The Mystery of the Missing Heiress

“Weren’t you watching where you were going?”
    “Huh-uh.” Trixie shook her head. “I was thinking of so many things. My mind was miles away. Don’t you wish that the Bob-Whites could just go on and on as we are now, just the same age we are now?”
    “Heavens! What makes you so serious? It isn’t like you, Trixie, especially on such a pretty day. Did you meet Jim as he drove away?”
    “Yes. I guess I was thinking about him and about Juliana and about... oh, just everything. I’m to take the book cart around today, Honey. What are you going to do?”
    “Scrub up, I guess. I always get to do some scrubbing. I don’t mind.”
    Chatting, planning, and sometimes silent, the two girls rode down Glen Road into the little town of Sleepyside and around a comer to where the hospital stood.
    The morning was to be far from routine.
    Trixie didn’t take the book cart around, and Honey didn’t do any scrubbing up. Instead something happened that was to affect their lives profoundly for a long time to come.

    All the way home they said little; there was so much to tell, but it could wait until the Bob-Whites all got together.
    “Stay for lunch,” Honey begged Trixie as, flushed and excited, they parked their bikes in the driveway at Manor House. “Jim’s back; the Bob-White station wagon is here. Maybe Mart and Brian are here, too. Not one of them will believe what we have to tell them!”
    As it turned out, their news would have to wait even longer.
    As they rushed inside, breathless, the girls found Miss Trask and the boys, with Juliana, at the luncheon table. Juliana’s voice sounded high and complaining.
    “Those men in the courthouse couldn’t give me the slightest idea of when my claim could be settled. They didn’t seem to care when I get away from Sleepyside. It may be weeks!”
    “It won’t be,” Jim told her soothingly, then went on to explain to Honey and Trixie. “They have to write to The Hague for some affidavits.”
    “It’ll take forever,” Juliana moaned.
    “It only took one week for Trixie to have an answer to her letter. Cheer up, Juliana,” Jim said. “We can do lots of things to have fun. Before you know it, the papers will be here.”
    Juliana shrugged her shoulders. “I have to get finished and go on to meet my friends.”
    “I only went to the Poconos once,” Mart said. “I’ll tell you, I’d a lot rather be right here in Sleepyside.”
    “Me, too,” Brian agreed.
    Juliana, seemingly aware that she had sounded ungracious, said quickly, “I didn’t mean to be unappreciative. I like to be here, but....” She changed the subject. “What did you and Trixie do at the hospital today, Honey?”
    “We found everyone in an uproar,” Trixie began dramatically, taking quick advantage of the chance to tell their exciting story. “Yesterday the police found a girl unconscious on Glen Road!”
    She looked around at the shocked faces and went on. “She’s about your age, Juliana, I think, though she does look younger. Oh, I don t mean that you look old.... I’m so mixed up I don’t know what I mean. I saw the girl. So did Honey. Someone must have hit her with a car and just kept going.”
    “How shameful!” Miss Trask said. “Was she badly injured?”
    Honey shook her head. “I don’t think so; do you, Trixie?”
    “No. Otherwise they wouldn’t have let us see her at all. She was in a coma for several hours. It was a concussion, the doctor said. She’ll be all right physically in a few days. That isn’t the worst problem. The worst is that she doesn’t even know her own name or where she came from— Oh, Juliana, I’m sorry. I’ve frightened you. It is a terrible thing to think about.”
    “Don’t worry about me,” Juliana said faintly. She did look pale. “It’s warm in here. May I open the door?”
    “The house is air-conditioned,” Miss Trask told Juliana. “Maybe you’d better turn down the thermostat, Jim.”
    “I’ll be all right,” Juliana insisted. “Go on, please, Trixie. This girl—doesn’t anyone know who she is?” Trixie shook her head. “The police have reported it to the Bureau of Missing Persons.”
    “And they found that she isn’t listed there,” Honey added. “The accident happened right near Ten Acres, Jim, where your great-uncle’s house used to be. It’s a lonely place since Ten Acres burned.”
    “I’ve thought for a long time that there should be extra lights there,” Miss Trask said. “There’s no