The Mystery of the Millionaire

A Find! ● 1

    WHOA, LADY!” Trixie Belden called, pulling back on the reins of the small black mare she was riding.
    Behind Trixie, Honey Wheeler reined in her strawberry roan and guided the horse up alongside Trixie’s on the narrow wooded path. “Is anything wrong, Trix?” Honey asked her best friend.
    In answer, Trixie turned her beet-red face toward Honey and blew a long breath upward, lifting the row of sandy curls that fringed her forehead. “If these horses are anywhere near as hot as I am, we’d better walk them for a while, or they’ll collapse,” she said.
    “You’re right,” Honey agreed, leaning forward in the saddle to pat Strawberry’s glistening shoulder. “It feels as though it’s going to be another scorcher.”
    Trixie wiped her brow with the back of her hand and looked at her friend enviously. Even in the middle of the worst heat wave in the history of Sleepyside-on-the-Hudson, Honey managed to look cool and neat. Her shoulder-length blond . hair was held back with a barrette at the nape of her neck, and even after an hour’s hard riding, not a single hair was out of place. Her skin had a rosy glow, and her hazel eyes sparkled—and, wonder of wonders, her cotton blouse still had neat creases running down the sleeves.
    Even in the middle of the woods, miles from the nearest mirror, Trixie knew that her own disheveled appearance was a startling contrast to Honey’s neatness. Trixie’s curly hair had a mind of its own, and by now it would be a mass of tangled, sandy-colored ringlets, with dripping darker strands on her forehead and in front of her ears. Her healthy complexion, she knew, now would be almost scarlet—but that wouldn’t hide the freckles that were scattered generously across her nose. Trixie looked down at her T-shirt, which had been clean and fresh that morning when she’d put it on. Only four hours later, it looked slept-in and had a big smudge of dirt across the front.
    “Oh, Honey, I don’t know how you do it,” Trixie wailed.
    Honey looked startled. “What do I do?” she asked, sounding a bit defensive.
    “You manage to stay clean and fresh and neat, no matter what. But I—” Trixie waved one hand at her T-shirt, offering her appearance as a conclusion to her sentence.
    In spite of herself, Honey giggled at Trixie’s woebegone expression. “You forget that I had years and years of doing nothing but looking neat,” she reminded her friend. “I learned that lesson well, but I’d trade it in a minute for all the things you got to learn and do during those same years.”
    Trixie leaned forward and stroked Lady’s neck, a guilty feeling welling up inside her. Even though Honey had spoken without a trace of self-pity, Trixie knew she hated to be reminded of the time before she moved to Sleepyside.
    Back then, Honey had been a “poor little rich girl.” Her father’s job took him and her mother away so frequently that they had decided it would be best for Honey to go to a boarding school. It was there that Honey had learned her poise and good manners, but she had suffered from the lack of a real home.
    Trixie, on the other hand, had lived her whole life at Crabapple Farm. Her family was far from rich, but it was a comfortable and happy existence. Trixie had grown up tagging along after her two older brothers, Brian and Mart, and looking after her youngest brother, Bobby. She hadn’t learned as much as she should have about etiquette, but she knew about softball and gardening and teasing and being teased.
    These two girls, from such different backgrounds, had become best friends the day Honey and her parents moved into Manor House, just down the road from Crabapple Farm.
    The huge, luxurious Manor House was the home Honey had always wanted. Although her parents were still away much of the time, Miss Trask, who had been hired originally as Honey’s governess, now kept the whole estate running smoothly.
    Honey had been a frail and frightened girl when she’d first moved to Manor House, but even then she’d had an inner courage that let her follow Trixie into any adventure.
    Their first adventure had involved befriending Jim Frayne, a young runaway. Then they found themselves tracking him down in upstate New York. Later, Honey’s parents had adopted Jim, giving Honey the older brother that made her home complete.
    There had been many adventures since then, and Honey’s courage had gradually overtaken her fear. Looking at her now, Trixie realized