The Black Jacket Mystery

nodded happily. “I know a see-crud.”
    “What is it, doll?” Trixie kept her arm around him and winked at Honey, who was smiling at them both. “A big, big secret?”
    “Uh-huh.” Bobby nodded and looked serious. “It’s Miss Trask’s see-crud, an’ Celia’s, an’ it’s about Regan an Tom, an’—”
    Trixie put her free hand over his mouth to stop him. “Then you mustn’t tell it to me if it belongs to them.”
    Bobby pulled her hand away so he could speak, and backed off. “It’s somethin’ Regans bringing home from the city!” he shouted at Trixie. “It’s a big sperimen! What’s a sperimen, Honey?”
    “A sperimen?” Honey looked bewildered. “I never heard of a sperimen.”
    “Neither did I,” Trixie laughed. “There’s no such thing, Bobby.”
    Bobby’s face was red and his eyes blazed. “Is so!” he shouted at his sister. “Miss Trask says it’s a dan-gerish sperimen, so there! Maybe it’s a—a snake!” He was not happy with the idea and shivered as he stood staring at them.
    Honey laughed. “I never heard of a snake by that name. And, anyhow, both Tom and Regan hate snakes, so there’s no chance your sperimen is a snake. You don’t have to worry about that.”
    The two girls exchanged glances over Bobby’s head, and then Trixie touched her knee and said, “Ouch! That scrape hurts. I think we’d better be getting back to the clubhouse. How about putting out the fire, if everybody’s warm enough now?” She looked meaningly at Bobby.
    “Let me!” Bobby started kicking the damp snow onto the fire and tramping it into the earth to put out any last embers. It was one task he loved, and he did it very efficiently.
    The girls waited and watched to see that he didn’t overlook any half-burned sticks.
    “What do you suppose he meant by ‘sperimen,’ Trix?” Honey whispered.
    “Sperimen.Sperimen.” Trixie whispered the word to herself. “Hey, do you suppose the word she said was ‘experiment’?”
    Honey laughed. “That’s probably just what she did say. But goodness knows what she meant! And, anyhow, I guess it’s none of our business.”
    “I guess not.” Trixie sighed. “But this trip of Regan’s is getting ‘curiouser and curiouser as Alice in Wonderland said. What kind of an experiment would he bring home?”
    But it was foolish to stand there in the darkening woods while the wind whipped snow in their faces. So they hurried off after Bobby, and Trixie found her injured knee getting better as she thought less and less of how much it hurt.
    In fact, the three of them reached the clubhouse a lot sooner than they had expected to, and they were happy to find the cheerful little stove sending out warmth that felt good after the hike.
    Mart and Brian had found the old posters, discovered that they would do nicely for the new project, and had laid them out on the conference table, with pots of paint and clean brushes, so that nothing would delay Jim from going to work on them when he got back from his field trip.
    Brian looked up from the table. “Hey, I hear a car.
    “Maybe Dad and Mom changed their minds and came back,” Honey guessed happily and ran to open the door.
    The snow was falling rather heavily now, and the car that had turned into the sloping driveway was having trouble starting up the steep grade.
    Trixie looked over Honey’s shoulder, and Bobby peered past them. “It’s your mom’s old car,” Trixie said. “Isn’t that the one Regan and Tom took into town?”
    Honey nodded, disappointed, and started to close the door. “They’re back a lot sooner than they had expected.”
    “Where’s the sperimen?” Bobby shrilled at the car.
    The windows were rolled up and Tom, the driver, didn’t hear. He kept his attention on the now slippery road and went on up the driveway.
    But before the door closed out the sound of the car laboring up the hilly drive, Trixie recognized the choking and sputtering of the motor.
    There was no doubt about it. This car of Honey’s mother’s was the same car that she had heard an hour ago climbing the rough, narrow road beyond the lake hill.
     

He New Pupil • 6
     
    Of COURSE, TRIXIE admitted to herself, it was possible that she was just imagining that the car she had heard out by the lake was the same one that just had coughed and sputtered its way past the clubhouse with Regan and Tom inside.
    She decided that she wouldn’t say anything about it to the boys. She would feel pretty silly if she did