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The Haunted Fountain A Judy Bolton Mystery — Key Ideas to Explore

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In Category - Childrens Adventures

Authors: Sutton, Margaret, 1903-2001 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2015 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Mystery and detective stories; Women detectives -- Juvenile fiction; Bolton, Judy (Fictitious character) -- Juvenile fiction Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 40,374

Reading time 176 min

Text sections 6

Before opening The Haunted Fountain A Judy Bolton Mystery — Key Ideas to Explore, the edition data offers a quick orientation: 40,374 words, 2 hr 56 min estimated reading time, and 6 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 10.5 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Mystery and detective stories,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #47841

In this 1957 Judy Bolton mystery, Margaret Sutton tightens the pace through trapped-in-a-tunnel suspense, alternating between Judy's panicked first-person observations and Horace's practical counterpoints, while the fountain's spray becomes a recurring sensory barrier.

Editorial Edition Score 4.7/5

★★★★★ ★★★★★

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Description quality20 pts
Title & short description10 pts
Source metadata20 pts
Text length15 pts
Chapters / structure15 pts
EPUB file integrity20 pts

Total of 100 points, scaled to a 2.5-5.0 range. Editions with an empty description or a missing EPUB file are not scored.

Edition quality

File: pg47841

Read the Text

She was again at the mercy of the foaming spray

“Oh dear! I wasn’t quick enough.” 26

“It looks—like a diamond!” gasped Judy 44

“Hey! What are you doing here?” 81

He lay there motionless 110

“This will teach you not to go poking 142 around where you’re not wanted!”

------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Tell Judy about it,” begged Lois. “Please, Lorraine, it can’t be as bad as it appears. There isn’t anything that Judy can’t solve.”

Lorraine tilted her head disdainfully. “We’re sisters now. We’re both Farringdon-Petts and should be loyal to each other. But you always did take Judy’s part. She was the one who nearly spoiled our double wedding trying to solve a mystery. I don’t believe she’d understand—understand any better than I do. Everyone has problems, and I’m sure Judy is no exception.”

“You’re right, Lorraine,” announced Judy, coming in to serve dessert to the two friends she had invited for lunch at Peter’s suggestion. “I do have problems, and there are plenty of mysteries I can’t solve.”

“Name one,” charged Lois. “Just mention one single spooky thing you couldn’t explain, and I’ll believe you. I’ve seen you in action, Judy Bolton—”

“Judy Dobbs, remember?”

“Well, you were Judy Bolton when you solved all those mysteries. I met you when the whole valley below the big Roulsville dam was threatened by flood and you solved that—”

“That,” declared Judy, “was my brother Horace, not me. He was the hero without even meaning to be. He was the one who rode through town and warned people that the flood was coming. I was off chasing a shadow.”

“A vanishing shadow,” Lois said with a sigh. “What you did wasn’t easy, Judy.”

“It didn’t need to be as hard as it was,” Judy confessed. “I know now that keeping that promise not to talk about the dam was a great big mistake and could have cost lives. I should have told Arthur.”

“Please,” Lorraine said, a pained expression clouding her pretty face, “let’s not talk about him now.”

“Very well,” Judy agreed. “What shall we talk about?”

“You,” Lois said, “and all the mysteries you’ve solved. Maybe you were mistaken about a thing or two before the flood, but what about the haunted house you moved into? You were the one who tracked down the ghosts in the attic and the cellar and goodness knows where all. You’ve been chasing ghosts ever since I met you, and not one of them did you fail to explain in some sensible, logical fashion.”

“Before I met you,” Judy said, thinking back, “there were plenty of them I couldn’t explain. There was one I used to call the spirit of the fountain, but what she was or how she spoke to me is more than I know. If my grandparents knew, they weren’t telling. And now they’re both dead and I can’t ask them. They left me a lot of unsolved mysteries along with this house. Maybe I’ll find the answers to some of them when I finish sorting Grandma’s things. They’re stored in one end of the attic.”

“Another haunted attic? How thrilling!” exclaimed Lois. “Why don’t you have another ghost party and show up the spooks?”

“I didn’t say the attic was haunted.”

Judy was almost sorry she had mentioned it. She wasn’t in the mood for digging up old mysteries, but Lois and Lorraine insisted. It all began, she finally told them, the summer before they met. Horace had just started working on the paper. Judy remembered that it was Lorraine’s father, Richard Thornton Lee, who gave him his job with the _Farringdon Daily Herald_. He had turned in some interesting church news, convincing Mr. Lee that he had in him the makings of a good reporter. And so it was that he spent the summer Judy was remembering in Farringdon where the Farringdon-Petts had their turreted mansion, while she had to suffer the heat and loneliness of Dry Brook Hollow.

Her thoughts were what had made it so hard, she confessed now as she reviewed everything that had happened. She just couldn’t help resenting the fact that her parents left her every summer while they went off on a vacation by themselves. What did they think she would do?

Continue Reading →

From its opening chapter, The Haunted Fountain establishes a distinctive narrative rhythm by alternating between Judy's confident problem-solving reputation and her immediate, visceral reactions to danger. The dialogue in the first scene—where Lois insists 'There isn’t anything that Judy can’t solve'—sets up a tension between expectation and reality that the novel exploits repeatedly. Sutton's prose shifts between brisk, declarative exchanges and longer, sensory-laden passages when the fountain's spray becomes a physical obstacle. The tunnel sequence, for instance, relies on short, urgent sentences ('Lift me up, Horace,' 'Real bad,' 'There’s no way out') that accelerate the pace, while earlier scenes use more measured description to establish setting. This variation in sentence length and dialogue density creates a rhythm that mirrors the story's central mechanism: the fountain's unpredictable flow.

Voice and Perspective in Crisis

Judy's narrative voice is marked by a blend of competence and vulnerability that becomes more pronounced under pressure. In the tunnel, her thoughts shift from strategic ('That drain is there to keep the tunnel from being flooded') to emotional ('I wish Peter were here to help us'). Sutton uses this internal oscillation to build tension without relying on external exposition. Horace's voice provides a contrasting, more pragmatic counterpoint—his admission 'I made a mistake' and his focus on physical solutions ('We’ve got to get it off!') ground the scene in concrete action. The dialogue often overlaps or interrupts, as when Judy cuts off Horace's cheerful speculation with 'More ifs!' This technique keeps the pace urgent and reflects the characters' differing approaches to crisis.

The Fountain as a Structural Device

The fountain is not merely a setting but a mechanism that controls the story's tempo. Sutton describes its spray in sensory terms—'foaming spray,' 'falling water,' 'the pressure is terrific'—and uses its activation to mark shifts from investigation to entrapment. The tunnel's drain cover, initially a minor obstacle ('a skunk box'), becomes a critical plot point when it jams, forcing Judy and Horace to improvise. The fountain's water also serves as a barrier to perception: Judy 'couldn’t see a thing through the water,' which limits both characters' and readers' knowledge. This physical limitation heightens suspense and prevents easy solutions, as the characters must rely on memory and deduction rather than direct observation.

Pacing Through Repetition and Variation

Sutton controls pacing by repeating key phrases with slight variations. The word 'trap' appears multiple times in the tunnel scene—Horace says 'Either way, it’s a trap!' and Judy later echoes the idea—reinforcing the sense of enclosure. Similarly, the phrase 'skunk box' recurs from Judy's childhood memory, linking past and present while adding a note of dark irony. The author also varies paragraph length: short, one-sentence paragraphs ('There isn’t time!') punctuate longer descriptive passages, creating a staccato effect during moments of high tension. This technique, combined with the countdown implied by rising water levels, gives the narrative a forward momentum that mirrors the characters' desperation.

Readers may find it useful to track how often Judy's confidence is undercut by physical circumstances—the stuck drain, the overwhelming spray, the absent Peter. Sutton's willingness to let her protagonist panic, even briefly, adds depth to a series that might otherwise rely solely on cleverness. The novel's effectiveness depends on this interplay between competence and contingency, making the fountain itself a character that resists solution.

There’s something about being trapped with Judy Bolton in that tunnel—Gloria’s spray cutting off sight and sense—that reminds me of the Colorado cliffs in The River Motor Boat Boys on the Colorado; Or, The Clue in the Rocks — Inside the Classic. Both stories hold that same old-fashioned thrill, the rock pressing close, the water hissing, time measured in held breath, not pages. I miss that feeling.