Summer Rider

As they passed Barry, Stevie paused. She was dying to find out if her blackmail theory was correct. In books and movies, detectives were always getting people to confess with well-timed, probing questions. Maybe she could do the same thing to get Barry to reveal his troubles.

Ignoring Carole’s disapproving look, Stevie walked over to Barry. “Hi,” she said, trying to sound casual. “Looking for anything in particular? A little extra money to pay off some debts, for instance?”

Even Stevie couldn’t have predicted Barry’s reaction. “Wh-What?” he stammered. “I mean, uh, no! Not at all—nothing’s wrong. Why don’t you leave me alone?”

Before the surprised girls could say a word, Barry whirled and raced out the door.

“P
SST
—L
ISA
. H
EY
, Lisa!” Stevie Lake said in a loud stage whisper.

Lisa Atwood tore her attention away from the Moose Hill Riding Camp instructor in the center of the ring and gave her friend a questioning glance.

Stevie checked to make sure the instructor hadn’t heard her. “Did you see the T-shirt Todd’s wearing today?” she whispered to Lisa. “He looks pretty cute in it, don’t you think?”

Lisa sighed and rolled her eyes. She should have known. “You’d better not let Phil catch you talking that way,” she said with a weak smile.

“Very funny,” Stevie replied. Phil Marsten was Stevie’s boyfriend. The couple had met during Stevie’s first stay at Moose Hill, and she had been hoping to relive a lot of
romantic moments at camp this year. But for the first week, Phil had spent most of his free time hanging out with his cabin mate, Todd. Eventually she had felt so neglected that she had stopped talking to Phil for a few days, but the couple had made up. Now that she was friends with Phil again, she was friends with Todd, too. And for the past several days she had been dropping not-so-subtle hints to Lisa about how terrific he was.

The instructor, oblivious to Stevie’s whispers, was still talking. “You’re training your horse every time you ride him,” he said. “Even if you’re just going for a leisurely trail ride, the horse is learning from you all the time. His training never ends.”

What he was saying was interesting, but Stevie had heard most of it before from her own riding instructor, Max Regnery, at Pine Hollow Stables. She leaned toward Lisa again. “Todd was really funny at breakfast this morning, wasn’t he?” she said. “His imitation of Barry was a riot.”

“Uh-huh,” Lisa said, doing her best to listen to Stevie and the instructor at the same time. She
had
thought Todd’s imitation of the camp director was pretty funny. That didn’t mean she wanted to date him, though. She had too many other things on her mind—like paying attention in class so she could do well in the big horse show at the end of camp. It was less than two weeks away, and she knew she had a lot to learn before then.

Stevie opened her mouth to make another comment about Todd, but at that moment the instructor turned and looked at her. She shut her mouth and smiled innocently, while Lisa heaved a sigh of relief. Maybe now she would be able to pay attention.

Meanwhile, Carole Hanson, who was in the same riding class, hadn’t heard a word of the exchange between her two best friends. For the past few days she had hardly noticed a thing besides her horse, Starlight. The big bay gelding had arrived at Moose Hill on Saturday, two days earlier. Carole had spent the first two weeks of camp riding a different horse, a skittish Appaloosa named Ditto. She and Ditto hadn’t gotten along at all, but that just made her appreciate Starlight all the more now that he was here. She couldn’t wait to ride him in the big show.

“It’s important for you and your horse to remember that you, the rider, are in charge,” the instructor told the class. “But I happen to believe it’s equally important to think of everything you do as a partnership, a joint effort with each of you doing your part. In that way, you could say that riding is all about teamwork.”

Carole smiled and gave Starlight a pat on the neck. The two of them definitely made a good team.

She was still thinking about that a few minutes later when class ended. As she walked Starlight around the ring to cool him down, Stevie and Lisa joined her with their own horses.

“Pretty interesting class, huh?” Carole commented.

Stevie shrugged. “I guess. But it was the same kind of stuff Max tells us all the time.”

“True,” Carole said. “But I think it bears repeating. Teamwork between rider and horse is important.”

Suddenly Stevie’s eyes lit up. She nodded vigorously, giving Lisa a sly glance. “You’re right, Carole. It is important. So are other kinds of teamwork—between a boy and a girl, for instance.”

Carole chuckled. She knew that Stevie was trying to fix up Lisa and Todd. It was obvious that Lisa wasn’t interested, but that didn’t stop Stevie from trying. “I don’t know about that, Stevie,” Carole said. “But I know what the most important kind of teamwork is—Saddle Club teamwork.”

Stevie and Lisa wholeheartedly agreed with that. The three girls had formed The Saddle Club soon after Lisa had started riding at Pine Hollow. The club only had two rules: Members had to be horse-crazy, and they had to be willing to help each other with any problem, great or small.

Carole glanced at Starlight. The class hadn’t been very strenuous, and he was already cooled down. “Good,” she said. “Since you both agree with that, I have an important Saddle Club project for you.”

“What?” Lisa asked.

Carole grinned. “To figure out how quickly we can get these horses put away so we can go to lunch. I’m starved!”

T
WENTY MINUTES LATER
the three friends left the stable and headed toward the mess hall. They cut across the large, grassy meadow that formed the center of camp. Halfway across, Stevie stumbled over a rock and almost fell.

Carole glanced back at her. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” Stevie said, looking around for the rock. Soon she spotted it and picked it up. “But I’d better take this and toss it in the woods so one of the horses doesn’t trip on it.” As she was about to turn to follow her friends, a flash of sunlight on chrome caught her eye. She shaded her eyes and gazed at a vehicle that was pulling up in front of the rec hall, which stood across the meadow from the mess hall.

“Hey, look at that,” she said.

Her friends stopped and turned around. “What?” Lisa asked, squinting to see what Stevie was looking at.

Stevie pointed. “That car,” she said. “Doesn’t it look like the same one we’ve been seeing since the beginning of camp?”

“You mean the gangster car?” Carole asked with a smile. When The Saddle Club had first arrived at Moose Hill, they had seen a long, black sedan parked alongside the camp road. At the time, they had joked that the car looked as though it belonged in an old gangster film.