The Red Trailer Mystery

said to Al, "Put your dainty wrists in these bracelets, bud. Pretty, aren’t they?" He grinned at the other trooper. "Nice of him to tie up his friend for us, huh, Bill?"
    Bill cut the rope around Jeff's ankles and motioned to him to get up. "One of them must have ratted on the other," he said thoughtfully. "Which one of you tipped us off that all of the trailer loot was here in this old barn?"
    Jeff and Al glared at each other suspiciously but said nothing.
    "The way I figure it," Bill went on, "is that the big guy there was fixing to double-cross his friend. He knows he could never get out of the state with this stuff, but his pal puts up an argument, so he decides to frame him and gives us the tip about the hideaway."
    "That doesn’t make sense, Bill," Dave objected. "Why was he hanging around here waiting for us?"
    "Well, then," Bill demanded impatiently, "who did telephone headquarters about half an hour ago? Any law-abiding citizen would have given us his name instead of hanging up on us." His eyes fell on the two girls then, and he seemed to see them for the first time. "Say, what is this, anyway, a quilting bee? What are you kids doing around here?"
    Trixie thought quickly. If I’m not careful they’ll ask me about Jim, she decided. Aloud she explained, "We came in here to get out of the rain, and then that bushy-haired man tried to kidnap us."
    The trooper stared at her suspiciously. "Was it one of you, by any chance, who reported to headquarters that if we looked in the woods north of the river road, we’d find a stolen trailer hitched to a van with a flat tire?"
    Both girls shook their heads vigorously.
    "And at the same time," the trooper went on relentlessly, "did you suggest that a search of the abandoned barn below the orchard on the Smith truck farm might reveal the trailer gang’s hideaway?"
    "No, sir," Trixie and Honey said together.
    "Well, I’d like to know who did," Bill exploded. "What was that you said about kidnapping?"
    Trixie bit her lip. Now they were in for a lot more questions, and sooner or later they would lead to the subject of a redheaded boy.
    While she hesitated, Al innocently came to the rescue. "She was letting her imagination run away with her," he said shrewdly. "I’d rather kidnap a dozen wildcats bare-handed than one of those two girls. The short one kicked me in the stomach and knocked me off the ladder."
    Both the troopers howled with laughter, and in a moment Honey and Trixie joined in.
    "You kids nm along home now," Bill said. "We’ll get to the bottom of this mystery at headquarters. Since we caught these two birds red-handed, we won’t need to call you in as witnesses."
    Trixie and Honey hurried out of the barn, relieved to avoid further questioning. It had stopped raining, and as soon as it was safe to talk, Trixie said, "Why, it’s not late at all. It seemed to me that we were hiding up in that loft for hours, but actually it was only a few minutes, I guess."
    Honey nodded. "Let’s go back to the trailer and see how Miss Trask is. Then we can explore the woods on the other side of the road."
    As they trudged through the muddy fields, Trixie said, "I just can’t get over those troopers arriving in the nick of time. Jim must have notified them, after all."
    "I was sure he’d do it somehow," Honey said.
    "Well, I wasn’t," Trixie said. "When that awful Al climbed up the ladder, I was scared to death we’d both end up in that oat bin with Jeff "
    "Scared?" Honey looked at her incredulously. "I almost fainted, but you acted as though you were having the time of your life."
    Trixie grinned. "I was shaking so I had to swing my legs so he couldn’t see how my knees were knocking together. Then I thought it would be funny to swing my legs in his direction. It never occurred to me that I could knock him down off the ladder."
    "You really should get the credit for catching those thieves," Honey said admiringly. "If you hadn’t kept Al there talking, he might have got away."
    "You did all right yourself." Trixie grinned. "I thought I’d die when you tried to act like a gangster."
    "Well, that’s one thing off our list." Honey sighed. "Thank goodness we don’t have to look for a van or an old barn anymore. Now if we could just find Jim and Joeanne, and if only the troopers would find the Robin abandoned somewhere in the woods, all our troubles would be over "
    "Cheer up," Trixie said. "We know Jim’s not far away, and I’ll bet we find his hiding place this