Read Online Mystery on Blizzard Mountain by Gertrude Chandler Warner - Free Book Online

moaned Chuck, and buried his face in his hands.
    “Not exactly gold,” said a new voice.
    Maris and the Aldens looked up in surprise at the woman striding up the trail.
    “Rayanne?” asked Maris. “What are you doing here?”
    “Rayanne Adams, private detective, at your service,” said Rayanne.
    “But you work at the diner!” said Violet.
    “That’s because I was undercover. What better place to find out what’s going on than at the town’s only diner?” asked Rayanne. She stared at Chuck. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself, mister, robbing that museum.”
    “I didn’t mean to.” Chuck looked up. “I was just standing there, and no one was around, and I saw how easy it would be to take the gold that was on display. I put a piece of tape on the back door lock and just pushed the door open right after the museum closed. I wrapped the gold in that old purple cape and carried it out.”
    “You’re a private detective?” Maris asked Rayanne.
    Rayanne nodded. “My nephew runs the museum. I’m retired now, but I agreed to take this case to help him out.”
    “That’s why you asked so many questions! And knew so much about the museum theft!” cried Jessie.
    “Yep,” said Rayanne. “And I had my suspicions about Mr. Chuck Larson here. But until you came along, I couldn’t prove anything. How did you know to make a trap for him?”
    “Two clues,” said Henry. “Shoes and purple velvet. Chuck was acting like a hiker who didn’t know anything. But he wore good old comfortable hiking boots. Boots that had been used a lot.”
    “And they were worn down on one side, like a man who’d been limping while wearing them,” said Jessie. “That matched the boot prints we found in the snow. The prints weren’t very clear, but they were clear enough to show us that whoever walked around our cabin limped on the same foot as Chuck. Only we didn’t know why he’d be following us.”
    “We thought first he’d found Stagecoach George’s treasure. It wasn’t until you mentioned the cape from the museum was purple velvet and we remembered that scrap of purple cloth Violet had found that things began to make sense,” said Henry.
    “That purple velvet was an important clue,” Rayanne agreed. “It got my attention. And it got Chuck’s attention, too.”
    “That’s when we knew for sure Chuck was faking it. That his ankle was not all that broken anymore,” said Benny.
    Henry looked at Chuck. “You’re not even a history teacher, are you? It was all faked.”
    Chuck groaned. “No,” he confessed. “I’m a mountain guide from out West. I came here just to hike.”
    “We should have known you were no beginner when we found you all snug in your tent when you were injured. Beginners usually wander off the trail. And they aren’t so prepared,” said Maris.
    “I was hoping you wouldn’t notice that,” Chuck said. “Anyway, I’d carried the gold, wrapped in the cape, in my pack, about halfway down Blizzard Mountain when I slipped and broke my ankle.” He made a face at the memory.
    “I knew I was near the cabin—I’d used it on the way over the mountain the first time. So I managed to get there and bury the gold under the floor of the cabin and put the boards back down.”
    “That’s why there was so much dirt on the floor,” said Violet. “We figured that out, too.”
    He nodded. “I guess that’s when a piece of purple velvet tore off that old cape. Anyway, I dragged myself back over to the trail so no one would know I’d been in the cabin. I had enough supplies to last awhile, and I knew I’d be okay, that someone would come along before long.”
    “You let the air out of our tires, too,” Benny accused Chuck.
    “Yes, it was me. When I went to the bathroom at the diner, I really sneaked out and did that. And I followed you up the trail and took part of your food,” Chuck confessed. “I hoped that would scare you off, but it didn’t. So I followed you to the cabin and tried to