Mystery at School Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  CHAPTER I - THE CIRCUS TRAIN

  CHAPTER II - A FREE PERFORMANCE

  CHAPTER III - A LOST DOG

  CHAPTER IV - THE NEWSPAPER AD

  CHAPTER V - THE MISSING STATUE

  CHAPTER VI - SNAP DRESSES UP

  CHAPTER VII - PING-PONG PUPPETS

  CHAPTER VIII - BERT’S CLEVER TRAP

  CHAPTER IX - FLOSSIE’S DISCOVERY

  CHAPTER X - PET PRIZES

  CHAPTER XI - A BULLY IS TRICKED

  CHAPTER XII - A TRIP TO THE MOON

  CHAPTER XIII - THE DESERTED HOUSE

  CHAPTER XIV - THE SHOW GOES ON

  CHAPTER XV - A REWARDING SEARCH

  CHAPTER XVI - A VALUABLE FIND

  CHAPTER XVII - HELPING THE FIRE FIGHTERS

  CHAPTER XVIII - AN EXCITING SALE

  THE BOBBSEY TWINS

  “There goes someone!” Flossie shouted

  Copyright © 1962 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  All rights reserved.

  Published in 2004 by Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin Young

  Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  THE BOBBSEY TWINS® is a registered trademark of

  Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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  S.A.

  eISBN : 978-1-101-07590-6

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  CHAPTER I

  THE CIRCUS TRAIN

  “OOH! Look at the dog!” blond Flossie Bobbsey cried. “He’s doing tricks!”

  “Yes, and he’s really good I” said Nan, who was Flossie’s twelve-year-old sister.

  The two girls stood on the platform of the Ocean Cliff station. Far down at the end they could see a man and a white dog. The dog jumped back and forth across the man’s outstretched arm, then pranced around him on his hind legs.

  “What are you looking at?” The question came from a little boy of six who had just run out of the waiting room. He was Freddie Bobbsey, Flossie’s twin brother.

  As the girls pointed to the performing dog, they were joined by Bert, who was Nan’s twin, and Dorothy Minturn, the Bobbseys’ cousin.

  Bert’s brown eyes flashed with excitement. “The stationmaster just told us that train over on the siding has a circus on board. They stopped here to take on water for the animals.”

  “Animals !” Freddie shouted. “Let’s go see them!”

  “May we, Mommy?” Flossie asked a slim, pretty woman who stood by a pile of luggage.

  Mrs. Bobbsey turned away from her sister, Dorothy’s mother. The Bobbsey family had been spending a vacation with the Minturns at their seashore home.

  “I think you’d better stay here,” Mrs. Bobbsey replied. “Our train to Lakeport is due very soon.”

  “Oh, okay,” Flossie agreed, “I wouldn’t want to miss it ’cause I can hardly wait to see Daddy!”

  “Me too!” echoed Freddie, “and I want to see Snoop!”

  “And how about Dinah?” Nan asked with a smile.

  Snoop was the Bobbseys’ black cat and Dinah was the jolly colored woman who helped Mrs. Bobbsey with the housework. Dinah and her husband Sam, who worked for Mr. Bobbsey at his lumberyard, lived in an apartment on the third floor of the Bobbsey house in Lakeport

  “It’ll be great to see them all!” Bert spoke up for the small twins.

  Nan looked down the platform again. “The dog is gone!” she exclaimed in disappointment.

  “Maybe he belongs to the circus,” Dorothy suggested. “That man might just have been exercising him.”

  The children eyed the circus train curiously. Suddenly Flossie poked Freddie. “Look!” she cried.

  Stepping from the last car of the train was the tallest man any of them had ever seen. He was also very thin. His suit of blue and white stripes made him look even taller and thinner.

  “And look who’s coming next!” Dorothy giggled as the tall man turned to help a woman down the steps.

  “The big lady!” Flossie exclaimed with a gasp.

  The woman was almost as wide as she was tall. She was too broad for the narrow passage and had to come down the steps sideways. Once down she tucked her hand under the tall man’s arm, and they began to pace back and forth beside the train.

  “You’ll be that big, Flossie, if you keep on eating so much ice cream!” Bert said teasingly.

  Flossie made a face at her brother, and Freddie chuckled.

  “They’re coming this way,” Nan observed a moment later.

  The children watched as the odd pair walked up the platform. When they reached the station the tall man said something to the big lady and went into the waiting room.

  His companion stood by the door swinging a small handbag. Suddenly it dropped from her hand. The big lady made an attempt to bend down, but she was too large. Her arms could not reach the bag.

  “I’ll get it for you!” Freddie called. He dashed over and picked up the purse and gave it to the woman.

  The big lady beamed. “Thank you, little boy,” she said. “I haven’t been able to reach the ground for years. If I could do that, I’d lose my job with the circus!” She shook with merry laughter.

  At that moment the engine whistle gave three loud blasts. The tall man hurried out of the waiting room, and he and the big lady moved off toward the waiting train.

  “Hank!” the children heard the thin man call.

  Another man appeared at the top of the steps and held his hands down toward the big lady. She grasped them and with assistance from the tall man managed to heave herself up the steps. The thin man climbed up and, stooping, followed her into the car.

  There were sounds of doors slamming. The train slowly pulled back onto the main track and gathered speed. Soon it disappeared in the distance.

  “I wish we could have seen the animals,” Freddie remarked wistfully.

  Aunt Emily Minturn looked up at the sky. “It looks as if we’re going to have a storm. Maybe Hurricane Betsy is coming this way.”

  “Who is Hurricane Betsy?” Flossie asked. “Will we be able to see her?”

  Mrs. Bobbsey explained that Betsy was the name which the Weather Bureau had given to this particular tropical storm.

  “Oh!” said Flossie in disappointment. “I thought she was a little girl.”

  “Here comes our train!” Bert called out. He began to help the porter gather up the luggage.

  In another minute the train came to a halt in front of the group. A conductor swung to the ground. “All aboard!” he shouted.

  There was much laughter and confusion as the Bobbseys said good-by to the Minturns and thanked them for the pleasant visit. The twins stood on the platform for a last wave to Dorothy as the train pulled out of the station.

  The porter and Bert piled the luggage in a space at the end of the car. Then the children went to their seats, and the conductor closed the door.

  “Looks like we’re going to have a taste of Betsy!” he said as he took the tickets from Mrs. Bobbsey. She sat opposite Freddie and Flossie in facing seats. Nan and Bert were across the aisle.

  Freddie giggled. “Will she taste good?”

  The conductor laughed. “I don’t know about Betsy. She’s a very changeable young lady. She was
supposed to go out to sea, but she’s turned back to land!”

  “I’m not afraid of a storm named Betsy!” Freddie announced stoutly. “Girls can’t hurt you!”

  “That’s right, young fellow!” the conductor said with a twinkle in his eyes. “Anyway, you’ll be perfectly safe on the train.”

  The kindly man went on, and the children settled down in their seats. Freddie and Flossie began to put a puzzle together while Bert and Nan took out books.

  Everything was quiet until Flossie became restless. “I’m going to practice writing,” she decided. She leaned over to Bert in the next seat. “Do you have a pencil?”

  Bert put his hand into his pocket. Then he exclaimed. “The letter! I forgot it!”

  “What letter?” Nan asked curiously.

  “Just as we left Aunt Emily’s the mailman gave me a letter. I put it in my pocket and forgot all about it!” Bert pulled out the envelope and studied it. “It’s from Mr. Tetlow,” he said in surprise. Mr. Tetlow was the tall, gray-haired principal of the Bobbseys’ school.

  “Maybe you’ve been expelled!” Nan teased.

  “Read it! Quick!” Flossie said impatiently.

  Bert tore open the envelope and read the letter. “Say, this is great!” he exclaimed.

  “What is it, Bert? Tell us,” Nan pleaded.

  Mrs. Bobbsey smiled. “Yes, we’re all interested,” she said.

  Bert quickly read the letter once more. Then he explained that Mr. Tetlow was planning to start a small museum at the school. The principal felt it would help in the history and geography classes. He had already secured some articles which had been loaned for the first exhibits.

  “But why did he write to you?” Nan asked, puzzled.

  “Well, he wants as many children as possible to contribute something to put on display. And he has asked me to be head of the museum committee.”

  “I think that’s a great honor, Bert,” Mrs. Bobbsey spoke up. “I’m sure you’ll do a good job.”

  The other children excitedly congratulated their brother. Then, after discussing the museum for a while longer, they turned back to what they had been doing.

  Shortly afterwards Nan looked up from her book with a puzzled expression. “The light is so faint that I can hardly read,” she said.

  “No wonder,” Bert replied. “Look outside!”

  The Bobbseys peered from the windows. Black clouds scudded across a gray sky. The wind blew furiously and made the branches of the trees twist and toss in a wild sort of dance.

  Horses and cows huddled in little groups near a fence or under a tree. Once in a while a man could be seen dashing across a field fighting his way against the wind.

  “Is this Betsy?” Flossie asked her mother anxiously.

  “I’m afraid it is, and the storm seems to be getting worse,” Mrs. Bobbsey replied.

  As she spoke the train was running past a meadow in the center of which was a clump of tall trees.

  “Look!” Nan cried.

  The tallest of the trees seemed to shiver for a minute, then it crashed to the ground, the great mound of roots pulling out of the earth.

  “And see that roof!” Freddie called out.

  As if some giant hand had lifted it, a barn roof rose into the air and sailed off with the wind. A moment later it landed in the middle of a cornfield.

  It had started to rain. Now the water came down in great sheets. It beat against the train windows and streamed down so heavily that it was impossible to look out.

  “Ooh!” Flossie cried. “How can the man see to run the train?”

  “It’s on a track, silly,” Freddie said. “He doesn’t have to see.”

  The train sped on through the storm. Suddenly the pace slowed, and the engine seemed to be almost crawling along. The conductor walked back through the car, an expression of concern on his face.

  “Why have we slowed down?” Bert asked when the man came near him.

  The conductor stopped. “Everything’s all right,” he assured the boy. “We’re coming near High Point trestle. The engineer is going over very slowly in case the structure has been weakened by the storm.”

  Now the wind sent the rain against the windows in sudden gusts. One minute the panes would be clear and the next covered with water. The train crept on.

  Shading her eyes with her hands, Nan gazed through the glass. The train was on the trestle now. Far, far down she could see a muddy river racing along between low banks.

  Just then Flossie cried out, “Oh, Mommy, the train’s wobbling!”

  CHAPTER II

  A FREE PERFORMANCE

  THE other twins waited breathlessly to see what the train would do.

  “The wind’s blowing it,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “But don’t worry about our falling into the water. We’re already across the trestle.”

  The children heaved sighs of relief as the train gathered speed once more. Gradually the rain slackened, and finally it stopped altogether. The wind died down. An hour later the conductor came through the car. This time he had a cheerful smile.

  “We’ve left Betsy behind us!” he told the Bobbseys. “We got just the fringe of the storm. The weather is clearing ahead.”

  “How soon will we be in Lakeport?” Bert asked.

  The conductor looked at his watch. “The engineer is making up time now,” he said. “We should be in Lakeport in about twenty minutes!”

  As he spoke, there was a screeching, grinding sound. The train jerked to a stop with such a jolt that all the passengers were thrown forward in their seats. The conductor kept his balance by grabbing the back of Bert’s seat. Then before anyone could ask him a question he dashed from the car.

  “I wonder what happened?” Nan said, peering from the window.

  “It’s a wreck!” one of the women passengers cried excitedly.

  “We must be off the track!” a man exclaimed.

  The Bobbsey twins were always surrounded by excitement of some sort. In an Adventure in the Country they had caught the thief who had stolen their cousin Harry’s prize bull. They found The Secret at the Seashore in a message in a bottle and helped to rescue a little girl’s father.

  The friendly conductor returned. “Nothing to worry about, folks!” he announced. “The circus train running ahead of us hit a large tree that the wind had blown across the tracks.”

  “Was anyone hurt?” Mrs. Bobbsey asked anxiously.

  The conductor explained that the first two cars of the circus train had been derailed, but no one was injured. “Our engineer had to stop suddenly to avoid running into the back of the other train.”

  Flossie jumped back as something tapped on the window beside her. “What’s that?” she squealed.

  “A monkey!” Freddie shouted.

  The little animal, who looked like a bald old man wearing spectacles, sat on the outside of the window sill. When Freddie put his face close to the window, the monkey stuck out his tongue.

  Nan laughed. “I don’t think he likes you, Freddie!” she said.

  “It’s just because he doesn’t know me,” her small brother answered quickly.

  “Did the monkey come from the circus train?” Bert asked.

  “Yes. The first car held the monkeys and dogs,” the conductor told them. “There were ponies in the second one. They all got loose when the cars went off the track. The guards are having a hard time rounding them up.”

  “Aren’t there any bears and tigers?” Freddie asked.

  “They are in the other cars and didn’t get out.”

  “Thank goodness!” Mrs. Bobbsey said. “I’m glad there aren’t any wild animals wandering around!”

  Monkeys were swinging from the branches of nearby trees

  “Let’s go watch the circus people catch the monkeys,” Bert proposed.

  Mrs. Bobbsey agreed and the twins hurried off the train. A strange sight met their eyes. Monkeys were scampering over the tops of the cars and swinging from the branches of nearby trees.

  Seve
ral gray French poodles ran up and down beside the track barking frantically. In a field six white ponies galloped around excitedly.

  Circus attendants raced to and fro trying to catch the various animals. Suddenly something landed on Nan’s shoulder. It was the bald-headed monkey they had seen on the window sill!

  Nan took the little animal in her arms. He clung to her, shivering and chattering.

  “The poor thing’s frightened!” Nan cried. She began to smooth his fur.

  At that moment one of the ponies left the field and ran past the children. Quick as a flash, the monkey jumped from Nan’s arms and landed on the pony’s back. There he perched as the pony turned and trotted back toward the field.

  “Wasn’t that funny?” Flossie asked in delight.

  “It’s probably the monkey’s act in the circus —riding on the pony,” Bert remarked.

  A woman’s voice called out, “In the ring, Prince!”

  Obediently the pony joined the others in the field. A young woman walked over carrying a long whip. At a crack of the whip the six ponies began to trot around in a circle. Then as the children watched, monkeys dropped from the trees. In a few minutes a monkey was riding on the back of each white pony!

  “Isn’t this ’citing?” Flossie exclaimed.

  “It sure is,” Bert agreed. “We’re having a private circus performance!”

  “I wonder where the fat lady and the tall man are?” Nan said. Many of the circus people were standing about, but there was no sign of the two they had seen on the Ocean Cliff platform.

  “I guess maybe the fat lady’s stuck in her seat!” Flossie said with a giggle, “and the tall man is trying to pull her out!”

  Another crack of the young woman’s whip had sent the ponies out of the field and up a ramp into the second railroad car. By this time the rest of the monkeys and the poodles had been caught and were back on the train. The twins returned to their seats.

  “Can the men put the circus train back on the tracks?” Freddie asked after they had told their mother about the animals.