The Investigators, Inc. Mountain Cabin Mystery. Chapter 17. Things We Find.

With Svala out of the way we thought the interference with our phones would be cleared up, but it was not. Is someone else still out there? But we did fix our machine and sent up another balloon that we had so we could stay in touch with Annelie and get her to check on some things for us. We found out some interesting things up there in Hermit Pete’s mountain cabin. We need to go back and finish looking around that cabin for more clues.

But for now we have discovered enough to worry some people at the resort. But for now we are not saying much, waiting for information from Annelie to put things together. It was easy to explain our absence last night, we wandered from the hiking trail and could not make it back before nightfall, so we camped out. Our friends sent helicopters to look for us since we did not check in with them and 3 of our team were hurt along the way so they went back in the helicopters.

Everyone accepted this, or at least no one said anything against it. In fact, no one really said anything except Paul and Beth. Makes me think that everyone up here is working together, perhaps they had even been working with Svala. We know at least that the one man was working with her since he was willing to kill his daughter. Fortunately he did not succeed.

But his wife must be in on it too, she will not let us talk with Jazzy anymore. I really think that Jazzy and her siblings are in danger, but there is nothing that we can really do about that right now. I do not think that Paul and Beth are working with the others, but they are looking for that gold, just like the others. We are just resting today and talking about things.

The cats are diligently checking our food for poison and so far there has been no problems. I really do not think they would try something like that knowing we have friends that are watching us, and they do not know how many friends we might have. So killing us that way would be too obvious. There are no more of Svala’s men around, we learned that from the men we captured. I believe they were being honest.

So, that means all of our enemies are at this resort right now, unless there is someone else after the gold that we do not know about. Hopefully not. That afternoon Paul and Beth allowed my girls to have a children’s fun time, playing games and having contests. The kids were very excited about it, though I am not so sure the parents were excited. The mother of Jazzy wanted to be there but Jenny insisted that adults were not allowed.

While the games were going on Galyna and Sigurbjorn were able to talk with Jazzy without her even realizing she was being questioned. We did find out some interesting things too which made me fear for her safety even more. The next day we went back to Hermit Pete’s mountain cabin to look around some more. It did not take as long getting there this time since we knew the way. Hermit Pete did like having secret spots for hiding things.

One of the bottom logs had been hollowed out in one spot with a secret door, very well done but Muffin found it. In there was another diary giving us more information about the gold, his wife and his brother, someone we did not know about before now. Also in another spot was an envelope with a key inside. But a key for what? That is very curious. It must be important, otherwise why hide it so well?

Even though we could have made it back before dark, we decided to stay overnight anyway. I had already told Paul that we might do that, so he made sure the cook packed us enough food. And with the road still closed we did not have to worry about anyone running away. We awoke to a beautiful sunny morning. Hermit Pete did like mornings, according to his diary, which is why he built his mountain cabin in this location.

I can understand why he chose this spot. I wanted to stay overnight just for this morning. It was supposed to be a special morning, if the sun was shining. I went out to look around from the door. But what was I supposed to look for? Suddenly the sun reflected off a rock quite a ways to my left and the light shone onto a tree not far from the cabin. It was an arrow pointing downwards.

But it soon disappeared as the sun moved. He certainly timed that very well. But why? Why not just carve an arrow on the tree? Of course this way it is kept a secret except for a short time. Rock and Benson began to dig right away hoping to find more treasure.

To Be Continued.

©2022 Steve McLeod.