Clue in the Corn Maze by Gertrude Chandler Warner Page A

festival. Whoever it is, I’m afraid that person could be dangerous. So last night I took my truck and parked on the road next to Ken’s. Then I waited. I wanted to see if anyone came onto the property.”
    “And did you see the intruder?” Henry wanted to know.
    “Unfortunately, I fell asleep,” Kurt said. “I didn’t wake up until you folks started chasing him.”
    “That’s too bad,” Benny said.
    “Yes, but I saw him run across the road and into the cornfield across the way,” Kurt said. “Then he disappeared.”
    “Did you get a good look at him?” Henry asked.
    “Not good enough. He was wearing a dark shirt and pants. And it looked like he had a hood of some kind over his head.”
    “That was all we saw, too,” Violet said.
    “I know the road that runs on the other side of that field,” Kurt went on. “It goes behind Peggy Rodman’s place. So I took off as fast as I could, hoping I’d catch him coming out the other side. But by the time I got over there, he was gone.”
    “That’s why you were so tired this morning,” Violet said. “You really were up most of the night.”
    “Yes.”
    “So why didn’t you just tell us that’s what you’d been doing this morning?” Jessie asked.
    Kurt smiled. “I didn’t want Ken to know I’d been staking out his place like some sort of undercover detective,” he said. “He would’ve been angry. He’d have said I should mind my own business.”
    “He probably would have,” Henry agreed. “Ken likes to take care of himself.”
    Later, when the children were walking back to Ken’s, Jessie said, “Well, that explains the blue truck that Peggy saw.”
    “We aren’t any closer to solving this case than we ever were,” Benny grumbled.
    “This is a tough one,” Henry agreed. “But we’ll figure it out.”
    “At least the festival will go on,” Violet said.
    “Unless our intruder shows up again,” Jessie said.

CHAPTER 9
Trouble!
    When the Aldens returned to Ken’s, Mr. Sweeney was back. He was just finishing up the last of the repair work in the maze.
    “Tomorrow we paint the fence posts,” Violet said.
    “And decorate for the festival,” Benny added.
    “Can you kids help me go down all the paths right now and make sure the rest of the maze is in good shape?” asked Mr. Sweeney.
    “Sure,” the Aldens replied.
    They divided up—Mr. Sweeney, Henry, and Violet, and Jessie and Benny—and headed down different paths.
    “Everything looks good over here,” Jessie called after a little while.
    “Here, too,” Henry called back.
    “Wait a minute,” Violet said. “What’s that?”
    A round black object had caught her eye. Violet and Henry rushed down the path to see what it was.
    “A tire?” Violet said with surprise. The tire was short and fat.
    “It’s too small to have come from a car,” Henry said.
    “What else could it have come from?” Violet asked.
    “I don’t know,” Henry said as Mr. Sweeney, Jessie, and Benny came up behind them. “Maybe a wagon?”
    Mr. Sweeney picked up the tire. There was another note underneath. Henry picked it up. Like the other notes that had been found in the maze, it was written in letters cut from magazine or newspaper headlines.
    “CANCEL THE FESTIVAL OR THERE WILL BE TROUBLE,” Jessie read over Henry’s shoulder.

    “Oh, no,” Violet said.
    “What kind of trouble?” Benny asked.
    “I don’t know,” Mr. Sweeney said grimly. “But this looks like a tire from the trailer we use for hayrides. I’d better go see if the trailer is okay.”
    The children followed Mr. Sweeney through the maze and over to the barn.
    Mr. Sweeney grabbed a tire iron from a workbench in the corner, then went around and checked each tire on the trailer.
    “They’re all tight,” Mr. Sweeney said after he’d checked the last one.
    “So what does the note mean?” Benny asked.
    “Maybe it means the person hasn’t actually done anything yet, but they’re planning on doing something to the tires