儿童英语读物 The Secret of the Mask CHAPTER 6 Henry’s List

As they wheeled their bikes into the diner’s bike rack, an orange pickup 1 truck came speeding down the street. “Isn’t that the same—” Jessie began, just as the truck squealed 2 around in a U-turn.



“He is one very bad driver,” said Henry. The truck screeched 3 to a stop behind a bright red car parked in front of Ye Olde Antique Shoppe. “He nearly hit that car!”



A woman with long red hair ran out of the shop and started yelling at the driver. “She sure looks angry,” said Violet. “Maybe that’s her car he nearly hit.”



Benny stared. “I think that’s Grandma Belle 4’s nurse.”



“Are you sure?”



He looked hard, trying to remember. “She’s the woman I saw put the mask in the garbage can. I remember her long red hair.”



The angry woman’s voice grew louder. A few of her words drifted across the street. “… do you mean … you can’t … find it? … has to be …”



“Benny’s right,” said Henry, locking his bike. “The car she just got out of is the same car we saw in front of Grandma Belle’s.”



Jessie pursed her lips. “But Grandma Belle said her nurse was at the grocery store. That’s all the way across town.”



“Maybe she likes antiques,” said Violet, who very much loved old things.



“…where else …” came the woman’s voice, “… could it. … Find it!”



“It sounds like they know each other,” said Jessie. Suddenly, the woman climbed into the little red car and sped away.



The driver of the orange truck squealed another U-turn. The broken swing set and bikes in the back of the truck nearly flew out.



Inside the diner, the children found a table near the big front window and gave the waitress their orders—chicken fingers for Violet, a hamburger for Henry, grilled 6 cheese for Jessie, and a hot dog for Benny. Waiting for food to come was always the hardest part.



The smell of hamburgers sizzling on the grill 5 made the children’s stomachs growl 7. Benny moved the ketchup 8 bottle in front of him so he’d be ready to squirt ketchup on his plate the second his food came. Usually they played games of tic-tac-toe or dot-to-dot to take their minds off how hungry they were. But today, Henry opened a paper napkin and took out a pencil.



“What are you doing?” Jessie asked.



“Trying to figure out who could have stolen Benny’s mask and taken the Crispy Crackers 9 can full of money.” Henry knew that making lists helped him think. On the top of the napkin he wrote: SUSPECTS.



The others crowded around, watching. Under SUSPECTS, Henry wrote:



Driver of orange truck



In alley 10 behind Grandma Belle’s the day we found the mask.



In our alley the night we cleaned the garage.



At our yard sale.



In town with Grandma Belle’s nurse.



“What about the lady with the floppy 11 hat and big sunglasses?” asked Benny. “Jessie said she was looking through the shelves in the garage. That’s where I hid my mask. Maybe she saw it and decided 12 to come back later to steal it so she wouldn’t have to pay for it.” Henry wrote:



Lady in floppy hat



At yard sale both days.



Only wanted to buy old things.



Jessie saw her going through boxes in the garage.



“Anyone else?” Henry asked.



“What about the man at the library?” asked Violet. “The one with the silver bracelet 13? I thought I saw a kachina mask on his computer screen. And the next day he came to our yard sale asking if we had any Hopi things for sale.”



Henry added:



Man with braid



At library—looking at Hopi masks?



At yard sale—wanted Hopi things.



“What about the nurse?” asked Henry. “She could have accidentally thrown the mask away, but what if it wasn’t an accident? What if she was trying to steal it?”



“She isn’t where she told Grandma Belle she would be,” added Jessie.



“And we just saw her talking to the man in the orange truck,” said Violet.



Henry scribbled 14:



Grandma Belle’s nurse



Accidentally threw away mask?



Seen with the man in the orange truck.



“We have a lot of questions with no answers,” said Henry, as their food arrived.



“Maybe we should go back to the library and find out more about these masks,” said Jessie. “If someone wants our mask bad enough to steal it, it has to be worth something.”



And with that the children turned all their attention to eating.



After lunch, they rode to the library. A large poster on the library door said:



Intertribal Powwow



Saturday–Sunday—Pleasant Valley Park.



Native American dancing, singing, drumming, crafts, food.



Everyone welcome.



“What’s a powwow?” asked Benny. “It’s a big gathering 15 of Native Americans,” Violet explained. “Like a big party where there’s music and dancing and storytelling.”



“And cake?”



“Well, maybe not cake, But there are many other treats served. I read about powwows in one of my Prairie Girls books, Katrina and the Kachina Doll. Katrina was invited to a powwow. She learned to make jewelry 16 out of porcupine 17 quills 18 and to stitch moccasins out of buffalo 19 hide.”



Violet sat at a computer and typed in “kachina masks.” Henry found a Hopi kachina book with the photographs of masks.



“This web site has old kachina masks for sale,” said Violet. “All of the antique masks are sold for …” Her eyes grew wide as she stared at the screen.



“What?” said Jessie. “Sold for what?”



“For thousands of dollars!” Violet scrolled 20 down the screen until she came to a mask that looked like theirs. She read quietly a moment before printing the page she was reading.



“That’s why someone wanted my mask so much!” said Benny.



“Grandma Belle said her father lived in Arizona,” Jessie said. “She said he dug up things like this when he was a boy. The mask that we found is probably one of the things that he dug out of the desert.”



“Was Grandma Belle’s father a thief?” Benny asked. “Would he have taken some-thing that didn’t belong to him?



“I don’t know Benny,” said Jessie.



Violet grabbed a stack of paper off the printer while Henry went to check out the books he found. “I found a few articles about stolen kachinas being sold on the Internet. We should show them to Grandma Belle. Maybe the pictures of the mask will help jog her memory.”



As they walked out of the library, they passed the man with the braid reading at a table. He hunched 21 over his books. Jessie peered over his shoulder, then poked 22 Violet and pointed 23. The man was reading books about kachinas and Hopis. Did he steal their mask? Was he looking through the books to find out if it was valuable?