The Indian Burial Ground Mystery Page 8

  “Look, buddy,” the man replied sullenly, “all this slip says is to deliver a hundred cases of printed envelopes to Professor Conroy at the Wheeler game preserve, and that’s what I’m gonna do. Take it or leave it.”

  “I’m leaving it,” Charles snapped. “I refuse to sign for this delivery, and furthermore, I’m going right down to the U.P.S. office and clear up this whole mess with your supervisor.” With that, Charles stalked off the dig site. The delivery man got back into his truck, and drove off in a cloud of dust. Charles jumped into Professor Conroy’s jeep and followed right behind him.

  “That takes care of Charles Miller for the afternoon,” Trixie said with a satisfied smile. “Let’s go back to the village site and see if we can find out any more about who was digging that hole and why. We were interrupted last night, but I doubt if we’ll be interrupted this afternoon.”

  The two girls rushed down the little path through the woods. Halfway to the clearing, Trixie stopped short.

  “Look!” she gasped, pointing her finger through the undergrowth.

  Harry’s yellow Volkswagen was parked in the woods, just off the path. The left front fender was dented, and a large area had lost its paint.

  “See,” Trixie said, “that looks like a brand-new scratch, too. It isn’t rusted.”

  “What do you mean, ‘see’?” Honey asked. “You know, sometimes you talk in riddles, Trixie Belden.”

  Trixie was about to answer when she heard muffled barking coming from a short distance away.

  “Reddy!” she shouted, and she broke into a run.

  There was no Reddy in the clearing. But oddly, the muffled barking was now even louder.

  “Where is that silly dog,” Trixie muttered as she prowled around the edge of the clearing. “I can hear him, but I haven’t the slightest idea where he is.”

  Following the sound of his barks, Trixie went a short distance farther. Suddenly her foot slipped. Before she could grab hold of anything, she found herself shooting down a muddy incline at the base of a fat old tree stump.

  She hit bottom with a spine-jarring thud. Luckily, the camper’s flashlight she had hooked to her belt didn’t break. The next thing she knew, a delirious Reddy was jumping all over her. She hugged the dog gratefully and took a look around. It was pitch black except for a jagged circle of light above her head.

  She was in a cave!

  “Trixie!” Honey’s worried voice filtered through the blackness that surrounded her.

  “Over here!” Trixie called out. But before she had a chance to yell, “Be careful!” Honey came sliding down into the cave with her.

  Reddy was delighted to have so much company, but the girls were miserable.

  “There has to be a way out of here,” Trixie moaned. Great clumps of dirt landed on her head as she tried to scale the slippery side of the cave. She lost her footing again and again. “Maybe if you give me a boost, I could reach the edge.”

  But try as they might, they couldn’t get out.

  Trixie and Honey were stuck.

  “Maybe we should yell,” Honey suggested. “One of the students might hear us and pull us out.”

  “Good thinking,” Trixie said. “Let’s yell together. One, two, three...”

  “Hel-l-l-lp! Hel-l-l-lp!”

  Moments later, the girls were exhausted, and they gave up. It was obvious that they were too far from the main dig site for their voices to carry. The cave was damp and cold. It smelled of old mushrooms and rotting vegetation. Trixie didn’t like it one bit. Finally, the two sat down and leaned back against the wall.

  Trixie closed her eyes and sighed. It was getting late. Only a small shaft of light came through the hole above them. When night came, it would be darker than pitch. Trixie knew she couldn’t leave her flashlight on for long—the batteries would give out. “Maybe we should try and rest,” she said to Honey.

  But her rest didn’t last long. It was interrupted by a rustling sound nearby.

  Trixie leapt to her feet. It was Reddy. His nose was buried in the paper-bag lunch that Mrs. Belden had packed for them.

  “Of course!” Trixie said, patting the dog’s head. “You poor thing. You haven’t eaten since yesterday.”

  “See, Trixie,” Honey said with a laugh. “With your usual presence of mind, you held onto the picnic lunch while you were falling into the cave. At least we won’t starve to death now.”

  “I feel just like Alice in Wonderland,” Trixie said as she fed Reddy a bologna sandwich. “Remember the part where she fell down the hole?”

  Honey giggled. “Maybe the White Rabbit will come and get us out.”

  “Better the White Rabbit than that awful Charles Miller,” Trixie said. But she didn’t feel like laughing.

  “Charles Miller is the only person who ever comes to this part of the woods,” Honey said thoughtfully. “He might be our only hope.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of,” Trixie answered gloomily. “What if he finds us, but refuses to help us get out?”

  Trixie knew that Charles Miller was looking for a cave. And it was beginning to look as if Trixie and Honey had found the very cave Charles was looking for. If he had resorted to knocking Professor Conroy over the head to get him out of the way, what would he do to keep Trixie and Honey from getting his treasure? Trixie shuddered. Absolutely no one knew where they were. She hoped Charles Miller wouldn’t figure that out. They might never get out of this cave alive!

  11 * Trapped!

  Trixie had no idea how long they’d been sitting in the cave, but she could see from the angle of the sun glancing in through the opening that it was probably late afternoon.

  “This is ridiculous,” Trixie said finally. “I’m going to explore this cave. There has to be another way out.”

  “Oh, Trixie,” Honey said, sounding frightened, “please be careful. All I can think of is those stories I’ve heard about people who get lost exploring in underground caves. Wouldn’t you rather sit here and wait for someone to come and rescue us?”

  “No, I wouldn’t,” Trixie replied firmly. “And I promise I’ll be careful, so please don’t worry.”

  “Do you think I should go with you?”

  “No. You stay right there. Besides, I might not be going anywhere,” Trixie said with a laugh. She stood up and switched on her flashlight. Shining it along the edges of the cave walls, she began to examine the grim place with great care. Trixie judged that the cave was about nine feet deep, and not large. It was like a small subterranean room. Unfortunately, the walls were fairly straight and smooth, with no rock outcroppings to get a foothold on. Tree roots had broken through in places and they hung down eerily, like long, grasping fingers reaching out.

  Upon closer examination, Trixie noticed that the walls were made of dirt, not rock. She had always thought that caves had rocky walls, but this one seemed to have slimy, mud walls. Ugh, she thought. No wonder they had been so impossible to climb.

  There didn’t seem to be any openings other than the one in the roof. But all the hanging roots made Trixie think there might be an opening hidden behind the tangled growth. I hope there are no bats, or rats, or anything else in here, she thought with a shudder.

  She moved closer to one side of the cave where a gnarled, wet-looking spray of roots stuck through the wall. Reaching up to pull aside some of the finer branches, Trixie jumped in alarm as a small bug skittered across her hand. She held back a scream, not wanting to upset Honey. But there was no opening hidden by the roots; just a slimy, blank wall of mud and dirt. She checked each root clump, but found the same thing each time.

  As Trixie explored the small cave, she began to notice something unusual about it. Carefully, she retraced her steps just to make sure that she wasn’t jumping to any incorrect conclusions. Finally she couldn’t keep quiet any longer.

  “This place has a funny shape for a cave,” she said to Honey. “It looks almost square. I doubt that Mother Nature would make a square cave.”

  “I don’
t understand what you mean,” Honey said.

  “Let me see .. Trixie muttered to herself. “I wonder if...”

  Picking up a loose rock, Trixie began to scrape away at the dirt on one of the walls.

  After a few good long pulls, she began to scrape harder and faster. It was just as she’d suspected.

  “Hey! This isn’t a cave at all,” Trixie exclaimed. “It’s an old cellar!”

  “A cellar?” Honey said with a gasp.

  “Look at this,” Trixie said, shining the flashlight where she’d been scraping. “These are evenly laid stones. This is an old foundation!”

  Honey leapt to her feet. Sure enough, just as Trixie had said, the wall was made of perfectly fitted square blocks. The stones looked like hewn granite.

  Before Trixie or Honey could think about their next move, they heard a noise outside. It was the sound of a shovel striking stone.

  Trixie quickly put her finger to her lips. Reddy, happily full of bologna sandwiches, was sleeping peacefully in the corner.

  “I’m pretty sure it’s Charles Miller,” Trixie whispered. “Keep quiet. Maybe he won’t find…”

  “Why should we be quiet?” Honey whispered back, perplexed. “Why can’t we yell, so he can save us?”

  “Because he may not save us, that’s why,” Trixie hissed. “He’s the one who hits people on the head for interfering with his silly treasure hunt! What do you think he’s going to do to us once he finds out we’re still snooping around here?”

  “I don’t care!” Honey wailed. “I don’t like it down here—it’s cold and creepy. I want to go home. I’m going to yell for help.”

  “Okay, okay,” Trixie said forlornly. “We might as well start yelling. But I still don’t feel right about it.”

  They both began to shout as loudly as they could. Reddy immediately woke up and started barking, too. Suddenly the shovel noise stopped, and they could hear twigs snapping as Charles started looking for the place the voices were coming from, He seemed to be having a hard time of it.

  “Over here!” Trixie yelled. “But be careful! We’re down a hole, and we can’t get out!”

  A few moments later, Charles Miller stuck his head through the opening and looked at them in great surprise.

  “What are you doing down there?” he asked, incredulous.

  “We’re stuck, silly,” Trixie said, getting very annoyed. “If we could get out, then we’d be out, wouldn’t we?”

  “Please help us,” Honey pleaded. “Do you have a rope or something? It’s awful down here.”

  For a moment Charles was silent. A number of conflicting emotions seemed to flicker across his face—surprise, anger, fear. It was the expression of fear that worried Trixie the most. If Charles Miller really did have something to hide, all her worst thoughts would prove correct. Then he spoke.

  “I don’t know,” he said slowly. “Maybe I will and maybe I won’t.”

  “You have to help us,” Honey wailed. “Maybe,” Charles said with a nasty smile. “But I have to do something first.”

  “What do you mean, ‘do something’?” Trixie shouted.

  Charles pulled his head out of the opening. “Don’t go away now!” he said with a grim laugh.

  “I told you,” Trixie muttered. “Let’s find a stick or a big rock. We should at least try and protect ourselves.”

  Trixie bent down to pick up a large rock, but before she could curl her fingers around it, Charles dropped down into the cave. He landed with a thud on the ground next to her. The knotted end of a heavy rope struck him on the shoulder.

  “Ouch!” he yelped.

  “Quick, Honey,” Trixie commanded, “grab the rope and let’s get out of here!”

  But Honey didn’t move quickly enough. Charles reached behind him and held the rope out of their reach.

  “Not so fast, girls,” he said. “There are a few things we have to discuss.”

  “Really?” Trixie said innocently. “I don’t think we have anything to discuss.”

  “Oh yes, we do, Miss Belden,” he said menacingly. “Like the fact that you two have been snooping around me and this site since I first got here. And I know why, too.”

  “I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about,” Trixie said in her haughtiest tone of voice. “Now please, help us get out of here.”

  “Not before you explain what you’re doing in my cave, looking for my treasure. For all I know, you’ve already found it, and have it hidden somewhere in here. You’re not leaving until you hand it over.”

  “I still don’t know what you’re talking about,” Trixie said sweetly. But she cast a warning glance at Honey. “Treasure? What treasure?”

  “You know exactly what I’m talking about,” Charles said menacingly. He began to shine his flashlight all around the small underground room as if looking for something. “I happen to know that there’s a hidden stash of gold down here. Just because you two are rich, doesn’t mean you can take it from me. You don’t need it, anyway. And I’m not going to let two dumb, rich girls stand in the way of what I need.”

  “For your information,” Trixie began, “I’m not rich, and...”

  Honey, who had been listening quietly, suddenly stood up. She interrupted Trixie and started yelling at Charles. “You can’t talk to us that way,” she snapped. Trixie was surprised at Honey. She’d hardly ever seen her get angry. “It’s not your fault that you’re poor, and it’s not my fault that my parents have money. You have no right to be so nasty. Besides, your dumb treasure couldn’t be down here, because this isn’t a cave—it’s a cellar. Look!”

  Grabbing Trixie’s flashlight out of her hand, Honey directed the beam at the section of wall Trixie had scraped clean earlier.

  “See? Nice square building stones—a cellar!”

  There was a moment of silence. Then, to both girls’ amazement, Charles’s face crumpled. He began to cry.

  Trixie and Honey were shocked.

  “What did I say that was so bad?” Honey whispered to Trixie.

  “I don’t know,” Trixie whispered back. “What do we do now?”

  The girls stood still and watched quietly as Charles Miller’s shoulders shook, and sobs of anguish came brokenly from behind the hands that covered his face.

  Soon it was over. Charles gave a shuddering sigh and wiped his hand across his eyes. It left a dirty smudge across the bridge of his nose.

  “What an idiot I am,” he mumbled. “Now I have no money, and I won’t be able to pay my tuition anymore. I had thought the gold would make it easier, make it possible for me to get my Ph.D. I can’t go on like this, doing part-time jobs and being so tired all the time. I can’t even study anymore. There’s no time. And what’s worse, my grades are going down, so I’m probably going to lose the small scholarship I have. I guess I’ll have to quit school and forget about ever being an archaeologist.” Trixie could see by the expression on Honey’s face that the kind-hearted girl was starting to feel sorry for Charles Miller. But not Trixie. She was feeling cautious. Maybe Charles Miller was deliberately trying to make her feel sorry for him. Was all this crying an act to throw them off the scent?

  “I’m sure it’s hard having to quit school,” she began, never letting her eyes leave Charles’s face. “But if you knew there was treasure down here, why did you bother to break into people’s houses and steal paintings and silver?”

  “Break into? Steal?” Now it was Charles’s turn to be shocked.

  “Trixie!” said Honey, horrified.

  “That’s right,” Trixie continued. “I think all this moaning and groaning of yours is just an act. You’re part of the burglary ring that’s been breaking into the Westchester mansions —the Wheelers’ house, too. I would think the money you got from selling all those stolen goods would be more than enough to cover your tuition.”

  Charles stood up with a look of complete dismay on his face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. “I’d never do anything like that—nev
er in a million years. What kind of a person do you think I am?”

  “Do you really want to know?” Trixie asked coldly.

  12 * A Surprise Suspect

  Trixie took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. Before telling Charles everything she knew, however, she decided to ask him to help them out of the old cellar first.

  “I’ll have a much better idea about the kind of person you are if you help us get out of here,” she said quietly.

  “Sure. Of course,” Charles mumbled. “I wasn’t planning not to, you know.”

  “We know that,” Honey said reassuringly. She cast an irritated look at Trixie.

  “I mean, why do you think I tied one end of the rope to the tree up there before I joined you two in this hole in the ground?” Charles said sarcastically. “If I only wanted to yell at you, I could have done that easily enough from outside.”

  “Maybe we should let Honey go first,” Trixie said. “My only worry is how we’ll get Reddy out of here.”

  “No problem,” Charles said firmly. “I’ll go last, and I’ll carry him in my arms. If I tie the rope around my waist, you two can pull us both up.”

  “I hope so,” Trixie said as she watched Honey climb up the rope hand over hand. Using the thick knots Charles had made in the rope as footholds, she inched her way up and out of the old cellar.

  “Okay,” Charles said when Honey was safely out. “You next, Trixie.”

  “Gee,” Trixie said as she started up the rope, “I’m glad I learned rope-climbing in gym last year. Who knew it was going to come in handy like this?”

  As her head poked out through the hole by the tree stump, she took a deep and grateful breath of fresh air. Then she dusted herself off and called down to Charles.

  “Now tie the rope around yourself and see if you can pick up Reddy.” Reddy was jumping up and down excitedly, getting muddy paw prints all over Charles’s shirt. Trixie knew the dog was worried they were going to leave him behind. “Don’t worry, boy,” Trixie called down to Reddy. “We’re going to get you out, too.”