Then, as Number 44 leaped into the air to grab the football, he landed with a crunch.
“Ouch!” he said, falling to the ground. “I think I hurt my leg.”
The Alden children made it to the hurt player first.
“Are you okay?” Jessie asked. “Where does it hurt?”
“What happened?” asked Benny.
Number 44 lay on his back, holding his leg. “When I jumped up to catch the ball, my foot landed in one of those holes in the field. I must have twisted my ankle in the hole.”
A man with a first-aid kit ran over from the sidelines, Coach Woods jogging right behind him.
“It looks like he hurt his foot or leg,” Henry said.
“It will be okay, children,” the man said. “I’m the team’s trainer. I take care of any players who get hurt. This looks like it’s only a slightly sprained ankle.”
Coach Woods knelt on the ground looking unhappy. “We can’t afford to lose you right before the big game,” said the coach.
The trainer pulled a heavy bandage from his kit and wrapped the player’s ankle. Then Coach Woods wiped white dust from his hands and helped the player stand up. Number 44 leaned on the two men and limped off the field.
As the player, coach, and trainer passed by, the Alden children heard Coach Woods mumbling under his breath.
“I’ve been telling them we need a new stadium for years,” said the coach. “Now look—our star player is hurt the day before the big game, and it’s because the field is in such poor shape. Why, Goldwin Coliseum is even older than the library. The only nice thing about it is that fancy video screen. Shouldn’t they build a new football stadium before they build a new library? Shouldn’t they just leave the old library alone? Maybe those gosh-darn gargoyles are onto something!”
The children weren’t the only ones to hear what Coach Woods had said. Grandfather Alden had, too.
“Coach,” said Grandfather, “I didn’t realize that the old stadium had fallen into such bad shape. If I had, I might have done something to help out.”
“That’s the problem,” Coach Woods said. “Everyone’s so excited to cheer for the team and so excited that we usually win that they don’t pay any attention to how old the stadium we play in is. It’s almost like I’m one of those old gargoyles, always there for the university, and everyone takes me for granted.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way,” Grandfather Alden said. “Maybe there’s something I could do to help. Maybe I could get the word out.”
“Maybe the gargoyles could get the word out.” said Coach Woods.
“What?” Grandfather Alden asked.
“Oh, nothing,” said Coach Woods. “My team has a game for me to coach, so I’d better just forget about this lousy old stadium.”
“Did you hear that?” Violet asked her siblings once they were away from the football team. “He was talking about the gargoyles.”
“Nice catch, Violet!” said Henry. “It sounds like Coach Woods doesn’t want anyone messing with the old library. We’d better remember that as we try to solve this mystery.”
“Mystery? Are you children on the case of another mystery?” It was Grandfather Alden, having left Coach Woods’s side to catch up with his grandchildren. He knew that they were very good at solving mysteries, and was very proud of their detective skills.
“Yes, Grandfather,” said Violet. “We’re investigating the case of the grinning gargoyles.”
“You heard Miss Hollenberg tell us about the legend of the gargoyles, didn’t you?” Jessie asked.
“I certainly did,” said Grandfather Alden.
“When I was running up the stairs at the library, I saw a gargoyle!” Benny said.
“We all saw it,” said Jessie.
“We all saw something,” said Henry, “since gargoyles are just stone statues and can’t actually fly down from the roof and scare people. It must be someone making everyone think the gargoyle legend is true, and we’re going to figure out who it is!”
“Well, maybe we should get some dinner,” Grandfather Alden said. “Detective work is always more productive on a full stomach.”
“Dinner sounds great,” said Benny. “Playing football and playing detective both make me really hungry!”
“I know just the place,” said Grandfather Alden. “We’ll eat at what was my favorite restaurant when I was a student.”
The Aldens said goodbye to the football team and Coach Woods, then climbed the old gray steps of Goldwin Coliseum. The five of them laughed and talked as they crossed the college campus, admiring the beautiful autumn leaves that fell from the trees.
Soon they came to an old wooden building with a sign that said Goldwin Gyros.
“It might not look like much,” said Grandfather Alden, “but Goldwin Gyros serves the tastiest food on campus.”
Grandfather held the door for his grandchildren and, of course, Benny was the first one into the restaurant. But no sooner had Benny dashed inside, he yelled and turned around.
“You guys have to see this!” he said, pointing. Standing there was a big, bald man with a big, bushy, black mustache and a big, bright smile. He looked friendly, so Benny shouldn’t have been alarmed.
But the big sign the man held didn’t look so friendly. On it was painted a sharptoothed, smiling creature with wings—a gargoyle! The sign read “BITE INTO A GARGOYLE GYRO!”
The Alden children looked past the sign and around the main dining room of Goldwin Gyros. Painted on the walls were other gargoyles, peering down at the customers with toothy grins. There were gargoyles over each table and booth. There were gargoyles over the counter and underneath the cash register. There were even gargoyles painted onto the restroom doors—one wearing a skirt for the girls’ room, and one without a skirt for the boys’.
And on the t-shirt that the bald man wore under his white, dusty apron was yet another gargoyle and the words, “DON’T LET THE GARGOYLE GET YOU!”
While Benny peeked out from behind Grandfather Alden’s back, Henry, Jessie, and Violet looked at one another. All four children watched as the man stepped toward them and said, “Welcome, Alden family. I’m so glad you dropped by!”
“Where are all the customers?” Violet whispered to Jessie.
“Maybe they were scared off by all of the gargoyles,” Benny whispered.
“This place is a little bit spooky, being so empty,” Jessie whispered.
“Maybe we should keep our eyes peeled for clues,” whispered Henry, trying not to be heard as the bald man surrounded by all of those gargoyles welcomed the family into the empty, spooky place.
CHAPTER 4
The Gargoyle Gyro
“Izzy!” Grandfather Alden said to the mustached man in the apron. “It’s so good to see you again.”
“James Alden,” said the man, wiping what looked like white flour from his hands before patting the children’s grandfather on the back, “it has been years since you’ve eaten here.”
“Children,” Grandfather Alden said, “I’d like you to meet Izzy. His father owns the restaurant. Izzy was a student at Goldwin University at the same time I was. He studied art here, and is one of the best artists I have ever seen. He can draw, paint, or sculpt beautiful art pieces.”
“I might know a thing or two about art,” said the man, “but I was never the student that your grandfather was. I spent more time with a paintbrush than I ever did in the library. Now let’s get you all something to eat.”
“You must have been baking something good,” said Jessie, who did much of the cooking and baking for her family. “That’s flour all over your hands, right?”
Izzy wiped his hands a bit more. “Yes, yes,” he said nervously, “that’s flour on my hands. I’ve been baking bread, of course!”
Since Benny loved eating so much, he knew the smell of baking bread. “Mmmm!” he said. “I can smell garlic and cucumbers and roasting meat! But I can’t smell any baked bread.”
“Oh, that’s right,” said
Izzy, “my bread oven isn’t working, so I had to buy today’s pita and other baked goods from a bakery. Yeah, that’s what happened.”
Henry and Jessie looked at one another. Something seemed strange with Izzy’s story.
But all was forgotten for a moment when Izzy showed the Aldens to a table, where they sat down and began to look through the restaurant’s menu. Everything on the menu looked and sounded delicious.
“Where is your father?” Grandfather Alden asked Izzy. “He always made the best food.”
“My father retired a month ago and moved to Florida, where the weather is warmer,” said Izzy. “Now I’m running Goldwin Gyros. I’d be honored if you would try our latest and greatest specialty—the Gargoyle Gyro!”
Benny’s eyes grew big when he heard the word gargoyle yet again. But they grew even bigger when he saw that particular item on the menu. “That looks good! But, wait, what’s a ji-ro?” he said, pronouncing the name of the food all wrong.
“It’s called a year-ro,” said Izzy, “pronounced to rhyme with ‘hero.’ And it’s a Greek sandwich. Sliced and roasted meat is wrapped up with vegetables like tomatoes and onions inside a freshly baked piece of pita bread. Then I slather the whole thing with creamy cucumber sauce. My gyros have always been the biggest and best in town. But the Gargoyle Gyro is even bigger and better!”
“The Gargoyle Gyro is huge!” Benny said, pronouncing the word right and pointing to the picture of a gigantic gyro sandwich. “But I bet I can finish the whole thing. I’ll take one Gargoyle Gyro, please, Mr. Izzy.”
Benny’s family also decided what they wanted for dinner, and Izzy hurried their order to the kitchen in back.
“There sure are a lot of gargoyles in this place,” Violet whispered to Jessie.
“Violet’s right,” Jessie whispered to Henry. “After what we saw earlier, all of these gargoyles are a little bit creepy.”
“Maybe Izzy just really likes gargoyles,” Henry said. “And maybe he can help us with our gargoyle mystery. Let’s ask him when he comes back.”
When Izzy came back out carrying a tray with five plates of piping hot food, he sat down with the Aldens and began to catch up with Grandfather.
“This is the same thing I ordered when I was a young man,” said Grandfather, biting into a juicy hamburger and washing it down with a thick vanilla milkshake.
Henry had a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of cheesy broccoli soup. Jessie ate a Greek salad with crisp, green lettuce and chunks of salty feta cheese. Violet took a bite of the delicious fried eggplant sandwich that she had ordered, wiping the tangy tomato sauce from the corners of her mouth.
“This Gargoyle Gyro is great!” said Benny. He had sauce all around his mouth, too—the creamy cucumber sauce that covered the tasty gyro meat and enormous pita filling his plate.
“We all agree,” Grandfather Alden smiled. “Goldwin Gyros is still the best restaurant on campus!”
“I still use all of my father’s recipes,” Izzy said. “But as you can see, I’ve made some changes to the restaurant.”
“It doesn’t look much different from when we were students and would stop by to have burgers and shakes,” said Grandfather Alden. “Except for the gargoyles, of course.”
“Why are there so many gargoyles everywhere?” Benny asked.
Izzy laughed. “After my father retired, business slowed down at the restaurant. I think people were used to the way he made the food. But then, with all of the gargoyle craziness going on around campus, I decided to turn it into something fun. That’s how I came up with the idea for the Gargoyle Gyro. And now that students are talking about gargoyles and even making online movies about gargoyles, Gargoyle Gyros are selling like hotcakes—or gyros!”
“I’m sure glad you did, Mr. Izzy,” said Benny. “But I still don’t like actual gargoyles. Especially not after I saw one staring at me today!”
Benny and his siblings told Izzy about what they had seen, and about chasing the noise down the library stairs.
“Close call!” Izzy said, wiping sweat from his bald head and twirling his mustache. “It sounds like you almost caught yourselves a gargoyle.”
“But gargoyles aren’t real,” said Jessie.
“You don’t believe in the legend of the grinning gargoyles?” Izzy asked.
“No,” said Henry. “That’s all it is—a legend. And Miss Hollenberg the librarian even said there was no such thing…”
“Yeah,” said Benny, “Miss Hollenberg even called it ‘boulder trash’ when we told her about what we saw.”
“It’s ‘balderdash,’” Henry laughed. “She called it ‘balderdash,’ which is another word for nonsense. Miss Hollenberg didn’t seem to think that the legend was true.”
“I’m not so sure that the gargoyles are nonsense, though,” said Izzy.
“Why do you say that?” Henry asked. “Have you ever seen one?”
“I haven’t seen any gargoyles, other than those beautiful sculptures at the top of the old library,” Izzy said. “But I have read about the legend—at the library.”
“Where did you read about it?” asked Jessie. “Miss Hollenberg said there weren’t any books or papers about the gargoyles in the library.”
“I didn’t read about it in a book or a paper,” said Izzy. “I read about it online. I was at the library, using the computers there to research old articles about my father’s restaurant. While scrolling through the old issues of the college newspaper, The Goldwin Gazette, online, I found an article published about the gargoyles.”
“What did the article say?” Henry asked.
“It talked about how the gargoyles protect the library,” Izzy said. “Maybe now that the new Alden Library is being built to replace the old library, the gargoyles are angry.”
Grandfather Alden laughed. “You’re still quite a joker, Izzy. I bet even the gargoyles—if they were real—would appreciate the new library I’m helping Goldwin University build. Change isn’t a bad thing. Why, your restaurant has changed from when we were students, but it’s still the best one around.”
“I agree with that,” Benny said as he swallowed the last of his Gargoyle Gyro. “See, I told you I could eat the whole thing!”
The rest of the Aldens had finished their dinner, too, and it was time to say goodbye to Izzy and Goldwin Gyros.
“Should we head to the rooms at my old dormitory where we’ll be staying?” Grandfather Alden asked his grandchildren. “I’m tired from the drive and the long day.”
“You go ahead and get some rest, Grandfather,” said Jessie. “We’re going to head to the library first to check a couple of things. We’ll meet you at the dorm once we’re done.”
“Okay,” said Grandfather. “We’ll be staying at Harper Hall, in Suite 4A. Good night, Izzy. We’ll see you at the groundbreaking ceremony tomorrow, won’t we?”
“I’m sure you will,” Izzy said.
The sun had already set as the Alden children reached the library. The moon was full and its light shined behind the old building, making it look especially spooky. The moonlight danced off the grinning faces of the gargoyles, making their teeth gleam in the night.
But the moon wasn’t the only shining light the Aldens saw.
“Look!” said Violet, pointing to the top floor of the library. “There’s a light on up there.”
“That’s near where I saw the gargoyle,” Benny said.
“We’ll check the light out,” said Henry, “just as soon as we look into a couple of other things that I want to clear up.”
CHAPTER 5
Online Sleuths
The library was still open, even that late on a Friday night.
“It’s pretty late for the library to be open, isn’t it?” Violet asked. “The library back home in Greenfield closes at four, right?”
“The Greenfield library closes at five,” Henry said. “But a university library is a bit different. College students study at all hours of the day—even at night, and even on the we
ekend!”
But although the building was open, as the Alden children went inside, they found it empty compared to their earlier visit.
“It’s so quiet in here,” Benny whispered. “Even fora library.”
“We should probably ask Miss Hollenberg if it’s okay for us to be here,” Jessie said.
But Miss Hollenberg wasn’t at her desk, and her computer screen was dark. There were other computers still running, though, and that is exactly what Henry wanted to see.
“Before we go searching the library building for clues,” Henry said, “I want to search online.”
“Let’s leave Miss Hollenberg a note first,” Jessie said, “just to let her know that we’re here and that we won’t act up.”
Jessie took a blank sheet of paper from Miss Hollenberg’s desk and picked up a blue pen—her favorite color. As she started to write the note, she noticed a yellowed newspaper on the desk, sticking out from under a pile of other papers. The part of the newspaper that showed had a picture of a gargoyle on it.
“Wow!” Benny said, reaching for the newspaper. “A gargoyle!”
But Jessie stopped her brother. “This isn’t our desk. Maybe tomorrow we can ask Miss Hollenberg if we can see the newspaper.”
The children left the note, then left the desk. They pulled up four chairs to a table that held a computer that was turned on.
“What are we looking for?” Violet asked.
“First, I think we should find the old newspaper article that Izzy mentioned,” said Henry.
“And don’t forget the online videos that Raven at the Bruin Beanery told us to watch,” Jessie added.
Henry typed in GARGOYLE and LIBRARY and GOLDWIN GAZETTE, then he hit “search.” In less than a second, a link to the article Izzy mentioned popped up on the computer screen.