The Mystery of the Missing Heiress

the driveway at Crabapple Farm. Patch, Jim’s springer, had raced after the station wagon and stood panting, waiting for the car door to open. When it did, both dogs jumped in, tails wagging, trying to lick everyone in sight.
    “Out!” Jim ordered. “Mrs. Belden, do you think you could keep Patch shut up somewhere till I come back?”
    Mrs. Belden had come out of the house, drying her hands on her apron. “Of course I can, Jim.” She turned to Honey’s father and mother. “You haven’t met Janie,” she said, presenting the tall, gentle girl. “She has wanted especially to meet you,” she told Mrs. Wheeler.
    “I wanted to thank you for the pretty clothes you gave me through Miss Trask—” Janie began.
    “Shhhh!” Mrs. Wheeler answered, taking Janie’s hands in hers. “Things have been happening to you pretty fast, haven’t they?”
    “Nice things,” Janie said, “ever since I met the Bob-Whites and their families. Now Trixie and Honey have found my own family, I hope. And you and Mr. Wheeler are going to take me to them. I can hardly wait— I mean—well, I hate to leave everyone who has been so good to me.”
    “You were thinking, then, we ought to beat you?” Mart asked, and everyone laughed, breaking the tension.
    At the airport, Bob, Mr. Wheeler’s big, jovial pilot, had wheeled the plane into readiness. “Is this gang all going?” he asked anxiously. “I don’t think there’s quite enough room.”
    Mr. Wheeler laughed. “Don’t worry, Bob. Jim, Brian, and Mart have just come to wave us off. Do you mind if Bobby sits with you? He wants to help spot enemy planes.”
    “Climb right in, Ace,” Bob told the little boy. “Do you have your telescope ready?”
    Quietly, Trixie asked Jim, “Did Juliana talk to you this morning?”
    “Yes, she did.” Jim’s freckled face sobered. “I feel sorry for her. She’s missing most of that vacation she expected to have in the Poconos. She gets terribly nervous, just sitting around waiting. She wants to send off another letter to Holland, for immediate answer. I’ll help her when I get back.”
    Jim’s so good, Trixie thought to herself. I'm ashamed when I'm so hateful. It’s a wonder he ever puts up with me. I didn’t have to say what I did to Juliana. Maybe Moms is right—that 1 hate to share any of the Bob-Whites with anyone else. To be real honest, I hate particularly to share Jim. He’s so special. I guess I expected his cousin to be special, too. Trixie’s eyes grew wistful. More like Janie... maybe.
    “Hey, Trixie, are you with us?” Bob shouted. “In you go. And off you go!” he told Jim, Brian, and Mart. “You’re supposed to have scrammed off this field minutes ago. You can watch from the airport deck.”
    The propellers spun. The passengers settled in their seats. The engine roared. There was a rush of wind, and they were airborne.
    Bobby, all eyes and ears, whitened a little as the plane gained altitude but sat bravely alert till the ship leveled off and the roar subsided to a pleasant hum.
    Down below, familiar buildings blurred, then finally disappeared when a floor of fluffy white clouds obscured the view.
    Trixie and Honey kept up a constant chatter, leaning forward now and then to speak to Janie, who sat with Mrs. Wheeler in the seat in front of them. Mostly, Trixie thought, they were all talking to keep Janie from having any time to think.
    As Trixie had thought, Miss Trask had provided a hamper of food. Honey found it, at her mother’s request, and passed around chicken sandwiches, apples, cookies, popcorn, and small cartons of milk with straws.
    Bobby spilled popcorn all over the floor, then puckered his face, expecting to be scolded, and scrambled around trying to pick it up.
    “Forget it, Bobby,” Mr. Wheeler told him. “There’s plenty more. Just ask Honey for some.”
    Even as Mr. Wheeler spoke the plane began to lose altitude, and Trixie guessed they were nearing the Illinois airport.
    Janie’s face had lost its high color. She gazed down from the window, drew her head back, looked around at her friends in the plane, then peered down again at the earth, which was coming closer all the time.
    “It’s easy to see how jittery she is,” Trixie thought.
    When the plane bumped on the runway and taxied to a stop, Janie held back. When the doors opened and the stairway came up, Bob, the pilot, led Bobby out first. They had landed at a part of the field reserved for private planes, so Janie’s ordeal