The Secret of the Mansion

by Julie Campbell

  It was Regan on Strawberry, and in a minute Honey appeared on Lady. Regan looked very cross and red in the face. He paid no attention to Trixie, except to snatch Jupiter's bridle from her, and went back down the trail without a word.

  "I've spoiled everything," Trixie wailed. "He's furious, and he'll never give me any more riding lessons." Honey slid off Lady's back. "Don't worry about Regan,

  Trixie," she said comfortingly, "He gets over being mad very quickly, and I honestly think he admires you for daring to ride Jupiter. He was awfully worried when he came out of the house and saw you tearing into the woods. I was too, Trixie," she said gently. "You could have been killed."

  "I guess nobody was as scared as I was," Trixie admitted. "But when I was flying through the air over Jupe's head, all I thought of was that he might run down the hill, trip on the reins and get a bad fall." She told Honey, then, about Jim appearing just in time, and both girls whistled, "Bobby!" in unison.

  In a minute or two, Jim came through the bushes. He patted Lady and fed her a carrot he had pulled in the garden. "I may sound like I'm boasting," he told Honey, "but I bet I could ride your father's horse. Dad had a big black gelding like that, and I could manage him when I was only five years old. I learned to ride bareback with nothing but a halter rope to guide him."

  "If you're smart," Trixie said ruefully, "you'll never touch Jupe without a curb bit."

  "I wouldn't," Jim said. "Not until he got used to me, anyway. Gee, do you think you could fix it so I could ride him, sometime? I haven't ridden anything but Jonesy's big old farm horses since Dad died. That's not really riding."

  "I'll fix it, somehow," Honey promised impulsively. Then her hazel eyes sparkled. "I tell you how we can arrange it. Regan always has Sunday afternoons off, and Miss Trask always takes a nap after Sunday dinner. Mother and Dad are leaving tonight for Canada, so I'm pretty sure I can lead Jupe up here for you to ride tomorrow as soon as Regan leaves."

  Jim's face flushed as he said, "Gosh, Honey, that would be swell. Thanks." He turned to Trixie, then. "How's your kid brother?" he asked. "Honey told me he was bitten by a copperhead."

  Trixie shuddered. "I can't bear to talk about it. But he's all right now."

  "It's a good thing you know your first aid," Jim said approvingly, and Trixie realized with relief that he really had forgiven her for doubting the story he had told the day before.

  "Let's tie up Lady and look inside the Mansion some more for your uncle's money," she said, turning toward the big house. "I just know we're going to find something."

  "That's what I did all yesterday afternoon," Jim said. "I've just about given up hope."

  "Well, I haven't." Trixie determinedly led the way through the thicket. "And I'll bet that brass key has something to do with it."

  They were halfway across the clearing when Trixie heard a dog barking down in the road below the Mansion. "It doesn't sound like Reddy or Bud," she said thoughtfully. "But there aren't any other dogs around here."

  "You girls had better get inside the house," Jim interrupted quietly as the barking came nearer and they could hear the animal running up the hill. "There is a strange dog around here. I saw it this morning, a vicious-looking mongrel." They climbed quickly in through the window. "I don't know whether it's the same one that got tangled in the vines yesterday or not," Jim said, picking up his gun. "But I'm not taking any chances. A stray dog that's been running wild for a long time can become very ugly."

  A New Hiding Place

  The girls crowded around Jim at the window. Suddenly, with a loud squawking, Queenie burst out of the woods and flew into the clearing. Right behind her was a thin, mean-looking cur whose yellowish coat was matted with burrs. It wore no collar, and its cruel mouth was flecked with foam. Jim raised his gun to his shoulder.

  Trixie grabbed his arm. "Don't shoot," she begged. "You might miss and hit Queenie."

  At that moment, the plucky little game hen turned in midair and came down, clawing and scratching, on the mongrel's nose. The dog skidded to a stop, struck out at Queenie with one paw; then, with its tail between its legs, slunk into the thicket. At the same moment Queenie, squawking as though in pain, and dragging one wing, darted across the courtyard and disappeared under a clump of thickly matted bushes.

  They could hear the dog running away through the woods in the opposite direction, and Trixie cried out, "Oh, oh! It's hurt poor little Queenie. We must try to catch her and fix her wing."

  She was out of the window and across the clearing in a second, tearing at the vines and branches which cut off her view of Queenie's hiding place. Then she got down on her hands and knees and began crawling after the game hen. Sharp twigs scratched her face and pulled her curly blond hair, but she struggled on.

  Jim was right behind her. "Let me go first, Trixie," he argued. "Queenie may fly in your face and scratch you badly."

  At that moment, Trixie tripped and plunged forward, bumping her head against something hard. She scrambled quickly to a crouching position and, with Jim's help, pulled at the overhanging boughs and vines until they could see the lower half of the door which was blocking their path.

  "It's the summerhouse," Trixie cried excitedly. "We've found it at last!"

  "I guess you're right," Jim said as together they tugged away at the heavy branches which covered the rest of the door. "And we're in what once must have been a little arbor leading to it."

  They tried the rustic door but it was locked, and the windows on either side were so thickly covered with dirt they couldn't see inside. "The key!" Trixie suddenly shouted. "The brass key, Jim. I'll bet it fits."

  But Jim was already crawling back through the arbor, and in a minute or two he reappeared, making the passageway larger so that Honey could follow him. Honey winced away from the vines and was sure every time she put her hand down on a stick it would turn into a snake, so Jim had the door open by the time she joined the others.

  "I'm going in first," Jim told Trixie firmly as she started across the threshold. "I brought some matches. It'll be safer if I investigate before you girls come in."

  Trixie opened her mouth to argue but even in that half-light she could see the stern, stubborn set to Jim's jaw, and waited impatiently until he called out, "Okay. Nothing but spiders and a few old squirrels' nests."

  By the light of matches, they could see that the summerhouse was one long room with two large windows on each of the four sides.

  "It's more like a detached sunporch than a house," Trixie said. "But I imagine it was cool out here in the evenings when they had the windows open."

  Jim nodded. "And it's on a higher spot of the grounds than the main floor of the big house, so they must have had a good view of the river from here."

  Honey, who was too afraid of spiders to venture far inside, said from the entrance, "I suppose your uncle let it get overgrown like this because he didn't want to have anything around to remind him of the tragedy."

  "I suppose so," Jim agreed. "One thing is certain, nobody would ever have discovered it if Trixie hadn't barged right into it. Say, that gives me an idea. This'll be a swell place to hide if anyone comes snooping around here. The old latticework is so rotten and covered with vines nobody would ever guess there was once an arbor leading to the door."

  "Do you think your stepfather may be looking for you now, Jim?" Honey asked.

  Jim shook his head. "Not yet. I know that guy. He's telling everyone right now that I won't have the courage to stay away very long, and he's describing the licking I'm going to get when I do come cringing back." There was a note of such grim determination in Jim's voice that both girls knew that, no matter what happened, Jim would never return to Jonesy.

  We've just got to find that money, Trixie thought desperately. Aloud she said, "Well, there's obviously no hidden treasure in here, and I'd better go home now and see if Mother needs me."

  "I'll go with you," Honey said. "But what about that dog, Jim?" she asked timidly. "Won't he come back?"

&nb
sp; "I don't know," Jim said as he crawled after them to the clearing. "I got a good look at him just now, and I don't think he's got rabies. A mad dog wouldn't have slunk away like that. Anyway, Queenie proved that he really is a coward, so I don't think any of us would have any trouble scaring him away with a stick or a stone."

  Honey shivered. "But there was such a mean look in his yellow eyes!"

  "That look," Jim explained, "is really fear. The poor brute probably ran away from someone who treated him cruelly. It's a funny thing," he went on. "A wolf, unless it's starving and is pretty sure you're helpless, won't attack you. But a wild dog that has been ill-treated will, simply because it's afraid of being attacked first. I feel sorry for that mongrel," he added, more to himself than to the girls. "I know what it's like to run away from someone who beats you for no reason at all."

  "Oh, gosh, Jim," Trixie cried impulsively, "I hope your uncle gets well and takes you away from that old Jonesy,"

  Jim shrugged. "It doesn't look as though he will now, but don't you worry about me. I'll get along." He grinned. "And don't bother to bring me any more food for a couple of days. I've enough to last me for quite a while." He waved good-by to them from the window as they started down the path.

  "Jim is really wonderful," Honey said enthusiastically. "I'm not nearly as scared of that dog as I was. I almost feel sorry for the poor thing, myself."

  "Me, too," Trixie said. "Say, would you like a bike lesson, now, if Mother doesn't need me?"

  "Oh, yes," Honey cried. "I'm dying to start."

  Trixie found a big, cheerful-looking woman in a stiff white uniform bustling around in the kitchen. "Your little brother's doing fine," she told Trixie, "and your mother is taking a nap. I'm fixing sandwiches and soup for lunch."

  "I'll help," Trixie offered.

  The nurse laid her hand on Trixie's shoulder. "No, thank you, dear. You had a dreadful experience yesterday. Run along and have some fun and try to forget all about it."

  "All right," Trixie said. "I'll be out on the driveway if you need me, and please give Bobby my love." Honey had her first bicycle lesson that morning,

  and after a few tumbles she got on very well.

  "You're really doing swell," Trixie said, watching her pupil admiringly. "I guess all the horseback riding you've done has given you a marvelous sense of balance."

  Honey flushed with pleasure. "Do you think I'm good enough to coast down that little slope from the garage?" she asked.

  "Sure." Trixie grinned. "At the rate you're going, you'll be coasting down your own driveway in no time." Honey started at the entrance to the garage and

  swept past Trixie, with her light-brown hair flying behind her. "Whee," she yelled excitedly, "I never had so much fun!"

  At that moment, the big laundry truck lumbered into the Belden driveway, and almost simultaneously Honey lost control of the bicycle. It began to weave from side to side, right in the path of the truck as Trixie shouted, "Steer to the right, Honey. Steer to the right!"

  Honey jerked the handlebars violently to one side and crashed to the ground, helplessly tangled between the two wheels. The truck driver slammed on his brakes just in time and stopped in a swirl of gravel not two feet from where Honey lay.

  "Say, what goes on here?" he demanded crossly as Trixie tried to extricate Honey. "Whyn't you look where you're going?"

  Trixie ignored him as he strode past them with the bundle, muttering angrily to himself. She helped Honey to her feet. Then she saw the ugly gash on Honey's knee.

  "Oh, that must hurt," she cried sympathetically.

  "We'd better go in the house and bathe it and put on some iodine."

  Honey giggled. "My brand new dungarees, torn to shreds." She stopped suddenly and turned deathly pale. "Oh, oh," she moaned. "It's bleeding. I'm going to faint. I can't stand the sight of blood."

  Trixie remembered, then, how white Honey's face had been the day before when she saw her sucking blood from Bobby's toe. With one quick movement, she sat Honey down on the lawn and pushed her head between her knees.

  "You're all right, Honey," she said quietly. "You're not going to faint. just keep your head down. I'll be right back." And she raced to the brook to soak her handker-

  chief. Trixie squeezed water on Honey's wrists and bathed her forehead, and in a little while the color began to come back in Honey's face and lips.

  "I feel better now," she said with a shaky little laugh. "I'm sorry to be such a sissy, Trixie."

  "You're not a sissy," Trixie said staunchly. "You had an awful scare and that's a nasty cut. If you feel strong enough now, Honey, we'd better go in and give it a little first aid."

  Honey set her teeth while Trixie bathed the gravel out of the wound and painted it with iodine, but she didn't utter a sound. Mrs. Belden came into the bath-room then and inspected Honey's knee. "That's an ugly gash," she said. "You'd better stay off the bike until it heals, Honey."

  "Oh, Mrs. Belden," Honey wailed. "I can't. I'm just beginning to get the idea, and I'll have to start all over again if I wait."

  Mrs. Belden smiled and reached up to a box on one of the shelves. "Well," she said, "keep it bandaged and wear these knee pads for a while. You're a brave girl," she added as she left the room, "to risk bumping that knee again so soon."

  Honey stared at Trixie. "Do you suppose she really meant that?" she gasped. "About my being brave? Or was she just trying to make me feel better?"

  Trixie hooted. "Of course she meant it, silly. Moms never says anything she doesn't mean."

  "Gosh," Honey breathed. "Golly! Golly! Golly!"

  An Exploring Trip

  Trixie was just finishing her soup and sandwich when the phone rang. It was Honey, breathless with excitement.

  "Oh, Trixie, what do you think just arrived by express?"

  "A big black snake with a white streak down its back," Trixie teased, and then she could have bitten off her tongue as she realized from the silence on the other end of the wire that she had hurt Honey's feelings. She was relieved after a couple of seconds to hear a giggle.

  "No, a bike," Honey said. "Miss Trask ordered it yesterday when she was in White Plains. It's a beauty, too, with a big basket and a speedometer and a siren and a lamp. I'm going to practice all afternoon, so maybe I'll be good enough by tomorrow to go for a long ride with YOU."

  "Great," Trixie said. "I bike to the store about a mile away every Sunday morning for the New York papers. We can go right after breakfast if you think you can make it."

  "Oh, wonderful," Honey cried. "Are you going up to you-know-where this afternoon?"

  "No," Trixie told her. "I've got to help Mother cultivate the garden. It hasn't rained in over two weeks, you know, and the ground's as hard as a brick. We've got to loosen the dirt around the plants and then water them or they'll die."

  "Can you come up for a swim later?" Honey asked. "I'd love it." Trixie put the phone back in the cradle and went upstairs to see how Bobby was getting along.

  "Hey," he greeted her in his normal voice. "Did you see that skinny old yellow dog? I saw him out of the window this morning," he went on, without waiting for her answer, "and you know what? He caught a rabbit in our rock garden and ate it all up, skin and bones and all!" He grinned.

  He's really awful cute, Trixie thought giving him a quick hug. "How do you feel, Bobby?" she asked.

  "I feel fine," he said cheerfully. "But last night I didn't. My foot burned all the time just like my finger did that time I forgot to spit on it first before touching the stove to make it sizzle."

  Trixie laughed. "Hurry up and get well," she said. "Honey says you can have riding lessons, too, as soon as the doctor says you're well enough."

  "Whoopee!" Bobby began to bounce up and down in the bed, and the nurse hurried into the room.

  "Quiet! Quiet, young man," she said severely, and to Trixie, "Your mother's waiting for you in the garden. Don't you come around and excite my patient again." Then she smiled.

  After hoeing for a couple of h
ours, Trixie thought she just had to get out of the hot sun. "I hate this old vegetable garden," she muttered crossly to herself. "I don't know why Moms is so crazy about it. But if she can stand this heat, I guess I can!"

  At that moment, Mrs. Belden drew off her gloves and fanned her face with her big straw hat. "It's too hot for me, Trixie," she said, "and your face is the color of a baby beet. As soon as the sun gets lower in the sky I'll need you to help me water the plants, but between now and then you may as well get cooled off up at the lake."

  Trixie dropped her hoe gratefully and raced back to the house for her bathing suit. As she hurried along the path to the Manor House, she saw Honey wheeling her shiny new bike up the driveway. Honey looked as hot and tired as Trixie felt, but her face was wreathed in smiles as she called out, "I can coast down our hill now without falling off. Watch me, Trixie. Watch me."

  Trixie grinned as Honey turned the bike around and started down again. "Why, she's as excited as Bobby was when he learned to ride his trike," she thought. When Honey came back, she said with genuine admiration, "You're really marvelous. Tomorrow you'll be going down, no hands, no feet."

  Honey's hazel eyes glowed, and with her red cheeks and sunburned nose, she didn't look at all like the pale, sick girl Trixie had met only a short time before. "The first time I tried it," she admitted to Trixie, "I was so scared I fell off before I even got started. The second time, I got as far as the bend in the driveway, and when I saw how far the road was I wanted to stop but I couldn't. And then, wouldn't you know it, a delivery truck turned into our driveway. I was shaking so I was sure I'd steer right into it the way I did at your house, but somehow, I wobbled past with just inches to spare." She laughed. "By the time I got to the bottom of the hill I was going so fast I couldn't stop and I couldn't turn, so I shot across the road and landed in the ditch on the other side." She patted her sore knee. "It was sure lucky I was wearing these pads your mother lent me."