儿童英语读物 The Haunted Cabin Mystery CHAPTER 10 Henry’s Plan

That night they talked a long time. They went over their plan until each of them knew exactly what to do. They talked so late that Thursday morning came too fast.



Again the sky was dark and overcast 1. As they sat down for breakfast, Cap said, “Not much of a night for sleeping, was it?”



Henry was flipping 2 golden brown pancakes in an iron skillet. Violet carried them to the table on warmed plates.



“Did you have trouble sleeping?” Benny asked Cap.



“Some,” he said. “How about you?”



“When I did sleep, I did it good,” Benny told him.



“Then nobody heard any animals crashing around or strange cries or anything?” Cap asked.



Violet put her fork down and looked up at him. “Well … ” she began.



Jessie interrupted her quietly. “Come on, Violet, let’s do the dishes since Henry cooked.”



“I felt terrible at breakfast,” Violet told Jessie. “Ever since we’ve been here, we’ve done nothing but keep secrets from Cap. It makes me feel dishonest.”



Jessie nodded. “I feel the same way, but it’s almost over. If we can catch the people who are making him so nervous, keeping secrets from him will be worth it.”



When the sun still hadn’t come out by afternoon, Cap shook his head. “At this rate, you won’t be able to get to town on Pilot tomorrow, either. I don’t know what we’re going to feed your grandfather on Saturday.”



“We’ll do fine if we can get into the garden tomorrow,” Violet said. “But it’s probably pure mud out there now.”



“Worse comes to worse, I can tell you how to build bridges into the garden,” Cap told her.



“Grandfather will be able to get here without building bridges, won’t he?” Benny asked Cap with a worried look.



The old man nodded. “He’ll have no problem in one of those big cars he always rents. It’s not like having a horse loaded with four kids and a bunch of groceries.” He glanced around. “Is that Henry back out at the barn again? Pilot’s going to be lonesome when that boy leaves.”



Jessie knew what Henry was doing out there with Pilot. He was fixing the barn lights so that all of them could be turned on with a single switch just inside Pilot’s stall. She was really proud of the plan they had worked out. And they had all gone over it so many times the night before that she was positive it would work.



Every single one of them had a different job. Jessie herself would be the lookout 3 in the hayloft. She would have the flashlight. The minute she saw anyone creeping into the barn, she would wink 5 the flashlight three times out of the window of the loft 4.



Benny was to stay on the back porch and keep watching to see her signal from the hayloft window. The minute he saw Jessie flash the light three times, he would switch on the floodlight and make the whole barnyard as bright as day.



Violet would be standing 6 inside the barn, just inside Pilot’s stall where she could reach the switch Henry had fixed 7. When she saw the lights go on outside, she would turn on all the lights inside the barn. Whoever tried to come in there would be covered with light from both inside and out of the barn.



Henry was to stand just inside the chicken yard fence. He got that job because he was the biggest and the fastest runner. He would leave the gate open a little bit so that he could get out and start running fast. He would race across the yard and slam the barn door and lock the prowler inside. That way he couldn’t run away before they caught him. Everything had to work perfectly 9.



That was the longest day ever. When dinnertime finally came, nobody was even hungry. “You kids must be excited to see your grandfather,” Cap said when Benny turned down a second helping 10 of spaghetti.



Finally, it felt strange to be in bed fully 11 dressed except for their shoes. They hardly breathed waiting for Henry to decide it was time to go out and take their places.



“It’s so noisy tonight,” Benny whispered.



“It sounds that way because we’re being so quiet,” Jessie told him. But it was noisy. The frogs croaked 12. Off in the woods, the screech 13 owl 8 gave its trembling eerie 14 call, sending a shiver up everyone’s spine 15.



Henry watched the moon climb up the overcast sky. Mostly it was only behind the clouds. Once in a while, it broke free and flooded the wet barn and the yard around it with a silvery light.



Jessie was watching, too. “Look how plainly you can see everything in that light.”



Henry nodded. “We should go as soon as the moon gets hidden behind that big bank of clouds.”



The minute the moon slid under the clouds, Violet and Jessie went outside. They stood in the shadows of the cabin only a minute before making a dash for the barn door which Henry had left open for them.



“Is your heart beating like everything?” Violet asked Jessie when they were safe inside the barn and Jessie was starting up into the loft.



Jessie nodded. “I don’t like to think I’m afraid, but my skin feels creepy, too.”



“I’m scared and I know it,” Violet told her.



Jessie felt her way carefully up the wooden ladder into the loft. With the flashlight in her hand, she crept through the dark to the high window.



When Violet let herself inside the stall where Pilot stood, the big horse stamped his foot, then whinnied softly. After she had located the light switch, Violet stroked Pilot’s long warm head.



Back on the porch, Henry and Benny watched the girls make their shadowy run across the open yard. “Now it’s my turn,” Henry told Benny. “Whatever you do, don’t get sleepy.”



“I’m already sleepy,” Benny told him, “but that doesn’t mean I’ll go to sleep. I’ve even practiced pinching myself to stay awake.”



When the moon disappeared again, Henry made his way to the chicken yard and stood by the tall post just inside the gate.



The moon continued to rise in the sky as the time passed. Henry worried about Benny, back on the porch, pinching himself to stay awake. He even worried that the prowlers might not come at all.



He leaned against the fence post and sighed. This wasn’t the first mystery they had been involved in, but it was the most puzzling. Even if he hadn’t liked Cap Lambert as much as he did, it was terrible for someone to be scaring an old man. The plan had to work.



Suddenly something caught his eye. Something or someone smaller than a man, all dressed in dark clothing, was creeping around the side of the barn, moving awkwardly.



He drew in his breath and held it. How strangely the creature walked, unevenly 16, as if it were dragging something heavy at its side. Then the dark creature melted into the shadow of the barn, and Henry let his breath out slowly.



In a minute it would be inside the barn. In a minute he would see Jessie’s signal from the barn loft. He had to be ready to run faster then he had ever run in his whole life.