The Mystery of the Lost Village (3 page)

Joe shrugged. “I don't think she wandered here by mistake. Nobody goes for a hike dressed up like that.”

“You're right. There isn't even a path.” He squinted at the midday sun, just as Violet called to him from the dig.

“Hey, break time is over!” she teased him.

Henry nodded. “I guess we should get back to work.”

It was late afternoon when Violet squealed in surprise. “Look what I found!” she said, pointing to a dark red circle in the dirt.

“What is it?” Jessie asked.

“I think it's the rim of a plate, or bowl,” Henry said excitedly. “And it looks like it's not even broken. You'll have to be careful getting it out in one piece.”

“I'm going to take my time,” Violet said. She hunched over her find and began brushing away layers of earth. After a few minutes, she sank back on her heels. “There it is!”

“It's beautiful,” Jessie told her. Together they lifted the large earthenware bowl out of the sandy soil. “And there's not even a single chip on it.”

“Violet, I think you found something important,” Joe said.

“I want to find a bowl, too!” Benny said eagerly.

Amy laughed. “All right, Benny. But I don't think we'll be lucky twice in one day.”

At the end of the day's work, the four Aldens were tired, but happy. After congratulating Violet on finding the bowl, Mrs. Lightfeather talked about plans for the Pow-Wow.

“We really need to get started on a project. The Pow-Wow is only a week away,” she said. She turned to the Aldens. “Who wants to be my helper?”

“I'll volunteer!” Violet spoke up. “What are we going to make?”

“Corn pudding.”

“Corn pudding?” Benny wrinkled his nose.

“You'll love it,” Amy promised. “It's got cornmeal, molasses, and lots of spices. Mom makes it on the stove, but in the old days, it would have cooked for hours over the fire.”

“What about us? What can we do?” Benny spoke up.

“You and Henry can help me make some belts,” Joe said. “I've already cut the leather and made the buckles, but there's lots of bead work to do.”

“You're making belts?” Benny looked surprised. “Why not just buy some?”

Joe laughed. “You can't buy belts like these. Each one is handmade, and they all have designs from our tribe.” He turned to Henry. “We can get started after dinner tonight.”

Later that evening, Amy took Violet and Jessie to see her Appaloosa pony named Thunder. It was a short walk from the Lightfeathers' house to the reservation's stable, and Thunder whinnied with pleasure when he saw the girls.

“He's really gentle,” Amy said. She held up a plastic bag filled with apple slices. “This is his favorite treat. You can feed him, if you want to.”

“Could we ride him sometime?” Jessie asked.

“Maybe tomorrow,” Amy said. “After we work at the dig. I'm really getting excited about it, aren't you?”

Violet was about to answer when a noise behind her made her jump.

“Sorry, girls,” said a tall blond man in his early thirties. “I didn't mean to startle you.” He had come into the stable so quietly that they hadn't heard him. “Nice horse,” he added, patting Thunder on the neck. “Pinto, right?”

“He's an Appaloosa,” Amy corrected him. She stared at him, puzzled. She knew he didn't live on the reservation.

“You're probably wondering what I'm doing here,” he said casually. “I'm Ted Clark. I'm a genealogist.” He grinned at the blank looks on the girls' faces. “A genealogist is someone who traces family trees.”

“Do you mean grandparents and great-grandparents?” Amy asked.

“Even further back than that. I'm hoping to go back five or six generations in my family. The council gave me permission to look through their records.”

“Oh,” Amy said, understanding. “You're a Navajo?”

“Partly,” Ted Clark said. “Most of my family, I mean my ancestors, come from the northeast. Places like Maine and New Hampshire.”

“Welcome to the reservation,” Amy said.

“Thanks. Nice necklace you're wearing,” he said, noticing the heavy silver strand around Amy's neck. “That's a pretty stone in the center. An opal, right?”

Amy touched the bright blue stone. “No, it's a turquoise.”

“Oh, I've never seen one before. Well, I'd better get going. I'm staying at the motel in town, and I've got a lot of work to do. Nice to meet you.”

After he left, Jessie and Violet fed Thunder while Amy used a curry brush to smooth his mane.

“Something's wrong,” Amy said quietly.

“What?” Jessie looked up as Thunder nuzzled her hand.

“Ted Clark.” She shook her head. “He said he's part Navajo, but he couldn't even recognize a piece of turquoise.”

Jessie shrugged. “Maybe he doesn't know much about stones.”

“It's more than that,” Amy persisted. She touched the blue stone around her neck. “Turquoise is very important to my people, and we use it in a lot of our jewelry. There's even a legend about it.”

“Oh, tell us,” Violet said. She loved stories and enjoyed hearing tales about the Navajo people.

“I guess you'd call it a fairy tale. Once there was a woman who found a beautiful blue stone — a piece of turquoise. It was the prettiest stone she had ever seen, and she took it to the top of a high mountain. When she set it down, it turned into a goddess right before her eyes.” She paused. “I've heard that story ever since I was a little girl. I wonder why Ted Clark had never heard it.”

After they locked the stable, the three girls headed back to the Lightfeather house.

“Jessie, I just realized something,” Amy said. “You don't have a project for the Pow-Wow. Would you like to do an Indian dance with me?”

“An Indian dance?” Jessie repeated. “Would I be allowed to?”

“We can talk to Kinowok, but I'm sure he'll say yes. At the Pow-Wow, we can explain that you're not a Navajo, but you're a guest. When we dance at the Pow-Wow, sometimes guests join in. It's our way of sharing our customs with the townspeople.”

“It sounds like fun, but …” Jessie hesitated. “Do you think I'll be able to learn the dance in time to perform it?”

Amy nodded. “The dance is very simple. The hard part is making the regalia.”

“What's regalia?” Violet asked.

“It's an authentic Navajo dress from the old days. You would probably call it a costume, but we call it regalia. Don't worry, Jessie,” she said encouragingly. “I'll help you with it.”

Later that evening, Jessie noticed Henry and Joe sifting through boxes of colored beads on the dining-room table. Benny was frowning over a pad of graph paper, nibbling the end of his pencil.

“What are you doing?” Jessie asked curiously.

“We're working on our beaded belts, but I can't think of what to draw. Joe says that first you make a picture on this special paper, and then you choose the beads. That's the fun part.” He pointed to some crumbled-up graph paper. “But I'm stuck. I can't think of anything I want to draw.”

Jessie thought for a moment. “What about an eagle?” she asked, thinking of the beautiful design on her bedspread.

Benny brightened. “That's a great idea!” He immediately bent down and began drawing the outline of an eagle with outspread wings.

CHAPTER 4

Footprints

I
t was two days later when Henry realized that something strange was going on at the dig. “I just don't get it.” He nudged the soft earth with the toe of his shoe. “I worked all yesterday afternoon on this square, and now it's filled in with dirt.”

“Maybe you were working on the square next to it,” Jessie offered. “It's easy to get confused.”

“No, I know it was this one,” Henry insisted. “I had gotten through all the topsoil, and I was just starting to find some bits of pottery. Now I've got to start all over!”

Joe squatted back on his heels. “Somebody filled in my square, too,” he said quietly. “And take a look at these tracks.” He pointed to a trail of tiny round holes that led around the edge of his dig.

“What kind of tracks? Deer tracks?” Benny jumped up. He thought it would be a lot of fun to be able to identify animal tracks, like Joe and Amy could.

Joe laughed. “I'm afraid not, Benny. These are human tracks.”

“They don't look like footprints,” Violet said. “Some of them are too little and round.”

“That's because they're made from a woman's high-heeled shoes,” Amy explained.

“Ms. Neville!” Henry exclaimed. “Remember the day she came to the dig in those high heels and nearly tripped?”

Joe nodded. “She must have come back to take another look around.”

“But why would she want to wander around the dig at night? And why would she fill in the holes we made?” Jessie wondered.

Henry shook his head. “I have no idea. But I think we'd better get back to work.”

They were busy with their trowels when something shiny in the dirt caught Benny's eye. Maybe it was a glass bead or part of a hunting knife! “Oh shucks,” he said, when he bent down for a closer look. “It's just an old key ring. And there aren't even any keys on it.”

“Let's have a look.” Henry examined the small red square dangling from a tarnished chain. The letter M was emblazoned on it. “Here, Benny,” he said, returning it. “Keep it safe. Maybe we'll find the owner.”

“And maybe we'll find out who's been sneaking around the dig,” Jessie added.

The sun was setting when the children left the dig and made their way through the forest. A sudden cracking sound from the forest made them jump, and Violet spun around in surprise.

“Sorry to frighten you,” Ted Clark said, emerging from behind a tree. He rubbed his ankle and winced. “I'm afraid I tripped over a fallen branch.”

“What were you doing in the middle of the forest?” Benny asked curiously.

“Just taking a look around.” He paused, glancing at Henry's knapsack. “Are you kids on a hike or something?”

“No, we've just been — ” Violet stopped suddenly. Something in Jessie's expression made her cautious. “Playing,” she added firmly.

“There's not much place to play around here,” Ted said, glancing at the dense forest. He gestured in the direction of the dig. “What's over that way? Anything worth looking at?”

“Just a lot of poison ivy,” Joe spoke up. “But if you head over that way” — he pointed away from the dig — “there are some pretty nice trails.”

After Ted left, Benny edged closer to Violet. “At least we know that's not
his
key ring. I wish we could find out who ‘M' is!”

Violet took his hand. “Me, too.”

After dinner that night, Amy and Jessie went upstairs to begin working on their outfits for the Pow-Wow dance.

“We need to make a buckskin dress for you,” Amy said. “My mom said you could use this.” She opened a cardboard box and laid two sheets of tan buckskin across her bed.

“It's beautiful material,” Jessie said. “But how can we make a dress out of it?”

Amy pulled a simple Navajo dress out of her closet. “It's really easy to do. You use one sheet for the front, and one for the back, and then you attach them at the shoulders.”

“What do we do about the sides?” Jessie asked.

“That part's easy. We just lace up the sides.” She smiled at Jessie's puzzled look. “Don't worry. If we're the same size, we can use my dress as a pattern.”

Amy held her dress up to Jessie and nodded. “Just what I thought. This will fit you perfectly.” She handed Jessie a pair of scissors and both girls sat on the bed. Amy laid her dress over the buckskin and trimmed the material to match it. “Now all we have to do is make a lot of little cuts down each side.”

“Fringe!” Jessie said, pleased.