The Mystery of the Phantom Grashopper

stolen it and then returned it.
    Brian raised his eyebrows. “Wow,” he said softly. “Bobby found a real old silver dollar right on the common.”
    “And he also found an old metal button, a Japanese yen, and some kind of card,” Trixie informed him, “somewhere in the woods.”
    “Let’s go look at the card,” Honey urged.
    “Wait a minute,” Trixie warned. “Let’s not get Moms and Bobby all excited. I’ll take a look at the card while Honey and I are helping Moms fix lunch. If it’s the right one, I’ll let you know.”
    “And then what?” Mart queried.
    “Then we’ll offer to take Bobby for a romp in the woods,” Trixie said. “And we’ll see if he can remember where he found those things.”
    “Good idea,” Jim said. “Maybe we’ll find some other clues out there.”
    The others agreed.
    Half an hour later, Mrs. Belden called the boys in for lunch. “Be sure and get those hands clean before you set foot in the house,” she warned.
    As the young people took their places around the table, Trixie gave a significant little nod to Brian, Mart, and Jim.
    “I’ll be having lunch downtown with your father,” Mrs. Belden announced. “I’m going to go change clothes. Trixie, please see that Bobby eats all of his lunch.”
    “I will, Moms,” Trixie assured her.
    “Bobby,” Mart said, passing the sandwich platter, “tell us about that “big critter’ that scared Mr. Pony in the woods.”
    “Well....” Bobby munched on his sandwich. “It was a awful big huge a-nor-mous giant bug!” he said. “It had big round eyes, like this—” Bobby widened his eyes as far as he could—“and funny-looking legs.” He made a face. “It was the ugliest bug I’ve ever seen. I was scared, too, just like Mr. Pony.”
    Trixie poured Bobby some more milk. “Do you remember where you saw the big bug, Bobby?” she asked.
    “Sure,” Bobby answered. “He was just a little bit away from my tree house, right beside the tire tracks.”
    “Tire tracks in the woods?” Mart queried.
    “How’d you like to take us all down and show us?” Jim asked.
    Bobby licked the mayonnaise from his fingers.
    “Nope,” he answered. “I can’t. I’m going downtown with Moms. I get to go to the barber all by myself, while Moms has lunch with Dad.” He helped himself to a cookie. “Trixie can find them for you. She knows where my tree house is, and those tire tracks go right by it to the old road.”
    “All ready, Bobby?” Mrs. Belden came back into the kitchen, dressed in a stylish pants suit. “We’ll see you big kids later,” she said. “If you’re planning to go out later, take Reddy along with you. He needs some exercise.”
    “Okay, Moms,” Trixie said. “Have a nice lunch.” After the two were gone, she turned to the others and said, “Bobby never mentioned tire tracks before. Whoever hid the weather vane out there must have driven into the woods on that old road.”
    “Shall we go get the horses and ride out there?” Honey asked.
    “No, it’ll take too long to get them saddled up,” Mart said hurriedly. “Besides, we’ll have a better chance of coming across any new clues if we’re on foot.”
    Brian was already opening the door. “Mart’s right,” he said. “Let’s go! We’ll walk down the old road and keep a lookout for tire tracks.”
    “That reminds me, Trix,” Jim said as they left the house. “Regan checked, and the ’Dead End’ sign had been removed from the entrance to that road. Regan made a new one himself and put it up.”
    “Let’s be sure to look and see that it’s still there,” Trixie said.
    The young people walked briskly along Glen Road to the entrance of the old road that ran beside the woods. Reddy hurried along ahead, stopping frequently to wait for the others to catch up. Regan’s hand-lettered sign, with a white background and red letters, was impossible to miss. “ ’Louis Road—Dead End,’” Trixie read aloud, stopping by the signpost. “I never knew this road had a name,” she added, surprised.
    “Dad told me that this section of the woods was once owned by a family named Louis,” Jim recalled as they walked down the road. “They were French. The name is actually pronounced Looee, but most people use the American version, Lewis.”
    “Mr. Lytell said something about Louis Road the other night,” Honey said, “but I didn’t know what road he was talking about then.”
    Now that she knew where to look, Trixie had no trouble