The Mystery at Bob-White Cave

they inched their way back to the big room, Trixie pushing the bait bucket ahead of her.
    “I don’t know whether or not bats eat ghost fish,” Trixie said.
    Mart hooted. “They only eat insects.”
    “I’m not too sure you’re right. To be sure, I’ll buckle down the perforated top of the bucket, and my ghost fish and crayfish will be safe. And, jeepers, isn’t the ghost fish a beauty?”
    “It’s the beginning of five hundred dollars’ worth of beauty,” Mart said. “It has those little knobs of flesh where its eyes used to be. We still have to find one with eyes and one without eyes or even knobs before we have a chance at winning all that prize money.”
    “I know that,” Trixie said. “But this is a start. The other specimens are around here someplace, and we’ll come back after them tomorrow.”
     

Surprise Party ● 9
     
    THERE, THERE, NOW, what’s all the excitement?” Andrew Belden asked as Honey and Trixie burst through the door, almost knocking him down.
    “It’s just that we found a ghost fish!” Honey called. “One of them. Trixie found it!”
    “We all found it,” Trixie announced breathlessly. “As soon as Slim was out of the way, everything clicked. I wish we could have found the other specimens, but ghost fish are rare. You don’t just find them waiting for you around any old corner.”
    “Where is it? May I see it? Do you have it, Jim?”
    Jim, Brian, and Mart had come in the back way and were talking to Mrs. Moore in the kitchen.
    “We left it in the bait bucket in the cave,” Trixie explained. “We have a ghost crayfish, too. We thought the temperature in the cave would keep them much better.”
    “That was a wise thing to do,” Uncle Andrew said. “Yes, what is it, Mrs. Moore?”
    “See what I have. The boys found it at the back door—and not a sign of anyone around.”
    Mrs. Moore held a splint basket in her hand. She sat on a chair Linnie pushed forward for her and took off the cloth that had been laid over the contents of the basket.
    “A dressed wild turkey,” she exclaimed, “and two fat squirrels! Where on earth did they come from? It must be one of the neighbors who’s coming here tonight—”
    “Mama!”
    “Oh, Linnie, what will you and Mr. Belden do to me? I didn’t mean to let it out. It’s a surprise party,” she said to the Bob-Whites. “You might as well know it, anyway, because I never could keep it a secret from five pairs of bright eyes—two pairs of them belonging to famous detectives!”
    “A surprise party! We just love surprises. Who’s coming?” Trixie forgot her weariness from the cave explorations. Her eyes glowed with anticipation.
    “We just let it be known around that we’d have a play-party tonight. The news goes from place to place, and we never really know who’ll be here.” Mrs. Moore got up to take the basket to the kitchen. “Now, wasn’t it nice of someone to leave this offering? We’ll have our dinner right now, and you come and help me please, Linnie.”
    “Yes, Mama,” Linnie answered, then added, “It’s a good dinner!”
    It was a good dinner. There were shelled garden peas cooked with scraped new potatoes. There were snap beans cooked with an end of salt pork. There was ham, just brought in from the smokehouse that afternoon, along with fried chicken and baked yams.
    The Bob-Whites bowed their heads while Uncle Andrew asked the blessing, then ate as though they hadn’t tasted food for days. “How could you possibly cook a dinner like this and plan a surprise party, too?” Honey asked.
    “Linnie is a great help to me,” Mrs. Moore said. “Everybody’s going to have to help now, though,” Linnie said. “Trixie, if you and Honey will help Mama with the dishes, and if the boys will help me, we can be ready before the first person comes.”
    The girls hurried about, scraping dishes and dipping water for washing out of the big reservoir on the kitchen stove.
    At Linnie’s direction, the boys folded up the hooked rugs in the living room, pushed the furniture back, and brought in planks to put across chairs pushed against the wall.
    “Will there be that many people? Will they have to sit on planks? Aren’t there enough chairs?” Sitting on a plank wasn’t Mart’s idea of having a good time at a party.
    “You’ll see,” Linnie answered. “The women Mama’s age always sit along the wall and watch while we play games and dance. The men will play Pitch Up here in the corner. We’ll