The Mystery off Glen Road

out whether our lifeline ends here and now.”
    Trixie laughed. “Even if we are lost, Honey, we’re not going to die. I mean, we won’t be lost long enough so we’ll starve to death.”
    “I’m starving right now,” Honey complained. “I wish we’d had sense enough to eat some of that poacher’s stew before we left.”
    “Hunter’s stew is the right word,” Trixie said. “It did smell delicious. But don’t talk about it. I’m so hungry I could eat raw horsemeat.”
    Honey suddenly giggled. “That’s a thought. If worse comes to worse, we can kill Starlight and Susie and eat them. But first we’ll skin them and keep ourselves warm that way.” Her giggle ended in what sounded like a sob. “That will be the day.”
    “Oh, Honey, don’t get discouraged,” Trixie pleaded. “Give Starlight his head, and let’s trot for a while. He may lead us right back to the fork. It can’t be too far from here.”
    Honey suddenly held up her right hand to show that she was going to stop. “We’re at a fork right now. This path you’re so crazy about has suddenly become two paths.”
    Trixie stood up in her stirrups and peered over Honey’s shoulder. Sure enough, they would have to make up their minds whether they should bear right or left. Taking the wrong turn would undoubtedly mean that they would become hopelessly lost in the labyrinth.
    Trixie sank back into her saddle. “Does Starlight seem to have any preference?” she asked weakly. “Don’t guide him with the reins. Just touch him with both heels and see what he does.”
    The chestnut gelding immediately turned his head to the right and began to trot. “He’s right,” Honey yelled. “Even I can see broken branches on this path. Maybe he doesn’t know his way home, but I guess he knows how to get back to the trail. Look at him!”
    “Then let’s canter,” Trixie said. “Whether right is right or wrong, we’d better find out as soon as we S can. It’s getting darker all the time.”
    Both of the horses needed little urging to break into a gallop, and that was encouraging. “They: wouldn’t hurry if they weren’t headed back toward the stable,” Trixie called to Honey.
    And then the corkscrew path suddenly merged with another, and the girls realized gratefully that j they were back on one of the main trails. In a few; minutes, the trail ended on Glen Road across from; Mr. Lytell’s store.
    Breathing loud sighs of relief, they forced the impatient horses to walk along the road toward the Manor House. “That was close,” Honey finally got out. “The boys were right, Trixie. We should never: have left the trails.”
    “We had to,” Trixie retorted. “And we did get proof that there is a poacher, living in the middle of the preserve.”
    “What good is that going to do us?” Honey demanded. “We’ll never be able to find our way back to that cabin. I feel the same way about it as I did about the dead deer you found on Sunday. It was all a daymare.”
    Trixie thought for a minute in silence. Honey was f right. Since they could not possibly ever find their way back to that cabin in the big clearing, there was no sense in telling the boys about their discovery. Brian and Jim would only scorn them for leaving the trails, then jeeringly sum up their story.
    Trixie could just imagine what the boys would say: “You got panicky because you got lost, and imagined the whole business. A cabin and a vegetable garden in the midst of the woods! How wacky can you get?”
    Mart, however, might feel differently. He was nowhere near as good a woodsman as Jim was, but he might be able to help them find the poacher’s cabin. He would at least know how to read a compass.... Compass!
    Trixie pushed back the sleeve of her sweater. The wrist compass had disappeared. “Oh, Honey,” she gasped. “Bobby’s compass! I guess I didn’t strap it on very securely, and it must have been brushed off by a branch when the horses ran away with us.”
    “Oh, no,” Honey moaned. “Even if we had the money, we couldn’t buy him another one until the stores open on Friday.”
    “That’s right,” Trixie groaned, all other worries driven from her mind. “And you know Bobby. Years might go by without his even remembering that he owns a compass. But now that I’ve lost it, he’ll be sure to want to show it to somebody at our party tomorrow.”

Help From Mart ● 17

    TRIXIE’S DIRE PREDICTION came true sooner than she expected. When she brought Bobby