The two girls caught up with their friends in no time.
“Look what we found. By that pile of dirt,” Alex panted. She passed around the wrinkled piece of paper.
Then they all spoke at once.
“What does this mean?”
“Who is this for?”
“Do you think this was meant for us?”
“I wonder if the Grouch had anything to do with this.”
Sydney paced back and forth, hand to her chin. “Why do you think he was so mad at us? We weren’t doing anything. That was our free time. We haven’t been told to stay away from the golf course.”
Elizabeth jumped in. “Speaking of free time, we may not have any if we’re late. We can talk about this later. Let’s go! Kate, I’ll go with you to take Biscuit back to the cabin, and the rest of you get to class.”
The small group of sleuths scattered.
In the cabin, Kate laid Biscuit gently on her bed. He licked her hand, curled into a ball, and promptly went to sleep. “Poor little fellow,” she said. “He’s had a rough morning.”
“Let’s just hope he stays asleep while we’re gone,” said Elizabeth. She grabbed Kate by the arm and led her out the door. “I’ll meet you back here as soon as this first session ends.”
The two girls hurried to their classes and scooted into their seats without a moment to spare.
A while later, Elizabeth sat in the end chair in the back row, trying to focus on the camp counselor’s words. Her mind was crowded with thoughts of puppies and cougars and cryptic warnings.
“My name is Miss Rebecca. For the next two weeks of camp, you will compete with your other five roommates as a team. Each group needs to create a team name, and whoever has the best name will receive points. You will also earn points for cleanliness, punctuality, and attitude. These points will be given at the discretion of the counselors.
“Your team will also compete in various categories in a camp-wide competition. The categories are scripture memory, nature studies, horseback riding, rowing, and a few others we’ll tell you about in the next few days. On the last day of camp, the team with the most points wins the title Team Discovery Lake. Each girl on the winning team will receive a blue ribbon and a partial scholarship to next year’s camp.”
Elizabeth looked around at the other girls. There, in the front row, smiling sweetly at the counselor, was Amberlie.
Now that girl is trouble! Elizabeth had never gotten to know her very well, but she knew enough. All sugar and spice and everything nice around the counselors. But the minute she was away from adults, her sugar and spice turned to vinegar.
Amberlie’s hand shot high into the air. “Will there be daily winners?” she asked.
“Good question, and yes. Each day, the team with the most points earned on the previous day will be first in all meal lines. Teams will receive daily points for attitude and for the cleanest rooms.”
This announcement was followed by an enthusiastic buzz from the campers. First at mealtime—now that was worth competing for.
Miss Rebecca smiled as she gave the girls time to absorb the information. “Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s begin our Bible Explorers class! We’ll memorize a lot of scripture in the next two weeks. Let’s start with a game.…”
Elizabeth settled back in her seat and smiled. She was good at scripture memory. This class was right up her alley.
McKenzie and Sydney stood with the other girls by the stable door, listening to the counselor talk about basic horsemanship. The horses all seemed gentle and trustworthy, unlike some of the stallions back at McKenzie’s ranch in White Sulphur Springs.
“During your time here, you will learn basic horse care and riding techniques. These horses are used to young ladies and are calm, so you don’t need to be afraid of them. However, they are very large animals, so you need to be gentle with them as well.”
Sydney elbowed McKenzie. The auburn-haired girl looked at her new friend and saw her motioning to a large oak tree at the edge of the paddock. In the shade of the tree was the grouchy man from the golf course talking to the older man Elizabeth had pointed out earlier in the day. From the abrupt gestures of the grouchy man, Sydney guessed he wasn’t too happy.
The girls watched and strained to hear the words, but it was no use. The men were too far away, and the counselor’s words drowned out any chance of eavesdropping.
They continued to observe the exchange. The older man—Mr. Anzer—put his arm around the Grouch’s shoulders, and the Grouch seemed to calm a bit. The two then walked away, continuing their conversation as they moved toward the offices at the east end of the stables.
Kate had signed up for the nature studies class right away. In her concrete world of Philadelphia, she didn’t get much exposure to the rugged outdoors. The closest thing she had back home was the well-groomed city park or the beautiful college campus where her dad taught. She had been excited to learn about various trees and flowers and wildlife. She had even brought her cell phone so she could take pictures.
But now she could only think of the muddy black-and-white puppy asleep on her bed. He likes me, she thought. I’ve never had a dog. I wonder if Mom and Dad would let me keep him.
“That’s about it for today, girls. As you’re walking around the camp, remember to pay attention to the shapes of the leaves you see. Try to identify the ones we talked about.”
Kate jerked to attention. Had she really daydreamed the whole class away? Staring at her blank phone screen, she wondered how the hour could have passed so quickly. She couldn’t remember a single thing the counselor had said.
Snapping her phone closed, she remembered Elizabeth’s request to meet back at the cabin. Immediately after class. Besides, she was eager to check on Biscuit.
Slipping the small phone into her pocket, she ran as fast as she could, nearly crashing into Bailey and Alex as she reached the crossroad that led to their cabin.
“Whoa, Kate! Slow down! At that rate, you’ll have a major collision!” Alex laughed.
Kate caught her balance and smiled. “Sorry! I just can’t wait to get back to the cabin. Biscuit was asleep when we left him, and I…” She was interrupted by a low, mournful howl.
The three girls looked at each other and exclaimed, “Biscuit!”
They ran to cabin 12B in record time. Bursting through the door, they stopped short at the sight before them.
The dirty, round-eyed puppy sat in the center of the room, tail wagging with excitement. A pair of green shorts hung off his back, and he held a dirty sock in his mouth. Undergarments, nightgowns, and T-shirts were scattered from one end of the room to the other.
“Oh Biscuit. What have you done?” Kate scooped up the puppy, and he licked her face. “Hey, stop that!” She laughed and held him out of face range. “I don’t mind the kisses, but we’ve gotta do something about your breath!”
“Uh, girls…we’d better clean up this mess. The counselors are coming before lunch to check our rooms!” said Alex.
“But first…” Bailey dug through her pockets. “Look what we made for Biscuit!” She pulled out a colorful ribbon-braided rope and attached it around the dog’s neck. “Alex and I worked on it in class. Now he has a collar!”
“Perfect!” exclaimed Kate. Alex and Bailey looked pleased.
“What in the…world?” The girls turned as Elizabeth stepped into the room. “Oh my.” The older girl just stood there, taking in every detail of the disastrous room. “Oh my, oh my.”
Sydney and McKenzie lingered after class, pretending to admire the horses. “Do you think we should go find out what they’re talking about?”
“I think we should at least see if the Grouch has an office over here or something,” Sydney urged.
“That older man he was talking to, Mr. Anzer, seemed nice. Elizabeth seemed to really like him. Surely he’s not like…” McKenzie paused. “No, it looked more like he was trying to calm the Grouch down, didn’t it?”
The two girls walked toward the office area, pausing to look at the horses when a counselor passed.
“I want to ride the bay over there,” exclaimed McKenzie.
“I think I’ll stick with the pony,” replied Sydney.
When the coast was clear, the girls continued to the east end of the building, pausing outside an open window. Hearing voices inside, they grew still, straining to hear the conversation.
“I’m telling you, Dan, you can’t post a KEEP OUT sign at the golf course. It may be old, but the kids still love it. You can’t keep them from playing a few rounds of miniature golf if they want to.”
“But William, I’m trying to get my work done. I can’t make the repairs if a bunch of little girls are running around everywhere.”
This was followed by a long pause.
Finally, Mr. Anzer spoke again. “Just do what you can while the girls are in their classes. I’ll see if I can come help you.”
“No! That won’t be necessary!” Dan spoke up quickly. “I’ll just figure out a way to make it work.”
The two girls looked at each other, wide-eyed, but didn’t move. Suddenly, the man they now knew as Dan burst through the door and nearly barreled over them. He stopped, clearly surprised to see the sleuths, and opened his mouth as if to speak.
McKenzie spoke first. “Pardon us, sir! We didn’t mean to get in your way. We were just headed back to our cabin. You have a very nice day, sir! Umm…goodbye!”
The two girls dashed toward the cabins.
As soon as they were out of earshot, Sydney spoke up. “Whew. That was close. I wonder if he knows we were listening.”
“I don’t know. I just can’t figure out why he doesn’t want anyone at the golf course. I mean, this is a kids’ camp,” McKenzie responded.
Sydney’s voice rose. “Yeah. Of course kids will be running around—that’s kind of the point. If it weren’t for us, he wouldn’t have a job here in the first place!”
“Shhhhh. We don’t want the whole camp to know. Something tells me that the Grouch doesn’t care much about his job. He doesn’t keep the golf course tidy. He must have some other reason why he doesn’t want anybody down there,” McKenzie told her friend.
“I think you’re right. Let’s go tell the others what we heard.”
The girls jogged back to the cabin, where they found the others making piles of clothing. “What in the world? What are you all doing with my shorts? And my headband? And my…” Sydney’s bewildered gaze landed on the innocent-looking puppy sitting at Kate’s feet. “Biscuit! What did you do?”
The puppy answered her with a bark and a wag of his tail.
The young detectives sat in a circle on the floor examining the wrinkled piece of paper.
Dan Ger.
“Why is it written that way? You know, with a space in between, and the D and the G capitalized?” asked Bailey.
“I think the way it’s written must be a clue of some sort. Maybe the space in the middle means we are in the middle of danger!” Sydney added.
The girls passed around the small paper, trying to find further clues. Elizabeth held the paper up to the light. “This looks like envelope paper. If you hold it up, it has a pattern, kind of like the business envelopes my parents use.”
Alex reached for the paper. “May I see that?” Then, holding it up, she said, “Elizabeth is right! This may be…Hey! Maybe Dan is someone’s name!”
McKenzie and Sydney began talking at once. “I can’t believe we haven’t told you yet!”
“We got so caught up in cleaning up Biscuit’s mess that we forgot to tell you what happened!”
The other four sat up straight, all ears, listening to the two girls tell what they knew.
“So…” Alex stood, still holding the paper. “We know that the Grouch’s name is Dan, so maybe this paper belongs to him. Elizabeth, can you find out Dan’s last name?”
“Sure. I’ll go talk to Mr. Anzer. I’ve been meaning to visit with him, anyway.”
“Great!” Alex continued. “Kate, what else do you have in that bag of yours? Surely you have some kind of gadget to help us get to the bottom of this.”
Kate sprang into action, going through her treasures and evaluating each one for its possible mystery-solving potential.
“Here’s my robot spy-cam.” Kate held up what looked like a remote-control four-wheeler. “We can hide and make this baby go wherever we want. The only problem is, the sound isn’t that great. So we can watch what happens, but we might not be able to hear it.”
“What about the tiny recorder you brought?” asked Sydney.
“I’ve tried that. It will work, sort of. But it’s hard to get the recorder to play at the same time the video plays. So you end up watching something happen while listening to the thing that happened a minute or two before, and it gets confusing.”
Elizabeth laughed. “Sort of like watching a foreign film with the words at the bottom of the screen! I can never keep up with those movies.”
Alex seemed a natural fit for the role of lead detective, and the other girls listened to her instructions. “Okay, here’s what we’ll do. Elizabeth, you and McKenzie go back to the stables. See what more you can find about this Dan fellow. The rest of you come with me. Kate, bring the robot.”
“Sounds like a plan,” said Elizabeth. “Let’s go!”
Kate quickly put Biscuit into her oversize backpack and zipped it, leaving a small air hole.
Just then, Miss Rebecca poked her head around the door. “Hi, girls! I’m Miss Rebecca—oh, hi, Elizabeth! Good to see you! I’m the counselor for cabin 12. My room’s at the end of the hall, in case you need anything.”
“Thanks!” the girls replied, trying not to look guilty.
Miss Rebecca stood looking at the group. “Umm…okay then. Don’t forget that now is your Discovery Time. For the next half hour, find a quiet place and study today’s Bible lesson.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said the angelic-looking group. Biscuit whimpered, and Bailey began sneezing to cover the sound while Kate used her foot to gently push the wiggling backpack under her bed. The counselor stepped into the room and looked around with a suspicious gaze.