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to all of us. A jalopy wouldn’t do all of us any good, because I’m the only one who can legally do any driving.” He started for the French doors to the study where the phone was. “I’m going to call up and order the wood and shingles we’ll need, right now. A lot of homes were damaged by that storm. If we don’t get our little order in right away, it may be months before we get any supplies. What with snow and sleet....” He shrugged, went inside, and closed the doors behind him.
    “Well, that’s that,” Mart said. “Mr. Lytell said he’d only hold the car until next Saturday. Even if all of us could get fabulously high-paying jobs for working after school between now and then, we couldn’t earn fifty smackers.”
    “We could rob a bank,” Honey suggested tearfully. “In fact, I think I will. All by myself. I’ll use Bobby’s water pistol. It’s been done before, according to what I’ve read in the newspapers.”
    “Oh, fine,” Jim said sarcastically. “Then we’ll have to raise bail in order to get you out of jail.”
    “This is no time for rhymes,” Trixie interrupted. “I have a plan that makes sense.”
    Mart covered his face with both hands. “Oh, no, sis, not one of those. We’ll all end up in jail.”
    “That’s right,” Jim agreed. “Every time Trixie even thinks, we all get involved in a mystery—”
    “Which,” Honey put in emphatically, “Trixie always seems to solve, along with our problems. I think we ought to listen to her plan. Since you won’t let me borrow the money from Miss Trask or rob a bank—”
    Brian came back then, and Trixie said quickly, “Borrowing from Miss Trask is what gave me the idea. Mr. Fleagle is quitting, isn’t he?”
    “That’s right,” Jim said. “He left, bag and baggage, last evening during the lull in the storm.”
    “Well,” Trixie continued, “what’s to prevent us from taking over his job? For a week, anyway, until Miss Trask and Regan can manage to hire another gamekeeper.”
    “Say, that is a thought,” Jim said. “All it would amount to would be patrolling the preserve before and after school and full time during the weekend.” Honey nodded. “Fleagle got more than fifty dollars a week for doing not much more than that. But the trouble is, Jim, Miss Trask has already put ads in the help-wanted columns of all the papers. Some truly marvelous gamekeeper may apply for the job tomorrow.”
    “That’ s right,” Jim agreed. “And furthermore, we can’t ask for a week’s pay in advance. Even if we should get the job, we’d have to prove that we were worth fifty bucks a week.”
    Brian, who had been looking very happy for a moment, slumped down on a hassock near the glider. “Right, Jim,” he said. “We can’t do anything about the clubhouse unless we use money we have earned. So let’s stop stewing about it.”
    Then all of a sudden Trixie remembered something. She jumped up and ran indoors, beckoning for Honey to follow her. “I’ve got the answer to everything,” Trixie whispered as they hurried upstairs to Honey’s lovely room on the second floor.
    When they were seated together on the window seat, with the door to the hall closed, Trixie said, “That diamond ring Jim gave to me! If I can just get that, it’ll solve all of our problems.”

The Diamond Ring • 5

    HONEY STARED at Trixie, her hazel eyes wide with amazement. “Are you talking about the diamond ring Jim left behind when he ran away after the Miser’s Mansion burned?”
    Trixie nodded. “Remember what he wrote in the note he left with it? He said I deserved it because I found it and because I saved all that money he found in the mattress from being burned.”
    “I certainly do remember,” Honey cried excitedly. “And I see what you mean. You really earned that diamond ring. So if you wanted to sell it, you could use the money for fixing up the clubhouse.”
    “That’s right,” Trixie said. “But I haven’t a prayer of getting