The Mystery on the Mississippi

still think it’s queer that Pierre Lontard turns up everyplace we go.” She paused. “Is that someone from the office waving to us?”
    A man wearing a captain’s cap came toward the Bob-Whites, smiling. “I was told to keep an eye out for you. Good morning!” He shook hands with all of them. “I’m Captain Martin of the Catfish Princess. We’re glad we’re going to have you with us for a part of our trip. I wish you could go beyond Cairo. The lower river, from Natchez to New Orleans, is the most interesting part. We navigate the boat there by guess and by golly, mostly, for the river is shallow and shifty.”
    “We’re ever so glad to have a chance to go on the river at all, Captain Martin,” Honey said cordially. “Daddy suggested that we try to keep out of the way as much as we can.”
    “When you get to know Trixie, over there, you’ll realize that statement doesn’t mean a thing,” Mart said. “Honey and Trixie are girl detectives. If anyone drops an anchor, Trix will scour the river bottom for it.”
    “And come up with it, nine times out of ten,” Jim said loyally. “The Belden-Wheeler Detective Agency is going to take a vacation for a couple of days... or I think it is.” He looked inquiringly at Trixie. She smiled but said nothing.
    Captain Martin seemed perplexed. He rubbed his brown beard. Then he laughed heartily. “Oh, I see. It’s a joke, isn’t it? Sometimes I wish we had detectives on board but not two young girl detectives. This towboat is an island all to itself out in the river. In fact, it will be well for you to keep your stateroom doors locked when you’re not there. Anything can happen. Something already did, this morning. Our cook didn’t show up. I was really up against it. Cooks are important. They rank as officers and get the same pay, and there’s plenty of reason for that. Well, here we were, ready to leave, and no one to fix the chow. We’d have had murder right and left, Trixie, and lots of cases for a detective to handle if the crew had to be put on limited rations.”
    “Jeepers! Maybe Honey and I could do the cooking. We could try. We can cook pretty well.”
    “I’m sure of that. Thanks for the offer. A crazy thing happened, though. I’d just been informed that our regular cook had to go to the hospital, when a couple showed up. They’re man and wife and wanted to sign on as cook and deckhand. The woman says she’s had service on other boats. Of course, I haven’t had time to check. Keep your fingers crossed. I know kids like good food, too.”
    “Heavens! We don’t mind what we eat or where we sleep or anything else,” Trixie said quickly. “We have to pinch ourselves to see if we’re really here! It’s surely good of you to let us go on the Catfish Princess. Is she one of those boats out there in the river?”
    “Yes, sirree!” Captain Martin said proudly. “She’s the boat, just coming in to pick up her fleet of barges... the biggest one out there, a nine-thousand-tonner! She’s one of two that the Two-Way Barge Company owns. They’re among the biggest boats in the country right now.”
    Mart shaded his eyes to look. “Wow! Are we ever lucky! When does she sail, sir?”
    “We’d hoped to get away around noon. This business of the new cook has slowed us up a little. We’re towing grain—twenty barges. They’re ready to take the first ten out now. See them lined up two abreast down there in the center of the wharf? Do you want to go out with them or wait for the rest of the tow?”
    “Now!” the Bob-Whites chorused.
    “All right. Do you think you can make it by yourselves?”
    “Sure! As my sister told you, we don’t want to be in the way. Don’t bother. We’ll get aboard all right.” Jim herded the Bob-Whites together, and they hurried down to the dock. A deckhand told them where to board the lead barge and helped the girls step over to its flat top. There they all stood, waving to Captain Martin as a busy little harbor tug took the clumsy load out to join the towboat.
    On board the glistening white Catfish Princess , the Bob-Whites were wide-eyed and curious. Passing the galley, they saw the cook and maids busily opening crates of vegetables, huge carcasses of meat being swung into the mouth of a mammoth refrigerator, and cases of canned goods and gallons of milk being unpacked. Already the enticing smell of roasting meat filled the galley, laced with the tang of baking cherry pies.
    “Up this way,” a maid