The Happy Valley Mystery

on back to the house. You’ve done—”
    “I know,” Trixie said. “We’ve done enough damage for one day. The dogs seem to be heading the sheep this way, don’t they?”
    “They do. Keep out of the way, please, or you’ll be knocked over ” Mr. Gorman called as he urged the dogs out in circles to drive the sheep toward the shelter field.
    The Bob-Whites ran to one side of the milling animals as half a dozen old ewes led and the others followed, running ahead of the yapping dogs.
    “About all we seem to be able to do is to make things tougher for Mr. Gorman,” Brian said. “We might as well go back,” he added dejectedly. “Say, Jim, I can’t believe that’s all the flock, can you? Can you, Trixie? If that’s over two hundred sheep, they’re surely making better time now than they did when we put them in the shelter field.”
    “It isn’t all of them,” Trixie said, “and Tip knows it. Listen to him!”
    Tip, following Mr. Gorman’s sharp command to him and to Tag, circled the wet mass of sheep and drove them on. Now and then, however, he ran back to where the Bob-Whites waited. He jumped up to pull at Trixie’s sleeve, ran off into the blurred half-light of the snow, then ran back again to rub his wet body against Jim’s jeans.
    “That dog is trying to tell someone something,” Honey said. “Mr. Gorman and the sheep are out of hearing now. They must be near the shelter lot. Let’s see if we can follow Tip.”
    “That’s not so easy,” Diana said. “I’m soaked through.
    I don’t especially want to wander around in much more, of this snow, anyway.”
    “You come with us,” Trixie said. “You could never find your way to the house by yourself. This is fun, Di! It’s not cold at all, and who cares about getting a little bit wet?”
    “We’ve been wetter than this a thousand times, skiing and tobogganing,” Honey said. “But I honestly don’t see much sense in it myself, Trixie. Don’t you suppose Mr. Gorman knows when he has all his sheep?”
    “I suppose he does but maybe not as well as the dogs do,” Trixie answered. “You just wait till Mr. Gorman gets that flock where he wants it and the gate locked. He’ll know all the sheep aren’t there, and he’ll come back here hunting Tip to see what he’s up to. I’m all for following the dog now. How about you, Brian? Jim? Mart? Honey? Di, you’ll just have to come with us.”
    “I’m for it,” Jim answered.
    “Me, too,” Honey said, close behind Brian, who patted Tip’s wet head. “If we don’t get going,” she said, “Tip is going to wiggle right out of his skin.”
    “What’s keeping us?” Mart called. “Wait a minute, Trix... Trixie, where are you?”
    “Through the fence and halfway down the hill,” she called back. The snow had thinned a little, and, in the beam from her flashlight, she could see the deep gully ahead. “Tip’s gone crazy,” she shouted. “I know some lost sheep must be around here someplace... but where?”
    Slipping and sliding, the other Bob-Whites followed Trixie under the fence wires and down the slope. “There’s not a thing down here!” Mart said. “Sheep couldn’t get through the fence if they tried.”
    “Tell it to Tip!” Trixie shouted back. “I’ll trust him. Listen to him bark!”
    “Come back from that gully!” Jim shouted. “Trixie, stay away from there. Wait! It’s dangerous!”
    A branched dead tree had fallen across the ravine. It made a natural bridge, and Trixie started over it, following Tip.
    “What’s bothering you?” she called back. “It’s safe enough, Jim. We have to get over to the other side. I’m coming, Tip.... Jeepers! Help! Jim! Help!”
    Down she went, breaking through tie branches of the dead tree... down... the collie hurtling after her. And then, just as the rest of the Bob-Whites reached the gully’s edge, Trixie’s voice came up to them. “I’m... all... right... but, gleeps, look what I found!”
    She had landed right in the middle of a dozen or more fat ewes. The snow, held up by the web of branches, had formed a shed for the wandering animals. Far more frightened by Trixie’s presence than she was by her fall, sheep baaed and bleated, tried vainly to get up the sides of the gully, and fell back, floundering.
    “Are you sure you aren’t hurt?” Jim asked anxiously as he and Brian let themselves cautiously down into the slush of the creek bed.
    “I’m sure of it,” Trixie said. “I just had my breath knocked