The Mystery off Glen Road

stage where he and Brian don’t need me anymore, but if Jim has to quit to track down a poacher, I don’t think the work will be finished before we get heavy snow.”
    “That’s the point,” Trixie said. “So you’ve got to find that cabin. Then all you have to do is tell Jim so he can report it to the game protector. What happens to poachers? Do they go to jail?”
    Mart shrugged. “I don’t know, but he’ll surely have to pay a fine. He sounds like an illegal squatter, too. How do you like that? A house and garden and every little thing on somebody else’s property! The nerve of the guy. In fact, I just don’t believe anybody has that much nerve. And why didn’t Fleagle discover him?”
    “His horse didn’t run away with him,” Trixie said. “That’s the answer. Fleagle was lazy, you know. He didn’t cover every inch of the preserve when he patrolled. You can count on the fact that he stuck to the trails.”
    They were on the moonlit driveway now, and she handed her flashlight to Mart. “Keep this in your jacket pocket for me, please. I’ll be sure to forget it. Last time I—”
    “Hey,” he suddenly interrupted. “You’re wearing the diamond ring now. How come?”
    “It’s a phony,” Trixie replied, and explained. “I have to wear it tomorrow, you know, or Dad and Moms will be suspicious.”
    Mart nodded. “I’m none too happy about the fact that you’re deceiving them, but I guess it’s a justifiable crime.”
    “It’s no crime to wear an imitation diamond ring,” 1 Trixie argued. “And if Moms and Dad should get suspicious and ask me questions, I wouldn’t tell any lies. I just hope they don’t, that’s all.”
    “Well,” Mart said with a chuckle, “when you’re old and gray, you must tell them the whole story. They’ll enjoy it. As a matter of fact, I have a sneaking suspicion that they’d enjoy it right now. They’re awfully good sports, you know.”
    “That’s true,” Trixie agreed. “But I’ve never tested them with a diamond ring before. Moms, thank goodness, didn’t seem too mad at me for borrowing Bobby’s compass. It’s sort of the same thing. After all, I didn’t deliberately lose it, and I haven’t lost the ring.”
    “You’ll lose it if you don’t fork over fifty bucks to Mr. Lytell on Saturday,” Mart pointed out. “He has a perfect right to sell it to someone and give you the difference.”
    “Don’t rub it in,” Trixie moaned. “That’s why we’ve got to earn our salary as gamekeepers, and that means exterminating that poacher.”
    “I’ll do my best tomorrow morning,” Mart promised.
    They hurried inside the big house, where the others were waiting for them. Because they were going to the Beldens’ party tomorrow, Miss Trask had decided to have a Thanksgiving feast that evening. Thus the cook could have the next day off, and, as Miss Trask said, “This is a very good thing, because ever since Celia left, Cook has been getting crosser by the minute.”
    “Have you heard from Celia recently?” Trixie asked Miss Trask. “Are she and Tom still in Canada?”
    “I don’t know where they are,” Miss Trask replied worriedly. “I got one of those ‘wish you were here’ postcards yesterday from them both, and it was mailed from Montreal. But that doesn’t mean anything. Tom took his longbow with him, so I know he plans to do some deer hunting upstate before they return. He took his thirty-thirty rifle, too, so he could hunt in counties where shooting with a rifle is permissible. It all adds up to this,” she finished in a discouraged tone of voice: “Tom is going to keep on trying to get a deer until the very last minute. If we have a blizzard between now and the weekend, they may be delayed for several days.” I “We just can’t have a blizzard,” Honey wailed. “On account of the clubhouse, Miss Trask. But don’t I you worry about a thing. Now that I don’t have to f go to school, I can help a lot around the house. I can do everything that Celia did, and, don’t forget, I can cook, too.”
    Her cousin Ben hooted with laughter. “You cook! I’d rather eat a raw frog.”
    Trixie glared, at him across the table. “I’ll have you know,” she informed him tartly, “that Honey is a very good cook. And so am I, in case you’re interested.”
    He raised his eyebrows in pretended astonishment and asked Brian, “Can either of them—”
    To Trixie’s amazement, Brian suddenly became protective. “Boil water