The Mystery on the Mississippi

Honey added quickly. “I’m so glad to see you again. Trixie was only surprised. That’s why she sounded the way she did.” Jim leaned over past his sister and asked quietly,
    “Just how did you happen to come here, Mrs. Aguilera? We’re curious.”
    “Yes, we are,” Honey repeated. “We did hope we’d see you again sometime, and now it’s happened. Tell us about Captain Martin, Deena, and Paul.”
    Mrs. Aguilera hugged Honey again. “Thank you, dear. I did look forward to seeing all the Bob-Whites again. Deena and Paul both sent messages to you. Captain Martin, too. He said to tell you he’d found out who ransacked your cabin. It was one of the new deckhands. Captain Martin put him off the boat at the next stop after Cairo. But that’s an old story. First I must tell you why we are here at the motel. It’s really your fault.”
    “Our fault?” Brian asked, raising his eyebrows. “In a way. My husband’s manuscript and my pictures and films were in such disorder that we felt we had to find a place to stay for at least a day or so, to put things in order before going East.”
    Mr. Aguilera seemed to come to life as his wife talked. “So we remembered what you’d said about this place near the airport. It seemed to be just what we were looking for, and here we are.”
    “Did you fly here from Memphis?” Trixie asked. “No. Fortunately we had left our car at Memphis. It was the place where, we stopped first on the river when we came from the East. I took quite a lot of pictures around there, and my husband made notes.
    We rode north with a friend who had business in St. Louis, hoping to take a boat down the river, pick up our car again in Memphis, and maybe go on down to New Orleans. We were fortunate to get jobs on the Catfish Princess. ”
    “It sounds kind of mixed-up,” Mart said, “but I hope you like it here at the motel. We do. At least, I guess we’d like it if we were ever here long enough to find out. Here comes our food.”
    “Then we mustn’t interrupt you further,” Mrs. Aguilera said, taking her husband’s arm. “Perhaps we’ll see you tomorrow?” she asked the girls.
    “Oh, yes,” Honey said quickly. “That is, I guess maybe we will. We’re going to fly back to New York tomorrow.”
    “On what flight?”
    “No regular flight. We came out here as Mr. Brandio’s guests. He owns one of the airplane factories here. We’ll go back on his private plane, whenever he gets ready to leave. I’m sure we’ll see you in the morning, though.”
    “How about tonight?” Mrs. Aguilera persisted. “We could have a little talk this evening, maybe?”
    “We’re going to be away this evening,” Dan said. “Sorry.”
    “We’re not!” Honey sang out. “That is, I mean Trixie and I aren’t going to the exhibit of spaceships with the boys.”
    “I guess you don’t remember why you aren’t going,” Dan reminded her. “Mrs. Aguilera, it’s because Mr. Wheeler thought Trixie should get to bed early.”
    “Oh, of course,” Honey said. “You see, Trixie almost drowned in the pool early this morning—”
    “If you’ll excuse us now,” Trixie said abruptly, “we’ll go on to our room. We undoubtedly will see you in the morning. Have you finished eating, Honey?”
    “No, not quite. What’s the big hurry?” Honey asked. “Mrs. Aguilera, we will see you and your husband before we leave. And if you’re ever in New York or just passing through Sleepyside-on-the-Hudson—”
    “Do look us up,” Trixie said, trying to make her voice cordial. “Good-bye for now.”

    The Aguileras returned to their table, and the boys went on to the exhibit. Honey and Trixie went to their room.
    “I must say you were awfully high-handed with Mr. and Mrs. Aguilera, Trixie.” Honey’s face was red. “You could have been a little nicer, without half trying.”
    “I didn’t mean to be ‘not nice,’ as you say. I don’t happen to like either one of them.”
    “That’s no reason to be so uppity. You might try remembering that Mrs. Aguilera practically saved your life on the Catfish Princess. ”
    “I wish I were as sure of that as you seem to be. I don’t trust her, somehow or other. I’m not even sure she didn’t push me, back there on the towboat, nearly knock me overboard, and then make it look as though she had saved my life.”
    “Why, Trixie Belden, I never heard of anything so insane in all my life. Why would she do that?”
    “I don’t know. I feel it in my