The Mystery at Bob-White Cave

again today?”
    “Oh, I hope so,” Trixie said and looked expectantly at Jim and Brian. “I know we can find all the fish if we just get a chance to look for them without anything else happening.”
    “I wish you had a guide to go with you to replace Slim.”
    “I honestly think we know more about a cave than Slim does... Bob-WhiteCave, at least. Linnie said she’d go with us if her mother would give her permission. May she, please, Mrs. Moore?”
    “I suppose so,” Mrs. Moore said reluctantly. “I wish you’d just content yourselves with going fishing in Ghost River or the lake.”
    “With Slim gone, we’ll get along just fine in the cave,” Trixie urged.
    “Do you think it’ll be all right?” Mrs. Moore asked Uncle Andrew.
    “If Linnie may go, yes. The Bob-Whites have proved themselves pretty reliable in the woods around their home in Sleepyside. Come back before five o’clock, and observe all the rules for spelunking!”
     
    Over in the cave, in the big entrance room, Honey asked, “Do you have your lights? Three kinds for each one of you?”
    They all checked and nodded.
    “Do you have waterproof matches?”
    Trixie held up the plastic envelope to show Honey. “How could we forget? Every time we come into the cave you check and double-check. Have we left a note outside? Have we brought our ropes? Do we have extra carbide for our lamps? Canteens? Chocolate bars?”
    Honey looked dismayed. “I didn’t know I was such a bossy person.”
    “Heavens, you aren’t, Honey! We’re as grateful as can be. At least, I am. I always get so excited about things that I never remember anything I should do. I couldn’t accomplish anything without you, Honey.”
    “Well, now that the Admiration Society has concluded its meeting, shall we explore a little?” Mart asked. He led the way to the tunnel.
    As they neared the wall, Trixie cried out, “Why, that’s my bait bucket!”
    “It is!” Honey said. “It’s been right here all the time. That makes us look pretty foolish.”
    “It makes the bait bucket animated if it’s been here all the time. It didn’t walk over here to the wall. I left it just inside the opening to the cave. Hurry; let’s look inside!” Trixie threw back the lid and saw the ghost fish and crayfish.
    “It is my bucket,” she cried delightedly. “I wonder if Slim got scared and brought it back. Do you suppose it was Slim we saw on the lake last night? I’ve never known so many things to happen. I’m almost convinced that there are ghosts. I won’t be separated from that bait bucket again. Here, Mart, see if you can push it ahead of you through the tunnel.”
    Mart led the procession. The crawlway was short, and they soon stood in the other room. They had forgotten how beautiful it was and turned their heads about, flashing their carbide lamps on the gleaming stalactites. “Mercy, what happened to them?” Honey cried. “They’re broken off—dozens of them. Who’d do a thing like that?”
    Apparently someone had taken a blunt instrument and deliberately knocked off the tips of many of the beautiful calcite formations.
    “What a horrible thing to do!” Linnie said. “Some crazy person or somebody very evil did that.”
    “It was Slim,” Trixie said positively. “No one else but us knew about this cave or this room. I hope Uncle Andrew gets the sheriff to find him.”
    “If it was Slim, it’s sure strange about the bait bucket,” Honey said. “He didn’t have a change of heart and bring back the fish and then come on in here and wreck everything. I’m not too sure we should stay here. I think your uncle would want us to go right back to the lodge.”
    “There’s no one here now. Please, Honey, let’s look around and see if we can’t find some more fish while we’re right here on the spot,” Trixie begged. “I just can’t make any sense out of what’s going on.”
    “I think Slim is in cahoots with that Englishman,” Mart said. “I think they’ve been out here early this morning before we got here. I think they left the bait bucket here and didn’t think we’d be over here today, after roaming the woods last night. I think it was Slim who shot that rifle last night, and I think he’s working with that Mr. Glendenning.”
    “I’m sure it was Slim who fired the gun, but who was the man with the pack on his back? And what did he have in that pack? It wasn’t the bait bucket,” Trixie said.
    Mart threw up his hands. “Let’s forget the