Read Online The Homerun Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner - Free Book Online

them.
    Reluctantly, the couple followed Benny and the others to the factory.
    Once inside, Benny walked straight to the break room where the old workers’ lockers lined the walls. He passed right by the locker labeled H.S. and looked at all the others carefully.
    â€œI bet this is it!” he cried in front of one of the lockers. “I bet what they are looking for is in here. See, H.W.S. — Herman Wash-burn Soper. He had a funny middle name, didn’t he?”
    Everyone was shocked.
    â€œBenny,” Jessie asked, “how did you know Herman’s middle name was Washburn?”
    â€œI saw it in the clubhouse. On the old team photograph. I started to get the idea about the initials and the lockers, but the idea sort of got stuck. When I heard the Percys talking in the clubhouse about some letter they were looking for, the idea just kind of got unstuck.”
    â€œIt certainly did!” exclaimed Henry, and they all laughed, all except for the Percys.
    â€œI think we’d better see if anything’s in here,” Carl Soper said, and he opened the locker. He drew out an old newspaper, laid it carefully on the floor, and peered long and hard into the top shelf and the larger bottom part of the locker. He reached his hand in and ran it carefully up and down the sides. “That seems to be it,” he said.
    The Percys breathed a sigh of relief.
    â€œWait,” said Carl. “I think I feel something. It seems to be stuck between the shelf and the back of the locker.” Slowly he drew his arm out. In his hand was a letter.
    Everyone gathered around.
    â€œWho’s it to?” Violet wanted to know.
    Carl squinted at the faded handwriting. “It’s addressed to Herman Soper! And it’s dated June 4, 1908! That was the year my uncle disappeared!” Carl Soper said. He turned the envelope over. “Why, it’s still sealed!”
    Carl’s hands shook as he opened the letter. He read the document silently for a while. “Listen: ‘Dear Mr. Soper,’ it says. ‘It has come to my attention that I have unknowingly been the cause of some injustice done to you and I am writing this letter to fix it. I took your name from the newspaper. Your address was not reported, but the Pikesville Hat Company was mentioned as your place of employment, so I am directing my letter to you there. Please feel free to forward my letter to your local newspaper so they may print the true story of your generosity. I will guarantee the truth of this letter in person should the paper so wish. But as I plan to leave next month on an extended trip …’ This is incredible! According to this, Herman didn’t throw the game!”

    â€œThis is all very interesting, but we need to get to that meeting,” Beverly Percy said crisply.
    â€œNot so fast,” Carl told her.
    Jessie noticed both Percys had become jittery since Benny’s discovery. They acted like they knew something about this mysterious letter.
    Carl took a deep breath. “It was written by Mrs. Daisy Pettibone from Eddington, New York.”
    â€œWho is she?” asked Benny.
    â€œShe’s the lady my uncle stopped to help on the way to the big game,” said Carl Soper, scanning the paper. “It confirms everything Home Run Herman said. He came upon a lady whose Model T was stuck in the mud.”
    â€œModel what?” asked Benny.
    â€œThe Model T was an early Ford car,” answered Henry.
    â€œAutomobiles were pretty new in those days,” Carl went on. “And roads weren’t very good. Mrs. Pettibone asked Herman to push her car out of the ditch. After he helped move her car, she noticed he was rubbing his shoulder. According to the letter, Mrs. Pettibone was in a terrible rush to get home to Eddington. She offered Herman twenty dollars to pay for his assistance. Herman refused. But she insisted and he stuck the bill in his pocket. When he hurried off to the game,