The Berenstain Bears and the Ghost of the Auto Graveyard Page 3

  “You go, Barry,” said Brother. “I’m tired.” So was everyone else.

  The cubs watched Barry cross the field and disappear into the barn. Moments later, he came out and started walking back to the car. As he crossed a dirt road that ran past the barn, he stopped in his tracks. He bent over and looked at something in the road. Then he waved excitedly. The cubs hopped from the car and ran to him.

  “Look!” Barry said, pointing at the muddy road.

  “Tire tracks,” said Cousin Fred. “So what? They could have been made by any one of hundreds of cars.”

  “Oh, no, they couldn’t!” said Barry. “The pattern of the tread is from a classic car. The cars in the show all have custom-made tires that look exactly like the original tires!”

  “Gee, that’s right!” said Brother. “Papa’s almost didn’t get made in time for the show. All he talked about the last few days were those stupid tires.”

  Barry dashed to the limo and came back with a thick book. “With this I can pinpoint the exact make of the car that made these tracks,” he said.

  Sister leaned over to look at the book’s title and did a double-take. “Tires of the World?” she said. “Are you kidding? There’s a whole book about tires?”

  Barry just stared at her. “Are you kidding?” he said. “This is only the first volume of five!”

  “Well that speaks volumes about you car nuts,” muttered Sister.

  But the others were thankful for Barry’s passion for cars. Within seconds, he had determined that the tracks were from a 1927 Bearcedes touring car.

  “Wow,” said Cousin Fred. “I guess that proves it. Where do you think this road goes?”

  Brother looked off down the road. “Out toward Birder’s Woods,” he said. “I can see it in the distance.”

  “Maybe the classic cars are hidden in Birder’s Woods!” said Sister.

  “Only one way to find out,” said Bonnie. “Let’s follow the tracks.”

  After Brother told the chauffeur to wait in the Nature Walk parking lot at Birders Woods, the Bear Detectives followed the Bearcedes tracks. But the tracks didn’t go into Birder’s Woods, after all. They went around behind Birder’s Woods and wound up at …

  “Parts R Us,” said Sister, reading the sign on the locked gate that stood before them.

  “This dirt road goes to the back gate of Two-Ton’s auto graveyard!” said Cousin Fred.

  “It’s the perfect place to hide stolen cars,” said Barry. “You could dirty them up and put them out there with all those wrecks. No one would ever know.”

  “But why is there only one set of tracks?” Sister wondered. “Eight classic cars were stolen.”

  But Barry had already found more tracks. He was bending down, hands on knees, examining them. “Classic, classic, classic …,” he said. “A whole bunch of tracks!”

  “Look!” said Lizzy. “There’s another dirt road that joins this one!” She pointed into the distance. “It goes off toward town. The other cars must have been brought in that way.”

  “I’ll bet they’re all in there,” said Brother, pointing beyond the gate. “And I know who put them there.”

  “Who?” asked Barry.

  “Two-Ton Grizzly, of course,” said Brother. “He’s a car thief, for sure. I suspected him of being a thief last week, but Papa and Gramps talked me out of it.”

  “Why did you suspect Two-Ton of being a thief?” asked Lizzy.

  “Tell you later,” said Brother. “We don’t have any time to waste now.”

  “Why?” said Sister. “What are we going to do?”

  “Climb the fence and search,” said Brother.

  Sister shivered. “You mean we have to go into the auto graveyard?” she gasped. “But it’s almost dark …”

  “Come on, Sis,” said Brother. “It’s not a real graveyard.”

  Sister thought hard. Finally, in a voice that was almost a whisper, she said, “Okay … I guess.”

  Chapter 8

  Ghosts?

  It didn’t take the Bear Detectives long to locate some of the stolen cars. Four of them, including Squire Grizzly’s 1932 Bearsenburg and 1938 Grizzillac, were hidden not far from the back gate, amid piles of spare parts. But none of the other stolen cars were anywhere to be found.

  Barry sat on a rusty old crankcase, shaking his head. “I can’t understand it,” he said. “Where are the other four?”

  “Maybe the thieves moved them somewhere else in town,” suggested Lizzy.

  “What for?” said Brother. “This is the perfect hiding place.”

  “Or took them out of town already,” added Sister.

  “How?” said Cousin Fred. “The state police are watching all the roads. Remember, we’re talking about cars, not airplanes.”

  “Well,” said Brother, “at least we know who the crooks are now.”

  You might think the cubs would be happy about solving the case. But they weren’t.

  “It’s too bad about Two-Ton,” said Brother glumly.

  “Yeah,” said Bonnie. “And Too-Tall, Too-Much, and Too-Too. I’ll bet they were in on it.”

  Sister shook her head sadly. “And we always thought Too-Tall was the only bad apple in the family barrel,” she said. “And even he wasn’t all bad. Sometimes I even sort of liked the big guy.” She looked around the darkening lot and shivered again. It was already dusk. “Let’s get out of here,” she said. “It’s starting to get spooky.”

  Just then the cubs let out a collective gasp. A flashlight was shining at them through the windows of a wrecked car.

  “What are you creeps doing here?” It was Too-Tall’s voice. The flashlight beam shifted to a nearby sign that read TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED. “Can’t you read?”

  “We can read, all right,” said Brother bravely. He pointed to the 1932 Bearsenburg. “But car thieves will be prosecuted, too!”

  Too-Tall stepped out from behind the wrecked car and stared at the Bearsenburg. His eyes were as big as saucers. “You mean … you think my dad … is a car thief?” he stammered.

  “Not just your dad!” said Brother. “Your mom, your sister … and you, too!”

  “What?” gasped Too-Tall. “You can’t be serious! If you don’t take that back, I’m gonna clean up the graveyard with you!” He looked mad enough to do it, too.

  “I don’t think he’s acting, guys,” Bonnie told the others.

  “How can you tell?” asked Barry.

  “Don’t you remember him in the school play last year?” said Bonnie. “He’s not that good an actor.”

  “Oh, yeah?” snarled Too-Tall. “If you don’t clear out of here, I’m gonna show you just how bad an actor I can be!”

  “Oh, yeah yourself, you big goon!” said Brother. “We’re gonna go get Chief Bruno and—”

  “No, wait!” said Fred. “Bonnie might be right.”

  “Then what about the stolen hood ornament and hubcaps Bonnie and I found here?” said Brother.

  “Those?” said Barry. “If Two-Ton had stolen those, he would have gotten rid of them by now.”

  Cousin Fred and Bonnie both agreed with Barry. That made Brother pause to think. Five different bears, including Gramps and Papa, had now said exactly the same thing about the stolen parts. Maybe he was wrong about Two-Ton and his family, after all. But there was one last bit of evidence that still bothered him.

  “Then what about this?” said Brother. “When Bonnie and I were here earlier this week, Two-Ton said that he didn’t like to be on the lot at night because he has poor night vision. But it was obvious he could see just fine. I thought it was a fishy story at the time. Now it seems even fishier. Like he was trying to set us up.”

  “Set us up?” said Bonnie. “For what?”

  “For thinking that he couldn’t be the classic car thief,” said Brother. “He knew the Great Car Robbery would happen at night!”

  Too-Tall just stared at Brother for a moment. Then he leaned close and said, “Don’t you ever let on I told you
this. But you’ve got it all wrong.”

  “Then why did he make up that phony story about night vision?” said Brother. “He zipped through this lot at dusk like a cat after a mouse!”

  “Because,” said Too-Tall, lowering his voice to a near whisper, “he’s afraid of the dark.”

  “Afraid of the dark?” said Brother. “Your dad? The biggest, strongest bear in Bear Country?”

  “Yeah,” said Too-Tall. “That’s why he was in such a hurry to get back to the office at dusk. He goes all to pieces in the dark. To cover it up, he tells folks he’s got poor night vision. And if you ever tell anybody I said so, you’re dead meat!”

  Too-Tall seemed to relax a little. Was that because he thought he was fooling them? wondered Brother.

  “He even sleeps with the dashboard lights on, you know,” Too-Tall went on. “But you shoulda seen him last night. He was really in top form. He woke up in the middle of the night, looked out of his bedroom windshield, and thought he saw a ghost!”

  “Gh-gh-ghost?” said Sister.

  “He said it was floating among the wrecked cars,” said Too-Tall. Then he leaned down toward Sister and shined the flashlight up at his own face. He grinned a wicked grin and hissed, “The Ghost of the Auto Graveyard … BOO!”

  Sister shrieked and hid behind Brother.

  “How do we know you’re not making this whole thing up?” said Brother.

  “Hold on, Brother,” said Fred. “Give the big guy a chance.” He turned to Too-Tall. “Did this so-called ghost do anything besides float around?”

  “Who knows?” said Too-Tall. “Pop ran to wake up the rest of us as soon as he saw it. When we looked out our windows, guess what? There wasn’t any ghost! Pure imagination.”

  “Pure imagination?” said Bonnie, frowning. “I wonder … Four of the stolen cars aren’t here anymore. The thieves must have taken them out last night. If Too-Tall’s telling the truth, maybe Two-Ton saw one of them and his imagination turned him into a ghost.”

  “Hmm,” said Brother. “If that’s true, the crooks might come back tonight for the rest of the cars. But I’m still not sure I believe Too-Tall. I’ve heard him tell too many lies in my time. I’d better radio Chief Bruno and let him deal with it.”

  “No!” said Too-Tall. “Don’t do that! The chief’ll come out here and question us Grizzlys till we’re blue in the face. Maybe he won’t believe us … maybe he’ll even arrest us! It’ll be in all the newspapers! And by the time the real crooks get caught, my dad’s business will be ruined!”

  The cubs had never seen Too-Tall plead with anyone before. It shocked them. None of them knew what to believe now.

  “So what do you suggest we do?” Brother asked Too-Tall.

  “I’ll tell you what, guys,” said the gang leader. “You can all sleep over at my house tonight so you can keep an eye on our lot. I won’t even tell my folks and sister that you found stolen cars here. If they’re really the crooks, they’ll try to take the rest of the stolen cars out of the lot when they think we’re all asleep. And you’ll see them do it.”

  “But how will we see them in the dark?” wondered Sister.

  “My mom has a special pair of infrared binoculars,” said Too-Tall. “She uses them to check out the lot whenever there’s a noise at night. They’ll be perfect for keeping watch. You can watch from my bedroom and make sure I don’t sneak out to talk with the others. Well, what do you say? Will you do it?”

  The Bear Detectives huddled. None of them liked the idea of not reporting the stolen cars to the chief. But Too-Tall seemed so desperate to prove his family’s innocence that they just couldn’t bring themselves to turn him down.

  Chapter 9

  The Haunted Graveyard

  The cubs phoned their parents right away. Since they didn’t say anything about watching for car thieves, it was easy to get permission to sleep over at Too-Tall’s. All their parents were pleased. “I’m so glad you’re getting along with Too-Tall for a change” was Mama Bear’s response. Then Two-Ton called Squire Grizzly, who phoned the chauffeur of the cubs’ limo and told him to pick the cubs up in the morning.

  From Too-Tall’s bedroom windshield, the Bear Detectives watched the auto graveyard in shifts. Sister, Lizzy, and Barry kept watch first. At midnight, they were replaced by Brother, Bonnie, and Cousin Fred. The moon cast a pale glow over the lot. For hours the trio saw nothing but the dim shapes of old cars and heaps of spare parts. It was a ghostly sight, but without any ghosts.

  By three in the morning, the cubs’ eyelids were starting to feel heavy. But then something happened that snapped them wide open again.

  “Look!” said Bonnie. “Out by the back gate! It looks like a ghost!”

  From a distance, the figure seemed to float among the wrecked cars. Sure enough, it looked like a white-sheeted ghost!

  “You’re right!” said Brother. “And I see another one! Two ghosts! I can’t believe it! The auto graveyard is haunted!”

  Cousin Fred trained the infrared binoculars on the pair of ghostly figures. “I’ve got news for you,” he said. “Those aren’t ghosts. They only look like ghosts because they’re wearing long white dusters.”

  “Like the ones some of the drivers wore in the classic car procession?” said Bonnie.

  Fred nodded. “They may not be ghosts,” he said, “but they definitely are car thieves! They’re each getting into a stolen car.”

  The cubs heard the sound of car engines starting in the distance.

  “Now they’re driving the cars out the back gate,” said Fred. “They must have picked the lock.”

  “Who are they?” asked Bonnie.

  Fred lowered the binoculars. “Sorry, guys,” he said. “I couldn’t get a good look at their faces. But they’re coming back later for the other two cars.”

  “How do you know?” asked Brother.

  “Elementary, my dear Brother,” said Fred, pretending to be his favorite detective, the famous Bearlock Holmes. “They left the back gate wide open.”

  Chapter 10

  Down a Lazy River

  The Bear Detectives woke up Too-Tall and told him what had happened. Immediately, he woke up his parents and sister. Brother radioed Chief Bruno while Too-Too and Too-Much got ready to nab the thieves when they returned.

  But what if the thieves didn’t return? Brother pointed out that they might have left the back gate open by accident. So he grabbed a flashlight and set out with Bonnie and Barry to track the stolen cars. They followed the fresh tire tracks along the back road that led past the old abandoned barn. Soon the road veered away from the main highway toward Old Grizzly River.

  “Where does this dirt road go, anyway?” wondered Bonnie.

  “I’m not sure,” said Brother. “But if it follows Old Grizzly River, it’ll go through the woods and right by Ralph Ripoff’s houseboat.”

  “Does that mean Ralph is the head thief?” gasped Bonnie.

  “We’ll know when we get there,” said Brother. “Come on! Faster!”

  Meanwhile, back at Parts R Us, two more “ghosts” had already appeared.

  “Look!” said Sister. “They’re sneaking through the back gate!”

  “How could they get back so soon?” wondered Lizzy.

  “There must be four thieves in all,” said Cousin Fred.

  “YIKES!” cried Sister as two strange-looking creatures joined them at the windshield.

  “Don’t be alarmed!” said Too-Too. “It’s just me and Too-Much wearing infrared goggles—our thief-chasin’ goggles! There they are, Too-Much! Let’s nab those creeps!”

  The goggled bears rushed out into the night. “Hey, wait for me!” yelled Too-Tall, stumbling after them without goggles or flashlight.

  Sister, Lizzy, and Cousin Fred wrestled over the binoculars. Fred, being the strongest, won. In an instant, he had trained them on the “ghosts.” “Wow!” he said. “Too-Too just tackled one of them around the legs! And Too-Much just grabbed them both by their collars and knocked their
heads together! Looks as if they’re out cold!”

  “What about Too-Tall?” asked Sister.

  Fred scanned the lot. “He’s off by himself, staggering around in the dark. I think he’s lost.”

  Just then sirens were heard from the direction of the front gate.

  “Here come the chief and Officer Marguerite,” said Fred. “Let’s go meet them.”

  Meanwhile, the other Bear Detectives were deep in the woods, following the dirt road along Old Grizzly River. As they neared Ralph Ripoff’s place, Bonnie pointed downriver. “There’s the houseboat,” she said. “I can see it in the moonlight. And two cars are on the deck!”

  “My eyes must be playing tricks on me,” said Barry. “It looks like it’s shrinking.”

  “That’s because it’s moving away!” said Brother.

  The cubs hurried to the spot on the river-bank where the houseboat had been moored. The boat was already downriver at least a hundred yards.

  “Hey, Ralph!” yelled the cubs. “Come back here!”

  But the darkened houseboat just glided down the lazy river in the early morning moonlight.

  The Bear Detectives flopped down in the grass. They were exhausted.

  “So that’s how he’s been getting the stolen cars out of town,” said Bonnie. “On his houseboat!”

  “No wonder the state police guarding the roads never saw anything,” said Barry.

  Brother shook his head. “It’s hard to believe,” he said. “Ralph, a small-time swindler, pulling off a multimillion-dollar car theft. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes—”

  Just then, as if in answer, a muffled voice was heard.

  “What was that?” said Bonnie.

  “Grmpff! Grmpff!” said the voice.

  “I know what that is!” said Brother. “It’s a bear bound and gagged! And it’s coming from the reeds on the riverbank!”

  The cubs rushed to the sound of the voice. There among the tall reeds, with his hands and feet tied and a rag stuffed into his mouth, lay Ralph Ripoff.