The Mystery off Old Telegraph Road

harder to live with. He doesn’t like to be questioned by me or my mother. He believes that, in his house, his word is law. I knew that he would carry out his threat to throw me out of the house, and I could see that our argument was upsetting my mother, so I dropped it.
    “I knew, too, that my father doesn’t believe in taking charity. No matter how broke we’ve been— and believe me, we’ve been pretty broke in the past few years—Dad would never ask for outside help. I figured that was why he was so upset about the bikeathon. He thought that would be like taking money from strangers, I decided.”
    Nick fell silent again. Trixie could see beads of perspiration on his forehead and his upper lip.
    She wondered whether Nick was going to tell them that his father was working with the counterfeiters. She wanted to blurt out the question, but she held her tongue. Nick was not usually a very open person, she knew. Even Mr. Crider had said that nobody really knew Nick Roberts. She realized that any interruption in his telling of the story might make him decide not to finish it at all. The other Bob-Whites seemed to sense it, too, because they all waited quietly for Nick to continue.
    “I owe you an apology, Trixie,” Nick said finally. “I was very rude to you that morning in school when you wanted to talk to me about the posters. I couldn’t explain to you what had really happened, and I didn’t know what else to do. I’m sorry.”
    “It’s all right, Nick. I understand now,” Trixie said, her voice barely above a whisper. For a moment she thought Nick had said all he was going to say, but then he began to speak again.
    “When the police questioned me about those telephone calls, I began to suspect that there was more to my father’s attitude than just not wanting me to accept charity. I brooded about it for a couple of days, and tonight I finally demanded an explanation.
    “Dad told me that some men had come to him a month or two ago. They asked him if he’d like to make a lot of money doing some complicated engraving. He asked them what kind of engraving. One of the men—I think it must have been the little man that the police caught tonight—winked slyly and told him, ’Let’s just say you’ll be making lots of money.’
    “Dad realized they were talking about counterfeiting, and he said he couldn’t allow something like that in his shop. ’You wouldn’t have to,’ the little man said. ’We have our own setup.’ Then that big guy, who must be more muscle than brains, volunteered that it was on Old Telegraph Road. Dad said the other man gave the big one a murderous look and ordered him to shut up, and for a moment Dad was afraid he had already learned too much.
    “He stuck to his guns, though, and said he wouldn’t have anything to do with the scheme. The little man shrugged and said that was fine, but he warned him not to go to the police. ’Your wife will get a whole lot sicker than she already is if you do,’ he said.
    “Of course, Dad didn’t dare tell anybody about the counterfeiters, but when I told him where the bikeathon route would be and that the abandoned house was the first stop, he remembered what the big man had blurted out, and he realized that it might be the same place. That’s why he ordered me not to get involved.
    “As soon as Dad finished telling me the whole story tonight, I took the car and came out here. I parked down the road and walked up here. The men were loading the van, and so I waited until they were both in the cellar and climbed inside. I thought I could ride along and find out where they took it, then hop out and call the police. Then Trixie came along and—well, I guess you know the rest,” Nick finished abruptly, as if his long speech had used up his entire allotment of words.
    There was another long silence as everyone thought his own thoughts—about Nick’s courage, Trixie’s daredevil actions, and the narrow escape the two young people had just had from the desperate and dangerous criminals.
    “I think what you did was perfectly wonderful, Nick,” Honey said, breaking the silence. “It took a lot of courage to come out here, knowing all along what you were going to find.”
    Nick shook his head regretfully. “If I’d had real courage, I would have stood up to my father two weeks ago, and this never would have happened.”
    “You couldn’t take chances with your relationship with your family, Nick. We all understand that.”