The Mystery at Mead's Mountain

your sweaters.”
    “I’ll make sure she doesn’t get too much fresh air, Miss Trask,” said Honey.
    As soon as Jack and Miss Trask had gone, Trixie pushed away her pie and hurried Honey outside. Before they could get far, Honey grabbed Trixie’s arm. “Okay, Trixie, I know you well enough to know you didn’t have a sudden urge for fresh air. What’s going on?”
    “All the electricity to the lodge must be controlled by a breaker switch,” Trixie told her. “Breaker switches are usually located on the outside of buildings.”
    “Trixie, you’re so smart,” her friend said admiringly. “But what does this have to do with us?”
    “Well, wouldn’t it be easy for a ‘ghost’ to cause a power outage by throwing a switch? If we can find the breaker switch, maybe we can find some clues.”
    “How are we going to find the breaker switch?” Honey objected. “This candle isn’t giving off very much light.”
    “I wish we could go back to the suite for a flashlight,” fretted Trixie. “But if we did, Miss Trask would never let us come back outside again.”
    “You’re right about that,” said a voice behind the two girls.
    They both jumped, and Trixie whirled around. “Oh, Mart,” she gasped, “don’t you know any better than to sneak up on people? Especially when the lights are all out? And there’s talk of a ghost?”
    “Not only did I not buy your story about ‘digesting dinner for a while,’ ” retorted her brother, “but I don’t think Miss Trask bought your fabrication about needing fresh air after a full day on the slopes. That’s probably why she asked me to bring you these flashlights.”
    Trixie gave him a grateful smile.
    The three of them had no trouble finding the breaker box on the west side of the main building. The switch had definitely been turned off, Trixie noticed, immediately using her flashlight to look for footprints. The walkway around the lodge was blurred with indistinguishable footprints, and none of them veered over to the breaker switch. However, anyone could have reached the breaker switch from the path.
    Trixie kicked at the snow in disappointment. “No clues here.”
    “I wouldn’t be too sure,” said Mart, pointing his flashlight.
    Trixie’s eyes followed the beam. There, on top of the breaker box, was a neatly folded piece of paper. On the outside, written in red block letters, was her name.
    She grabbed it and nervously unfolded it. Honey and Mart crowded close to her and directed their lights toward the paper, illuminating its message:

    YOUR LIFE IS IN DANGER
    T.L.M.

    Trixie quickly crumpled the note up.
    “Oh, Trixie,” Honey wailed.
    “This is carrying a practical joke a little too far,” Mart burst out. “Besides, if your life’s ‘in danger,’ what about mine? 1 was the one caught in the avalanche today!”
    “Yipes, Mart,” said Trixie, startled, “you don’t think that—that this note is connected with the avalanche, do you?”
    “Of course not. I’m sure that this note is from the same joker who broke into our room the first night. And I don’t think we should mention this to Miss Trask, in case she takes it too seriously and gets worried unnecessarily. This note is simply a prank, Mart decided. “My inundation with snow was just an unfortunate accident of nature.”
    Just then they heard Pat coming around the corner, saying, “I thought it might be the generator. It seems to go out regularly., I didn’t even think about the switch box, Eric.”
    “Come on,” Trixie whispered, “let’s get out of here before we have to explain this note to Pat and Eric.
    Leaving Pat and Eric to take care of getting the lights back on, they raced back to their suite, where the others were just putting out the fire and getting ready for bed. Trixie was only too glad to go right
    to bed and avoid talking with anyone.
    She was exhausted, but even after she could hear Di and Honey’s even breathing, she could not seem to will herself to sleep. The ghostly figure she had seen, Eric, the missing watch and quarters, the mess their room had been, the avalanche, the cabin in the woods, and the note addressed to her—all churned through her mind, making sleep impossible.
    She became worried that her tossing and turning would wake up Di and Honey, so she slid out of bed, put on her bathrobe, and stepped out onto the balcony as quietly as she could.
    By the light of the moon and its reflection on the snow, Trixie could see the outline of the