Free The Mystery at the Calgary Stampede by Gertrude Chandler Warner

group is back!” Jessie told
the others.
    A young woman wearing a red velvet cape
and carrying a lantern led the group to the
patio. “Welcome to our house,” she said.
Even though she was smiling, her voice was a
little shaky. Her wavy blond hair was falling
out of the bun on top of her head.
    She smiled at the Aldens, said hello, and
told her group, “These are friends of the
family. Why don’t you all sit down and I’ll
serve you some treats.” There were two sets
of parents and three children in the group,
but none of them looked like they were
having fun.
    The oldest child was a girl about Benny’s
age and she was wearing a pretty princess
costume, but Violet thought the girl was the
most unhappy-looking princess she had ever
seen. A little boy about two or three years
old was dressed as a dragon. As the group
walked to the patio, the boy grabbed hold of
his father’s leg and hid his face.
    “We can help,” Violet said, jumping up.
Mrs. Vanderhoff handed her the cookie jar.
Violet pulled the lid off and offered the jar
to the third child, a little girl dressed like a
mouse, who had sat down in the spot next to
Violet’s.
    The girl reached her hand in and then
jerked it back out. She screamed, “Gross! It’s
full of something yucky. I think there are
worms and dirt in there.”
    Violet peered into the cookie jar. “It does
have something in it besides cookies,” she
said. She sniffed it. “It doesn’t smell like
dirt though.”
    Jessie came over. “Can I look?” Violet
held it out to her and Jessie looked inside.
“It smells like chocolate and some sort of
fruit smell.” She reached her hand in and
pulled out something sticky. “This isn’t
really a worm. It’s gummy candy meant
to look like a worm. And I think the dirt
is just crushed up chocolate cookies. We
had treats like this at school last year for
Halloween.”
    She looked at Mrs. Vanderhoff, who looked
at Annika.
    Annika said, “I don’t know how those got in
there. I filled the jar up with cookies myself.”
    “I guess it’s a joke,” Henry said.
    “It’s not a funny joke,” the little girl’s
mother said as she took her daughter’s hand.
“This ghost tour is not turning out the way
we expected.”
    “I’m sorry,” Annika said. “I don’t know
who would play a trick like that.”
    A shriek rang out from the alley. It sounded
like an angry scream.
    Everyone stood up. A horse neighed, and
they could hear hooves pounding. Watch
began to bark. The boy dressed as a dragon
cried out and his father picked him up. The
Aldens and Annika ran to the fence at the
back of the yard. The rest of the group but the
scared toddler and his father followed them.
They saw a big black horse come rushing
down the alley. The horse’s rider wore a black
cape that billowed out in the wind.
    “There’s something not right about the
rider,” Violet said.
    Henry shone the flashlight at the person
on the horse.
    “The rider doesn’t have a head!” Benny
cried. They all jumped back in surprise.
    As the horse passed by the fence, the rider
took something from inside the cape and held
it up.
    It resembled a head with glowing teeth
and eyes. The rider heaved the head toward
the group.
    They all dodged away, bumping into one
another. It landed with a thud in front of
them. It split open, spraying them all with
thick red liquid.
    All three of the children from the tour
group begin to sob.
    “Don’t cry,” Jessie said. “It was just a
pumpkin…”
    One of the mothers held out her hands,
which were speckled with red. “It looks like
blood!”
    Violet held out one of the pieces of the
pumpkin. It was coated on the inside with
the red liquid. “That’s not blood. It’s paint. I
can smell it.” She turned it over. “And look at
this on the outside that looks like an eye. It’s
glow-in-the-dark paint.”

    The woman said to Annika, “Young lady,
that was a terrible trick. You advertise this as
a ghost tour for families, but look at all