Read Online The Beast of Blackslope by Tracy Barrett - Free Book Online Page A

back home, remember?”
    â€œYes!” Xena pointed at the drawing. “There’s the front porch with the columns, and the big circular drive. Xander! Remember that Sherlock said he stayed at the manor when he came to investigate the Beast? It looks like he didn’t just sleep here—he must have thought there was something important about the house and the barn and things. That’s why he drew the map of the manor!”
    Xander read, “‘Invited to Blackslope Manor, home of Lord Chimington. V. good dinner, hard bed. Interesting.’” He looked up. “Interesting what? I wonder.”
    â€œNot the dinner, I guess. Or the hard bed. Does he say any more?”
    Xander studied the page. “Nothing more about what was interesting, if that’s what you mean. But what’s this weird-looking shape supposed to be?”

    â€œLet me look.” Xena turned the page so that it was facing her and studied it. “Those aren’t regular rooms. See? No doors. It’s like a bunch of closets lined up in a row.” She thought another minute. “Don’t you think it looks like a stable? Those lines could mark where the stalls for the horses are! And Adeline and her husband lived in an addition built onto the stable, remember? I wonder if it’s still here.”
    Xander rose to his feet and put the book back in Xena’s pack. “Let’s figure this out. This property is huge and we don’t have time to look all over. Mom and Dad won’t take too long at the pre-auction thing, so we have to work fast. If there’s a stable, where would it be?”
    Xena tried to imagine what the manor would have looked like in the old days, before there were cars. “In Sherlock’s time, they would have driven their carriages up to the front door, right?”
    â€œRight! And that drive is long but not too wide, so the coachmen probably didn’t turn the carriages around but just kept going straight and put them away after the people got out.”
    â€œSo the stable must be on the other side of
the house from where Dad parked,” Xena said. “Let’s go!”
    She took off running, and even wearing the pack, she outdistanced Xander easily. “Slow down!” he called, but she disappeared. When he caught up to her she was standing triumphantly at the door to a large wooden building that was painted brown. “Why do you keep doing that?” He was exasperated. “You shouldn’t ditch me like that.”
    But she ignored him. “Look at this. I bet this is the place!” The door was enormous, easily large enough to lead in two horses side by side. It had to be the stable. Was the place where the cook and her husband lived still there? Where should they start looking?
    â€œDid you try the door?” Xander asked.
    She shook her head. “I was waiting for you.”
    â€œThanks.” He reached out his hand.
    Just then a deep voice behind them said, “What are you kids doing here?”

CHAPTER 12
    X ena and Xander whipped around, their hearts thumping.
    A man, his bushy gray eyebrows drawn together in a frown, stood a few feet away. He was leaning on a cane and glaring at them. “I said, what are you kids doing here?” the man repeated. “This part of the grounds isn’t open to the public.”
    â€œOh—w-we didn’t know,” Xena stammered. “Our parents were looking at, you know, the antiques, and we—”
    â€œWe were getting bored, sir.” Xander managed to appear younger than his ten years as he looked up through his long dark eyelashes. “We didn’t mean to get in the way, but our parents have been looking at the antiques for hours and we wanted to take a walk.”
    â€œWell,” the old man said, still gruffly but with less menace, “since you’re here with your
parents, let’s go find them and see what they have to say.”
    Just then