The Red Trailer Mystery (22 page)

“Well, there isn’t much to tell,” Jim said. “I bought a bike and headed for this part of the country. Rigged up a camp in the woods and tried to get a job at one of those boys’ camps I told you about. But no luck. I found Joeanne caught by her hair to a bramble bush and turned my camp over to her while I moved to the old barn down there in the hollow.” He grinned. “You seem to know more about those trailer thieves than I do, although how you knew I loosened the core valve on their tire is more than I can guess.”

Trixie explained and when she had finished Jim chuckled. “If I’d only known Mr. Darnell was on their trail too, I wouldn’t have worried so. But, as a matter of fact, I was pretty sure the troopers would find that van while it was still hitched up to the stolen trailer. Then all they had to do was wait there calmly until Al and Jeff 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 biked 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,” Honey wondered out loud. “Why does she want us over there?”

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 was introduced to 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 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 uncomfortable, and Mrs. Wheeler touched his hand lightly with her long, tapering fingers. “You don’t have to answer now, Jim,” she said quietly. “We’d like to take out adoption papers right away, but it wouldn’t be fair not to give you a chance to get to know us better first.”

Jim grinned, his embarrassment gone. “It isn’t that, Mrs. Wheeler,” he said sincerely. “I know Honey and there isn’t anyone I’d rather have for a sister. But you and Mr. Wheeler don’t know anything about
me
.”

“We know more than you think,” Mrs. Wheeler said quickly.

Trixie couldn’t keep silent another minute. “He’s just great, Mrs. Wheeler,” she exploded, and then she told them all about how Jim had taken care of Joeanne and had fixed the tire on the trailer thieves’ van, and how
Mrs. Smith wanted him to stay with her forever and ever.

“If you don’t adopt him,
she
will,” Trixie finished breathlessly while Jim, who had tried to interrupt her several times, sighed aloud with relief.

“Oh, heck,” he groaned, “Trixie’s trying to make me out a hero. Don’t pay any attention to her!”

Honey reached over and tapped her father’s knee to get his attention. “Please, Daddy,” she begged. “Adopt Jim right this minute. You don’t know Mrs. Smith. She’s the smartest woman I ever heard of. If you don’t watch out, she’ll get him first.”

Jim burst into laughter. “Mrs. Smith will have her hands full with that Darnell family.” He sobered suddenly and said to Mr. Wheeler, “I don’t know how you feel about it, sir, but as far as I’m concerned I’d consider myself very lucky if
you’d
consider trying me out for the rest of the summer.”

“Consider!” Mr. Wheeler’s sandy eyebrows shot up. “We’ve been trying to tell you for the past half hour that we would consider ourselves lucky if you’d consider having us.”

Mrs. Wheeler broke in with a tinkling little laugh. “Oh, Matthew,” she giggled, “you and all your
considers
. For heaven’s sake, tell the boy and Mr. Rainsford that they can consider the matter settled.”

“Now, you’re doing it, Mother.” Honey smiled. “Oh, Jim, it
is
settled, isn’t it?”

Jim’s green eyes sparkled, and a slow grin spread over his freckled face. “From where I sit, it is, Sis, so you’d better watch your step from now on.”

Trixie knew she was going to burst into tears of joy any minute, so she jumped up and ran out.

She turned as a husky voice behind her said, “They’re waiting for you at a table inside.” Jim gave her a little push. “In you go, kid; I’m top man around here now.”

Trixie tossed her head, grinning. “Just wait till Brian and Mart come back from camp, Jim Frayne. Then we’ll see who’s boss around here.”

But she followed Jim meekly through the door, already planning the fun they would have during the warm September days before school opened. She and Honey would learn to shoot so they could go hunting with the boys in the fall and in the winter there would be sledding down the steep hill from the Wheeler house and skating on the lake.

“Sometimes,” she decided, “dreams
do
come true.”