The Red Trailer Mystery

A Search Begins • 1

    TRIXIE saw her father s car turn into the driveway from Glen Road, and she raced out of the back door to stop him before he reached the garage.
    "Dad! Dad!" she shouted. "We re going on a trailer trip, Honey Wheeler and I, with her governess, Miss Trask, to try and find Jim Frayne, who has run away again."
    Mr. Belden stopped the car by the steps leading to the back terrace. He leaned out of the window, smiling, but there was a puzzled frown on his face, too. "What on earth are you talking about, Trixie? Who is Jim Frayne?"
    Trixie put her arm on the car door. "He’s old Mr. Frayne’s great-nephew, Dad," she said, remembering that her parents hadn’t guessed the secret of the Mansion. "And now that Mr. Frayne is dead, Jim is his sole heir to a fortune of over half a million dollars. Isn’t that wonderful?"
    Mr. Belden nodded. "So they found the missing heir at last? When I left to drive your mother and Bobby to the seashore, they were still looking for the widow and her son."
    "Jim’s mother is dead, Dad," Trixie said. "And he ran away from his stepfather, who beat him and made him work on his farm for nothing. And Honey and I found him," Trixie went on excitedly, "and brought him food while he was hiding in the Mansion, but now he’s run away again. And, oh, Dad, I forgot to tell you, the old Mansion burned to the ground last night."
    Mr. Belden glanced up at the ruins on the eastern hill above the hollow. "I thought I smelled stale smoke when I turned onto Glen Road," he said soberly. "That crumbling old house must have burned like tinder. It’s a wonder, in the drought we’ve been having until the rain this morning, that the fire didn’t spread through the woods to our place and the Wheeler estate."
    "We were awfully afraid it would," Trixie told him as he got out of the car and walked with her to sit on the terrace. "And, Dad, this morning when Honey and I were up there, Mr. Rainsford arrived from New York. He’s the executor of the estate, you know, and he was looking for Jim because Mr. Frayne left all his
    money In trust for his nephew's son, who is Jim, you see. But Jim doesn’t know that because he ran away early this morning. So now we’ve got to find him, Honey and L That’s why were going on the trailer trip in the Wheeler’s Silver Swan, which is really the darlingest little house on wheels you ever saw." Trixie reached out and clutched her father’s sleeve, begging, "Please, Dad, say I can go, please! Miss Trask, Honey’s governess, is a wonderful driver and the best sport in the world. She has already phoned Honey’s parents in Canada for permission, and Mr. Rainsford is counting on our help."
    Mr. Belden laughed and patted Trixie’s brown hand. "It looks like it’s pretty much settled, and I can’t see any reason why I should object if Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler approve of the trip. But I don’t quite see why a trailer trip is necessary. Couldn’t Mr. Rains-f ord advertise in the papers for Jim and put detectives on his trail? It seems to me—"
    "Oh, no, Dad," Trixie put in quickly, "that would ruin everything. Jonesy, Jim’s stepfather, is his legal guardian, and Jim has made up his mind that he will never, never go back and live with him. Jonesy thinks Jim died in the fire last night—that’s what the morning papers said—so now he has stopped looking for him. Jonesy doesn’t care anything about Jim, Dad. He just wants to get control of the Frayne money. If anything appears in the papers about Jim being still alive, Jonesy will start looking for him again, and then Jim will run away and hide so we’ll never find him."
    "I’m beginning to understand something of what you’re saying." Mr. Belden smiled. "But if Jim’s stepfather is as cruel as you claim he is, why can’t Mr. Rainsford take the matter to court and have another guardian appointed?"
    "He’s working on that now, Dad," Trixie said. "He’s even got written proof from Jonesy’s neighbors and everything, but the point is, weve got to find Jim first and tell him all that before Jonesy even guesses that Jim isn’t dead."
    Trixie hugged her knees, rocking back and forth. "Oh, Dad, Jim is really the most wonderful boy I ever knew. His ambition in life is to own and run a camp for orphan boys, so they can learn how to be good at sports and how to get dong in tie woods at the same time that they have school lessons. So that’s why we feel sure he’s faying now to get a job at one of those