The Sasquatch Mystery

you!”
    The snake slid into the brook and swam off downstream.
    “I’m never going to drink that water again!” Diana shuddered.
    “Good grief, we get our drinking water from the spring that pours into the creek,” Hallie told her. “Come on, Honey, help me.”
    Honey tried, but the combined strength of the two was not enough to raise the lid from the prosperous rat’s sprawling mansion.
    “I’ll get the boys to help,” Di offered, from the safety of higher ground.
    “Okay, you do that, Di,” Hallie said, grinning.
    Trixie was glad to see her cousin smile, even though it was at Di’s expense. There had not been much to smile about for many long hours.
    Having finished scrubbing the truck, all four boys returned with Di. They stationed themselves north, south, east, and west of the big trash pile, chose the sturdiest basement-level branches, and heaved not only the roof but also the top story from a home of many rooms and halls.
    Each nest was lined with dried grass and soft materials like cattail and milkweed fluff. In several compartments, the brownish gray pack rats had lain curled in sleep. Confused, twitching big pink ears, they scampered for other shelter.
    Hallie paid no attention to them. With a stick, she prodded the rats’ treasure trove. There were tabs from soft drink cans, several dimes, bright pebbles, and some nuts from bolts that must have shaken loose from cars on the road.
    Trixie was fascinated. Awkwardly she managed to handle a digging stick. Suddenly she flipped a small object high into the air.
    Jim caught it and whistled. “Somebody would like to get this back.”
    In his extended palm lay a small gold locket. When he opened it, Trixie saw the smiling faces of a young couple dressed in a “gay nineties” style.
    “Knut!” Hallie gasped. “We know those people!”

Tanks Locket ● 13

    KNUT PEERED CLOSELY at the small faces. “Those are Tank’s parents!” he exclaimed. “Tank kept that locket in his nugget bag!”
    “Are you sure?” asked Trixie.
    Hallie took the locket from Jim, snapped it shut, and revealed the monogram “A. A.” engraved on the front of the gold heart. “Astrid Anderson,” Hallie said. “That was Tank’s mother’s name.”
    “That rat certainly carried the locket a long way,” marveled Di.
    Hallie looked distraught. “I don’t know where the varmint picked up that locket, but he sure as shootin’ didn’t traipse up a mountain, chew a hole in Tank’s nugget bag, and skitter all the way down here to stash it away in his hidey-hole!”
    “I agree,” Trixie said. “And when we go up to Tank’s next time, we’d better hunt for the nugget bag up there.”
    Hallie spun to face Trixie. Eyes flashing black fire, she yelled, “That’s dumb, Trixie Belden, just plain dumb!”
    “Wh-What’s so dumb about it?”
    “Climbing that mountain and hunting for the nugget bag—that’s what’s dumb! That bag has to be right around here someplace, or the rat couldn’t have stolen the locket. The only way the bag could get here would be if Cap put it here. We’ve been looking in all the wrong places, and that’s what’s dumb!” Hallie’s voice rose to a shout.
    The Bob-Whites looked at each other uneasily. Doctor-to-be Brian recognized hysteria when he saw it. He put his arm around Hallie’s shoulders and said, “Ssh, ssh, everything will be—”
    Hallie shoved him away. “Don’t you shush me, Brian Belden! It isn’t your brother who’s been beaten up by a sasquatch and carried away—maybe forever!”
    “Please, Hallie,” Knut began helplessly. His face was as white as Hallie’s was red.
    Honey reached for Hallie’s hand and squeezed. “We’re all scared and upset. We can’t think until we calm down.”
    “I can think!” Hallie yelled. “I can think that Trixie can solve everybody else’s problems, but she isn’t doing a darned thing to find Cap!” Shocked beyond words, Trixie waved her white mitts.
    “I know your hands are bandaged! But your head isn’t! As for you, Honey Wheeler, you haven’t any excuse at all. You haven’t any bandages on your head or hands!” Unexpectedly, Hallie burst into tears.
    Knut held his sister close and crooned, “We’ll find Cap. Or he’ll find us—we’re a team, remember? We stick together.”
    “N-Not this time,” Hallie sobbed. “I’m just all unglued.”
    Knut continued to pat and croon while the Bob-Whites stood by, concerned. “I know you are, but don’t blame Trixie