The Castle 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 7

Benny Solves a Puzzle

“What an adventure!” Benny announced when he came back to the castle.

The children chattered on about their morning while they helped Carrie get lunch. As usual, Benny was starving, which was too bad. Lunch that day was just dibs and dabs of leftovers from the day before.

“Sorry about serving reruns again, Benny,” Carrie said. “I thought Sandy would be back with the groceries by now.”

“I found one can of tuna fish left,” Jessie said when she looked in the almost empty cabinets. “Maybe I can stretch it out.”

Carrie looked disgusted. “That Sandy! Where can she be? She promised to be back by lunchtime.”

Henry was surprised to hear this. “Wait a minute. At least an hour ago Benny and I saw a red Jeep driving back toward the castle. Wasn’t that Sandy?”

“That must have been someone else on the lake road,” Carrie said. “It’s too bad it wasn’t Sandy. I guess we’ll have to make do with what food we have.”

By the time everyone had sat down to eat, the lunch tasted just fine to the Aldens. Their morning’s adventure had made them hungry for anything, even leftovers.

“We’re going to start work on the stained glass windows in the towers this afternoon,” Carrie announced when lunch was over. “I’ve got this book of old photos and watercolors that show how the windows looked originally.”

Violet studied the pictures of Drummond Castle as it once was. “Do you think someday the castle will really look like this again?”

Carrie gave Violet a smile. “With patience and care, we can do anything. Now let’s find Mr. Tooner. Your grandfather mentioned you like drawing and painting, Violet. I think you might be of special help.”

Mr. Tooner was halfway up the staircase in the other tower when the Aldens caught up with him. He didn’t even turn around when Carrie came up with the Aldens. He just went right on taking down the plywood coverings from the damaged windows.

“Already at work, I see,” Carrie said to Mr. Tooner. “Violet is going to sketch the windows from the picture and number the window pieces that are missing. Then we can give her sketches and your measurements to the glassmaker.”

“If you like, you can hand things to us, Mr. Tooner,” Henry said. “We can help you put back the plywood coverings.”

Jessie gathered up old nails scattered around the floor. “These can be used again if we hammer them straight. Can Benny borrow this extra hammer?”

“Humph,” was Mr. Tooner’s answer.

The children decided this meant yes. Soon Benny was banging away on the nails to make them straight. Henry helped take down the plywood so Mr. Tooner wouldn’t have to go up and down his step stool every time. As Mr. Tooner uncovered each window, Violet made sketches to show the missing pieces. Then Jessie labeled them with the measurements.

After each window was done, Benny handed Mr. Tooner nice straight nails to hammer on the coverings again.

“Did I do these right, Mr. Tooner?” Violet asked when she put down her colored pencils.

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