The Mystery of the Castaway Children

down the lane and Eileen and Mrs. Belden started clearing the table, Jim turned to Trixie and his sister. “You have the Bob-Whites to help you, you know.” Brian nodded vigorously. “Davy has to find food,” he said earnestly. “Maybe he’ll return to the places where he was able to find food during the past few days.” He winked soberly at his small brother. “Just like Bobby returns to the cookie jar until he finds it empty.”
    “What about checking out the nearby milk supplies to see where Dodgy was fed?” Honey urged. “Davy must have eaten, too.”
    “Let’s do that later,” suggested Trixie. “While it’s still light, I think we should all concentrate on finding the Shetland. We can cover a lot of territory in two or three hours and exercise the horses at the same time. When we find the pony, we may find the boy.”
    “I agree with Trixie,” said Jim. “I’ll go on ahead to the stables and start saddling the horses.” And he hurried away, walking to save time on the uphill bicycle path.
    “Where will we start?” objected Di. “I mean, I want to help, but it seems so hopeless.”
    Dan spoke up quietly. “We start in the clearing where Spartan grazes.” In response to everyone’s look of astonishment, he went on, “The other day, I noticed that the tools on Mr. May-penny’s workbench were out of order, so I’ve been keeping my eyes open for trespassers. Just before I came to lunch today, I found three horseshoes and a pile of nails by a stump in the clearing, plus Mr. Maypenny’s missing rasp.”
    “Well, what are we waiting for?” bellowed Mart as he jumped to his feet.
    “Shouldn’t we help your mother first?” Honey asked reluctantly.
    “Not at all,” called Eileen. “I'll take care of that. After all, it’s my son you’re hunting for.” As Trixie turned to leave, she noticed that Bobby was busily wrapping a sandwich in a paper napkin. “I’m helping, too,” he explained. “In case Davy’s hungry, I’m putting this sandwich on top of the doghouse.”
    “You know, he may have something there,” Brian said.
    Trixie thought so, too. Oh, if only she could be in two places at the same time! She knew she had to join the search party for the pony, though; there were few enough searchers as it was. Oh, well. Bobby would be so proud if his sandwich happened to lure Davy into the yard.
    Within an hour, the Bob-Whites and their horses were gathering at the clearing. As Di cantered in on Sunny, she said apprehensively, “Oh, I feel so sorry for Eileen. If anything like this ever happened to the twins, I’d just go insane with worry!”
    “Nothing like this could ever happen to your brothers and sisters,” Honey reassured her.
    When Dan showed them where he had found the shoes, Trixie commented, “This is quite a way from where I found the other shoe.”
    Dan shrugged. “A horse can wander pretty far while grazing. In the forest, it’s sometimes a long way between mouthfuls of tender grass. He’s probably a grain-fed animal, not much used to foraging for himself.”
    “Probably hungry, too,” Brian added. “Come on. Let’s start looking for Shetland tracks. If you find something, yell.”
    Soon after the riders scattered, everybody was yelling. Each yell was almost immediately followed by a groan. The pony had done a lot of wandering, but the tracks were next to impossible to follow in the forest duff.
    Trixie took time out to study the land that surrounded the clearing. The area sloped uphill in one direction and downhill in the other. Wouldn’t the pony have taken the easiest route and moved downward? After a fruitless few minutes, she decided there was something wrong with her thinking. Maybe a horse would stay on level ground as long as the grass held out. That theory should be easy to test.
    Trixie let Susie pick her own way, and sure enough, Susie took the course of least resistance. Gradually the mare’s neat hooves scribed a wide arc that led to the grounds of Ten Acres. The ruins of the Frayne mansion had stood here in hollow neglect since the fire that had resulted in Jim’s inheritance of his great-uncle’s wealth and his adoption by the Wheelers. The barn had not burned, but it, too, had fallen into disrepair. With a growing excitement, Trixie rode through the weed-choked barnyard and on to the barn itself.
    Yes! There were visible prints near a sagging door, and those small hoof marks toed in!
    Positive that she had found the Shetland, Trixie