The Mystery at Bob-White Cave

sides.
    “You’ll be laughing out of the other sides of your faces before Trixie and her partner, Honey Wheeler, ever leave this part of the country,” Jim said solemnly and turned his head to wink at Uncle Andrew.
    “He’s right!” Uncle Andrew said vehemently and told the astonished men how Trixie and Honey, with the help of the other Bob-Whites, had uncovered the thieves who had been stealing his sheep back in Iowa.
    “That’s the best yarn I’ve heard in a long time!” one of the men said. “Have you got any more like it, Andy?”
    Trixie just turned up her nose, took Honey’s arm, and walked out the door. “We’ll meet you at the motel,” she called back to the others.
    Jim, Brian, and Mart caught up with the girls a few minutes later. “Uncle Andrew was telling them about some of your other stunts,” Brian said. “He won’t leave till he has them believing you really are Sure-Shot Trix Belden, girl wonder of Westchester County.”
    “I just wish you and Jim and Mart and Uncle Andrew would let me have a gun and teach me how to shoot it,” Trixie answered. “I’d show you!”
    “Just let Moms hear you say that!” Mart said.
    Trixie didn’t answer him. “Do you suppose we can find out who that man at the motel is, Honey?”
    “You can, if anyone can, and now’s your chance to try. I don’t believe there are many guests at the motel. There are only three cars parked here.”
    The office was vacant when they went in. After they had waited a short time, Jim whistled. No one answered. Trixie walked over to the desk, where a small bell stood. Before she tapped it, she noticed the open register. She squinted to read the signature scrawled across it in heavy black ink. Try as she would, reading upside down, she couldn’t make out the name, but she did see, following the name, the printed words “Scientific Digest.” She whistled triumphantly and motioned to the others to look.
    Just as they were ready to leave, the motel manager came in and directed them to the small lunch counter down the hall.
    “He’s here!” Trixie said, elated. “The reward is really on the level. The magazine means business. Gosh, let’s order our food in a hurry; order for Uncle Andrew, too. That guide, Slim, will probably be at the lodge by now. Let’s get back as fast as Shem and Japheth will take us!”
    “They’re not racehorses,” Mart drawled.
    “Maybe they aren’t, but they’ll get us to the lodge, and we can hike to the caves. I think there’s almost as much to discover underground as there is in outer space. After all the money Uncle Andrew spent today on equipment for us, I’m going to try hard to show him it wasn’t wasted. We’re going to find those specimens. Right?”
    “Right!” the other Bob-Whites chorused as the waitress came with the menu.
     

Getting Acquainted • 5
     
    IN THE WAGON on the way back to the lodge, Honey gave Trixie a sharp nudge. “You haven’t said a word for ten minutes. What are you thinking about?”
    “I’ve been thinking,” Trixie announced to all the Bob-Whites, “that we’d better keep the purpose of our exploration a secret. You can be pretty sure that everyone around here will be out after those specimens, once that editor at the motel starts talking.”
    “It sure won’t be any secret then,” Brian reminded her.
    “No, but we’ll have a head start of a few days.”
    “Slim will have to know what you’re after if he’s to be your guide,” Uncle Andrew said.
    “Will he really have to know?” Trixie’s voice was anxious. “He might possibly try to find the fish himself.”
    “If I know Slim, he’d rather go after a bass than after any cave fish. You wouldn’t have to tell him there’s a reward for the fish, would you?”
    “No, I guess not. Do you know Slim real well?”
    “I don’t really know him at all, except seeing him around the lodge when he helped Bill Hawkins. He’s some sort of relative of Mrs. Moore’s, I believe. She said he’s a regular woodsman; he’s been running around wild since he could walk. If he’s anything like Mrs. Moore, you can tell him anything and trust him completely.”
    “That’s the best way,” Honey said quickly. “I don’t see any need to be so closemouthed.”
    “I don’t either,” Mart echoed.
    “Well, why don’t we wait till we meet Slim?” Jim suggested.
    “That’s right,” Brian agreed. “Trixie’s intuition has worked more times than not. Let’s see what she thinks