The Mystery of the Missing Heiress

scram!”
    “Reddy goes with me,” Bobby said. “I know where every one of those things is... I think. Janie, you go round the barn that way. The mulberry tree’s there. Juliana, you go through the orchard and you’ll get an apple core. Want me to tell you more?”
    “Just find your own treasures, Bobby. It’ll keep you busy enough,” Brian said as he disappeared into the shrubbery.
    The big boys raced up Glen Road. On the vast Wheeler estate, they were bound to find the treasures in record time.
    For a while all was quiet, except for the sound of quick running feet, an occasional shout of triumph, or the distant barking of a dog.
    Trixie, in her mother s garden to add the yellow rose to her collection, heard a car stop on the road below her home. That’s funny, thought Trixie, instantly alert. Why would a car stop on this stretch of Glen Road? No houses, except the ruins of Ten Acres. If they were our visitors, they’d use our driveway. I wonder. ... Then, with a mental shrug, she turned back to the roses. Suddenly she heard Reddy’s sharp bark, closely followed by Bobby’s frightened cry: “Trixie!”
    For a split second, she froze; then she darted toward the house.
    Immediately Bob-Whites, running from every direction, converged on the patio.
    Trixie was the first to reach Bobby.
    “I dropped my sack with my treasures,” he howled. “And I broked my egg!” He held up a dripping paper bag. “It’s awful sticky.”
    Reddy growled low in his throat.
    “What happened to make you call for Trixie?” his father asked.
    “It was that man... that man in a car...
    “I heard a car stop down the road,” Trixie said. “What did the man do?” she asked Bobby.
    “He had a growly voice,” Bobby said. “Worse than Reddy’s, ’n he said... he said—”
    “Yes. Go on!” his father prodded.
    “He said did I know where Mrs. Vanderpoel lived,” Bobby whimpered.
    “Is that all, for pete’s sake?” Mart asked.
    “Did you tell the man where she lived?” Mrs. Belden asked. “Brian, you and Jim go and see if the car is still there. It does seem to me a simple question to ask.”
    “What did I say about the Belden family making a big production over nothing?” Mart asked when the other boys came back and reported no car on Glen Road.
    “It’s not... exactly... nothing,” Trixie said thoughtfully. “It’s a little odd.”
    “What’s odd about a man asking a simple direction?” Mart asked.
    “Just this,” Trixie answered. “All the lights were on at our house. If he really wanted to know where Mrs. Vanderpoel lived, why didn’t he stop here and ask?”
    “Maybe that’s just the reason. Maybe he thought it was a party,” Mart said. “Maybe he didn’t want to get out of his car when a dog growled at him. Maybe half a dozen things. One sure thing, there was nothing mysterious about it, Trixie. The treasure hunt is all shot now. I vote we give the transistor radio to Janie.”
    “To remember the treasure hunt that didn’t click.” Honey giggled. “I’d like her to have it, anyway.”
    “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” the Bob-Whites agreed. Miss Trask placed the radio in Janie’s lap. Janie, protesting but delighted, examined the little set enthusiastically.
    “How about getting your guitar, Mart?” Diana begged. “We can have a hootenanny all our own. Didn’t you say Janie taught you an English ballad? Will you sing it for us, Janie? Is everyone here?” Trixie gazed around the picnic table, where they had all gathered. “Where’s Juliana?”
    “She went through the apple orchard, where I told her,” Bobby said. “I thought she could get the apple core there. There she comes now.”
    “Why all the excitement?” Jim’s cousin asked, dropping down on the bench near him. “All I found was an apple. Maybe Bobby will eat it down to the core for me.”
    “Didn’t you hear him yelling?” Mart asked, and handed his guitar to Janie. “He broke up the treasure hunt.”
    “It was someone asking the way to Mrs. Vanderpoel’s house. It was nothing. Bobby got a little excited,” Brian said.
    “All that fuss about someone asking a direction?” Juliana asked. “It doesn’t take much to upset Bobby.”
    “Do sing your song, Janie. Mart said it was a lovely ballad,” Trixie urged. She thought, If you knew it was “all that fuss,” you must have heard it. Did you hear it and pretend you didn’t? If so, why? It’s odd, no matter what Mart says.
    Janie twanged a few chords and in a