The Mystery on the Mississippi

to her body.
    “Somebody tampered with that drain,” she said faintly. “I saw someone leave the pool as I swam to the far end. It was Pierre Lontard! I know it!”
    “Oh, Trixie!” Mart protested.
    “I’m certain of it.” Trixie stood up. “He didn’t wait long to close in, did he?”
    “What could he gain by drowning you?” Mart wanted to know. “You seem to forget one very important thing. You’ve turned over the papers to the police. You’re not quite yourself, Trixie, seeing things...
    Trixie’s eyes blazed. Her strength came back in waves. “You’re the one, Mart Belden, who has forgotten the important thing. Bob was whisked away by the Coast Guard before I turned over the papers. Because he doesn’t know, Lontard doesn’t know. And, as for my seeing things, just look at that bench over there. I’m concerned because I’m not seeing things—-things that should be there, like my beach bag. Pierre Lontard thought my purse was in it, just as sure as you’re born. If I’m seeing things, where’s my beach bag? Who but Pierre Lontard would want it enough to try to drown me to get it?”
    “You win!” Mart said sadly.
    “Let’s wake the motel manager and tell him what’s happened,” Jim said, his eyes blazing.
    “Let’s get Daddy first,” Honey insisted.
    “Oh, not that... so soon!” Trixie begged. “He hasn’t much more than gotten to sleep.”
    “None of us had,” Mart said bluntly. “Why the pool lured you out in the middle of the night, I’ll never know. Why couldn’t you at least act like you had some sense, Trixie?”
    “That kind of talk won’t get us anywhere, Mart,” Brian said quietly.
    “Nix on the criticism,” Dan agreed. “Your sister’s had a bad fright.”
    “I know it,” Mart said, trembling. “I’m still so scared, I don’t know what I’m saying. I just wish....”
    “I shouldn’t have taken any risk right now,” Trixie admitted. “Mart’s right about that. But how could I know a swim would be dangerous? There’s the manager now, so here we go on the merry-go-round again! Mr. Wheeler to tell, the federal agents to report to...
    “And, in the meantime, where did Lontard go?” Jim asked. “Halfway to the next state, while we stand here gabbing. Here, sir!” he called to the red-faced manager who hurried toward him. “You see, Trixie got up early to take a swim... someone tried to kill her... tampered with the drain... see where the water level is now? The suction as the pool drained almost drowned her. Isn’t there a guard around this place at night?”
    “There is. Of course there is,” the puffing manager replied. “See here, suppose you begin at the beginning. What’s wrong?”

Off to Hannibal ● 10

    WHILE I’M EXPLAINING to the manager what happened, Honey, please get Dad and tell him about it.” Jim’s face was worried. “I wish these crazy things wouldn’t keep happening.”
    “It’s all my fault, all the time,” Trixie said. “You might as well tell your father, when you talk to him, Honey, that I’m to blame for what’s just happened.”
    “I won’t tell him anything of the kind. You’re not to blame. It’s that man who’s so desperate to get at those papers you had. I have to tell Daddy what happened, because we promised, and he’ll have to report all this to the federal investigators, too.”
    “Well, get it over with,” Mart told her impatiently. “I just hope he doesn’t say we have to go back to New York right away. I’ll die if I don’t get to Hannibal to see the Mark Twain country.”
    “I don’t believe what we want to do is important now,” Trixie said sadly. “We’ve—that is, I have-interfered enough with the important work your father came out here to do. Maybe I didn’t intend to interfere with it when I got mixed up with that Lontard, but now I’m so confused I don’t know what I’m even saying. I’ll go to my room and get out of this wet swimsuit.”
    “Will someone please take the time to tell me what this is all about?” the manager asked in a bewildered voice.
    The boys told him, and he immediately summoned a maintenance man to check the drain in the pool. A few minutes later, the man reported that it had been opened—and not accidentally.
    “So someone did do it deliberately,” Brian said quickly, then lowered his voice. “It was Lontard, that’s obvious.”
    Jim put his finger to his lips in warning.
    “I get it,” Brian agreed under his breath. “Mum’s the