The Black Jacket Mystery

asked with unusual gravity. “Trixie’s done nothing but nag at him since the first day we met the poor boy!”
    Trixie had been on the verge of telling them about the new black jacket, but Mart’s dig made her change her mind. If her almost-twin felt that way about her, very well. She wouldn’t tell him any of her ideas, no matter how important they were. Let him find out for himself!
    She slapped the reins and sent her horse ahead of the others down the trail at a rapid pace.
    “Wow! Somebody’s feelings are hurt, I bet! You’d better go after her, Mart, and say you’re sorry.” Brian meant it.
    “Let her run a couple of minutes and cool off.” Mart grinned in the darkness. “She won’t bite me then.”
    But Honey, flashing a reproachful look at the masculine members of the group, sent her own mount into a gallop and disappeared down the trail after Trixie.
    When she had caught up with Trixie, who had wisely slowed down once she was well out of sight of the boys, Honey scolded her for reckless riding in the darkness. “You might have gotten a broken neck.”
    “They wouldn’t have cared.” Trixie sulked, but she didn’t mean what, she said, and Honey knew that she didn’t.
    “I’m glad you left them behind, so we can talk,” Trixie said quickly as they rode down the widening path toward Glen Road. “I want to tell you about the jacket.”
    “What was that all about, you and Dan yipping at each other in the cabin?” Honey asked curiously. “Why did you throw his silly jacket at him?”
    “Because he looked so shocked when I touched it, there on the back of the chair! I guess he looked that way because he thought I’d noticed it wasn’t the same one he’s been wearing all along.”
    Honey looked astonished. “Not the same one? Why, it must be. I’m sure he wouldn’t have two. They’re expensive. Don’t you remember? When we were trying to decide what kind of jackets the Bob-Whites should have, we looked at leather ones in Brown’s store.”
    “I remember.” Trixie nodded. “But expensive or not, I still say this wasn't the same jacket. It was like it, but it had THE COWHANDS lettered across the back in white paint! And the left sleeve didn’t have any sign of the tear that he got in his other jacket the day Susie brushed him off against the tree.”
    “Oh....” Honey was beginning to be convinced. Then she frowned. “But where would he get the money for a new jacket?”
    “He could have used the ten dollars he got for your watch from Mr. Lytell, for part of the cost. I hope I’m wrong, but if he did steal any of our rackets and stuff out of the clubhouse, he probably sold them to some of the kids at school.”
    “Do you think we should tell the boys about the new jacket? They could look around tomorrow and find out if anything’s missing off the higher shelves where we keep the summer stuff.”
    “No.” Trixie frowned. “Let’s not tell them a thing till we’re absolutely positive. They’d just tease us and talk the way Mart just did.”
    “I guess you’re right,” Honey admitted with a sigh. “Anyhow, if we tell them what we think about it, Mart might get into a fight with Dan and get hurt. Let’s wait till Dan’s been taken back to wherever he came from.”
    The boys caught up with them then, and they all rode on together to the lake.
    Mart tried to apologize to his almost-twin, but she was cool and snubbed him until she noticed that he looked unhappy. Then she cooked him a special hamburger and decked it with his favorite trimmings as a token that she had forgiven him.
    After that, they all had a good time, and while Mart practiced some fancy turns and twists out in the center of the ice, Trixie and Honey sped swiftly around at the edge, arm in arm, and perfected a few spectacular tricks for the show.
    As they rested out of the wind a few minutes, Honey noticed that Trixie was staring thoughtfully into the fire. “What’s bothering you now?” Honey asked.
    “Those yellow-brown cowboy boots that the thief wore who broke into our clubhouse. Dan couldn’t have been wearing them. He’d have stumbled around and fallen over his own feet!”
    “That’s right,” Honey agreed. Then she said, “But suppose he wore them just to confuse anybody who might suspect him!”
    “He might have, at that,” Trixie agreed.
    “But where would he have gotten them? I never saw a pair for sale in Sleepyside!” Honey said, frowning.
    “He could have stolen them, back