Mystery in the Cave (6 page)

“What did it say?” Violet asked.

“
Treasure
,” Jessie said.

That
evening the Aldens decided to make a homemade dinner in their cabin. They made a delicious stew, and served it with hot rolls and salad. After dinner, they played cards out on the porch.

After a while, Violet put down her last card. “Want to play another round, Benny?”

“No, I want to
eat
another round. I wish we had some dessert after our dinner.”

Jessie put her finger to her lips. “Shhh. You’re making me hungry again. How about a nice apple, Benny?”

“Only if it’s in a nice apple pie!”

Jessie laughed. “I give in, Benny. Let’s go down to the coffee shop for apple pie. There’s no point staying in a motel if we can’t go out for dessert once in a while. It’s getting chilly out, so bring a jacket.”

The Aldens bundled up, then headed down the steps of Little Nose Cliff. When they reached the bottom, they noticed an empty, beat-up, green car parked under the streetlamp.

“That’s the car that was here the night we arrived,” Henry said. “I wonder why it’s parked way over here? Our cabin’s the only one at this end of the motor court.”

The children walked down the road. They had nearly reached the coffee shop when they heard a car coming up fast behind them.

“Move over!” Jessie said to Benny and Violet before turning around. “That car is going awfully fast.”

The Aldens jumped to the side just in time to see the green car whiz by.

“Hey, how do you like that?” Jessie asked. “It’s the green car from the parking lot. I wonder if that’s what almost hit Grandfather’s car our first night here.”

Benny tapped Jessie’s arm. “And what about that car we saw the first night when the rocks fell on our cabin? Maybe it was this car.”

“Right,” Henry said. “The engine sounded the same. Very loud.”

When the children reached the coffee shop, Henry opened the door for the others to go in first. “Let’s ask Mr. Howe about that green car. He’ll know.”

“Howdy, Aldens,” Mr. Howe said when he saw the children. “I hope you’re in the mood for apple pie. I made an extra today.”

“Good thing,” Benny said. “Apple pie is what we came for.”

Mr. Howe returned shortly with five glasses of milk and a big slice of pie to go with each one. “Hope you don’t mind if I join you. I like some pie and a glass of cold milk before I go on duty at the registration desk.”

Henry didn’t even look at his pie. He had to find out about that fast green car. “Do any of your guests have a green car?”

Mr. Howe finished a bite before answering. “I’m not sure.”

“How about a dented old green car with a very loud engine that goes too fast? It nearly ran us over,” Henry said.

Mr. Howe banged down his fork so hard the Aldens jumped. “Darn that Mr. Pitt! I told him and Mr. Lyme to slow down around here, especially at night. The speed limit’s five miles an hour inside the motor court. I can’t have them scaring my other guests!” With that, Mr. Howe forgot all about his pie and slid out from the booth. “I’m going over to their cabin right now and put a note on their door. They can find another place to stay in the morning!”

From the window, the Aldens watched Mr. Howe stomp down the road toward the cabins.

“Maybe we’ve seen the last of them and their old green car,” Henry said before finally digging into his pie.

Benny and Violet were quiet the next morning as they hiked down Little Nose Cliff.

“I’m glad we’re not going caving today,” Violet said quietly. “Something always happens down there. I didn’t like being lost yesterday.”

“That’s okay,” Henry said. “We’ll go rock hunting instead. Maybe today’s the day we’ll find a Rockville diamond.”

Jessie read from Benny’s rock book. “It says here to look for sections of rock that are different from the rest. Do you see anything like that, Henry?”

“Here and there,” Henry answered. “Why don’t I let Benny and Violet chisel away at those spots? We’ll find a Rockville diamond yet.”

But the Aldens had no luck. If there were any Rockville diamonds buried in the rock, they missed them. No matter how much the children hammered away, they didn’t chip off anything but plain old rock.

Seeing Violet and Benny’s disappointment, Henry walked quite a few yards ahead to check farther down. As he was moving along the rock, he felt a cool breeze. Right away he knew what that meant. “Hey, another cave!” Henry yelled back to his brother and sisters. “We just have to move some of these loose rocks and dirt out of the way.”

“It’s a good thing I packed work gloves,” Jessie said, when she and the others caught up with Henry. “It’ll be easier to clear out the entrance so we can go inside.”

With their hands, the Aldens scooped out a pile of rocks, stones, and dirt. When they were done, they found a foot-wide opening.

“That cool breeze from inside feels good,” Jessie said, wiping her forehead with her bandana. “Look, there’s plenty of room to get through if we go in sideways.”

In the excitement of discovering a new cave, Violet and Benny soon forgot about getting lost the day before.

“Hey, neat!” Benny cried after he squeezed inside. “This is like a skinny doorway instead of a hole in the ground.”

“I’m just going to tie this bandana to a branch outside,” Jessie said before joining the others. “Just in case. We won’t go in too far since we don’t have any of our caving equipment with us.”

“Except for one flashlight,” Henry said, patting his backpack.

The Aldens found themselves inside a large cave with a high ceiling and plenty of space to move around. Enough light came in from the entrance, so no one was too worried about getting lost.

“There’s a passageway that goes off to the side,” Henry said when he discovered a tunnel leading from the cave. “We’ll come back another time when we have our tape and rope.”

“I wonder if anybody else knows about this section of the caves,” Jessie said, looking around. “I forgot to check for footprints before we covered up everything with our own footprints.”

“Never mind footprints,” Henry said, bending down to get a closer look at the cavern floor. “Look at these holes.”

The other three children came over to see what Henry was talking about. When Jessie shone the flashlight on the ground, they saw one, two, three huge holes. Each one was surrounded by a mound of mud, small rocks, and dirt.

Suddenly, Jessie grabbed Henry’s arm. “Did you say something?” she whispered. “I just heard a voice.”

“I hear two voices,” Violet whispered. “They’re getting closer.”

Henry pointed to the wall. “Move over there into that crawl space. I’ll turn off my flashlight until we find out who’s down here.”

In the dark, the Aldens squeezed themselves into a tight space carved into the cave wall. The next thing they heard were footsteps squishing through the nearby tunnel.

“You and your stupid ideas,” a man’s angry voice said, just a few feet away. “Do you know how many tunnels are down here?”

The Aldens recognized the second voice they heard. It belonged to Randall Pitt. “Don’t worry, Ed, we’ll find it. He said it’s down here. We just have to be patient.”

“Patient? After you lost our other shovel and then got us lost, too? What if somebody else finds it first?” Mr. Lyme shouted. “These caves are crawling with people.”

“Nobody’s looking for what we’re looking for,” Randall Pitt said. “So don’t worry.”

Before Ed Lyme could answer, Benny felt his nose tickle. He tried not to think about the tickle. “Go away, go away,” he whispered to himself.

“What did you say, Benny?” Violet whispered.

“Ah—ah—ah-choo!” Benny cried when he couldn’t hold his sneeze in any longer.

“What was that?” Mr. Lyme shouted just a few feet away from the Aldens. “Who’s there?”

The children squeezed together as close as they could and prayed Benny wouldn’t sneeze again.

“It can’t be those snoopy kids. I figure they were scared off after we pulled up all their tape, cut the rope on the oldest one, and made up that story about a cave-in,” one of the men said, shining his flashlight into the cavern.

Luckily for the Aldens, the men didn’t see the crawl space the children were hiding in.

“Come on. Let’s go down to the other end,” Mr. Pitt said. “We already dug here and didn’t find anything.”

Then the men walked down the tunnel, dragging and scraping a shovel behind them. The Aldens waited several minutes before moving from their hiding space.

“Whew,” Henry said, stepping out from the crawl space. “They’re gone.”

“So Mr. Pitt was the one who took down our tape,” Violet said.

“That was Mr. Pitt all right. And you know who else that was?” Henry pointed his flashlight on the cave floor.

“Our monster!” Benny answered. “Their big wading boots made the footprints, and the shovel they were dragging made the tail prints.”

“Good detective work!” Jessie said. “I hope you’re not disappointed. You were hoping there was a monster.”

“Disappointed? Not me,” Benny said.

But he was—just a little.

T
he Aldens wriggled out of the cave to have lunch in a warm, sunny spot.

“Let’s put down our picnic blanket right here,” Henry said. “That way we can keep an eye on this cave.”

Jessie set out the sandwiches. “What is it about these caves?” she wanted to know. “Every time we go inside, somebody wants us out of there. First it was Crystal Hollowell. Now it’s Mr. Pitt and Mr. Lyme.”

“They’re searching for something, that’s for sure, ” Henry said. “But what could be under all that mud and dirt?”

“Real diamonds!” Benny answered, very sure of that. “Those bad guys made big holes with that shovel. And know what? Maybe Joe Caveman is their partner, too. He had a book that said
Treasure
on it. Diamonds are treasure.”

“Now don’t get your hopes up,” Violet said, looking up from Benny’s rock guide. “Your book says nearly all diamonds are found in South Africa. I don’t think diamonds are the treasure everyone’s looking for in the caves.”

Jessie borrowed the rock book. “I’m going to read about the Rockville diamonds again to see if we can’t find our own treasure. Now where’s that page with the—hey, wait! Look at the photographer’s name under the picture of this rock.”

Henry studied the photo Jessie was pointing to. “It says: ‘photograph by Crystal Hollowell.’ ”

“Crystal Hollowell!” Jessie cried. “It can’t be the same person. She said she studied animals.”

Violet looked over Jessie’s shoulder. “That’s what she said, but when we saw her in the cave, she was doing something with rocks.”

Jessie flipped through the pages of the rock book. “Listen! It says here that sometimes streaks of
silver
are found inside a special kind of lead. And, listen to this: ‘Such lead deposits can be found in certain types of limestone.’ These caves are made of limestone! I bet that’s what Miss Hollowell and everybody else is looking for—silver!”

“I bet for sure that Miss Hollowell took this picture,” Benny said. “Maybe if we don’t find our Rockville diamonds, we’ll find silver instead. Then we’ll be rich.”

Jessie laughed. “It’s hard to find the kind of silver they’re talking about in this book, Benny. You have to be a rock expert to know what to look for. Those men were searching for something, and so was Miss Hollowell. But maybe it’s not silver, maybe it’s something else.”

“But what?” Violet asked.

“Don’t forget Joe Caveman!” Benny cried.

“How can we forget Joe Caveman?” Jessie said with a laugh. “You won’t let us!”

“Can we go back into this cave?” Benny begged. “Can we?”

“I’d like to go back, too,” Violet added, forgetting all her worries about getting lost.

Henry nodded. “Sure thing! I’m glad you changed your minds. I’d sure like to snoop around in there. But first let’s go back to the cabin and get our safety gear. Oh, one other thing. We have to let Mr. Howe know we’ll be caving here this afternoon.”

After gathering up their things, the Aldens waited by the side of the road for the traffic to go by.