The Red Trailer Mystery

named Jim in camp. Which one is your friend?"
    "The red-haired one." Honey laughed.
    All the boys grinned then. "Two of ’em have red hair. Take your choice."
    Trixie flushed with embarrassment. "I started out all wrong," she said. "The Jim we’re looking for wouldn’t be a camper. He’s trying to get a job as junior counselor or athletic instructor."
    "Oh, that’s different," the young man said. "A red-haired boy of about fifteen did apply for a job day before yesterday. He didn’t say what his name was, but he was riding a bicycle. Does that help you any?" Trixie looked at Honey. Jim might have bought a bike, she decided, and said out loud, "I guess that’s the one. Did he get a job with you?"
    The counselor shook his head. "No, there aren’t any positions open at Pine Hollow. It’s too bad. He looked like a nice kid and a husky one."
    "He didn’t say where he was going, did he?" Honey asked.
    The counselor shook his head. "No, he just rode right off on his bike toward the main highway."
    The girls gathered up their reins and turned their horses around. "Well, thanks a lot, anyway," Trixie said with a wave of good-bye.
    Honey pulled Peanuts off the path. "Don’t you want to go ahead?" she asked the boys. "We’ve got to walk our horses for a while. They’re too hot."
    "Thanks," the counselor said and led his group at a canter up the hill.
    Trixie watched them disappear around a bend in the trail. "Anyway," she said, "now we know that we were right about Jim. He is trying to get a job at one of the camps. Maybe he’ll be at Wilson Ranch when we get there tomorrow."
    "I hope so," Honey said as they started back. "If only we knew where he’s living!"
    "I can guess," Trixie said.
    "Where?" Honey turned in the saddle to stare at Trixie.
    "Right in the woods," Trixie told her. "It would be the safest place. He’s so smart he could make himself a wonderful camp and be as snug as a bug in a rug."
    "I guess you’re right," Honey said thoughtfully. "But I hope he didn’t try to sleep outdoors during that awful rain night before last."
    "Jim wouldn’t have minded that at all," Trixie said.
    "He could have rigged up some sort of waterproof shelter. I bet he’s built a swell shack by now. Oh, golly." She interrupted herself suddenly. "Where are die dogs? I forgot all about them!"
    "Oh, gosh." Honey sighed. "So did I. They raced ahead of us along the path when we left the riding academy, but I don’t remember seeing them since."
    "Neither do I," Trixie admitted. "Maybe they decided not to come along and found their way back to the trailer camp."
    "I guess that’s what happened," Honey said.
    As if in answer to her thoughts, Reddy suddenly bounded across the trail, with Bud behind him, and disappeared in the underbrush.
    "Well, I like that!" Trixie said in exasperation. "They were so busy hunting something that they didn’t even see us." She began to whistle and call, but the dogs did not come back.
    "Oh, let’s leave them," Honey said after a while. "They can probably find their way back to Autoville better than we can."
    "Okay," Trixie agreed. "As a matter of fact, I’m sort of confused and mixed up. Do we take the left or the right fork here?"
    Honey reined in her horse and gazed down at the intersection of the two paths. "Oh, oh," she gasped. "Do you see what I see? Bicycle tracks! Maybe they’ll lead us to Jim."
    Trixie slid out of the saddle. "You’re right," she said slowly. "But this couldn’t be the same path we just rode up. If it was, our horses would have stamped out all signs of the tire treads." She swung up on Prince’s back. "We’re sure to get lost, but let’s go!"
    Honey giggled. ’"I think this is the trail we should have taken in the first place. The other one wound round and round instead of going straight to Pine Hollow."
    "This is a real road," Trixie agreed.
    "Oh, I’m so excited at the thought of seeing Jim again I can hardly bear it," Honey said. "And you know what? This is something I didn’t dare tell you before, because I wasn’t at all sure we’d ever find any trace of Jim. But when I told Miss Trask how much you and I liked him and how wonderful it would be if he could come and live with us, and he and I could go to school in Sleepyside with you and your brothers, she said it was a wonderful idea."
    "It is a wonderful idea," Trixie said. "I can’t stop thinking about it."
    "I can’t, either," Honey said. "So I wrote to Mother and Dad airmail before we left,