The Happy Valley Mystery

eat, all of you. I’m going to bed. But the day is coming, and real, real soon, when you’ll be eating your words, all of you, instead of sandwiches and potato chips. I’m going to find those thieves! You’ll see!”
     

At the Skating Rink • 11
     
    ATTHE BREAKFAST TABLE Trixie was quiet. She was quiet even when Ben’s eyes twinkled and he pretended to slink away from her as she came down the stairs.
    “Mr. Gorman has told Ben about last night,” she thought. “I don’t see how they can joke so much about it. Uncle Andrew didn’t think it was any joke. Neither did Mr. and Mrs. Gorman when we first came here. I guess it’s my work he thinks is a joke. I’ve got to find those thieves, even if Honey isn’t any help.”
    It made Trixie sad to think that Honey wasn’t more interested in helping her. “Anyone could have made that mistake I did about Mr. Schulz. Heavens, that’s Ned’s father,” she thought. “What on earth does he want with a black bushy beard? Well, I suppose Ned thinks I’m some kind of a freak, too. Oh, dear!”
    Ned came in after they had finished breakfast. Mrs. Gorman gave him a cup of coffee and some of her doughnuts.
    “How about everybody going skating this afternoon?” he asked. “We have a neat indoor rink over at Rivervale. Some great skaters, too.”
    “We’re going to help Mr. Gorman and Ben,” Jim told him. “There are some fences that have to be mended over near the creek.”
    “The water there is so high,” Brian added, “that Mr. Gorman is afraid the sheep will stray into it and drown.”
    “You don’t need to stay home and help us,” Mr. Gorman said quickly. “Ben and I can take care of it easily. Mr. Belden wanted you to have fun on your vacation.”
    “It’s fun to help you,” Mart said.
    “He wants to tell everyone back at school that he’s the fencing champion of Polk County, Iowa,” Trixie said. “And he won’t explain to them that it isn’t done with foils, either.”
    Mart looked sheepish. There were times when Trixie almost read his mind. “I guess it’s because we’re almost twins,” Trixie had told him once. If they had been twins, they probably would have gotten along much better. Mart’s eleven-month seniority seemed to make him think he should dictate to Trixie, and when he tried it, it made her see red every time.
    “The rink is closed tomorrow,” Ben said. “We don’t really need help on the fences. You’d better go skating when you have the chance. The week is slipping by.”
    “No,” Ned said. “Let’s help first. I’ll help, too, and maybe we can get enough done so we can go skating this afternoon. Some of the gang you met last night called me this morning to see if I couldn’t get you to come.”
    “Jim had a call, too,” Brian teased, “from a certain blond girl.”
    Trixie looked up sharply. She hadn’t known that.
    “I told her I couldn’t show up,” Jim said. “We’d all planned to do this work with Mr. Gorman and Ben.”
    “Oh, she’ll keep,” Ned said. “She’ll be there. Dot is one of our star skaters. Anyway, these guys who called me were a lot more interested in having Trixie and Honey and Diana come than they were in having Mart and Brian.”
    “That figures,” Mart said.
    “Mart’s a speed skater,” Diana said proudly.
    “That calls for a river or a lake,” Ned said. “I’m glad he won’t have a chance to show us up.”
    “Trixie and Honey do a figure skating act that’s a wow,” Mart said.
    Ned whistled. “Maybe I’d better recall the invitation, then. Especially after the performance you Bob-Whites put on at the gym. We can’t let the East get ahead of the Midwest again.”
    “We have a lot more ice—lakes and rivers—in Westchester County,” Honey said. “It’s colder there for a longer time in the spring, and we have more chance to practice, I guess, than you do here.”
    “Why don’t you just wait and see how the Iowans skate?” Ben said. “Come on, let’s get started for the creek.”
    The boys followed Mr. Gorman and Ben out to the barn to get the equipment for the fences. Just before he closed the door, Ned called back, “My father grew that beard, Trixie, for a Valley Park centennial celebration. When it was over, he just kept the beard for a while to tease my mother. He was scared when I told him how near he came to ending up in the hoosegow.”
    Well, Trixie thought, so he does think I'm nothing but a joke.
    “It’s mean of everyone to make