Chapter Thirteen ~ Tank's Locket

as told to Bonnie by Brian

Hallie and Trixie were poking through the enormous rats’ nest. Suddenly, a small, round object practically shot out of the condo, causing more than one of them to flinch back in surprise.

Jim caught it deftly and turned it over in his hands. As he identified it, he let out a low whistle. “Somebody would like to get this back.”

Brian was tall enough to see over the other Bob-Whites’ shoulders and could see the dull gold locket, minus its chain, in Jim’s hands. He pried it open, revealing two tiny, smiling faces inside.

Hallie gasped out loud. “Knut! We know those people!”

“Those are Tank’s parents,” Knut exclaimed. “Tank kept that locket in his nugget bag!”

Brian smiled. It was a feminine article, something he certainly hadn’t expected the rugged mountain man to possess, much less carry around with him.

“Are you sure?” asked Trixie, as if Knut and Hallie wouldn’t recognize such a unique piece of jewelry.

Hallie took the locket from Jim, snapped it shut, and held the locket face-up, revealing a monogrammed “A.A.” engraved on the front of the gold heart. “Astrid Anderson,” she said. “That was Tank’s mother’s name.”

“That rat certainly carried the locket a long way,” said Diana.

Brian frowned. Rather than looking pleased or at least sentimental about the locket, Hallie looked upset. “I don’t know where that varmint picked up this locket, but he sure as shootin’ didn’t traipse up a mountain, chew a hole in Tank’s nugget bag, and skitter all the way down here to stash it away in his hidey-hole!”

“I agree,” Trixie said. “And when we go up to Tank’s next time, we’d better hunt for the nugget bag up there.”

Even as Brian was musing calmly that Trixie wasn’t making a lot of sense, Hallie voiced that same thought in a far more belligerent manner. “That’s dumb, Trixie Belden, just plain dumb!” Her dark eyes were flashing black fire.

Trixie was taken aback. They all were. “Wh-what’s so dumb about it?”

“Climbing that mountain and hunting for the nugget bag—that’s what’s dumb!”

Brian thought she was right, but wasn’t sure why she was being so vociferous about it.

Hallie went on. “That bag has to be right around here someplace, or the rat couldn’t have stolen the locket. The only way the bag could get here would be if Cap put it here. We’ve been looking in the all the wrong places, and that’s what’s dumb!”

Brian glanced around the group. Everyone looked uneasy. But Brian was the only one to recognize Hallie’s outburst for what it was: hysteria. Hallie wasn’t mad at Trixie; she was mad at herself. And she was more upset about Cap’s disappearance than she had let on earlier when she was merely determined to find him. Now she was panicking that they never would.

He moved past Honey to Hallie’s side and put an arm around her shoulders. “Ssh, ssh, everything will be—”

He stopped short as Hallie shoved him away. “Don’t you shush me, Brian Belden! It isn’t your brother who’s been beaten up by a sasquatch and carried away—maybe forever!”

Brian’s momentarily lost his equilibrium. Mart. Vermont. Avalanche. Yes, he knew how Hallie felt right now. He wished she’d let him help her. Thankfully, Honey reached out, took his cousin by the hand, and consoled her.

“We’re all scared and upset. We can’t think until we calm down.”

“I can think!” Hallie yelled. “I can think that Trixie can solve everybody else’s problems, but she isn’t doing a darned thing to find Cap!” Trixie waving her mitted hands didn’t ease her tone one whit. “I know your hands are bandaged! But your head isn’t! As for you, Honey Wheeler, you don’t have an excuse at all. You don’t have bandages on your head or hands!” And then she abruptly burst into tears.

This time Knut went to Hallie’s side. “We’ll find Cap. Or he’ll find us—we’re a team, remember? We stick together.”

“N-not this time,” Hallie sobbed. “I’m just all unglued.”

Knut continued to comfort his sister while Brian just stood there. Of course, the other Bob-Whites were just standing by also. They were all concerned. But Brian was disappointed in himself for being unable to help Hallie.

Softly, Knut said, “I know you’re upset, but don’t blame Trixie and Honey. None of us knows how to deal with a beast.”

“Forget about the beast. Just think about Cap!”

Brian actually heard Trixie’s hard swallow. “Hallie’s right,” she said, her voice as gentle as Honey’s. “We’ve been letting the sasquatch make pudding of our thinking. Let’s just change viewpoints and see what we’re dealing with.”

“We’re dealing with Cap,” Hallie groaned. “Maybe he’s hurt. Maybe he’s hungry. Maybe he’s…”

Her voice faded away with a small whimper. Brian remembered how he had thought the worst about Mart, buried under a mountain of snow. He opened his mouth, but Knut beat him to it.

“Cap’s alive. Even the police think it’s too early. Of course, they didn’t see the beast, but they’re sure Cap can take care of himself. And how is it going to help Cap if we give up in despair? Come on, now. No more tears, please?”

Brian was heartened to see the bond between the siblings. He felt the same way about Mart, Trixie, and Bobby. From stories he had heard his father tell about his childhood, he knew his dad, Uncle Harold, and Uncle Andrew were the same. Beldens stuck by each other.

“Darn it, not even a tissue when I need it,” Hallie sniffled.

Brian dug into his pocket, but Honey was already handing her a tissue. Hallie blew her nose and used her hands to wipe away the tears. “I’m sorry,” she said and offered them all a sheepish grin.

“Don’t be,” Brian said, finally able to take the lead. “You needed that, and in a way, so did we. You cried for all of us, Hallie. Now, let’s get to work. I think a Bob-White meeting might be in order.”

“Right here?” Diana asked, her violet eyes wide in disbelief.

“There aren’t any more snakes,” Trixie chided.

“How do you know?”

With one last sniffle, Hallie straightened her shoulders and declared, “Well, I know! If there’s a snake left within a mile, he’s totally without sense.”

Brian gave her an encouraging smile and was pleased to see her return it.

“Come on, Di, sit by me,” Mart invited. “I promise to protect you from any and all reptilian animals that creep and crawl and grovel.”

Di scraped a relatively clear spot on the ground for her to sit and took her place beside him.

When they were all seated, Jim said, “Okay, let’s consider the case of the locket found in the rats’ nest.”

Brian groaned to himself. Jim had put it right out there and Mart was quick enough to see it, he was certain. Sure enough, Mart raised his hand like they were in a schoolroom and said smartly, “Pun, pun! We already know the locket has a case.”

“Knock it off,” Brian muttered.

“Sorry. What I really meant to say was, how do we know the locket wasn’t stolen earlier and then somehow found its way into the pack rats’ condominium?”

“I can answer that,” Knut said, raising one finger to draw everyone’s attention. “It’s supposed to be a secret but, under the circumstances, I don’t think Tank will mind my sharing. When we were getting ready to leave Tank’s on Tuesday, he showed me the locket and told me he wanted to give it to Hallie.”

Hallie’s blackberry eyes welled up once again with tears. “Me? His mother’s locket?”

“Tank’s eyes are growing weak,” Knut went on. “He can’t see his parents’ faces clearly, so he wants me to have their picture enlarged to fit a new bone frame he’s carved. Then he’s going to give you the locket. But I was listening so closely to his instructions Tuesday that I forgot to pick up the nugget bag on our way out.” Knut sighed and raked one hand through his hair in anguish. “I knew I should’ve gone back for it when I remembered up there on the trail.”

Hallie bumped her shoulder up against her brother’s and patted his hand consolingly.

“Maybe nobody stole the locket,” Trixie suggested. “Maybe Cap went up to Tank’s yesterday and Tank gave it to him.”

Brian fixed his eyes on his eldest cousin, watching him mentally work through what Trixie had said.

“It’s possible,” he finally agreed, if reluctantly, in Brian’s mind. “I’m sure that’s where Cap was Wednesday. We have to consider that the trip to Tank’s is three hours up and two hours down the mountain. That’s about how much time we were on our berry-picking trip. And Miss Trask and Diana saw him before heading up the road to meet us.”

“What kind of mood was Cap in when you saw him?” Trixie asked Di.

“Happy or normal, I guess, not upset anyway,” Di answered. “He smiled and waved.”

“He didn’t look like he was expecting trouble?” Knut asked.

“No, not at all. He said he’d be right back.”

“And what were you doing at the time, Di?” Brian asked.

“I was checking the meat to see if it was done.”

“If he smelled the food and said he’d be right back, Cap was no doubt hungry,” Mart said. “That hike certainly puts me in a ravenous state.”

Brian gave a wry half-smile. Mart was definitely the expert on all things food related. And it was possible that explained the strong connection he and Cap, otherwise polar opposites, had.

“Seriously, Mart?” Trixie chided. “What doesn’t put you in a ravenous state?”

“My point is that Cap might have been less than alert if he was washing his hands to get ready for a campfire banquet. The last thing on his mind would have been the possibility of an attack by a sasquatch.”

“That’s the last thing on anybody’s mind,” Trixie countered.

“Forget the sasquatch!” Hallie snapped, clearly fed up with the almost twins. It did take some practice to ignore their bickering, Brian mused. “Say that Cap did go to Tank’s, and Tank gave him the nugget bag and told him to hide it from me. Cap might have made up his mind in a hurry about a hiding place. He didn’t know we had gone to the saddle. For all he knew, we were all over the place. He’d want to ditch that nugget bag where he could keep track of it and I wouldn’t see it, right?”

“Makes sense,” Knut agreed.

Trixie stood up abruptly. “I move we adjourn the meeting, go back to the fire, and retrace Cap’s route.”

“Adjourned,” Jim declared.

Brian stood, brushed the dirt off his jeans and led the group back to the campsite, where they found Miss Trask sitting in a camp chair, staring into space.

As they approached, she said, “I’ve been trying to reconstruct yesterday’s scene in my mind. There must have been something I could’ve done to help Cap, but I can’t imagine what.”

Brian met Honey’s eye, nodded, and let her speak for the group. Miss Trask shouldn’t feel bad about not being able to do something earlier. “Maybe you can help us now, Miss Trask,” Honey said. “Can you show us exactly where Cap crossed the campground?”

“Certainly.” She stood up and walked past the fire pit to the very edge of their campsite. She stared at the ground for a moment, glanced at the fire as if gauging the distance, then raised one hand in a wave. “I’ll be right back,” she said, pretending she was Cap, and walked on to a spot where the fauna was broken and torn on the creek bank.

Brian saw the woman’s shoulders sag a bit as her hand dropped to her side again. “I don’t know where he went from there.”

“Did he do anything? Say anything?” Trixie prodded.

“He defended himself.” Miss Trask sounded completely assured on that point, and not a little bit in awe of Capelton Belden, defending himself against a mythical creature. “The beast from the forest made a sound—grunting or sounds of struggle—but no screams of pain or agony. I really don’t know what it was trying to force Cap to do.”

“Can you duplicate any of the action?” Jim asked.

Just as Miss Trask was shaking her head, Diana said, “Once Cap raised his hand.”

Knut pounced on that tidbit. “Could he have thrown the nugget bag?”

“I suppose so.”

“Which way was he facing?” Trixie asked. “Toward the road or away from it?”

“Toward,” Miss Trask said.

Brian thought Trixie must’ve already been halfway to the edge of the campground before she shouted, “Come on, gang!” He wasn’t sure if she wanted to assure she was there first, or if she really was faster than the speed of sound. He chuckled and ran to join her. But with the rest of the group already searching, Trixie let out a growl of frustration.

“Brian, how long do I have to wear this stuff?” She waved her bandaged hands impatiently.

“Come here.” They stood out of the way of the search party and Brian unwound the bandages from his sister’s hands and checked the wounds. “If you promise not to climb a pine tree, I’ll just do some spot-taping.”

“I promise, I promise. Hurry!” And again, she was almost to the tents before Brian could get himself into gear.

He dug through the first-aid kid and found waterproof tape, which he applied to Trixie’s most prominent wounds. Then they returned to the search.

“Have you found anything yet?” Trixie called as they approached the group.

“An ant hill!” Diana squealed, jumping back.

“That isn’t an ant hill, you goose,” Hallie snorted. “Looks like somebody’s been littering again.” She raised her eyebrows in Mart’s direction.

“Don’t look at me!” he said hastily. “I’ve had my lecture. I learn fast!”

“Is it another broken egg?” Trixie asked.

“Ugh! I don’t know,” Di replied. “Come and see for yourself. I simply don’t understand why you and Hallie are interested in messy, squirmy, crawling things.”

Brian peered between the two Belden cousins, so different from each other, tall and dark, short and blonde, willowy and sturdy, but equally excited by the clue on the ground in front of them.

“Oh, it’s just a cookie,” Trixie said. Brian heard her and Hallie gasp at the same time. “It’s a cookie!” Trixie shouted. “One of Tank’s cookies!”