The Mystery of the Emeralds

us go off again. I know Dan won’t be able to get any time off. What do you think, Trixie?” Trixie had been unusually silent during the discussion. “I don’t know,” she answered, “but Mr. Lynch is a darling, and if Di thinks he might let us go, maybe he will, and if we act really enthusiastic and let our parents see what an educational advantage it would be—who knows? Maybe they’ll say yes.”
    “You’ll have to admit that they’ve been wonderful about letting us go off on trips to Arizona, Iowa, Cobbett’s Island, and all,” Mart said. “When could you ask your father, Di?” he added, and the excitement in his voice as he said it made Trixie realize that Mart was rapidly getting into the spirit of the adventure. She could count on him from now on.
    “Well, he’s home now, helping Mummy get ready. That’s why I was late getting here. I was putting things in the back of the car,” Di answered. “I could find out right away, I guess.”
    “Take my bike,” Trixie offered, “and, for goodness’ sake, don’t worry if he says it’s not a good idea. We’ll understand and work out the problem some other
    way. We can come up with something else.”
    The Bob-Whites echoed Trixie’s words as Di sped off toward home, promising to phone Honey’s house as soon as she had talked with her parents. The meeting broke up almost immediately. Trixie and her brothers walked back to Manor House with Honey and Jim to await the news.
    “Let’s take a swim while were waiting,” Honey suggested. “There’s an extension phone in the bathhouse.”
    “Good idea, Honey,” Brian said. “It’ll make the time go faster. I think all the Beldens have bathing suits down there. We never bother to take them home,” he said with a laugh.
    Honey, who was an expert swimmer, made a perfect swan dive into the shimmering water, and she was quickly followed by Jim and Brian. Mart emerged from the bathhouse last, wearing a faded old suit that was much too big for him. Holding his nose, he made a clownish jump into the water. Only Trixie didn’t go in. She hovered around the bathhouse, waiting for the phone to ring.
    “Come on, Trix,” Jim urged her. “You can’t make it ring any sooner by standing there. If you’re not in by the time I count ten, I’ll come out and throw you in!”
    A half hour passed, and everyone was beginning to get a little edgy, when the phone finally rang. Trixie got to it first, but she held the receiver away from her ear so the others could also hear what Di
    had to say about her parents’ reaction.
    “It’s okay1” Di cried. “Daddy and Mummy talked it over. That’s what took so long, but I think we’ve finally got all the details worked out. Daddy wants this trip to be his treat, because my birthday is next week. We re going to take both cars so we won’t be so crowded,” she went on breathlessly. “Oh, Trixie, I’ve never been so excited in my life!”
    “You think you’re excited!” Trixie laughed. “You should see us. Mart just collapsed into a deck chair so hard he broke the legs, and the rest of us are absolutely bursting.”
    “Ask her when they plan to leave,” Honey interrupted, “and don’t forget, we still have to get permission to go along.”
    “Sometime tomorrow morning,” Di said in answer to Trixie’s question. “We’ll be gone five or six days. Now, hurry and find out if you all can go. I’U simply die if you can’t!”
    “Now you sound like me, Di,” Trixie chuckled. “I’m the one who’s always ‘dying’!” She promised to phone as soon as she had any news and told Di that Honey was already on her way up to her house to talk with Miss Trask. “Her parents are still in South America, you know,” Trixie added.
    Mr. and Mrs. Belden were unloading groceries and packages from the station wagon when Trixie and her brothers reached home. Trixie could scarcely contain herself until the purchases had been put away. Then, as her father sat down in the kitchen rocker and her mother started to put on her big white apron, preparatory to getting dinner, Trixie broached the question of the trip. By previous arrangement, Mart and Brian had gone out to feed the chickens. They knew that if any of them could get permission for the trip, it would be Trixie.
    “Trixie, you look just like a kettle that’s about to blow its lid off,” her father said. “Out with it. What’s simmering in that pretty little head of yours?”
    “Oh, the most wonderful