The Mystery on the Mississippi

glistening motel key. Maybe, I could push that across the floor and under the door, she thought. Then if the boys should come aboard....
    The key was not very far away; it was about halfway between Trixie and the door. But the effort required to reach it made it seem a thousand miles away.
    Honey, her eyes following Trixie’s to the key, seemed to sense what her friend was trying to accomplish. Her eyes crinkled in encouragement.
    Trixie raised her body and wriggled slowly and awkwardly toward the key. She ached in every muscle. As she neared the key, she twisted her body so that she could push it with her chin. Then she lowered her face and pushed. Inch by inch she pushed it. Each convulsive movement of her chin was painful. She was so intent on her efforts, however, that she hardly noticed the pain. Doggedly she prodded till, with one violent thrust, the key disappeared underneath the door.
    Then Trixie’s head fell back to the floor in triumph. Across the room, Honey’s eyes told her that she, too, was rejoicing.
    The struggle to push the key had exhausted Trixie. Suddenly a terrible thought flashed through her mind. The boys would probably never see the key! They probably fished here so often that they would have no interest in the hulk of the old steamboat.
    They would probably just go on to another fishing hole. They might even go back home, never knowing of the chance they’d had to save the lives of two desperate girls. Tears started in Trixie’s eyes.
    What was Dave saying to Mike outside?
    “Aw, let’s quit fishin’. I’ve got a string now that’ll make my ma’s eyes pop out.”
    “Yeah, mine, too,” Mike answered. “I didn’t stop to think I’ll have to clean the fish before Ma cooks 'them.
    “I know. Takes all the fun out of it. Say, let’s go up on the old boat and drop our lines over the side. Catch some catfish, huh?”
    Inside, Trixie listened, holding her breath, waiting for Mike’s answer. Would they really come aboard? Would they see the key? Trixie prayed hard.
    She heard the boys’ feet scrambling up the plank. She heard them running around the lower deck.
    Higher! Trixie prayed. Come up higher to drop your lines! Come up to this deck! Come up to this deck and find the key!
    As though in answer to her prayer, she heard Mike and Dave noisily clumping up the stairs that led to the pilothouse.
    “Say, look at this!” Mike said, his voice awed. “Someone lost a key. Here, Dave, look!”
    “Yeah! It’s from a motel in St. Louis.” Dave read the inscription. “Gosh, somebody left this since the
    last time we were here. I never saw it then, did you?”
    “Naw.Of course not. Do you suppose they left any other junk inside the pilothouse?”
    “We can look.”
    Mike tried the door and found it locked. “That’s funny. It’s never been locked before.”
    Inside, Trixie and Honey, determined to attract the boys’ attention, groaned as loudly as their dry, tight throats would let them. Then they raised their bodies and bumped on the floor.
    “Did you hear somethin’?” Dave asked.
    “Yeah! Do you s’pose there’s someone in there?” Mike asked.
    Trixie, her body close to the door, bumped hard against it, making it rattle on its old hinges.
    “Gosh, didya hear that?” Mike called.
    “I sure did. I’m gettin’ out of here.”
    “Me, too!”
    Inside, Trixie was desperate. Try to knock down the door! Try to get to us! Try to untie us!
    Her answer was the sound of running feet. Down the stairs the boys rushed, and across the plank to shore.
    Trixie’s heart fell to her very toes. She looked at Honey. Honey turned her face away. Then, as a new sound outside intruded, Trixie raised her head again to listen.
    “What are you boys up to?” a gruff voice inquired.
    “Say, where’d you get that string of bass?”
    “Over there near that log,” Mike answered. Then he added in an awed voice, “There’s someone up there in that old pilothouse!”
    “There is?” the man asked. “Now, ain’t that somethin’? A body’s got a right to go up there if he wants.”
    “That’s not it,” Trixie heard Mike insist. “There’s someone groanin’ up there. We heard ’em. You go up and see.”
    Oh, do make him come up to see, Trixie begged. Do please, whoever you are, come up here and find us!
    “So someone’s groanin’ up there, are they?” the man’s voice asked. “Who do you think it is, the devil?”
    “No, sir, but we found this key.”
    “That makes you