The Mystery of the Queen's Necklace

from that horrible man,” she pointed out, “not chase after him. So he tried to get my necklace. He didn’t get it, did he? And there wasn’t all that much in my handbag, Trix. He can have it. I never want to see that horrid little man again.”
    “Why does everybody think we ought to let him go,” Trixie complained, “when he’s important to our case? Maybe he knows something about the necklace that we don’t.”
    “How could he possibly know anything about it? He hasn’t even seen it.”
    “I don’t know how,” Trixie admitted. “But why would he follow us all the way from London if he didn’t know something?”
    “He probably thinks it’s more valuable than it is,” Honey said. “He must think the jewels are real, and we did say my necklace looked like Queen Elizabeth’s in the Wax Museum.”
    “Not as much as it looks like the one in Warwick Castle!” Trixie said enthusiastically. “I think we ought to take your necklace along with us and compare it with the one in the portrait. If your mother gets here in time, maybe she could go along—then she could see it’s the same, too. And she might persuade the guard to let us get up closer.”
    “Sure,” Honey said, “then out pops Gray Cap from behind a knight in armor, and this time he gets the necklace.”
    “No, sir, this time we get him,” Trixie said. “We catch him with the goods, so nobody can say we can’t prove anything. We’ll have Jim and Mart with us, and Gregory wants to go along. There’s scads of us, but only one of him. I think.”
    “You think—what’s that supposed to mean?” When Trixie wanted to, she could sound very mysterious, and Honey leaned forward, totally wide awake.

A Strange Disappearance ● 16

    THAT’S WHAT I’VE been trying to tell you,” said Trixie. “I must have been dreaming about the case last night, and that’s what my subconscious came up with—that the pieces of the puzzle don’t quite fit together unless—unless there’s more than one person in on it.”
    “Oh, woe,” Honey groaned, rolling back onto the bed. “After we leave, they’re going to change the name of this room from the Rose Room to the Nut Room! Are you trying to tell me that there’s more than one pickpocket after us?” Then she turned serious. “Come to think of it, Trix, you’ve seen Gray Cap more times than any of the rest of us have. Is he more than one person?”
    “I’m still kind of hazy about it in my own mind,” admitted Trixie. “I’m going to have to think about it some more. Tell you what—let’s get up and pack now so we can get that over with. Then we could go over to the stables and see if Gregory’s there and if he’ll let us go riding before breakfast.”
    When the girls arrived at the stables an hour later, they found Jim and Gregory saddling up for a ride.
    “Where’s Mart?” asked Trixie.
    “Buried under a pillow,” Jim chuckled.
    Gregory insisted that the girls and Jim take out the three horses. “My father’s too busy to ride this morning,” he said, “and I really should get on with my chores. There’s something I want to be sure to attend to before you leave for the States.”
    Now, that sounds mysterious, Trixie thought as Gregory strode off.
    The country air was exhilarating, and the three riders were a few minutes late for breakfast. Trixie was about to announce that she was as hungry as a horse, when Andrew Hart appeared in the entrance to the Crimson Room. I bet he can hardly wait for us to go back to America, Trixie thought.
    “Let me know when you are ready to check out,” he told them, then turned on his heels and left as abruptly as he had come.
    “I hope he didn’t mind my riding Black Prince.” Jim looked worried. “Gregory said his father almost always rides the stallion himself, but he had too much to do today to get ready for the ‘hordes of barbarians’ he expects tomorrow.”
    “Poor Mr. Hart,” Honey said. “I think it’s terrible that he has to take in tourists when he hates it so much.”
    “Anne says he’ll get used to it,” Mart said. “She told me it takes him a long time to adjust to change. When his wife died, he almost had a breakdown. So I don’t think his attitude toward us is anything personal. Another thing Anne told me while you were out prancing around was that she told Gregory last night about Honey’s necklace matching the one in the castle. He says he has an idea about Honey’s necklace, but he wants to check it