The Mystery at Bob-White Cave (20 page)
Read The Mystery at Bob-White Cave Online
Authors: Julie Campbell
The boys insisted on going down to Ghost River for a last try at fishing. When they came back with a string of bass, Trixie and Honey had the pan ready for them on the big cookstove. Uncle Andrew, lured to the kitchen by the shouting and laughing he heard, offered to mix a salad of crisp wild greens, tender lettuce, and onions from the garden.
It was a happy group that sat at the table their last night at the lodge. The bass were golden brown. The salad was crisp and the dressing superb. They had young green corn plunged in hot water as soon as it was gathered and husked, and there were tiny pickled beets, mashed potatoes with butter, and, for dessert, a spicy deep-dish apple pie.
“Mrs. Moore made this pie, and she should have some of it for their dinner,” Trixie said. “I’ll just run over with some.”
Uncle Andrew shook his head. “I don’t believe I would. Mrs. Moore can make a
cordon bleu
dinner out of canned squirrel and poke greens. They need to be by themselves this evening. It’s wonderful what’s happened to them. Mrs. Moore has been so courageous all these ten years.”
“Linnie, too,” Trixie said.
Uncle Andrew nodded. “Things are going to be much better for the family from now on. You know, I’d gladly have helped send Linnie to the School of the Ozarks, but she’ll be much happier the way it is. She’ll have to work for part of her room and board. Everyone who goes there does that. And she’ll have her father to help now, as well as her mother.”
“Matthew Moore can’t make a living digging ginseng and selling it, can he, Uncle Andrew?” Trixie asked with concern.
“Partly. There’s a good price on ginseng. It’s exported, mostly to China. The Chinese think it’s a miracle drug that will cure everything. Aside from that, I need Matthew here at the lodge. Bill Hawkins would like to be able to spend more time farming his own place, and he’ll be glad to turn his job here over to Matthew.”
After dinner, the Bob-Whites washed the dishes and left the kitchen shining for Mrs. Moore in the morning. Then they went upstairs to pack.
The next morning, Matthew Moore, looking much younger with his hair and beard trimmed, insisted on harnessing the mules for Linnie. “It’s marvelous to have my daddy here,” she said. “Mama says we’re a family once again. Are you all ready to go?”
“We’ll never get on the plane with all the stuff we’ve collected here,” Trixie said sadly and looked at a growing accumulation of bags and boxes being brought to the wagon. “We’ll just have to leave all the spelunking equipment here.”
“Do that!” Uncle Andrew said enthusiastically. “Then you’ll be back next summer. Only next time, we’ll explore the foothills and lakes and go easy on caves. I’ve hardly seen you except at breakfast and dinner.”
“We’ll do more rock hunting, too,” Brian said. “There are minerals in these foothills that our government needs right now. I’d like to locate some of them. Jim and I have samples we’re going to send to the
AmericanMuseum of Natural History when we get back to Sleepyside.”
“Maybe you’ll find your fortune in these Ozark hills,” Uncle Andrew said seriously. “It wouldn’t be too bad a place, either, for your school for boys.”
“They could use some doctors around here, too,” Brian said earnestly.
“And the Belden-Wheeler Detective Agency, too,” Trixie said. “Don’t forget that!”
“I’ll
never
forget it,” Uncle Andrew said.
“Some good advice about farming from Mart Belden, graduate agriculturist, would help, too,” Mart said. “Jeepers, it’ll be
years
before any of us finish college. By that time, we may want to locate on the moon or Venus.... Someone help me lift this tank into the wagon, and we can be going. The famous Shem and Japheth Transportation System moves slowly. We still have a lot of business to look after and a train to catch.”
The Bob-Whites said an affectionate good-bye to Mrs. Moore and thanked her for everything she had done for them while they were at the lodge.
“You gave Matthew back to me from the dead,” she reminded them. “The thanks are all on my side. We’ll miss you sorely, Linnie and me and my husband.” Her eyes shone, and her face was flushed with happiness as she stood proudly beside Matthew and waved as long as she could see the wagon.
On the way to town, they stopped for a brief goodbye to the Hawkins family. “Slim’s in good hands now,” Bill Hawkins said. “I delivered him to Sam Owens. We’ll be looking for you next summer,” he told the Bob-Whites.
“We’ve had a wonderful time, and we’ll come back if we possibly can,” Trixie said. “Thanks for everything, Mr. Hawkins.”
In White Hole Springs, the first person they saw was Sam Owens. “I had to take Slim to the jail in Laurel,” he told Uncle Andrew. “Feeling was running too high around here for his safety. There’ll be a quick trial. Then it’ll probably be prison for him, and for a good long term.”
“That takes care of that,” Uncle Andrew said. “Now for the next order of business.”
“I’m almost afraid to go over and talk with that magazine man,” Trixie said.
“How could you miss, with two of each kind?” Mart asked. “The five hundred dollars is as good as in your pocket.”
The editor of the
Scientific Digest
was excited when the boys set the small galvanized tank on the table in front of him. Quite a lot of people were standing around the room talking. Other tanks and bait buckets stood here and there on the long table.
“Do you actually have specimens of
Amplyopsisspelaeus?”
the editor asked. He brought out a big magnifying glass and held it close over the tank. “No one has turned up with true specimens so far. Come and have a look, Glendenning!” he called to the Englishman, who was talking to two men at the other end of the table.
Trixie waited breathlessly as they watched the men examine the specimens in the tank they had brought. The editor looked at them from one side, then another. Then, with Mr. Glendenning, he carried the tank to the daylight in front of the window for better examination. Finally he turned and said sadly, “I guess we were expecting the impossible. The
Amplyopsisspelaeus
hasn’t been found outside the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. I was hoping to discover it here—to show, if possible, a continuation of the underground waterway from Kentucky through Missouri. Your fish may have museum value, and I am sure some cave in the Springfield area will be interested in buying them for exhibition. I’m sorry.”
Trixie’s face was white. She couldn’t speak.
“Don’t you care,” Honey said, tears of disappointment in her own eyes. “We’ll earn that money some other way when we get back home. You’ll think of something, Trixie, just see if you don’t.”
“Maybe
I
won’t,” Trixie said proudly, “but the Bob-Whites will.”
“That’s the spirit!” Jim applauded. “That’s
one
of the things I like about you. Say, what’s Mr. Glendenning doing?”
“He’s making some kind of a sign to that editor,” Mart said. “He’s motioning for him to go back and look at your tank, Trixie. Let’s eavesdrop.”
The men were in eager discussion, but their voices were so low the Bob-Whites could hardly hear.
“It can’t be!” the editor said, amazement in his voice.
“I tell you it is,” Mr. Glendenning insisted, holding the magnifying glass close to the tank. “Don’t you see the papillae in rows on the head and jaws?”
“Great guns!” the editor cried. “The
Troglichthysrosae!”
“That’s exactly what it is,” Mr. Glendenning said. “Ruth Hoppin found it near Sarcoxie, Missouri, over fifty years ago. No one has found it since. Dr. Carl Eigenmann said the
Troglichthysrosae
has lived in caves longer and done without the use of its eyes longer than any living vertebrate.”
“What does that mean to these young people?” Uncle Andrew asked.
“It means just this,” the man from the magazine said. “They didn’t find the specimens for which we offered the reward, but they have come up with something more rare. I have to talk to my board of directors, but I can promise this: It will bring a reward at least as great as that we offered for the Mammoth Cave fish. If the young people will leave us their address, we’ll get in touch with them in about a week.”
“Gleeps!” Trixie said, and she sighed a great sigh.
“Gleeps!” the Bob-Whites echoed.
“I know what you mean, and it’s the way I feel, too,” Uncle Andrew said, laughing. “Gleeps!”
Linnie hadn’t said a word since they had deposited the tank in front of the editor. “I can open my eyes now,” she said. “I’ve been praying under my breath all the time that you’d get that reward. I couldn’t have stood it if you hadn’t, after what you’ve done for Mama and me.”
“Linnie, you’re the very best friend anyone could ever have,” Trixie said. “We’re sure going to miss you.”
“I feel just that way about all of the Bob-Whites.” Linnie’s face saddened. Then a big smile spread across it. “But not so much as I would have if my daddy hadn’t come home. Say, isn’t it getting to be almost time for your train?”
Mart glanced at his watch. “We should have just enough time to give the man our address—”
“I’ll take care of that later,” Uncle Andrew interrupted. “Here comes the train around the bend right now.”
Mart scrambled to pick up his luggage. The other Bob-Whites picked up their bags and hurried after Mart.
The local train pulled into the station. Mart and Brian passed the luggage up to Jim, who stowed it away in the end of the dusty passenger car.
Smiling through tears, Trixie and Honey hugged and kissed Uncle Andrew and Linnie. The boys shook hands, helped the girls aboard, then swung up after them.
They waved till the platform faded from sight, then dropped into seats facing one another.
“Jeepers, things certainly happened fast today, didn’t they?” Mart said. “My head’s still spinning.”
“Every day we were at Uncle Andrew’s lodge, things happened,” Trixie sighed happily. “It’s almost the best vacation we’ve ever had.”
“Even if you did manage to get us into a lot of trouble,” Mart said, “beginning when you ran out of the cave without telling anyone and got mixed up with that wildcat.”
“But it wasn’t my fault that Mr. Glendenning was dumped in the water and we had to save him,” Trixie said defensively.
“Or that Slim did that awful thing to the bats in the cave,” Honey said loyally.
“Slim sure was a pain in the neck,” Mart added. “That fire he set could have destroyed the countryside for miles around.”
“And a lot he’d have cared!” Brian pushed Mart over so he’d have more room in the seat. “He’s where he can’t do any more harm now.”
“You can’t blame Slim for the worst thing that happened,” Jim said solemnly. “If you hadn’t disobeyed rules, Trixie, you’d never have been so near death in that sinkhole in the cave.”
Trixie’s face grew very serious. She hated to have Jim displeased with her. Then a smile replaced the frown, and she winked mischievously at Jim.
“I know that was wrong. But a lot of nice things happened, too.”
“That’s right,” Honey seconded her.
Jim smiled and nodded a vigorous agreement. “Of course they did, Trix,” he said. “Nice things always happen wherever the Bob-Whites are. We met Linnie, for instance. That was one of the best parts of our vacation—right?”
“Yes, and we all love her,” Trixie said happily. “Best of all, we
did
help restore her father to his family. Don’t forget, too, that we found that ghost fish, and I
think
we’re going to get a reward for it. That means we can help buy the station wagon for the handicapped children, after all. Oh, dear, I wonder if we’ll
ever
have another project as exciting as this one turned out to be!”
