Mystery in the Cave (7 page)

Suddenly, a truck that was driving by slowed down in front of the Aldens. But a second later, it sped up again and disappeared.

“Did you see who that was?” Henry asked.

“Crystal Hollowell,” Jessie answered. “She took off like a rocket when she saw who we were.”

Jessie checked down the road. “If we run, maybe we can see if she went to the other cave. It’s not far from here.”

“Good idea,” Henry said. “Let’s go.”

Jessie was right. After racing down a ways, the Aldens spotted Crystal Hollowell’s truck. Then they saw her, right by the sinkhole entrance.

“Let’s try to catch up with her,” Jessie said. “Oh, Miss Hollowell, Miss Hollowell!”

Hearing her name, Crystal Hollowell whirled around to see who was shouting for her. When she saw the Aldens, she marched back to her truck and threw her big duffel bag inside.

Jessie ran over to the truck. “Wait up. We wanted to ask you something. Benny, hand me your rock book.”

By the time Benny pulled his book from his backpack, Crystal Hollowell had started up her truck. “I’m in a hurry, so step back.”

But Jessie Alden was much too fast for Crystal Hollowell. She opened the rock book and stuck it through the truck window. “Did you take this photo, Miss Hollowell? It has your name underneath it.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about!” Miss Hollowell answered without even looking at the book. “I’ve got to go.” With that, the young woman stepped on the gas and sped away.

The Aldens hurried back to the cabin to get their safety gear.

When they came down from the Little Nose Cliff again, they had everything they needed to go caving—except time.

“I guess we should just look around the big cave we found this morning,” Henry said. “There’s not enough time to go back to the sinkhole cave, too. Besides, I left a note to Mr. Howe telling him where we’d be and that we marked the place with a bandana.”

“The bandana!” Violet cried when the Aldens started searching for the cave entrance. “It’s gone!”

The children walked along slowly, checking along the rock for the opening they had entered just hours before.

“This is strange. I don’t see the entrance we dug out,” Henry said. He ran his hand along the rock to feel for the cool spot. “It should be easy to find since we scooped out all that rock and dirt.”

Benny ran ahead to look for the spot. “I’ll find it! I’ll find it!” But he found no bandana sticking out and no cave opening.

“A cave can’t just disappear,” Jessie said, walking up and down. “Let’s think. This morning when we crossed the road, we were standing next to that road sign. The cave opening has to be right near there.”

“Hey, the entrance has been covered up! That’s why we didn’t see it,” Henry shouted when he checked the rock. “Somebody took the dirt and rock we dug out and pushed it back into the entrance!”

It didn’t take long for the Aldens to dig out the entrance again. Soon, they were inside the cave. Now that they had four flashlights, there was plenty of light inside.

“Hey, there are those bootmarks again—the ones with the heels,” Jessie said, aiming her flashlight at the cave floor. “Those aren’t our footprints, and they’re not big enough to belong to Mr. Pitt or Mr. Lyme. Let’s follow them.”

Henry cut up many pieces of reflective tape. “This time we’ll put lots of tape high and low. Benny, take this stick and drag it along the floor as we walk. Whenever we get to a turn, make an ‘X’ in the mud. If we leave enough markers, there’s no way anyone can erase every single one.”

With their safety rules all set, the Aldens walked through the tunnel that branched off from the first room of the cave.

“Wow!” Benny yelled a few minutes later, running ahead. “You won’t believe what I just found.”

Benny’s voice was coming from a room-sized space off the side of the tunnel. Squeezing in behind, Henry, Jessie, and Violet beamed their flashlights into the space.

“It’s like a small living room,” Violet said. “There’s a folding stool, some books—even a sleeping bag.”

“Whom could this belong to?” Jessie said.

“Not to the person we’re trailing, that’s for sure,” Henry said, aiming his flashlight at the floor. “There’s only one set of footprints in here, and they’re way bigger than the ones we were following.”

Violet picked up a book lying on the stool. “Look what I found.”

The other children’s eyes grew huge. Soon everyone was laughing very hard.

“It’s—it’s . . . ” Henry started to say before he burst into laughter again.

“
Treasure Island
,” Jessie finally managed to say between fits of laughter. “It’s the book Joe Caveman was carrying the day we saw him. He wasn’t looking for a treasure at all. He was just reading—”

“
Treasure Island
!” Benny cried. “That’s the book you read me last summer about a shipwreck.”

Jessie put her arm around Benny. “Remember how much you liked it?”

Benny nodded. “Not as much as I like real treasures. That’s a funny joke on us.”

The next thing the children heard wasn’t a funny joke at all. Loud, stomping footsteps echoed in the cave.

“Quick!” Henry whispered. “Turn off your flashlights. Maybe we can see who’s going by.”

“Or coming in,” Violet whispered when a bright spotlight suddenly lit up the chamber.

“Who’s in here?” a man’s voice boomed.

There was no use hiding. The Aldens came out from the shadows.

“Joe Caveman!” the children yelled all at once.

“I guess you found my hideout,” the tall stranger said.

Benny burst out with a question. “What are you hiding in your hideout?”

Joe Caveman pointed to himself. “Me. I’m hiding me.”

Violet swallowed hard. “Is someone looking for you?”

For the first time, Joe Caveman smiled. “Everybody’s looking for me, young lady. My five children, my wife, my boss. I never get a second to myself. I come down here for some peace and quiet on my days off to do a little reading and some exploring. I’m a spelunker.”

“We’re ’lunkers, too,” Benny said. “But we don’t read books down here. We’re looking for diamonds and silver and two men who made us get lost.”

“Whoa, young fella, slow down,” Joe Caveman said. “I hope you folks weren’t the ones who hammered the walls at the sinkhole entrance where I first ran into you. There were some rock chips over there.”

“That wasn’t us,” Benny said. “That was a lady who tried to scare us. She said we’d get flooded even though it was sunny out.”

“Never saw her,” Joe Caveman said. “As for the two men you mentioned, I wonder if they’re the pair I chased out of here after I caught them digging up the cave.”

“We saw them, too,” Jessie said. “They took down all our reflective tape to scare us, and they cut our brother Henry’s rope. Everybody seems to want us out of here.”

Violet looked up at the tall stranger. “Do you want us out of here, too?”

Joe Caveman smiled at Violet. “Not at all. Sorry I was so gruff the other day. I’d just settled my things down in a good spot when those men came down making a racket with their digging and yelling. All these caves connect, so I moved on and found this hideout farther in. But caves are public places—wonderful places if you know what you’re up to. I can see you children are very careful cavers, so I don’t mind that you’re down here. Hope I didn’t scare you the other day.”

“You did,” Benny said with a laugh. “But not for long.”

“Good.” Joe Caveman picked up his belongings. “I guess I’ll be off. Half the fun is trying to discover a spot where nobody can find me.”

With that, Joe Caveman was gone.

Benny ran after him. “Hey, wait!” he said. “You forgot something.”

Joe Caveman turned around. “What?”

Benny handed Joe Caveman his book. “Your treasure.”

A
fter saying good-bye to Joe Caveman, the Aldens spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the new cave.

“Know what?” Benny asked as he walked along with his brother and sisters. “Joe Caveman never told us his real name.”

“I like the name you gave him way better than any real name,” Violet said. “Henry, why are you stopping?”

“Because we hit a dead end,” Henry said when he came to a rock wall.

Jessie checked her watch. “It’s four o’clock. We should get back before Mr. Howe worries about us. And don’t forget. Grandfather will be back tonight. We have to pack for Greenfield.”

“Nuts!” Benny said when they turned back. “I didn’t find a Rockville diamond or any silver or figure out any mysteries to tell Grandfather.”

“We found out about Joe Caveman,” Henry said. “That was a mystery we solved.”

“That wasn’t a
real
mystery. He was just a plain old person reading his book in a cave,” Benny complained.

When the Aldens spotted the last piece of tape, Henry pulled it down. “Wait a minute. Is this where we started? I don’t see the exit. There’s no light in here except for our flashlights.”

Jessie went over to the far wall of the cave. “The entrance is blocked!”

Henry came over and began to dig out rocks and dirt from the opening.

“What’s the matter, Henry?” Violet asked.

Henry waited a long time before answering. “There’s a boulder or something very heavy pushed against the outside. It’s way too heavy for me to move.”

“Are we trapped?” Benny asked, his voice cracking.

Jessie tried not to sound scared. “I’ve got an idea. Let’s go back to where we saw Joe Caveman leave. He went out a different way. We’ll just follow his footprints, and I know we’ll get out.”

The Aldens walked quickly back through the dark cave.

“Benny, you stick up the tape this time,” Henry said. “And Violet can drag the stick along and mark our turns with an ‘X.’ Let’s get a move on.”

Finally, they were back in Joe Caveman’s “living room.”

“Okay,” Jessie said, “here are Joe Caveman’s footprints. Let’s just follow them until we see daylight.”

“Wait, I think I hear something,” Henry said.

“Stop! I hear water rushing near here,” said Jessie.

“Is it a flood, Jessie?” Benny asked. “What if there’s a big thunderstorm outside?”

“Let’s check where the sound is coming from,” Jessie said as calmly as she could. “Maybe it’s just an underground stream. That would be good because it could lead us out of here.”

Everyone listened very carefully. Sure enough, there was a whooshing, gurgling sound nearby, so the Aldens headed in that direction.

“See, an underground stream!” Jessie whispered when they found water. “Let’s walk along this ledge and see where it goes.”

Henry led everyone alongside the stream. The Aldens hadn’t gone far when they heard men’s voices shouting in the distance.

“This is your dumbest idea ever,” Ed Lyme said to Randall Pitt. “I’m not getting into that thing. I can’t swim.”

Mr. Pitt was blowing up a large raft with an air pump.

“Hey, what are you kids doing here?” Mr. Lyme shouted when he saw the Aldens standing there.

“It’s us, Mr. Lyme,” Henry explained. “Even though you tried to scare us, we decided to explore these caves anyway.”

“What are you staring at?” Mr. Pitt asked when he noticed Henry staring at his head.

“So you’re the one who broke into our cabin and stole my headlamp. I can see the initials I marked on it—H.A. And that’s not all you stole. Nelly Stoner said a raft was taken from the Dragon’s Mouth Cavern a couple of days ago.”

Mr. Pitt kicked the raft to one side and took the headlamp off his head. “What are you talking about, kid?”

Mr. Lyme shifted from one foot to the other. “Come on, Randy. We need to talk. In private, without four pairs of ears listening in.”

Then the two men moved several feet away so the Aldens wouldn’t hear them.

Henry and Jessie didn’t waste any time. “Come on,” Jessie whispered to Benny and Violet. “Hop on the raft. First, let’s put on these life jackets.”

With barely a splash, the four children climbed onto the raft. Henry pushed off with the oars and quickly began rowing.

The next thing the Aldens heard was a lot of yelling. “Hey! They took our raft!” Mr. Pitt screamed.

“Hey! They took our raft,” the cave walls echoed back.

“Go after it!” Mr. Lyme shouted at Mr. Pitt.

But it was too late. The Aldens were soon floating along the current of a small stream.

H
ey, I know where we are,” Benny cried when the raft drifted into a huge, well-lit space. “We’re in the Dragon’s Mouth Cavern again!”

Henry rowed over to the wooden steps where the empty tour boat was tied up, and everyone got off the raft.

“I think we should call the police,” Jessie said when they made their way to the elevator. “Those men took this raft and Henry’s headlamp.”

Henry pressed the elevator button, and the children stepped inside. When the doors opened into the gift shop, everyone headed for the ticket booth where Mr. Alden was waiting.

“Grandfather!” Violet cried. “You’re back.”

“And you’re back, children,” Mrs. Stoner said, happy to see the Aldens. “I was getting worried about your being in the caves so late. Mr. Howe and I were almost about to go out looking for you since it was getting dark.”