Mystery of the Star Ruby Read Online Free PDF

waterwheel.
    “Is somebody down there digging?” Benny asked.
    “Who would be working on the flume line after dark?” Jessie wondered aloud.
    Violet answered. “Somebody who doesn’t want to be seen during the day.”

CHAPTER 6
Jessie’s Treasure
    “Let’s go look at the place where we saw that person last night,” Benny said the next morning.
    “Before breakfast?” Violet asked, teasing her brother. “I thought you’d be starving, like always.”
    “A new mystery is more important,” Benny declared.
    “It’ll only take a few minutes,” Henry said, leading the way down the trail.
    At the flume, Jessie stopped and looked down. “Somebody was digging, all right. See the shovel marks?”
    Benny nudged the pile of loose dirt with the toe of his sneaker.
    “Isn’t this where Donald Hodge dumped his buckets the other day?” he asked.
    “You’re right!” Violet said. “He threw his ore away and complained he couldn’t find anything.”
    “But that doesn’t answer who would come back after dark,” Henry said. “What was that person looking for?”
    “This is a tougher case than I thought,” Benny said. “We definitely can’t solve it before breakfast.”
    Jessie laughed. “Is that a hint? Okay, let’s go eat!”
    After breakfast, the Aldens went to the entry booth. Grandfather bought everyone a large bucket of native stone.
    Donald, Jonathan, and Sybil each ordered one as well. With only a few more days in the contest, everyone was eager to pan as many buckets as possible.
    “I want to see my buckets being filled,” Donald said to the woman at the entry booth.
    “I’m sorry, sir,” she said, hefting his buckets onto the wheelbarrow. “We’re too busy for that today. Everyone is buying special buckets. A lot of them were filled last night.”
    “How do I know I’m not being cheated?” Donald said.
    The woman looked worried. “I’ll ask Mr. Knight to come down and you can talk to him.”
    “Never mind!” Donald pushed the wheelbarrow to the flume.
    “I don’t know why Donald is so suspicious,” Sybil said as they all found places along the flume. “Cecil would never sell native-stone buckets that weren’t filled with ore from his mine.”
    Henry wondered if Donald might not have reason to be suspicious. A lot of mysterious things had already happened at Ruby Hollow.
    It was another hot day. The Aldens were glad the flume was shaded.
    “These are good buckets,” Jonathan remarked, as he worked next to Jessie. “I’ve found three rubies already.”
    The others were doing well, too. Everyone had stones in their plastic containers. Everyone except Jessie.
    She rinsed the stubborn North Carolina ore thoroughly and carefully sorted through the rocks left behind, but couldn’t find a single gemstone.
    “I’ll buy you another bucket,” Grandfather told her.
    “I still have a little more left in this one,” she said, dumping the remaining ore into her tray.
    As soon as she rinsed the tray in the rushing water, she saw a large rock in one corner. She picked it up and rubbed the dirt off with her fingers. Then she rinsed it again.
    She held the huge, reddish, glossy rock up to the light.
    Jonathan gasped. “Jessie! That’s the biggest ruby I’ve ever seen!”
    Jessie was so startled, she nearly dropped her stone. “You’re kidding!”

    Sybil left her place in the line and came over. She whistled at the size of Jessie’s stone.
    “Take it to the grading window,” Sybil advised.
    All the Aldens went with Jessie to the jewelry shop. No one else was at the grading window.
    Jessie handed her rock to the man at the counter. “Jonathan said this is a ruby.”
    The man’s eyes widened. “Young lady—not only is this an enormous ruby, it’s a star ruby !”
    “I found a ‘Goldilocks’?” Jessie couldn’t believe it.
    The gem inspector was on the phone, dialing. “Mr. Knight needs to see this.”
    Cecil Knight came down from the main office immediately. He examined