儿童英语读物 The Mystery at Skeleton Point CHAPTER 5 A Forbidden Island

The children rowed along, enjoying the lake, the birds flying overhead, and the nice easy sound of the lake lapping against the boat.



“I have to admit, this is kind of fun,” Jessie said as she pulled the oars 1 of Charlotte’s yellow rowboat through the clear water. “We haven’t been rowing for a long time. Make sure to tell me if I’m rowing in the right direction.”



Benny, face-to-face with Jessie, gave her directions. “If you go straight, you’ll bump into that island where Greeny lives. I wish we could go there, but he might get mad at us.”



Henry scanned the lake with the binoculars 2. “You’re right about that, Benny. Not to mention he’d probably send Max after us.”



“May I have the binoculars, Henry?” Violet asked. “I’d like to see what Greeny’s house looks like.” She soon spotted 3 a small log cabin nestled between some trees. “The island is pretty,” she said, “but lonely-looking, too. I wonder what it’s like to live out there with no family.”



“We’ll be passing close by,” Henry said. “Maybe we can get a look.”



Benny took a turn with the binoculars, too. “Hey! A seal is swimming to our boat!”



The older children laughed.



“Benny!” Henry said. “Seals don’t live in freshwater lakes. They’re ocean mammals. Maybe it’s one of those jumping trout 4 you wanted to see.”



Benny handed Henry the binoculars. “Take a look. Something furry 5, not fishy 6, is swimming around.”



“You know what, Benny? You’re right,” Henry said, surprised. “I do see a furry head swimming our way. Jessie, row slightly to your right, toward the island.”



A few strokes later, Benny’s “seal” was so close to the boat, the Aldens saw right away that it was Max.



“Max!” Violet called out. “Come here, boy. It’s your friends, the Aldens. Come on, Maxilla!”



Jessie rowed carefully. “I’ll get closer to the island,” she told her brothers and sister. “I know Labs are good swimmers, but I don’t want Max to swim out too far. He might get tired.”



Max looked far from being tired. He kept his head well above the water and paddled at a nice steady pace. Pretty soon he was alongside the Aldens’ boat.



Benny reached down to pat Max’s wet head. “Good boy.”



The children heard a loud whistle in the air.



“Yo! Maxilla, get back here!”



“It’s Greeny.” Henry made a megaphone out of his hands so Greeny would hear him. “Is it okay to come to shore?”



Greeny yelled back, “I guess so. Otherwise Max’ll never come in. Pull up on the beach in front of the flagpole.” He then went over to his own boat and covered it with a sheet of canvas.



“Darn!” Henry said. “Now we won’t be able to see what was in that milk crate 7 he picked up at Skeleton Point.”



Jessie guided the rowboat toward the small, stony 8 beach. Max swam alongside so closely the Aldens could see his four legs paddling through the water in a real dog-paddle stroke!



When the boat glided 9 to the beach, Greeny grabbed the rope hooked to the bow. “Pull up here.”



Once he got ashore 10, Max yipped and barked the way Watch always did after a good swim. The Aldens stood back. They knew very well that when Max shook out his far, they were in for a big shower.



“We wanted to come here,” Violet said, “but we didn’t know if you liked company. I guess Max came out to invite us.”



“Max and I don’t get much company out this way,” Greeny told the Aldens. “I figured you kids would be busy at the house with those other people poking 11 around Skeleton Point. Did those two friends of Charlotte chase you away, too?”



“You mean William and Hilda?” Jessie asked. “Well, we thought you and Max were chasing us away by scaring us when we went looking around yesterday. We heard somebody say, ‘What are you doing here?’ ”



Greeny looked away from the children. “Well, I thought you were trespassers, so I gave you a little scare. There’ve been problems out there lately.”



“Did we scare you off the bike path this morning?” Violet asked, softly



Greeny looked away and didn’t answer.



The Aldens didn’t find him scary now in his bright red T-shirt and jogging shorts. Even his skull 12 earring 13 looked like the ones Jessie wore on Halloween. His long hair was tied in a neat ponytail.



“I wasn’t scared of you,” Greeny told the children. “I’m just not feeling too friendly toward a bunch of strangers taking over Doc Tibbs’s place.”



Jessie took a deep breath before she spoke 14. “It’s Charlotte’s place now. She’s fixing it up.”



Greeny’s mouth tightened 15. “It doesn’t need fixing up any more than the woods need fixing up. Doc’s skeleton collection is one of the most important ones in the country. He taught hundreds of medical and veterinary students. Now people are just going in there, moving things around, and even taking things from his collection.”



“Some were stolen?” Violet asked. “We looked at some of the bird and animal skeletons, but we wouldn’t touch anything without permission.”



This didn’t cheer up Greeny at all. “Nobody around here knows enough about skeletons to give anyone permission to look at the skeletons.”



“You know enough,” Violet said in her quiet way. “Charlotte hopes you’ll help organize Dr. Tibbs’s collection before she donates it to the medical school where it belongs. She says you always run away from her.”



Greeny stroked Max’s head while he thought about this. “That’s because she acts like she owns Skeleton Point and everything in it.”



“Well, she does,” Jessie reminded Greeny. “But she wants the collection to be kept together and go to the right place.”



Greeny got worked up all over again when he heard this. “The right place was to me. But Doc up and died before he wrote out his will. He told me he was leaving me his collection so I could decide what to do with it. Then Charlotte went and bought the place.”



“I bet you didn’t know she’s using all her savings 16 to fix up everything — the house, the statues, and the gardens,” Jessie said. “Charlotte really cares about Skeleton Point.”



“Well, so do I,” Greeny said. “I’ve kept a watch on it better than anybody. If it weren’t for Max and me, the place would be in worse shape than it is. All this hullabaloo about Walking Skeletons and such — those are just stories to cover up plain old thievery and vandalism.”



“What’s vandalism?” Benny wanted to know.



“People harming property,” Jessie said. “Like Charlotte’s statues. She bought them, so they belong to her now.”



Greeny disagreed with Jessie. “Those statues were priceless — they can’t just be bought.” Greeny was finished with the Aldens. “Now I think you should get going. I can see we’re never going to see eye to eye on this, that’s for sure.”



The children walked back to the shore. Henry and Jessie dragged the boat to the water’s edge. The children climbed in.



“ ’Bye, Greeny,” Benny yelled as Henry dipped the oars in the water. “ ’Bye, Max.”



When the children looked back at the island, they heard Max bark to say good-bye, but Greeny had disappeared into his cabin.



Henry rowed the next leg of the trip across Shady Lake. The other shore soon came into view. “I can’t decide about Greeny,” Henry said. “He doesn’t seem to think anybody has a right to be at Skeleton Point but him.”



Violet, who was trailing her hand in the water, had a soft spot for Greeny. “He just wants to protect the property, I think. Let’s try to make friends with him. I just know if we do, he’ll help Charlotte.”



“That’s a very sensible idea, Violet,” Jessie said. “The better we get to know him, the better our chances are of finding out who’s harming Charlotte’s property.”



Henry finally reached the small marina. “There’s the hardware store Hilda told us about,” he said. “We’d better pick up those light switches and get back. We lost a lot of time stopping off to see Greeny.”



When the children entered the hardware store, they found the owner at the cash register.



Henry handed the man the piece of paper Hilda had given him. “I hope you’re



Brad. Hilda Stone told us to see you about some special light switches. They’re for the lights over at Skeleton Point.”



“I am Brad,” the man said, “but I have no idea what you’re talking about, young fellow. I don’t carry these light switches and never did. And who’s this Hilda Stone person, anyway? Probably one of these city people buying up property who doesn’t know a darn thing about what she’s doing. Never heard of her.”



The Aldens looked at one another. Hadn’t Hilda told them to find Brad and pick up the special switches?



“What about William Mason?” Jessie thought to ask. “Do you know him?”



“Who doesn’t know William Mason?” the man asked. “I’m surprised he volunteered to help fix up that old house. Mason’s a fellow who’s always trying to make a buck 17 or two. In fact, now that I think about it, he did some talking about wanting to buy the house himself, but Charlotte beat him to it. Doesn’t stop him from walking around like he owns the place.”



“He does?” Benny asked. “I thought Greeny Owen was the only one who acted like that.”



“Greeny?” the man said. “There’s another one always creeping around these old places on the lake. Don’t know which is worse, the newcomers or the old-timers who think everything on the lake should stay the same as it was a hundred years ago. That’s Greeny for you. Sorry about the light switches. You need to go to one of the big stores over in North River for those. It was a total waste of time sending you here.”