The Happy Valley Mystery

yelled. Then the puppy started to howl. He howled so vigorously that he slipped from Jim’s arm and slid slowly down the roof toward the rushing torrent.
    Jim made a lunge for the little fellow and caught him just as he struck the eaves.
    “Thank goodness you got him,” Honey cried. “I’d have died if we’d lost him now. Stop crying!” she told the puppy, who, more frightened than ever, yipped at the top of his voice.
    “What’s the matter now, Jim?” Trixie asked as she caught sight of Jim’s face, grim in the dim light of the moon.
    “We have to climb higher,” he said. “Start climbing. Trix, you lead the way.”
    “What is it, Jim? Did the barn cave in when that thing hit?” Honey asked, trying to scramble after Trixie.
    “No,” Jim said, “it didn’t, but—well, I might as well tell you. The rain may have stopped, but the river is still rising. It’s up to the eaves now. Climb! We have to make it to the ridge of the roof. Get going! Faster!”
    It was harder for Jim to climb, because he held the puppy in one hand. Slowly, though, they made progress. Twice Honey slipped, and Jim stopped her with the elbow of the arm that held the little dog. “Take hold of Trixie’s hand!” he ordered.
    “Here!” Trixie called. “I’ve fastened my scarf to my arm. Hold on to it, Honey. There, do you have it?”
    “Yes, Trixie,” Honey said faintly.
    “Then hold tight!”
    Arduously, feeling their way, the three Bob-Whites continued to climb.
    “Say,” Trixie called when she could see over the ridge of the roof, “it isn’t bad at all up here. The roof sort of flattens out. It’s really wonderful, Honey. It’s a lot better than down there on the slant. Climb, now! You’re doing fine! There!” She gave a final tug to her scarf, and Honey landed beside her.
    “Why didn’t we do this before?” Jim asked, surveying the wide flat space.
    “For the good reason that it’s a silly roof,” Trixie answered. “It’s all slant on this side and a big flat space on the other side. We couldn’t know that.”
    “It’s almost like the sun deck at our house,” Honey said, sighing with the first sense of security she had felt since they reached the barn.
    The puppy, sensing a relaxation of the tension that had kept him quivering, wiggled out of Jim’s arm and started chasing his tail!
    The Bob-Whites laughed, and the puppy, encouraged by their amusement, circled wider, almost fell off, and had to be rescued again.
    “I know just the place for you,” Jim said. “We have enough to think about, without having to save your life every five minutes. In you go!” He dropped the struggling puppy into the cage of the cupola.
    “He’s safe there,” Trixie said.
    “But what a dreadful noise!” Honey said. “Hush, little puppy! Hush! It’s all for your own good.”
    “Let him howl!” Trixie said. “It’ll save our voices. Jim is so hoarse he can only whisper. We’d better start signaling again, though, Honey, with your flashlight.
    “Don’t you see any sign of a boat?” Honey asked anxiously.
     “Not a thing, Sis,” Jim said. “Keep your chin up!”
    “The first thing they probably did when we didn’t get back to Ned’s,” Trixie said, “was to go and look for us in Valley Park.”
    “Or the airport,” Honey said. “No, probably the first thing they did was to get mad at us for not going back to the party.”
    “You’re probably right, Honey,” Jim agreed, ‘Taut that’s all over now. It’s about time they started out on the water route.”
    “Maybe the police won’t let anyone on the water,” Honey said.
    “Maybe not,” Jim said, “but the police themselves will come out and hunt for us. There are probably a lot of other people marooned.”
    “I don’t think so,” Trixie said. “There’s no house around here as close to the water as this barn. It’s all lowland, Ben told me, and nobody builds here or tries to raise crops. It’s flooded every year.”
    “Not like this,” Jim said, “with even the bridge out. Think of all those chicken houses and the drowned animals. Where did they come from, if there aren’t any people around?”
    “Way up the river, maybe,” Honey said. “Jim, I think my battery is getting weak. Doesn’t the light look a lot dimmer to you?”
    “It sure does,” Jim answered. “We’d better save it till we catch sight of some boat.”
    “Then Honey and I had better yell again,” Trixie said. “Your voice is almost