The Indian Burial Ground Mystery

away in their trailer. The Manor House would be
darkened as early as possible.
    Later, Miss Trask joined the Bob-Whites for supper at the clubhouse.
When it was almost dark, they went to the Manor House and took up their
positions. Miss Trask and Regan went to Regan’s apartment. Honey, Trixie, and
Di hid behind a clump of magnolia bushes just outside the French windows.
    Brian, Mart, Dan, and Charles shut off all the lights in the house, and
then hid. Brian and Charles stood on either side of the front door. Mart stood
behind the huge double doors that led from the foyer to the living room. Dan
hid behind the door to the library.
    Then they waited. It felt like hours to Trixie. After all the planning
and excitement of the day, she could hardly keep still.
    Just as Trixie was about to give in to an attack of the fidgets, she
heard the sound of tires crunching on gravel. She watched as a car slowly came
up the driveway. As it rounded the curve, the headlights were shut off. Then
the car continued slowly in the darkness.
    Instead of pulling up to the front door, it continued across the lawn
and parked in front of the veranda—only a few feet from where Trixie, Honey,
and Di were hiding. The car doors opened slowly, and two men stealthily crossed
the veranda and opened the French windows.
    Trixie immediately gave the Bob-White whistle, long and low: bob,
bob-white. She hoped that Regan would hear it. Suddenly the girls heard
a yell and a growl from inside the house.
    Bolting out from under the bush, the three girls ran for the French
windows. Trixie gave the whistle again, this time loud and shrill: bob,
bob-white.
    Honey turned on the lights as they rushed into the house. The sight that
greeted the girls was enough to make them burst out laughing. Brian and Mart
were sitting on Professor Conroy’s back, twisting his arms behind him. Dan and
Charles were holding a large, blue-satin upholstered chair across Harry Kemp’s
chest, pinning him to the floor. Charles’s knee was pressed into Harry’s
stomach. Both men had angry, red faces.
    Moments later, Regan burst in holding a heavy wrench in his hand. Miss
Trask was right behind him.
    “Did you call the police?” Trixie asked.
    “Yup,” Regan said, brandishing the wrench in Professor Conroy’s face. “I
called them when I saw the car’s headlights go off as it came up the driveway.
Only an unwelcome visitor would pull a stunt like that.”
    It didn’t take long before the scream of sirens was heard as a police
car roared up the long driveway. Trixie gave a sigh of relief. She suddenly
realized how dangerous her plan had been. The two angry men pinned to the floor
might have been carrying guns! They might even have hurt one of the Bob-Whites
in the scuffle! She was glad to see Sergeant Molinson come into the room.
    He took one look around at everyone, then put his gun back into its
holster. “Looks like you didn’t need us,” he grumbled when he saw how
effectively they had subdued the two men. “I presume these are the suspects?”
    “You presume right,” Charles Miller said happily. Then Regan, Charles,
and Trixie all started talking at once.
    “Wait a minute, wait a minute,” Sergeant Molinson finally said, throwing up his hands. “One at a time, and down at the station
house. We need to take these two in for booking.” He shot a grim look at
Trixie. Then he snapped handcuffs on Professor Conroy and Harry Kemp.



14 * The Real Treasure
     
    “I can’t believe it,” muttered a graduate student after Trixie had explained the events of the night
before. “If that doesn’t beat everything I’ve ever heard, I don’t know what
does!” The Bob-Whites were seated under the shade trees around the edge of the dig
site. The late-afternoon sun shimmered on the meadow. But the usual feeling of
busy activity was gone. Now the students just sat around, looking disheartened.
They listened as Trixie told about the morning she’d spent at the Sleepyside
police station.
    “And not only that,” Trixie added proudly, “it turns out that Kemp and
Professor Conroy are the ones who committed all the other burglaries in the
area, too.”
    “The thing I can’t figure out,” Brian said thoughtfully, “is how you
knew the professor would come back to the Manor House last night.”
    “That was the easy part,” Trixie answered. “I figured that after Honey
told him that she had to leave the dig because she and Miss Trask were going to Europe , he’d figure