The Mystery of the Ghostly Galeon

away from her, to safety. She stood facing the pirate alone.
    As she gazed at him, her heart thumping, she wondered how he had ever fooled her for a moment. His lips were twisted in a triumphant sneer as he reached for her.
    Honey stood horrified. In another second, his hands would close around Trixie’s throat.
    Then, instinctively, Trixie ducked away. After that, everything happened at once.
    The pirate was moving so fast that he couldn’t stop. He stumbled over a long, loose, wooden plank that stuck way Out over the side of the ship. He tottered for a few steps and tried to regain his balance. He failed.
    With his arms and legs vainly flailing the air, he walked the plank! Then he dropped straight over the side. He hit the water with a mighty splash, and the Hudson River closed over his head.
    As he surfaced a moment later and swam away with powerful strokes, Honey let out her breath in a long, shaky sigh.
    “Why,” she said, staring after him until he was out of sight, “I simply don’t believe it! The villain all along was Smiley Jackson!”
    “Don’t feel bad about it,” Trixie said as they moved unsteadily away from the side of the ship. “He fooled me, too. I thought he was such a nice man.”
    “So he was the spy, after all,” Honey exclaimed.
    “He sure was,” Trixie answered. “I’m sure he’s been the cause of all the inn’s troubles these last few months. Twice he tried to steal Mr. Trask’s money, and I’ll bet we’ll find he was the one who unlocked Mr. Appleton’s door with a master key and set the fire yesterday.”
    “But what did he mean when he told us he’d got rid of Mr. Trask?” Honey asked.
    “I think he meant just that,” Trixie said. “I told you I suspected something. Mr. Trask didn’t mean to disappear. Smiley Jackson kidnapped him. He took advantage of all the confusion when Weasel Willis dropped the cake.”
    “I remember now,” Honey said slowly. “Smiley was missing from the dining room for a long time last night. Do you think he had it all planned?”
    “I don’t know,” Trixie confessed. “Maybe Weasel dropped the cake on purpose. Or maybe Smiley did it all on the spur of the moment. Anyway, I think Mr. Trask is right here on this ship. It’s the only place that makes any sense.”
    Honey watched as her friend gazed uncertainly toward the bow.
    “Mr. Trask?” Trixie shouted. “Can you hear me? Where are you?”
    A low moan answered her.
    In another instant, the two girls were racing toward a shapeless bundle that lay under a tarpaulin in the ship’s bow.
    “I should have known it long before this,” Trixie said as she gently pulled the cover away.
    There, right above the figurehead of the ship, lay a bearded man, bound and gagged. Frank Trask had been found!
    While Trixie untied him, Honey picked up a can of fluorescent paint that had lain on its side next to him.
    “I managed to kick the paint can over,” he explained later, breathing hard. “It happened just as they were tying me up. I hoped it would attract someone’s attention.”
    “It sure did,” Honey answered. “Trixie noticed it at once. The spilled paint ran down the figurehead’s face, you see. It made us think the lady was crying.”
    “I am awfully glad you were curious about it,” Mr. Trask told Trixie as he rubbed his wrists. “I still don’t know who kidnapped me or why they brought me here. But I do know that I’m mighty obliged to you.”
    Trixie’s face was red with embarrassment. She never liked to be thanked for the things she felt were simply right to do. She was just extremely thankful that he had been found.
    “Why do you say ‘they’ brought you here?” Honey asked. “How many of them were there?“
    “There were two,” Frank Trask answered promptly. “And once I get my hands on the pair, I’m going to make ’em into yesterday’s hash! They jumped me as I walked into the kitchen after all that commotion with the dropped cake. I was going to lend a hand, y’see, to help clear it up. But someone dropped a tablecloth over my head—and the next thing I knew, here I was!”
    “I still don’t think any of this was planned,” Trixie said, thinking hard. “If it had been, they’d have rushed you away to some other hiding place.” She went on to explain to Mr. Trask all that had happened since the previous evening.
    Mr. Trask was astonished when he discovered that one of his assailants was none other than his trusted waiter, Smiley