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sure what to do. Then he saw Grandfather. At the same time, Grandfather saw him and the others in the doorway behind him.
    â€œBenny!” exclaimed James Alden. “What are you children doing here?”
    â€œI have something to show you,” said Benny, handing the letter to his grandfather.
    Mrs. Percy’s face turned as purple as the dress she had on today. “Pay no attention to that child! He doesn’t know anything about my great-aunt’s letter!”

CHAPTER 10
    Benny’s Home Run
    S ilence fell over the room.
    â€œWhat did you say?” Emily asked Beverly Percy.
    â€œNothing,” she answered briskly. “Clear these children out so we can get down to business —”
    Her husband broke in. “They have the letter, Beverly. We have to tell them.”
    â€œTell us what?” said the man sitting at the head of the table.
    â€œThe truth,” Jessie stated. Then she added, “We know the Percys have been looking for this letter. Fortunately, our little brother found it in the factory first.”
    Now James Alden put on his reading glasses and looked at the letter Benny handed him. “It’s addressed to Herman Soper.”
    â€œHome Run Herman?” said the man at the head of the table. “I’m Paul White,” he added, introducing himself to the Alden children, “president of the town council. You say Mr. and Mrs. Percy were looking for this letter?”
    Henry nodded. “We saw lights in the old factory. Danny Jenkins told us the factory was haunted. But it was his brother, looking for that paper. The Percys were hunting for it, too.”
    Mr. White turned to Beverly Percy. “What connection do you have with an old letter addressed to Home Run Herman?”
    â€œIt’s a long story.” Mrs. Percy smiled falsely. “Let’s vote first and afterward go have coffee. I’ll tell you about the letter then.”
    â€œI think now would be better,” said Grandfather. “These children made quite an effort to get the letter here before the vote.”
    In the momentary silence Carl Soper entered the room and with a heavy sigh, Beverly Percy slumped in her chair. “The woman who wrote that letter was my great-aunt, Daisy Pettibone,” she began. “I grew up in Eddington, a small town north of here. That’s where Aunt Daisy lived, too. I didn’t know my great-aunt very well. But when she died, she left me some money.”
    â€œWhen we went through Mrs. Pettibone’s belongings, we found a copy of that letter,” Mike Percy put in. “Apparently Mrs. Pettibone made and kept copies of most of her correspondence.”
    â€œWhy was the letter important?” asked Carl Soper.
    â€œIt has to do with the ballpark, doesn’t it?” guessed Violet.
    Beverly shot the kids a dark look. “Yes,” she replied. “You see, my aunt had an old newspaper clipping in her files, too. It was about that old baseball game, the one Home Run Herman supposedly lost on purpose. Mike and I were curious about Pikesville, so we drove down to see the town.”
    Mike took up the story. “We wanted to make a quick profit. A real estate agent in Eddington told us about the problems in Pikesville and a property that might be coming up for sale.”
    â€œWhat property?” asked Mr. White.
    â€œThe ballpark,” Beverly Percy answered. “The way we understood it, the ballpark was next to the old factory. We knew you all were thinking about renovating the factory into shops. If we bought the ballpark, we knew we could sell it back to the town at a profit. You’d need that land around the factory.”
    â€œSo Bev and I moved here,” Mike said, taking up the story. “I got a job and became coach of the baseball team. Bev was elected to the town council a few months ago.”
    â€œThat was part of your scheme,” Jessie said. “You got on the council so