儿童英语读物 The Mystery of the Star Ruby CHAPTER 9 “This Is My Final Warning!”

The others crowded around Jessie.



“It is the star ruby 1!” Benny breathed. “How did you know it was in the dirt pile?”



“Your joke about rocks sleeping in a bed of rocks gave me the idea to look here,” Jessie said to him. “And when I saw that rain river in the parking lot, I figured a lot of the dirt would be washed away”



Henry nodded. “Good thinking. The second time we saw the person, he could have been burying the stone. But what about the first time? You hadn’t even found the star ruby yet, Jessie.”



“Maybe the thief hid something else there first,” Violet suggested. “We don’t know what else he may have stolen.”



“Or she. We still don’t know who took the ruby,” Benny reminded them. “I wish we had more clues.”



“All we have is the warning note, Jonathan’s list, and a scrap 2 of white cloth. Not much to go on,” Jessie admitted. “At least we have the ruby back. Let’s go tell Grandfather.”



“And let’s check to see if there’s an article about when the last star ruby was found at this mine,” Henry added.



Once more, the kids hurried up the hill to the main building.



Grandfather was in his room, reading the newspaper. He was glad the children had found the ruby, but was still concerned there was a thief in the resort.



“We still have to inform Mr. Knight 3,” he said firmly.



“The contest is being judged tonight,” Henry said. “I’m pretty sure we’ll know who the thief is by then.”



“All right,” James Alden relented. “But as soon as the contest is over, we’re going to Mr. Knight.”



In the lobby, Violet signaled the others to come over to the wall of clippings and photographs.



“I don’t see anything here about a star ruby being found in 1988,” she said. “Maybe Donald Hodge read it in a guidebook or something.”



Henry indicated his watch. “We have about forty-five minutes to find out who stole the ruby. The contest will be judged at six. What can we do to speed up our investigation 4?”



Violet had been thinking. “So far, we’ve been watching our suspects to see if we can figure out which one took the ruby. What if we did something to make the thief watch us instead?”



“I don’t understand,” said Benny.



“I do!” Jessie said. “Violet, that’s a great idea! Make the thief show himself—or herself. How can we get his attention?”



Henry snapped his fingers. “We let each of them know we have the ruby! The real thief will take notice!”



They found Jonathan first. He was sitting on the porch, his feet up on the rail, enjoying a frosty glass of lemonade.



“Hey, kids,” he greeted. “I found a really nice sapphire 5 today. It might be worth honorable mention in the contest.”



“When the contest is over, we’ve decided 6 to sell the ruby to Mr. Knight’s museum,” Jessie said casually 7. “Then we can buy books for that library.”



Jonathan straightened up, setting his drink on the arm of his chair with a thump 8. “You’re selling the star ruby to Cecil Knight? Do you know how much it’s worth?”



“Maybe you can buy it from Mr. Knight and put it in your girlfriend’s ring,” Benny said.



“I couldn’t afford to buy a star ruby of that size,” Jonathan said. “I’m surprised Cecil can. It must be worth thousands!”



Henry blinked. “Thousands? Boy, we’ll be able to buy a lot of books for that library.”



“Good luck at the contest,” Jonathan said, finishing his drink.



“What do you mean?” said Violet. “Isn’t Jessie’s ruby the biggest?”



Jonathan rocked back in his chair once more. “You never know,” he said mysteriously. “You just never know.”



The kids left to find Sybil and Donald.



“Did you see how Jonathan acted when Jessie mentioned we were selling the ruby?” Violet said. “He was surprised.”



“Maybe he was surprised because we’re selling it to Mr. Knight,” Jessie said.



“Or maybe he was surprised because we had the ruby,” said Henry.



At that moment, Cecil Knight came down the path. He grinned when he saw the kids.



“I hope you’ll consider selling that beautiful stone to me,” he said. “I’d be proud to have it in my museum.”



“Well …” Jessie hesitated.



But Mr. Knight was distracted by one of his employees. “Be sure to lock the creek 9 shed. You forgot the other night,” he told the man.



“I’m sorry, kids,” he said, turning back to the Aldens. “I need to go set up for the contest.”



When he was gone again, Violet said, “We might have another suspect. Cecil Knight.”



“Cecil?” said Benny. “Why him?”



“He wants the ruby for his museum,” said Violet. “And he was the one who called everyone out to see the Brown Mountain Lights. Maybe he sent someone into our cabin to take the ruby.”



Henry nodded. “Good point. We’ll watch him, too.”



They met Sybil on the path, coming from her cabin.



“Almost contest time!” she sang. “Are you excited?”



“We were just going to get the ruby from our cabin,” Violet said.



Sybil was shocked. “You shouldn’t leave that valuable stone in your cabin! The locks on those doors aren’t very secure.”



“It seems pretty safe here,” Jessie said innocently. “Well, we’d better get ready for dinner. See you later!”



The Aldens walked down the path until Sybil was out of sight.



“She was surprised, too,” Benny observed.



“Sybil sounded like she was worried about us leaving the stone in our cabin,” said Violet. “But she could have been acting 10.”



“I’m not leaving the ruby in our cabin again unless we’re there,” said Jessie, patting her backpack.



“So far all of our suspects are still suspects,” Henry said. “But we have one more to track down—Donald Hodge.”



Donald wasn’t on the porch, or in the lobby, or at the gem 11 museum. They didn’t find him down by the stream, or around the picnic area.



“Maybe he’s in his cabin,” said Benny. It was almost suppertime and he was getting hungry.



“We don’t know if he’s staying in a cabin or in the main building like Grandfather,” said Violet. “There’s one place we haven’t checked—the Laundromat.”



No one was in there.



A load of freshly dried laundry was folded in a basket by the washing machine. Another load of clothes was piled sloppily 12 on the dryer 13.



Benny went over to the basket on the floor. He recognized the white shirt lying on top.



“This looks like the shirt that fell out of Sybil’s basket yesterday,” he said. “She sure does a lot of laundry.”



Jessie lifted a towel from the wrinkled pile on top of the dryer. “The clothes in that basket are hers, but I doubt these are. Sybil’s too neat to leave such a mess.”



“We might as well go—” Henry began.



As Jessie turned to leave, she accidentally brushed the pile of laundry onto the floor. “Oh, no,” she said, hastily picking up the clothes. “I’m getting somebody’s stuff dirty.” She paused. “Hey, look at this!”



The others hurried over.



Jessie held out a stained, white button-down shirt. The pocket was ripped in a rectangular shape.



“I wonder if the scrap we found will fit.” She pulled the material from her pack.



This time the scrap fit perfectly 14.



“Now we know the person who ripped this shirt was down by the creek the other day,” said Henry. “And this is a men’s shirt!”



“That doesn’t mean anything,” Violet said. “Sybil wears men’s shirts sometimes.”



Benny noticed something on the floor in the crack between the washer and dryer. He reached his small arm into the space and pulled out a tiny black velvet 15 sack closed with a drawstring cord.



“Look what I found,” he said.



Henry took the little sack and pulled the drawstring. An enormous ruby rolled into his palm.



He whistled. “This is Donald’s Papa Bear ruby! Remember? He showed it to us at lunch the first day.”



“I bet it fell out of his pocket when he leaned over to take his clothes out of the dryer,” Violet figured. “It’s kind of dark in here. Donald might not have seen a black bag on the floor.”



Henry was studying the gemstone intently “He wouldn’t let Jonathan touch this, remember? It was almost as if he didn’t want anyone to see it closely.” He looked at Jessie. “Let me have our star ruby.”



Jessie gave him the plastic container. “What is it?”



“I want to try something,” said Henry.



He held the star ruby in his right hand and Donald Hodge’s ruby in his left. Then he scratched the star ruby across Donald’s stone.



Violet gasped 16. “How did—?”



At that moment the door slammed shut.



“I told you to go home!” growled 17 a voice outside. “This is my final warning!”



Footsteps moved away from the door and down the path.



Benny ran over and tugged 18 on the handle. “It won’t open!” he cried.



Jessie twisted the handle. “It’s locked or blocked or something!”



Henry glanced at his watch. “The contest closes in fifteen minutes! If we don’t enter our star ruby, we’ll lose!”