The Mystery at Bob-White Cave (16 page)

“If you can arrange to fly back from Springfield on Friday, Daddy and Bobby and I will meet the plane. I’m getting lonesome for all of you, and Bobby has been lost without you. When it is possible, send me a telegram to let me know when to expect you.”

“That’s terrible about Uncle Mart,” Trixie said and folded the note. “I guess we really should go back as soon as we can.”

“Friday will be all right, won’t it, Trix, as Moms suggested?” Brian asked. “Your heart is set on collecting those specimens, and, gee... Jim and I did want to have a try for some rocks. What do you think, Uncle Andrew?”

“It’ll be good for your Aunt Alicia to have your mother with her. I think it’s all right to follow her suggestion and leave for home Friday. I’ll be sorry to have you go. I’d been planning a lot of things we could do as soon as Trixie had completed her project. Bill Hawkins was coming over today to help me with the shed for Shem and Japheth, but that can wait. If Linnie will drive me into town, I’ll arrange for your train tickets to Springfield so you can connect with the plane for White Plains. I’ll send a telegram to your parents, too, as soon as I know what flight you’ll be on.”

“Then let’s get going!” Trixie said.

“Get going where?” her uncle asked.

“Across the lake to the cave, after the fish,” Trixie said. “That is, if Slim didn’t get ahead of us while he had us out of the way.”

“Have you lost your mind, Trixie? Have you forgotten how mean that boy can be?”

“No, I haven’t, Uncle Andrew, but what can Slim do, with Jim and Brian and Mart along?”

“I don’t know what he can do, but I’m not going to take a chance. He’d stop at nothing to try for that reward. If I find that Sam Owens has him in custody, and if that man, ghost, or spirit at the ghost cabin is in jail, too, then I’ll feel a lot different about further exploring.”

“But, Uncle Andrew, please...

“No. Getting you all back home safe and sound is more important to me than any fish—”

“But it isn’t more important to the kids!” Bill Hawkins had arrived and overheard the conversation. “If you have to go into town, Andy, I’ll go over to the cave with the Bob-Whites.”

Andrew Belden drew a long sigh of relief. “That’s the answer, Bill,” he said. “I did hate to disappoint Trixie again. I guess they all think I’m a pretty hard-boiled uncle.”

“We do not; we think you’re darling!” Trixie said. “And, oh, Mr. Hawkins, you’re a lifesaver! Things will look a lot different, Uncle Andrew, when you get back from White Hole Springs. We’ll have all those specimens down in Mrs. Moore’s cold cellar in the galvanized tank you bought us.”

“I just want to find you all safe and sound. I’m almost afraid to take my eyes off you.”

“Don’t worry, Andy,” Bill Hawkins said. “There’s only one way Slim could get to that cave, and that’s by boat. I’ll have my eye on that part of the lake every minute.”

The Bob-Whites were all fond of Mr. Hawkins and delighted with the day’s arrangement. When they arrived at the cave, however, Trixie had her first disappointment.

“Would you mind terribly,” Jim asked, “if Brian and I went up on the cliffs over the cave and looked for rock specimens? The time’s short, and we just might come up with some rocks that would be valuable. It isn’t as though you didn’t know exactly where to find the other ghost fish.”

Trixie did wish Jim could hunt for the specimens with her. It would be so much more fun. She felt she mustn’t be selfish, though, so she told the boys to go ahead.

“Say,” Bill Hawkins interrupted, “I’m here to look after you kids. How can I do that if you’re in half a dozen places? I can only be sure Slim doesn’t sneak up on you if I keep my eye on the lake. Trixie can’t go into that cave alone, even with Honey and Mart. If I go along with them, who’s going to watch the lake?”

“Jim and I can watch it from up on the cliff,” Brian said.

“Huh-uh; that won’t do.” Bill Hawkins shook his head. “I’ll do the watching myself.”

“There isn’t any danger inside the cave—just two big rooms and the spring running through the second room,” Brian said.

“Why don’t you go into the cave with Trixie and see just what the setup is?” Jim said. “We’ll watch right here while you do.”

When Bill Hawkins emerged from the cave after his survey, he said, “I can’t see a thing in there that’d harm three lively kids. I’ll stay just outside the entrance, here, and watch the lake, too. Go ahead with your digging, boys.”

So, one by one, Trixie, Mart, and Honey crept through the crawlway to the second room, pushing their buckets and knapsacks ahead of them.

“There’s one thing we can be thankful for,” Trixie said. “There’s no sign that Slim was here while we were in town yesterday. That’s a miracle. Something kept him away from here. Maybe he really did get scared about what the men would do to him for setting that fire.”

“Yeah,” Mart said. “He may be a long way from here by now.”

“It’s a break for us,” Honey said. “What do you see in the stream, Trixie?”

“Nothing.Absolutely nothing!” Trixie said despairingly. She sat down on a jutting rock near the stream’s edge and turned her flashlight on the wall nearest her. In the light she saw a pair of bright button eyes. A small pack rat looked timidly from a cleft in the rock. As Trixie watched, it ran out to the stream and along the water’s edge, then disappeared.

That’s queer
, she thought.
Where did it go?
She stood up to investigate and saw, across the stream, a deep grotto in the wall. Calling to Mart and Honey to follow, she stepped across and started walking ahead, her flashlight beaming at the ground ahead of her.

Suddenly she stopped, motionless with fright. A wide sinkhole yawned at her feet! Just one more step and she would have plunged down a dark hole.

“Don’t come one inch nearer!” she warned. “I have to see where this leads. Lie down flat, then just creep up to the edge so we can look down.”

Mart and Honey followed Trixie’s lead, flattening themselves and crawling to the edge of the hole. When the light of their three carbide lamps shone down, they saw an amazing spectacle. Beneath the rim, the well widened like the inside of an inverted bucket, its sides a series of narrow ledges, slimy and dripping, descending about thirty feet and ending in a shimmer of water.

“It’s awful!” Honey said. “You’d have fallen, in just another second, and we’d never have seen you again. I can’t look at it.”

“I can,” Mart said realistically. “There’s nothing horrible about it except that it’s blacker than night down there. Let’s look around with our flashlights.”

“Let’s do!” Trixie said. “There, do you see what I see? The bottom of that hole is alive with ghost fish! And look at the salamanders crawling around the wall just above the water. Jeepers! It’s a gold mine of ghosts!”

“We can’t ever get them, either—unless—do you think we could tie a dip net on a rope and bring some of them up?” Honey asked. “Watch out, Trixie; don’t go any nearer.”

“There isn’t anything to fear. Mart, salamanders can’t possibly live in
deep
water, can they?” asked Trixie.

“Not on your life. Most of them don’t live in water at all—just in damp places, usually.”

“Then that means...

“Yeah!That there’s only an inch or two of water at the bottom of that hole. Say....”

“That’s just what I’m thinking. One of us can easily go down there and get the fish—five hundred dollars’ worth of fish!”

“Trixie Belden, I’ll die if either one of you tries to go down into that awful place!” Honey cried. “I’ll go and get Mr. Hawkins. Don’t you
dare
to go down there!”

“I’d dare a lot more than that for five hundred dollars to put toward that station wagon. Why, Honey, I’ve gone down the side of a cliff on the Hudson River, a cliff lots higher than this well is deep, and you never said a word.”

“It wasn’t a black well, and it was a long way off from the river,” Honey said, her voice quivering. “
Please
, Trixie, wait till tomorrow. We did promise your Uncle Andrew to obey all the cave rules.”

“Did he mention anything about going down a little old well with water as shallow as this?”

“No, but we should wait and ask him or ask Mr. Hawkins, or go get Brian and Jim.”

“And let all those fish get away? How do I know there isn’t an outlet for that water so they’ll vanish? Oh, Honey, it’s just as safe as going down a cliff on the game preserve around your home. There are three of us in this cave together, aren’t there? That’s one of the main rules. Everybody knows we’re inside this particular cave, don’t they? That’s another rule. We have plenty of light and good strong ropes, haven’t we? Don’t you see that it will be all right?”

“No, I don’t. Why can’t I at least get Jim and Brian, if you don’t want me to tell Mr. Hawkins?”

“I don’t want to wait, and they’d think we were sissies to call them away from rock hunting. There’s just one thing, Mart....”

“And that is?”

“I’ll be the one to go down the rope.”

Honey stifled a scream.

“Just why?” Mart asked.

“Because I weigh less,” Trixie said.

“Even if you do, Mart couldn’t possibly pull you up. He couldn’t even hold you when you’d be going down.”

“Honey, did you ever hear of belaying? Watch. Mart, tie the end of the rope around this stalagmite, then around your waist. After running the other end around in back of you, I’ll tie it around my waist. Now, brace your feet against that stone and sit back. See, Honey, what is there to be afraid of?”

“A million things. I just don’t like it one bit.”

Trixie squeezed her arm reassuringly. “Take another look, Honey. We can light up the whole inside of the well. See? Mart can run the rope around his waist when he’s braced as he is now, and he can easily hold me. If he slips at all. I’ll be holding on to a spare rope fastened to that stalagmite. See all those ledges that line the inside? It’s easy as stepping down a ladder. Why, Honey, before you even know it, I’ll be down there and sending up a bucket of ghost fish.”

Honey just stood and watched, looking worried.

Mart put himself in the proper position at the edge of the hole and let down the spare rope. Then Trixie grasped the belay rope, wrapped the end of it firmly about her waist, and knotted it. “See, Honey, we’ve fastened the ropes, Mart and I, just the way mountain climbers do!” she said, and she fastened her flashlight to her belt, pushed the dip net through a loop, and slipped the bail of the bucket over her arm.

Then, her gloved hands grasping the spare rope, she grinned encouragingly at Honey and stepped back over the rim to the first ledge, a knee’s length below.

Lower and lower Trixie went, with Mart letting out the rope. She mustn’t look up. That was against cave rules, for even a small bit of sand could get into her eyes. So she kept her head turned down, her carbide lamp lighting the way ahead of her, and, the rope firm above her, went from step to step, lower, lower, lower, till she stood in shallow water at the bottom of the sinkhole.

The floor was swarming with small, round, white worms, the food the man from the magazine said was best for the fish. Without looking up, she called to Mart, “I’ll send up a bucket of worms first.” Her voice echoed and reechoed, booming from wall to wall till it escaped at the rim.

Mart called something back, but the sound disintegrated so that Trixie couldn’t understand a word. She filled the bucket, gave two short jerks to the spare rope, and felt the bucket start to lift.

Tiny ghost fish, alarmed at the motion of her net in the water, darted frantically out of sight. On the other side more swam into view.
This water runs right through the bottom of this hole
, Trixie thought, bringing the fish in with the net.

The empty bucket came down on the rope and plopped into the water beside Trixie. She waited, watched, then dip, splash—eureka! Two small fish went into her bucket. She got a crayfish, then another, and all the while she watched for more fish.

Close to where she was standing, a yellowish lizardlike creature crept, its blob of a head too big for its body, and its legs almost too weak to hold its weight. Trixie popped it into the bucket, jerked her signal to Mart, and the bucket moved up.

I hope I can send up more fish next time
, she thought and looked intently into the shallow water. Fish, worms, everything had disappeared!

What can have happened?
she thought—then became terrified. Water was creeping higher on her boots. It was running in from some hidden source— rising!

“I have to get out of here!” Trixie muttered. She was aware at the same moment of Mart’s voice, and the shrill voice of Honey.
They're warning me!
she thought as the belay rope slapped against her waist and the spare rope twirled back down.
They're scared
,
too.

“I’m coming!” she called up. “Pull, Mart! Pull! I’m coming! I’m coming right now.”

The water had nearly reached the top of her boots as she held the rope taut and began to climb up.