The Mystery off Old Telegraph Road

practicing what I’m preaching.”
    “We should all do that,” Trixie said. “Only I never make it to the bus stop in the morning with more than a few seconds to spare. I couldn’t possibly get ready early enough to ride my bike.”
    “Speaking of the school bus,” Honey said, “here it comes. We’ll have to run to catch it. Good luck at the dentist’s, Di!”
    When they’d settled into their seats on the bus, Honey and Trixie resumed their constant topic of conversation: the bikeathon.
    “It’s a week from the day after tomorrow, Honey,” Trixie said. “That’s not much time.” Honey giggled at her friend’s unusual way of expressing the date. “Just think, on Monday it’ll be a week from the day before yesterday! But you’re right. That isn’t much time. I think you and I should go to the clubhouse tonight after dinner and make sure we have enough direction arrows. There are quite a few, but we should count them and then review the route in our minds to see how many we’ll need.”
    “Good idea, Honey. We have to make sure that nobody gets lost. Think how upset the riders would be if they missed out on Mr. Maypenny’s hunter’s stew. Gleeps! Here’s your stop already! I’ll see you at the clubhouse tonight.”
    At dinner, Trixie told her parents what had happened at the police station that morning.
    “You should have witnessed the crestfallen countenance with which Trixie received our constabulary’s warnings that she’s to keep her snub nose out of the investigatory scene,” Mart chortled. “Please pass the candied sweet potatoes.”
    “I hope you’ll listen to the sergeant’s warning this time, Trixie,” Mr. Belden said. “He’s not trying to spoil your fun, you know. He’s genuinely concerned that you’ll get hurt someday in the course of your detective work.”
    “Oh, I know that,” Trixie told her father. “It’s just that he never even tries to let me know what’s going on. I’ll have to read about the solution to the counterfeiting case in the Sleepyside Sun along with everyone else.”
    “I’m sure he’d be willing to tell you more,” Brian said, “if we all hadn’t given him reason to think we’d take the information and use it to get ourselves involved up to our eyebrows in another mystery. Anyway, I’m more than content to let the police handle this one. It sounds pretty dangerous to me.”
    “I’d be ’tent if I got my s’prise back, Trixie,” Bobby said unhappily. “Is Sergeant Molinson gonna keep my s’prise forever?”
    “I’m afraid so, Bobby. It was very nice of you to let me take your surprise in to the police, though. He told me especially to say thank you.”
    “Did he really, Trixie?” Bobby said, his eyes shining. “That means I holped solve a mystery, doesn’t it?”
    “Oh, no,” Mart groaned. “It would appear that the Beldens have another would-be sleuth in their midst. What’s to become of us!”
    Everyone laughed at Mart’s mock despair, and the rest of the dinner conversation turned to other topics, such as what would be planted in the Belden garden that spring.
    At the clubhouse that evening, Trixie was happily surprised when she saw how many arrows had already been completed.
    “You must have worked like a trooper the other night, Honey. There are more than twenty arrows here! We shouldn’t need any more than that.”
    “Why, Trixie, most of those posters are the ones you did. Even after I threw away the one the paint spilled on, there was still a whole stack of them left. I didn’t count exactly, but I’m sure it was more than half of the total.”
    Trixie shook her head. “I was really in a daze that day, I guess. I’d have sworn that I didn’t finish more than five or six posters. I don’t remember doing that many, anyway, any more than I remember leaving the window open or the top off the paint jar.”
    Trixie and Honey were still pondering the surplus of posters when the clubhouse door opened and Di Lynch walked in.
    “Well, hi,” Trixie said. “You’re just in time. We—” Trixie stopped short as she noticed Di’s worried expression. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
    “I tried to call both of you, but Jim and Mart, who answered your phones, said you’d come down here to work. I had the most awful thing happen this afternoon.”
    “What was it?” Trixie demanded.
    Honey looked at Di’s pale face and pulled out a chair. “Here, Di, sit down. You look as if you’re about to fall