The Secret of the Unseen Treasure

to the barn and look for them before the man from the seed company gets here.”
    Mrs. Elliot nodded, then looked at the table of flowers and corsages. “Oh, dear, I've got to get those finished first. You go ahead, Trixie. Sam’s plant records are in a ring binder with a hard green cover. It should be in the bottom drawer of the desk. If you can’t find it, I’ll be out shortly to help.”
    “I’ll find it,” Trixie said. She dashed out to the bam. After searching among a clutter of old furniture and boxes, she hauled back a sheet and sneezed in the dust cloud that arose. The desk was underneath. After moving some cartons, Trixie pulled out the bottom drawer and lifted out the binder.
    She found pages headed by the common and Latin names of flowers, followed by dates and notations on planting, seeds, and blossoms. Trixie flipped through the pages, looking for something about sweet peas, but there was nothing.
    She groaned. Maybe Sam Elliot had made his notations under a Latin name. What on earth would that be? Mrs. Elliot might know it or have a book where it could be looked up.
    As Trixie picked up the binder, a long white envelope slipped out. Picking it up, she saw writing on one side of it. She gaped at what she read: “To be opened after my death. Sam Elliot.”
    Below that was another line, underlined for emphasis: “Not to be opened in the presence of my wife.”
    Trixie stared at the sealed flap. What should she do now? She couldn’t take this to Mrs. Elliot. Should she take it to her father or Mr. Hartman? She read Sam Elliot’s writing again.
    He hadn’t specified who was to open this, just that it wasn’t to be done in his wife’s presence.
    With trembling fingers, Trixie opened the envelope. She withdrew several folded pages. The first page was a short, handwritten note.

I do not want Ethel to know about some of the matters contained here. That is why I have not placed this with other papers needed for the settlement of my estate. I’m requesting that whoever, finds this will see that Ethel gains from the legacy enclosed. But please do not reveal to her the other information herein.

    The next page was a loose-leaf sheet removed from the ring binder. It was headed “Sweet Peas (very good possibility for a new and valuable yellow variety).”
    It’s no longer just a possibility, Trixie thought. The remaining pages also contained notes about some kind of plants, and also dates and large amounts of money written in. There was another handwritten note with these pages. As Trixie began reading this note, her face paled and her mouth dropped open.
    Suddenly Trixie was aware of voices. Max and Mr. Hartman. They were somewhere nearby in the bam, and it sounded as if they were arguing.
    Trixie’s attention returned to Sam Elliot’s writing. She could hardly believe what she was reading, but it was there in black and white, in Sam Elliot’s own words. As she finished, she again became aware of the rising voices of Max and Mr. Hartman.
    “Listen to me, Max,” Charles Hartman was saying. “Trixie Belden knows, and now I also know, that you’ve been trying to protect Ethel from Al Finlay, alias Manton. But you’ve been failing. Now he’s managed to stop her Social Security payments!”
    Trixie strained to hear. She couldn’t see the two men, so she assumed that they could not see her. For a moment, she heard only the buzzing of a fly.
    Then Max spoke, resignedly. “I’ll tell you this much. When I first ran away to the city, well, it was tough going. I managed to get by with odd jobs here and there. Then I made some so-called friends. Before I knew it, I was
    mixed up in a robbery. We got caught. That’s the police record I told Sergeant Molinson about. When I got out of jail, I’d had enough of the city. I came back here. My father was dead, and my stepmother needed my help here.”
    Max paused, then went on. “Everything was fine until early this spring. Then Al Finlay came to see me. He’d heard about me from one of my cell mates. He wanted me to get possession of this place and grow marijuana and other drugs for him. I told him no. The place wasn’t mine. That’s why I didn’t want any part of ownership when Ethel offered it to me.
    “But that didn’t stop Finlay. He was determined to get this place. I warned him that if anything happened to my stepmother, I’d tell the police everything I knew about him, which is plenty.
    “So Finlay began trying to force her to sell out.