The Mystery off Old Telegraph Road

sponsors, letting them know how much money they should send in.”
    Trixie dismissed Honey’s reminder with a wave of her hand. “There’s nothing to that—just a few phone calls apiece if we divide up the cards. I mean the hard part will be over, and the—” Trixie stopped in midsentence, her nervousness returning again.
    “’And the danger,’ you were going to say, weren’t you?” Honey asked. “I’ve been thinking all day about that phone call I got, and the phone call Mrs. Vanderpoel got, and Di’s tires, and Mr. Maypenny’s game cart, and— Oh, Trixie, I hope we did the right thing, deciding to let the bikeathon go on tomorrow. I’m almost sure that Jim voted against it.”
    “I think Brian did, too. We made the right decision, though. They’ll see,” Trixie said, trying to keep a confident note in her voice that she didn’t really feel. “Here’s your stop, Honey. See you tomorrow morning!”
    Soon after, Trixie and her brothers got off the bus and began walking up the long driveway to their house. They were several yards from the door when they heard the unmistakable sound of Bobby Belden’s most anguished wail. They exchanged worried glances, then ran up the driveway to the kitchen door, which was opened slightly.
    “What is it? What’s wrong?” Brian asked as he ran up to his mother, who was standing on the back step.
    “Bobby’s locked himself in the house,” Mrs. Belden said, looking harassed. “Apparently he put the chain lock on when I stepped out for a moment, then couldn’t remember how to unlock it when I wanted to get in. He didn’t realize the front door was already locked. Now he thinks he’s trapped, and he’s too frightened to listen to my instructions on how to work the lock.”
    Mart and Trixie walked up to the door. At close range, Bobby’s screams were deafening.
    “Don’t worry, Bobby,” Trixie shouted above the noise. “We’ll have you out in no time.” She looked up at Mart with an expression that said, “But how?”
    Mart thought a minute, then cleared his throat and put his head close to the door. “Slide the chain to the far end of the bracket, Bobby,” he said loudly through the narrow opening.
    Bobby wailed even more loudly. “I don’t know what’s a bracket, Mart. Get me out! Holp, please, holp!”
    Trixie suppressed a grin as she saw the look of exasperation on Mart’s face.
    “Clear the way,” Brian said behind them.
    Trixie turned and saw Brian bringing a hacksaw from the garage. “Bobby has already decided he can’t understand you,” he said. “There’s no sense wasting your breath. We’ll just have to saw the chain.”
    While Trixie, Mart, and Mrs. Belden watched anxiously, Brian pushed the hacksaw into the narrow opening between the door and the doorjamb and carefully sawed through the chain.
    Bobby ran into his mother’s waiting arms the minute the door opened and continued to sob while Brian took the hacksaw back and put it in the garage.
    By the time Brian returned to the house, Bobby had stopped crying and was sitting quietly, his breath still coming in hiccuping gasps. “Th-Thanks, Brian,” he said. “You saveded my life.”
    Brian chuckled. “It wasn’t quite that drastic,” he said. “But, Bobby, why on earth did you decide to lock the door?”
    “I don’t know,” Bobby said sheepishly. “Because I never lockeded it before, I guess.”
    Seeing Bobby’s lower lip begin to tremble again, Trixie fought to keep from laughing. Instead, she put her arms around her little brother and hugged him. “Well,” she said, “now you have locked it, and you don’t ever have to do it anymore, right?”
    “Right,” Bobby said, nodding emphatically.

    At dinner that night, the story of Bobby’s adventure was the sole topic of conversation. Now that he felt he was out of danger, Bobby relished telling his father about his own fright and his oldest brother’s heroism in rescuing him.
    Partly in order to give Bobby something else to think about, Peter Belden suggested that the whole family go to an early movie as soon as dinner was over.
    The rest of the family accepted the invitation eagerly, but Trixie asked to be excused. “It would be a waste of your hard-earned money, Daddy,” she said regretfully. “All I can think about tonight is the bikeathon tomorrow. You go ahead and bring back a full report. Maybe Honey will want to go with me later if it’s a good film.”
    As soon as her family left, however,