The Mystery of the Whispering Witch

promised. “After all, if I’m spending the night, you could say it’s to my advantage to see that Bobby gets off to sleep pronto!”
    Trixie smiled as Honey left the room. She thought, as she had so many times before, how glad she was that her friend felt almost as much at home at Crabapple Farm as she herself did.
    The Beldens enjoyed a quiet but comfortable life at the old farmhouse, situated near the east bank of the beautiful Hudson River in New York.
    Honey lived in nearby Manor House. It was a more luxurious and stately home than Trixie’s, with grounds that included a stable filled with horses, a lake for swimming and boating in the summer, and a game preserve that covered many acres.
    Trixie and Honey, both fourteen years old, had been friends from the first moment they’d met. Honey was taller and slimmer than Trixie. Her real name was Madeleine, though no one had called her that for a very long time. Her nickname had come about because of her lovely shoulder-length golden hair and her sweet disposition.
    Almost at once, the two girls had become involved in many exciting adventures and puzzling mysteries.
    While Trixie and Honey were solving their first two mysteries, they had also rescued red-haired Jim Frayne from the clutches of his cruel stepfather.
    Soon afterward, Honey’s parents had adopted Jim. Now Jim, Trixie, Honey, Brian, and Mart belonged to a semisecret club, together with Diana Lynch, who lived on a magnificent estate nearby, and Dan Mangan, nephew of Regan, the Wheelers’ groom. They called themselves the Bob-Whites of the Glen.
    Tonight, however, Trixie wasn’t even thinking about the Bob-Whites, or even about the detective agency she and Honey hoped to open one day. She was too intent on trying to solve the riddle of her last math problem.
    “Listen to this, Reddy,” she said, nudging the Irish setter once more. She picked up her math book and read aloud, “ ‘Take two apples from three apples and what do you have?’ ”
    Reddy’s eyes popped open, and he raised his head.
    “Well, come on,” Trixie said impatiently. “What’s the answer? I’ll bet you think this is an easy one, right? I’ll bet you’re thinking to yourself, Take two apples from three apples , and you have one apple. ”
    Reddy gathered his legs under him and lurched to his feet.
    “But that’s the answer I gave in class today,” Trixie continued, “and it’s wrong. Do you hear me, you dumb dog? It’s wrong!”
    Reddy growled deep in his throat. Then, to her astonishment, he barked loud and long.
    For a moment, Trixie thought that Reddy had understood every word she’d said—particularly her statement concerning his intelligence, which she hadn’t meant. A second later, though, she understood the family pet’s agitation. Someone was pounding urgently on the front door.
    Just before she hurried to see who could be calling on them at nine o’clock at night, Trixie flung over her shoulder at Reddy, “Whoever it is, I hope they’re better at math than you are.”
    Reddy, apparently deciding that he’d done his canine duty for the time being, merely tried to look wise, smug, and reproachful all at once and promptly collapsed again onto the kitchen floor. He had gone back to sleep before Trixie even left the room.
    Reddy’s barking had also summoned Brian, Mart, and Honey. As Trixie reached the front door, the three were hurrying down the stairs.
    “Who is it?” Brian called.
    “Methinks our sibling is not gifted with X-ray vision,” Mart said loftily from behind him. “Let her open yon portal first. Then, mayhap, she can respond to your interrogation.”
    Trixie grinned as she opened ‘yon portal,’ but her grin faded as she found herself staring at the slight, disheveled figure of one of her classmates, Fay Franklin. Fay was new in the neighborhood, having moved to Sleepyside-on-the-Hudson with her mother only a few weeks before.
    There was no doubt that Fay was upset. Her winter jacket looked as if it had been thrown hastily around her slim shoulders. Her short, dark curls were tumbled about her pretty face, which, at the moment, seemed pale with shock.
    “Why, Fay!” Trixie exclaimed in surprise. “What is it? Is something wrong?”
    It was soon obvious that Fay was too breathless to do anything more than lean against the doorjamb and gaze at the circle of concerned young faces around her.
    Willing hands reached toward her and drew her into the warm, cozy living room.
    Fay