The Mystery of the Ghostly Galeon

truth.” He paused and seemed to be thinking hard. “The fact is, my hobby is wrestling, and I use Clarence in my workouts. He helps me keep in shape.” He peered over the edge once more. “I can’t see a sign of him. I’ll have to leave him there until this fog clears off. Well, good night to you. Thanks for trying to help. I suppose the two of us did look kind of peculiar, at that.” And with a friendly wave of the hand, he turned away and strolled back toward the inn.
    “Wrestling, indeed!” Trixie exclaimed, when he was out of earshot. “Wrestlers have muscles. Even I have more than he has! I don’t believe he was telling us the truth.”
    “Then what do you suppose he was up to?” Honey asked.
    Brian frowned. “Aw, come on, Trix. I think you’re being too suspicious. His story sounded just peculiar enough to be true.”
    “At least we can find out about the dummy,” Mart said. “If my calculations are correct, we need to go down there, anyway.”
    Slowly, carefully, the Bob-Whites searched for a path to take them to the beach. It wasn’t long before they discovered a flight of wooden steps. Although they appeared to be old, they were in surprisingly good condition.
    “If I’d known about these before,” Trixie told Honey, following the others, “I’d have been able to solve the mystery of the vanishing ship all by myself.”
    “We didn’t have Mart’s flashlight to guide us before,” Honey pointed out sensibly.
    Trixie had to admit that the journey down the cliff might have been far more difficult in the fog without the beam of light to guide them. As it was, she was soon standing safely on the tiny beach at the bottom.
    Her eyes were gradually becoming accustomed to her surroundings. Beneath her feet were small pebbles that littered the shore. To her right, a long wooden jetty, with signs forbidding anyone to enter, extended into the water. At the end of it, a dark mass floated gently in the current.
    “It’s the galleon!” Trixie told the others in hushed tones. “I wish we could see it better.”
    As if in answer to her wish, the mist lifted momentarily, and for the first time without the aid of special lights, Trixie gazed on the ship as it stood at anchor.
    What a magnificent sight it was! Although it no longer glowed, Trixie thought she had never seen anything more beautiful. Immediately, her eyes searched for and found the figure at its bow.
    Honey must have done so, too. She took a step forward and then frowned and said slowly, “That’s funny, Trix. I thought you said the lady had tears running down her face. I can’t see anything like that at all.”
    Trixie could see that Honey was right. “That is funny,” she said. “I wonder how I made such a dumb mistake.”
    She was still thinking about it when Mart shouted, “I’ve found the body!” A cold hand seemed to clutch at Trixie’s heart until he added, “It is Clarence, and he seems to be fine.”
    Trixie grinned when she saw Mart hurrying toward them. He was carrying Clarence over his shoulder, fireman-style. He was also carrying his flashlight in one hand, and something else in the other.
    “It’s Clarence’s arm,” Mart explained, waving it in the air. “It fell off. His nose is slightly bent out of shape, and his wig is coming unglued on one side. But other than that, he’s great, aren’t you, Clarence, old boy?”
    “I’b dot gread ad all,” a gruff voice said crossly. “By dose hurts. Yours would, doo, if you’d bupped id od a rock.”
    “Clarence?” Di cried. She walked quickly behind Mart and bent down to peer at the dummy’s face. “Did—did you say something?”
    “Of course he didn’t,” Trixie answered, grinning. “It was Mart. I saw his lips move.”
    Mart sighed. “Ah, well, back to the drawing board. I’ve been practicing a ventriloquist act for the school’s talent show next week. I thought I was getting pretty good.”
    “But not good enough to pull the wool over Trixie’s sharp eyes,” Jim assured him.
    “I thought it was excellent, Mart,” Honey said loyally. “It almost fooled me, too.”
    They gathered around him to read the next clues that they hoped would guide them to the treasure.
    “I read what it said about the shore,” Mart declared, heaving poor Clarence to a more comfortable position. “The next bit says, ‘Beware of ghosts who guard the place.
    ‘With knife and cutlass, gun and mace.’ ” Dan was reading over Mart’s shoulder.
    “What’s a