Patch31 (guest): your review finally showed up! Thanks again

THE OFFICIAL COYOTE: thanks! I'm having a lot of fun writing it, and it helps to have continued support!

When dinner was served, Mandie and her friends sat at the opposite end of the table as the adults, so they could talk freely amongst themselves.

"We should go through the tunnel tonight," Mandie suggested as they ate. "I haven't been through it in a while, and it will be fun."

"Okay," Celia agreed, "but don't you think it will be a bit scary at night?"

Joe grinned at Mandie. "We were going to do it before, right, Mandie?"

Mandie blushed and laughed. "Yes, I remember. I told Joe I wanted to do something brave, like going through the tunnel at night. He probably didn't think it was very exciting, but I thought it would be so adventurous. We ended up solving a little mystery instead, I think. Don't worry, though, Celia. We can take a lamp, and then it won't be scary."

"I think I lost all the matches one time though, didn't I?" Joe laughed.

Mandie frowned at him. "Joe Woodard, that was not funny! You know how scared I was when we couldn't see anything."

"Well, this is sounding more and more frightening to me, Mandie," Celia remarked. "And you two are certainly not helping."

"It will be fine, Celia," Mandie assured her. "Joe will check his coat pockets for holes this time, and we won't lose the matches."

"I, for one, thought it was exciting, stumbling through a pitch-black tunnel," Jonathan said mischievously. Mandie raised her eyebrows at him.

"You didn't think it was so funny when it happened," she reminded him.

Celia smiled. "You were there too, Jonathan?" she asked.

"Yes, and Polly," he answered, rolling his eyes.

"I think it is best that we do not follow in your footsteps, and bring a light," Sallie said, smiling.

"Oh, I don't know," argued Jonathan, grinning.

"I agree with Sallie," said Celia hastily.

"Looks like we're outnumbered," Joe said wistfully to Jonathan.

"Yeah, we're stuck with a bunch of 'fraidy-cats," teased Jonathan.

"Oh, you two," Mandie huffed. "Maybe we'll just leave ya'll here to make fun of us, and we'll go through the tunnel by ourselves."

"No way," said Joe quickly, "because then what will you do if something goes wrong? You won't have any big, strong men do help you get out."

Mandie lifted her chin. "We're quite capable of taking care of ourselves."

Celia laughed nervously. "Not when you get caught up in one of your mysteries, Mandie."

"Really, Mandie," said Joe disapprovingly. "Aren't you a bit old for those scrapes?"

"They are not 'scrapes'!" said Mandie indignantly. "If there's a perfectly good, old-fashioned mystery that needs solving, I will not be the one to leave it unsolved."

"Except you've never really had a 'perfectly good, old-fashioned mystery,'" Joe pointed out.

"Yeah, they're more like dangerous escapades that wind up with us all in some kind of trouble," agreed Jonathan.

Mandie glared at them. "Well, you two can just stay out of the next one, if that's how you feel. Celia and Sallie and I will solve it without your help."

"Oh, don't worry," said Joe, "I'm sure whatever mystery you get involved in, you'll convince me to help somehow."

Mandie ignored him, but smiled to herself. Joe was right. She always managed to get him to help her eventually, even though he usually disagreed.

When dinner was finished, Mandie approached her Uncle John to ask for the keys to the tunnel.

"Hello, blue eyes," her uncle said when he saw her. "What do you want this time?"

Mandie smiled at him. "How do you always know when I want something from you?" she asked.

"Because you widen your eyes and flutter your lashes," he said, laughing.

Mandie grinned. "I do not!" she protested. "But I do want something. Can we have the keys to the tunnel? We want to go through it after dark."

Uncle John frowned. "Didn't you and Joe attempt that once and lose all of your matches?"

Mandie pursed her lips. "No," she said, "those were two different times. Joe lost the matches when we took Jonathan through when he first visited here at Christmas."

Uncle John laughed and went to get the key for her.

"Here you are," he said, handing it to her. "Make sure you get back to the house before it gets too late, or your mother will be after my skin."

Mandie beamed at him. "Thanks, Uncle John!"

"And bring extra matches!" he called after her as she hurried up the stairs to find her friends.

They were all waiting in the hallway outside the girls' room and looked at her expectantly when she rounded the corner.

"I've got it," Mandie said, holding up the key. She handed it to Joe, who was also holding a lamp.

"Do ya'll suppose it's dark enough yet?" she asked, opening her bedroom door to look out of the window. The sun had already set.

"It's certainly dark enough for me," said Celia. "Besides, once we make it to the end of the tunnel, it will be even darker.

"Yes, I suppose you're right," Mandie agreed. She led the way to Uncle John's study. Joe lit the oil-lamp and opened the tunnel door before handing the key back to Mandie. She pocketed it and stepped into the tunnel.

"You have extra matches, right, Joe?" she asked.

"Right here," Joe assured her, patting his coat pocket. He fell in step beside Mandie in the front, since he had the lamp, casting a spooky golden glow on the cold tunnel walls.

Celia, Jonathan, and Sallie followed behind in single file. Celia shivered.

"It sure is spooky in here at night," she said nervously. "I don't know how ya'll could have possibly made it through without a lamp."

Mandie giggled. "I was terrified," she admitted, "but Joe and Jonathan were fine, even though I made Joe go first."

"That was because you wanted me to run into all the walls and corners first," Joe teased, "not because you were afraid of the dark."

"Maybe," Mandie said, smiling.

"How long were we stuck in here, feeling around for the exit?" Jonathan asked.

Mandie shrugged. "I don't remember," she answered. "It felt like hours, but I suppose it must have been only one hour, if that. The adults would have come looking for us if it was any longer."

"Time seems to go a lot slower when you're in the dark or lost," Sallie agreed.

"Remember the time you and I got stuck on the roof of that apartment, Mandie?" Jonathan asked.

"I could never forget that," Mandie said, shuddering. Joe looked at her sharply.

"What happened?" he asked. Mandie glanced at him in surprise, while Celia looked on, smiling.

"I'm sure I told you about that, Joe," Mandie said. "I always tell you everything."

"You told me about getting stuck on the roof, but you never said what made it so apparently 'unforgettable,'" Joe replied.

Mandie glanced at him. Why was he so touchy? He knew she and Jonathan were only friends.

"We were stuck up there for so long that I actually got sick," Mandie explained. She smiled, looking a little embarrassed. "I think I actually fainted, didn't I, Jonathan?"

"Yes, from the cold," Jonathan confirmed. "I was scared out of my mind. I had no idea what to do."

"Hmm," was all Joe said. Mandie stifled an irritated sigh. She'd thought that Joe and Jonathan were done with all of this boyish rivalry. She hoped they wouldn't continue it throughout the whole summer.

"That could not have been as exciting as the time Mandie, Joe, and I got kidnapped by those bootleggers," Sallie commented.

"That was terrible," Mandie agreed. She cast a triumphant grin at Joe. "And to think we wouldn't have escaped if it hadn't been for Snowball."

"Yes, alright, Snowball isn't always a nuisance," Joe replied evenly.

"I would have been scared to death if I was there," Celia said. "Some of the things we did in Europe still shock me. I don't know how we ever made it out of some of those scrapes."

Mandie blew out an irritated breath. "For goodness' sakes, they were not scrapes!"

Jonathan laughed. "Oh, I would have to call at least some of them 'scrapes.' Have you forgotten getting lost in the catacombs?"

Celia shivered. "That was scary."

"Yes, okay, that was a bit of bad luck," Mandie admitted.

"A 'bit'?" repeated Joe, smiling at her. "I would hate to see what you called 'a lot'!"

Mandie pursed her lips thoughtfully. "'A lot'? That would have to be… Joe and I getting kidnapped at the ruby mine and almost drowning in the river," she said seriously. "I thought Joe was going to die and it would have been all my fault."

"I'd almost forgotten about that," Joe said thoughtfully. "You lost Snowball that day, didn't you?"

Mandie nodded. "I thought he was never coming back, that he had died out in the woods, until he showed up, skinny and sick, with a thorn stuck in his poor little paw."

"Yes, I remember how upset you were," Joe said. Mandie smiled at him, pleased that he remembered that.

"I also remember," said Sallie. "Afterwards, we found your Aunt Ruby's treasure."

"I wish I could have been with ya'll for that," Celia said wistfully, "but I had to leave before you found it."

"This must have been before I met you," Jonathan said.

"Yes, can you believe it," laughed Mandie, "I was getting into terrible 'scrapes' even before I met you!"

"I believe it," said Jonathan.

"Like the time Joe got kidnapped by the old Catawba Medicine Man, because we were building a hospital for the Cherokee," Mandie said.

Jonathan grinned. "Is it just me, or do a lot of these involve Joe getting in some kind of trouble when it's Mandie's fault?"

"You've got that right!" agreed Joe heartily. Mandie tossed Jonathan a glare over her shoulder.

"It's not very funny, Jonathan," she said. "I felt terribly guilty all those times. Joe could have died!"

"And yet you always managed to rope me into another mystery," Joe complained.

"It's not my fault that you couldn't help your curiosity," Mandie replied loftily, while Sallie and Celia laughed.

"'Help my curiosity'? I only joined in because you were in more trouble than you could handle!"

"Oh, sure," Mandie said. "You just couldn't bear being left out."

"Someone has to go with you to protect you on one of your wild schemes," Joe told her.

"Oh, look!" said Mandie, ignoring him. "There's the exit!"

She and Joe pushed open the door, and he went out first, holding the lamp so that everyone could see.

"Well, Celia?" asked Jonathan.

"It wasn't so scary," she admitted. "Probably because there were so many of us, and we talked the whole time."

"And because the light didn't go out," Mandie added.

"Yes, and that," Celia agreed. "Which I'm grateful for."

"We'd better get back up to the house," Mandie said.

"Hey, Mandie," Joe said. He was standing a couple of feet away from the tunnel exit, looking through the trees.

"What?" she asked, joining him. He pointed to a small path that led into the woods.

"Have you ever walked this?"

"A little bit," Mandie replied. "It doesn't really go anywhere. Uncle John said it was probably just a deer trail."

"We should walk it tomorrow," Joe suggested. "I've never been very far in this part of the woods."

"Okay," Mandie agreed. "If that's fine with everyone else."

"I would like to," Sallie spoke up. "It is always exciting to explore the woods."

"I guess I'll go if Mandie goes," Celia agreed.

"Count me in," said Jonathan, "as long as it doesn't make us late for meals."

"I didn't think about that!" said Joe, in mock horror.

The girls laughed at their continued love of food, before heading back up to the house.