“You’re always right, Mart,” the gruff voice answered. “In fact, with your omniscient and magnificent intellect, how could you ever be anything else?”
“I wish you wouldn’t do that, Mart,” Trixie snapped, suddenly nervous. “Oh, I wish we’d never come down here at all. I’ve got a feeling something terrible’s about to happen.”
Honey squeezed her arm. “Hey, Trix, if you really want to go back up, I’ll go with you.”
“Me, too,” Di said quickly. “I wish I’d never asked what a mace was. I know I wanted to see the beach, but”—she looked over her shoulder— “I’d rather see it in daylight.”
“You’d never see your way back up the cliff without us,” Brian said. “If you want to, though, we’ll leave you here while we explore.”
“No,” Trixie said. “I think that we should all stick together, no matter what.”
As they moved away from the jetty, the fog closed in around them once more. Soon a pile of jagged rocks loomed beside them.
“I found Clarence right here,” Mart announced, pointing to one of them. “It’s a wonder he didn’t crack up.” He gave the dummy a friendly thump on the leg. “Plastic,” he explained. “It’s a good thing, too—for his sake.”
Brian took the flashlight from Mart’s hand. He played the beam of light over the rocks and then toward the base of the tall cliffs behind them.
“I was right!” he cried suddenly. “I thought I saw an opening. Look, there it is! It’s Captain Trask’s secret cave!”
“ ‘Faint heart ne’er did a rich man’—or woman—‘make,’ ” Mart yelled. “So come on, you guys! This way to the treasure.”
The cave was dark and cold as the Bob-Whites stepped inside it. It had a dank, musty smell. It reminded Trixie of the dumbwaiter shaft.
She shivered as Mart, holding the flashlight once more, moved forward eagerly. “Get a move on, everyone!” he ordered. “Follow me!”
Brian, Jim, and Dan needed no second bidding. After a moment’s hesitation, Honey and Di joined them.
Trixie stumbled forward, the last one to enter the cave. She was surprised at her own reluctance. At any other time, she would have scrambled ahead of everyone else.
She couldn’t help remembering, however, another cave, in which she and the Bob-Whites had been searching for ghost fish. She also remembered what had happened there.
She shivered again and crept forward, wishing the others would wait for her.
Inside, it was pitch-black. She could feel the soft sand beneath her feet. It deadened all sound of her progress.
Her groping fingers reached for the wall, but instantly she snatched her hand away as it encountered something horridly slippery. Was it a jellyfish? Trixie thought it unlikely. The cave itself appeared to be too dry for any of the river’s creatures to reach it. Besides, a jellyfish lived only in salt water. Or did it? Try as she might, she couldn’t remember.
“There’s something about this place I don’t like,” she muttered to herself.
A man’s deep chuckle answered her.
“Brian?” Di’s voice called from somewhere ahead of her. “Was that you laughing?”
“It wasn’t any of us,” Jim’s voice called.
Trixie hurried toward the sound of their voices and soon reached her friends. “It was Mart,” she announced. “He’s making that dummy talk again.”
“But I didn’t say anything, honest!” Mart protested, stopping dead in his tracks. “Neither did Clarence.”
Trixie heard Honey take a deep, quivering breath. “But if it wasn’t one of us—then who was it?”
In a penetrating whisper, someone said, “Beware the ghosts who guard the place—”
At that moment, the flashlight’s comforting beam flickered and died, and suffocating blackness enveloped them all.
Treasure Island ● 15
IF THE BOB-WHITES had been able to see where they were going, they would have immediately turned and run back the way they had come— but it was too late!
Trixie, glancing over her shoulder, could see nothing of the cave’s entrance. They had come too far!
For a moment, no one said anything. Then everyone began talking at once.
“Oh, come on, you guys,” Di said, her voice trembling. “A joke is a joke, but this isn’t funny anymore.”
“That’s right!” Honey exclaimed. “Which one of you is playing the part of the ghost? Jim, is it you?”
Jim, meanwhile, had turned to accuse Dan, who was already protesting his innocence.
“For crying out loud, Mart,” Brian was saying, “you were supposed to buy new flashlight batteries.”
“I did,” Mart cried. “Unfortunately, I forgot to bring them with me. They’re still in our room, back at the inn.” He paused. “Fortunately, I’ve got a great idea. Maybe our friendly ghost will go get them for us. How about it, whoever you are?”
The Bob-Whites strained their ears for another sign that would tell them they were not alone, but no one answered.
“Maybe whoever it was has gone,” Jim muttered, voicing the thought in everyone’s mind.
“Now what do we do?” Dan asked. “We can’t stay here forever. I’m going to try to find the way out of here and—”
Suddenly Trixie reached out toward the sound of Dan’s voice. She put a hand on his arm. “Wait!” she whispered hoarsely. “Something’s happening.”
Honey groaned. “Oh, Trix!” she wailed. “Don’t say that! I’m not sure I can take any more excitement.”
Honey had no choice in the matter. The Bob-Whites were slowly discovering that, astonishingly, the darkness around them was lifting. Soon they could see each other’s dim outlines. Then they began to notice their surroundings.
Open-mouthed, they stared around them. Now they could see that they were standing in a low-ceilinged cavern where the rough rock surfaces appeared to be green with age.
Here and there, moss seemed to cling to tiny crevices, and small fungi clustered in places along the walls.
Trixie shuddered and surreptitiously wiped her hand on her jeans. She realized it must have been this that her fingers had touched moments before. She hoped the fungus wasn’t the poisonous kind.
She could also see a massive boulder that lay sprawled on its side on the sandy floor. It looked as if it had been flung there by some gigantic hand. Beyond it, the shadows were impenetrable.
Mart hefted Clarence to a more comfortable position on his shoulder. Then he gripped the dismembered arm by its wrist. He raised it slowly over his head as if to use it as a weapon. If they hadn’t been so apprehensive about what might happen next, the Bob-Whites would have laughed.
As it was, Mart said grimly, “We’ve come this far. Now I’m going to find that treasure, ghost or no ghost.” He took a step forward. Instantly, someone chuckled and whispered again, “Beware....”
Trixie frowned. “There’s something about all this that isn’t right at all....”
The boys weren’t listening. In another second, they had rushed past her toward the boulder’s black shadows.
Trixie heard Mart shout, “Oh, wow, will you look at that! What's going on?”
Then there was silence.
Trixie wasn’t sure what she expected to see when she raced forward to find them. She found herself thinking of the bats they had found in that other cave. It was strange, though, that this time the boys hadn’t yelled a warning.
Moving carefully, she came to the place where the boys had disappeared. She rounded the corner and stopped dead.
The reality far surpassed anything she had imagined, She found the boys staring, speechless, at a small grotto in front of them. To add to their confusion, it seemed to be lit by invisible flickering torches. Trixie gazed around, looking for the source of the light, but she couldn’t find it.
She saw long stalactites hanging from the rocky roof, and from somewhere in the distance, she could hear the sound of ocean waves beating against some unseen shore.
Unbelieving, the boys were gazing at a small grass-covered island in the middle of the sandy floor. Even more astonishing was the tall palm tree that decorated its center.
“Gleeps!” Trixie exclaimed. “It’s even got tropical flowers and plants growing at its base.“
“Tropical flowers?” Honey breathed, running to join her. “In a cave?”
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Di cried a moment later.
“But that’s not all,” Dan said, pointing. “Will you look at that!”
Trixie gazed toward that surprising island and saw an old brass-studded wooden chest half hidden in the foliage. From its half-opened lid there sprawled a rope of gleaming pearls.
Propped against the chest was a grinning skeleton dressed in the clothes of a pirate chief.
In one bony hand he held a cutlass. In the other, he held a pistol. A dagger was stuck into the belt of his black trousers; the mace lay across his skinny lap.
“Oh, Trixie,” Di gasped, “do you think it’s Captain Trask?”
Then, as they stood rooted to the spot, the skeleton opened its hideous mouth—and laughed.
Terrified, Honey and Di clung to each other and stared at the maker of the ghastly sound.
Even Mr. Appleton’s dummy was affected by the skeleton’s dreadful laughter. Momentarily unnerved, Mart relaxed his grip. For the second time that evening, Clarence dropped with a dull thud to the ground.
Honey and Di were beginning to feel that nothing had the power to astonish them anymore that night. They were wrong.
It seemed almost as though they were under the spell of some evil genius as they watched Clarence’s head slowly detach itself from his unprotesting body. It seemed like fate when it rolled to the skeleton’s feet.
But neither of them expected Trixie to walk casually forward to pick it up.
“I’ve been trying to tell you,” she said, turning to face them. “It’s a fake.”
Di still hadn’t recovered from the shock. “What’s a fake?” she asked. “Are you talking about the dummy?”
“Of course not,” Trixie answered impatiently. “I mean the cave, the ghostly voices, the sound of the sea—all of this.” Holding Clarence’s head in one hand, she gestured with it to indicate their surroundings.
“We guessed as much,” Mart said slowly, “but all the same, you’ve got to admit the whole thing is wonderfully spooky.”
“I don’t know how it all works,” Brian said, “but I’ll bet there’s some kind of electronic gimmick or something. I expect it’s all turned on whenever anyone walks in here.”
“How did you know, Trixie?” Honey asked.
“I got to thinking,” Trixie answered, “and I guess the boys did, too. I realized that none of this whole situation rang true. When our flashlight went out, we shouldn’t have been able to see a thing. Instead of that, the walls began to glow as if someone wanted to lead us here. Besides, it was all too easy. We didn’t even have to search very far to find the cave.”
“I wonder if they have that special lighting in here, too,” Honey said suddenly. “If so, maybe the rocks as well as the galleon have been painted with fluorescent paint.”
“The light could be coming from somewhere outside,” Dan said uncertainly.
At that moment, Brian, who had been exploring, said, “No, I was right. The whole thing seems to be activated by a series of trip wires and switches. There even seems to be some sort of tape machine to give the sound effects. It’s all hidden over here, behind this rock.”
Mart stared down at the paper containing the clues to the treasure. “And I suppose there’s one of these hidden somewhere in every room at the inn, too. Jeepers, it really had me going!”
“You know what this reminds me of?” Di said. “It’s just like one of those big amusement parks where they feature attractions like the Tunnel of Love—”
“Or in this case, the Pirate’s Cave,” Mart broke in bitterly.
“But I still don’t understand,” Jim said. “Who’s gone to the trouble of setting up such an elaborate joke?”
“Oh, I’m sure it’s no joke,” Trixie assured him. “I bet we’ll find that this was all Mr. Trask’s idea. I expect it’s another one of his tourist attractions. He’s fixed this up to give the place—“
“Atmosphere,” Honey finished, grinning.
Trixie nodded. “And Di’s right, I think. It is like one of those places where you have to pay admission to get in. Maybe, during the summer, they have tour guides and everything.”
“But how about the treasure?” Di asked, still disappointed.
“Yeah, how about that?” Mart asked.
Trixie hesitated, then walked to the treasure chest and flipped open its lid. “Come and look,” she invited, grinning.
The Bob-Whites crowded around.
“Well, I’ll be a simian’s sibling!” Mart exclaimed. “They look just like doubloons!”
Honey giggled as Trixie announced grandly, “It is chocolate! It is not very good chocolate, because I”—she thumped her chest with Clarence’s head—“did not make it myself.”
Clarence smiled patiently as Trixie and Honey told their friends how they, too, had made the same mistake earlier.
At last, they turned to leave. They paused for one final look around them. Now that they had solved the secret of the mysterious cave, they found themselves wondering how they had ever been fooled.
“Even the tree, the plants, and the skeleton were made of plastic,” Mart said sadly as they made their way back to the beach.
“And don’t forget the fake moss and squishy fungus on the walls,” Trixie said, helping Mart rearrange Clarence across his shoulders.
It was fortunate that the fog had almost gone as the Bob-Whites made their way slowly back up the wooden steps.
When they reached the top of the cliff, Honey yawned. “I’m going straight to bed,” she announced, “and this time nothing—not even the ghost of Captain Trask—is going to stop me.”
Suddenly, Trixie felt very tired, too. So much had happened since they arrived at Pirate’s Inn.
“Still, I’m glad we took the time to fit Clarence back together again,” she told Honey later, as they climbed into bed. “I thought he looked terrific when we propped him up outside Mr. Appleton’s door. He was almost as good as new.”
“It still seems strange that a grown man should travel around with a manikin,” Honey said sleepily as she snuggled under the covers. “Why does he, do you suppose?”
Trixie was thinking about something else. She stared up at the ceiling and said, “Tomorrow, Mr. Trask will tell us all about his disappearing trick. I can hardly wait to hear how he did it. Can you, Honey?”
But her friend was already fast asleep.
The Vanishing Trick ● 16
IN THE MORNING, however, it took Trixie no time at all to learn that Mr. Trask was still missing.
“But what can have happened to him?” she asked as the Bob-Whites sat eating their breakfast.
Jim’s fork, with its load of delicious blueberry pancake, dripping with maple syrup, paused on its way to his mouth. “I wish I knew, Trix,” he said. “There’ve been so many conflicting stories to account for his disappearance. The Weasel thinks he’s made a quick unexpected trip to New York to order supplies of some sort. Smiley Jackson is certain that Mr. Trask’s gone off somewhere to try to borrow money to pay off the loan—”
“The cash still hasn’t turned up,” Dan interrupted, “and it’s supposed to be paid to Mr. Morgan tonight.”
Trixie stared out of the dining room window. Although the last faint traces of fog still remained, she could tell that the sun was about to break through.
Di passed her the tray containing the mouthwatering assortment of pancake syrups. They were neatly labeled maple, raspberry, strawberry, blueberry, and honey. Trixie gazed at the sparkling glass containers without seeing them. She was thinking hard.
“What about Miss Trask?” she asked at last. “Wha
t does she think has happened to her brother?”
Mart sighed and pushed his empty plate away from him. “I think she’s called the police,” he said. “She thinks there may be dirty work at the crossroads.”
Trixie looked up quickly. “What kind of dirty work?”
“That’s just it, Trix,” Honey replied. “She’s not sure. In fact, no one’s sure about anything except that a lot of money that should be here isn’t, and that—”
“And that Mr. Trask shouldn’t have disappeared, but he did,” Brian added.
“While the rest of you sack artists were still snoring,” Jim announced, grinning, “we men got up early and really made a thorough search for the missing cash.” He frowned. “I wish I knew what we ought to do next.”
“We told Miss Trask about the cave and the ship,” Dan put in. “We even took her down to the beach to take a look around.”
“Why didn’t you wait for us?” Trixie asked. Jim smiled at her. “You didn’t miss anything, Trix. As you know, we couldn’t go on board the galleon. We didn’t even walk along the jetty. Remember those signs? They told us to keep off, in no uncertain terms.”
Trixie stared up at the villainous-looking portrait of the fake Captain Trask. He seemed to leer back at her.
“I hate that picture,” she said suddenly. “I wish we could see what the real captain looked like. Do you think Miss Trask would let us see the original painting?”
After breakfast, when they went to ask her, they discovered her sitting in the little office that belonged to her brother, staring out at the pale sunshine.
Although she greeted them with her usual kind patience, the Bob-Whites could tell she was very worried.
“Oh, Miss Trask,” Honey said, hurrying to her side, “is there any news?”
Miss Trask sighed. “I’ve just had a visit from the police,” she said. “They seem to think there’s nothing to worry about. They’ve promised to make inquiries. They’re interviewing the staff now.”
“Is there anything we can do?” Jim asked, his voice low.
The Mystery of the Ghostly Galeon Page 10
