The Indian Burial Ground Mystery

that he and Harry could
rob the Manor House in complete safety. And I had a feeling they’d act quickly,
too.”
    “What I find amazing,” Charles said, “is that Conroy wasn’t an
archaeologist at all!”
    “He just wished he was one,” muttered another student. “What incredible
nerve!”
    “Well, he was pretty good,” Charles admitted. “He sure had us fooled.”
    There was a low undercurrent of grumbling as the students thought about
how easy they’d been to fool.
    “I can’t believe how much trouble Conroy went to, just to get money for
archaeological research,” Mart said wonderingly.
    “Sometimes the urge to be an archaeologist can be overpowering,” Charles
said with a sad smile at Trixie. Trixie smiled back. She understood what
Charles meant.
    “He pretended to be a friend of the family, too,” Honey said. “And he
wasn’t even a friend of Professor Ingles.”
    “Conroy was just a clerk in the archaeology department at Oxford University ,”
Trixie explained. “He took the job so he could get Oxford stationery, which he used to write
phony letters of recommendation from Professor Ingles.”
    “He knew how hard it would be for the Wheelers to get verification from
Ingles,” Charles explained. “Remember, Ingles was in the Sudan , and very
hard to get hold of—even in an emergency.”
    The young people sat in silence for a while, digesting the amazing events
of the past day. Charles Miller looked around the dig site mournfully.
    “And did you hear what Conroy said down at the police station?” he said.
“He thinks he knows where the lost continent of Atlantis is located.”
    “What’s that?” asked Di.
    “Atlantis was a great, ancient civilization,” Brian said. “We know about
it only through the writings of Plato. It was supposedly destroyed by an
earthquake, and then sank into the sea. Many people believe that Atlantis was a
perfect democracy. Conroy believed that it was also a very wealthy land, but no
one in academic circles would help him finance an expedition. So he got the
money another way—by stealing it.”
    “I’m not a bit surprised,” Charles said. “Who would spend all that money
on a madman’s dream? Of course, he could have made it all back—and plenty
more—if he’d actually found some treasure.”
    “It sounds as if he thought he was Heinrich Schliemann,” Brian said.
    “That’s true,” said Charles. “Schliemann had absolutely no credentials
as an archaeologist. All he had was a lot of money, and a good idea about where
the ancient city of Troy was located. Academics thought Schliemann was a fool because he based his
research on ancient legends, not on archaeological evidence. But he found Troy and really cleaned
up!”
    “If Heinrich Schliemann could do it,” Honey said, “why couldn’t Conroy?
No one believed Schliemann, either.”
    “In a way, it’s too bad he didn’t get funding,” Charles said
thoughtfully. “It would have been fantastic to go on an underwater
excavation—even if we never found Atlantis!”
    “Now we should have a discussion about the lack of funding for worthy
research,” said a graduate student. “That’s always good for a few laughs.”
    “You know what Mark Twain said,” Mart explained. “ ‘Rich or poor, it’s
good to have money’!”
    “What about the ghost?” Di asked. “What was that all about?”
    Trixie and Charles exchanged knowing glances.
    “A ghost?” Mart said. “How could you forget to mention a thing like
that, Trixie?” Trixie pouted. She knew Mart was teasing her about ghosts. “Oh,
it was nothing. The night of the burglary, Charles was running around in the
woods wearing a funny costume. He thought he could scare us. Hah!”
    “It was a practical joke,” Charles said, looking embarrassed.
    “I knew there couldn’t be a ghost,” Trixie said as nonchalantly as she
could. “So I decided not even to mention the incident.”
    “Not a ghost!” Di gasped. “I thought I was going to faint!”
    “I wasn’t scared at all,” Trixie said smugly.
    Honey coughed loudly, trying to cover her laughter.
    “There’s one thing I don’t understand,” Dan said. “How did Conroy manage
to attend a burglary if he was in the hospital with a concussion?”
    “Easy,” Trixie said. “He faked the concussion. It’s not so hard to do.
The doctors kept him under observation for ten days, but that didn’t keep him
from climbing out the window after the last nurse check. They found