Mystery of the Stolen Sword Read Online Free PDF Page A

Veronica.
    “Well, of course. Who wouldn’t?” Veronica exclaimed. Then she frowned suddenly and turned away from the Aldens to hang the grooming brushes back on the wall. “I have to go home now. I mostly just help with the horses now that the picking season is over.”
    “Have you been working here long?” Henry wanted to know.
    “Have you been here long enough to see the ghost?” Benny asked.
    “No and no.” Veronica actually smiled for the first time that morning. “I began working for Seymour this fall because he needed the extra help, but I’ve known Rose and Seymour all my life, practically. I live just down the road.”
    “Why have you never seen the ghost if you live near here?” Benny asked.
    “Well, to tell you the truth,” Veronica began in a superior tone of voice, “I don’t believe in ghosts. Maybe that’s why I’ve never seen it.” With that, Veronica spun around and walked out of the barn before the Aldens could say anything more.
    “Boy, is she rude,” Jessie muttered.
    “She wasn’t so bad, once we got her to talk more,” Violet remarked.
    “But she’s such a show-off.” Jessie was almost sputtering. “She hardly let us touch her precious horses, and they’re not even her horses, really. And did you see the way she acted when we mentioned those robberies?”
    “Yeah, she looked kind of uncomfortable. And then she told us she’d never heard about them,” Henry said.
    “We’ll have to watch her,” Jessie said.
    “We should watch everybody,” Henry advised.
    “Now, don’t you mind Veronica too much,” Seymour told the Aldens when he walked back into the barn. “She acts all high and mighty, especially when it comes to the horses, but she’s all right.”
    Jessie was not convinced.
    “Seymour?” Benny began. “You believe in the ghost, don’t you?”
    “Benny, to tell you the truth, I’ve never actually seen it. But people have noticed signs.”
    “What kind of signs?” Benny sounded eager.
    Seymour chose his words carefully. “Well, Benny, some of the farm workers say they’ve heard things.”
    Benny nodded. “Grandfather told us about that,” he said.
    “And some say they’ve actually seen markings on the trunks of the apple trees. Markings carved by a knife of some sort,” Seymour continued. “They think those markings are the work of the ghost because no one else would mark those trees up.”
    Benny’s eyes were very round.
    “Do you believe a ghost made those markings?” Violet asked.
    Seymour’s eyes twinkled. “Well, now that you mention it, there is another explanation for these markings,” he answered.
    “There is?” Benny couldn’t believe it.
    Seymour nodded. “When my children were little, they used to make carvings in those trees with their penknives. But when I caught them doing that, I made them stop.”
    “So, those markings are pretty old, then,” Henry remarked.
    “Yes, most of them are, but Jeff told me he’s been seeing some new ones. He thinks it’s the work of kids in the neighborhood.”
    “It could be the work of the ghost,” Benny said firmly.
    “Could be,” Seymour said. “That’s what a lot of people think.”
    “This we have to see!” Henry exclaimed.

CHAPTER 6
Signs in the Orchard
    B efore long, the Aldens were walking through thick rows of apple trees. The wind swirled red and yellow leaves around them.
    “It’s pretty here,” Violet observed.
    “It is,” Benny agreed. “But how are we ever going to hear the ghost with all this wind?”
    Henry shook his head and stopped before a group of apple trees with thicker trunks. “These look like the oldest trees in the orchard,” he said. “I think this is where Seymour said some markings would be.”
    Indeed, when the Aldens bent down they could see weathered drawings carved into the bark. There was an X, an 0, and a symbol that Henry thought looked like a rough drawing of a sword.
    “Maybe the 0 is really an apple,” Violet suggested.
    “What