The Mystery on Cobbett's Island

breakfast, I figured maybe I could sneak me somethin’ to eat. No luck on the food, but I sure struck it rich when you blabbed about the hidden money!”
    So it was Slim I heard that morning near the terrace, thought Trixie to herself, and not a tame deer!
    “At first I figured all I had to do was keep an eye on you and let you do all the work, but then when Pete here got careless and left that copy of the chart in the shed, I said to myself, ’I’ll have a go at this alone.’ Slim continued to count out the money slowly, stacking it into two piles in front of him as he talked. “That Pete, he ain’t very smart, is he?” Slim asked, looking up at Trixie. He was getting friendlier by the moment.
    “No, but he’ll learn,” Trixie readily agreed. “He’s new at this game, you know.” She gave Peter a con-descending smile, and he squirmed appropriately at her pretended rebuke.
    “What was that you were saying about the Coast Guard?” Trixie casually asked Slim.
    “Oh, them!” he snorted. “When I quit school, I tried to join up with their outfit. I had to take a lot of crazy tests and talk to some of the big brass, and then they told me I wasn’t Coast Guard material. Me, the best shot around here!” He spat the words out angrily.
    “I should think the Coast Guard would have jumped at the chance of having a bright boy like you.” Trixie beamed at him. “The way you can read a chart and ail.” She paused, hoping he’d rise to her bait.
    “Yeah, that was pretty good, wasn’t it? I got the jump on you that night when you was all hashin’ it over on the porch, when you decided the chart didn’t have anything to do with the sea.”
    “Where were you?” Trixie asked, taken completely by surprise by what she had heard.
    “I ain’t never been very far away from you and your gang. You’re a cinch to trail. I was hidin’ in the bushes right by the side of the porch and heard the whole thing.”
    “How long have you been out here in the stable?” Trixie asked.
    “I got here a little while before you barged in. When I heard your gang headin’ for the smokehouse, I figured it wasn’t healthy to hang around, so I scrammed out through the woods and hid up in the loft. I didn’t know this was the end of that crazy course,” he admitted. “It just seemed the best place to hide until I could figure out where you was headin’.”

A Little Black Box ● 17

    BY NOW SLIM had completed the slow business of counting the money. The Bob-Whites and Peter watched him without saying a word as he prepared to tie up the two stacks of bills. They had amounted to exactly a thousand dollars, in varying denominations. Finally Slim sat back on his heels, his hands on his hips, gloating over the treasure.
    “A grand!” he gasped. “A whole grand! One thousand beautiful bucks!”
    He looked up at the faces around him, at Trixie, and again at the money. Trixie, fearing he might try to get away with both piles, slowly stood up and asked for her half. She glanced at Jim and Brian, hoping against hope they would see she was preparing for action. Slim hesitated and then reluctantly handed up the money. As she reached out to take it, Trixie kicked the gun on the floor with all her strength and with her left hand, caught Slim by the wrist.
    “Why, you dirty little double-crosser!” he screamed as he wrenched away, tipping her and sending her sprawling on the floor. Jim dived on top of him, giving Trixie a chance to recover her footing. Brian quickly retrieved the gun and hurled it as hard as he could through a window in the back of the barn.
    “Pete, get Abe!” yelled Trixie, who was terror-stricken when she saw Slim land a blow on Jim’s shoulder that sent him reeling backward. Both boys were fighting like tigers. Jim was barely able to recover his balance before Slim moved in on him again. But, although Slim was as quick and lithe as a cat, he was out-matched by Jim, whose training in boxing now stood him in good stead. Watching for an opening, Jim finally landed a right uppercut to Slim’s jaw, sending him to his knees.
    “Grab those halters,” Trixie cried out to Mart as Brian and Jim fell on top of Slim, who was so groggy now that he offered no more résistance. They tied his hands together behind his back, and then, pushing him over, they put a second halter securely around his ankles.
    “That’ll hold you, you bum,” Jim said as he stood up and brushed the dirt from his clothes. It was not until