The Sasquatch Mystery

them.
    Trixie enjoyed the delicious pancake breakfast just as much as anyone, but the back of her mind continued to churn with questions about the thief in the night. No rat had stretched to raid a food chest, and no man had skittered across a tent roof.
    Shortly after breakfast cleanup, the girls heard sharp words coming from the boys’ area.
    “Uh-oh, somebody’s really getting it from Cap,” Hallie said.
    At that moment, Cap and Mart burst from their tent, Cap in the lead. Mart was apologetic, but beginning to get a little angry.
    “Mart! What—” Trixie called, embarrassed that the clown of the Belden clan was involved in a scene with his host.
    “Ssh!” Hallie warned. “Stay on the sidelines, Trix.”
    Cap strode to the trash can and dumped in a sandwich and an apple. White-faced, he ordered, “Don’t let that happen again, Mart.”
    “Cap, that was a perfectly good sandwich,” Mart argued. “It could have been put in the food box!”
    “But it was in our tent—where you know it didn’t belong—and now it’s in the garbage,” Cap said.
    “What’s wrong with stashing away a snack? I always chew when I read!”
    “Not in our tent!” Cap said flatly. “And if you don’t know what’s wrong, let me tell you. That bear cub we’ve heard bawling has a mother and a father and brothers and sisters and cousins. They all have noses and claws, and I’m not about to have a bear in our tent just because it smells your apple. And bears aren’t the only animals in the forest! How’d you like to wake up with a skunk sticking its nose in your sleeping bag? A rat bite isn’t much fun, either.”
    “Contrary to popular opinion, I’m not stupid —I do live on a farm, you know,” Mart said defensively.
    “That’s not bear country!” With that, Cap turned his back on Mart and stormed out of camp.

Clues ● 8

    MART STARED after Cap worriedly. “Where do you think he’s going?” he asked Hallie.
    Hallie shrugged. “He’ll be back by dinner, if not before. When Cap gets hot under the collar, he goes into the forest to cool himself down. He’s got quite a temper, for a birdbrain.”
    “I noticed.” Mart whistled. “I feel like an idiot—”
    “Don’t torture yourself,” advised Hallie. “Cap takes his camping pretty seriously, but he’ll have forgotten all about your spat by the time he gets back.”
    “Should he have gone off alone like that?”
    Trixie asked. “Has he ever done it before?”
    “Happens all the time,” said Hallie. “Nobody, not even the sheriff, ever worries about Cap.” Knut, noticing that Mart still looked shaken, stepped forward to ask the whole group, “Have you ever picked huckleberries up on the saddle? It’s like being on top of the world!” His voice promised adventure such as they had never experienced. “I’ll make everyone a deal. You help me pick a pail or two of berries to take to Gloria’s mother, and I’ll let all of you horn in on my date Friday night. Okay?”
    “That’s quite a trade-off,” laughed Jim.
    “But it’s a deal,” Trixie said.
    “Come on, Trix,” said Hallie. “Let’s break out the carton that has the pails. We want to get to the saddle before noon, or we’ll fry to a crisp.”
    “Aren’t we going to trail that thief?” recalled Trixie suddenly.
    “Skip it till we get back,” Hallie suggested. “That food is gone, but we’ve plenty more. Who knows? Maybe the thief will come back tonight to steal the rest and we can catch him red-handed.”
    “I guess there’s not much we can do,” Trixie had to agree. She followed Hallie to the area of the neatly stored supplies.
    Hallie counted out pails and gave half the stack to Trixie. The girls were carrying the pails over to the truck, when they heard Di scream down by the creek, where underbrush created its own mystery even in broad daylight. Trixie and Hallie dumped their pails into the truck bed and ran.
    “Whatever you’re doing, Di,” Hallie shouted, “just stop doing it till we get there!”
    “What if she’s falling in?” Trixie panted.
    “She can just stop falling!” Hallie answered. Both girls stifled a giggle at the mental picture of Di hanging in midair above the creek, waiting for an audience before she could splash down. They burst through the bushes to find Di on her knees in a deer trail.
    “Are you hurt, Di?” Trixie asked.
    “Who knocked you down?” Hallie wanted to know.
    “I found a clue!” Di crowed. She guarded a bit of earth