The Mystery of the Grinning Gargoyle by Gertrude Chandler Warner

must be a pretty good actor,” said Benny, “because your screams sounded really real.”
    â€œOh, my screams were real tonight,” said Annabel. “I really did see a gargoyle in the window just now. I wasn’t filming this to put it online. The gargoyle I saw was real.”
    Jessie, Violet, and Benny didn’t know whether to believe what Annabel was telling them—not after she hadn’t been honest about everything else.
    But Henry believed her. “We know that gargoyles are just stone statues, but I think she’s telling the truth, guys,” he said, standing at the window. “She saw something. Look at this string hanging outside the glass. It looks like the string we saw at the library earlier tonight.”
    Sure enough, hanging outside the window was a string.
    â€œIt looks like the string is hanging from someplace above your room,” Henry said.
    â€œBut the fourth floor is the top floor of Harper Hall,” said Annabel. “The only thing above my room is the roof.”
    â€œThen we’re headed to the roof,” said Henry.
    â€œThat sounds like fun!” Benny shouted. “Let’s go!”
    â€œI’m sorry, guys,” said Annabel. “My days of hunting gargoyles are done. I think I’ll stay in my room. But if you want to get to the roof, take the stairs at the end of the hall. The door at the top opens out onto the roof—sometimes I go up there at night to watch the stars.”
    Benny had already started down the hall and up the stairs, so his sisters and brother had to run fast to catch up with him. They were all in such a hurry that no one heard the sound of footsteps running down the stairs, or the sound of the exit door opening and slamming shut.
    The four Alden children went through the door at the top of the stairs and, sure enough, above them shined the moon and the constellations of the night sky.
    â€œI see the Big Dipper!” Benny said.
    â€œAnd look,” said Jessie, “that constellation shaped like a hunter is called Orion.”
    â€œI wonder if Orion has ever gone gargoyle hunting like us,” said Benny.
    â€œI don’t know,” Henry said, “but I think we’re pretty close to catching whoever is behind this mystery. Come on, the area right over there should be directly above Raven’s, er, Annabel’s room. Just be careful, since we’re on the roof of a building.”
    The roof of Harper Hall was flat, but the children walked carefully to the edge.
    â€œHere’s the string,” said Benny, holding one end of the string up in the air.
    â€œSo whoever is scaring people must be dangling the gargoyle from a string,” Henry explained. “They must have used the same trick at the library, hanging the gargoyle that we saw from the window on the top floor.”
    â€œBut those gargoyles are part of the library,” said Jessie. “I don’t see how somebody could pull a heavy stone statue off of a building and hang it from a little piece of string like a piñata at a birthday party.”
    Benny held the other end of the string in his hand. “It looks like this string is broken. The gargoyle must have fallen.”
    â€œBenny’s right,” Henry said, cautiously peeking over the edge of the roof. “I can see something in the bushes below.”
    â€œI see it, too,” said Violet. “It’s gray and has wings. It’s a gargoyle!”
    While Annabel had been frightened by the gargoyle that appeared at Harper Hall, the Alden children weren’t scared at all. Back to the stairway door they hurried, and down the stairs to the ground floor they raced.
    Once again, Benny led the way. Once he was through the door he ran and around the side of the dorm to the bushes they’d seen from the roof.
    â€œIt is a gargoyle!” Benny yelled. “And it’s not heavy at all.”
    Henry, Jessie, and Violet turned the