Authors: Charles Tang
Miss Chase opened it.
The Little Mermaid
was resting right on top of the old newspaper.
“Oh, my,” Mr. Bindry gasped, “it really is the last book in the Plumbrush set. May I examine it, Olivia?”
Miss Chase stepped between Mr. Bindry and the book. “What do you know about the rest of the set, Ezra? Tell me right now.”
Mr. Bindry seemed dizzy and confused. He leaned against the counter to steady himself. “The other three books are in the trunk of my car. Here, take my keys and get them, young man,” Mr. Bindry said to Henry.
Henry was back in a minute with Violet’s set.
“Here, young lady,” Mr. Bindry said, handing all the books to Violet. “The set is rightfully yours. I know you’ll treasure it because you’re a book lover, too.”
Violet’s hands were shaking when she took the books from Mr. Bindry. “How did you get the other three?”
“I took them last night while all of you were out. I’m sorry. I still had a set of keys Mabel gave me. Please understand. I just
had
to see those books once Violet said
The Little Mermaid
was part of a set. I don’t know how I missed them in Mabel’s shop during my many visits.”
“I found them mixed in with the hobby books, Mr. Bindry,” Violet explained.
Now it was Mr. Phillips’s turn to speak. “That’s just another one of Mabel’s cruel jokes on me! She was always teasing me about having valuable stamps and making me hunt down clues. I’d heard stories that she even had the famous Costa Rican flag stamp. I’m more of a stamp expert than any of the writers of those worthless hobby books, so I never bothered to check that section.”
“What made you think the stamp might be connected with the fairy tales, Rex?” Miss Chase asked.
Mr. Phillips’s eyes looked hard and angry. “It kept driving me crazy when she said stamp collecting was child’s play or that those old stories about the famous stamp were just fairy tales.”
“Where do you come in, Sarah?” Miss Chase wanted to know.
“Miss Post bought the flag stamp at my grandfather’s for one dollar! One dollar!” Sarah Deckle began. “My poor grandfather didn’t even know he had such a valuable stamp lying around. After he died, it was just thrown in with these old books and sold off in a yard sale! When I found an old newspaper in some family papers showing Miss Post with the stamp, well, I just had to get it back. I found out Rex knew all about stamps, so I showed him the newspaper.”
“That’s how I narrowed my search down to these books,” Rex explained. “We followed the Aldens all week. Sarah nearly got hold of one of the books at Jackson Square, but it looks like Mr. Bindry beat us to the rest of the set.”
“I’m sorry, Olivia,” Mr. Bindry apologized. “I just had to see if you really had the entire Plumbrush set. I was hiding under the stairs in the courtyard early in the week when you told the Aldens you were going to advertise for a book expert. Only I showed up too soon, as these smart children figured out. Then Henry here caught me poking around when I thought you were all out to lunch the other day.”
“Were you the person we saw run from the shop? We also had the feeling someone was looking around while we were sleeping,” Henry said.
Mr. Bindry nodded his head. “I did come up the stairs while you were out to dinner. That’s when I took the three books. But bother sleeping children? Never!”
“That was me,” Sarah Deckle confessed. “I didn’t mean to scare anyone. I just waited until everyone was asleep after you got back from sightseeing. Rex also had a set of Miss Post’s keys. I let myself into the courtyard and came up to the sleeping porch. But, of course, the three books were already gone. I knew one of them was in Jessie’s pack, but I didn’t dare look for it at night. I came back in the morning, but the set was still gone. And I couldn’t find Jessie’s backpack.”
“Never mind who did what with these books,” Rex Phillips said. “What I want to know is, where is the flag stamp?”
Mr. Bindry picked up
The Little Mermaid.
He stroked the book gently then opened to the back of the book. He ran his fingers over the endpapers. No one dared to breathe. Mr. Bindry reached into his pocket and pulled out a small knife with a razor-thin blade. He put the blade under the endpaper and slowly lifted it away from the cover.
“The glue is all dried out,” he said. “It’s going to come right up.”
And so it did. When Mr. Bindry lifted the endpaper, everyone gasped.
“There’s the stamp!” Rex Phillips said, barely whispering. “Don’t touch it. It’s extremely fragile. What are you doing with that book, for heaven’s sake?”
Mr. Bindry handed the book, stamp and all, to Violet. “It’s rightfully yours, young lady. Take good care of it.”
Violet took the book from Mr. Bindry and offered it to Miss Chase. “I want to give it back to you. You can sell the stamp and the books and buy your shop right now. Please take it back.”
Miss Chase put her arm around Violet. “I should report Rex and Miss Deckle to the police. But they’ll be more useful by helping me find out how we can sell this beautiful stamp. I may even share the money with Sarah Deckle to settle things with her family. But I want you to keep the fairy tales, Violet — the whole set.”
Violet smiled. “Only if you’ll display them at the Mystery Bookstore. That way I can see the books whenever we come to New Orleans.”
Miss Chase turned to Mr. Bindry. “Ezra, I know you’ve returned the books, but I can’t help feeling terribly let down. After all, you and I have known each other for years. I don’t see how we can work together now, I really don’t.”
Mr. Bindry looked crushed. “I don’t blame you, Olivia. I put my own interest ahead of everyone. Please accept my deepest apology. I wish you would give me a chance to make it up to you.”
Miss Chase stared at Mr. Bindry for a very long time. “How could you do that, Ezra, after all that’s happened?”
“I could put together a rare-book collection of mysteries for your store, that’s what you could let me do, Olivia,” Mr. Bindry suggested. “I don’t read most of the books I collect, but I do know I have quite a valuable collection of rare mysteries myself. I’d like to give them to you for sale in your Mystery Bookstore. May I do that, Olivia?”
Miss Chase took a while to answer, but when she did, she was smiling. “Of course, Ezra. I know your collection would draw many mystery lovers to my new shop. Perhaps you and I can try to start over after all.”
“Hey! What about a mystery from
my
collection?” Benny piped up.
“Now what mystery is that, young fellow?” Mr. Bindry asked.
Benny crinkled his forehead. “Well, it’s not even written yet, but it will be. It’s going to be about two brothers and two sisters who hear about a missing backwards stamp hidden in some old books. But the books get stolen and everything, and the kids have to find them. What do you think?”
Everyone laughed, including Mr. Bindry. “Now that’s one mystery I’ll actually have to read.”
G
ERTRUDE
C
HANDLER
W
ARNER
discovered when she was teaching that many readers who like an exciting story could find no books that were both easy and fun to read. She decided to try to meet this need, and her first book,
The Boxcar Children,
quickly proved she had succeeded.
Miss Warner drew on her own experiences to write the mystery. As a child she spent hours watching trains go by on the tracks opposite her family home. She often dreamed about what it would be like to set up housekeeping in a caboose or freight car — the situation the Alden children find themselves in.
When Miss Warner received requests for more adventures involving Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden, she began additional stories. In each, she chose a special setting and introduced unusual or eccentric characters who liked the unpredictable.
While the mystery element is central to each of Miss Warner’s books, she never thought of them as strictly juvenile mysteries. She liked to stress the Aldens’ independence and resourcefulness and their solid New England devotion to using up and making do. The Aldens go about most of their adventures with as little adult supervision as possible — something else that delights young readers.
Miss Warner lived in Putnam, Connecticut, until her death in 1979. During her lifetime, she received hundreds of letters from girls and boys telling her how much they liked her books.
The Boxcar Children Mysteries
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OXCAR
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AY
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