Jessie said. “Sybil deliberately made us lose our stones. But why?”

“Maybe she was jealous because she didn’t find anything good,” Benny said. Then he had a thought. “What about Jonathan? Do you think he dropped my rock accidently on purpose, too?”

“I don’t know what is going on around here,” said Henry. “But something is weird. While we were digging, I saw somebody in the trees.” He described the flashing in the sun.

“It could have been a mirror,” said Violet. “But it may have been binoculars. Or a camera. Those are both shiny.”

Jessie nodded. “If the flash was a mirror, somebody could be signaling. If it was binoculars, somebody was spying on us. And if it was a camera, somebody took our picture.”

“No matter what it was,” Henry concluded, “someone is up to no good.”

That night after dinner, the kids got together in Benny and Henry’s cabin to discuss the mystery.

Jessie, who was very organized, wrote down the strange things that had happened.

“One,” she said, “somebody took my backpack and returned it to our cabin. Two, Sybil and Jonathan both made us lose our stones in the creek. Three, somebody may have been taking our picture or spying on us.”

“Why?” asked Violet. “None of this makes any sense.”

Henry went to the window. “Do you hear that?”

Over the chirping of crickets came a faint, steady chipping noise.

“It sounds like digging,” said Benny.

They all stared out into the darkness.

“There!” Henry pointed down the hill.

A figure in white flitted around the waterwheel.

“Is somebody down there digging?” Benny asked.

“Who would be working on the flume line after dark?” Jessie wondered aloud.

Violet answered. “Somebody who doesn’t want to be seen during the day.”

“Let’s go look at the place where we saw that person last night,” Benny said the next morning.

“Before breakfast?” Violet asked, teasing her brother. “I thought you’d be starving, like always.”

“A new mystery is more important,” Benny declared.

“It’ll only take a few minutes,” Henry said, leading the way down the trail.

At the flume, Jessie stopped and looked down. “Somebody was digging, all right. See the shovel marks?”

Benny nudged the pile of loose dirt with the toe of his sneaker.

“Isn’t this where Donald Hodge dumped his buckets the other day?” he asked.

“You’re right!” Violet said. “He threw his ore away and complained he couldn’t find anything.”

“But that doesn’t answer who would come back after dark,” Henry said. “What was that person looking for?”

“This is a tougher case than I thought,” Benny said. “We definitely can’t solve it before breakfast.”

Jessie laughed. “Is that a hint? Okay, let’s go eat!”

After breakfast, the Aldens went to the entry booth. Grandfather bought everyone a large bucket of native stone.

Donald, Jonathan, and Sybil each ordered one as well. With only a few more days in the contest, everyone was eager to pan as many buckets as possible.

“I want to see my buckets being filled,” Donald said to the woman at the entry booth.

“I’m sorry, sir,” she said, hefting his buckets onto the wheelbarrow. “We’re too busy for that today. Everyone is buying special buckets. A lot of them were filled last night.”

“How do I know I’m not being cheated?” Donald said.

The woman looked worried. “I’ll ask Mr. Knight to come down and you can talk to him.”

“Never mind!” Donald pushed the wheelbarrow to the flume.

“I don’t know why Donald is so suspicious,” Sybil said as they all found places along the flume. “Cecil would never sell native-stone buckets that weren’t filled with ore from his mine.”

Henry wondered if Donald might not have reason to be suspicious. A lot of mysterious things had already happened at Ruby Hollow.

It was another hot day. The Aldens were glad the flume was shaded.

“These are good buckets,” Jonathan remarked, as he worked next to Jessie. “I’ve found three rubies already.”

The others were doing well, too. Everyone had stones in their plastic containers. Everyone except Jessie.

She rinsed the stubborn North Carolina ore thoroughly and carefully sorted through the rocks left behind, but couldn’t find a single gemstone.

“I’ll buy you another bucket,” Grandfather told her.

“I still have a little more left in this one,” she said, dumping the remaining ore into her tray.

As soon as she rinsed the tray in the rushing water, she saw a large rock in one corner. She picked it up and rubbed the dirt off with her fingers. Then she rinsed it again.

She held the huge, reddish, glossy rock up to the light.

Jonathan gasped. “Jessie! That’s the biggest ruby I’ve ever seen!”

Jessie was so startled, she nearly dropped her stone. “You’re kidding!”

Sybil left her place in the line and came over. She whistled at the size of Jessie’s stone.

“Take it to the grading window,” Sybil advised.

All the Aldens went with Jessie to the jewelry shop. No one else was at the grading window.

Jessie handed her rock to the man at the counter. “Jonathan said this is a ruby.”

The man’s eyes widened. “Young lady—not only is this an enormous ruby, it’s a
star ruby
!”

“I found a ‘Goldilocks’?” Jessie couldn’t believe it.

The gem inspector was on the phone, dialing. “Mr. Knight needs to see this.”

Cecil Knight came down from the main office immediately. He examined Jessie’s ruby through a jeweler’s loupe, a special lens that fit over one eye. After a moment, he looked up at the Aldens with a surprised grin on his face.

“Great day in the morning!” he exclaimed. “That’s the biggest star ruby that’s ever been found in this mine, at least since my family took it over.”

“Is Jessie rich?” Benny wanted to know.

“Your sister could be very rich,” Mr. Knight told him. “And famous as well.”

Jessie blushed. “I don’t want to be famous. And we have enough money.”

“Some people believe that rubies bring the wearer health, wealth, and wisdom,” Mr. Knight said to her. He winked at Grandfather. “But I think your granddaughter is already wise.”

“She’s the levelheaded one in the family,” Grandfather agreed proudly.

Cecil Knight gave the stone back to Jessie. “If you should decide to make this into a ring—and it’ll be a doozy!—wear it on your left hand. According to tradition, you won’t have any enemies.” Then he added, “If you decide to sell the stone, I’d love to have it in my museum.”

Jessie wrapped the ruby in a piece of tissue that the man at the grading window gave her and put it in her plastic container. She slid the container carefully into the pocket of her backpack.

“Jessie, do you want me to keep your stone?” offered Grandfather. “It might be safer with me.”

“I’d like to look at it more,” she told him. “I won’t let my pack out of my sight. I promise.”

“Are you ready for lunch?” Grandfather asked the children.

Benny answered for all of them. “Yes!”

The dining room was nearly filled when the Aldens walked in. Many people stood up and cheered.

“Why is everyone clapping?” Violet asked Grandfather.