The Happy Valley Mystery

latch fits over. There I” he said and reached down, threaded the rope through the staple, pulled it tight, knotted it, passed the oars up through the mow window to Trixie, and, breathing heavily, joined the girls, safe in the haymow of the old red barn.
    “Back there,” Honey said, “I never thought we’d make it. I remembered all sorts of things—like how good my parents are to me. I wish—”
    “Don’t you dare say it, Honey Wheeler,” Trixie said. “I wish the same thing, though,” she admitted. “Moms and Dad, Bobby—”
    “And Sleepyside,” Jim said. “Gosh, we’d never be in this fix in Sleepyside. Trixie, I want you to know right now how thankful I am to you for helping me get away from my stepfather and for helping me find my new family.”
    “Trixie, you’ve helped so many people,” Honey said. “Not any more than you have, Honey,” Trixie said. “I only wish I could think of a way now to get us out of this barn and safely back to Happy Valley Farm. Nobody will ever think of looking for us here.”
    “Nobody knew we were even going to try to go to Walnut Woods,” Honey said worriedly.
    “It won’t take Mart and Brian long to think of it,” Jim said. “They know their sister, and they’ll start looking for us.”
    “Will they ever look for us way out here in all this water?” Honey asked. “Will they even find our bodies?”
    “You give me the creeps,” Trixie said. “You can think of the most terrible things sometimes. Honey Wheeler, I’m ashamed of you!”
    “I’m ashamed of me, too,” Honey said. “Mart and Brian are your brothers, and you know them better than I do. You know if they’ll think of looking for us way out here.”
    “If there’s one thing I’m sure about with Mart,” said Trixie, “it’s his ability to read my mind. He’ll know, somehow, that I persuaded you two to go to Walnut Woods with me. Because it’s so near the time for us to go back to Sleepyside, Mart’ll know that I’d never give up till I tried again.”
    “Isn’t that the truth?” Jim said.
    “I’m just as sure of this, too,” Trixie told them. “Somebody is going to find us and save us.”
    Jim got up from the bale of hay where they were sitting and walked to the mow window. What he saw made him turn, trying to conceal his fright, to the girls.
    “They’d better work fast,” he said. "Were going to have to get out of this haymow.”
    Trixie hurried to the window, looked once, then said, “The water’s up. It’s higher-quite a little higher— since we climbed in here.”
    “Yes. The boat’s underwater, too,” Jim said. “What do we do now? I thought we’d be safe here. I guess we should have stayed in the boat.” Dejected, he sat down on a bale of hay and put his head in his hands.
    “We’re not licked yet,” Trixie said. “This isn’t the highest place in the barn. There’s still the roof.”
    “And no way to get to it,” Jim said.
    “I’m not so sure. Keep your chin up! You’ve been the one to see us through this far.”
    “I know when I’m linked,” Jim said. “We’ll just have to hope that the water doesn’t come up here. We can still take to the rafters.”
    “No,” Trixie said, “that isn’t good enough. There must be some way that window closes. If there’s a shutter of some kind. Or maybe a sliding window!” Trixie felt around outside the mow window as she talked. “There isn’t anything out here,” she said, “except some sort of a track, as though a sliding window is supposed to travel on it.
    “Try to find the window,” Honey said.
    “We don’t need the window!” Trixie said. “Jim, if you stand on this track—”
    “Yes,” Jim said, “and I pull myself up on that, stand on it, climb up there—”
    “And hold on to the eaves to help us up,” Trixie said.
    “I’ll never be able to do it,” Honey said, looking up at the roof.
    “I’ll go after Jim,” Trixie said hastily. “It’ll work, Jim. Out you go!”
    Jim climbed through the window, wrapped his hands around the iron bar above him, pulled himself up, stood on the bar, found a secure hold on the eaves, then slowly climbed to the roof.
    Once he slipped and almost went into the water, then recovered himself and tried again.
    Later, Trixie, safe on the roof, almost lost her hold when she and Jim were lifting Honey.
    Those were the things they didn’t dare to think about as the three of them, and the small puppy under Trixie’s arm, sprawled in