The Red Trailer Mystery

not going to investigate any abandoned barns."
    Trixie giggled. "We probably won’t have a chance to, unless there’s one on the Wilson Ranch."
    It had stopped raining during dinner, and now the moon was shining palely through a veil of clouds. "Let’s sit out on the step for a while before we go to bed," Trixie said. "I don’t feel a bit sleepy now."
    Miss Trask had stayed behind at the cafeteria to talk with some friends she had made while the girls were out riding that morning. "I’d like to go for a swim," Honey said as they strolled past the pool. "But I guess it’s too late for that."
    They covered the wet step of the Swan with their raincoats and sat down to wait for Miss Trask. Suddenly Trixie grabbed Honey’s arm.
    "Quick," she whispered. "Look at that man in the Autoville uniform on the other side of the pool." Honey stared across the park. "What about him? He’s just one of the attendants."
    "I know," Trixie said, "but just a minute ago he took off his cap to shake the water out of it, and you should have seen his hair. It’s as bushy as a fox’s tail!"
    Honey blinked. "Do you think he’s the man you heard talking to Jeff before dinner?"
    "That one wasn’t in uniform," Trixie said, "but, of course, he wouldn’t be when he was off duty."
    Honey stood up, shivering. "Let’s go inside," she begged. "He might have seen you on the veranda when you were spying on him."
    Trixie frowned. "I wish he’d turn around so we could see his face."
    "Well, I don’t," Honey said, opening the Swan door. "I don’t want to have anything to do with those trailer thieves."
    Trixie reluctantly followed her inside. "Somehow," she said slowly, "I feel we aren’t going to find either Jim or Joeanne until that mystery is solved."

Wilson Ranch • 7

    THE NEXT MORNING was hot and sunny after the rain, so hot that Trixie felt cross and tired when she and Honey had finished cleaning the interior of the Swan. They swept and dusted and mopped for what seemed like hours, and it was almost ten o’clock when Miss Trask said the job was done to her satisfaction.
    "Let’s never take the dogs with us again," Honey said. "They’re always running away, and they brought in most of the mud and burrs that were stuck to everything."
    "They were awful nuisances," Trixie agreed. "May we leave them with you, Miss Trask?"
    Miss Trask nodded. "Why don’t you take along bathing suits? You may be invited for a swim at the Ranch. I understand there is a lovely natural pool, an old quarry, at that boys’ camp. The water should be fresh and cold after the rain yesterday."
    "Great," Trixie said. "The way I feel now I’d like to stay in the water all day long."
    "Me, too." Honey rolled their suits into a tight ball and strapped them together with a belt she could hook to her saddle. "Shall we take lunch, too?"
    "Oh, let’s not," Trixie groaned. "I ate so many pancakes for breakfast I don’t ever want to see food again."
    "It’s only an hour’s ride to Wilson Ranch," Miss Trask told them. "You should be back before one. When I take the dogs for a walk, I’ll stop at one of the truck farms near here and buy greens for a salad. That, with canned ham broiled with slices of pineapple, and buttered rolls, will make a delicious and easy-to-fix dinner."
    "Yummy-yum," Trixie cried, completely forgetting that she had just said she never wanted to eat again. "Let’s go."
    In a few minutes they were riding Prince and Peanuts through a wooded path that led in the opposite direction from the one they had taken to Pine Hollow Camp.
    After a while Honey said musingly, "What did you mean, Trixie, when you said last night that we weren’t going to find Jim until the trailer-theft mystery was solved?"
    Trixie shrugged. "I don’t know exactly why, but somehow I have a feeling that Jim isn’t at any of those boys’ camps, that he’s hiding out in the woods. And Joeanne is probably lost in the woods around here, and the trailer thieves are hiding in the woods, too. So I just keep thinking if we find one of them we’ll find all of them."
    Honey laughed. "That doesn’t make much sense. The woods stretch for miles and miles on each side of the main highway. It would be like trying to find a whole book of needles in one huge haystack."
    "I know it." Trixie grinned, and then she sobered. "Say, Honey," she cried, pointing. "Look down there in that hollow. If that isn’t an old orchard, I never saw one."
    Honey reined in Peanuts. "Are those gnarled and