The Happy Valley Mystery

treasure. Honey and I read everything we can get our hands on about Captain Kidd and his times, and we know,” she said mysteriously, “something that nobody else knows. We know just where to look for that treasure.”
    “You do?” the twins asked breathlessly. Ned’s black eyes were twice their size.
    Trixie nodded. “I have a secret map,” she said. She always liked an audience. Now she could imagine all of the Bob-Whites digging away at the shores of the
    Hudson, digging and uncovering brassbound chests... and maybe a lot of admiring 4-H members watching.
    “If there’s any gold left in the Hudson River Valley, Trixie and Honey will find it,” Diana said. “They’re detectives I”
    This was too much for the midwestern girl and boys. I guess now they wish they lived in the East, Trixie thought.
    “So that’s why you were so interested in my husband’s black beard!” Mrs. Schulz said, smiling.
    Trixie’s ego collapsed like a punctured balloon. She smiled sheepishly. “It did look funny,” she said in self-defense.
    “Trixie doesn’t make many mistakes when she’s working on a case, does she, Mart?” Diana said emphatically.
    Just as Mart was about to start on the story of Trixie’s past exploits, the old Seth Thomas clock in the comer bonged the horn: of three o’clock.
    Trixie, hearing it, snapped her fingers, looked at Jim and Honey, and stood up. “I said when we came that we’d just have to eat and run,” she said to Mrs. Schulz. “Now we’ve eaten till we almost can’t run, but we have to go. I just hope we’ll be in time to validate our tickets and pick up our reservations.”
    “We’ve got plenty of time—” Jim started to say, but a glance from Trixie left his sentence in midair. He shrugged his shoulders resignedly.
    They found their coats and scarves, said a sincere thank-you and good-bye to Mrs. Schulz, held up their hands in a salute to the others, and went out into the rain.
    “I'll ran you home to pick up your car,” Ned called after them. “Wait!”
    “No need to do it,” Trixie called back. “We’ll run for it!”
    Before Ned could get out of the house, they were racing toward Army Post Road.
     

O VERBOARD! ● 15
     
    WHEN THEY CLIMBED into Ben’s jalopy, which was parked in the driveway at Happy Valley Farm, Honey said, “I’ve known you to be pretty cagey at times, Trixie, but I never till today heard you say something that wasn’t true.”
    “What are you talking about?” Trixie asked, terribly concerned.
    “I mean what you said about having to go to the airport about our reservations. That isn’t true, is it?
    “It is true, Sis,” Jim answered for Trixie. “The tickets have to be confirmed. It could be done by telephone—but you said you wanted to shop, too.”
    “Honey, you don’t honestly think I’d tell a lie about it, do you?” Trixie’s face was very sober.
    “I’ve never thought such a thing before,” Honey insisted, “but this is the first I’ve heard about having to go to the airport. Do we have to go this very afternoon?”
    “Not exactly... maybe not exactly this afternoon,” Trixie admitted. “You’ll remember, though, that Uncle Andrew warned us to take care of it in plenty of time. What’s wrong, Honey, in doing it now?”
    “Nothing, I guess,” Honey conceded. “Are we really going to the airport or just to Walnut Woods?”
    “Both places,” Trixie said quickly. “The airport first, aren’t we, Jim?”
    “That’s right, Trix,” Jim said and backed the car around. With a loud blast of the exhaust, they were up the road and on the highway to the airfield.
    Once there, they took care of the business of tickets, browsed in the giftshop, then went back to the car.
    “The rain hasn’t stopped a bit,” Honey said. “It was good of that man to put our tickets in a plastic envelope so they wouldn’t get wet, wasn’t it? It sure is pouring down! This jalopy looks even worse than Brian’s.”
    “Yes, and with that boat on top, it’s so top-heavy I have a hard time steering,” Jim said. “I don’t see why Ben doesn’t take it off when he knows he isn’t going to use it.”
    “If you’d look at the way he has it tied on, you wouldn’t wonder,” Honey said, laughing. “Right now, I think we’d be better off in a boat than in this jalopy.
    Is that water down there in the Hubbells’ field, Jim?”
    “That’s just what it is,” Jim said. “Will you give up, Trix, and go back to Ned’s