The Black Jacket Mystery

doing here?”
    “Just living on littler animals, I guess. Jim says this whole valley used to be full of bears and catamounts and bison. The settlers had plenty of trouble with them.”
    “But, suppose a wildcat did leave those tracks. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to go before he decides to make a meal of us?” Honey shivered.
    Trixie chuckled. “Jim says they’re afraid of people. They’d never attack a man unless they were practically starving, and he looked tasty.” She grinned at Honey. “I don’t know what they’d think of us”
    “Ugh! Don’t talk like that!” Honey knew Trixie was only joking, but she didn’t relish the thought of being on a wildcat’s dinner menu. “Do you think we ought to ride back and tell Mr. Maypenny about seeing these tracks? He’ll want to hunt down the creature before it slaughters any of our darling deer!”
    Trixie got to her feet suddenly. “Honey! You know what I think? I bet Mr. Maypenny is out hunting this wildcat right now. That’s why he wasn’t at the cabin! I thought there was something funny about his being out checking the feeding stations this late in the day. He probably told Dan to tell us that, in case we came by, so we wouldn’t worry if we heard he was tracking a wildcat!”
    Honey nodded, but she looked around uneasily. “Maybe it’s still around somewhere close. We’d better go.”
    “Pooh! Don’t worry! Jim says they hunt only at night. It’s probably asleep in a nice warm cave somewhere right now.”
    The words were hardly out of her mouth before a weird, hoarse cry came from somewhere on the side of the mountain only a few hundred yards away.
    Instantly the two horses panicked, and while the yowl echoed and reechoed through the woods, they fought to get away. Snorting loudly, Starlight tried to free herself from the reins still wrapped around Honey’s wrist. Honey struggled to control her, slipping and sliding on the rocky, muddy ground of the trail.
    Susie reared and pawed the air, whinnying with fright. Trixie had to retreat or be hit by the flailing hooves of her usually gentle mount. The moment that Trixie was out of the way, Susie came down on all fours and ran down the trail. “Come back here, you silly!” Trixie shouted. “Whoa, Susie! Good girl!
    Whoa!” She plunged down the trail after the runaway.
    There was no telling when she would have caught up with the terrified horse, except that Susie’s dangling reins caught in a crevice between two rocks along the trail and halted her with a violent jerk. It pulled her almost off her feet and left her so confused and frightened that Trixie had very little trouble, a moment later, taking control of her. Step by step, Trixie led her back up the trail to where Honey was just getting Starlight calmed.
    Both horses were trembling so violently and were so skittish that the girls had difficulty remounting. Once they were in their saddles again and had started Starlight and Susie homeward, they never slackened their pace till they were safely out on Glen Road.
    “That cat thing was practically on our n-n-necks,” Trixie said, shuddering, as they turned in at the Wheeler driveway. “I think maybe Starlight and Susie could smell it, whatever it was.”
    It was almost dark by the time they had groomed the horses and taken care of the tack. They noticed that the rest of the horses had been attended to and fed, but there was no sign of any of the boys or of Regan.
    “I’m almost scared to walk home,” Trixie said as they started out with their flashlights. “I know I’ll be feeling big yellow cat’s eyes watching every step and switching their tails ready to pounce!”
    “Cat’s eyes with tails?” Mart called out from the bench at the bus stop. “Where do you get those?” At the sound of his voice, each girl gave a little shriek of surprise, but a moment later they were telling him about the wildcat they had almost met.
    “Huh!” Mart got up and fell into step with them, holding an arm of each. “That’s one of the best excuses for being late, Miss Alibi, that you’ve ever thought up! Congratulations!”
    “I’m afraid Moms won’t think much of it, even if it is true!” Trixie moaned. “I can see the fire in her eyes from here!”
    “Surprise!” Mart grinned. “Dad and Moms went to White Plains on a shopping expedition, and Jim and Brian are whipping up a delectable repast of hot dogs and hamburgers for us all. So no scolding tonight!”
    “Thank goodness!”