The secret of the Mansion

but this is goodbye. I heard Jonesy yelling last night, and now that he thinks I’m dead my troubles are over.
But what do you think? Early this morning I tripped over that old mattress you dragged out of the house, and I guess that it must have been so trampled by the firemen that the ticking tore into shreds when my knees hit it. And then I saw that old mattress I’d been sleeping on every night was stuffed with money! Not half a million dollars but enough to keep me going for a long time. You were right. A treasure was hidden in the Mansion and in the very room where you said all along we’d find it.
As soon as I get settled somewhere, I’ll come back and repay you for all you’ve done for me. But in the meantime, I want you to have my great-aunt’s ring to remember me by. After all, you found it, and you saved the money from the fire. If you like, I think you can sell it for enough to buy that horse you want so much.
Please, don’t you and Honey forget me. I’ll see you sometime.
Yours, Jim
     
    "Honey," Trixie said sadly, "he really has gone. Were going to miss him like anything, and I wouldn’t think of selling this ring. I’ll earn the money for a horse and keep this to remember Jim by. But we’ll never forget him, will we, Honey?"
    Honey shook her head. "Never, never. He was almost the nicest person I ever knew. And," she added slowly, "he called me a good sport, Trixie. Can you believe it?"
    Trixie laughed. "What’s so wonderful about that?" Honey flushed. "Oh, I know it sounds silly to you, Trixie, but nobody ever called me that before. I never had any real friends till I met you and Jim." Trixie put her arm around Honey’s shoulder and hugged her impulsively. "Well, you’ve got me as your friend for as long as you want me, Honey. And I’ll bet Jim does come back someday."
    Honey smiled. "You know, I’ve got one of my funny feelings about that. I’ve got a sort of premonition that we’re going to see him again. Soon." She stopped as a man’s voice on the other side of the hidden summerhouse broke in.
    "Hello! I can hear you two, but I can’t see you. Where are you?"
    For one frightening moment, the girls clung together, terrified that Jonesy might have come back. Then, as the man called again, "Hello there," they knew it was not Jonesy’s voice.
    Hastily they scrambled out under the arbor and almost bumped into a tall, well-dressed man with thick gray hair and a gray moustache.
    "Hello," he said again. "I’m George Rainsford, the late Mr. Frayne’s attorney." He smiled pleasantly. "Are you two real or are you wood sprites?
    It was Honey who regained her poise first. "Why, I know you," she said. "I’m Honey Wheeler. Matthew Wheeler’s daughter. Didn’t you come to our apartment in New York for dinner one evening last winter?"
    Mr. Rainsford nodded and shook hands. "Yes, I did. But I certainly would never have recognized you. You must have gained about ten pounds since then, and you’ve acquired quite a tan."
    Honey introduced Trixie. "We’re neighbors," she said. "The Beldens live down in the hollow, and Dad bought the place on the other hill."
    Mr. Rainsford sobered suddenly. "Then you two may be able to help me. I’m trying to track down young James Winthrop Frayne H. I stopped at a little store on the way up here, and the man there told me he’d seen a redheaded boy riding through the woods the other day." The girls gave each other quick, secret looks as Mr. Rainsford went on. "The morning papers in the city said that the Frayne heir was burned to death in the fire here last night." He smiled. "Somehow, I don’t quite believe that. The Fraynes are too tough and too smart to be caught in a burning building."
    Trixie decided to take the bull by the horns then. Even if Jim didn’t want anyone to know he was still alive, she knew she could trust this man and that he would be a real friend to Jim.
    "Jim wasn’t caught in the fire," she blurted out.
    "He hid in the summerhouse, but then he ran away again."
    "And you girls know where he is?" Mr. Rainsford said with an encouraging smile.
    Trixie shook her head regretfully. "No, we don’t. He left a note, but he didn’t say where he was going."
    "How did you happen to meet Jim in the first place?" Mr. Rainsford asked.
    "We came up here to explore the morning Dad took old Mr. Frayne to the hospital," Trixie told him. "And we found Jim asleep on the floor of the living room."
    Mr. Rainsford stared at her in surprise. "Do you mean