The Sasquatch Mystery

Di beat the fudge, then added vanilla. She and Mart poured the fudge into a buttered biscuit pan and took it to the creek.
    Di carried the flashlight. Trixie heard her warn Mart, “Don’t set it where the water’s deep—just on the very edge.”
    “We’ll probably end up with frog-ala-fudge,” warned Mart.
    “Oh, Mart, do you really think so?” Di looked stricken. “I did put foil around it.”
    “I was just teasing, Di,” Mart said contritely. “The foil will keep the frogs out—and insects and all the other little critters, too. Besides,” he added with a mischievous grin, “I doubt that any of us will give them time to get at it.”
    The two returned to the fire. It seemed to Trixie that Di was in her happiest mood since they had heard the sasquatch scream Monday night.
    Not much later, just as Mart had predicted, Hallie looked toward the creek and drawled, “If that fudge is cool enough to hang together, I’m ready to take it apart.”
    Liking center stage, Di skipped down the dim path to the creek.
    “Need some help?” Mart called, following at a leisurely pace with his swinging flashlight.
    “I’ve got it,” Di called back. “Just hold the light on the path so I won’t trip.”
    Trixie saw a pair of eyes glowing beside the creek.
    Then Di shrieked, “Go ’way!”
    Next Trixie heard a calf like bawl of pained annoyance, then a grunt and a rush as a second pair of eyes appeared.
    Di began to scream—not a pack-rat-in-the-night scream, but an open-throated shriek of terror.
    “Noise! Light!” Knut roared as he jumped up and rushed toward Di.
    All lights flashed on. Voices shrieked. Hallie pounded the water can. Trixie banged the dish-pan. Brian whistled through his teeth. Jim and Honey snatched up firebrands.
    “Throw that darned fudge!” Knut yelled when Di rushed into the ring of firelight, hanging on to the candy as if she guarded crown jewels.
    A bear cub and its mother were in a whirling tangle, right at Di’s heels!
    Before Trixie could find a tree to climb, the bear sow swatted the cub and sent it squalling into the night. She hung her head and clattered her jaws, not at Di... but at the sasquatch!
    That strange beast had suddenly materialized again. It swayed toward the fire, then toward the creek. It seemed as though it couldn’t move its feet. Something flashed as it raised an arm to protect its face.
    After an eternity, the bear’s jaws stopped clattering. Her ears stood upright again. As a warning not to follow or get in her way, she swatted the air within inches of the sasquatch’s face. Then she turned and followed her cub. In another minute, the sasquatch had vanished, too.
    Trixie looked down at the dents she had made in the dishpan. “Sorry about your pan,” she told Hallie. “I must have been thinking I was hitting the bear when I beat on it.”
    Hallie giggled nervously, then said, “I sure don’t understand sasquatches.”
    “Me, neither,” breathed Trixie. “Why would it sling rocks at people, then turn around and run from a bear?”
    “I can certainly understand the running part!” exclaimed Di.
    “You can?” Mart’s round eyes were blue marbles in a pale face. “Di, you just kicked a bear cub!”
    Di flushed.
    “Whew, that was close,” Knut said. “A mad mama can be a handful.”
    “You know, Knut, we did everything wrong,” said Hallie.
    “I know,” Knut admitted, “but at least it was a black bear, not a grizzly. The common black bear is usually timid. That’s the reason it’s still common!”
    He turned to Di. “I’m sorry I let you make that fudge. Bears are storing fat for winter hibernation now. In bear country, it’s safe to assume that bears are where the food is.”
    Di looked down at the pan of glossy brown candy that she still clutched. “So are Bob-Whites,” she giggled weakly.
    “Let’s get at it before the bears come back,” urged Mart.
    Di went around the circle, doling out the treat into outstretched hands.
    “I doubt that the bear will bother any of us tonight,” Knut said, after listening for sounds that indicated the escape route taken by the bear sow. “Just in case, I’m going to stand guard and keep the fire going.”
    “I’ll help,” Brian told Knut.
    There were happy mumbles as teeth bit into the candy that was set barely well enough to hold together.
    “It didn’t turn out right,” Di apologized. “Brian and I wouldn’t know the difference,” Mart announced. “We eat Trixie’s fudge