The Mystery at Maypenny's

Trixie stammered, “M-Mr. Maypenny got you out of jail?”
    John Score nodded. “I didn’t ask him to. Dan came down to the jail a few hours after I was arrested. He said he’d gone home from school and told the old man what had happened at the debate. Mr. Maypenny said it was a ‘spunky thing to do,’ and he gave Dan the money to get me out and told him to bring me back here.
    “I went to the cabin, just to say thanks, really.
    I told Mr. Maypenny what the judge had said— that I had to leave the area and that I’d be arrested again if I didn’t.
    “That upset the old man. He told me I was the only hope he had of being able to save his land from International Pine.
    “I asked him what he wanted me to do. He said he wanted me to stay on, to try to find some more evidence of the damage International Pine was doing so that he could use it to stand up to them if the rezoning went through.”
    “So you’ve been here ever since?” Trixie asked.
    “I’ve been on Mr. Maypenny’s land ever since,” John Score said. “I’ve had to move around, though, because the people from the department of wildlife have been sleuthing around. Mr. Maypenny has kept an eye on the areas they’ve searched. He moves me into them as they move out.”
    “Have you found anything so far?” Honey asked.
    John Score shook his head. “It’s been rough going, what with keeping one eye open for inspectors while I use the other to search for clues. Oh, I’ve found plenty of damage, from my point of view. There’s waste running into the river, and the plants growing by the road to the factory are turning brown from exhaust fumes. But those things all fall within the government’s allowable standards,” he said bitterly. “A little damage is okay with them, as long as it keeps the money rolling into the state in the form of taxes. I need to find a really glaring violation if I’m to shut the plant down or even prevent the expansion.”
    “We were supposed to tell you what we were doing here, after you finished telling us,” Honey remembered.
    “That’s right; you were,” John Score said.
    “We were riding out to tell Mr. Maypenny about the town council vote when we spotted your car,” Honey told him. “We couldn’t understand why you’d left it there, with all your books and leaflets in the trunk.”
    “How did you know what was in the trunk?” Score asked sharply.
    Trixie blushed. Searching the abandoned car had seemed natural enough at the time. Now, sitting here talking to the owner, she realized that she had been trespassing. “I found the key case under the dashboard,” she told him, her eyes lowered to avoid meeting his.
    Once again, John Score started to laugh. “Mr. Maypenny told me when I first started hiding out here that the inspectors would be less likely to cause trouble than you two girl detectives. At the time, I thought he was exaggerating. I see now that he was just stating the facts.”
    “Anyway,” Honey continued quickly, “we were afraid something might have happened to you. You know—that someone who favors the expansion might have—have—”
    “Done away with me?” John Score supplied. “That assumption wasn’t too far out of line. I’ve been threatened plenty of times in the years since I started fighting to protect the environment. I’ve been run out of quite a few towns, and I’ve even been hit over the head once or twice. I’ve gotten to be pretty good at doing what I have to do to protect myself.”
    As he spoke, John Score’s eyes narrowed and his thin face took on a harsh, determined look. Trixie remembered that she and Honey had intruded on his hiding place—and that no one outside this little circle knew where they were.
    “What are you going to do with us?” she asked boldly before fear could take hold of her.
    “What am I going to do with you?” John Score repeated, looking confused. Then, understanding the thinking behind the question, he smiled. “I’m going to let you walk back up the ravine, get on your horses, and ride home, of course. When I said I do what I have to do to protect myself, I didn’t mean that I hold young women captive. I’m against violence to any living thing.”
    “Thank you,” Honey breathed.
    “You’re welcome,” John Score said wryly. “There is a favor you can do in return, if you’d like to.”
    “What is it?” Trixie asked.
    “You can keep my whereabouts a secret,” John Score replied. “Remember, I’m asking