The Hudson River Mystery

herself to more spaghetti. ”I’m not your questionable sibling,” she said.
    Mart roared with laughter. ”Equestrienne, I said. That’s ’horsey,’ to you.”
    ”I’m not horsey, either,” she retorted. ”If you can’t talk English, can’t you at least talk nice at the dinner table?”
    ”I spent the afternoon at the library,” he said with a saintly expression, ”unlike some siblings—who shall remain nameless—who could better benefit from such an experience. How can I be expected not to reflect my improved state of learning?” He did his best to look mysterious and added, ”I was doing some—ahem—significant research.”
    Trixie refused to take the bait. She smiled sourly at him and concentrated on her meal.
    Suddenly she burst out with ”Library!”
    ”The bibliotheca,” Mart agreed, while the rest of her family stared at her in astonishment.
    Trixie turned a tomato red, mumbled something about an overdue book, and changed the subject.
    Before the week was over, however, Trixie managed an after-school trip to the public library, and it was only incidentally to return her overdue book. The Sleepyside library was small, housed as it was in one of the original homes of the area. It was well stocked, though, and its librarian was always helpful.
    Trixie marched up to the librarian’s desk in the main reading room. ”I’d like to find out something about sharks,” she announced after paying her fine which amounted to about thirty cents.
    ”Sshhh,” the librarian said with a smile. ”Have you tried the encyclopedias?”
    Trixie shook her head.
    ”I would suggest that first,” whispered the librarian. ”Then look in the card catalog under ’shark.’ I know we have several excellent books on fishes. Just let me know if you’re unable to find anything.”
    ”Thanks,” Trixie whispered back. She walked over to the encyclopedia section and was disappointed to find that the ”S” volume of every set of encyclopedias was missing.
    ”So much for that,” she said softly. Next she went to the card catalog and jotted down the call numbers of some of the books listed under the ”shark” heading. Without much trouble, she located the correct shelf for the first book on her list. The spot where it should have been was empty.
    The other books on her list had nearby numbers. To Trixie’s consternation, not one of the books was in its proper place.
    Totally baffled, Trixie strode to the librarian’s desk and said, ”I did everything you told me, and I still can’t find a single one of the books on sharks!”
    ”Sshhh,” the librarian said automatically. She stared at Trixie a moment, then laughed. Trixie was about to say ”sshhh,” when the librarian explained, ”I forgot all about the fact that someone else has been in here this week doing research on the same thing. All of the information we have on the subject is piled up over there.” She pointed to a large reading table in the corner of the room. ”Help yourself!”
    Trixie obeyed and was soon immersed in a wealth of information on sharks. In fact, there was much more material than she really needed, and it took her a long time to wade through it to find the answer to her one question: Were there or were there not sharks in the Hudson River?
    Eventually Trixie found out the answer, but it left her more bewildered than ever. She leaned back in her chair and frowned.
    So, there are no sharks in this part of the Hudson! she thought, her mind racing. And what’s more, everything in these books corr — corrob — agrees with what Bunker told me. The last shark around here was captured about thirty years ago, up at Peekskill, just like he said. And sharks were always a rarity around here, never common. Bunker was right! And that means—that means that Thea was wrong!
    Trixie decided that, at her earliest opportunity, she had to find Thea and tell her of the results of her research. She hated the thought of Thea’s obviously incorrect information slipping into the writer’s new book on the Hudson.
    On a sudden impulse, Trixie pushed back her chair and returned to the card catalog. Not surprisingly, she found no books listed in it by Thea Van Loon. This library’s too small to have every single children’s book, she figured, walking slowly back to her chair.
    One of the books in the stack on her table was called Fabulous Underwater Phenomena, and Trixie wanted to have a closer look at it. There was an entire chapter on sea