The Black Jacket Mystery

his troubles were!” Trixie said, getting angry again. “Look at that heap of half-smoked cigarettes beside the stove! Ugh! The smelly things!”
    “Cigarettes? There’s another bit of evidence that Dan isn’t the guilty party!” Jim told them quickly. “He mentioned not smoking the other day when one of the kids offered him a cigarette.”
    There was a distant sound of an auto horn. The bus was coming, the last bus they could catch and still get to Sleepyside High on time.
    “Skedaddle, all of you! I’ll straighten up around here and catch the next bus. I don’t have a class till second period.” Jim shooed them all out, and they ran down to the bus stop just in time to board the bus and collapse, breathless, in their seats.
    Honey and Trixie made their way to the rear so they could talk undisturbed, while Mart and Brian glanced through their math books.
    “I’m glad it wasn’t Dan,” Honey said. “I suppose you’re sort of disappointed, because you don’t like him.”
    Trixie thought it over a moment. Then she said, “I’m not disappointed. I’m glad, same as you are. Only, not so much for Dan’s sake. It’s Mr. Maypenny I’m glad for.”
    “What has Mr. Maypenny got to do with this?” Honey was often perplexed by the way Trixie’s ideas jumped all over the place.
    “Don’t you see?” Trixie was very earnest. “If Dan isn’t the only person around with those pointed-toed boots, then it’s possible he didn’t find your watch. And as for the boy who found it being dark and skinny like Dan, I guess there are plenty who look like that. So he’s being sent away by Regan for something he didn’t do, and when we go tell Mr. Maypenny that we were mistaken about Dan, why, he won t have to send Dan away, after all. And if Dan’s his grandson, Mr. Maypenny will be glad. See?”
    Honey nodded, a little dizzily. “We’re going to see him? When?”
    “I thought after school, on our way to the lake for rehearsal,” Trixie informed her. “And by that time we’ll have told Regan, too.”
    But when they went to the Wheeler stables after school to get Strawberry and Lady, Regan was nowhere about. They saddled the young mares, who were champing at the bit to get started on their airing. The boys were already out building the booths along the lakeside.
    As the two girls rode out of the barn, Tom Delanoy, the chauffeur, came hurrying down from the Manor House with a message for Honey.
    “Miss Trask says your folks will be home any day now, Miss Honey,” Tom said respectfully. He was always a little formal with Honey, though he could unbend and laugh with the boys when they came to watch him work on the family cars. He was as friendly as Regan, but he was the big redhead’s exact opposite so far as coloring went. Tom had dark, curly hair and blue eyes. “She’s expecting a wire and will call you at Crabapple Farm when she hears which plane you’re to meet.”
    “Oh, thanks, Tom. I’m hoping they’ll get here next week for the ice carnival!”
    “Where is Regan?” Trixie asked. “We want to tell him something important.”
    “I’m afraid you’ll have to wait a bit for that, Miss Trixie,” the young chauffeur told her, a frown suddenly appearing. “I put Regan on the train to town this morning. Something came up sudden that he has to tend to.”
    “Oh.” Trixie and Honey were disappointed. “Your brothers were looking for him, too,” Tom volunteered. “I don’t know what for, but they seemed just a mite upset when they found out that he was gone.”
    “Thanks, Tom. We’ll catch up with Regan when he gets back.” Trixie rode down the driveway, followed by Honey.
    “I wonder if Regan’s gone to see somebody about sending Dan back,” Trixie called to her friend. “That certainly would get things all mixed up if he makes arrangements and then we tell him we were mistaken. I mean, that I was mistaken. You’ve always stuck up for Dan.”
    Honey laughed. “I wasn’t half as sure as I pretended. But I’m glad it’s going to turn out all right for him.”
    “We’ll tell the boys to get hold of Regan and talk to him the minute he comes back,” Trixie planned. “I’m going to ask Jim if there’s something Dan can do to help us get ready for the carnival. Maybe he would feel more at home if he felt we were taking him into the plans with us.”
    But when they came onto Dan in the middle of the game preserve a little later, he wasn’t in the mood to be either friendly