One morning about a week later, Mom stopped Jan and Julie on their way out the back door. “Where are you two going?” she asked.
“We were going over to get Fred and Susan,” Julie answered.
“Well, come home in half-an-hour, please. We’re all going out to do some errands then,” Mom said.
“Oh, Mom,” Jan cried, “why do Julie and I have to go? We wanted to go up to the barn for a club meeting.”
“I’m sorry about the meeting, but it can’t be helped. There are several things I must do, and I don’t want to leave you home alone that long.”
Jan stamped her foot angrily, tears came into her eyes. “You always want to go somewhere when we’re ready to have our club. I hate to go on errands.”
“Jan,” said Mother sternly, “we’re going and that is all there is to it. You may go and tell your friends that you’ll see them after lunch.”
Jan stomped outside letting the screen door slam shut behind her. Julie followed.
The children agreed to go to the barn that afternoon. By the time they came home, Jan had cooled off. She climbed into the station wagon without any further fuss.
First stop was the North Falls Library. The Davidson children participated in the Summer Reading Program every year. If they read a certain number of books over the summer months, they could go to a special program and event the library gave just before school began. The children enjoyed this very much and were part of it every year. This year even Candy could read, so all four children picked out some new books.
“While you children get your books, I’ll go back into the Adult Department,” said Mom. “I thought I might see what I can find out about Mr. Roberts and your mystery. When you are through checking your books out, come join me. I’ll show you where I’m looking.”
“Oh good,” said Jan. “We certainly haven’t found any clues, have we, Julie?”
“No, but we still would like to,” she answered.
But later when they went to the part of the library where Mom was, she said, “I’m sorry, but neither I nor the librarian could find anything. I hoped to find some newspaper clippings about Mr. Roberts’ arrest or something. But it seems the town of North Falls didn’t even have a newspaper until the early 1900’s. I’m not giving up yet, though. Maybe I’ll think of somewhere else to look.”
Then she showed the girls the file drawers and old books she had looked through. Jan and Julie were disappointed, but neither of them said anything.
Mom needed a few things from a department store. So from the library they went to a nearby shopping mall.
They were walking past the radio department when Jan said, “Look at this, Julie.” She had stopped in front of a large display of Walkie-Talkies. “Aren’t those Walkie-Talkies?” Julie asked.
“Yeah, wouldn’t those be great to have for the club? Look, this is Morse Code printed on the front. It even has a beeper to send it. Let’s ask Fred and Susan if they would like to have some for the club.”
Julie agreed. “They cost a lot of money, though,” she said. “How will we get enough to pay for them?”
“Don’t forget our carnival. That should earn quite a bit of money for the club treasury.”
“Girls,” Mom called. “Stay with us, please.”
The twins hurried to catch up with the rest.
It was lunch time when Mom finally finished all her errands. Instead of going home, she drove into the parking lot of a fast food restaurant. “How about hamburgers and french fries for lunch?” she asked smiling. “Whoopee!” the children shouted.
When they arrived home later, Mom had a question for Jan. “That wasn’t too bad, was it?” Her eyes were twinkling at her daughter.
Jan smiled a little sheepishly and shook her head. She always felt sorry for her temper afterward. Somehow it didn’t seem to help the next time. “Could we go to Fred and Susan’s now?” she asked.
The Bakers thought Walkie-Talkies would be fun to have for the club. “Where can we get enough money to buy them?” Susan wanted to know. “Why worry?” Fred asked. “We’ll think of something, Suzy-Q ... You are a Worry Wart.”
“Fred, you stop calling me names,” Susan said indignantly.
“Hold it, hold it,” Jan put up both hands for silence. “Don’t forget our plan to have a carnival.”
“That’s so,” said Susan. “Have you two talked to your Mom yet?”
“No, but we can right now,” Jan answered.
No sooner said than done. Mom was busy vacuuming in the living room, but she stopped to listen to their idea.
“Hmm, a carnival sounds like fun,” she said. “Also a lot of work, I’m sure you know that.”
They did. Mom was silent for a couple of minutes. At last she said, “It’s fine with me.”
“Yea!” the children shouted.
“Wait a minute,” Mom said laughing. “Before you get too excited, you had better let me finish.” When they were quiet again she went on, “First, we had better ask your Dad what he thinks. I don’t expect he will mind, but he may have plans that we don’t know about or something. Then, I still am busy trying to get settled here. I would like to have you wait a couple of weeks or so to have it. Is that agreeable?”
“We have a lot of planning to do anyway, Mom,” Julie answered. “It will take awhile to get all of the booths ready.”
“Good. Now one other thing. I’ve been wanting to have Mrs. Murphy give a puppet show in the neighborhood. How would it be if we combine the two? Maybe she could give a puppet show after the carnival. I’ll have to talk to her and set a date, but she knows I want her to come sometime this summer. How does that sound to you children?”
“Wow, that’s a great idea, Mom. You’ll love Mrs. Murphy’s puppets,” Jan said to Fred and Susan. “She always tells stories about a jungle monkey. They are so funny.”
There was some excited talk with ideas for the carnival flying thick and fast.
At last Mom said she would talk to Dad that very evening. If he had no objections, she promised to call Mrs. Murphy in the next day or so and arrange a date with her.
The children decided to go to the barn and do some serious planning. “Keep an eye on the sky,” Mom cautioned. “It looks like it might storm.”
“Could we take a snack?” Julie wanted to know.
Mom nodded. “There’s some cheese and crackers, and I baked cookies yesterday.”
“Guess I better run home and tell Mom where we are going,” Fred offered. “I’ll get the club box while I’m there.”
Soon they were following the path to the barn. It seemed to Jan that the sky was getting darker. Then she felt a drop of rain.
“Looks like Mom was right about that storm. I’ll race you to the barn,” Jan called.
They arrived breathless but only a little damp. Just in time too. It was as though someone had unzipped the sky. Rain fell in buckets.
“Whew, just made it,” Fred whistled. “Look at that rain come down.” They stood at the door watching for a couple of minutes.
“Well, nothing to do but eat. All that running made me very hungry,” Fred hinted.
The girls laughed and opened the paper bag of cheese, crackers, and cookies. Julie had carried along a thermos bottle of fruit juice too and four paper cups.
They made themselves comfortable on the barn floor and munched their snack.
“I think we’re going to be here awhile,” Fred commented.
As soon as he said it, there was a flash of lightning, then a clap of thunder.
Susan made a squeek. “Oh, I hate thunder,” she said, her eyes round.
“Suzy-Q, you are something else,” said her brother. He was unrolling a newspaper he had brought with him, then he stretched out on the floor to look at it.
Julie came to Susan’s defense. “Fred, it’s mean of you to tease Susan when she is frightened.”
He popped another cracker in his mouth. His eyes danced as he ate the cracker, but all he finally said was, “I suppose you’re right.”
“What is that?” Susan asked in a scared voice.
“What’s what?” Fred sounded disgusted. “For crying out loud, Susan, what is it now?”
“Th-that noise,” she stuttered.
“I can’t hear anything but the rain. You’ve really got an ...” The words died in his throat as he heard it too.
Somewhere there was a tapping sound. It sounded to Jan like metal striking something. Just what she couldn’t tell.
By this time they were all on their feet except Susan. She had bunched herself up in a ball. The other three walked around the inside of the barn listening.
The noise seemed loudest to Jan’s ears in the back of the barn. But she had to admit to herself that the storm was making the sound hard to locate. Suddenly the noise stopped. Listen as she would, Jan could no longer hear it.
“Hey, it stopped,” Fred said. “Maybe it was a bird in the rafters or a mouse. Barns always have birds and mice.”
No one said anything. But none of them thought it was an animal. Julie gathered up the cups and papers. She put all the trash into the paper bag.
Susan had stopped looking so scared. She began to help Julie clean up. Fred went back to looking at the newspaper he had brought.
Jan opened the club box and took out pen and paper. She wrote a list: Funny things about the barn.
1. Gramps’ story
2. pocket knife
3. face in the window
4. tapping noises
She sat and chewed on the cap of the pen thinking. The pocket knife and face seemed to mean someone else was playing in the barn. Was the noise made by the same person? If so, where was he that the tapping could be heard in the barn? Did any of this have something to do with the story of Mr. Roberts? Jan shook her head. It was certainly a puzzle.
All at once Fred said, “Hey, listen to this. It’s an article in the North Falls Town Press. I’m going to become a carrier, so I brought this paper along to look at. Anyway, this article is part of a series on the history of North Falls and the area: “ ... slaves fugitive from the South followed the Underground Railway through Ohio to the port of Cleveland and then to Canada. There were seven routes to Cleveland along which conductors aided slaves to freedom. One of these routes went from Massillon through North Falls to Greentown and on to Cleveland. It is believed that the route used Greentown Drive through North Falls on its way...
“What caught my eye,” said Fred, “was ‘Greentown Drive.’ Isn’t that the road right out here? The one Gramps’ house is on?”
Jan looked startled. “Yes, I’m almost sure it is. We can go and see.”
She went to look out the barn door. “It has nearly stopped raining. Come on. Let’s go up to the corner and find the street post.”
The others followed her. Everything was wet after the rain. The weeds squeaked when the children stepped on them. Everyone’s feet and legs were soaking wet when they finally found the street sign. It was nearly hidden in the brush. The words were faded but readable. It said: Greentown Drive.