The Mystery at Mead's Mountain

saying a thing to anyone,” Bert snapped. “I have my rights.”
    “How come you didn’t bring Ellen Johnson?” Trixie persisted. “I thought that was part of the deal.”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    When Trixie turned to share a look of amazement with Jim, she noticed for the first time that he’d been hurt. By the light of her flashlight, she could see the blood trickling down Jim’s face from a cut on his forehead, along with a badly bruised eye and puffiness around his face. Without flinching a bit, she got some bandages from her survival kit and started taking care of the cut just as she imagined Brian would.
    “I didn’t even feel that cut. But, boy, is my hand sore,” Jim said, flexing his hand.
    They heard some rustling in the bushes, and Honey appeared, followed by Carl and Jack.
    Trixie turned to Bert. “It sure was nice of you to tie up Jack for us,” she said sweetly.
    Bert growled at her again.
    “Can you believe it?” Honey panted as she came closer. “It wasn’t Pat and Katie after all!”
    “You dirty double-crosser!” yelled Jack.
    “Shut up,” snarled Bert. “Both of us are in this together.”
    “We must find Ellen,” Carl said groggily. “They said she’s okay, but they refuse to tell me where she is.”
    “First we have to get everyone back to the lodge,” Jim decided. “And call the police. You and Jack are going to need your heads looked at by a doctor. That was no light tap Bert gave you.”
    “I thought I told you before that I’m a tough old coot,” said Carl impatiently. “The important thing now is to find Ellen.”
    “As soon as I get the truck back together,” Jim promised. “Trixie, give me that coil wire, will you? We can come back for the Tan Van later.”
    She fished in her pocket for the wire, then turned on Jack. “Why didn’t you bring Ellen with you?”
    “It was too dangerous,” he explained nervously. “She s over-”
    “Okay, I’ll tell you the truth,” Bert interrupted. “There is no Ellen. We’re all in this together—Carl, Jack, and I. Carl masterminded the whole counterfeiting plan, and we were supposed to pick up the money and keep it for him. He’s just trying to con you so he can make a getaway.”
    “That’s right,” said Jack. “I think you’d better stop worrying about us and concentrate on the real criminal—that old man.”
    Trixie hadn’t missed the way Jack’s mouth had fallen open when Bert had started talking. “We’ve met Ellen before,” she said smugly. “And we’re not going to play any more games. We know exactly what’s been going on. We even know that you’ve been playing ghost,” she told Bert.
    “Right on the ball, aren’t you?” he replied sarcastically. “When Pat first mentioned investigators coming to the lodge, I decided to put them on the trail of something far away from me. I was relieved when the investigators turned out to be a bunch of teen-agers, because then I could get you chasing ghosts.”
    “Except we found out you were the teen-agers that helped the police stop the gun smuggling,” Jack put in angrily.
    “We decided to give you a little test to find out how good you really were,” said Bert, '“so we pulled the lights-out routine. Figured that out in nothin’ flat, didn’t you? Think you’re pretty smart, don’t you? When you said at the Purple Turnip that you weren’t on the trail of the ghost anymore, I knew you had to be taken care of.”
    Jim stopped working on the engine to glare at Bert. “Thus, the tree incident,” he said curtly.
    “I don’t get your part in this, Jack,” said Honey. “Are you really afraid of ghosts? Didn’t you know that it was Bert playing ghost?”
    “I played my part pretty well,” Jack boasted. “My job was to talk about ghosts at all the right times. If you had followed the clues you were supposed to, you’d be chasing a ghost now instead of giving us a headache.”
    Finally Jim got the engine purring, and after tying Bert and Jack securely in the back of the truck, the others squeezed into the cab.
    “Tell us what happened down there,” Trixie said to Carl once Jim had the truck moving. “We could see what was going on, but we were too far away to hear a thing.”
    “They told me that they couldn’t bring Ellen with them,” Carl sputtered. “They said it was too dangerous, so they would just tell me where she was. I wasn’t about to go for a deal like that. If those thugs hurt Ellen,