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around, either — and we know he’s taking things from the house. Maybe he wants to scare us away so we won’t figure out what he’s up to. We should still keep an eye on him.”
    Henry agreed. “In fact, we should keep an eye on all of them.”
    When they returned to the house, the Aldens found that William had joined Hilda outside.
    Jessie waved. “Hi!” she called out, as if she had come straight from her errand across the lake. “Sorry we took so long. The hardware store was out of those light switches.”
    Hilda and William kept working. It seemed neither of them wanted to say anything.
    Finally Hilda spoke up. “Oh, it turns out we don’t need them after all.”
    William pushed back the brim of his red hat and checked his watch. “Half the day’s gone. I don’t see much use for you kids sticking around here. Hilda and I are doing some technical work Charlotte asked us to do — not something suitable for children.”
    “We know how to measure, too” Benny said. “I learned in kindergarten.”
    Hilda hesitated. “What we’re doing is a little more complicated than what you do in school. Now, why don’t you children go for a bike ride. Or a swim,” she suggested before going into the house.
    Henry turned to William. “We already went for a swim,” he said. “An unplanned one.”
    William didn’t say anything about untying the Aldens’ boat, but he looked away and cleared his throat. “Well, then, go for a planned one this afternoon. Take tomorrow off, too. Everything’s under control here.”
    Before William turned to go into the house, the Aldens looked down. Just as they suspected, William was wearing heavy work boots that left deep prints just like the ones near the statue.

CHAPTER 7
The Secret in the Library
    After breakfast the next morning, the Aldens made their lunches in Cousin Charlotte’s kitchen. While they were bagging their lunches, the phone rang.
    Jessie ran for it, and the other children listened in. “Cousin Charlotte! We’re fine. We just got our lunches and extra food ready before we leave for town. Then we’re riding to Skeleton Point. We’re even going to spend the night since you said it was okay.” Jessie handed the phone to Henry.
    “No, William and Hilda haven’t told us what we’ll be doing next,” Henry said. “All we did yesterday was run an errand, then we hiked home.
    Charlotte told them all about her trip with Grandfather. Then she added something surprising. “Before we left yesterday, we came across a plastic skeleton — right by the car!”
    “You came across a skeleton yesterday, too? So did we!” Henry said.
    After that, the younger children took turns speaking with Cousin Charlotte and Grandfather about some of their adventures the day before. By the time they hung up, they were nearly out of breath.
    Henry handed the other children their lunches. “Cousin Charlotte’s going to tell William to let us into Dr. Tibbs’s study this afternoon. She wants us to count everything so she knows exactly what’s there before she sends it to the medical school.”
    “What about the missing statue?” Violet asked. “Did you mention it to her?”
    Henry’s face grew serious. “I didn’t have the heart to tell her about that yet. I was thinking we could bike to town and visit Hilda’s studio. Without William around, maybe she’ll tell us what she knows about the statues. So what do you say guys? Everybody ready?”
    Ten minutes later, the children headed into town, biking carefully now that their bikes were loaded down with their sleeping bags and overnight things. They parked their bikes in front of the drugstore to pick up film for Benny.
    Benny unzipped his bike bag to get his camera. “Hey, my pictures aren’t in here with my camera. They were in my bike bag yesterday.”
    “Are you sure?” Jessie asked Benny. “Did you leave it unzipped? I hope the pictures didn’t fall out while we were biking.”
    Benny shook his head. “No way. I