Mystery of the Star Ruby (8 page)

“This.” Henry pulled out the black velvet bag. “This is your Papa Bear ruby. We found it in the Laundromat. Jessie, let me have the star ruby again.”

Jessie handed him the star ruby. Henry scratched the star ruby across Donald’s ruby.

“Our ruby leaves a mark!” Benny said. “That means Donald’s ruby isn’t a ruby at all!”

Mr. Knight was amazed. “You were going to enter a fake ruby in the contest? That would never work.”

“Donald must have known that,” said Henry. “What I don’t know is why he did it.”

Donald shoved his hands in his pockets and glowered.

Benny stared at him. The way Donald was standing reminded him of something …

He went over to the wall and looked at the picture of the two boys standing by the waterwheel. The taller boy had his hands jammed in his pockets and was frowning into the camera.

“Look,” Benny said, pointing to the photograph. “Donald looks just like the boy in this picture, the way he’s standing.”

Cecil Knight took the photograph off the wall. Then he looked carefully at Donald. “It
is
you!”

“Who?” asked Jonathan, puzzled.

“Mr. Knight’s cousin,” Benny said matter-of-factly. “He’s the cousin who came to visit once.”

“Cousin Don,” Mr. Knight said. “I haven’t seen you since you came with Uncle Josh and Aunt Cathy, forty years ago. So that’s why you’re always wearing sunglasses—you thought I’d recognize you. What are you doing here?”

“These kids think they’re so smart,” Donald sneered. “Why don’t
they
tell you?”

“We can guess,” said Henry. “You want Ruby Hollow.”

“That’s exactly it,” Donald confessed angrily. “The mine should belong to me. My father said we got cheated. So I decided to come back and make trouble. I tried to make people think you run a dishonest operation.”

“You took my backpack and returned it so we would complain,” said Jessie. “But you ripped your shirt that day. We matched the scrap to the shirt you left in the Laundromat.”

“You did things like complain about the buckets being salted,” said Violet. “When Jessie found the star ruby, you took it. If everyone knew there was a thief here, they might leave. But we never reported the robbery.”

“If you’re such clever detectives,” Donald said, “what else have you figured out?”

Henry had noticed something on the wall, too.

“We saw you spying on us the day we went creekin’,” said Henry. “But you were really watching Mr. Knight, weren’t you? You were in his office that day. Is that when you read about a star ruby being found here in 1988?”

“I was looking for Cecil’s account books,” Donald admitted. “I’d heard he was in debt.”

“I was in debt a few years ago,” Cecil Knight said. “But my business is doing better now. This winter I’m going to fix up the cabins.” He shook his head. “I still don’t understand why you had that fake ruby.”

“I was going to enter it in the contest, and when the judges called it a fake, I planned to tell everyone it came from one of the native-stone buckets you sold me,” Donald explained.

“And then Jessie Alden found a star ruby that upset your plans,” Sybil figured. “So you stole her ruby.”

“I wanted to take away anything else I could—like this resort.” Donald said.

“Never!” Cecil Knight stated. “Ruby Hollow Mine belongs to me and always will. I suggest you leave immediately. For Aunt Cathy’s sake, I won’t press charges.”

Donald left the room in a huff.

“Thanks, kids,” Mr. Knight said to the Aldens. “Don could have caused a lot of damage if it hadn’t been for you.”

“We’re just glad everything turned out okay,” said Jessie. “And if it’s all right with Grandfather, we’d like to sell the ruby to you, for your museum.”

Violet took her gem box over to Jonathan.

“I know this isn’t a star ruby,” she said. “It’s not even a Papa Bear ruby. But I’d like to give it to you for Carrie. I think it would make a pretty ring.”

Jonathan smiled at her. “Your ruby will make a very special ring. Thank you very much. I’ll tell Carrie all about you Aldens.”

Benny grinned. Another mystery solved!

Maybe
, he thought,
we won
’
t have to dig for our next case!

G
ERTRUDE
C
HANDLER
W
ARNER
discovered when she was teaching that many readers who like an exciting story could find no books that were both easy and fun to read. She decided to try to meet this need, and her first book,
The Boxcar Children,
quickly proved she had succeeded.

Miss Warner drew on her own experiences to write the mystery. As a child she spent hours watching trains go by on the tracks opposite her family home. She often dreamed about what it would be like to set up housekeeping in a caboose or freight car — the situation the Alden children find themselves in.

When Miss Warner received requests for more adventures involving Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden, she began additional stories. In each, she chose a special setting and introduced unusual or eccentric characters who liked the unpredictable.

While the mystery element is central to each of Miss Warner’s books, she never thought of them as strictly juvenile mysteries. She liked to stress the Aldens’ independence and resourcefulness and their solid New England devotion to using up and making do. The Aldens go about most of their adventures with as little adult supervision as possible — something else that delights young readers.

Miss Warner lived in Putnam, Connecticut, until her death in 1979. During her lifetime, she received hundreds of letters from girls and boys telling her how much they liked her books.

The Boxcar Children Mysteries

T
HE
B
OXCAR
C
HILDREN

S
URPRISE
I
SLAND

T
HE
Y
ELLOW
H
OUSE
M
YSTERY

M
YSTERY
R
ANCH

M
IKE’S
M
YSTERY

B
LUE
B
AY
M
YSTERY

T
HE
W
OODSHED
M
YSTERY

T
HE
L
IGHTHOUSE
M
YSTERY

M
OUNTAIN
T
OP
M
YSTERY

S
CHOOLHOUSE
M
YSTERY

C
ABOOSE
M
YSTERY

H
OUSEBOAT
M
YSTERY

S
NOWBOUND
M
YSTERY

T
REE
H
OUSE
M
YSTERY

B
ICYCLE
M
YSTERY

M
YSTERY IN THE
S
AND

M
YSTERY
B
EHIND
THE
W
ALL

B
US
S
TATION
M
YSTERY

B
ENNY
U
NCOVERS
A
M
YSTERY

T
HE
H
AUNTED
C
ABIN
M
YSTERY

T
HE
D
ESERTED
L
IBRARY
M
YSTERY

T
HE
A
NIMAL
S
HELTER
M
YSTERY

T
HE
O
LD
M
OTEL
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
H
IDDEN
P
AINTING

T
HE
A
MUSEMENT
P
ARK
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
M
IXED
-U
P
Z
OO

T
HE
C
AMP
-O
UT
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY
G
IRL

T
HE
M
YSTERY
C
RUISE

T
HE
D
ISAPPEARING
F
RIEND
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
S
INGING
G
HOST

M
YSTERY IN THE
S
NOW

T
HE
P
IZZA
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY
H
ORSE

T
HE
M
YSTERY AT THE
D
OG
S
HOW

T
HE
C
ASTLE
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
L
OST
V
ILLAGE

T
HE
M
YSTERY ON THE
I
CE

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
P
URPLE
P
OOL

T
HE
G
HOST
S
HIP
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY IN
W
ASHINGTON
, DC

T
HE
C
ANOE
T
RIP
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
H
IDDEN
B
EACH

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
M
ISSING
C
AT

T
HE
M
YSTERY AT
S
NOWFLAKE
I
NN

T
HE
M
YSTERY ON
S
TAGE

T
HE
D
INOSAUR
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
S
TOLEN
M
USIC

T
HE
M
YSTERY AT THE
B
ALL
P
ARK

T
HE
C
HOCOLATE
S
UNDAE
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
H
OT
A
IR
B
ALLOON

T
HE
M
YSTERY
B
OOKSTORE

T
HE
P
ILGRIM
V
ILLAGE
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
S
TOLEN
B
OXCAR

T
HE
M
YSTERY IN THE
C
AVE

T
HE
M
YSTERY ON THE
T
RAIN

T
HE
M
YSTERY AT THE
F
AIR

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
L
OST
M
INE

T
HE
G
UIDE
D
OG
M
YSTERY

T
HE
H
URRICANE
M
YSTERY

T
HE
P
ET
S
HOP
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
S
ECRET
M
ESSAGE

T
HE
F
IREHOUSE
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY IN
S
AN
F
RANCISCO

T
HE
N
IAGARA
F
ALLS
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY AT THE
A
LAMO

T
HE
O
UTER
S
PACE
M
YSTERY

T
HE
S
OCCER
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY IN THE
O
LD
A
TTIC

T
HE
G
ROWLING
B
EAR
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
L
AKE
M
ONSTER

T
HE
M
YSTERY AT
P
EACOCK
H
ALL

T
HE
W
INDY
C
ITY
M
YSTERY

T
HE
B
LACK
P
EARL
M
YSTERY

T
HE
C
EREAL
B
OX
M
YSTERY

T
HE
P
ANTHER
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
Q
UEEN’S
J
EWELS

T
HE
S
TOLEN
S
WORD
M
YSTERY

T
HE
B
ASKETBALL
M
YSTERY