The Mystery at Bob-White Cave

I doubt whether there’s another spot like it.”
    “Well, then,” Trixie said confidently, “we’ll just get them into White Hole Springs and settle the whole business. Isn’t it wonderful?”
    Uncle Andrew watched, relieved, as the Bob-Whites assembled all their paraphernalia and crept back through the crawlway. “Now that that’s over, I can rest peacefully for a while,” he said.
    He spoke too soon.
    When they emerged from the cave, an appalling thing was happening down on the beach, right in front of their eyes.
    “It’s Slim!” Trixie screamed. “Hurry! He’s killing a man! Jim!”
    Slim, immediately aware that he had been seen, quickly pushed the man to the ground and dashed toward his boat.
    Jim, swift as a deer, attacked with a flying lunge. Slim dodged adroitly and delivered a swinging right that struck Jim on the jaw and threw him to his hands and knees. Slim backed off then and edged toward the waiting boat, grinning insolently.
    Brian started to Jim’s assistance, but Uncle Andrew waved him back. “Jim can take him! He doesn’t want help.”
    With that, Jim was up again, crouching and weaving, closing in on Slim. This time he landed a hard one-two that caught Slim off guard and took his wind. In a second Jim was at him, his right shoulder lowered. Before Slim knew what had happened, he went cartwheeling over Jim’s shoulder and fell, spread-eagled, on the ground.
    “Tie him up now!” Jim called, dusting his hands.
    Elated, Brian and Mart quickly bound Slim with their nylon ropes. He lay inert, panting and cursing.
    “That stunt, with all the rest of your meanness, will get you a good term in the pokey,” Bill Hawkins said sternly. He picked up the rifle that lay close to the water’s edge.
    “A killer,” Uncle Andrew said soberly. “That’s the kind of guide I picked for these young people. I’d like to be on the jury that tries him.”
    “It ain’t my gun,” Slim mumbled. “It’s his’n.” He jerked his head toward his victim.
    Swiftly Trixie and Honey turned their attention to the fallen man. Half-conscious, he put his hand again and again to his head. He groaned pitifully.
    “Get some water, please, Mart,” Trixie said. “Cold water from the spring inside the cave. I’ll make a compress.” She pulled her scarf from her neck, dipped it into the water Mart brought, and folded it across the man’s forehead. He relaxed at once, visibly relieved.
    “Let Brian examine him,” Honey said. “He’s going to be a doctor,” she explained proudly to Bill Hawkins.
    “There aren’t any broken bones,” Brian said. “It’s mostly his head that’s hurt. Trixie, you and Honey keep changing that compress. There—see—he’s opening his eyes.”
    Bill Hawkins drew a quick breath. “It’s the stranger from the ghost cabin! With all those blond whiskers, no wonder everyone took him for a white-haired ghost. He’s coming to now, isn’t he?”
    Weakly the man raised his hand, brushed it across his eyes as though to clear his vision, attempted to sit up, blinked at the girls, then shook his head sadly. “No,” he said to himself, “it’s not either of them.”
    “Take it easy, sir,” Brian warned. “You’ve been badly hurt!”
    “My head!” the man said. “Where am I? Where’s Slim?”
    “You’re with friends,” Uncle Andrew assured him. “We’ll take care of you as soon as you feel a little stronger. As for Slim, he’s trussed up down there on the beach, waiting for the sheriff.”
    “He had no right to jump on me,” the man said. “I was only trying to help the young people.”
    The Bob-Whites looked at one another, puzzled. “Where am I?” the man asked again, blinking in bewilderment.
    “Outside a cave on the shore of Lake Wamatosa,” Uncle Andrew said. “Don’t worry about it now. Save your strength.”
    “Lake Wamatosa!” the man repeated, his blue eyes full of wonder. “Lake Wamatosa!... I remember it! Did you hear what I said? I remember it!”
    “It’s like I thought,” Bill Hawkins said in a low voice as his forefinger traced a circle at his forehead. “He’s crazy.”
    “I don’t think so,” Uncle Andrew said. “I don’t think so at all. Are you feeling stronger?” he asked the man.
    “I can walk all right,” the man said and raised himself. He shook his head dizzily, then got to his feet. “If you will just get me across to the other side, there’s someone there I’ve got to find.”
    “We’ll take you,” Jim