The Black Jacket Mystery

knew they were only natural forest sounds, but at that spooky time of night, she was jumpy and expected every minute that Dan Mangan and his unknown friend would reappear. And she didn’t want to meet them.
    She urged the little mare on down the trail, but Susie was being stubborn. She would go only so fast, and her ears twitched nervously at every small sound.
    Suddenly something small and furry darted across the path almost at Susie’s feet. After it came another shape, this one unmistakably a fox. It disappeared into the brush and rocks as Susie, neighing with fright, reared and dropped Trixie out of the saddle.
    She landed in a drift of deep snow beside the path and scrambled to her feet in time to see Susie running back up the path the way they had just come.
    “Susie! Whoa, girl! Whoa!” she called out and ran after her along the darkening trail as fast as she could.
    But the nervous young mare veered off the trail and crashed through the bushes in a wild, crosscountry run, her reins flying loose behind her.
    And in a couple of minutes she had disappeared into the depths of the wild bit of forest that they called the labyrinth because it had no regular trails and was still as wild as it had been when the first settlers came to the valley long years ago.
     

Double Danger! • 18
     
    TRIXIE WENT as fast as she could along the dark trail, calling, “Whoa, Susie!” in tones that grew weaker and weaker as she became more breathless. There was no sight or sound of the runaway mare now. She had disappeared in the blackness of the deep woods.
    Trixie stumbled to the side of the trail and sank onto the nearest flat boulder. She didn’t even look to see if she was sitting on a rock or a pile of snow, she was so tired and hopeless.
    The trees met over her head, and the sky was a dull gray, all the more depressing when she realized that in a very few minutes it would be dark, scary night.
    She hadn’t the slightest idea where she was. The moon wouldn’t be rising for a long time yet, and only a faint glow in what must have been the west gave her an idea of where home would be if she could ever get there.
    It was awfully quiet in the deep woods. Even the crack of a twig as some little kangaroo mouse hopped through the underbrush sounded loud and menacing. Trixie stood up and cupped her hands around her mouth. “Hallo! Hallo!” she called. But the only answer she got was an echo of her own voice, followed by a myriad of small sounds from the scampering citizens of the woods whom she had disturbed.
    “Well, that’s that,” she thought, swallowing hard. “I guess I’d better stay right here. I’m sure when they miss me at home, they’ll come out and look for me. Maybe Susie is there already. She’s always hungry for her supper, so I guess she’ll run home as straight as she can!”
    It was a comforting thought and kept her cheerful for at least two minutes, while she was picturing to herself how she would meet her rescuers. She would be tired but, oh, awfully brave! She would smile and say, “You needn’t have worried about me. I could have found my way home easily in the morning. The dark? Oh, I don’t mind the dark. I know there’s nothing to hurt me—” And even Mart would say, “Trix, you’re a brave girl!”
    But when she had pictured that unlikely scene, a sudden gust of biting wind through the tops of the tall trees made a weird screeching noise, and she covered her face with her hands and cowered down on the rock.
    Then, just as she was thinking about that weird noise, she heard a new sound that was even more scary, like a child calling, “Mommy! Mommy!” in a wailing cry.
    It wasn’t like the yowl of the catamount she and Honey had heard. It was more human. And as she stood rigidly listening, she heard it again. “Mommy! I want Mommy!” it sobbed in an all-too-familiar voice.
    Bobby! she thought, horrified. But it cant be! She looked all around at the darkness as the cries went on.
    “Bobby! Where are you, darling? It’s Trixie! Bobby, answer me right away! Where are you?”
    “Trixie?” The voice faltered. “Is ’at you, Trixie?”
    “Coming, Bobby! Just sing out real loud, so I can tell where you are! That’s my lamb!” Trixie called cheerfully. She had caught an inkling of which direction the last call had come from, and she hurried toward it.
    There was a steep hill, and a yawning hole showed itself as she came around a group of rocks. The voice was coming from the