Horse Named Dragon by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Author:Gertrude Chandler Warner [Chandler Warner, Gertrude]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4532-2903-3
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company
Published: 2011-09-25T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 7

The Secret File

The children sat on the corral fence. Cookie and Bucky stood next to them, looking grim. Jessie sniffed, her eyes puffy from crying.

“Let me get this straight,” the policeman said. “This morning you told me that two of your horses were stolen. But then they came back?”

“Yes. A neighbor brought them,” said Cookie. “It turns out they weren’t stolen. They’d wandered off through a hole in the fence where a tree branch had fallen.”

Henry didn’t say anything. But he wondered why Honey and Bunny weren’t all scratched up from the tree branch, the way he was. And how had that heavy locust branch been blown so far? “Now,” the policeman said, “another horse is missing.”

This time, Henry did speak up. “Dragon was stolen for sure,” he said. “Those were his shoe prints outside the fence.”

“And the fence was rigged so it could be secretly opened and closed,” said Jessie.

“And someone dumped oats!” added Benny, “to make horses come to the fence. Horses love oats!”

“We think the thief unhooked the wire, stole Dragon, and then put the wire back,” said Violet.

The policeman jotted a few notes. “Who saw Dragon last?”

“I put Dragon in his stall after breakfast,” said Bucky. “Jessie here wanted to ride him. But Kurt said his leg was still bad. I put Dragon in his stall so the vet could take a look. That was the last time I saw him.”

“Has anyone talked to the vet?”

No one had. “Slim drove by when I was fixing the fence,” said Henry. “He was on his way to buy medicine for the horses.”

The policeman lifted one eyebrow at Cookie. “There’s lots of people working here,” he said. “Ranch hands, volunteers, these kids. Seems to me someone would notice horse thievery going on.”

“It was lunchtime,” said Cookie. “Everyone was in the dining room.”

The policeman pushed back his hat. “How would a thief know you’d all be eating?”

“I clang that lunch bell so loud you can hear it halfway to China,” said Cookie. “Whoever stole Dragon knew they had a lot of time to do it.”

“So everyone was in the dining room,” the policeman said.

“I wasn’t,” said Bucky. “I was in the stable cleaning up Honey and Bunny.”

“And Alyssa came in late,” said Jessie.

“Kurt and I weren’t there, either,” said Henry. “We were fixing a broken fence.”

“All right,” the policeman flipped to a fresh page. “What does this horse look like?”

“He’s black with a big white patch on his back that looks like a dragon,” said Jessie. “Wait! I have a photo!” She jumped down from the fence. I’ll print it out for you.”

She ran to the office to get her camera. It wasn’t on the shelf over the computer. But she was sure she left it there. Jessie looked under papers on the desk, then under the desk. She searched the cluttered shelves filled with horse trophies and horse magazines and books. Gone! Her camera was gone.

Her mind raced. The computer! She’d copied the photos on Cookie’s computer. Jessie raced over and turned it on.

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