Free The Mystery at Bob-White Cave by Julie Campbell

“Don’t worry about Slim. He didn’t have any idea of what I was talking about.”
    “Don’t be too sure of that. I wish I felt I could trust Slim one hundred percent.”
    “Was he a competent guide?” Uncle Andrew inquired quickly.
    “Oh, he was that, all right,” Jim said. “It’s just his attitude—his arrogance.”
    “Maybe he feels you don’t like him or trust him. If he’s related to Mrs. Moore....”
    “He isn’t, exactly.” Mrs. Moore, setting the table, overheard the conversation. “He’s related to my husband’s cousin. Here in the mountains, it seems everyone is kinfolk to everyone else. I don’t want you to think, though, that I’ve vouched for Slim in any way.”
    “Try to be a little more tolerant of him,” Uncle Andrew urged. “Then if it doesn’t work out, we can take it from there. Is that satisfactory?”
    “Okay,” Brian, the spokesman for the Bob-Whites, assured his uncle.
    “Where is Linnie?” Trixie asked. “Oh, yes, she went with Mr. Glendenning. Did he feel all right when he left?”
    “He seemed to have recovered completely. He didn’t even want us to take him home in the wagon. He said it was only a ‘bit of a way’ to where he was staying. I thought, when he was trying to tell us where he lived, that he meant Dewey’s cabin Over near Turkey Knob.
    It turned out it wasn’t that at all. Here’s Linnie. She’ll tell you about it.” Mrs. Moore’s face was serious. “I just can’t talk about it.”
    “Mr. Glendenning’s living in that haunted cabin!” Linnie said in a low tone.
    “By himself? He stayed there overnight?” Trixie asked. “Did he tell you he’d seen the ghost of the man who was murdered?”
    “Oh, Trixie!” Uncle Andrew said, exasperated.
    “Did he?” Trixie persisted. The other Bob-Whites looked expectantly at Linnie.
    “No, he didn’t. When he told me to let him out at the top of the knoll above the ghost cabin, I couldn’t believe my ears. Mama and I told him to be careful when he passed there, and we asked him where he lived.”
    “What did he say then?” Trixie asked eagerly.
    “He laughed and said, ‘I live right there. The ghost takes good care of me. He’ll give me a dose of herb tea tonight, and I’ll be as good as new tomorrow.’ ”
    “Then what did you say?” Honey whispered.
    “I was so scared, I couldn’t even say a word. Do you think Mr. Glendenning is a ghost himself? Mama does.”
    “Now, Linnie, don’t go imagining things. The Englishman just liked to tease.” Uncle Andrew seemed upset by more talk of ghosts.
    “He wasn’t teasing, was he, Mama? A person doesn’t go right from saying their thank-you’s to teasing you. I know he wasn’t. And if you don’t think he’s a ghost or that he’s in cahoots with ghosts, what do you think of this, Mr. Belden? When I was turning the mules around to come back home, I heard a dog bark. It was Jacob’s bark. But Jacob wasn’t anyplace around. I whistled for him. Still he didn’t come. Then Mama and I saw the door of the ghost cabin open, and a man came out....”
    “Yes, Linnie, hurry up!” Trixie urged.
    “He had a bag over his shoulder.”
    “What did he have in the bag?” Honey asked Linnie eagerly.
    “He’d been poaching, probably, and bagged a rabbit,” Jim said, remembering the game preserve around the Manor House at Sleepyside.
    “He didn’t... it may have been a—a—body!” Trixie said.
    “Oh, Trixie!” Mart hooted. “What an imagination!”
    “Are you laughing at me?” Linnie asked.
    “Not a chance,” Mart assured her. “Go ahead; tell us more about the ghost.”
    “Well, when the door opened, Jacob ran out, too. He ran like mad and jumped into the wagon.”
    “Gosh! Was the man you saw Mr. Glendenning?”
    “No, it wasn’t, Mart. The man I saw had a white cloud around his head. Mr. Glendenning seemed to fade out of sight.”
    “He’ll be seen no more,” Mrs. Moore said in a hollow voice.
    “Oh, Mrs. Moore, I keep