The Red Trailer Mystery

came back with the jack. That’s why I just tossed it into an empty stall instead of taking it away with me. I wanted them to go back to the van and get caught, you see?"
    "In between fixing that tire and hiding the jack," Honey said thoughtfully, "you must have been picking beans in the Smiths’ garden."
    "That’s right," Jim said. "Early yesterday morning I got Joeanne, and we hiked to the farmhouse. I’d bought her a secondhand bike the day before in the village. We didn’t really stop at the Smiths’ to get a job but to try to find out if Joeanne’s father had tried to get work there. It seemed logical, you know, that he would want to settle down in the same part of the country where he spent his boyhood. Say," he interrupted himself suddenly, "Wilson Ranch is a swell place. I’d sure like to get a job there."
    "You can—now," Honey said in a sad little voice. "But, oh, Jim, I do wish you’d spend the rest of the summer with us."
    "Now, Honey," Trixie cried impatiently. "Don’t start that again. Wait until Jim meets your family." Jim chuckled. "If they’re half as nice as you, Honey, I’ll be satisfied. What were you saying about our fathers going to school together?"
    "They did," Honey said. "Mr. Rainsford told me so. He wants to appoint Dad as your guardian, you see."
    "That would be swell," Jim said enthusiastically. "But maybe when your dad gets a look at me, he won’t want the bother of it."
    They hurried around the Autoville park and stopped at the Swan door. Pinned to it was a note from Miss Trask: Come right over to the cafeteria.
    "It can’t be lunchtime yet. Why does she want us over there?" Honey wondered out loud.
    Trixie shrugged. "Let’s go. We can telephone Mr. Rainsford from there."
    But Mr. Rainsford himself was waiting for them in the lounge, and even more surprising was the sight of Honey’s father and mother, who, with Miss Trask and the lawyer, were gathered around a large table in one corner of the room.
    "Mother," Honey gasped and ran across the room to throw her arms around her parents and kiss them both. Later she told Trixie that she had never acted so impulsively before, but in her anxiety about Jim she momentarily forgot her shyness. It was the best thing she had ever done, for Mrs. Wheeler forgot her own shyness and hugged Honey, frankly weeping.
    "My precious baby," she crooned, smoothing Honey's hair with one slim, restless hand. "I’ve missed you so, and Dad did, too, so we decided to charter a plane and fly down this morning."
    Trixie thought Honey’s mother was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen, and she looked just the way Honey would look in another twenty years. She was tall and slender with wavy, light-brown hair, and she turned her enormous hazel eyes to Trixie and said, holding out her free hand, ‘You’re Trixie, I know. Honey has written me so much about you. And is this Jim?"
    Jim smiled and shook hands with Honey’s parents. Then he met Miss Trask and Mr. Rainsford.
    Mr. Wheeler said with a wide grin, "I’d have known you anywhere, Jim. You look exactly as your dad did when I last saw him."
    Honey’s mother smiled up at her husband. "He doesn’t look unlike you, Matthew," she said and added to Jim, "Come sit beside me, please. I suppose you know Honey thinks you’re just about the most wonderful person on this earth."
    Jim flushed and turned to Mr. Rainsford. "It was nice of you, sir, to come all the way up here from New York to meet me."
    "How did that happen?" Trixie demanded. "You didn’t know we’d found him, Mr. Rainsford."
    The lawyer’s eyes twinkled. "No, but something had to be done about him at once. I’m going to South America on Saturday, and I’ll be gone several months. I decided that if you girls hadn’t found Jim by now, I’d have to notify the police."
    "I’m sorry I caused you so much trouble, sir," Jim said, finally sitting down beside Honey and her mother. "I didn’t know, and my stepfather—"
    "Don’t give him a second thought," Mr. Rainsford said. He turned to Honey’s father. "Well, Wheeler, what do you think? Do you want to take over my charge while I’m gone? We don’t have to make any permanent arrangements until after you two have tried it out. I think Jim deserves a good home, and I can’t possibly think of a better person to look after his inheritance."
    Mr. Wheeler laughed. "I’ll take good care of his money, but as to having me as his guardian, why, I think that’s up to Jim."
    Jim looked