The Black Jacket Mystery Read online

  “Come on! I oughta leave you here, but I’ll give you one last chance. Are you comin’ or are you hangin’ around the backwoods some more?”

  “Aw, don’t rush me. I’m thinkin’ it over,” Dan said uneasily. “Anyhow, why can’t we just get out of here and head back to the city? We can figure out plenty of ways to get more money there than you can get breakin into Wheelers’. How about it, Luke? Let’s call off the action and pull out!”

  “Go ahead and welsh out, bud,” Luke said with a nasty laugh that made Trixie shudder. “But I’ll still go ahead the way we talked it over when your uncle was coming to get you from the court.”

  Even in the flickering light of the small fire, Trixie could see the expression of relief that came to Dan’s face at Luke’s words. “No hard feelings, Luke?”

  “Nah, kid!” Luke chuckled. “Only if I get nabbed by the cops, I’ll tell ’em you’re in on it, too. And I’ll tell ’em you clobbered old Maypenny and swiped his wallet.”

  “They won’t believe you! I wasn’t near the place! I didn’t know you were going to do it!”

  “Who’s goin’ to believe you, kid? Not the cops, not your Uncle Regan! Better change your mind and come along!” Luke laughed and picked up a small suitcase that had been sitting only a few feet from the fire. “Here!”

  Dan caught the small bag and stood holding it as Luke started to gather his own things.

  Trixie felt her heart sink. And then, as she tried to summon the courage to stop them and ask for help, she heard the eerie howl of the catamount just as Honey and she had heard it days before. And to her worried brain, it sounded as if it might be coming from the direction of the cave where Bobby was trapped and helpless. What if—if that had been its hiding place?

  Everything else was forgotten. She came out from behind the rock as Luke and Dan were turning away from the flickering fire.

  “Dan! You’ve got to help me! Bobby’s caught in a hole, and I can’t pull him out!” She stumbled and fell to her knees and burst out crying.

  Dan stopped, staring in amazement, and then, dropping his bag, he ran to her while Luke stood watching with a scowl.

  “Trixie!” Dan helped her to her feet. “What’s the idea of being way out here after dark? Don’t you have any brains?”

  “Trixie, hey?” Luke cut in before Trixie could start to explain. “So that’s the snooper! Come on, leave her there. She’s cooked up a story again, like you said she was always doin’. She don’t need any help. She’s probably tryin’ to stall us here so her snooty friends can catch you for Regan!”

  “I’m not!” Trixie glared at him through her tears. “Dan, you’ve got to believe me! Bobby’s stuck in a cave, and—” In the distance the catamount howled again, and she broke off with a little cry of despair. “If you don’t come and help him, that awful thing may get him!”

  “The poor little guy!” Dan said. “Where is he? How far is it?”

  “I’ll show you, but hurry!” Trixie pulled at his jacket sleeve. “Please, please hurry!”

  Dan looked apologetically at Luke. “Won’t take long. I’ll be right back. He’s only a six-year-old kid!”

  “And you’re a fool, Dan Mangan, if you think I’m hangin around any longer. Stay here with your friends, but don’t forget, if anything happens where I’m going, you’re in it deep!”

  With the last words, Luke turned and strode out of sight into the darkness of the woods.

  For a minute, Dan stared after him uncertainly. But Trixie pulled at his sleeve. “Please, Dan! We are your friends, really. Don’t mind him! Come and help Bobby, please!”

  “Okay, okay!” Dan said. “Which way? And we better hurry. That cat sounded nearer this time!” Trixie looked about quickly for the remains of the white wool sweater that she had dropped as she came out through the bushes into the clearing. It was still lying on the ground in front of the bushes, and the newly risen moon was shining clearly on it. “There! That’s the way!” She started toward it.

  “Wait a minute!” Dan called, and when she looked back impatiently, she saw him taking off the black leather jacket hastily and coming toward her with it. “Here, get into this! I won’t need it!”

  “But you’ll be cold!” she protested, but she didn’t resist as Dan helped her into it.

  “Not if we move fast,” he assured her. “Besides, I can take it better than a girl.”

  Trixie couldn’t help smiling to herself in the darkness as they started following the white woolen string back toward Bobby. “I guess all boys are like Mart and think they’re smarter and stronger than girls,” she thought and let him lead the way with his flashlight, though she felt that she really could have gone faster if she had led.

  They were soon at the mouth of the cave, and Trixie called out softly as they went into it, “Bobby, honey, are you awake?” while Dan played the flashlight around and then centered it on the gaping hole in the floor.

  Trixie ran forward and knelt at the edge. “Bobby,” she called uncertainly, “are you asleep?”

  There was no answer. But neither were there any catamount tracks visible in the soft dirt of the cave floor. She breathed more freely as she saw that.

  “Better let me get down,” Dan advised. “He’s probably fast asleep, so don’t try to wake him up till I get a chance to see the lay of the land and find out what’s holding him.”

  “A rock, he said,” Trixie answered, swallowing a lump in her throat that made her voice tremble.

  “Might be just some earth,” Dan said quickly. “Quit getting hysterical! Girls make me sick!” And with that he let himself and his flashlight down into the hole.

  “I’m sorry,” Trixie admitted in a small but firmer voice. “Tell me what to do to help, and I’ll do it.”

  There was a momentary silence, and she saw the reflected beam of the flashlight moving around down there. Then, to her infinite relief, she heard Bobby’s voice as it said sleepily, “Hello, mister. Did you failed down the hole, too?”

  And Dan’s answering cheerfully, “Sure did, boy! But we’re going to climb out real quick, aren’t we?”

  “Uh-huh,” Bobby’s voice agreed. “Where’s Trixie? She runned away.”

  “I’m right here, Bobby!” Trixie called down to him as cheerfully as she could manage. “And this is Danny Mangan, honey, who’s come to get you out of that mean old hole!”

  “That’s good!” Bobby’s voice said a little faintly. “But hurry. I’m hungry.”

  “Be right back, Bobby,” Dan told him. “I’ve got to get something.”

  “Awright,” Bobby said and then was silent.

  Dan stood on tiptoe in the hole and beckoned Trixie over to the edge. She leaned down as he whispered, “Here, take these matches and get a fire started. As big a one as you can, so somebody’ll be sure to see it! The air down there is getting bad, and I don’t know how long it’s going to take to chip away the rock that’s holding Bobby’s legs.”

  “But you don’t have anything to chip it with!” Trixie moaned. “What are you going to do?”

  “Use this.” Dan held up a sinister-looking pocket-knife and flicked open the long blade with a touch of his thumb. “Luke just gave it to me. He brought it for me to use when we held up the Wheelers.”

  “Oh!” Trixie stared at it fascinated. “What a horrible-looking thing! Is that a switchblade?”

  “Yeah! And I dam near wouldn’t take it! Boy, am I glad now I did!” He ducked down again and left her in darkness.

  A moment later, as she still crouched there feeling a little sick at the thought of what might be happening at the Wheelers’ tonight after Luke broke in, she heard Dan start to chip away at the rock.

  “Say, this isn’t as hard as it looked,” she heard him tell Bobby cheerfully. “Got another big hunk loose. You just stay flat there, sonny, and we’ll have you out before you can say:

  ‘Tip-tap, rip-rap,

  Ticka tack, too!

  This way, that way,

  So we ma
ke a shoe!’

  That’s what the fairy shoemaker sings, my mother told me!” And the chipping continued steadily.

  “Tip-tap, rip-rap,” she heard Bobby repeat sleepily. “Say it again!” He wasn’t afraid now. He loved rhymes.

  She moved back from the rim of the hole and hurried outside with the matches. There were plenty of small twigs lying around, and within a couple of minutes she had gathered them and started a brisk little fire.

  Soon it was blazing high enough to be seen for a mile, at least, against the night sky. And as she turned her back to it and looked around, she saw flashes of white fight far off in the direction she had gone to the campfire where she had found the two boys.

  Although she knew it was dangerous to have too big a fire in the woods, she had become thoroughly chilled from the biting wind, and she heaped twigs and branches on it. Soon smoke was rising high into the sky in a thick column, and the wind was whipping it toward the flashing white lights that she knew must be electric torches in the hands of a search party.

  Now they seemed to be coming closer. They were probably shouting her name and Bobby’s. She couldn’t hear them with the wind against them, and she was afraid of frightening Bobby if she yelled, “Help!” So all she could do was wait and hope, and feed the high-leaping flames.

  She went into the cave and listened. The chipping sound was still going on. Bobby wasn’t free yet.

  She leaned down into the hole in the cave floor. She couldn’t see Dan’s feet now. He must have had to crawl deeper into the narrower hole.

  Then the chipping sound stopped, and she heard Dan’s voice. “Looks like we’ve got it, bud. Let’s see you make believe you’re a little frog. Wiggle your legs and scrunch along on your tummy!”

  Trixie held her breath. There was a scraping sound and a little giggle from Bobby. “Gunk! Grunk!” he said, in what he hoped was acceptable frog language, and Dan laughed, “Hi, froggy! Come on out!”

  His legs were all right—the rock hadn’t hurt his spine! Trixie was almost dizzy with relief.

  She leaned down into the hole as Dan stood aside and they watched Bobby wriggle out of the narrow opening in the rocky earth. He was grimy and his face, where tears had streaked it, was muddy, but he stood up straight, with Dan’s help, and looked up at Trixie.

  “When are we going home?” he demanded. “I’m hungry!”

  Trixie reached for him as Dan lifted him and handed him up to her.

  “Darling!” She hugged him hard till he managed to break loose.

  “Thanks, so much!” Trixie smiled at Dan as he climbed up out of the hole. She thrust out her hand impulsively. “Friend?”

  Dan hesitated and then took her hand. “Okay, friend.” Then he dropped her hand and stepped back, with a frown. “You’d better keep that fire going outside, so your friends can find you. I think I’ll be going.”

  Trixie regarded him soberly. “I wish you could stick around. Dad will want to say thanks, and so will Moms and the boys.”

  But Dan shook his head firmly. “I don’t belong around here. My uncle’s taking me back to the city at the end of the week. I guess that’s the right place for me.”

  They had reached the mouth of the cave. The leaping flames were high, and the light on their faces showed Dan’s unhappiness and Trixie’s regret.

  “I suppose you know what’s best, but we’d all like you to stay in Sleepyside. We have lots of fun, and I know you would, too.”

  Dan’s face was sober. He nodded. “Yeah, I guess I might. But I don’t think some people would want me around when it gets out about Luke and all.”

  “Nonsense!” It was the old Trixie, spunky and sure of herself. “If they don’t—”

  “Trixie!” Bobby ran up and grabbed her arm. “My shoe! My shoe’s down there! Get it for me!”

  Thanks to Dan Mangan • 20

  I LOSTED MY SHOE an’ my foot’s c-c-cold!” Bobby insisted, clinging to his sister’s sleeve. “Please, Trixie, get it for me. It’s down in the hole.”

  But, Bobby—” Trixie didn’t want to go into the cave again for anything.

  I want my shoe!” Bobby wailed, suddenly bursting into tears.

  Oh, all right!” she agreed. “Here, Dan.” She took off the black leather jacket and held it out to him. “You’d better wear this yourself now.”

  He took it rather reluctantly, and she noticed by light of the leaping flames of her bonfire that the tear in the sleeve was still unmended. “Thanks. Guess I'll be on my way. Maybe I can catch up with Luke and talk him out of going to the Wheelers’. Be seeing you sometime.” He slipped his arms into the jacket and started to go. But he hadn’t gone beyond the circle of firelight before there was an eerie screech from the catamount, somewhere not very far off.

  “Please don’t go! I’m scared!” Trixie called, throwing her arms around Bobby and holding him tight, and turning a pleading look toward Dan.

  Dan hesitated and then came back. “Okay, I’ll stay till we’re sure your search party’s close.” He drew the switchblade knife and snapped it open as he stood facing the direction that the big cat’s cry seemed to have come from.

  Another yowl was nearer, and Bobby pulled himself closer to Trixie, trembling. “Let’s go home!” he demanded tearfully. “I don’t like it here!”

  Now they could hear the shouts of the approaching party. “Trixie!” That was her father calling. “Bobby!”

  Trixie tried to answer, but her throat seemed paralyzed. She held tightly to Bobby, staring into the darkness. “C-Can you see any yellow eyes?” she asked Dan fearfully.

  “Nah,” Dan assured her, but he still held the knife ready in his hand, and his voice shook a little. “It won’t come here as long as you keep the fire going.”

  The words were no sooner out of Dan’s mouth than the mountain Hon yowled again, now unmistakably only a short distance off. But this time the awful screech broke off suddenly as a rifle shot blasted deafeningly somewhere out in the darkness.

  Then for a moment there was complete silence, and the three of them stood frozen, waiting.

  A sudden crashing in the underbrush made Dan’s hand tighten on the knife handle, and he placed himself quickly between Trixie and Bobby and the spot from which the sound was coming. At any moment both he and Trixie expected the great cat to come bounding in at them.

  Instead, it was Bill Regan who shoved his way through the bushes toward them, rifle in hand.

  “Trixie!” he was shouting. “Bobby!” Then he saw Dan, knife in hand, apparently barring his way to the two who were clinging together behind him. “Drop it, Dan!” the big man called out harshly. “Don’t try to use it!”

  Dan stood staring at him in stunned surprise. Regan stalked to him and snatched the knife out of his hand. Dan was bewildered and made no resistance as Regan gripped him by the arm and called back to the others who were crashing through the brush after him. “They’re okay, Mr. Belden!”

  As her father and brothers ran in, Trixie shouted at Regan. “He wasn’t trying to do anything wrong! He was only trying to protect us from that horrible wildcat!”

  Regan looked astonished and turned abruptly to Dan. “Is that the truth, Dan? Out with it!”

  Dan shrugged his thin shoulders, and a bitter little smile twisted his mouth. “What did you think I was doing? Holding them for a kidnap payoff or something?” He was the old Dan now, sarcastic and on the defensive.

  Regan still looked doubtful, and the others were staring at the pair. Trixie could see that none of them was quite ready to believe Dan’s real role.

  Brian brought her a cup of hot broth from his Thermos bottle, but she waved it aside. “Dan needs that more than I do,” she said. “He came right away when I asked him to help us, and he made me wear his jacket so I wouldn’t get cold while he was crawling down into that horrible hole to save Bobby from freezing to death with his legs caught under a rock!” It was a long speech, but it had the effect that she hoped it would. Everyone was looking at Dan now
with admiration, and Brian was handing him the cup of broth.

  “Thanks, Dan,” Mr. Belden said quietly, holding Bobby tightly in his arms. “We won’t forget it!”

  Dan seemed embarrassed by their approval. He didn’t know what to say so he started sipping the hot broth.

  Bobby lifted his head as Mart draped a blanket around him in his father’s arms. “I failed in a hole, but the kitty wasn’t there. An’ Dan digged me out, an’ there was a fairy shoemaker an’ he said—” A big yawn interrupted the story, and he ended sleepily, “Tip-tap, rip-rap—” And a moment later he was sound asleep.

  “It was just a little rhyme,” Dan apologized, “about a leprechaun. My mum used to sing it to me.

  “A leprechaun!” Trixie clapped her hands. “I know what we’ll do! We need something special for the carnival! We’ll have Dan recite the rhyme, and Bobby will do his little skating number dressed in a leprechaun costume! Honey can make it in nothing flat!”

  “Sounds like a swell idea!” Mart agreed with his almost-twin, much to her surprise. Usually he found a lot of objections to all her suggestions, and they had to be overcome one by one.

  “Danny’s a good skater, aren’t you, boy?” Bill Regan asked him. “Didn’t I hear that you won a medal in the Police Athletic League games a couple of years ago?”

  “Yeah.” Dan was embarrassed again. “But I haven’t skated for a long time.”

  “That’s easy to take care of,” Trixie said eagerly. “We still have a few days before Saturday and the carnival, and you can practice like mad. We’re all going to, and if you don’t have your skates with you, you can use Mart’s or Brian’s old ones. We can sharpen them up for you!”

  “Needn’t bother, Trixie,” Regan said, putting his arm across Dan’s shoulders. “I’ll, pick up a pair for my nephew in town tomorrow morning, brand-new, and he can start practicing tomorrow afternoon.”

  Trixie looked at the tall groom and the slight figure beside him and felt a glow of pleasure. It was good to see Regan feeling different about Dan. “He just didn’t really know him,” she told herself. And then she added honestly, “And neither did I, till tonight.”