The Mystery at Maypenny's

can understand that,” she said. “But I don’t understand how we can catch him.”
    Trixie thought for a moment. “We’ll sneak out late tonight and go to his camp. Then we’ll just wait. He must plant those ducks at night; that’s the only time those woods aren’t swarming with inspectors. If we wait long enough, we’ll see something that will prove he’s guilty. I just know it.”
    A few moments later the girls parted, having made plans to meet on the path after dark.

Terror! ● 13

    THAT NIGHT, Trixie waited at the meeting place for several minutes before Honey appeared. She was beginning to wonder if her friend had been unable to leave the house when she heard the Bob-White whistle— bob , bob-white —that Jim had taught them.
    Trixie whistled back, and soon Honey was at her side. “I’d almost given up,” whispered Trixie.
    “Mother and Daddy were talking in the library. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get past them, so I waited,” Honey told her.
    “Did they hear you leave?” Trixie asked.
    Honey shook her head. “I finally went downstairs, thinking I could just say I was getting a glass of milk, and I saw that the library doors were closed. No sound can get through them.” Trixie nodded, remembering the heavy wooden doors to the library at the Manor House.
    “What do we do now?” Honey asked.
    “We’ll just walk down the path until we come to the ravine where John Score’s car is hidden,” Trixie said. “Go slowly and keep your eyes open. We don’t want to run into him accidentally, as we did the other day.”
    The girls walked on without speaking, trying not to make any noise. Once or twice they tripped over tree roots growing in the path, and Trixie wished silently that she’d remembered to bring a flashlight.
    The girls were almost to the ravine when they heard the sound of a car coming toward them. They looked at each other in surprise—the woods were usually deserted at this time of night.
    “I bet it’s him,” Trixie whispered. “He may already have planted the ducks and be coming back. Hide!”
    The girls darted off the path and hid themselves behind some bushes. They strained their eyes in the darkness, expecting to see John Score’s battered green car.
    What they saw instead was a shiny new car with New York State license plates. As the car passed them, Trixie recognized the driver. “It’s David Maypenny!” she exclaimed. She ran out into the road and waved her arms.
    The car slowed, then stopped. Trixie ran up alongside it, with Honey following close behind her. Trixie stuck her head through the open window on the passenger’s side of the car. “Hello!” she said, then drew her head back involuntarily as a strange smell struck her. “Whew!” she said. “What’s that?”
    “Nothing,” David Maypenny snapped. “I mean, there’s nothing in here now. I—I forgot a sandwich on the backseat for a couple of days.“
    “Oh,” Trixie said.
    “We’re really glad to see you,” Honey told David. “We tried to call you the other day, but there was no answer.”
    “You called me? Where?” David Maypenny had turned snappish again.
    “In New York City,” Honey told him. “We got your number from directory assistance.”
    “Of course,” David said, trying to sound jovial but not quite succeeding.
    I wonder what he’s so nervous about , Trixie thought. Aloud she said, “Mr. Maypenny is in a lot of trouble because of this International Pine issue. We thought you should be here with him. That’s why we’re glad to see you—because you obviously had the same idea.”
    “That’s it, of course,” David said. “I thought I should come and have another try at making peace with my uncle. There’s no point in letting one little disagreement come between us, now, is there?”
    As David spoke, Trixie found herself wondering again about the strange smell in his car. The smell of a spoiled sandwich wouldn’t linger so strongly after it had been thrown out. She peered through the darkness into the backseat. There was a burlap bag tied with rope and filled with something lumpy.
    “What are you looking at?” David Maypenny barked.
    Trixie looked up so fast that she bumped her head on the top of the window. Suddenly she realized what was happening, as if the jolt had caused all the pieces to fall into place: the funny smell, the burlap bag, David Maypenny’s appearance in the woods late at night....
    “Ducks!” she said. “You have ducks in that