Judy Bolton is spending the summer, along with her brother Horace, at her grandparents house in Dry Brook Hollow. It's not too far from her own home in Roulsville but as her parents have gone out of town it is where the two are staying. Judy spends her days out among the beech trees, reading, and trying to avoid the neighbor girl Edna.
One day she and Edna overhear two construction workers, who are building a new road, arguing about the recent dam that had been built above Roulsville, as well as mention a "pit". After noticing the girls one of the men marches over angrily and demands to know what they've heard. Edna insists she's heard nothing but Judy confidently replies she had heard everything however she does not mention that she does not understand the meaning of anything said.
Finding she's been sent tickets in the mail to an upcoming dance and spelling bee Judy goes to ask her Grandmother for some of the money her father had left for them so she can attend the dance. She is told that grandmother gave the money to her Horace for a suit and there's none left for her. Upset over her brothers special treatment Judy runs back to the beech grove. She becomes startled when she sees a mysterious shadow and follows it through the bushes where it disappears. She hears her brother walking on the paved road and as she goes after him to yell about the money, she is grabbed from behind.
Judy awakes in a small dark pit of a room and spends a restless night there. The next day she attracts the attention of the men who had brought her there; the construction worker and a terror of a man with a shrill voice. They agree to let Judy go if she promises not to mention anything she's overheard. She promises and is taken to her empty home where she falls asleep. She is awakened when Horace and their grandfather show up looking for her. They assume she ran away because of the money incident and Judy lets them think this so she can keep her promise.
The next day Judy asks Horace to accompany her on a picnic. On the way they see that Dry Brook has become waterless and, hoping to use it as a story for his newspaper job, Horace and Judy try to find the beginning of the brook and discover what has become of the water. Once they do they see that it has been dammed up which seems strange since it's causing less water to reach the big new dam that is powering the paper mill. They think it may be the work of someone trying to get revenge on the mill.
Once home Horace surprised Judy with a new party dress for the upcoming dance. Judy goes to talk to Edna about the dance and Edna announces she is going with "conceited young spend-thrift" Charlie Austin. Edna starts talking about how Charlie, the new foreman of the paper mill, had told her he had fixed it so Judy wouldn't talk. Edna thinks this means Judy was paid off as she was but Judy now realizes it means he had been apart of her abduction and thinks he must have dammed up Dry Brook to get some sort of revenge on his employer. Judy decided to write a letter to the president of the paper mill because she reasons that she promised not to "say" anything but didn't make any promises about writing.
The next day she heads out early to town on her grandparents colt to sell two pails of blackberries she had picked. While going by the train tracks the horse send Judy and the berries flying before running home and Judy begins gather up the spilled berries along with the help of Peter Dobbs, a childhood friend Judy has not seen recently who happens to be passing by.
Peter also just happens to be the grandson of the paper mill president. He tells Judy his grandfather retired and the current president is Mr. Rubin but Rubin has given charge to Charlie Austin. Judy and Peter walk to his house, where he lives with his grandparents and after dinner Judy picks a kitten out of the litter their cat has birthed. It's a black cat that she names Blackberry.
Peter drives her home and she asks to stop at the mill so she can give her letter to Mr. Rubin. However once there Judy is able to figure out that the location of the mill is where her abductors had taken her and her prison had been the nearby tool shack. Judy decides not to speak to Mr. Rubin.
On the day of the dance Judy is walking to it when a car pulls over and asks if she wants a ride. It's owner is Arthur Farringdon-Pett. He's a wealthy boy from the nearby town Ferringdon, as you can tell by his name he is a descendant of the town's founder. Along with him is his sister Lois who Judy instantly likes, Donald Carter who is Horace's rival reporter at the newspaper, and Lorraine Lee who's father owns the newspaper. Judy takes a dislike to her when she refers to Horace as "Sister", a rude nickname that's been given to the timid boy.
As they're heading to the dance Lois tells Judy that Arthur thinks something suspicious is going on with the dam. He is an engineer fresh out of college and had put in an unsuccessful bid for the dam contract. The company that did get the contract had put in such a low offer that he's sure something underhanded was going on. He also explains to Judy later that night that he had found the construction company hasn't purchased any sand for building which makes him believe they used some from a local sand pit that isn't up to grade.
Judy wins first place at the spelling bee which makes her a popular partner at the dance. Lorraine leaves early, apparently due to jealously towards the attention Judy's receiving. Judy and Horace get a ride home with Arthur, Lois, and Donald and on the way Arthur stops within view of the dam and points out 3 cracks he's been noticing. He says the poor construction is making the dam a ticking time bomb, that Dry Brook was purposely dried up not to sabotage the mill but because the dam wouldn't be able to handle its added water. He says that just one heavy rain will cause the dam to break and the whole town of Roulsville will be taken out, killing everyone. This talk frightens Horace so they change the subject and continue on their way.
Suddenly the shadow crosses in front of the car and Judy begs Arthur to turn around and follow it. She insists the mysterious skeleton looking man is tied up with the dam mystery and she begins to think he is Christopher White, the man who won the dam construction contract. He disappears before they can see his face.
That night Judy hears Horace crying out in his sleep about the dam, the things Arthur said have terrified him and Judy is disgusted by how scared he is and gets up to yell at him. The next morning he is suppose to go report the church sermon but claims he is too tired. Judy yells at him again saying he is too cowardly to go into Roulsville and shames him for not being a brother she can be proud of.
Her reason for wanting Horace to go to church so bad is that she wants him to deliver a letter to Peter in which she's told everything about the dam and her kidnapping and asks for his help in warning the towns people. He reluctantly gets up and begins to church on the colt with instructions by Judy that if he can not get the letter to Peter to read it himself. Peter turns out to not be present at church and after service Horace briefly talks to Arthur, Lois, Lorraine, Donald who have showed up there because Arthur claims he's drawn to the town since knowing about the dam.
As he starts on his way home he remembers Judy's letter and stops to read it. He's horrified to find out Judy had been kidnapped and shocked that she had faced a terrifying situation so bravely. A storm begins at that moment and Horace, believing he's hearing the dam break, runs the horse back into town yelling for everyone to head for the hills. He continues going up and down the streets yelling warnings until he's sure everyone has headed for safety.
Meanwhile Judy has been sitting nervously at home. Both she and her grandmother worry about timid Horace becoming injured on the colt and Judy worries about him being waylaid by the shadow and her letter being read. The two become more worried when the storm starts and soon they see a high volume of traffic heading into Roulsville including her parents who are due to return that day. The only one heading out of town is one car belonging to Charlie Austin.
Judy is furious to see him fleeing at the first sign of danger and leaving the Rousleville residents to die so she goes to call the Farringdon police to stop him however as she's on the phone the whole house becomes rocked as the sound of explosions go off signaling the dam has broke.
Judy's grandmother passes out and for a minute Judy believes she may have died leaving her completely alone as her brother, parents, and grandfather are all in Roulsville as it's being flooded. After her grandmother becomes conscious Judy sets out on foot to cover the three miles to town. As she passes the dam she sees its completely gone with the three broken pieces of it now laying where the paper mill had previously been.
Coming upon the park on a hill she sees a huge crowd and is surprised to see many people smiling. She finds Mr. and Mrs. Dobbs who tell her she is the sister of a hero and that Horace had given warning so early that everyone was already to higher ground and were able to watch as the dam actually broke. Unfortunatly none of her family are present but someone mentioned having seen Dr. Bolton's car on the other side of the valley where more people had ran to. Judy finds Peter and together they wade through the flood waters until they are able to holler to someone to see if Horace or the Boltons are there.
Horace is not but Dr. Bolton is. They head back and notice some bushes by the park moving. Judy fears it's the shadow but they soon find it to be the colt who is wandering alone. Following it's tracks they find Horace at the bottom of a tree, having fallen from it during the flood. Horace is taken up to the park where newspaper men all photograph him and try to get a story.
With the town destroyed the Boltons and the Dobbs go to stay with Judy's grandparents although two days later the Dobbs move to a new home in Farringdon. Horace has been receiving lots of offers for gifts, checks, and job positions as a reward for his brave act. He appoints Judy of writing back declining everything but when an offer for a free house in Farringdon arrives Judy can't help but accept it. However Lois ends up mentioning the house is being offered for free because the owner can not sell it due to it's reputation for being haunted.
Christopher White has not been found by the police and there seems to be no trace of him ever existing. Charlie Austin is still in police custody having been detained after Judy's phone call. The police have no evidence against him so they bring him to Judy to see if she has any evidence. Judy can't help but feel that something is off about him. Once she realizes what it is she instructs the policeman to remove his wig and it turns out Charlie Austin is Christopher White. He goes off with the police and Dr. Bolton tells Judy she may have to testify is court.
I feel like this summary has gotten a little messy towards the end but its almost 2am and I'm so tired so that's just how it is.
- The promise thing is ridiculous. I would think the fact that the men know where Judy lives would be more of a threat to ensure her silence than a promise.
- Horace being bullied by his peers by being called sissy, sister, and salmon-faced sister is really weird and outdated. He's picked on because he's not a Man™ and as much as I don't want to use the word toxic, it's very toxic. The book remarks that Horace is known as a coward by everyone but doesn't give any example of why. Through out the story he's called a coward because he fears the imminent danger of the dam breaking, washing out the entire town where he's lived his whole life, and killing his friends, family, and everyone he knows. I don't think that is cowardly at all.
- The revel of Charlie Austin being Christopher White was kind of strange. White is described as terrifying looking while Austin is just some young man. The only thing that seems to make Christopher White scary is the fact that he's bald.
This is the revised version of this story and it has been shortened quite a bit. Unfortunatey this causes it to feel like you're missing some things. Several times I had to stop and re-read a page because I thought I must have missed an important part. The only way I can think to describe it is as if you're watching a movie but you get up and leave the room for a minute several times. You can still keep up with the movie but you feel like you've missed some things. The only thing I noticed that completely didn't make sense is when Judy says at the end something like "so that's why Arthur had business at the mill". I don't recall Arthur talking about going to the mill at all. It answered a question the had been cut from the book so now it made no sense.
Next I'll read the original text version which I own but have never read. I'm thinking, or at least hoping, it'll fill in the gaps of this book.
Amazing work in this review!
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