didn’t," Trixie said briskly. "He had no business driving off and leaving an eleven-year-old girl."
"I know," Honey argued, "but if Joeanne ran away, there was nothing else for him to do. You said yourself nobody could find her in those woods."
"He could notify the police," Trixie said. "That’s what our family would do if we ran away and they couldn’t wait for us to come back."
"Maybe he did," Honey said. "Maybe he stopped at the next town." She looked relieved at the thought. "The state troopers are probably combing the woods for Joeanne right now."
"I wish I thought so," Trixie said. "They’re so wonderful that they’d find her right away. But somehow I have a feeling that shaggy-haired man doesn’t want to have anything to do with the police. There’s something mysterious going on inside that trailer. I’m going to keep watching out the window for Joeanne." But she didn’t. The swim and the big lunch made her so sleepy she couldn’t keep her eyes open. When she woke up, they had stopped at the entrance to a large trailer park, and Honey was rubbing her eyes and yawning.
"Oh, dear," she sighed ruefully. "We both fell asleep. Here we are at Autoville."
After Miss Trask had made arrangements with the proprietor for space and use of water and electrical connections, she drove the Swan down past a long line of parked trailers to the stand she had rented. Trixie and Honey jumped out, followed by the dogs.
"Why, this is a regular resort," Trixie said, staring around her. Every stand had a tiny, flower-bordered lawn of its own, and in the middle of the landscaped park was an enormous swimming pool "That’s right," Honey said. "Some people live here all the year round. They have oil burners and everything in their trailers."
A uniformed attendant backed the Swan into its section of the auto village and, after giving Miss Trask a receipt, drove the tow car off to a parking lot.
"The tow cars," Miss Trask explained, "are parked so you can sit in them and watch the outdoor movies. And just beyond that area is the riding academy, where you girls can rent horses."
"This is going to be fun," Trixie began excitedly and then stopped as a state trooper on a motorcycle appeared at the entrance to Autoville. "Honey," she finished in a gasp, "you were right! He’s looking for Joeanne."
After talking to the proprietor, the trooper walked slowly along the road that encircled the park and swimming pool, stopping at each trailer to ask questions. When he arrived at the Swan, he said to Miss Trask, "We’re searching for a stolen trailer, ma’am. If you happened to notice a large red one on the road anywhere, it would be a big help. Here are the license numbers."
Miss Trask frowned as he handed her a slip of paper. "I’m not at all good at remembering numbers," she said.
Trixie, appalled at the thought that Joeanne’s family was riding around in a stolen trailer, suddenly felt sorry for the shaggy-haired man. There must be some mistake, she decided. If he had stolen the Robin, he wouldn’t have parked in public camps, where he could easily be traced. And people who steal trailers don’t go riding around in the open, taking their children with them.
"But," Miss Trask continued to the trooper, "we did see a big red trailer at the picnic grounds about twenty miles north of Poughkeepsie."
"There are lots of red trailers in the world," Trixie said quickly.
"And the one we saw couldn’t have been stolen," Honey added. "The man who was driving the tow car had all his family with him."
The trooper shrugged. "Well, I guess that wasn’t the one, then. This is the fourth trailer theft reported in the last couple of weeks. And in each case we’ve found the trailer abandoned on a side road a short time after it was stolen."
"How peculiar," Miss Trask said. "Why should anybody steal something and then abandon it?"
The trooper frowned. "Not so peculiar as you might think. Whoever steals these trailers—and we suspect a