Haunted Cabin Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Author:Gertrude Chandler Warner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company
Published: 2010-08-06T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

The Carpenter

“Nothing new in town, I guess,” Cap said when the boys had brought in the groceries and brushed Pilot down.

“The new thing is going to be here,” Henry told him.

Cap listened to him explain about putting up the floodlight and examined it carefully. “That’s a clever way to drive away varmints. That’s the biggest light I ever saw. Where did you think to put it up?”

“It should light both the chicken yard and the barn.”

Cap nodded. “For that, it should be fastened at the back corner of the porch. You’ll need a mighty long cord.”

Henry nodded. “I bought the longest one, but let’s check it anyway.” Violet held the plug end of the cord next to the outlet. Jessie and Benny led the cord up the wall and out of the window. Henry, on the ladder at the corner of the porch, nodded when Jessie handed him the end. “It’s going to work fine,” Henry said. “There’s even some extra.”

Benny, on the ladder, handed the nails and hammer up as Henry fastened the metal bracket to the outside corner of the porch. Cap watched as Jessie and Violet hammered in the U-shaped nails to hold the cord against the wall.

“I don’t know why I never thought of that,” Cap said as Henry set the big floodlight into the bracket. “Now I can’t wait until night to see how well it works.”

When Cap returned to the front porch with Doodle on his shoulder, Jessie turned to Henry. “Now for the barn floor?”

Henry slapped his forehead with his hand. “Jessie! I can’t believe this. I forgot to buy any extra nails.”

“We could ask Cap if he has some,” Violet suggested.

Jessie shook her head. “We need too many to explain to Cap. Let’s see if we can’t find some for ourselves.”

The search for nails went slowly. They found a few bent ones in a toolbox in the barn. Benny went up in the loft to look. “Do you need a little red wagon?” he called down.

Henry laughed. “Not that I know of, why?”

“Because there’s one up here,” Benny told him. “And a box of books with all kinds of good pictures in them.”

“How about nails?” Henry asked.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Benny said. He came down the ladder carrying a tin coffee can full of more bent nails.

“We’ll hammer them straight on a flat rock in the woods,” Henry said. “That way Cap won’t hear the noise.”

“Somebody has to stay with Cap,” Jessie said. “He gets nervous when we’re gone too long. He was really fretting when Violet and I finally got back from the orchard today.”

“Oh,” Violet cried. “We haven’t had a chance to tell you about the holes in the orchard.”

“In the orchard!” Henry said. “Tell me about them while we straighten these nails.”

While the others went to the woods, Jessie stayed with Cap. He cocked his head. “Do I hear hammering?” he asked.

Jessie nodded. “Henry’s nailing down some loose boards in the barn,” she said. “He really likes to stay busy.

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