Honey nodded, her eyes shining. “Come on. Let’s go
on and leave these deer in peace.”
A little farther up the stream, Jim noticed a large tree that had fallen across, making a natural bridge. It was hard to tell how safe it was.
“I’m sure it’s rotted through, Jim,” Honey insisted. “And I refuse to set one foot on it.”
“But its roots look perfectly healthy. I’ll go across very slowly. If it holds my weight, it will hold us all.”
“Jim, please,” Honey wailed.
Jim took off his skis. “Brian, will you hold my hand as I start out? Don’t worry, Honey.”
Gingerly he tested each step with his ski pole before advancing. Trixie could see that he was being very cautious, but she held her breath just the same till he reached the other side.
“Solid as can be,” he called encouragingly.
One by one, the others followed him. Di and Honey hung back uncertainly until Trixie, acting braver than she felt, took her skis off and walked directly across the large log.
“Just take a deep breath and go, but don’t look down,” she advised the others.
Mart poked her with his ski pole. “ ’Tis useless to advertise your heroism—excuse me, heroine-ism—in my hearing, sis. I saw you go green around the gills when you looked down.”
Unable to think of a retort, Trixie contented herself for the time being with poking him right back.
On this side of the stream, the terrain was more rugged, which suited Trixie just fine. Ready for a faster pace, she seized her first opportunity for it when they reached a long, steep, curving downhill grade. She let those in front of her get far ahead. She didn’t want any slowpokes in her way when she took this hill by storm. Just to be on the safe side, she hollered the skier’s warning of “Track!” as she began gaining speed dovn the hill. This was fun—almost like flying without a plane!
At about the same time she remembered Eric’s caution about avoiding obstacles long before coming to them, Trixie began to suspect that she was losing control. She could see a curve up ahead, and she crouched farther down on her skis, putting her weight on her right foot. One ski made the turn, but the other insisted on going straight ahead. The next thing she knew, Trixie found herself wound around a clump of bushes, half on the path, half in the brush.
Her glorious flight had ended with a crash landing. She didn’t seem to be hurt, only stunned. But she was definitely caught in the bushes.
I’ve got to get up, she thought. Brian's still behind me, and I’m blocking the path. After one last desperate attempt to pull herself off the path, she covered her head with her arms.
She should have known that Brian, sensible as ever, would be taking the hill slower than she’d tried to take it. “Trixie!” she heard him yell. Peeking upward, she saw him coming straight at her. He managed to avoid her, but he couldn’t stop in time to avoid toppling into the snowdrift on the other side of the path.
Instantly he scrambled to his feet and rushed to her side. “Trix, you okay?”
“Brian, I feel fine, but I just can’t move.”
Brian forgot his doctor-to-be manners and burst out laughing. “That’s because you’re a human pretzel. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so wound up!” Trixie glared at him. “Don’t just laugh—unwind me.” By the time Trixie and Brian caught up, the others were out of the woods, waiting impatiently at the edge of a large snowfield.
“Hey, where have you two been?” scolded Honey. “You’re holding us up from crossing no-man’s-land.”
“Obstacle on the trail,” said Brian, pointing to Trixie. “Has our sister been schussbooming again?” Mart inquired.
“I don’t know what that is,” Trixie said stormily. “I was merely knocked over by some bushes.”
“You’re a schussboomer, ipso facto,” Mart teased. “Case dismissed.”
Trixie sighed noisily. Mart was beginning to get on her nerves.
Acting as peacemaker, Di spoke up. “We dubbed this no-man’s-land because it looks as though no one has ever crossed the field before.”
Trixie saw what Di meant. There was an overhanging cliff at one end of the smooth, glassy snowfield, and a winding river marked the boundary on the opposite side. On the other two sides were woods.
“Hey, look!” Trixie exclaimed. “There’s another skier!” She pointed to the other side of the snowfield. Someone had just come out of the woods and was starting across the broad expanse toward them.
“Hello!” Honey called, waving her arms over her head. The skier stopped, seemed to look at them, and quickly disappeared back into the woods.
“Well, he certainly isn’t very friendly,” said Honey. “And everyone else at Mead’s Mountain has been so nice.”
“Except our ghost,” Di reminded her.
“He’s probably just another tourist like us,” Jim said. “Did you get a load of his ski mask? It was green and red—really grotesque.”
“Who would wear a ski mask on such a warm day?” Trixie asked idly.
“Someone who doesn’t want to get sunburned,” retorted Brian. “If you would look in a mirror once in a while, Trixie, you’d see for yourself what a red-nosed reindeer you are. Just like the rest of you poor fairskinned blonds and redheads.” He and Di had tanned beautifully the previous day.
“Well, at least we match the season,” Honey told him.
“That skier shot our no-man’s-land theory all to pieces, didn’t he?” said Jim.
“Why don’t we follow him and see where he’s going?” suggested Trixie.
“Trixie, he obviously didn’t want to socialize,” Brian sighed. “Come on! Let’s have a race to the other side instead!”
They all tore after him, yelling and laughing. Not far off in the distance, Trixie heard the roar of thunder. Who would have thought we could have a thunderstorm on such a beautiful day? she mused, struggling to overtake Brian. It seems too cold to rain.
She looked over at Jim beside her and saw his face turn stark white. That’s when she knew it wasn’t thunder she heard.
“Avalanche!” Jim screamed over the growing roar. “Get out of here!”
Trixie skied harder than she ever had before. She couldn’t tell anymore if the booming she heard was the rumble of the avalanche or the pounding of her own heart.
Just when she was sure she was going to faint, she felt the vibrations of the avalanche passing behind her. She was safe!
Then she heard a new sound—one as terrifying as the avalanche roar itself. Whirling around to find the source of those shrill cries, Trixie saw her brother Mart rolling down the hill and then disappearing underneath what looked like tons of snow.
Clues and Conversations • 8
MART! MART!” Trixie shrieked. “Oh, Mart’s been caught in the avalanche, everyone!” Without waiting for a response, she started skiing back across the snowfield, calling out Mart’s name all the time she was battling through mounds of snow.
“Trixie, wait!” Jim called.
Brian took off after Trixie. “What do you mean, wait?” he asked angrily. “That’s our brother!”
Trixie, defeated by the uneven terrain, lost control of her skis and fell face first into the snow. She could feel her hot tears mixing with the icy snow.
As Brian was helping her to her feet, Jim caught up with them. “Will you two listen to me?” he pleaded. “Mart is in a lot of trouble, but we’re all going to be in trouble if we ski around like chickens with our heads cut off. You both know that panic in a situation like this is very dangerous, so will you just simmer down for a minute?”
Trixie couldn’t believe that Jim could be so callous. “Jim, I am going to find Mart,” she fumed, “even if you don’t seem to care what happened to him.”
Honey and Di had joined them, and Honey took Trixie’s arm. “See the rest of that snow?” she asked, pointing to the cliff above them. “That could go any minute, Trixie. We’d all be caught. Who’d help Mart then?”
Trixie sank b
ack weakly. “You’re right, you guys. I’m not thinking straight.”
“It’s just that it’s Mart under all that snow,” said Brian somberly. “What do we do now?”
“Di, you keep an eye on the cliff for any movement at all,” Jim decided. “In case of trouble, everyone head for the woods.” As he was talking, Jim took a length of rope out of his knapsack and tied it around his waist. He instructed each of them to do the same. “If we get caught in another avalanche, pretend to swim in the snow. That will help you stay on the surface, but if you don’t, the rope will float up and you’ll be easier to find. It was stupid not to do this before we crossed this field. Heavy snowfall the other night, sun the last couple of days, the overhanging snow, and no trees—why didn’t we recognize this as a potential slide area?” In disgust, he pulled tight on the knot in his rope. “And I like to think of myself as a woodsman.”
“No, it’s all my fault,” said Brian. “I suggested the race.”
“Don’t be silly!” Honey cried. “It’s nobody’s fault. Let’s concentrate on saving Mart instead of blaming ourselves.”
Jim turned to Trixie. “Where did you last see him?”
“About ten yards from here. He came so close to outskiing the avalanche. He was right on the edge of it.” Trixie led the others to the place where she thought she had seen Mart disappear.
Not too far from there, Di noticed something dark sticking out of the snow. She grabbed Brian’s arm and pointed excitedly. “Look, look, what’s that?”
Brian skied over and picked up the object. He turned it over in his hand and said slowly, “It’s a piece of Mart’s ski.”
Trixie moaned.
“Come on, let’s put our skis in the woods first,” Jim urged. Everyone obeyed, and Jim continued, “Let’s start at the bottom of the slide area. Each person stand about two feet from the next person. Turn one ski pole upside down and stick it into the snow every foot as we walk up the hill. If you feel any resistance—any at all—yell. But not too loudly. Even the vibrations of our voices could start another avalanche.”
As they started up the hill, Trixie tried to banish from her mind the picture of Mart lying buried under all the snow, but it was an impossible task. “How long do we have, Jim?” she asked tensely.
“If we can’t find him in an hour, we’ll have to send for help.” That was all Jim would say.
What he means is, if we don't find him in an hour, it may be too late, Trixie cried silently.
No one said anything for a long time. They were too intent on poking their poles into the snow as far as they could. Finally, Trixie’s prayers seemed to be answered: Her ski pole went down a few feet and would go no farther.
“Jim! Brian! Everyone! My pole hit something!”
They all raced over to her and started digging in the snow with their hands. When they uncovered a large flat-topped boulder, Trixie stared at it for a moment, refusing to believe that Mart was still missing. Then, without a word, she got up and started poking her pole into the snow again.
Minutes later, Brian gave a jubilant cry. Again Trixie joined in the digging, but this time she didn’t get excited. Brian had probably found another boulder... or Mart smashed against a boulder. Then she scraped away just enough of the powdery white to reveal some of the green fuzz of Mart’s sweater, and her troubled tears became tears of joy. He was alive!
Working quickly and carefully, they dug him out of his snowy prison and got him back into the woods where they had left their skis. He appeared to be all right, but for what seemed like ages he just sat against a tree, taking deep breaths and blinking the snow out of his eyes. While he recovered, Brian checked for broken bones and took his pulse, and Jim brewed him a cup of tea over the Sterno fuel from his survival kit.
After a few sips of tea, Mart was finally able to speak. “I can’t believe I’m here! When I realized I wasn’t going to make it, I kept my arms around my face so I’d have some breathing room. After I was good and buried, I tried to dig my way out, but by then I wasn’t sure which way was up. You can’t imagine what it’s like to be buried alive. I thought you guys would never find me! I—I even said if I could just get out of there, I’d never tease Trixie again!”
“Does anybody have a tape recorder?” Trixie asked. She tried her best to sound sarcastic, but a beaming grin gave her away.
“Well, at least I can make some suggestions to Mr. Wheeler about avalanche control,” said Mart, smiling weakly as he reached into his pocket for his rather smashed notebook.
“Jeepers, Mart, how cool, calm, and collected can you be?” cried Honey. “You just about got yourself killed and already you’re cracking jokes!”
“I’m collected enough to be glad my skis are broken,” he replied. “I don’t think I want to do any more skiing today.”
“Really?” teased Di. “And I thought you’d be game for a race to go over and explore those caves.”
“What caves?” Trixie queried.
“Didn’t you see those caves up on the hill on the other side of the river?” Di asked. “I guess you can’t see them from here, but I noticed them as we were crossing the avalanche area. Maybe after Mart feels better, we could come back to explore them.’
“They’re probably just holes in the rocks, Di—not interesting enough to explore,” Jim told her. “These mountains were formed by an uplift of land from pressure out in the ocean. There’s no elaborate underground river system.”
“Let’s quit gabbing and get Mart back to the lodge,” Brian recommended. “Getting buried in an avalanche is not exactly what the doctor ordered. He’s going to need some rest.”
“And some warm food,” Mart quickly prescribed for himself.
“Gleeps, he’s thinking of food already,” said Trixie with relief. “He must be all right!”
Mart seemed to have gained all his strength back by the time they reached the lodge. When Katie heard about Mart’s misfortune, she arranged for a special dinner featuring his favorite food, hamburgers.
At dinner, Bert Mitchell and Jack Caridiff stopped by the Bob-Whites’ table to listen to their tales of woe about the avalanche and Honey’s missing watch.
Jack looked apprehensive. “It’s the ghost of Thomas Mead, I tell you,” he said.
Everyone, except Mart, stopped chewing their hamburgers. Trixie narrowed her eyes, watching Jack closely to see if he really believed what he was saying. He seemed very sincere.
“I’m sure you’re pulling our leg,” Honey said politely but skeptically.
“Jack’s just a mite superstitious,” Bert started to explain.
Jack shook his head. “Everyone’s taking this whole business of the ghost too lightly,” he insisted. “If this lodge is haunted, not one of us is safe.”
“Now, Mr. Caridiff,” said Miss Trask in her nononsense way, “I’m sure that the ghost of Thomas Mead is just folklore the people of this area like to keep alive. Just like our Hudson River ghosts. Those stories get better with each generation.”
“Right,” said Mart, reaching for dessert. “Haven’t you heard of the legend of Sleepy Hollow?”
“The headless horseman,” recalled Jack, “who can still be seen riding through the woods on stormy nights.”
“Just like you saw the ghost of Mead’s Mountain our first night here, Trixie,” Brian teased.
Trixie made a face at him and finished up her meal. She still believed that what she had seen had been real, not just her imagination’s reaction to folklore.
Bert stood up. “I’ve got a good magazine waiting for me,” he said. “If you’re through with the ghost stories, Jack, are you coming, too?”
“I think I’ll stay and have another cup of tea,” Jack decided. “How about you, Miss Trask? May I bring you a refill?”
“That would be nice,” she said, handing him her cup.
Brian, Di, Jim, and Mart decided to head back to the suite for some rest. Before exiting, Mart offered Trixie his arm and inquired formally, “Coming, Ms. Bel
den?”
“Thank you for your concern,” she replied sweetly. “I think I’ll just sit here and digest my dinner for a while.”
After he had gone, Honey leaned over and whispered, “What gives, Trixie?”
“I’ve been waiting for him to leave,” Trixie giggled. “I want another piece of that lemon meringue pie, and I don’t want to hear all of his you’d-better-watch-your-waistline jokes.”
Honey laughed. “I’ll join you,” she said enthusiastically. “We can afford it with all the extra exercise we’re getting.”
Just as the girls were savoring their first bites of the pie, all of the lights in the entire restaurant began to dim... slowly... slowly. Their forks in midair, Trixie and Honey stared at each other, wide-eyed. Then the lights went off completely, and they couldn’t see a thing. Before either of them could say a word, the lights flashed on again! Just as suddenly, they were off.
On and off the lights flickered several times, until they went out for good, leaving Trixie, Honey, Miss Trask, and Jack sitting in total darkness.
Jack was the first to say anything. “It’s the ghost! He heard us talking and didn’t like it!”
Miss Trask, always cool in any kind of crisis, said briskly, “I’m sure it’s a power failure. Electrical equipment is not always stable in remote areas.”
“I wish we had our survival kits,” said Trixie. “A flashlight would sure be— Oh, here comes Wanda with some candles.” Thanking Wanda, she added, “I guess you’re prepared for any emergency around here.”
Jack lit his candle and stood up to leave. “Are you all ready to go now?” he asked them.
“We’re not quite done with our pie,” said Trixie.
“But if you’re ready, Miss Trask, perhaps Jack would see you back to the suite.”
“My pleasure,” said Jack.
“You won’t be long, will you, girls?” asked Miss Trask before she left.
“No,” promised Trixie. “But I do feel like a little fresh air. I' thought we might walk around the outside of the building on our way back to the room.”
“Don’t get too cold,” Miss Trask cautioned. “You’ve only got on your sweaters.”
The Mystery at Mead's Mountain Page 7