The Castle Mystery (6 page)

After each window was done, Benny handed Mr. Tooner nice straight nails to hammer on the coverings again.

“Did I do these right, Mr. Tooner?” Violet asked when she put down her colored pencils.

Mr. Tooner looked at Violet's drawings. His face seemed to brighten. “Why, yes, Miss, yes. That is just the way they should be.”

After that, Mr. Tooner didn't seem to mind that the Aldens were there.

“I can see you don't need me,” Carrie said. “I'll be downstairs. Maybe Sandy is back by now.”

Mr. Tooner and the Aldens labeled every window along the tower staircase until they got to the top floor.

“Are we going in here?” Henry asked when they came to a locked door. “Carrie says no one goes in that room.”

“This room is closed up, but look what I have,” Mr. Tooner said. He jiggled some keys in his pocket. The children all wondered the same thing. Did Mr. Tooner have the big key to the blue door?

He didn't. When he held up his key ring, they saw it had only small, ordinary-sized keys on it.

Mr. Tooner opened the door to the mysterious tower room, and they all went inside. The room was cluttered with boxes and old furniture and toys. Most of the windows were plain leaded ones. There was another one hidden under a square of plywood. When Mr. Tooner and Henry pulled down the wood covering, a rainbow of colors filled the room.

“It's hardly damaged at all!” Jessie cried. “Just one or two pieces are missing.”

Mr. Tooner showed the children just how to measure the pieces that needed to be replaced. Violet sketched them and wrote down the measurements. The children, and even Mr. Tooner, hummed and hammered, measured and whistled. When they had finished, the children looked around the room.

“This looks like an old attic,” Benny said. “I guess that's why no one comes up here.”

“It's too bad,” Jessie said. “We like our two little tower rooms on the other side.”

This made Henry realize something. “Isn't it strange that this room is only as big as
one
of our rooms? Since the towers are the same size from the outside, they should be the same size on the inside!”

“Or there should be another room,” Jessie said, puzzled.

“I'd like to find a secret room,” Benny said. He crawled behind the old toys and suits of armor piled up all around. He tried to look behind the bookcase, but realized it was built into the wall.

“This has been used as a storage room ever since Mr. Drummond died,” Mr. Tooner said. “Once it was used as a playroom for some of the servants' children. There's probably a crawlspace around it, nothing more. Well, we're finished with these windows. Let's go downstairs and work on the others.” As Benny left the room, he took one last look at the suit of armor standing in the corner of the room. He knew it was impossible, but he was almost certain he'd seen it move. He hurried to catch up with the others.

“Listen,” Violet whispered to Jessie as they followed Mr. Tooner down the tower stairs. “Mr. Tooner is humming that same fiddle tune we heard.”

Mr. Tooner's humming carried clearly up the stone staircase.

“You're right,” Jessie said. “But I don't think it has anything to do with the missing violin. He's too nice to be mixed up with that.”

Henry overheard the girls. “I bet Mr. Tooner sometimes hears that same music, and it just got into his head. He probably doesn't even realize where that tune came from!”

“Well, anyway I'm glad he's humming instead of being grouchy like before,” Violet agreed.

The children stopped whispering when they caught up with Mr. Tooner. He waved them down a hall on the second floor toward the front of the castle.

“Where to now, Mr. Tooner?” Henry shifted the step stool from one shoulder to another.

“Another secret room?” Benny joked.

For the first time, the children saw Mr. Tooner smile a real smile. His blue eyes twinkled.

“You guessed right, my boy,” Mr. Tooner said to Benny. “Now follow me. Henry, you can put down that ladder. You girls can leave the toolbox and papers in the hall. Nothing needs fixing in here.”

With that, Mr. Tooner pulled out his key ring again. He opened a door to another small room filled with soft colored light.

“It's the room with the round stained glass window over the front door!” Violet cried.

“Yes, indeed,” Mr. Tooner said. “Mr. Drummond used to spend a lot of time here. He had this room and that window specially designed.”

Mr. Tooner went over to the window and clicked two latches. Out fell the central piece of stained glass. The children gasped.

“Don't worry. It's not broken,” Mr. Tooner said with a very nice smile. “Here Benny, hold this piece over your face.”

Benny carefully took the painted piece of the knight's face. It fit right over his own! Benny knew just what to do next. He went over to the empty space and put his own face in the window. It fit almost perfectly.

“I can see everything from up here!” he cried.

“And so could Mr. Drummond,” Mr. Tooner explained. “He designed the removable glass so he could see who came to the door ahead of time. Then he would decide if he wanted to meet with a visitor or not.”

Mr. Tooner slapped his knee. “I sometimes do the same. Half the time people who come to the door are just a plain bother. If I don't like 'em, I don't answer the door.”

“You must have liked us, Mr. Tooner,” Violet said. “I saw a face the day we arrived at Drummond Castle. Remember? You were the one who answered the door.”

Mr. Tooner shook his head. “I answered the door, but I haven't been in this room for weeks. Too much work to do.”

“But … but, someone was here,” Violet said. “Now that I know this is a lookout, I'm sure someone was watching us the day we drove up.”

“What about this morning?” Henry asked Mr. Tooner. “Benny and I are sure someone was up here. But when we got close, the person moved away.”

“Can't be, my boy, can't be,” Mr. Tooner told Henry. “Even Mrs. Bell doesn't have a key. She thinks it's my private storage room and doesn't bother me about it.”

The children were completely confused. They couldn't say for sure that they had seen a face in the funny window. But they certainly thought they had.

CHAPTER 8

Mysterious Music

W
hen the children came downstairs to help with dinner, Carrie was on the phone.

“Just wait there,” Carrie said, disgusted. “I can't imagine why you ran out of gas. There was enough in the tank for at least one trip to town. Never mind. I'll send someone for you right away.”

“What is it, Caroline?” Mr. Alden asked when he saw how upset his old friend was.

Carrie shook her head. “It's Sandy, of course. Who else would have forgotten to fill the gas tank? What I can't figure out is why she ran out of gas at all. The tank was low, but she should have been able to make it to town. And why is she calling so late when she left this morning?”

“There, there,” Mr. Alden said. “Henry and I will go for her. Now where was Miss Munson calling from?”

“From a pay phone where the lake road and the highway meet,” Carrie answered.

After Mr. Alden and Henry left, Benny and Violet began to set the table. Jessie checked the pantry, then the refrigerator.

“I guess we'll have to wait for Sandy to get back with the groceries,” Jessie said. “We can figure out what to make for dinner when we see what she bought.”

Carrie twisted a dish cloth she had in her hands. “Sandy is so unreliable. I wish the Drummond Foundation had let me interview her myself. What good is it to know all about the castle and not be dependable?”

A half hour later, when it was dinnertime, Henry and Mr. Alden walked in the door, with Sandy Munson right behind.

“Hello, Sandy,” Carrie said without a smile. “If we all help unload the groceries from the Jeep, we can get dinner on the table.”

“But there's nothing to unload,” Mr. Alden told Carrie. “Didn't Miss Munson tell you she ran out of gas
before
she ever got to town?”

Sandy looked down at the floor. “I … I'll go back to town in the morning, Carrie. I'm sorry. I guess I was lower on gas than you thought. Somebody can have my portion of whatever you have for dinner.”

“That won't be much, Sandy,” Carrie said. “We have very little food. I had hoped to restock today.” Carrie looked around the kitchen at all her hungry helpers. “We can discuss this in the morning.”

Jessie found some eggs to make omelets. Violet sprinkled drops of water on the breakfast rolls to freshen them up before reheating them.

“We can make custard with the rest of this milk and the eggs,” Benny suggested. “Our housekeeper, Mrs. MacGregor, showed me how. It's easy!”

“I'll help you, Benny,” Sandy offered. She looked ashamed. For a change she tried to cheer up the children instead of scolding them. “There are some custard molds up in this cabinet. They have a pretty snowflake pattern on the bottom. I used to make custard with my mother.”

“How did you know about the custard molds with the snowflake patterns?” Carrie asked.

When Sandy heard this she dropped the tin molds on the floor. “I … well … the other day I was looking for … uh … something else in that cabinet. They're like the ones I had when I was a little girl.”

The children looked at Sandy closely when she rinsed off the custard tins. This wasn't the first time she seemed to know more than a newcomer would about some of the things in Drummond Castle. Had she been here before?

Sandy went about helping Benny without saying much. She didn't speak at all during the skimpy dinner everyone ate. Right afterwards she excused herself and went upstairs. She didn't even wait for the custard to finish baking. “I'll be in my room all night,” Sandy said. “I'm sorry about today.”

“I guess I'll have to go grocery shopping with her tomorrow unless we all want to go on a diet!” Carrie said.

“I don't!” Benny said, as he spooned up the last of the very good custard.

Carrie ruffled Benny's hair. “Well you won't have to. Now why don't you children run up to your rooms and relax? On your way up, just knock on Sandy's door. Tell her we'll leave for town at eight sharp.”

“Okay,” the children said as they went upstairs.

There was no light coming from under Sandy's door when Jessie gave a knock.

“That's odd. She doesn't seem to be there,” Jessie said.

“I guess we'd better find her if we want to eat tomorrow, right Ben?” Henry joked.

“Then let's look for her,” Benny said.

The children checked some of the other rooms near Sandy's. All of them were dark or locked.

“Let's try the other wing,” Jessie suggested. “You never know where Sandy will show up.”

The children got their flashlights and took the long passageway that led to the other side of the castle. The hall was dark and cold, and so were the rooms off of it. None of them had been used for many years. Benny and Violet held hands tightly. Suddenly, the children heard faraway notes of sweet violin music.

Violet hummed softly. She whispered to Benny. “I know this is strange, but when I hear that tune, I'm not as scared.”

But a moment later all the children were scared. When they reached the spiral staircase to the second tower, they saw a light moving up the stairs. The children stood at the bottom looking up the corkscrew turns. At each turn the light went higher and higher. Finally it disappeared at the top.

“Let's go up,” Henry said. “Follow me.”

The children crept up the stairs without making a sound. The staircase was just like the one to their own room in the other tower. They didn't need much light. They held on to the twisted iron railing and made their way up, step by step.

When they reached the landing, they expected anything but what they saw.

Nothing — except a locked door.

There was no one at the top of the stairs.

“How can that be?” Jessie asked. “The door is locked. The light that was here is gone.”

Henry jiggled the doorknob.

“It's no use,” he said. He banged on the door. “Hello! Hello! Is anyone there?”

No one answered.

“Beats me,” Henry said, tapping his forehead in amazement. “Let's see if we can get Mr. Tooner to let us in. He has the key.”

Going down was less scary. The children turned on their flashlights. They didn't whisper, and they didn't tiptoe. It didn't matter whether anyone heard them now.

The children followed a path outside that ran along the cliff to Mr. Tooner's house. They thought they heard violin music again, but it was hard to tell with the strong wind blowing across the lake.

“Do you think Mr. Tooner will mind our visit?” Violet asked.

Henry looked thoughtful. “I think he would want to know if anyone is up in the tower who shouldn't be.