The Happy Valley Mystery

said, shaking her head, “but it is a good thing to have that mystery about Uncle Andrew’s lost sheep solved, isn’t it?”
    “It would be if we were sure that it’s solved,” Mr. Gorman said. “It’s no cut-and-dried case.”
    “What do you mean? The men came from back there in the woods, where they were hiding. They had a truck full of wool. No one keeps sheep back in those woods.”
    “They claim they bought the wool over in Warren County. The sheriff isn’t too sure they didn’t. They’re making a big fuss about being kept in jail. Sheriff Brown says he has no right to detain them for more than the rest of this day.”
    “Oh, Mr. Gorman, that’s terrible,” Trixie said and got up from the table, leaving her food untouched.
    “I’m sure they’re the ones who stole the sheep.”
    “I have a feeling they are, too, Trixie, but that’s not proving it. Sheriff Brown says they asked him how on earth they could get away with all those sheep, right in plain sight, with the dogs around.”
    “They have a point there,” Mrs. Gorman said. “Don’t worry, Trixie. Sit down and finish your breakfast. Right’s right.”
    Trixie tried to eat but couldn’t. To come so near to a solution! To be so sure she was right! Something in the back of her mind bothered her. She felt there was some clue, somewhere, that she had missed. What could it be?
    Mrs. Gorman let the kittens out into the yard, and Tip and Tag came racing into the house. They caught sight of the new puppy and rolled him around with their paws, nuzzling him.
    Suddenly Trixie snapped her fingers. Something in the dog’s play sparked her memory. “Where’s Jim?” she asked.
    “In the next room,” Mrs. Gorman said, “looking at the newspaper with Honey. Why do you ask?”
    “No reason just now,” Trixie said. “I’ll just go and talk to them for a while.”
    In the living room Trixie huddled with Honey and Jim. There was the sound of low voices talking fast. Then Trixie and Honey streaked upstairs, put on their jackets, and were downstairs and out the door with Jim, like lightning.
    Tip and Tag ran after them and around them and ahead of them, barking, sniffing the ground, sniffing the air, so glad to have someone to walk with.
    “I remembered the dogs,” Trixie said, “and the way they acted down there in the comer of the field when we were hunting jackrabbits.”
    “With the sheep bunched in the comer,” Honey said. “Yes, and they scattered when we made so much noise. They seemed to have found something very attractive down in that comer. And there are a lot of sheep over there right now,” Trixie said.
    “They look as though they were hunting something,” Jim said. “Something may grow there that they particularly like to eat. Hey, Trixie, what is it?”
    “Something they like to eat, all right,” Trixie said, “but it doesn’t grow here. See here, Jim!”
    Trixie held up a long pan. Sticking to it were the remains of some mixed grain mash. Not far from it was another pan just like it—and another.
    “No one would ever carry warm mash this far out in the field, away from the barn, would they?” Trixie asked.
    “I don’t think so,” Honey said slowly. “Trixie, do you see all those bunches of wool on the fence?”
    “I see something worse than that,” Trixie said. “I see big patches of what must be dried blood... there on the fence and here on the grass. If it hadn’t rained so hard, I could tell better.”
    “Someone has been luring the sheep down here with mash and then killing them,” Jim said.
    “Isn’t that terrible?” Honey asked. “The poor things. The thieves must have dragged them under the fence.”
    “Of course,” Trixie said. “That’s where those tufts of wool on the barbed wire came from.”
    “I guess that’ll convince the sheriff,” Jim said confidently. “We’d better get back and let him know before he releases those prisoners and we lose them.”
    “How can we prove that it was those men who stole the sheep?” Trixie asked. “We know that someone did, and we know how they did it, and we’re sure in our own minds that it was those men in jail at Valley Park. But how can we prove it?”
    “I guess you’re right, Trix,” Jim said. “Were right back where we started from, aren’t we?”
    “Not quite,” Trixie said. “Not quite. We’ll just have to hunt around and see if we can find something that will connect those particular men with the crime.”
    “Wheel tracks