The Mystery on the Mississippi

why did you have to act so impolite to her?” Honey asked Trixie when Mrs. Aguilera was no longer in sight. “She’s probably lonesome and trying to be kind.”
    “That’s what you think. She’s following us. That’s what she’s doing.”
    “Trixie Belden, you have the most suspicious mind!”
    “Look who’s talking! We have to be suspicious to be good detectives. I told you before, and I’ll tell you again: Something strange is going on.”
    “If there is, I don’t think she’s involved in it,” Honey declared firmly. “Say, what’s that noise? It’s coming from the Aguileras’ stateroom. She’s not there. She’s waiting for us downstairs.”
    The girls stopped and stood quietly before the door of the cabin next to their own. Just then a blast from the whistle atop the pilothouse shrilled.
    “Darn!” Trixie shouted into Honey’s ear. “I can’t hear a thing now. What did you think you heard?”
    “I don’t know. There is someone in there.”
    “If it hadn’t been for that old whistle we could have been sure... What did you say?”
    “I said we’re both pretty silly. Mr. Aguilera lives in that stateroom, too. He’s probably taking a nap.”
    “Of course. There’s Mrs. Aguilera down there on deck. Hi!” The girls hurried over to meet her.
    The three of them stepped down carefully from the deck of the Catfish Princess onto the nearest barge. Mrs. Aguilera pointed out her husband, working over a rope. When he saw his wife and the girls, he waved, then bent over his work again.
    “Now what do you think?” Trixie whispered as they stepped ahead of the cook. “If you did hear someone in that stateroom, it certainly wasn’t Mr. Aguilera.”
    “Oh, I heard someone, all right. What that someone has to do with the mystery, and what the mystery is, I don’t know. I’ve never been so puzzled. Look here, we’re not being very polite, running way ahead of Mrs. Aguilera.”
    “We didn’t mean to run so far ahead,” Trixie called back to the cook. “I guess we were just excited.” Aside to Honey, she whispered, “If she really is a cook professionally, then I’m a chimpanzee.”
    Honey made a gesture of impatience at Trixie’s suspicion, then lagged to examine a marking on the side of the barge.
    Mrs. Aguilera and Trixie walked on to the farthest barge. “How small and far away the towboat seems from here!” Trixie said. “It’s miles!”
    “Cool and quiet and still,” Mrs. Aguilera said slowly, her eyes narrowing to tiny slits. “Far away from everything, from everyone.”
    Something in the tone of her voice and the expression on her face sent a wave of icy fear over Trixie. Before she could analyze the reason for her feeling, Mrs. Aguilera crowded her close to the edge of the barge. “Right over here, Trixie. There are very interesting things to see down below in the water. Bend your head. Closer! I’ll hold your purse.”
    As the cook spoke, Trixie’s feet shot out from under her, and she plunged forward, screaming in fright. Frantically she clutched at the slack stern line and hung, struggling for a foothold, above the swirling current. “Honey! Honey! My purse!” Her frenzied call was drowned in the sound of water as it slapped against the barge side. In a split second, Honey was leaning over the edge, looking down at Trixie. “Hold tight!” she commanded. “Hold on to that rope, Trixie! Mrs. Aguilera! Mrs. Aguilera! Reach down for her! Save her!”
    As though she were startled from a trance, the cook threw herself prone on the barge deck, seized Trixie’s arms, and drew her up to safety. Shaking convulsively, Trixie looked around her, dazed. “What happened? Where’s my purse... my purse?” Her voice trembled. She looked from Mrs. Aguilera to Honey, questioningly.
    “Can’t you see? Mrs. Aguilera has it!” Honey cried. “She caught it as you went over. She saved it for you.
    She saved you, too, Trixie. Oh, she did save you!”
    “Thanks!” Trixie told the cook shortly. She took the purse from Mrs. Aguilera and tucked it firmly under her arm. “We might both have gone into the river, my purse and I.”
    “Sit here a minute and rest,” Honey told Trixie, ' her voice shaking. “I don’t like to be this far away from everyone. Let’s at least go back to where the boys are.”
    “Yes, let’s go right now,” Trixie said. “Thanks, Mrs. Aguilera. We mustn’t keep you any longer.”
    With a brief smile, Mrs. Aguilera left them and walked quickly