The Gatehouse Mystery

yelled. "I get it. Oh, no/"
    "Oh, yes," Trixie said. "And we've combed every inch of die grass around this rock. Now what?"

A Search • 9

    IT WAS BOBBY who broke the silence, shouted. "Hey! " he shouted. "I founded a four-leaf clover."
    Trixie glared at him. "Don't be so silly. You can count. It's only got three leaves."
    "Has not," Bobby corrected. "I never touch anything with three leaves. Might be poison ivy."
    "Good for you," Mart said, lifting the little boy into his arms. "If the kids I took care of at camp had your brains, I wouldn't have spent so much time drowning them in calamine lotion."
    "He is smart," Trixie admitted and added shrewdly, "Bobby, why don't you show Mart the outdoor shower Jim rigged up for you?"
    "You're wasting your breath," Mart said as Bobby wriggled out of his arms. "I know that age. They stick like burrs when you want to get away from them, and disappear like magic at bedtime."
    "There must be some way we can have a conference," Brian said thoughtfully. "Don't you take a nap anymore, Bobby?"
    "He does," Trixie said wearily, "but this being your first day home, Moms let him off. If only we could all speak French, like Honey. For the first time in my life, I wish our parents had been rich enough to send us to boarding school."
    "I know what," Honey said suddenly. "Miss Trask! She's teaching Bobby how to add and subtract with little stones. Wouldn't you like to play with Miss Trask for a while, Bobby?"
    "Yeah," Bobby cried enthusiastically. "I founded a pretty, great big stone right here this morning. Wait! I'll go get it for Miss Trask."
    He started off but Trixie grabbed his arm. "You found what here?"
    "Hey!" he yelled. "Lemme go. You hurted my arm, badly." He pulled away from her and raced across the field toward the house.
    "See what I mean?" Mart asked with a shrug. "As soon as you want them for anything, they find that they're allergic to you. It never fails."
    "This is no time for joking," Trixie said briskly. "Don't you realize that Bobby found the diamond?"
    "Gleeps," Mart howled. "The pretty, great big stone! Let's go after him quick, Trix."
    "Take it easy, kids," Brian interrupted. "You'll only stampede him if you rush after him. Let him bring it back."
    "That's right," Jim agreed. "If you start asking him a lot of questions, he might get so confused he'll forget where he put it."
    "The suspense is maddening," Trixie moaned, collapsing on the rock again. "It would be just like Bobby to have dropped it down the drain when he washed his hands at the kitchen facet."
    "I'm not even going to think until he comes back," Honey said. "Suppose he shows up with a plain ordinary rock? Suppose he made it into a mud pie and threw it into the pond? That pond is knee-deep in mud."
    "I thought you weren't going to think," Jim reminded her with a grin. "If you must do it, don't do it out loud. It gives me the jitters to think of what he might have done with the diamond."
    "The only bright spot," Trixie said, "is that he didn't give it to Dick, his bosom friend."
    "Oh-h-h," Mart sighed loudly. "Maybe he did. Maybe that's why Dick scrammed."
    Trixie covered her face with her hands, rocking back and forth. "Now we will go to jail, not only for withholding information, but for aiding and abetting a criminal. If only I'd let Honey give the thing to her father the minute we found it."
    "There is no sense in crying over spilled milk," Brian said sharply. "Here comes Bobby, and he is crying, so
    I guess he doesn't know where he put it."
    "I losted it; I losted it," Bobby was screaming at the top of his lungs. "Holp! Holp!"
    "Help, help, yourself," Trixie muttered under her breath. "Oh, why do I get myself into these scrapes?"
    "That's not the question I'm asking myself," Brian said bitterly. "What I want to know is how you always manage to get us in Dutch with you?"
    "Oh, go away," Trixie said, on the verge of tears. "Go back to camp. Go join the Navy. I don't care what happens now."
    "Oh, Trixie," Honey cried, joining her on the rock. "Don't feel so badly. Daddy has plenty of money. He can keep us out of jail." She threw her slender arms around Trixie. "If the police come around asking for diamonds, Mother will give them one of hers."
    "Thanks, Honey," Trixie said forlornly, "but that's out." She got up, squaring her shoulders and said to Bobby, "Stop bawling. Tell us where you think you put the pretty stone, and we'll all help you find it."
    Bobby kept right on screaming, and she added in a more