The Mystery of the Phantom Grashopper

by Campbell, Julie

  “But that is a coincidence,” the librarian murmured. “I believe a Japanese yen was one of the artifacts placed inside the weather vane.”

  “What?” Trixie asked. “We know Hoppy is hollow, but we never knew there were things inside him.”

  “Oh, yes, indeed,” the woman said, leaning forward with her arms on the desk. “That’s another reason why the weather vane is so valuable. It’s really a sort of time capsule of Sleepyside.”

  “Do you have a book about the artifacts?” Honey asked eagerly.

  The librarian shook her head. “No. But we do have all the old newspaper clippings about the weather vane. They’re all kept downstairs in the reference department”

  Trixie and Honey exchanged glances. Both had the same idea. “Are we allowed in the reference room?” they asked in one voice.

  The librarian laughed. “Of course,” she said. “It’s a bit gloomy down there, but you won’t have any trouble finding the clippings about the weather vane. I had them out for Mr. Perkins a few days ago, and several people have been in looking at them since then. Look for a folder labeled ’Town Hall’ on the shelf of newspaper clippings. The folders are in alphabetical order.”

  “Thank you. We’ll find it,” Trixie said happily.

  Trixie and Honey went down the narrow steps to the basement and entered the reference room. It was crowded with rows of high metal shelves with narrow aisles between them. The newspaper clipping files were on the far side of the room.

  Trixie located the Town Hall file and lifted it from the shelf. She and Honey began to sort through the faded brown clippings.

  “Listen to this,” Honey urged, reading aloud from a clipping that included a picture of the weather vane:

  “In 1878, the weather vane was taken down from Town Hall to be replated. At that time, a small copper cylinder, engraved with the words LUNCH FOR GRASSHOPPER, was placed inside the hollow body of the old vane. A number of artifacts were inside the cylinder. The artifacts included the front page of the evening paper, the business card of Mayor Davis, a silver dollar, a Japanese yen, an Indian head penny, and a Civil War button.”

  “Gleeps!” Trixie blurted. “Bobby found an old silver dollar on the commonl He found an old metal button in the woods, tool A silver dollar, a button, and a Japanese yen,” she said slowly. “They’re all things that were inside Hoppy. Hoppy was hidden in the woods!”

  Honey caught her breath. “Are you sure?” she asked.

  “Positive,” Trixie declared. “Remember when Bobby got thrown off Mr. Pony? He said Mr. Pony got scared by a *big critter.’ I’ll bet that was Hoppyl The cylinder must have opened when he was moved, and some of the things inside fell out. Bobby found them near his tree house, so Hoppy must have been hidden somewhere around there.”

  “But why was he hidden?” Honey queried. “Why didn’t the thief just take him out of town?”

  Trixie pushed a hand through her curls, frowning. “I’m not sure,” she said slowly. “Maybe the police alert scared him. Or maybe he expected a reward to be offered and was just waiting for that.”

  “We should tell Sergeant Molinson about the things Bobby found,” Honey said.

  “We will,” Trixie agreed, “but first let’s get Bobby to show us where he found them, and where he saw the ’big critter.’ Then we can give them to Sergeant Molinson and tell him—”

  “I’ll take that Japanese coin,” a man’s voice said from behind them. “Hand it over, please.”

  Startled, Trixie and Honey whirled around. “The man from the bell tower!” Trixie gasped.

  “Don’t be frightened,” the man said in an even tone. “Just give me the coin.”

  When Trixie didn’t move, the man said, “All right…,” and reached under his coat.

  “No—don’t—” Honey whimpered.

  In a panic, Trixie threw the newspaper file in the man’s face, releasing a flurry of old clippings. “Run, Honey!” she shouted.

  Both girls dashed down the aisle and out of the room. They bounded up the stairs two at a time.

  “In here!” Trixie said, pulling Honey into a closet at the top of the stairs.

  Almost immediately they heard running footsteps coming up the stairs, past the closet, and going out the side door of the library.

  After a moment, Trixie opened the closet door a crack and peeked out. Cautiously, she and Honey stepped from their hiding place.

  “Did—did he have a gun?” Honey asked shakily.

  Trixie managed a weak smile. “I didn’t want to wait and find out,” she said. “Don’t mention this to anybody till we ask Bobby where he found those things. As soon as we get home, I’m going to look at that old card Bobby gave us last night. I’ll bet it’s Mayor Davis’s business card.”

  Honey sighed. “All right,” she said. “But if we go searching around in the woods, I want the boys to be with us.”

  “Right,” Trixie agreed. “Let’s go!”

  Down in the Woods • 17

  WHEN TRIXIE AND HONEY turned their bicycles into the driveway at Crabapple Farm, they found the boys at work on Brian’s old jalopy.

  “Ah, just in time for lunch,” Mart said, wiping his hands on a greasy rag. “How did you fare the lancinations of the periodon’tal practitioner?”

  “If you’re asking about the dentist,” Honey said, “we both did fine—no cavities.”

  “Never mind about that,” Trixie blurted. “Wait till you hear what we found out at the library.” She told about the artifacts that had been placed inside the weather vane and about her suspicion that Sammy had stolen it and then returned it.

  Brian raised his eyebrows. “Wow,” he said softly. “Bobby found a real old silver dollar right on the common.”

  “And he also found an old metal button, a Japanese yen, and some kind of card,” Trixie informed him, “somewhere in the woods.”

  “Let’s go look at the card,” Honey urged.

  “Wait a minute,” Trixie warned. “Let’s not get Moms and Bobby all excited. I’ll take a look at the card while Honey and I are helping Moms fix lunch. If it’s the right one, I’ll let you know.”

  “And then what?” Mart queried.

  “Then we’ll offer to take Bobby for a romp in the woods,” Trixie said. “And we’ll see if he can remember where he found those things.”

  “Good idea,” Jim said. “Maybe we’ll find some other clues out there.”

  The others agreed.

  Half an hour later, Mrs. Belden called the boys in for lunch. “Be sure and get those hands clean before you set foot in the house,” she warned.

  As the young people took their places around the table, Trixie gave a significant little nod to Brian, Mart, and Jim.

  “I’ll be having lunch downtown with your father,” Mrs. Belden announced. “I’m going to go change clothes. Trixie, please see that Bobby eats all of his lunch.”

  “I will, Moms,” Trixie assured her.

  “Bobby,” Mart said, passing the sandwich platter, “tell us about that “big critter’ that scared Mr. Pony in the woods.”

  “Well....” Bobby munched on his sandwich. “It was a awful big huge a-nor-mous giant bug!” he said. “It had big round eyes, like this—” Bobby widened his eyes as far as he could—“and funny-looking legs.” He made a face. “It was the ugliest bug I’ve ever seen. I was scared, too, just like Mr. Pony.”

  Trixie poured Bobby some more milk. “Do you remember where you saw the big bug, Bobby?” she asked.

  “Sure,” Bobby answered. “He was just a little bit away from my tree house, right beside the tire tracks.”

  “Tire tracks in the woods?” Mart queried.

  “How’d you like to take us all down and show us?” Jim asked.

  Bobby licked the mayonnaise from his fingers.

  “Nope,” he answered. “I can’t. I’m going downtown with Moms. I get to go to the barber all by myself, while Moms has lunch with Dad.” He helped himself to a cookie. “Trixie can find them
for you. She knows where my tree house is, and those tire tracks go right by it to the old road.”

  “All ready, Bobby?” Mrs. Belden came back into the kitchen, dressed in a stylish pants suit. “We’ll see you big kids later,” she said. “If you’re planning to go out later, take Reddy along with you. He needs some exercise.”

  “Okay, Moms,” Trixie said. “Have a nice lunch.” After the two were gone, she turned to the others and said, “Bobby never mentioned tire tracks before. Whoever hid the weather vane out there must have driven into the woods on that old road.”

  “Shall we go get the horses and ride out there?” Honey asked.

  “No, it’ll take too long to get them saddled up,” Mart said hurriedly. “Besides, we’ll have a better chance of coming across any new clues if we’re on foot.”

  Brian was already opening the door. “Mart’s right,” he said. “Let’s go! We’ll walk down the old road and keep a lookout for tire tracks.”

  “That reminds me, Trix,” Jim said as they left the house. “Regan checked, and the ’Dead End’ sign had been removed from the entrance to that road. Regan made a new one himself and put it up.”

  “Let’s be sure to look and see that it’s still there,” Trixie said.

  The young people walked briskly along Glen Road to the entrance of the old road that ran beside the woods. Reddy hurried along ahead, stopping frequently to wait for the others to catch up. Regan’s hand-lettered sign, with a white background and red letters, was impossible to miss. “ ’Louis Road—Dead End,’” Trixie read aloud, stopping by the signpost. “I never knew this road had a name,” she added, surprised.

  “Dad told me that this section of the woods was once owned by a family named Louis,” Jim recalled as they walked down the road. “They were French. The name is actually pronounced Looee, but most people use the American version, Lewis.”

  “Mr. Lytell said something about Louis Road the other night,” Honey said, “but I didn’t know what road he was talking about then.”

  Now that she knew where to look, Trixie had no trouble spotting Bobby’s tree house, back away from the road.

  When they reached the old ROAD ENDS sign, they saw tire tracks leave the road and go off into the woods. “Here’s just where I saw the bell tower man,” Trixie said, standing at the end of the road.

  “There are two different sets of tracks leaving the road,” Brian pointed out. “Whoever hid the weather vane must have used two cars—one to bring it here, and another to take it back.”

  They followed the tire marks into the woods to a spot that was extra thick with leaves. The remains of what had been a wide, high pile of leaves were still visible.

  “The wind didn’t pile those leaves up like that,” Trixie asserted. “Somebody raked them in to bury Hoppy.”

  Everyone bent down and scanned the ground for more clues. Reddy bounded around among them, his long ears flopping and his big feet sending the leaves flying. Finding a stick, he loped up to Trixie, wagging his tail and ready to play.

  “Good boy, Reddy,” Trixie said automatically. She was down on her knees, hunting close to the ground for clues.

  Reddy pawed Trixie’s arm insistently and dropped the stick beside her, demanding attention.

  “Okay, Reddy, you win,” Trixie said. She picked up the stick. “Jeepers!” she exclaimed. “This isn’t a stick—it’s metal. It looks like it belongs to Hoppy somehowl”

  The others crowded around to examine the weathered piece of metal Trixie held in her hand. Reddy pushed his wet nose between Jim and Brian, keeping an eye on his “stick.”

  “You’re right,” Brian said. “I think that’s a piece of the spire from the weather vane.”

  “Here’s what happened,” Trixie conjectured quickly. “Sammy drove down here with Hoppy in the back of his old yellow truck and hid him under a pile of leaves. That was the ’critter’ that frightened Mr. Pony.”

  Mart scratched his head. “Why didn’t Sammy just get out of town with the weather vane right away?”

  “I think I’ve figured that out now,” Trixie said. “Hoppy would be in plain sight in the back of the pickup truck. Even wrapped in canvas, he wouldn’t be too hard to recognize. I’ll bet that Sammy had already arranged to hide Hoppy here and have a partner pick Hoppy up later.”

  “Sounds logical,” Jim said. “But how would the partner have known when or where to come? They would have needed some sort of signal....”

  “Gleeps,” Trixie said. “The radio!”

  “Huh?” Mart questioned.

  “The song,” Trixie said, her face lighting up with the realization. “The signal to come and get Hoppy was a song played on WSTH—’Meet Me in St. Louis’! Moms said that someone requested that song over and over on the day after the storm, remember?” Brian snapped his fingers. “That’s it!” he exclaimed excitedly.

  Trixie brushed her hair away from her forehead. “I didn’t get the connection until just now,” she admitted. “I never knew this was Louis Road until I saw Regan’s sign.”

  “The bell tower man must be Sammy’s partner,” Honey guessed. “He was supposed to meet Sammy here and take Hoppy away in his car.”

  Jim looked thoughtful. “Then why didn’t they take the weather vane and leave?” he asked.

  Trixie pondered. “I’ll bet they decided it would be easier to take Hoppy back and collect the reward than to try to get him out of town.”

  Brian looked smug. “And there was another signal,” he said, “for Sammy to tell his partner that their plans were changed.”

  The others looked at him, bewildered.

  Brian smiled. “Remember when we went to WSTH to announce the reward?” he asked. “The receptionist said someone kept calling and requesting the same song over and over again that day.”

  “ ’St. Louis Blues!” Honey exclaimed. “Brian, I’m sure you’re right!”

  Jim nodded toward the piece of metal in Trixie’s hand. “With that and the other things Bobby found, we have proof that the weather vane was hidden here. But we still don’t have any proof of Sammy’s involvement.”

  “Yipes,” Trixie said, suddenly turning pale. “I just had a terrible thought.”

  “What’s that?” Jim asked.

  “Well,” Trixie said, “if we assume that Sammy stole Hoppy, and that the bell tower man is Sammy’s partner, then that involves Miss Lawler, too.” Honey gasped. “You’re right, Trixie. Because we saw Miss Lawler and the bell tower man together— and it looked like they knew each other.”

  Brian shrugged. “That would mean that the three of them are partners,” he said.

  “And,” Mart added, “they probably stole Mr. Quinn’s coin collection, too. It all fits.”

  “It sure looks like it,” Trixie admitted sadly. “But Jim is right—we don’t have any way to prove that any of them are involved.”

  “We do have a lot of things that should be tinned over to Sergeant Molinson, right away,” Jim pointed out. “I suggest we head for Manor House, get the station wagon, and go to town right now.”

  “We need to get Mayor Davis’s card, too,” Trixie remembered. “Let’s go back to Crabapple Farm. We can go to town in Brian’s jalopy... assuming it’s still running after you worked on it this morning.”

  “It’s running better than ever,” Brian assured her. “Lets go!”

  Mrs. Belden and Bobby were not yet back when the young people filed into the kitchen half an hour later.

  “I’ll leave a note for Moms,” Trixie said, “telling her that we went into town.”

  “We may be a while,” Jim cautioned.

  “I’ll tell Moms we’ll get dinner at Wimpy’s,” Trixie added. “That’ll save her some trouble at dinner time tonight.”

  A few minutes later, they were crowded in Brian’s jalopy, chugging down Glen Road toward town. Trixie carried the broken spire and the other artifacts in a small grocery sack on her lap.

  Halfway there, Brian’s jalopy coughed and sputtered and
coasted to a stop. The boys jumped out and pushed the car to the side of the road, then opened the hood and peered inside.

  Trixie, still in her seat, bit her lip and tried to stop the thought that kept going through her head. We may be sending Miss Lawler to prison, she thought. She can’t be Sammy’s partner... can she?

  A Squirrel Gives a Clue • 18

  TRIXIE SAT in the backseat of Brian’s stalled jalopy and fidgeted with the sack in her lap.

  “We’ll have it going again in no time,” Brian called from behind the raised hood. “I think.”

  Trixie turned to Honey. “I’m too nervous to just sit,” she said. “Let’s get out and walk. The boys can catch up when they get the car going again.”

  “Okay,” Honey agreed.

  They told the boys that they were going to walk on ahead, and in a few minutes, the jalopy was out of sight behind them.

  “What’s bothering you, Trixie?” Honey asked as they walked down Glen Road.

  Trixie scowled. “I just can’t believe that Miss Lawler is a thief. I’m sure that Sammy stole Hoppy, and I’m pretty sine that the bell tower man is Sammy’s partner. But Miss Lawler knows both of them, and she was responsible for Mr. On inn’s coin collection—”

  “And the coin collection got stolen, too,” Honey completed.

  “Right,” Trixie said. “So if we prove that Sammy stole Hoppy, and he gets arrested... then Miss Lawler will probably end up in jail, too.”

  “But we can’t prove that Sammy stole Hoppy,” Honey reminded her. “All we can prove is that Hoppy was hidden in the woods.”

  “That’s the other thing that’s bothering me,” Trixie said. “There must be a way to prove that Sammy stole Hoppy. I just can’t figure out what it is.”

  Trixie and Honey glanced over their shoulders from time to time, but there was no sign of Brian’s jalopy. Before long, they were on the outskirts of town.

  Honey giggled. “I guess we should have taken the station wagon after all,” she said.

  Trixie nodded and looked at her watch. “I don’t know whether we should go to Sergeant Molinson right now or wait for the boys.”