The Mystery of the Headless Horseman

box, and—” She stopped and stared.
    Trixie cried out at the expression on Di’s face. “What is it?” She took hold of Di’s arm. “What’s the matter? What are you looking at?”
    Di didn’t answer. All the color had left her face. Then, with a smothered exclamation, she wrenched her arm free and rushed out of the room.
    Trixie and Honey were frozen with astonishment. They were still staring after their friend when the tall figure of Mr. Dunham, the curator, appeared in the doorway.
    “Was that Miss Lynch who just left?” he asked, his face showing his concern. “She left so suddenly. I was about to offer to show you all around the museum. Is anything wrong?”
    Absently, Trixie looked down at the tiny statue of Lien-Ting.
    “I’m not sure,” she said slowly, “but somehow I think Di’s just found out something—something that upset her very much. I wonder what it was.”

“The Butler Did It!” ● 16

    BY THE TIME Trixie and Honey hurried out of the museum, Di had gone. They looked up and down the street, but there wasn’t a sign of her.
    “I don’t understand any of this,” Honey cried. “What made her rush out like that? Where could she have gone? Oh, and here I was, thinking everything was beginning to get itself sorted out.”
    Trixie sighed hopelessly. “The way I feel right now, nothing is ever going to get sorted out. The only thing we can do is to look around the area, then go back and get our bikes. Maybe Di will meet us there.”
    Trixie and Honey walked around blocks and peered in shop windows for half an hour. As they looked for Di, they talked and talked about what had just happened. When they gave up their search and returned to their bicycles, they discovered that Di’s bike was gone, and they dispiritedly started home.
    Mart was waiting impatiently for them at the bottom of the Lynches’ driveway. “It’s about time you two got back,” he burst out as soon as he saw them. “Where were you? Come on! We’ve all been waiting for you. There’s an emergency meeting of the Bob-Whites going on right now.”
    “An emergency?” Trixie cried. “What kind of an emergency?”
    “Oh, Mart!” Honey said. “Tell us quickly! Is someone hurt?”
    “It’s nothing like that.”
    Mart hurried them to the path that led to the clubhouse. Trixie and Honey, weary from their ride into town and back, were hard put to keep up with him.
    Trixie stopped suddenly in the middle of the path. “I’m not going another step until you tell us what’s going on!” she declared.
    Mart turned and looked at them both. “I may as well tell you,” he said. “You’re going to find out from Di, anyway. You were right all along, Trix. Di realizes that now. She’s blaming herself for all the trouble there was between you two. She’s very discombobulated. She says she’s ashamed to face you.”
    Trixie was more bewildered than ever. “ What was I right about? Why is Di blaming herself? Mart, what on earth are you talking about?”
    “It’s Harrison,” Mart said flatly. “He’s a thief, Trixie! Di says she knew it as soon as she got a good look at that statue of Lien-Ting in the museum this afternoon. It’s a fake, you see.” Trixie could hardly believe her ears. “But the goddess is so beautiful, How does Di know it isn’t the real one?”
    “Apparently, Lien-Ting—the real statue—has a small crack in her right arm. It isn’t noticeable unless you know where to look. Di happened to look. The statue you saw today is flawless. It’s a clever copy.”
    Honey said, “But what makes Di think that Harrison stole the original?”
    “We all asked her that,” Mart answered. “She said that Harrison has always admired that particular statue. When it was displayed in the Lynch home, he wouldn’t let any of the other servants near it—not to dust it or anything. Harrison was the one person Mr. Lynch trusted to deliver it to the museum.”
    “So then, Di thinks Harrison stole it?” Trixie asked.
    Mart nodded. “What with everything else that’s happened lately, she thinks there isn’t any question about it. She thinks Harrison’s after the Ming vase, too. She’s been worried all along that you might be right in your suspicions about him. That’s why she’s been so upset.”
    Honey took a deep breath. “What does she want the Bob-Whites to do?”
    “She wants us to find Harrison. She wants us to get him to confess everything. And she wants him to return the real statue