The Mystery of the Midnight Marauder

Trixie said slowly. “For one thing, you couldn’t have seen the trailer from Glen Road. Try again, Lester, and this time, tell the truth.”
    Lester sighed and shrugged his shoulders helplessly. “You’re never going to believe me,” he said at last. “I’ve known that all along.”
    “Try us,” kindhearted Honey said gently.
    “It really all began last night,” Lester answered. “It was late. I was out jogging. Oh, I know what you’re going to ask me next. What was I doing jogging at that hour, right?” He glanced quickly at Trixie, who nodded. “I—I guess you already know I’m not the most popular kid at school. Somehow I always seem to say the wrong thing at the wrong time.”
    Trixie remembered back to that morning when Lester had bluntly broken the news of Mart’s trouble with the police. “You aren’t always very tactful,” she said.
    Lester hung his head. “I know. But someone at school told me that in order to have a friend you have to be a friend.”
    Mart gasped. “You mean you believed that stuff?”
    Lester stared. “What stuff?”
    Mart recovered himself quickly. “Oh,” he said airily, “I seem to remember reading something like that in that dumb Lonelyheart’s column in the school paper.”
    “I didn’t think it was so dumb,” Lester answered slowly. “I thought it was good advice. But
    I don’t know how to be a friend, so yesterday—I mean, Friday—I joined the track team. Coach said I should get in shape, though, so—”
    “So that’s why you were jogging,” Trixie finished. Lester nodded. “I thought if I went out late at night, no one would see me and know what I was doing.” As Trixie looked at him questioningly, he explained, “In case I’m no good, you know? I didn’t want people laughing at me.”
    “That makes a change,” Brian remarked. “In the past, you’ve been only too happy playing the part of the class clown.”
    “That’s right,” Jim added. “And what about that fool trick you played at Crimper’s yesterday?”
    Lester bit his lip. “It was my last one, honest! I couldn’t resist it. I—I’d already told someone to be on the watch for something happening on Saturday—”
    Mart moved suddenly. “Was that you?”
    Lester frowned. “Was what me? What’s going on?”
    Trixie knew that Mart was thinking of the mysterious letter Miss Lonelyheart had received, which had worried him so much. Now, it seemed Mart’s correspondent was none other than Lester Mundy!
    “Go on with your story,” she said quickly.
    “What happened when you were out jogging?” Lester began to tell them his story, and the Bob-Whites listened attentively.
    Lester had been running along Glen Road, not far from the place where they stood at the moment. Suddenly he heard a small truck coming along behind him—fast.
    “I guess the driver didn’t see me until he was almost on top of me,” Lester explained. “He swerved to avoid me, and as he did, something fell off the back of the truck.”
    “Did the driver stop?” Trixie asked.
    Lester shook his head. “I yelled to him, but he kept on going. And you know what he dropped? It was a big cardboard carton. I opened it to see if I could get a clue to its owner. Inside, I found a big plastic bag. It was filled with—”
    “Hamburger patties!” Trixie exclaimed, suddenly guessing the answer.
    “You’re right,” Lester said slowly. “I didn’t think it would hurt anyone if I took the meat home. After all, that driver didn’t seem to want it. So I left the carton by the side of the road—”
    “That must have been the one I found just before we started out for school yesterday!” Jim exclaimed.
    “—and I carried that plastic bag over my shoulder all the way home,” Lester finished. “I must’ve looked like old Santa Claus. Then I put all those hamburger patties in our freezer.”
    Trixie stared at him thoughtfully. “What were you going to do with all that meat?”
    Lester sighed. “I was going to have a party. You know, ‘to have a friend, you have to be a friend.’ I thought I’d invite some of the kids from school to come and share it with me next Friday. Afterward, I thought we’d all go on to the spring dance.”
    Trixie had already guessed the answer, but she asked another question anyway. “About that carton you found—did it have anything written on it?”
    Lester nodded. “It said ‘Wimpy’s.’ ”
    The Bob-Whites were silent, thinking about what Lester had told