The Happy Valley Mystery Page 7

  “I’d love to, Ned.” Trixie smoothed back her curls and smiled at him. He did say ‘a pretty girl like you,’ she drought. People are always saying Honey and Di are pretty. Imagine me pretty, with my mousy hair and freckles! Sadly her eyes followed die blond girl and Jim.

  Aloud she said, “That sounds like a neat orchestra.”

  “It’s a bunch of Drake University students from Des Moines,” Ned said. “Boy, can they make music!” He put his arm around Trixie’s waist and whirled her out onto the floor.

  On the other side of the room, Jim and the blond ' girl were dancing. They seemed unaware of anyone else on the floor, so animated was their conversation. A strange feeling Trixie had never known before stole over her. Could it be? Yes, it was—jealousy.

  Furious with herself and furious with Jim, she threw back her head to laugh gaily at something Ned was ' saying... something he was saying that she didn’t even hear. “I just don’t care if I ever speak to Jim again j in my life,” she thought.

  Then the music slowed. Jim and the blond girl danced across the room. They stopped suddenly, just in front of Trixie and Ned.

  “Some band!” Jim said, and he introduced the tall blond girl to Trixie. “Best barbecue I ever tasted in my life,” he told Ned.

  The blond girl, Dot, was beautiful. No wonder Jim thinks she’s wonderful. No wonder he can’t seem to see anyone else, Trixie thought.

  “Next dance, Trix?” Jim asked as the music started up and couples moved onto the floor.

  “Yes, Jim,” Trixie said, and she put her hand in his and was happy.

  “It’s you and me, then, Dot,” Ned said.

  Trixie Gets Teased • 10

  AS THE HOUR grew late, Trixie danced again with Jim. “It isn’t the same here as it is at our dances at home,” she said. “I must have danced with a dozen different boys instead of just one.”

  “Yes, I noticed you were having quite a ball. Are you really having a good time? Ned Schulz seems to have the Indian sign on you.”

  “And Dot seems to have the Indian sign on you. You’ve been her slave all evening!”

  “Why, Trixie.” Jim stopped dancing right in the middle of the floor and led Trixie to a bench at the side of the room. “You’re fooling!” he said.

  “I’m not! If you like that glamour type best, you’re just welcome to her. I mean it!”

  “I like both kinds,” Jim said. “Dot is glamorous. She’s really glamorous. She went out of her way to be nice to me, and I appreciate it.”

  “I can see that you do,” Trixie said. Then she added wistfully, “Oh, Jim, I wish I’d been born beautiful!”

  “The other kind of girl,” Jim went on, “didn’t dress up just to impress me or any other boy. She never does. She’s genuine and so comfortable to be around. She’s my choice of the two. Right now her sandy curls need combing, and she sure could use some lipstick!” Trixie’s heart did a backflip. She reached frantically for her lipstick, then gave up and smiled. “That was sweet,” she said. “I’ve been a cat, and all the time I secretly thought Dot was super. Say, Jim, what I want to find out, and soon, is who those men are who sold the committee the lambs for tonight. I think they may be the thieves. Ned told me he’d let me know right away if he ever saw them again.”

  “That’s a big help.”

  “It isn’t much, is it? But right now it’s the only lead I have. I’ve hardly had a chance to talk to Honey about it. And the others don’t even know I have a clue.”

  “We’ll have to huddle on it when we get back to Happy Valley Farm and then plan the next move,” Jim said. “Trixie, I think the dance is beginning to break up. The music has a slow beat. Is it getting late?”

  “Probably midnight or near it,” Trixie said. “Ned told me they have to stop dancing then. It’s a school rule that’s strictly enforced at Rivervale High.”

  “He told me that everybody gangs up at an all-night diner up the street. He wanted us to meet him there. Shall we?” Jim asked.

  “Let’s do,” Trixie said enthusiastically. “Maybe I can learn something more about those men.”

  The music stopped. The orchestra put away their instruments. Brian, Honey, Mart, and Diana found their coats and located Jim and Trixie.

  “I’ve something exciting to tell you!” Trixie whispered. "Wait till we get in the station wagon. Oh, there’s Ned, and he’s alone. Maybe he wants to ride back with us. Ned... Ned!”

  Ned came toward them swinging his coat over his arm.

  “Do you have any room for me?” he asked. “Dad dropped me off early this afternoon. I told him I’d bum a ride back with someone. Are you sure there’s room?”

  “Loads of it,” Honey and Diana chorused.

  “Do you want to stop at the diner?” Ned asked. “It’ll be a madhouse. Everyone tries to get waited on at once.”

  “I’m not a bit hungry,” Trixie said.

  “I’m not, either,” Honey said, “but we did promise to stop there, didn’t we, Di? Say, Trixie, what’s the exciting thing you were going to tell us?”

  Quickly she briefed them on what she had learned from Ned.

  “Trixie Belden,” Honey said, so excited she grabbed

  Brian’s arm and almost sent the wagon into a ditch. “Trixie Belden, I never saw anything like the way you manage to hunt things out! What next?”

  “Wait for the next move they make, it seems to me,” Jim said.

  “Go and eat,” Mart said. “We sure can’t go hunting those men at midnight. I’m hungry, if nobody else is. That girl I sat next to at the table talked such a blue streak it kept me busy answering her. And then all I could say was yes,’ uh-huh,’ no.’ ”

  “That was Pam Watson,” Ned said, grinning. “She’s a nonstop talker. Yakety-yakety-yak.”

  “She’s cute, anyway,” Mart said. “And she can dance like nobody’s business. Did you see us?”

  “Who could miss it?” Diana asked. She’d had such a wonderful time dancing that she hadn’t seemed to notice what Mart was doing. Now, however, she had to tease him a little.

  I can learn a lot about how to act with boys just by watching Di, Trixie thought. It comes natural to her, though. Aloud she said, “Well, let’s go in. What’s the matter with you, Ned? What are you sputtering about?”

  “That—that—that truck!” Ned managed to say. “That one just pulling out—over there, Brian—those are the two men who sold us the lambs. Watch out. Duck in here, back of the bus from Indianola High. There, they’ve pulled out now.”

  “After them!” Trixie commanded Brian.

  “Give them a chance to get started,” Ned warned.

  “Don’t let them know were following them! Now, Brian, they’ve turned off toward the Raccoon River. Slow—but let’s be sure to keep them in sight!”

  “Are you sure they’re the same men?” Trixie asked. “I couldn’t be more sure,” Ned said. “The one in that heavy lumber jacket—he’s the one we talked to. Say, if that wasn’t a lucky break!”

  “It was,” Trixie agreed. “Don’t lose them, Brian. Can’t you go a little faster?”

  “He can,” Jim answered, “and then they’ll know they’re being followed. Calm down, Trixie!”

  He might have saved his breath, because Trixie, who sat with Jim, just behind Brian, kept bobbing up and down in the seat. “Is that their taillight?” she asked. “There are two trucks ahead of us. Dam it, we’ve lost them. No, there they are again, or is that the truck we’re trying to follow? Is that Army Post Road we’re coming to?”

  “That’s what it is,” Ned answered, “and they’re the same two men, I’m sure. They’ve crossed Army Post Road. They’re down Sand Hill. They’re getting near the river and the woods.”

  “They’re turning into the woods road!” Trixie called. “Follow them, Brian!”

  “What do you think I’m doing?” he asked. “We’ll be lucky if we don’t land in the river ourselves. Ned won’t even let me drive with the lights on.”

  “It
would just be a dead giveaway that someone is after them,” Mart said. “Gosh, Brian, I’d better turn my flashlight down on the road so you can see the shoulder.”

  “Somebody do something,” Diana called. “We’ll all be drowned in the river. I wish you’d dropped me off at Happy Valley Farm.”

  “Don’t be a baby,” Trixie said. “Go faster, Brian. I can’t even see them now.”

  “I’m scared,” Diana said, “and I don’t care who knows it. I don’t want to be a detective, and I don’t even want to be a detective’s assistant”

  “We re all right,” Honey assured her. “Brian can see the road now, with Mart’s flashlight We don’t seem to be getting anyplace, though.”

  “We are, too, Honey Wheeler!” Trixie shouted. “There, off in the woods... see?”

  “See what?” Jim asked.

  “That light flickering,” Trixie said. “It’s the same light I saw the night we followed Ben. I just know there’s a cabin or something back there.”

  “It could be the will-o’-the-wisp that Mr. Gorman mentioned,” Diana said. “And I think that’s what you’re chasing, Trixie.”

  “I can see a light,” Jim said. “Way back. Boy, is it dark around here! The light’s gone now, Trixie.”

  “Just as though someone pulled a shade,” Trixie said. “What’s the matter, Brian? Why are you stopping?”

  “Because there isn’t any more road, that’s why,” Brian said. “And I don’t know what we’re after, anyway. I haven’t seen a taillight since we turned off that other road. I wonder where we are.”

  “We sure are at the end of the road,” Ned said. “I’ve never been this far into this side of the woods. We’ve only lived here a year. Anybody would have to have a machete to cut through this jungle. How can we turn around, Brian?”

  “We can’t,” Brian said and cut off the engine.

  “Are we just going to sit here all night?” Diana asked. “Oh, dear, what was that noise?”

  “A bullfrog.” Ned laughed. “A wild, ferocious bullfrog, Di. I’ll get out and have a look at the situation. Come on, fellas.”

  “Jeepers, but I hate to give up now,” Trixie said. “I know those men are the thieves. How could they disappear into thin air? They had to go someplace.”

  “You can search me,” Brian answered. “I’m interested right now in getting out of here.”

  “If you want to pursue the search further, my dear intrepid sibling,” Mart said, “you go off on foot—unaccompanied.”

  “You’d never let her do that, would you?” Diana asked. “I won’t stir an inch if you do.”

  “Forget it, Di,” Brian said. “You should know Mart by this time. Say, I think I can back out of here all right if you go ahead and train your flashlights down on the road. If those men are back in there someplace, I’d just as soon stay out of their way. They may be armed.” The four flashlights, two on each side of the road, furnished enough light so that Brian could back the car until he reached the point where the road had entered the woods. There he turned on the car lights and headed the car toward Happy Valley Farm.

  “I’ve heard all kinds of stories about those old woods —people getting lost and all that. I never believed them before, but I do now,” Ned said. “It sure is a mystery what happened to that truck.”

  “I don’t think they took the same road we did at all,” Jim said. “I mean when they got right up to the woods. I’d like to come down here and take a look in the daytime.”

  “Why don’t we just get out and go back with our flashlights and see what we can find?” Trixie suggested.

  “That, Beatrix Belden,” Mart said, “is the wildest idea you ever had in your life, and you’ve had some wild ones.”

  How Trixie hated that name “Beatrix,” and now Mart had to say it—in front of Ned, tool “I’ll settle that question,” Brian said. “This bus doesn’t make any more stops till it gets to Happy Valley Farm. So stop bickering.”

  Back at the farmhouse, the Bob-Whites all insisted on Ned’s coming into the house with them for something to eat. “Gosh, yes,” Mart said, “come on in, Ned. I hope there’s something to eat. Mrs. Gorman probably left something out.”

  She had—a Thermos of hot chocolate, bags of potato chips, a jar of peanut butter, and a loaf of bread, with a bottle opener nearby to remind them of Cokes in the refrigerator.

  “Where do you suppose Tip and Tag are?” Jim wondered. “I thought they’d be in the house, when they didn’t come up the road to meet us.”

  “That’s right, isn’t it?” Trixie said, and she explained to Ned. “Mr. Gorman told us he never lets the dogs out till everyone is in the house.”

  “They just might flush out the thieves if he did leave them out all evening,” Mart said, ‘Taut then, he knows how to run a sheep farm better than we do.”

  “I hear the dogs barking now,” Trixie said and peered out the window. “It must be Mr. Gorman just coming from the barn. I can see his lantern.”

  She opened the door, and the dogs came rushing ahead of Mr. Gorman and into the house, jumping up on all of them.

  “Down, Tip!” Trixie commanded. “Is anything wrong, Mr. Gorman?”

  “Not yet,” Mr. Gorman answered. “I have a sick ewe out there. The veterinarian told me to watch her carefully, so I got to worrying and went out to see how she’s getting along. He thinks she may be going to have twin lambs. Say, you kids are sort of late getting home, aren’t you? Did you have any trouble with the station wagon?”

  “No, sir, we didn’t,” Brian said. “It runs as smoothly as a Rolls Royce.”

  “And how many Rolls Royces have you driven?” Mart asked, cramming a peanut butter sandwich into his mouth. He didn’t expect an answer and got none.

  “Then you didn’t stop for something to eat, did you? Mary left enough food out for all Rivervale High School.”

  “No, Mr. Gorman,” Trixie said. “This is what happened.” She told him, very dramatically, about the bargain lambs for the barbecue.

  “You say they told Ned they had frozen-food lockers in Valley Park—these men who sold the lambs to the committee?” Mr. Gorman asked.

  “Yes, they did,” Trixie said. “Are there any in Valley Park?”

  “Of course there are,” Mr. Gorman said, laughing, “and, of course, it was the Schwarz brothers you were trying to track down. They not only have food lockers, but they also make the best sausage this side of Pennsylvania. Say, Trixie, are you sure they didn’t have bushy black beards? You know, Ned, she almost had your father behind bars the day before yesterday. It was a pretty close thing!”

  Trixie was indignant. Mr. Gorman insisted upon treating everything she did as a joke. “Why, then,” she asked slowly and pointedly, “did they drive into the woods late at night?”

  “The answer to that is that they didn’t drive into the woods at all,” Mr. Gorman said. “Brian just said that maybe he made a mistake following them when he got to where the road turns off into the woods. Army Post Road goes right on into Valley Park, where the Schwarz brothers live.”

  “I don’t think Brian made any mistake following them. I was watching pretty carefully,” Trixie said with great dignity.

  “Ho, ho, ho!” Mr. Gorman’s hearty laugh filled the room. “First thing you know, you’ll have me arrested, Trixie, for stealing our own sheep. Stay away from those woods, though, all of you, if you want to get back to Sleepyside all in one piece. Good night, kids. Good night, Trixie. Let your uncle and Sheriff Brown and me worry about the sheep.”

  He went up the stairs.

  “That’s some good advice,” Mart said. “Why can’t we just have a good time on this one occasion, without you wearing your Schoolgirl Shamus badge?”

  It was one thing for Jim to call Trixie “Schoolgirl Shamus.” She sort of liked it, because he said it... well, in a sort of liking way. But the way Mart said it made her furious clear through.

  “That’s just enough from you, Mart Belden,” she said. “Go on and ea
t, all of you. I’m going to bed. But the day is coming, and real, real soon, when you’ll be eating your words, all of you, instead of sandwiches and potato chips. I’m going to find those thieves! You’ll see!”

  At the Skating Rink • 11

  ATTHE BREAKFAST TABLE Trixie was quiet. She was quiet even when Ben’s eyes twinkled and he pretended to slink away from her as she came down the stairs.

  “Mr. Gorman has told Ben about last night,” she thought. “I don’t see how they can joke so much about it. Uncle Andrew didn’t think it was any joke. Neither did Mr. and Mrs. Gorman when we first came here. I guess it’s my work he thinks is a joke. I’ve got to find those thieves, even if Honey isn’t any help.”

  It made Trixie sad to think that Honey wasn’t more interested in helping her. “Anyone could have made that mistake I did about Mr. Schulz. Heavens, that’s Ned’s father,” she thought. “What on earth does he want with a black bushy beard? Well, I suppose Ned thinks I’m some kind of a freak, too. Oh, dear!”

  Ned came in after they had finished breakfast. Mrs. Gorman gave him a cup of coffee and some of her doughnuts.

  “How about everybody going skating this afternoon?” he asked. “We have a neat indoor rink over at Rivervale. Some great skaters, too.”

  “We’re going to help Mr. Gorman and Ben,” Jim told him. “There are some fences that have to be mended over near the creek.”

  “The water there is so high,” Brian added, “that Mr. Gorman is afraid the sheep will stray into it and drown.”

  “You don’t need to stay home and help us,” Mr. Gorman said quickly. “Ben and I can take care of it easily. Mr. Belden wanted you to have fun on your vacation.”

  “It’s fun to help you,” Mart said.

  “He wants to tell everyone back at school that he’s the fencing champion of Polk County, Iowa,” Trixie said. “And he won’t explain to them that it isn’t done with foils, either.”

  Mart looked sheepish. There were times when Trixie almost read his mind. “I guess it’s because we’re almost twins,” Trixie had told him once. If they had been twins, they probably would have gotten along much better. Mart’s eleven-month seniority seemed to make him think he should dictate to Trixie, and when he tried it, it made her see red every time.