The Red Trailer Mystery

silver and the money, too?"
    "It must be as Mrs. Smith said herself. They must be planning to borrow money on the locket for their train fare back to the farm after they return the Robin." Honey suddenly straightened in the saddle. "Oh, Trixie," she gasped. "The poor things haven’t got a chance. State troopers will catch them the minute they hit a main highway, and they can’t stick to back roads forever."
    Trixie uttered a groan of despair. "If only they had sense enough to abandon the Robin somewhere in the woods. Then when the troopers find it they’ll think it was stolen by the gang that dismantled the other ones."
    "Well, let’s hope they do just that." Honey nudged Peanuts into a canter. "I know it’s wrong of me to hope the Darnells don’t get caught and punished, but I can’t help it. It doesn’t seem fair that I have so much money and they haven’t got enough to live on."
    "I know." Trixie agreed. "We’re not rich, but at least we have a roof over our heads and plenty to eat." They cantered along the trail with the dogs trotting behind them until they came to a large "No Trespassing" sign.
    "This must be where the Rushkill property begins," Honey said. "And look on the other side of that field. A barbed-wire fence!"
    "Maybe there’s a gate," Trixie said, leading the way across the meadow.
    But, although they followed the fence for more than a mile, die only gate they saw was securely bolted. And then they heard a loud, gruff voice and saw a man on a dusty gray horse riding toward them.
    His light-brown, almost yellow, eyes were expressionless, and he smiled coldly through thin lips. "Were you looking for someone?"
    "Yes," Trixie said. "Is this the entrance to Rushkill Farms?"
    "That’s right. Didn’t you see the ‘No Trespassing’ signs?" He twirled his crop impatiently.
    Honey edged Peanuts closer to the fence and gave the man her warmest smile. "We would like very much to see the head of the camp," she said.
    He gazed at her as though she were something on exhibit in a circus sideshow. "I am Mr. Snell. I am a very busy man. Kindly state your business as quickly as possible."
    The sun was beating down hotly on Trixie’s bare head. "We’re looking for a redheaded boy who may have applied here for a job," she said.
    Stiffly he turned from Honey to Trixie. "No one has applied here for a position since camp opened. Is that all?"
    "Yes, thank you very much," Trixie replied with an edge of sarcasm in her voice.
    He watched them impassively as they turned their horses’ heads and rode away, and he was still watching when they cantered across the meadow and reentered the woods.
    "Thank goodness Jim didn’t ask that old crosspatch for a job," Trixie said. "That man would have smelled a rat and reported him to the police."
    "Jim’s awfully smart," Honey said. "I’ll bet he took one look at Mr. Snell and decided he’d be better off working for Jonesy."
    "So that’s that," Trixie said. "Jim’s been and gone.
    Our only hope is to find some trace of him at the spot where we saw the blue jeans. Let’s return the horses right away. It’s only a short walk from Autoville to the Pine Hollow road."
    "All right," Honey agreed. "We can save time by eating these sandwiches on the way." She handed one to Trixie and then gasped, "Oh, my golly! The dogs! Where have they disappeared?"
    "Honestly!" Trixie groaned. "This is too much! They tore across that meadow after a field mouse when we started following the fence, and that’s the last time I saw them."
    "We can’t leave them. We’re miles from home." Honey turned Peanuts around, and Prince automatically followed.
    "Wait a minute," Trixie cried. "Let’s not go all the way back. There must be a fork off this trail that goes straight up the hill instead of around it. It’s practically a young mountain. From the top we should be able to see the entire valley and catch sight of the dogs without searching for hours."
    "You and your forks," Honey giggled. "We’re sure to get lost again, but let’s go."
    Again they tinned and, with Trixie in the lead, rode along until she held up her hand for a halt. "This looks like it might have been a path once. Let’s try it; it’s going in the right direction."
    "That’s about all I can say for it." Honey laughed. "Nobody bigger than a field mouse would consider it a path now."
    Trixie twisted around in the saddle to grin back at Honey. "One good thing about it is that it’s so tiny the deer flies haven’t