The Marshland Mystery

leave Bobby? I didn’t figure on riding this morning.”
    “He’ll be all right. When your mother phoned Miss Trask a few minutes ago to say you were both on your way over, I asked Miss Trask to watch out for him while you and I gave the horses a run.”
    “Oh, grand! Honey, you’re positively a brain. You always think of everything!” Trixie dashed over to the tack room and brought out a saddle and the rest of her riding gear. Then she backed Susie out of her stall and brought her over close to Strawberry. She started to saddle the mare. “Okay. Now tell me what’s going on.”
    “Well, in the first place, there’s nothing exciting to tell about Regan or the boys. They’re all over at Mr. Maypenny’s. His ground dried out faster than he expected, so he decided he’d better plant his corn today instead of tomorrow. They’re all lending a hand. So you and I are stuck with exercising these two beasts.”
    “That’s not hard to take,” Trixie chuckled. “But why did you want Bobby to go away while you told me? He wouldn’t have wanted to go along with us—not while little Miss Gaye is here!”
    “It’s Paul Trent. He came over to see Miss Crandall a while ago and - told her that he still thought somebody had put Gaye up to hiding and pretending she had been kidnapped.”
    “How silly can he get?” Trixie said scornfully. “I hope that she showed him the door!”
    “Not right away. She believed him at first and called Dad in to listen. Dad really told Mr. Trent what he thought of him! The big troublemaker ducked out with his tail between his legs, as Mart would say!”
    “I should think he’d be ashamed of himself, trying to start trouble that way. I hope he’s cured now.” Trixie had her doubts, but she didn’t want to say so to Honey.
    “I’m sure he is!” Honey said confidently. Then she glanced at her wristwatch and looked startled. “Goodness! We’d better get started. Which way should we ride today?”
    Trixie thought hard for a moment. Then she grinned. “Why don’t we ride out to Miss Rachel’s and let her offer us that hot mint tea she mentioned yesterday? If we like it, we can get the recipe for Miss Bennett. It would be nice if we could add that recipe to our bunches of swamp plants.”
    “That’s a wonderful idea!” Honey agreed as she swung into Strawberry’s saddle. “And away we go!”
    They rode along Glen Road at a trot and were soon at the turnoff that led to Martin’s Marsh.
    “Things look a lot different when the sun is shining, don’t they?” Trixie called to Honey as they turned in and started up the narrow road. “But it’s still awfully squishy. I’m getting muddy.”
    “Me, too.” Honey brushed a spot of mud off her saddle. “We’ll have some cleaning up to do to pass Regan’s inspection when we get home!”
    They were passing the burnt-out mansion when Trixie slowed down. “Golly, Honey! It looks gloomy and mysterious even in the sunshine. Sad, too, now that we know about poor little Emily and Miss Rachel.”
    “It must have been the biggest house in the valley,” Honey said, shaking her head. “They must have been awfully rich to be able to keep up a place like that. Goodness knows, ours is only half that size, and Dad says it’s a white elephant.” She giggled. “That was probably a whole herd of white elephants.”
    They rode on and soon came in sight of the small white cottage. But they reined in as they stared at the car parked in front of the gate. Someone was calling on Miss Rachel Martin.
    “Well, I guess we might as well turn around and go home. It’s probably somebody who’ll stay all afternoon drinking our mint tea,” Trixie moaned. “And I was hoping I could dazzle Miss Bennett with the recipe tomorrow morning! She’s collecting all sorts of herb recipes for her book.”
    “Book?” Honey queried as they turned back toward the main road. “Is that why she’s so keen on herbs and swamp plants?”
    “Oh, yes. Miss Bennett says that when the pioneers were living in deep forests miles and miles from any doctors, they had to make up remedies for practically everything. I suppose they had to experiment a lot before they found the right ones. Of course, they learned a lot from the Indians.”
    Honey looked impressed. “I never thought of the Indians as people who needed medicine. The pictures always show them marvelously healthy, even if they must have nearly frozen lots of times, not wearing much clothing!”
    “Oh,