The Red Trailer Mystery

gone. And bounding across the mud puddles in the rutted road was Reddy, joyfully barking a greeting.
    "Now, how did he get out of the trailer?" Honey demanded. "Honestly, Trixie, that dog is more trouble than a dozen puppies."
    Trixie laughed good-naturedly. "He’s nothing but an overgrown puppy, I guess. I sure hope he didn’t go through a screen. The mosquitoes will eat us alive tonight if he did."
    Miss Trask frowned as they hurried across the road to the Swan. "I locked the door," she said, "and it’s still locked. Oh, dear, look. One of the screens has been raised. We must have overlooked it when we opened the windows, Trixie."
    Trixie stared at the low, screenless window. "I could have sworn they were all shut," she said thoughtfully. "And they must have been. None of us has had any reason to raise a screen since we started on the trip, and Regan checked them all before we left."
    "That’s right," Honey said. "I checked them all myself, because one single buzzing mosquito can keep me awake all night." She followed Miss Trask inside the trailer, with Trixie right behind her. "Oh, dear," she admitted after a quick look around, "now I’m not sure that either Regan or I did check that little window. We hardly ever open it, because it’s so small, and it’s so low it just lets in a lot of dust without cooling off the place enough to make it worthwhile. Wouldn’t you know," she finished impatiently, "that Reddy would smell out the one open window?" Trixie grinned. "How about Buddy? I don’t see any sign of your pup, Honey!"
    Honey’s eyes widened. "Why, that’s true! Now where can he be?"
    She began to whistle and call, but there was no answering bark from the little black cocker spaniel.
    "Oh, dear," Miss Trask complained. "It was a mistake taking those dogs with us. Another early start ruined!"
    Honey looked as though she were going to cry. "I know something awful has happened to him! He might have got run over by one of those big, heavy trailers that left while we were having breakfast."
    "Don’t even think of such a thing," Trixie said with quick sympathy. "He’s probably playing with some little boy or girl in the camp. You know how he loves children and how they love him, Honey."
    But a door-to-door questioning of all their neighbors proved fruitless. Nobody had seen the black puppy. At ten o’clock even Honey gave up.
    "He may have wandered off into the woods," Miss Trask said finally, glancing at her wristwatch. "If so, he’ll come back when he gets hungry, I’ll leave the Autoville phone number with the proprietor of this camp so he can call us when Buddy does turn up." Honey was trying hard to keep back the tears. "Let’s tack up a reward notice In the cafeteria," she said. "Then if anyone finds him they’ll be sure to let us know."
    Trixie, who had been staring down at the mud in front of the Swan, said, "Look at these footprints! They’re too small to be Reddy’s, and they go back and forth between here and where the red trailer was parked." She straightened. "You know what I think? I think Buddy got confused when the Robin left
    camp. He may have followed the red trailer, thinking we were in it and had gone off and left him. Puppies often do that sort of thing, Honey, and Buddy had hardly had time yet to realize that the Swan is his home."
    Honey immediately brightened. "Then maybe we’ll find him somewhere along the Post Road."
    "That’s right," Trixie said comfortingly.
    Miss Trask came back then from talking with the proprietor in the hot-dog stand, and in a few minutes the Swan was on its way again. Trixie and Honey kept their eyes glued to the road, hoping for some sign of the little black puppy. By noon Honey had given up all hope.
    "He’s too little to have traveled this far," she said mournfully. "Oh, Trixie, I know we’ll never see him again."
    "Oh, yes, we will," Trixie said firmly. "You never had a dog before, so you don’t understand them. If Bud found he couldn’t keep up with the Robin, he probably turned around and went back to the trailer camp. He may even have gone all the way back home. Dogs are awfully smart about directions, you know." Honey blinked back her tears. "You mean like the dog in Lassie Come Home?"
    Trixie nodded briskly. "That’s one of my favorite books. Do you remember, the collie traveled a thousand miles to get back to her master?"
    "You’re right, Trixie," Miss Trask said. "When we arrive at Autoville, we’ll put through a call to Regan at