Runaway Ralph - Beverly Cleary [21]
“I saw him leave the dining hall early.” She brushed dust from the toe of her boot. Girls who owned English riding boots were proud of them and shined them often.
Karen tried to be fair. “We don’t know it was Garf, and we didn’t see him come in here.”
The girls crowded out through the screen door to meet Aunt Jill, who had paused on her way to the shop to talk to someone. “Aunt Jill! Aunt Jill!” they cried. “Karen’s watch is gone!”
“Aunt Jill, we have a mystery!” cried Lana, who had tagged after the older girls in her dirty cowboy boots. She liked the dirt on her boots, which showed she was not a newcomer to camp.
Everyone wanted to hear about the missing watch. Campers crowded around Aunt Jill and the three girls. Through the open window Ralph could hear snatches of conversation. “Aunt Jill, I’m sure I left it on the shelf beside the mouse cage. I’m positive!” “—looked everyplace—” “And I saw Garf—” “—and it was my birthday present—” “—search the lodges—” “He sneaks out of the dining hall—” “—hasn’t even been excused from the table—” “Now, girls—” (This was Aunt Jill.) “Well, I don’t care. He acts funny—”
That cat really has fixed things now, thought Ralph, as the campers gathered on the benches and at the old school desks under the walnut trees. One of the counselors led the singing, and then Aunt Jill stepped up on the platform. “Campers, I have some unhappy news today,” she began. “Karen’s watch is missing from the craft shop, where she is sure she laid it on a shelf. It was not an expensive watch, but it was a birthday present to Karen, and she would like very much to have it back.” Here Karen nodded her head vigorously, and Aunt Jill went on. “We are not going to search the lodges as someone suggested. We are going to let the person who took the watch return it, because it is the right thing to do.”
A lot Catso cares about doing the right thing, thought Ralph. He heard Garf who was sitting on the last bench say angrily to the boy in front of him, “What are you looking at me for?”
Aunt Jill continued. “No one needs to know who took the watch. It can be returned to the shelf in the craft shop when no one is looking or to my desk in the office. We are not interested in who took the watch. We want it returned to Karen, because returning it is the right thing to do.”
After Aunt Jill’s speech, the campers began to sing You Are My Sunshine. Garf slipped away from the rest of the campers and, as Aunt Jill had suggested, sat down by himself behind the clump of bamboo. This afternoon was the first time Ralph had seen him sit there.
“You make me happy—” sang the campers.
They haven’t made Garf happy, thought Ralph, wishing that Garf were sitting on the other side of the bamboo near the craft-shop door, where he might find the watch by accident.
“That boy is really in trouble,” remarked Chum.
Ralph turned in surprise. “I thought you were asleep under your cedar shavings,” he remarked.
“That’s what I make them think,” said Chum. “I didn’t miss a thing.”
“What is your opinion of the case?” asked Ralph, who knew the right words to use in such a situation from watching so many television programs in the lobby of the Mountain View Inn.
“I think that boy is in a tight spot,” said Chum. “Everybody knows he used to come into the craft shop when no one was here, and they know he is still the first person to leave the dining hall, so naturally everyone thinks he took the watch. He obviously can’t return the watch, because he doesn’t know where it is, so of course everyone will think he is keeping it.”
“That’s the way I had it figured,” agreed Ralph.
“And I can tell you one thing,” continued Chum, “he’s not going to come near the craft shop until that watch is found.”
“But what about me?” squeaked Ralph in dismay, thinking of the sign above his cage. “Nobody else feeds me. I’ll starve!”
“I’ll try to toss you an alfalfa pellet once in a while,” said Chum generously. “My aim isn’t very good, but I should be able to get one into your cage now and then. Enough to keep you going.”
Going where,