The Red Trailer Mystery

Miss Trask asked.
    The manager nodded. "Not until after they had arrested Jeff and AL It was made from a public phone booth in a gas station up the road a way. By the time the troopers checked it, nobody could remember who had used the booth. Several cars had stopped there since noon, and neighboring farmers who haven’t phones of their own often use that public booth." Honey, ignoring Trixie’s warning kick, asked in an elaborately casual voice, "Are the troopers looking for a redheaded boy? Some boys do have deep voices, you know."
    Miss Trask, guessing that Honey hoped they would find some clue to Jim’s whereabouts, glanced at her.
    The manager laughed. "Oh, no. The gas station attendants would have noticed a boy with red hair if he had used the booth. That was obviously a tall tale Al cooked up for some reason."
    "Maybe Al himself made that call," Trixie put in. "He’s the smarter one of the two, isn’t he? He must have realized even before the van got a flat tire that they didn’t have a chance in the world of getting out of the state with the loot He may have planned to frame Jeff but didn’t get away in time."
    The manager pushed back his chair and stood up. "One of the troopers seems to be thinking along those lines," he admitted. "But I can’t see it myself. No, somebody who doesn’t want his identity known notified the police. We probably never will find out who it was." He smiled and strode across the cafeteria to his office in the back.
    "Has Jim got a deep voice?" Miss Trask promptly demanded.
    "It’s sort of husky," Honey said. "But I don’t think it would sound like a grown man’s over the telephone."
    "I just thought," Miss Trask went on, "it seems like rather a coincidence that those men would make up a story about a redheaded boy hiding in a barn at the same time and in the same neighborhood where we’re looking for Jim."
    And then the girls told her that they were pretty sure that they were on Jim’s trail at last. They even confessed that they had been hiding in the loft when the troopers arrested Al and Jeff. They carefully avoided mentioning that Al had threatened to kidnap Honey, but even then she was horrified.
    "Gracious," she gasped, "you girls must be more careful. Promise me you won’t go inside any abandoned barns or houses from now on."
    "We won’t," Honey assured her. "But the first thing tomorrow morning we want to explore the woods. If we start out early enough, we might even find Jim in his camp."
    "Or Joeanne," Miss Trask said. "I wish I had known her father had gone off and abandoned her. I would have reported it to the troopers at once. What kind of man would do such a thing? I’ve a good mind to notify the police right now."
    "Oh, please don’t," Honey begged. "He didn’t really abandon her, Miss Trask. She ran away, and he had to think of his wife and the other children. As soon as he found a home for them, I’m sure he meant to go back and look for Joeanne."
    "Anyway," Trixie added, "Joeanne knew where her family was going." She clapped her hand over her mouth too late. She had not meant to let Miss Trask even guess that the stolen red trailer might be somewhere in this vicinity. If she knew that it had been parked in the Smith garage until the night before, she would certainly feel that she should report it to the police.
    Fortunately Miss Trask hadn’t noticed Trixie’s gesture and her suspicions were not aroused. Honey quickly changed the subject. "We’ll find Joeanne when we find Jim," she said so positively that even Trixie was impressed. "I’m not worried about her at all now that Jim’s looking out for her."
    She slipped her arm through Trixie’s as they followed the governess out of the cafeteria. Miss Trask stopped at the magazine stand, and the girls went down the steps to the park. "Listen," Honey whispered, "she wants to go to the outdoor movies tonight, but we’ll say we’re too tired, which is the absolute truth. Only, after a short rest, let’s go back and see if we can find someone sleeping in that tent at Jim’s camp. If we find Joeanne, we’ll make her tell us where Jim is.
    "Wonderful," Trixie cried. "We can get there and be back long before the movie is over."
    Honey nodded. "I wouldn’t deceive Miss Trask for anything in the world, but you know perfectly well she would never give us permission to go into the woods at night. And it seems to me it’s the one sure way of finding somebody at Jim’s camp. After it’s all over