The Mystery at Bob-White Cave

fast, young lady. If there’s to be another expedition to the cave, I’ll go, too.”
    “That would be great!” Mart said.
    “You can see for yourself, then, that there’s no danger when it isn’t raining,” Trixie said. “May we start?”
    “In a little while,” Uncle Andrew said.
    “We only have today. Tomorrow we have to take the specimens to the man in White Hole Springs and then leave for home. Please, Uncle Andrew?” Trixie pleaded.
    “I want to wait for one thing; then we can start,” Uncle Andrew said. “Linnie, please ride over and ask Bill Hawkins if he’d join us. Tell him I need him.” Trixie ran to her uncle and hugged him. “You’re an old fraud and a darling!” she said. “Mr. Hawkins will be so relieved to have you say that. I felt sorry for him last night.”
    “Try feeling sorry for me, with my responsibility,” Uncle Andrew said. “And, for heaven’s sake, stay close to Bill and me, all of you, and be careful!”
     
    When they entered the cave, they found that the water had receded, leaving the clay floor slippery and mottled with pools. With some difficulty, they shoved wooden beams through the crawlway to the room where the sinkhole was.
    “If there’s still deep water in that hole, I’ll just die!” Trixie said under her breath to Jim. “We’ll never get Uncle Andrew to come over here again.”
    Carefully they made their way across the room, around the stalagmites and rocks, to the edge of the sinkhole. Inside, happily, the water had drained to the level at which it had been when Trixie went down the day before.
    Uncle Andrew and Bill Hawkins circled the hole and bent frequently to look down into its depths.
    “See!” Trixie said. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
    “You’re irrepressible, Trixie,” her uncle said.
    “I have another word for it,” Mart said. “Let me be the one to go down this time. I weigh less than Jim or Brian.”
    “No—please, please, no!” Trixie protested. “I want to be the one to go. I was down there once, and I know just what to do. Please!”
    “It’s no place for a girl,” Uncle Andrew answered quickly. “You almost died down there yesterday, Trixie. Do you want to take another chance?”
    “Yes, yes, I do. It’s only right. I saw the fish, and I want to be the one to go after them. Mr. Hawkins, tell Uncle Andrew there’s no danger now. It was that cloudburst that was to blame.”
    “I’m not the one to say,” Bill Hawkins answered.
    “She’s a spunky young ’un, I will say that.”
    “There’ll be six of us up here to watch,” Jim said. “Her heart’s so set on being the one to get the fish. You might as well let her go, Mr. Belden.”
    Reluctantly Uncle Andrew gave his consent. He watched intently while Jim and Brian carefully placed the beams over the hole and securely adjusted the rope ladder.
    “This will be a breeze this time,” Trixie said exultantly and went down the ladder.
    The rain had washed in an assortment of queer creatures—transparent crayfish, flatworms, spiders, beetles, and salamanders.
    “Don’t waste any time on worms,” Mart called. “Do you see any fish?”
    “Swarms of them!” Trixie called up triumphantly.
    She dipped her net again and again and sent the plastic bucket to the top.
    “Are they the right kind?” she called.
    “There’s another one with eyes,” Jim answered.
    “And more with just bumps for eyes... two of them, I mean,” Brian added.
    -“And some... yes, two with no eyes at all!” Honey cried.
    “That’s all you’re after, isn’t it?” Uncle Andrew, kneeling, asked anxiously, his huge flashlight illuminating the whole inside of the hole.
    “Send up a few more for good luck!” Mart shouted. “Then come on up, Trixie.”
    Trixie did as Mart asked. Then, holding tight to the ladder, she carefully climbed to the top and out. Her clothes were soaked, but she didn’t care. “Just look at them!” she shouted. “Right there in those bait buckets! Aren’t they beautiful?”
    “Five hundred dollars’ worth,” Mart said, then added, “I hope.”
    Trixie whirled around. “What do you mean, you hope?” she asked.
    “Someone could have found the specimens ahead of us.”
    “What a horrible thought, Mart Belden! I’ve had the strangest feeling ever since we’ve been here, though, that Slim is around someplace.”
    “Stop bothering about Slim,” Jim said and picked up one of the bait buckets. “I think you struck gold in this cave.