The Sasquatch Mystery Read Online Free PDF

alone so long he doesn’t really know how to keep a conversation going. He always greets you with ‘Ay tank de tistles be tick dis year.” So we call him Tank. He doesn’t mind.”
    As Cap went on, it was obvious that Tank was someone the Idaho Beldens were enormously fond of. “He has a placer, or gravel, mine in a dry creek bed that forks off from our creek. He has a tight cabin and plants a. few spuds, carrots, cabbage, and stuff like that. He’s panned for gold in cold water so long that he’s got ‘rheumatiz.’ It’s hard for him to get across the saddle to town, so Knut and I kind of look out for him.”
    “There you go again,” Di complained. “What’s a saddle? I know you’re not talking about horses. Sometimes I think that Idaho isn’t just a state—it’s a language!”
    “A saddle is a mountain ridge,” Knut said, smiling at Di’s bewilderment. “Remember when we came over the Moon? That’s the pass over the saddle. To get back to town, everybody has to go over the saddle. There’s only one road.”
    “Oh!” Di’s eyes were troubled.
    “What’s your problem?” Hallie drawled.
    “It’s just that—what if the sas—the you-know-what sits on that saddle?”

Tank ● 5

    UNEASINESS SILENCED the group as it considered the possibility that the sasquatch might be lurking on the only road leading directly from the national forest to the closest towns of the mining region.
    Then Hallie jumped up from the breakfast table. “The sasquatch may be many things, but it can’t be in two places at the same time. I’m going to take my chances that old ’squatch is sitting on that saddle. I’m going to Tank’s cabin if I have to go alone!”
    Cheeks blazing red, Hallie gathered up her place setting and went over to the huge metal dishpan. There she sloshed her own dishes and silver in hot suds, dipped them into a second pan of boiling water, and tilted them in a rack. “There, I’m ready. Who’s going with me?”
    “You know we’re all going,” Mart said gruffly. “Right, Miss Trask?”
    “I suppose so,” Miss Trask agreed after a moment’s hesitation.
    “Not till this mess is cleaned up,” Cap ordered. “Not one crumb of food is to be left out to draw bears.”
    While everyone cleared away all traces of food, closed tents, and locked hasps on storage chests, Trixie tried to keep track of sounds, shadows, and odors. Until Di dropped an owl’s feather on the coals that Cap was dousing with water, the clean smell of sun-warmed pine needles was all that filled the campground.
    “Brian, suppose you take over the foot-check while I fill canteens,” called Cap.
    Brian made sure that everyone’s soft, clean socks were smooth, with boots firmly but not too tightly laced. “Extra socks in your pocket?” Cap asked as he handed each person a canteen of cold fresh water.
    Within minutes, camp was out of sight. Birds had fed early and were silent, but other small animals were going about their business.
    Honey, who was Trixie’s trail buddy, commented, “None of the animals seems to be nervous. I don’t think I’m going to manufacture a lot of adrenaline I’m not going to use.”
    “You sound like Mart,” Trixie giggled, “but I think I know what you mean.” From that moment, Trixie enjoyed the climb up the canyon, reserving only a small, alert part of her mind to stand guard. With Honey, she sang a marching song Honey had learned at camp when much younger.
    Then, in a rich contralto voice, Hallie followed it with a spirited miner’s song.
    Next, Knut sang, in a strong, pleasant tenor: “Sweetly sings the donkey, at the break of day. If you do not feed him, this is what he’ll say....”
    With much gusto, Cap, Mart, Brian, and Jim roared, “Hee-haw, hee-haw, hee-haw, hee-haw, hee-haw!” Their feet thumped the steep trail, beating the rhythm.
    “Distances sure are deceiving in Idaho,” Di complained good-naturedly a little later when she dropped back to join Honey and Trixie