The Gatehouse Mystery

Honey's jewelry box. Regan's a good guy. I thought he wouldn't want to miss the fun. When I told Regan what had happened to me, he quickly decided it would be more fun if he had a loaded gun."
    The cheery groom took a deep breath and let it out again. "It wasn't loaded, Jim, my boy. You know I never leave a bullet in my rifle when I'm not using it.
    But I figured our pickpocket friend wouldn't know the difference."
    "Then he really is Dick the Dip," Trixie gasped. "How did you know, Jim?"
    "Because," Jim said, "when I accused him of being one of the two men your brothers said state troopers were looking for all along the river, he started to boast. It was just a wild guess, and I should have kept my mouth shut. But as soon as I realized that he'd been making fools of all of us, except you, Trixie, I lost my temper."
    "I still don't understand," Trixie said. "People don't go around carrying diamonds that size in their pockets."
    "No," Jim said, "but they wear them when they're set in engagement rings. Maybe I'd better begin at the beginning."
    "Wait a minute," Trixie interrupted. "Here comes a taxi. The others are back from the movies. Let's raid the icebox while we catch them up on events. Then you can begin at the beginning, Jim."
    "This I must hear," Regan said. "One can watch the wrestling matches almost any evening, but one does not often get a chance to find out what you kids have been up to. Am I invited?"
    "You certainly are," Trixie said quickly. "No more secrets from you, Regan. Brother, as Mart would say, was I ever glad to see you standing in the door with that gun!"
    Ten minutes later, they were all gathered around the long kitchen table. Regan had donated to the feast the big platter of sandwiches Celia and the cook had made earlier. Honey poured creamy milk into tall glasses as Trixie told Regan how she and Honey had found the diamond.
    When she finished, Regan shook his head. "Say, Trixie," he said, almost sternly, "you got off easy with just a bad fright. And what a lucky break for you that I didn't go to the police station and prefer charges. If I had, the cops would have soon found out that your mother has the diamond but doesn't know it. If I had any sense, I'd give you a good bawling out for keeping it from the police so long!"
    "Don't worry about that part of it," Brian said. "We're all in trouble. We can't very well ask Dad to take the diamond to headquarters tomorrow without confessing our sins."
    "That's true," Regan said, in a relieved tone of voice. "How do your parents stand you kids, anyway?"
    "I still don't understand about the Dick the Dip part," Honey complained. "Please begin at the beginning as you promised, Jim."
    Then Jim explained. "Dick and Louie," he said, "are sort of super-pickpockets. They make a specialty of robbing big New York office buildings during the hot summer months. Firms are not only understaffed then, with many employees away on vacation, but they're careless. They leave the doors open to the main corridors and then go into adjoining offices, leaving the reception room empty. Women workers," he went on, "are especially careless, according to Dick. Before he bopped me on the head, he boasted plenty."
    "Oh, I hate him!" Honey cried fiercely. "I hate him. I hope he has poison ivy all the time he's in jail."
    Jim patted her small hand affectionately. "It didn't hurt, Sis. It was just a stunning blow. You see, he was sitting in the backseat, and I was sitting alone in front behind the wheel. The idea was that I'd get self-confidence more quickly that way. So I didn't even know what was happening until too late."
    Trixie gasped. "Why, that sounds as though he planned to knock you out even before you accused him of being a bo—bo—"
    "Bogus is the word," Mart said. "Which you would have known, if you had my superior education."
    Trixie ignored him. "Bogus chauffeur."
    Jim nodded. "He did plan to get rid of me as soon as Bobby told him that Honey and I had switched rooms. That's why he offered to give me driving lessons just before he left to try and find Louie, who had knocked him out the night before and departed with the rest of the loot."
    "So that's why he was so touchy about his suitcase," Regan said. "All the loot but the diamond was in it?"
    "That's right," Jim said. "When Dick came back, after finding no trace of Louie, he decided to get the diamond tonight. He planned to get me out of his hair late in the afternoon and say that he left me off in the village for