The Mystery off Glen Road

“Don’t worry,” she finally got out. “He doesn’t like you any more than you like him, so when you swoon around and act as though you were crazy about him, he probably won’t even notice. He’ll just think you’re crazy , if anything.”
    “I am crazy,” Trixie said mournfully. “Totally insane. I should be in a straitjacket. Why do I go through all this for Brian, who never says a kind word to me? I’m beginning to get one of those sibling complexes.”
    “What complexes?” Honey asked in amazement. “You must mean sibilant , which is another word for hissing like a snake.”
    “That’s not what I mean,” Trixie retorted, “although I do feel like hissing like a snake at Brian when he makes remarks about me at dinner. I’m talking about sibling , which is another word for brothers and sisters. I read about it in Brian’s book on psychology. I couldn’t understand much of it, but I think a sibling complex is the same thing as brotherly love, or, as in my case, brotherly hate. ” They had reached the clearing at the fork, and Honey slid off her horse to collapse on the ground, almost hysterical with laughter. “You’re suffering from both kinds of complexes,” she gulped. “Oh, Trixie, you and your brothers are so wonderful. You all go around behaving as though you despise one another, and everyone knows that Brian and Mart and Bobby idolize you just as much as you adore them.”
    Trixie dismounted and handed the reins of both horses to Honey. “You and Jim do all right as siblings, too, although you haven’t had as much practice as we Beldens. Just to show you what I mean, I’ll bet when Brian gets that jalopy, he’ll teach Mart and Bobby how to drive before he gives me one single, solitary lesson.”
    She knelt to examine the footprint, then straightened. “You hold the horses, Honey. I’m going to explore along this path. It must lead somewhere.”
    “To the very heart of the labyrinth,” Honey said, still chuckling. “There you’ll find the Minotaur, as Theseus did on the Isle of Crete in Greek mythology. I’ll be your Ariadne, but since we haven’t a spool of silken thread, this string tied around the newspapers will just have to do, I guess.”
    “Don’t be silly,” Trixie cried impatiently. “I’m not going to go far enough away to get lost.” She darted off along the narrow path and, a few minutes later, found herself in another small clearing. There she came upon a scene that was so frightening she couldn’t even scream. She just stood there, staring with horror, then turned and raced back to Honey.

Trouble! • 10

    HONEY, Honey!” Trixie gasped. “The most awful thing has happened.” She collapsed on her knees in the small clearing, shuddering and covering her face with her hands.
    Honey hastily wound the horses’ reins around her wrist and hugged Trixie with her free arm. “Oh, Trixie,” she cried, “I knew it would happen. You were bitten by a copperhead!”
    “No, no,” Trixie moaned, rocking to and fro. “I'm all right. It’s the dogs. Honey, it’s so horrible, I can’t talk about it.”
    “The dogs?” Honey repeated. “Did they fall into a nest of copperheads? Trixie! Please answer me.
    Are Reddy and Patch badly hurt? Are they—dead?” Trixie raised her head. “Worse than that,” she said sadly, “because if anybody finds out what they did, they’ll be shot.”
    “Shot?” Honey’s lovely face was very pale. “But why? What have they done?”
    Trixie swallowed hard. “They killed a deer, Honey. I caught them sniffing around the carcass, and there was blood all over the place.”
    “Pm going to faint,” Honey said and put her head down between her knees.
    “Don’t you dare faint,” Trixie cried fiercely, although she felt like fainting herself. “We’ve got to pull ourselves together and do something about that carcass. If the boys should come across that dead deer, they’d guess right away who killed it. And then— Well, even though they love Patch and Reddy as much as we do, well, you know how ethical and honorable Jim and Brian are. Even Mart, especially now, when they’ve been hired to be game wardens.”
    Honey sat up. “But we’re supposed to be game wardens, too, Trixie,” she wailed. “So we’ve got to report what the dogs did.”
    “No, we don’t,” Trixie replied firmly. “We didn’t see Reddy and Patch with our own eyes kill that deer. And chances are good that they’ll never do such a thing