The Red Trailer Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page B

in the crook of her arm and stumbled into the woods. Trixie and Honey watched her until she disappeared down a path that wound around the hill and away from where the red trailer was parked.

An Awkward Moment • 4

    THE GIRLS put on their swimsuits, took a quick swim in the lake, then dressed in dry playsuits. The roast potatoes Miss Trask had cooked were delicious with the broiled hamburgers and tomatoes. They toasted marshmallows on long sticks and ate so many of them Miss Trask said they would be sick.
    "I can’t get used to Honey’s new appetite," she told Trixie. "You know, before she met you she hardly ate a thing."
    Honey smiled, her mouth too full to speak, and Trixie said, "I wonder what the red trailer family had for lunch. They all look half-starved."
    "I wish we could do something for them," Honey said. "I couldn’t bear it when Joeanne stumbled off in the woods crying. What do you suppose makes them so unhappy?"
    "I can’t understand any of it," Trixie said as she burned the paper plates and wiped the forks with a paper napkin.
    They threw dirt on the dying embers of the fire to make sure it was out. Then Miss Trask said, "Why don’t you two ride in the trailer? Perhaps you could take naps. Nobody had much sleep last night."
    "All right," Trixie and Honey agreed, and in a few minutes they were ready to start. They had just got the dogs safely inside when they saw the red trailer coming around the lake. It stopped beside the Swan, and the shaggy-haired man got out. He walked a few steps toward the girls, then hesitated and turned to go back.
    "Hello," Honey called. "Can we do something for you?"
    He wheeled, stared at them for a minute as though trying to make up his mind about something, then came closer.
    "Did you see my little girl?" he asked in a queer, low voice. "The one with the black braids?"
    "Yes," Honey and Trixie said together. "She brought back the puppy just before lunch."
    The man nodded. "We haven’t seen her since then. Did you notice where she went?"
    "Through the woods," Trixie said, pointing. "We wondered why she went off in the opposite direction from where you were parked."
    The man’s shoulders slumped. "Then she meant what she said," he sighed, more to himself than to them. "I didn’t think she’d do it." His face was expressionless, but he let out a groan of despair as he turned and walked slowly back to the Robin. He climbed into the driver’s seat, said something which they couldn’t hear to his wife, and drove away down the road.
    Honey and Trixie stared at each other in amazement. "He’s gone off and left her wandering around in the woods," Honey gasped. "Oh, Trixie, what’ll we do?"
    "We can’t do anything," Trixie said. "We’d never find her in those thick woods, especially since it looks as though she doesn’t want to be found!"
    Miss Trask called to them from the tow car. "All aboard, you two! We must get started if we want to reach Autoville before dark."
    Trixie and Honey climbed aboard the Swan, and Honey stretched out on the davenport. Trixie clambered up to her bunk.
    "You watch from your window," Trixie said. "And I’ll watch from mine. Maybe we’ll pass Joeanne on the road. If she’s run away from her family, she may have hidden beside the main highway until she saw the Robin go past. It would be easier walking on the road than through the woods."
    "But we don’t know which direction she’ll take," Honey said. "If she goes south we’ll never find her."
    "Well, she was going north when we saw her last," Trixie pointed out to Honey.
    "Why do you suppose she ran away, if she did?" Honey wondered out loud.
    "The only reason I can think of," Trixie said after thinking for a minute, "is that her father must be so cruel to her that she couldn’t bear it any longer."
    "I don’t think he is cruel," Honey broke in. "He didn’t look mean when he asked us if we’d seen her back at the lake. He looked—well, sort of beaten. I felt sorry for him."
    "Well, I