The Mystery of the Queen's Necklace

do with the man if ye catch him?”
    “Well, we could confront him,” Trixie said. “We could let him know we’re onto him. What are we supposed to do—just let him go free?”
    “Ye have a point there,” McDuff said thoughtfully. “But I thought this necklace ye’re referring to is locked up in the safe at Hartfield House.”
    “It certainly is,” Miss Trask assured him. “And there it will remain till Mrs. Wheeler comes to pick us up tomorrow morning.”
    “However,” McDuff continued, “I see no harm in trying to flush this little fox. I promise ye I’ll give him a talking-to he won’t soon forget. Come along, then. We’ll muster our troops.”
    Jim and Mart had gone on to the foot of the narrow, winding stairs to the tower Trixie had pointed out. The rest of the party joined them.
    “Jeepers, Mr. McDuff,” Trixie said gratefully, “that’s awfully nice of you.”
    “My pleasure,” he said. “Now, how do ye want to go about it?”
    “We could bottle him up in the castle,” Trixie said eagerly. “He’s up in this tower now—he must be, unless there’s some other way out. And anyway, he’d have to go down that long driveway to get out of the castle grounds. It’s tunneled out of solid rock and too high to climb, and there’s the porter at the gate—”
    “I’ll cover the gate,” Mart said.
    “Perhaps I should do that,” McDuff was protesting, but Mart had already taken off, long legs flying.
    “Is there any other way out?” Trixie asked Anne.
    “There is another breach in the walls,” Anne said, “but it’s always guarded. They’d never let a stranger out there, but in any case, I’ll go speak to the guards.” Anne’s dark pageboy bob bounced on her shoulders as she ran across the courtyard.
    “Jim and I will smell the man out,” McDuff said grimly. “You ladies stay here. I’ll climb the tower, and Jim can reconnoiter, in case the little rat slips out. Those pesky little thieves have a way of slipping right through yer fingers.” The big Scotsman disappeared up the dusky stairway.
    “Stay here?” Trixie fumed. “Not on your life!” And she was off before Miss Trask could say a word. If McDuff was going up that tower, so was she. “Ladies,” indeed!
    The stone steps were narrow and so twisted that there wasn’t room to set both feet on one stair. The light was dim, and Trixie stumbled. A sharp pain shot through her ankle, but she hardly noticed it.
    “Just take ’em one at a time,” she muttered to herself.
    She thought she heard Miss Trask calling for her to come down, but she decided she wasn’t sure about that. Anyway, McDuff was right ahead of her. What could happen? He was twice as big as Gray Cap!
    On the way up, she passed several small rooms with slits in the stone walls, for shooting arrows at attackers. Trixie examined each room to make sure that the little gray man wasn’t hiding in any of them. She found nothing until the last room, where there was a painting on the wall. For one awful second, she could have sworn that the eyes in that painting were following her. Trixie set her jaw, looked closer, and decided there was no way anyone could be hiding behind it.
    “Brrrr,” she shivered. It was cold in the murky stone tower.
    After that, the steps grew even narrower, and there were no handrails—only a rope to hang on to.
    “I hope this rope’s not as old as the one in the Great Hall,” she muttered, clutching it tightly.
    Finally she caught sight of sunshine through an opening above her. She stopped to catch her breath, and for a moment she thought she heard voices. She raced up to the stone parapet. If McDuff was giving Gray Cap that talking-to, she wanted to get in a few words herself!
    But there was nobody in sight on the parapet.
    The blue sky was filled with huge white clouds, and the rolling green hills of the Cotswolds stretched out below her. From this corner of the battlements, she couldn’t see the river.
    Suddenly the big Scotsman appeared from around a bend in the parapet. When he caught sight of Trixie, he looked angry, she thought. But then he smiled.
    “Och, lassie!” He shook his grizzled head at her.
    “Ye came after all. But as ye can see, there’s nobody here.”
    “I’ll just walk around and take a look,” Trixie said. She was almost positive she had heard voices up here. And who could it have been but Gray Cap and McDuff? Unless, of course, Gordie McDuff talked to himself, like she did