The Mystery of the Missing Heiress (15 page)

“I am,” Trixie said firmly. “We found her book and her watch! Janie said once she wanted to explore every inch of these woods. She must have started exploring. If she didn’t see a warning sign, she might have walked along that ledge. She— Let’s call her again.” Trixie’s voice rose. “Janie! Janie!” They all listened. There was no answer.

“Janie!” the boys called, their voices loud and hoarse. “Janie! Janie!
Janie!”

Again they listened, straining their ears.

Out of the stillness came a faint sound!

“Did you hear that?” Trixie cried.

Frantically she crawled forward, calling again and again, “Janie! Where are you? Janie!”

“Trixie! Watch out!” Jim shouted.

With one desperate gesture, he and Dan caught Trixie’s feet and held them tight. “Have you gone crazy?” Jim asked, his voice frenzied.

“Let me go! It’s Janie. She’s down there. I heard her!”

Trixie tried to pull her feet free.

“I’m going closer. Listen!” she commanded. “Oh, please,
listen!
Janie! Answer me!”

From below, out of the blackness, there came a groan, faint—almost lost—but unmistakable.

“Did you hear that?” Trixie cried. “It’s Janie.
She’s alive!”

Cupping her hands over her mouth, Trixie called, “Hold on tight, Janie! Hold on! Were here! We’ll bring you up!”

Turning to Dan, she begged, “Give me the lantern, please. Hold tight to me now, both of you. I’ll go closer... look over that edge... find where Janie is....“

Trixie’s Courage • 13

THE LANTERN sent its stream of light hunting around in the darkness below Trixie, down a sheer drop to the river’s edge.

Here and there, dark clumps of scrub pine showed up, dark blobs against the rugged cliffside. But nothing else.

“Janie!” Trixie called over the edge of the precipice. “Janie, where are you?”

Faintly the answer came back. “Here, Trixie. Down... here.”

Frantically Trixie swung the light into an arc, seeking, searching.

“Here!” Janie repeated weakly.

The light picked out a patch of Janie’s blue dress, caught in a smudge of shrubbery.

“I’ve found her!” Trixie called back triumphantly. “Are you hint, Janie?” She tried to keep the fear from her voice. “Can you move?”

“I don’t... think... I’m hurt... much. Don’t... worry, Trixie.”

Trixie had to strain her ears to hear Janie’s words.
Isn’t it like Janie to tell
me
not to worry?
Trixie thought.

“We’re coming!” Trixie shouted, with confidence she was far from feeling. “The boys and Honey are with me. Hold on!”

Slowly Trixie inched her way back from the edge, told the boys what she had seen, and asked helplessly, “How can we ever get her back up here?”

“Don’t panic!” Jim answered. “We’ll take care of it some way. The minute you crawled back, Dan took off for the woods. He knows where Mr. Maypenny keeps ropes and axes stored to use for felling trees. That’s a break. He said it isn’t far from here and he’d be back in a few minutes.”

“Good! Where is everybody? Do they know that we’ve found Janie?”

“I thought Mart and Honey should go home and tell Dad,” Brian said. “Maybe they’ll call the sheriff.”

“Of course, Brian,” Trixie said. “But, in the meantime, are we going to let Janie lie down there? She’s been there for hours and hours. She said she doesn’t think she’s hurt badly. You know Janie, though. I hate to think of her lying down there one more minute.”

“I know,” Brian said. “But if she has broken bones, we can’t even move her until help comes. What else can we do but wait?”

At that moment Dan returned with lengths of stout rope.

“If you don’t know, I do,” Trixie said firmly. “We can tie those ropes under my arms, and I can go over the edge as easy as anything. Then I can at least see how badly Janie’s hurt and if we
can
move her.”

“You
can go?” Brian was scornful. “I think not, Trixie.”

“Why can’t I go? I’m the one who knows just where Janie is. I’m the one who weighs the least. I’m the one who can go right up to the edge without breaking it off. I showed you that. I’m the one—”

“You’re the one who’s going to stay right up here where you belong,” Jim said. “I’ll go. Give me the ropes, Dan.”

He fastened the rope ends securely under his arms.

“Now, loop the other ends around those pine trees. Brian, you can make a running knot.”

“I know how to make a slipknot, all right, but I’ll tell you this, Jim: You’ll never even get to the edge of that bluff. You’re too heavy. We’ll either have to wait till help comes or try to reach Janie from below someway.”

“Climb up that sheer cliff?” Dan asked. “Are you crazy?”

Trixie, burning with frustration, cried out, “Nobody seems to remember that I went right to the edge and it held! Is there any good reason
why
I can’t be the one to go down to Janie? Is there, Dan?”

“It’s too dangerous. Don’t say any more about it.”

“It’s not as dangerous for me as it would be for any one of you— Oh, look at Jim! He’s on his way! Watch out!” she screamed. “Pull him back! Dan— Brian!”

In his haste, Jim had thrown his weight forward too fast. The earth loosened under him and began to fall away. Froglike, he drew his legs back to firmer ground. “If you hadn’t been so determined to do it yourself, Trixie...” he sputtered.

“Oh, Jim, you can be so stubborn. Why can’t you see that I’m the one to go down there? Maybe some of that dirt and stone fell on Janie. How can we possibly leave her there alone till Mart and Honey go all the way back home—and it’ll take them longer because it’s dark—then come all the way back here with help? I moved right up to the edge once and the ground held. Please let me try it again and go down to Janie.”

“There’s something in what she says,” Dan told Jim reluctantly. “We can hold on to her from up here. She couldn’t be in any real danger.”

“He’s right, Jim! Don’t you see, Brian?” Trixie begged. “Jim, fasten the ropes to me,
please.
If it’s all right to move Janie, we’ll have her back up here faster’n you can say Voostenwalter Schimmelpennick!” Trixie was crying and laughing at the same time.

“Janie,” she called, “are you all right?”

“Yes, Trixie,” Janie called back, faintly. They could hardly hear her. “Dirt keeps falling....”

“There’s your answer,” Trixie told Brian and Jim. “I’m not going to waste any more time. I’m going!” Jim dropped his arms helplessly. “She might as well go. If we don’t let her do it, she’ll just take off into space, and darned if I don’t believe she can even fly!”

Trixie, triumphant, held out her arms, and the boys fastened the ropes around her. They checked the other ends, looped tight around the trees. Then they watched as Trixie crept slowly—slowly—testing every few inches, crawling carefully till she reached the rim.

Slowly she dropped her feet over the edge. The ropes grew taut.

Down she went, dangling free, reaching for a foothold in the yellow clay of the cliff’s sharp side-down, as the boys played out the ropes in response to her sharp tugs—down, till she stood on the jutting ledge where Janie lay, caught among the tough, thick branches of a cliffside pine.

“Janie,” she cried, “Janie, are you all right?”

“I think... so. I can't seem to—to pull myself free. Oh, Trixie!”

“Thank heaven we found you,” Trixie said fervently. “Don’t struggle, Janie. Let me try to get you loose. No, no—just stay still while I pull on this biggest branch.”

Carefully, gently, Trixie pried the gnarled pine branch away from Janie’s imprisoned arms and legs.

“There,” she said, putting her arm back of the girl’s slight shoulders. “That old branch must have bruised and rubbed you terribly, but it
did
hold you, and it saved your life. There—can you sit up?” Janie, stiff and weak, rose unsteadily to her knees, then rested a moment. Then, with Trixie’s arm firmly around her waist, she stood erect, trying to repress a groan, her left arm drawn close to her body.

“Your arm... is it broken?” Trixie cried, frightened. “How can the boys pull you up?”

“It isn’t my arm,” Janie said quickly, “and nothing’s broken. It’s my wrist; it may be sprained.”

“It will hurt dreadfully when you’re lifted.”

“Try me!” Janie said gallantly; then, with a rush of strength, she called up to the boys, “I’m ready to go!”

Nothing happened.

“Didn’t they hear me?” Janie asked.

“I hope not. It’s a good thing if they didn’t. You don’t even have the ropes tied under your arms. You see, they have to stand quite a way back from the edge. The rim of that bluff is eroded underneath. It wouldn’t hold the boys’ weight. It’s as crumbly as a piece of cake.”

“I found that out,” Janie said in a trembling voice. “Wasn’t I foolish? Trixie, you’ll have to tie these ropes under my arms. I can’t quite manage. But let’s hurry before your flashlight goes out. Trixie, if any harm comes to you...“

“It won’t,” Trixie said, her voice strong and confident. “I prayed my way down here, and I’ll pray us both back to firm ground.”

She tugged at the ropes till they were firm. “Thank heaven for Brian’s Scout training. I’d never know how to make a running knot,” Trixie said. “There you are, Janie. You’re ready to go now.” Raising her head, Trixie whistled:
bob, bob-white!

From above, the answering glad call came:
bob, bob-white!

“Creep like a mouse when you go back up over that brim,” Trixie warned. “Safe landing!”

Without realizing it, she covered her eyes.
I’m, not going to look,
she thought as Janie’s feet left the ground.
I’ll just stand here and do what I told Janie I’d do—pray.

For what seemed hours Trixie huddled against the face of the rock, listening. She imagined she heard scratching as Janie’s reaching toes touched the hard, rocky side and bounced away... imagined she heard the boys’ measured panting as they slowly, slowly strained at the ropes. She couldn’t possibly have heard that, of course, but in her mind she followed Janie’s ascent so intently....

Bob, bob-white!
The whistle came from above. This was not imagination. This was a call of her victory!

Janie was safe!

In a short time
bob, bob-white!
came again, and Trixie deftly caught the rope dangling before her. From above, well-known voices shouted encouragement to her.

Mart and Honey were back! Help had arrived!

“Daddy is up there waiting,” Trixie thought, “and all the Bob-Whites!”

She didn’t realize until she reached the top how many people had rushed to the aid of a stricken, nameless girl!

She hid her head on her father’s shoulder as the crowd cheered its tribute to her courage.

At Crabapple Farm, Trixie’s mother opened the screen door and gathered her daughter and Janie into her eager arms.

“I couldn’t believe you were both safe until I had you right here where you are now,” she said, her trembling voice showing the tension she had endured. “Janie, you come back to your room with Dr. Gregory and me. Trixie, are you really all right? You aren’t hurt in any way—”

“I’m not!” Trixie answered. “I just want to wash my face and hands and change my clothes. Moms, Janie is the bravest girl in the whole world.”

“I have two brave girls, but, oh, Trixie, only my hairdresser will know, and she’ll touch up the gray spots in my hair! You should leave that kind of exploit to the boys.”

“Try and tell her that,” Mart hooted.

“She saved my life,” Janie said in a low voice. “I’ll never be able to thank you, Trixie.”

“I couldn’t save you from all those scratches and bruises—and that wrist!”

“We’ll take care of that now,” Dr. Gregory said. ‘“I'll have a report to make to Sergeant Molinson in the morning. If there was malicious intent in the removal of those signs, we’ll have to know the reason. A second attack on the life of this harmless young girl is a disgrace to Sleepyside.”

The crowd outside slowly dispersed. Dan left, too, as soon as he heard the doctor’s report.

“There are some pretty ugly bruises,” Dr. Gregory said, “and her left wrist is sprained. It could have been so much worse.”

“She was just beginning to recover from that other accident,” Trixie said, “and now this.”

“She’ll be over this in a few days,” the doctor said. “I wish I could say as much for her memory. A jolt such as she had today could have helped to restore it.”

Honey sighed. “To think she doesn’t even have that to console her, after all she’s been through!”

“I’ve given her a sedative. She was almost asleep before I left the room, wasn’t she, Mrs. Belden?”