The Gatehouse Mystery

a haircut, and so forth. Then Celia told him that we were all going to the early show. When he heard that, he wasn't interested in the driving lesson anymore, but he had to keep his promise in order to avoid suspicion. I don't think he would have bopped me on the head if I hadn't lost my temper and accused him of forgery."
    "Red hair," Trixie said with a grin, "will do it every time. Let's get back to women office workers and how careless they are. Not," she added in a loud aside to Honey, "that they're any more careless than men."
    Jim shrugged. "According to Dick they are. He says they are forever leaving jewelry and their handbags in a nice spot where, dining the hot weather, they can be snatched by anybody strolling along the corridors. Anyway," he went on, "Dick and Louie made a nice haul during July and August. Most of the stuff they snatched wasn't very valuable, but it all amounted to quite a nice haul just the same. The diamond was a windfall—and the pickpockets' downfall."
    Honey nodded. "The lady it belonged to must have been furious. Mother would have hysterics if anything happened to the ring Daddy gave her."
    "The lady," Jim said, "according to the police, was wild. When I called headquarters from the Hoyts', I told the desk sergeant everything I knew about Dick, and he was wild, too. They had been questioning Louie since yesterday morning as to the whereabouts of Dick and the diamond, but Louie, for some reason known only to the brotherhood of dips, wouldn't tell them a thing."
    "How did the police get on the trail of Dick and Louie in the first place?" Mart asked. "Trying to catch a sneak thief in one of those big New York office buildings would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack." He bowed to Trixie. "Pardon the expression. I know how you hate the word needle.' "
    "I don't know," Jim said. "The sergeant didn't go into details over the phone. But I imagine that when the lady who owns the diamond discovered it was missing, she raised a hue and cry pretty quickly. An elevator boy may have been able to describe two suspicious-looking characters he had noticed loitering in the office building just before that."
    "Uh-huh," Regan said. "New York police detectives are as familiar with the faces of all known pickpockets as they are with their own. And Dapper Dick, minus the black eye and poison ivy, would have been easy to spot."
    "Why, in spite of that," Trixie added, "our very own Sleepyside policemen recognized him right off." She turned to Jim. "I suppose, after they stole the ring, they took it out of the setting, planning to pawn the stone in some town way upstate?"
    "I imagine so," Jim said. "Or it may have been jarred from the setting during the fight in the cottage Tuesday night. You were right about that, Trixie; in fact, you were right about practically everything."
    "Sometimes she is," Mart said sadly. "But let's not get in the habit of believing her. If we did, we'd be sure to end up on Mars."
    "Is that the next stop?" Regan asked, pretending to cringe. "Flying saucers will be the thing that starts her off, I'll bet." He poured himself another glass of cold milk. "The thing that makes me happiest is that Dick spent a lot of time with Bobby yesterday morning and never had any idea that the kid had the rock in his pocket all the time."
    "That makes me happy, too," Trixie said. "But I'll never be really happy, Regan, until you tell us your secret."
    "Well, now," he said, crossing his long legs, "things have changed in the last few hours. I doubt if Miss Trask will buy Susie, after all."
    "Miss Trask," Trixie yelled. "Was she going to buy Susie? Why, she doesn't know a thing about horses!" Regan shrugged his broad shoulders. "She can learn, can't she? If Jim, here, has picked up the gear-shift business so quickly, I guess I could teach Miss Trask a little something about how to make a horse stop and go."
    "Regan," Honey cried. "You're just teasing us. Does Miss Trask really want to have riding lessons?"
    "That's what she told me," Regan retorted. "Said if I thought Susie was a good buy, she'd buy her on the installment plan. Said we really ought to have five horses. Said she was sure Trixie would keep Susie exercised when she was too busy to ride." He glared across the table at Trixie. "That's gratitude for you. I suppose, now that you and Honey are loaded with money, you wouldn't consider buying the little mare and giving her to Miss Trask. Miss Trask, the best friend you ever