The Mystery of the Queen's Necklace

sight of Anne Hart rushing down the hall.
    “Oh, Anne, if only you’d got here two minutes sooner,” Trixie groaned. “I was trying to get a closer peek at that portrait of the queen over there. That was what you wanted us to see, wasn’t it?”
    “Righto. Don’t you think they’re a lot similar?” Anne’s dark blue eyes sparkled with excitement, but she kept her voice low. They were surrounded by tourists, and the Englishwoman was shepherding them along to the next room.
    “They couldn’t be exactly the same,” Honey murmured, “because Queen Elizabeth would never have worn fake jewels.”
    “Your necklace could be a copy,” Trixie said. “But what would they have made a copy for ? If we could figure that out—”
    They had reached the next roped-off chamber, and Trixie was drowned out by the powerful voice of their guide. “This is the Red Drawing Room,” the Englishwoman said. “It is paneled in red and gold, and....”
    Trixie wasn’t listening. “Imagine having a necklace just like Queen Elizabeth’s,” she whispered, squeezing Honey’s hand.
    The tourists passed from the Red Drawing Room to an even larger one, paneled in cedar. It was magnificently carpeted and filled with priceless antiques.
    “Gleeps!” Trixie said. “It has five chandeliers!” She was bug-eyed. The Wheelers and Di Lynch’s family both were extremely wealthy, but they couldn’t begin to furnish rooms like these. “I’d sure hate to have to live here, though,” she said. “You’d never know when you’d go crashing through the ropes!”
    “I’d take Crabapple Farm any day,” Honey agreed. She smiled at Trixie.
    “The beds don’t look too comfortable, either,” added Trixie when they reached the State Bedrooms.
    “Oh, look,” Honey cried. “Just look at that adorable doll’s furniture—over by the fireplace. That cute little sofa and those armchairs are covered with tapestry just like the big ones.”
    “Actually, they were all samples of Louis-the-Sixteenth furniture sent from France, to obtain orders for the full-sized furniture,” Anne said, “but I’ve always hoped some little prince or princess got to play with them.”
    “It’s so fascinating to see all these treasures from different periods of history and different countries— all in one place,” Honey said.
    “And not all jumbled up together in glass cases, the way they are in the museums we visit on field trips at school,” Trixie agreed. “It’s much more fun to explore a castle. And speaking of exploring, I’m dying to go up in one of those dark towers. I’ve seen enough furniture!”
    The number of sightseers in the castle had increased, and as the Bob-Whites made their way through the passage toward the courtyard, Trixie had a sudden urge to look behind her. That was when she caught sight of an old familiar figure.
    Jim was walking beside her, and she clutched his arm. “Jim! Look! There’s Gray Cap!”
    “Where?” He swung around, but not in time. The figure had disappeared.
    “Oh, why am I the only one who ever sees him?” Trixie wailed.
    “Are you sure it was Gray Cap?” Jim asked.
    “Sure, I’m sure. Hey—everybody!” She waited impatiently for Mart, Honey, and Anne to join them. “I saw the pickpocket back there in the crowd. He must have ducked behind a column.”
    “Right,” Mart said. “I saw him, too.”
    “You did?” Trixie gasped. “Well, then, come on— let’s catch him!”
    A large group of tourists had emerged from the shadowy castle halls into the courtyard. For a moment, the Bob-Whites were blinded by the bright sunlight, and then Trixie saw the man again.
    “Look! He went into that tower!” She pointed to the tower at the northeast corner of the battlements.
    Miss Trask and McDuff came up just then, and Trixie hastily filled them in. “Mart saw him, too,” she said excitedly. “He’s still following us.”
    “But what can we do about it if he is?” Miss Trask asked practically. “We could never prove it’s the same man that took Honey’s handbag in the Tower of London. Not that I believe for a minute that that man has followed us all the way from London.”
    “But Mart took that picture of him,” Trixie insisted, “in the Stratford market square. And we’re just positive he’s the one that ransacked the Rose Room. He’s after Honey’s necklace!”
    “Marge tells me ye two lassies have quite a record as girl detectives,” McDuff said. “But what do ye propose to