The Black Jacket Mystery

time.”
    “That’s easy to take care of,” Trixie said eagerly. “We still have a few days before Saturday and the carnival, and you can practice like mad. We’re all going to, and if you don’t have your skates with you, you can use Mart’s or Brian’s old ones. We can sharpen them up for you!”
    “Needn’t bother, Trixie,” Regan said, putting his arm across Dan’s shoulders. “I’ll, pick up a pair for my nephew in town tomorrow morning, brand-new, and he can start practicing tomorrow afternoon.”
    Trixie looked at the tall groom and the slight figure beside him and felt a glow of pleasure. It was good to see Regan feeling different about Dan. “He just didn’t really know him,” she told herself. And then she added honestly, “And neither did I, till tonight.”
    Brian was standing beside her now, draping a blanket over her shoulders and forcing a cup of broth into her hand. “Drink every bit of it, and then we’ll get on our way back to the horses. We left them at Mr. Maypenny’s because there aren’t any paths.”
    The broth tasted very good and chased away the chill. In a very few minutes, Trixie felt as good as new.
    Brian brought the Thermos to offer her more, but she refused. “I feel great now. Let’s start home. Moms must be simply frantic with worry about Bobby.”
    “She was frantic about both of you!” Brian said very soberly. “She was sure you both had been kidnapped by that tramp that robbed our clubhouse.”
    “The tramp!” Trixie suddenly remembered. “Dan!”
    Dan looked surprised and put down his cup. The others looked questioningly at her, too.
    “Dan!” she exclaimed again. “Tell them what that awful Luke is planning to do! Maybe Regan can get there and stop him before he does it!”
    “What’s all this?” Regan demanded sharply, looking from Trixie to Dan.
    Dan hesitated, scowling. Trixie snapped, “Go on! Don’t forget what he promised to do to you because you wouldn’t help him! It’s not snitching to protect your own self from a person like him!”
    So Dan, in a few words, explained Luke’s intention of breaking into and robbing Manor House.
    When he had concluded, both he and Trixie were surprised to see that neither Regan nor Mr. Belden showed any alarm. Mr. Belden smiled instead and told him, “This Luke will run into big trouble if he tries it. Mr. Wheeler hired extra guards to patrol the Manor House grounds when he came home and found out the clubhouse had been burglarized. Luke will run head on into them if he steps on the Wheeler estate.”
    “Whew! That’s swell!” Trixie beamed. “Just think, Dan, if you had let him talk you into going there with him, you’d have been in trouble for sure!”
    Dan nodded soberly, but he didn’t have to say anything. They all knew how he must feel.
    “Shall we get started for home?” Brian asked, to break the silence. And everyone began to bustle about, putting out the fire, gathering up empty Thermos bottles, and checking to see that they weren’t leaving anything behind. They had no intention of coming back here again for a long, long time.
    “And we re going to forget about Bobby’s lost shoe,” Trixie’s father told her when she suggested she might go into the cave and try to find it. “Mother will put away this one he’s wearing, and he’ll forget all about having lost a shoe here. We don’t want him coming out to look for it!”
    “And I’ll see he’s furnished with a kitten as soon as ever I can find one,” Regan promised gravely. “We want no more expeditions anything like this one of his!”
    “Oh.” Trixie was reminded of the catamount. “Shouldn’t we take along some burning torches,” she asked nervously, “in case that wildcat is still around? He might jump down on one of us from a tree!”
    Regan chuckled and patted the stock of his rifle. “His jumping days are over, Trixie. I got a good sight on him at less than twenty yards’ range, and next time you see him, he’ll be a rug for your room.”
    “I think I’ll let somebody else have him,” Trixie assured her grinning brothers. “I don’t even want to think about that particular kitty again!”
    Bobby lifted his head from his father’s shoulder and blinked around at them. “Where’s the kitty? Can we go find the kitty now?”
    Mr. Belden patted his shoulder and told him soothingly, “The kitty’s run away, skipper. We’ll have to find you another one.”
    Trixie, looking nervously around into the