The Mystery of the Missing Heiress

Perhaps I’d better call him right now. Then when she comes back from her walk, she can rest before dinner.”
    It was a different Janie who came to the dinner table. She seemed more at peace somehow.
    “I hope I’m found,” she said as Brian held her chair. “My sister’s husband”—her voice weakened and then gathered strength—called and said they would arrive here in Sleepyside sometime tomorrow evening.”
    “But Honey’s father is going to take you home in the morning, and I’m going, too,” Bobby said quickly. “Or aren’t I, Moms?” he added plaintively.
    “I told him that,” Janie said, “but I had to tell him that I wouldn’t be certain till Honey’s father gets home.”
    “He’ll go, all right,” Trixie said. “He always does what Honey and Jim ask him to do... if he can.”
    “That’s still ‘iffy,’ ” Mart said. “And, Trixie, stop thinking for Mr. Wheeler!”
    “Hmph!” said Trixie. “At least I—”
    “Trixie!Mart!” Mr. Belden said sternly.
    “This is a time when we should all be happy with Janie,” Mrs. Belden said, “and grateful.”
    She bowed her head while her husband asked the blessing.
    Jim and Honey rode Jupiter and Lady down to the farm after dinner. They brought the news that Mr. Wheeler would, indeed, be glad to take Janie and Honey and Trixie, and Bobby, to Lakeside; it would only take part of the day.
    “We’ll leave at eleven and get to the airport in Illinois around two o’clock,” Honey said. “Mother called the Merediths to tell them.”
    “We’ll be ready,” Trixie said. “Oh, Honey, I’m so sure—so very sure.”

    When Trixie went to bed and the house quieted down, she couldn’t sleep. There were so many things to think about, all of them seemingly unrelated, starting with the ride the Bob-Whites took through the woods, their talk with the men working at the marsh, and the furtive actions of the man they saw there; then the letter in answer to Trixie’s letter to The Hague, the strange trip to the Bronx, what happened to their car there, and that smelly pipe—Trixie shivered as the odor came back to her. Then there was Janie’s accident on Glen Road and her loss of memory; and Juliana’s contradictory behavior, one time pleasant and attractive, and another time so strange and aloof—even cross.
    “Instead of one mystery, Honey and I have several to solve,” Trixie thought.
    Time passed. Still Trixie tossed from side to side.
    “I’ll go down and get some milk,” she said to herself and slipped into her robe and slippers.
    In the kitchen a faint light burned. Janie was sitting there, her head resting on her arm.
    “I didn’t hear you,” she told Trixie, startled. “I just couldn’t sleep. I tried and tried and tried. So many things were rushing through my mind.
    Mostly when I can't sleep it’s because I’m frightened, not knowing who I am and trying to grope my way back.”
    Trixie put some milk into a pan to warm, then sat down next to Janie. Tm so sorry.”
    “Don’t be. This time I can’t sleep because I’m so excited and happy. Just think, Trixie, I know now that I have a sister, and I’m going to see her tomorrow.”
    Trixie filled their glasses with hot milk.
    “This ought to help us both go to sleep. I couldn’t even close my eyes, for the same reason. I kept thinking how I’d feel if I were you.”
    Reddy, always alert to any sound, padded downstairs. He found a place on the floor between the two girls.
    Janie smiled at the puzzlement in his brown eyes, which turned first to her and then to Trixie. She reached down to stroke his head lovingly.
    “I feel as if I must have a dog of my own, somewhere,” she said drowsily.
    The clock on the shelf ticked contentedly. Outside, an owl hooted, and in the distance a dog barked. Reddy pricked up his ears.
    Trixie opened the kitchen door and let him out. Then she said to Janie, “You’ll find out about your own dog tomorrow—and probably a lot of other things.”

Flight to Disappointment • 10

    IN THE MORNING the big cozy kitchen buzzed with activity. Everyone seemed to be talking at once. Awkward, clumsy Reddy ran wildly up and down the stairs, trying to find out what the excitement was all about.
    Much to her surprise but decidedly to her liking, Trixie found herself something of a heroine in her brothers’ eyes. They thought she was pretty smart to go through the newspaper files in the library and said so. Even Mart, who usually added a few