The Mystery of the Midnight Marauder

like it, Trix,” she answered. “It’s sneaky. Anyway, Brian won’t let you g °”
    Trixie stared at her friend thoughtfully. “He would—if I told him about it. But I don’t think I’m going to say anything.”
    Honey looked at her friend with wide, troubled eyes. “That may be all right for you, Trixie, but what about me? Miss Trask won’t let me go, either.”
    “I’ve thought of that,” Trixie answered, moving once more toward the foot of the stairs. “You can tell Miss Trask you’re spending the night with me. I’ll tell Brian I’m spending the night with you, and then—”
    “But that’s sneaky!” Honey wailed, following her friend upstairs to her bedroom.
    “I know,” Trixie said quietly, turning to face her friend. “But think of it this way, Honey. Mart’s in trouble—and with the police, too. He needs help. We’ve got to help him—at least, I have to.”
    Honey thought for a moment. “All right, I’ll come. But I hope we won’t be sorry.”
    “We won’t be sorry,” Trixie assured her.
    All the same, she put her hands behind her back and crossed all her fingers, just to make sure.

Caught at Crimper’s ● 17

    TRIXIE HAD NEVER KNOWN a day to last as long as that one did. She found herself watching the clock and wondering if it had stopped.
    Honey had gone home to ask permission to stay with Trixie overnight, and Brian and Mart returned at last.
    Trixie could tell from the expressions on their faces that there had been no new discoveries at the shed in the woods.
    Mart told his sister briefly that he was still under suspicion. Then both boys listened quietly while Trixie explained what had happened to their mother.
    Brian insisted on placing a call to Albany to hear for himself that Mrs. Belden really was all right.
    Mart, too, talked to his parents. At one point, Trixie noticed, he hesitated before assuring his father that everything was fine at home.
    Trixie could tell that be would have liked to tell his parents all his troubles, but he didn’t.
    “I didn’t want to worry them,” he said when he hung up at last.
    “Quit worrying about it, Mart,” Brian told his brother. “If you’d only tell the sergeant what you were doing at school Friday night....”
    But Mart flatly refused. Although he had felt better when, the previous day, he had told his secret to the other Bob-Whites, today he was blaming himself again for all that had happened.
    “It’s all my fault,” he repeated several times. “I’ve obviously given someone rotten advice— and they’ve done what I told them to do.”
    “You don’t know that for sure,” Brian objected.
    “Then, what other explanation is there for what’s been going on?” Mart demanded.
    “If it hadn’t been for that dumb article in this morning’s Sun —’’Trixiebegan.
    “It’s more than that,” Mart said, gazing at her miserably. “It isn’t only the opinion of the reporter, Vera Parker, that counts. It isn’t only Margo
    Birch who thinks the Midnight Marauder’s a disturbed teen-ager. It’s the whole community. I was listening to the radio this morning. Since the damage to the Robin , everyone’s angry and upset. They’re afraid they might be the next ones on the list, you see.”
    Trixie opened her mouth to correct him but then hastily closed it again.
    Brian hadn’t noticed. “Everyone thinks the vandal is a student from Sleepyside’s junior-senior high school, Trix,” he explained.
    Mart stared at Reddy who was sitting by the back door, waiting to be let out again, for the third time in as many minutes.
    “Even Reddy doesn’t want to be friends with me today,” Mart remarked bitterly.
    “He doesn’t want to be friends with any of us today,” Brian answered, watching Reddy race outside once the door was opened for him. “What’s the matter with that dog?”
    But Trixie had things other than Reddy’s peculiar behavior to think about. Brian was taking his responsibilities seriously. As temporary head of the house, he insisted that all chores had to be done before their parents returned.
    Soon Trixie was busy dusting, a job she disliked. She discovered that even this didn’t make the time pass any more quickly.
    Several times, during the course of that long afternoon, Trixie almost confided in her eldest brother. In the end, she didn’t, because she felt sure Brian wouldn’t approve of what she was about to do. If her parents had been home, it might have been different. With them away,