The Mystery of the Galloping Ghost

find the horse if they look hard enough,” Trixie said.
“There’s just no way.”
    “I
hate to see them keep trying,” Honey said. “Are you sure we shouldn’t just tell
them the truth? We could at least tell them the horse was stolen, and show them
the door of the stall to prove it. We don’t have to tell them we think Burke
did it.”
    “They’d
figure it out,” Trixie said. “Even if they didn’t, they’d be sure to tell
everybody the horse was stolen. Word would get back to Burke in minutes, the
way news travels around here. Then he’d start feeling pressured to get rid of
the horse.” Trixie shook her head. “We just have to keep things cool until we
know where the horse is.”
    “That
could be forever,” Honey said grimly. Trixie patted her friend on the shoulder.
“First things first,” she reminded her. “Wilhelmina has to know the truth about
the ghost.”
    They
had carefully rehearsed their speech to Wilhelmina before they left the house.
As they neared the hideout, Trixie drew a deep breath, ready to begin. She
never got the first words out.
    Wilhelmina
had spotted the two girls as they approached, and she hurried to meet them. Her
eyes sparkled with excitement. “I was so hoping you’d come!” she said. “I have
something extraordinary to tell you.” She leaned close and clutched Trixie’s
hand with a hand that was cool and smooth.
    “I’ve
seen the Galloping Ghost!” Wilhelmina said .



11 * Caught!
     
    “I tell you , I saw it! It was exactly the way
the newspaper articles described it,” Wilhelmina went on. “The rider was
wearing a cowboy hat and western clothes, and he was bent low and galloping
across the prairie as fast as he could. It was a multisensory experience; I saw
the horse and rider, and I heard the hoof-beats.”
    Wilhelmina
looked at the girls, waiting for congratulations. Trixie and Honey stared back
at her, not knowing what to say.
    The
woman shoved her glasses up on her nose. She looked hurt. “Okay, it’s not as
exciting as a retrocognition , but my sighting was the
most exciting firsthand experience I’ve had.”
    “It
isn’t that,” Trixie said. “I mean—” She stopped and looked to Honey for help.
    “We
didn’t have a retrocognition ,” Honey said. Briefly,
she told Wilhelmina about their discovery that Gus had been posing as the
Galloping Ghost. “So you see,” she concluded, “the disappearing objects, the
gust of wind, the hoofbeats , the floating head the
surveyor saw, and even the retrocognition have all
been explained.”
    “Was
your friend Gus trying to fool me last night?” Wilhelmina demanded.
    “N-no,”
Honey said. “We didn’t even tell Gus about you.”
    “Then
my experience stands,” Wilhelmina said stubbornly.
    A
picture had been forming in Trixie’s mind while Honey and Wilhelmina spoke. “Did
you say a cowboy hat and western clothes?” she asked. When Wilhelmina nodded,
Trixie immediately asked, “What time did you see the —the ghost?”
    Wilhelmina
pulled her notepad out of her pocket while Trixie did an impatient jig. “At
1:47 A.M.,” Wilhelmina said.
    Trixie
snapped her fingers. “It was Burke! I know it was!”
    “It
was Burke and Al- Adeen !” Honey said, grasping the situation immediately.
    “Al- Adeen ?” Wilhelmina
echoed. “Surely you’re not suggesting that a genie is—”
    “No,
no, no!” Trixie waggled a hand at the woman. “Al- Adeen is a horse. He was— Burke wanted— Bill wouldn’t—” Her thoughts were tumbling
over themselves so fast that it was impossible for her to tell the story
clearly.
    Seeing
this, Honey managed to relate the information to Wilhelmina—about Al- Adeen’s disappearance; about Trixie’s realization that he’d
been stolen, and by whom; about the importance of the horse to the Murrows ; and about the real possibility that he’d be
destroyed if he weren’t found soon.
    “Your
sighting last night is the only clue we have to Al- Adeen’s whereabouts. Your information can save his life and the Murrows ’
ranch and—and everything,” Honey concluded.
    Wilhelmina
gave Honey a skeptical look. She was still
disappointed about not having seen a ghost, but the importance of what she had seen was obviously a comfort.
    “Where
did you see the rider?” Trixie asked eagerly. “And where was he headed?” If she reaches for her notebook again, I’ll
scream, she added silently.
    To
Trixie’s relief, Wilhelmina chose to speak from memory. She