The Secret of the Mansion (16 page)

“Don’t talk too late,” she cautioned as she left them alone. “At least, not loud enough for me to hear you,” she finished with a laugh.

“She’s really a great sport,” Trixie whispered as she snuggled under the dainty sheet. “If I had to have a governess, I’d pick her every time.”

“I love her,” Honey confided. “You should have seen the one I had before Miss Trask came. She was Mother’s secretary, too, because, of course, when I was

away from home, there was nothing else for her to do. Mother liked her, but I couldn’t stand her near me.”

“What was the matter with her?” Trixie asked sleepily. “Oh, everything.” Honey sat bolt upright in bed. “I

165 can’t sleep with all that moonlight pouring through the windows, but it’s too hot to pull down the shades. Stay awake, Trixie, and I’ll tell you about

Miss Lefferts.”

“Okay.” Trixie suppressed a yawn and tried to prop her tired eyelids open. “What about Miss Lefferts?” “Why, she was about six feet tall and she must have

weighed two hundred pounds.” Honey giggled. “And yet she never made a sound when she walked. She was always sneaking up behind me and asking me if I’d

done my piano lessons or embroidering or letter writing. She almost drove me crazy. She was the one who bought all those silly clothes in my closets and

bureau drawers. She simply couldn’t resist anything with lace and ruffles on it. Wouldn’t she have a fit if she saw me in dungarees?”

“She sounds like something out of a book,” Trixie said, between a yawn and a laugh. “I’ll have a nightmare myself if you keep on talking about her. How

did you happen to get rid of her?”

“That’s the funny part of it,” Honey said thoughtfully. “And I guess it proves you’re right about me and my mother. When they brought me home from the school

infirmary, there was Miss Lefferts waiting for me, armed to the teeth with all sorts of deadly dull projects which I could do in bed. I took one look at

her and burst into tears.”

185 166 “I should think you would have,” Trixie said sympathetically. “Then what?”

“Why, then,” Honey went on, “Daddy and Mother got awfully upset and asked me what was the matter. I couldn’t stop crying, but finally I began to talk about

Miss Trask and how much I liked her. She was the math instructor at school, and we got to be friendly, because I’m not very good at algebra and needed

special tutoring. She told me how she had to support an invalid sister, and I knew Daddy paid Miss Lefferts much more than the school paid Miss Trask.

Anyway, I never saw Miss Lefferts again, and when school closed at the end of May, Miss; Trask arrived to be my new governess. I think she’s just perfect!”

Honey was silent for a while after that, and Trixie was just dozing off when she heard a strange, scratching sound at the door. She leaned on her elbow

and saw that Honey was sound asleep. In spite of herself, Trixie felt little shivers run up and down her spine. There were so many big,. empty rooms in

the house, and, except for the scratching, it was as quiet as a tomb.

Trixie suddenly felt homesick. She had never spent the night aw,-:ay from her family before in all her life, and she wished now that she were in her own

bed across the hall from Bobby. The scratching continued, and then she

186 167 heard a little, snuffling whine on the other side of the door.

It must be Honey’s little cocker puppy, she thought with relief as she scrambled out of bed to let Buddy in. The puppy wriggled with joy when she opened

the door, and Trixie scooped him up into her arms. “Were you lonely, too, Bud?” she crooned, nestling him against her pajama top.

Honey woke up, then. “Oh, I forgot to let Buddy in,” she cried. “I’m sorry he woke you up. He always sleeps on the rug by my bed.”

The puppy jumped out of Trixie’s arms to lick Honey’s face, then curled up happily beside her. In a few minutes, both girls were sound asleep. When Trixie

opened her eyes again, sunlight was flooding the room, and Celia was standing in the doorway with a tray heaped high with two delicious breakfasts.

187 168

Mr. Lytell’s Curiosity

Jim stared at them in amazement when the girls appeared at the Mansion after breakfast, leading Jupiter. “Regan knows all about you,” Honey said, answering

the question in his eyes. “We didn’t tell. He saw us yesterday morning from his room over the garage.” Jim’s broad shoulders slumped. “Then that does it.

He’ll tell the police, of course.”

“Oh, no, he won’t,” Trixie put in. “He won’t tell anybody, Jim. And he wants you to ride Jupe. He said so.” Jim looked worried but he grinned. “Regan must

be some guy!” He swung up on the back of the big black gelding, and as Jupiter began to prance, anxious to be off, the worried expression on Jim’s face

faded into one of sheer delight. “I guess I’ll risk it,” he said. “I won’t be around much longer, anyway. What have we here?” He pointed to the saddle

bags in which Honey had packed the lunch.

“Sandwiches and cake and milk.” Honey smiled. “We’re going to ride through the trails on the other side of Glen Road and have a picnic in the woods.”

188 169 “Swell.” Jim’s legs were almost as long as Regan’s, so he pulled up the stirrup leather only one notch. He was an expert horseman, Trixie could

see at once, and, no matter how much Jupiter reared and danced, Jim never moved an inch from the saddle. “You make me think of a centaur,” she said. “You

sort of blend right into that horse.”

Jim’s green eyes sparkled. “What I wouldn’t give to own this fellow! And I bet I could get his mouth in shape in a couple of weeks. The fellow who schooled

Jupe probably used a spade bit on him, that’s why he fights the bit so now. With a little gentle handling, he’d respond to a snaffle in no time.”

“Dad’s got awfully heavy hands,” Honey admitted. “He loves horses and is one of the best riders in the Squadron, but he hasn’t much patience. He loses his

temper very quickly. Sometimes he scares me.” She led the way down the rutted road from the Mansion. “He’s like Regan, though. He gets mad and gets over

it so fast it sort of leaves you breathless.”

“That’s the kind of guy I like,” Jim said, as he forced Jupiter to walk down behind Lady. “Jonesy is just the opposite. He broods a lot, and it takes him

a long time to work himself up into a rage, and when he does, he goes almost insane. If he beat me in a moment of

189 170 anger, I wouldn’t mind it so much. Then it would be over and done with quickly. I can tell in the morning when he’s mad about something, and it

smolders in him all day long, and I go around waiting for the moment when he’s going to grab me and drag me out to the barn.” He chuckled. “He’s working

himself up into a lather now, I bet. He’d half kill me if he ever caught me.”

Trixie shuddered inwardly. “That must never happen,” she told herself. “Never, never.”

At the foot of the hill, Jim reined in Jupiter behind a clump of bushes while the girls made sure that nobody was in sight. Jupiter reared impatiently.

When they had safely crossed Glen Road, Jim let him out. The big horse pounded along the trail, well in the lead, and when Jim thought Jupe had had enough

of a run, he stopped and waited for Trixie and Honey to catch up. Foam dripped from the horse’s mouth as he worried the bit. Jim patted his neck soothingly.

“There, there, boy. They’ve got you all strapped up in a martingale so you can’t rear as high as you’d like, haven’t they? If you were mine,” Jim said,

half to himself, half aloud, “I’d let you rear your head off. I know what it’s like to be tied up. The first time I ran away, jonesy caught me and tied

me, hand and foot, to the bed for three days. I thought I’d go crazy.”

190 171 “Oh,” Honey gasped. “How awful! How did you ever have the nerve to run away again?”

Jim shrugged. “It wasn’t so much nerve as it was sheer desperation. And the straw that broke the camel’s back was the way he jeered when I told him I’d

won a scholarship to college. I’d made up my mind, you see, to stick it out for another year, because, once I got into college, the worst would be over.

I worked like anything to do two years in one and still keep at the head of the class.” He grinned. “And I don’t like to study much, either. Geometry practically

threw me, but it was like a game. Anything to get away from Jonesy. And then, when everything was all set, he announced that he wasn’t going to let me

go to college. Said it would be a waste of time, because I’d flunk out the first year. Gosh, it was all I could do to keep from socking him.”

“I don’t see why you didn’t,” Trixie cried impulsively. “I bet you could beat him up.”

Jim laughed. “I don’t know about that. Jonesy’s a powerful man, even though he’s so stoop-shouldered he isn’t much taller than I am. But, anyway, you don’t

go around socking older people. You just beat it.”

“Whatever do you suppose made him such a beast?” Honey wondered. “He sounds crazy to me.”

“He is crazy,” Jim told her. “Crazy about money. You

191 172 might think Uncle James was a miser, Trixie, but you don’t know jonesy. He’s kept books on how much it’s cost him ever since I went to live with

him. He put down every penny he gave me for a pad or pencil, even postage stamps, and he watched every mouthful of food I ate, weighing and measuring it.”

“Golly,” Trixie breathed. “Did he starve you, too, Jim?”

“No, he didn’t do that,” Jim said. “I was like an animal that had to be kept well-fed so it could work hard. He always had me checked by a doctor regularly,

and he saw to it that I had good shoes and warm clothing. If he hadn’t, the neighbors would have reported him to the police. But they know about the beatings.

One of them interfered once, and jonesy was so scared he didn’t touch me for several days after that. He’s smart. If the neighbors complained, another

guardian might be appointed, and jonesy would lose control of Uncle James’s money. Not that I think there is any.”

“Ten thousand dollars is a lot of money,” Trixie insisted. “It would see you through college, anyway.” “If the place isn’t mortgaged,” Jim reminded her.

“And if Uncle James didn’t make another will. Anyway, jonesy can have it. I guess I’ve cost him that much in the last five years.”

192 173 They cantered along silently for a while, and when they came to a gate Jim and Honey sailed over it.

“Oh, please, let me try it,” Trixie begged. “I know I can do it! I know I can.”

Jim reached over to unhook the rope which held the wooden bars in place. “No, sir,” he said firmly. “We’re not going to do anything to get Regan mad at

us. All you need is a broken collarbone to make everything just dandy.”

Trixie bit her lip as the gate swung open and Lady walked through. “It looks so easy,” she complained. “Well, it’s not,” Jim told her. “There’s a trick

to jumping. If you got panicky and pulled on the reins instead of giving the horse his head, you could have a nasty accident. Also, Lady would sense that

you’re a beginner, and she might refuse at the last minute. You’d go sailing over her head, which wouldn’t be any fun.” He smiled at Trixie’s flushed face.

“Take it easy, kid. Start with a foot-high hurdle and work up. There’s no sense in getting a lot of broken ribs unless you have to.”

Trixie knew he was right, so she walked meekly around the next barrier without a word. When the sun was high in the sky they stopped for lunch beside a

shallow stream. The horses drank thirstily and grazed quietly in the shade, even Jupiter being grateful for a chance to rest and cool off.

193 174 “It’s at moments like this,” Jim said, stretching out on the soft pine needles under the branches of the huge evergreens, “that I forget all about

Jonesy. It’s the nights I hate. The floors in that old house groan and creak all night long, and I keep waking up expecting to find jonesy standing over

me with a whip in his hands.”

“I hate the nights, too,” Honey said sympathetically. “And I don’t see how you can stay in that eerie place all alone. I bet it’s full of rats.”

“Mice,” Jim said, “but I don’t mind them. They’re kind of friendly, and one of them’s practically tame, so he must have been Uncle James’s pet. By the way,

you haven’t heard anything more about my uncle, have you? “

Trixie shook her head. “No, but Dad’s going to stop at the hospital sometime today, so I’ll have news this evening.” She rolled over and sat up. “We really

ought to be starting back. I haven’t the faintest idea where we are. Has anybody else?”

“Not me,” Honey admitted. “But then, I have absolutely no sense of direction.”

Jim held up his hand warningly. “Somebody’s riding along the trail.” He leaped on Jupiter’s back. “I’d better hide behind those bushes on the other side

of the brook.”

When Jupiter and Jim had disappeared, Honey

194 175 edged Strawberry closer to Lady. “I’m scared,” she said. “Maybe we’re trespassing.”

“I think this land belongs to the State,” Trixie whispered back, “but I’m not sure.” And then the horse and rider came around the bend in the trail. “It’s

Mr. Lytell,” Trixie breathed. “Golly, I forgot the store is closed on Tuesdays on account of being open Sundays.”

Mr. Lytell was riding a gray, sway-backed mare with gaunt hipbones and discouraged-looking eyes. She stumbled to a stop beside Lady and immediately hung