The Red Trailer Mystery by Julie Campbell

hill." And then the sound of the barking dog came nearer. In a moment they saw a large collie racing through the fields toward them. Before the girls could gather their wits, Peanuts, terrified at the sight of the angry dog, bolted and set off up the road at a run. Trixie took up the slack in her reins too late. Prince was already galloping after Honey’s big chestnut gelding.

The Black Sentinel • 8

    A LOW BRANCH slapped Trixie in the face as Prince raced up the road, with the collie barking at his heels. Tears of pain filled her blue eyes, and for a moment she was blinded. Clinging desperately to the saddle with her knees and pulling in the reins with all her might and main, she got out a few weak "Whoa’s," and then she saw that Honey, several yards ahead of her, had managed to halt Peanuts in front of a rambling white frame farmhouse.
    Trixie sighed with relief. "Prince will stop when he catches up with Peanuts," she thought, bracing herself.
    Prince was, in fact, already slowing from a dead run to a more sensible gait when a large black crow suddenly swooped down from a cherry tree beside the house. With a loud, defiant "Caw!" the crow flapped its widespread wings in Prince’s startled face.
    The horse shied violently, and the next thing Trixie knew she was sprawling in the gravel driveway. The angry collie skidded to a stop beside her and stood there, growling threateningly, while the crow, from its perch in the tree, screamed insults down at her.
    "If I lie perfectly still," Trixie decided in desperation, "the collie probably won’t come any nearer, but I wouldn’t trust that crow. He’s as mad as a hornet, and he could do a nice job on my face with his beak or claws."
    And then she heard a woman’s voice calling from the farmhouse, "Laddie, Laddie! Come right here to me, you naughty dog, frightening that poor little girl. Don’t worry, child; he wouldn’t hurt a flea. His bark is worse that his bite."
    The collie, tail drooping, head lowered in shame, trotted obediently to his mistress. Trixie, keeping one eye cautiously on the bird, rolled to a sitting position.
    An enormously fat woman with bright red cheeks and snapping black eyes was hurrying as fast as her weight would allow her down the back steps. "You poor lamb," she crooned breathlessly. "I saw the whole thing from the kitchen window. It was that crow’s fault, the black pest." She shook a plump, dimpled fist up at the cherry tree. "Just wait till I get my hands on you, Jimmy. I’ll make you into a pie so fast you’ll never know what happened to you."
    Jimmy Crow shifted back and forth on his perch as though rocking with laughter. Then with a hoarse, derisive "Caw!" he swooped down on an innocent little garter snake that was wriggling through the grass under the cherry tree.
    By this time his mistress had reached Trixie’s side. "Are you all right, lamb?" she asked worriedly. "Such a tumble! You did a complete somersault in midair. It’s a wonder you didn’t break every bone in your body!"
    Trixie laughed and scrambled to her feet. "I’m all right," she said, "but your pet crow had me scared for a while."
    "My pet, indeed!" The fat woman sniffed. "It’s my husband who has adopted the loudmouthed pest, and the pest has adopted me. He knows I don’t like him, so he follows me every step I take. I tell you, it gets on my nerves, or at least it would if I were not so fat that I haven’t any nerves." She laughed loudly at her own joke and patted Trixie’s arm. "I’m Mrs. Nat Smith," she said, gasping for breath. "And you must come into the house and have some lemonade and cookies. If I do say so myself, I make the best chocolate oatmeal cookies in the county." She glanced down the road, her black eyes sparkling. "Your friend will be back as soon as she catches your horse, and then we’ll have a nice tea party in my kitchen."
    "We’d love it," Trixie said as she followed Mrs. Smith to the back steps. "But won’t it be too much trouble? I