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“You know how sometimes you get good ideas about things when you wake up in the middle of the night? That could be what Brad meant.”
    Henry stopped pouring himself a glass of milk. “Or maybe Brad’s midnight idea came from the grandfather clock.”

CHAPTER 5
Noises at Midnight
    That night Jessie stopped the clocks in the bedroom so everyone would get a good night’s sleep. But it wasn’t so easy to stop Ruff and Tumble from snoring. Their snuffly, wheezy snores woke up Jessie. She lay there for a few minutes, listening. Finally, she rolled out of bed and tiptoed across the chilly floor. As long as I’m awake, she thought, I might as well visit the grandfather clock. “Stay!” she whispered when she heard the dogs stir.
    Of course, with Jessie up, Ruff and Tumble wanted to be up as well.
    “All right, all right,” Jessie whispered. “You can come downstairs, too. I hope it’s not midnight yet.” Was she too late to hear the grandfather clock go off? She went out to the hall with her flashlight.
    The steady tick of the clocks sounded so cozy, Jessie almost returned to bed. She aimed her flashlight at one of them. “Two minutes to midnight.”
    Like all dogs, Ruff and Tumble didn’t need a flashlight to find their way through the dim hallway. They scooted past Jessie, down the stairs, and out of sight. Jessie started after them, then froze. She was almost certain she had heard a woman’s voice coming from the first floor.
    Before Jessie could decide what to do, the house filled with gongs and chimes and cuckoos. It was midnight again.
    Jessie leaned cautiously against the banister and looked down. “It’s Martha!” she whispered to herself. She watched as Martha aimed her own flashlight up, down, and behind the chiming grandfather clock. Martha appeared to be mumbling something, but Jessie couldn’t hear what it was.
    Jessie went down the last flight of stairs, not on tiptoes, but with firm steps. When she reached the last step, she aimed her flashlight straight at Martha.
    All the clocks stopped at the same moment.
    Martha whirled around so suddenly, she dropped her flashlight. It rolled along the floor. “Who’s there?” she asked, blinded by Jessie’s flashlight.
    “It’s me, Jessie. I woke up and decided to come downstairs. How did you get in the house? I thought I locked it.”
    “I ... uh ... it wasn’t locked tight, I guess.” Martha stood frozen in place next to the grandfather clock. “I left something behind this afternoon. I was just looking for it.”
    Jessie found this strange. “What were you looking for? Couldn’t you wait until morning?”
    Martha tried to get a better look at Jessie.
    “I wanted to come get it before it got mixed in with all that stuff for the convention. Anyway, I’ve got it now, so I’ll just be going.” Martha bent down to pick up her flashlight, which had rolled into the corner. Something fell from her jacket. She picked it up quickly and stuffed it into her pocket.
    “That’s Alice Putter’s riddle book,” Jessie said. “Why are you carrying it around? I thought you wanted to put it in a safe place.”
    Martha patted her jacket. “This is a safe place. Now, it’s late. It’s time for both of us to go to bed.”
    Martha walked quickly out the door and shut it firmly behind her.
    Jessie stared at the grandfather clock. “I wish you could tell me what your secret is,” she said to the man-in-the-moon face.
    The clock ticked steadily on.
    Jessie went back upstairs. When her brothers and sister heard her come in, they woke up, too.
    “What’s up, Jessie?” Henry said in a tired voice. “Did the dogs have to go out?”
    Jessie crawled into her sleeping bag. “No, but they woke me up with their snoring. I got to thinking about the man-in-the-moon riddle. I went to check the clock at midnight to see if anything would happen.”
    “I wish I’d gone, too,” Benny said. Unlike Henry, he didn’t sound a bit sleepy. “Did anything