Research Holp

Notes for #14 The Mystery of the Emeralds © 1965, 2006
Page #	Quote
5	Trixie catching sight of a large sign tied to the foot of her bed, yelled, "Rabbit! Rabbit!" Mart, her almost-twin, sat up excitedly and demanded to know what she had done to cause all this rumpus at eight o'clock in the morning. Trixie: "Ever since I was Bobby's age I've been trying to remember to say 'Rabbit! Rabbit!' and make a wish …
6	… just before going to sleep on the last night of the month. If you say it again in the morning, before you've said another word, your wish comes true."
7	Their father, who worked in the Sleepyside bank, … looking over the top of his glasses. The Beldens lived in a comfortable old white farmhouse, a few miles outside the Hudson river town of Sleepyside. It was called Crabapple Farm and had been in the Belden family for six generations.
8	Once when her mother, pretending to be serious, suggested they sell the house and move to an apartment where the housekeeping might be a little easier, Trixie nearly exploded. Mr. Wheeler had bought the Manor House with its stable of horses, game preserve, and swimming pool, hoping it would benefit his somewhat sickly daughter. Honey's real name was Madeleine.
9	And no one seemed to remember who first gave her the nickname.
10	The BWGs was a secret club which Jim had organized soon after he came to live with the Wheelers. And here I thought it was Honey's idea.
13	Mrs. Belden: "It's just a crawl space over the wing of the house where the kitchen is."
18	As Trixie was picking up a moth-riddled pair of pants, an envelope dropped out of one of the pockets.
20	Brian: "Is the key still hidden in the same place, Trixie?"
21	It (the letter) was addressed to Miss Helen Sunderland, The Homestead, Croton-on-Hudson.
23	At the top of the first sheet, was an embossed crest, identical to the one imprinted in the wax. The words Lux et Pax. Jim was an excellent student, and since Latin had been part of his college preparatory course, it was easy for him to translate. Jim: "It means Light and Peace. It would make a good motto for my school, wouldn't it?"
24	The letter is dated June 27th Rosewood Hall.
27	All but one of the windows were wide open on the clubhouse. Brian: "Leave that one down, Trix. A robin has built her nest on the sill."
30	Trixie asked Di to write to the Heart Association offering their services. Di was the quietest member of the group, and Trixie liked to give her things to do whenever possible to make her feel that she was really an important member of the Bob-Whites.
31	Mart: "You talk as though you thought it was a real railroad. Do you think it was kind of like the New York subway system?"
32	Mrs. Belden: "Reddy's nose is beginning to quiver, and that's always a sure sign your father's coming. I do believe that dog knows exactly when he leaves his office."
33	Bobby: "I'm too big to get kissed. You don't kiss Mart and Brian."
36	Mr. Belden: "When I was about Bobby's age, I used to love to climb up on his (grandfather) lap. He had a fascinating gadget on the end of his gold watch chain, he would take it out of pocket and clean his pipe with a little silver spoon and scraper, and then after he'd filled the pipe with wonderful, sweet-smelling tobacco, he would press it down with the little tamper. I vaguely recall, however, his telling me about slaves coming to this house for refuge and being hidden during the day and going away secretly at night, and I seem to remember one in particular who was nursed by my great-grandmother when he fell ill."
38	The two friends rode off on their bikes down Glendale Road toward town.
39	Mr. Lytell was waiting on a customer when the girls entered and they went to the back of the store where the telephone directories were chained to the wall.
40	As the girls approached Croton, they stopped at a gas station to inquire the way to Revolutionary Road. Attendant: "Why, that's way up by the reservoir."
42	Attendant: "Just follow this road up the hill, bear left through the upper village, and you'll come to the dam. You can cross right over the top of it, and Revolutionary Road will be the first on your left." Trixie: "There's a lovely park under the dam with a fountain."
45	Miss Sunderland: "Did you notice that it isn't even paved? Well, it never has been. There aren't many cars come through this way. It's much too winding." Miss Sunderland: "I guess I'll be eighty-nine my next birthday, or is it ninety?" Honey: "Do you live here all alone?" Miss Sunderland: "I have Neil to run errands for me and look after the place."
46	Miss Sunderland: "He just happened along one day wanting work and I took him in." Trixie: "And you have no relatives?" Miss Sunderland: "My only relatives were my father's sister, Helen and an aunt whom I never saw. Ruth went south and got married."
50	The boy (Neil) was tall and rangy, with wide shoulders and slim hips. His light brown hair was carefully combed. His blue jeans and T-shirt were clean but worn and his scuffed cowboy boots looked a bit incongruous. Trixie had taken an immediate dislike. She just had a feeling that Neil was a little fresh. He reminded her vaguely of Dan Mangan when she first met him, although Neil was not as sullen as Dan had been.
51	Neil: "I'm figuring on moseying down Texas-way before winter and getting me a job on a ranch."
54	Miss Sunderland: "I've heard of your family, Trixie. I guess there have been Beldens in Sleepyside about as long as our family has been here in Croton." She handed the little leather journals to Trixie. They were tied together with faded red tape, the kind Trixie had seen on old legal documents her father had occasionally brought home from the bank.
56	Miss Trask, who had been one of Honey's teachers when she was in private school, had come to stay at the Manor House, first as governess, and then, when Honey had entered public school, she had stayed on to manage the household during Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler's frequent absences. Mrs. Belden: "You know you're always welcome, especially tonight. Mart and Brian told me Chuck Altemus wants them to come to his house."
58	Trixie: "Here, Honey, you take the first one. Let's see — it's for the year 1859."
60	Trixie: "Now listen. Do you think the Bob-Whites would let us use the money in the treasury to go down to Virginia?"
61	Honey: "We'd have to have someone to drive us around, too, and do you realize how much it would cost, and how little we have left in the treasury?" Trixie heard the old grandfather's clock in the hall strike ten.
62	Trixie got out the little flashlight that had been in her Christmas stocking the year before.
64	Trixie: "The Queen not only doesn't have a muffler, but the last time I visited, she didn't even have a back seat!"
65	The Bob-Whites decided to have their meeting outside the clubhouse under a nearby weeping willow tree. Jim amused them by feeding his pet catbird, Cheerio. Jim was a great lover of nature and had a special talent for winning the confidence of wild creatures.
66	Trixie: How does she (Di) always manage to look so unruffled? I'm always such a frump! She glanced at Jim, who must have been reading her thoughts, for he gave her a warm smile. Her confidence restored, she pounded an imaginary gavel on the ground to bring the meeting to order.
67	Di: "Daddy and Mummy are going to Williamsburg tomorrow on a trip."
69	Honey: "There's an extension phone in the bathhouse."
70	Di: "Daddy wants this trip to be his treat, because my birthday is next week."
73	Mrs. Belden: "Bobby has finally learned the difference between a weed and a carrot top."
75	The Lynches drove down the Belden driveway. They had stopped first to pick up Honey and Jim, who were riding with Mrs. Lynch and Di in the convertible. Trixie: "What kind of convention is it you're going to sir?" Mr. Lynch: "In the last couple of years I've become interested in historic restorations."
77	Trixie: Mr. Lynch is just as gay and jolly as he was before he got rich and moved into the big house with servants and everything.
78	The driver, a thin-faced, rather sour-looking individual.
79	Mr. Lynch: "Well you made good time, Mother. I didn't expect you for another hour."
80	Brian: "All we ask is that when you are awake you make an attempt to keep your eyes open." Di: "Oh, don't be hard on Mart. He may talk a lot, but you know he's come up with some good ideas in the past."
82	Jim: "How's that for a photographic memory? How do you do it, Trix?" Trixie: "It's kind of a game. I look at some new thing. Then after a few seconds I close my eyes and see how much I can remember of what I've seen. Then I check to see how accurate I've been."
84	Mart: "I'd sure hate to be President of the United States. It must be the hardest job in the world." The boys wanted to see the airplanes at the Smithsonian, so in the morning they took leave of the girls, who were going to the National Gallery of Art.
91	Lizzie: "Part of Rosewood burned down during the Civil War, and the wing that was left just finally fell down. There's only the front left standing. If you want to see a nice place go to Green Trees." Trixie: Who lives there?" Lizzie: Edgar Carver, and he's the last of his line."
93	Trixie: If we don't bother the horses, I don't think anyone would mind if we walked in and looked at it, do you?"
94	Five white Doric columns rose from a stone veranda. Two others had fallen and lay cracked and broken on the ground.
95	They wheeled around to see a man on horseback brandishing a heavy crop. His coarse black hair, growing low on his forehead, looked as if it had never known a comb.
96	Jenkins: "The whole farm is closed in, all sixty acres of it."
98	Green Trees, it (the sign) read, Open to Public Thursdays 1 to 3. Admission $1.
102	Honey: "How do you think I'd look as a red-head?" Brian: "Perfectly ghastly! You stay just the way you are, Honey Wheeler, or you'll be expelled from the Bob-Whites!"
103	Trixie: "There always has to be a first time for everything, you know, and this will go down as the Bob-White's first failure." Honey: "I refuse to believe it." Brian: "What makes you so sure?" Honey: "Oh, nothing, tangible, really. It's just a hunch. But it's a strong one."
105	It was difficult for Trixie to guess his (Mr. Carver) age, for his shoulders were broad and strong-looking. His thick hair was quite gray, but there were remarkably few signs of aging in his face. His deep blue eyes were clear and shining.
106	Mr. Carver: "My mother was born in Rosewood Hall, and her mother was a Sunderland." The waiting couple proved to be a friendly middle-aged man and his wife, a Mr. and Mrs. Sellers, who were visiting out-of-the-way places on their trip to Florida.
107	Mr. Carver: "I'm afraid it isn't a very romantic ghost. He was said to have been one of the masons who worked on the house. Unfortunately the poor fellow was killed when a large stone fell on him. It's believed that his spirit sometimes returns and some say you can hear the tapping of his trowel on the stones."
109	Mr. Carver: "I rather depend on the sale of my work." Trixie, sensing how embarrassing this discussion must be for him, interrupted to say she wanted to have another look at the old harp.
112	Trixie: "We live in a house that must be even older than this one."
114	Mr. Carver: "Well, what you have told me begins to answer some of the questions I have long asked myself. I've heard rumors about a charmed necklace, or you might say, a cursed necklace."
115	Mr. Carver: "Not that I've taken too much stock in the story, mind you, but in my condition it does make one think doesn't it?" Mr. Carver: "My great-grandfather, Jonathan Carver built Green Trees, and his dearest friend, Charles Fields, built Rosewood Hall. They were known as the Twin Houses until the Civil War when most of Rosewood was burned."
117	Mr. Carver: "When I divided the two properties and sold Rosewood, I made sure the old family burying ground was on my side of the line!"
118	Mart: "I wouldn't say Trixie is never discouraged. But she bounces back like a new tennis ball." Trixie: "Just tell us where the cemetery is, and we'll come back tomorrow."
119	Mr. Carver: "Beyond those cryptomeria trees, close to the fence between Green Trees and Rosewood Hall."
120	Brian: "There's no telling what Mart will turn out to be. He says he wants to be a farmer, but the way he throws big words around, we're sure he'll be a famous author. Then the next minute we're convinced his future lies with the circus. He's a real clown!" Trixie: "And my guess is he'll end up running a restaurant. He loves food better than anything in the world!"
124	Trixie: "I'll admit if she (Lizzie) had a black cat and a broomstick she could easily pass for a witch, but she's really only kind of pathetic."
125	Lizzie: "It's that Jenkins man. He came around here yesterday with fire in his eyes, and asking me all sorts of questions about Rosewood, and when I couldn't tell him anything he got madder and did this." Revealed an ugly black-and-blue mark on her arm.
126	Lizzie: "No knowing what he might have done if I hadn't grabbed up a rolling pin and threatened to knock his brains out. You should have seen him run out of here then."
131	They finally came to the burying ground. It was a small plot, enclosed by an ornate iron fence. Trixie and Jim saw rows of moss-covered head stones. In the rear was a small but impressive marble mausoleum.
132	Trixie: "Look, Jim, here's one with the dates 1746-1749 on it. A child's grave. Ooooh! Cemeteries give me the shivers!"
133	Trixie was thankful Jim had left the door ajar and was close by to bolster her courage. Her knees were shaking and she was glad to sit down and pull herself together. Jim joined her.
134	Trixie: "Have you any idea about where we might start?" Jim: "I was counting on you, as usual, for inspiration."
137	She took out a heavy gold locket in the shape of a heart. She read, To RSF with love. Christmas, 1860.
141	Trixie: "For the time being I'm giving him (Neil) the benefit of the doubt."
142	Trixie: "I think Neil has a gentle side to his nature."
146	Look in the secret passage between the Twin Houses behind a brick marked with an X. May the charm of the necklace bring only good luck.
147	Mr. Carver: "After the untimely death of my mother and father, I was raised by a succession of nurses and governesses."
153	Honey: "Di never seems to let anything interfere with her beauty sleep, does she? I'll bet she'd sleep till eleven if we didn't get her up."
158	Honey had been following Brian's every move but at the same time she had seen to it that Mr. Carver was kept covered. Trixie smiled to herself, for well she remembered how her friend used to quail at the sight of blood. Now Honey seemed just as able to help in an emergency as any other Bob-White. Trixie:As a matter of fact, I'll bet she'd make a first-rate nurse, as well as a detective.
159	Trixie: "You do have a doctor, don't you?" Mr. Carver: "Yes, there's Alex."
160	Mr. Carver: "Look in the directory on my desk. He's listed there under Alexander Brandon."
166	Trixie: "An operation?" Dr. Brandon: "When Mr. Carver was a little boy, he fell downstairs on Christmas morning, injuring his back so that he lost use of his legs. I have reason to think it's not too late to do something about it."
170	Neil: "I told him (Jenkins) what I'd heard about the lost necklace. Right after that he began to treat me mean and beat me. He beat the horses too." Neil: "My father's crippled like Mr. Carver, always in a wheelchair."
171	Neil: "Got his legs smashed in a machine when I was a kid. It was always hard-times for my mother and my two sisters and me. That's why I quit school. School wasn't really that bad, but I couldn't go on sitting down to supper every night seeing Mom and Pop going without."
180	Miss Bates breezed into the room like a ship under full sail.
187	Miss Bates: "It was a plain mistake and, if not, I'll eat this hat complete with all the cabbage roses!"
197	Mart: "How much longer do you have to go?" Neil: "Only a year. I'd have graduated last June if I hadn't quit." Di: "You'll like Daddy. He had a hard time when he was your age too."
213	Trixie: "It was a box that some kind of patent medicine originally came in, and on the cover it said Patented in 1908. So how could Ruth have hidden the necklace before the Civil War?"
214	Trixie: "The necklace that Jenkins showed us was just a piece of junk jewelry!"
226	Jim: "Good girl, Trixie. Don't think I don't know how hard that was for you. You're wonderful!"
233	Mr. Lynch: "Mrs. Lynch and I have fallen in love with this part of the country, and during the last few days I have been making some inquiries about Rosewood hall. I've looked over the property, and this morning the papers were signed. I hope to rebuild Rosewood just as it was originally."
241	Jim: "You know Trix, people may say you're impulsive, but when it comes to something really important, you're the most thoughtful person I've ever known."
259	Mart: "I guess if any of wants peace and quiet, he'll have to resign from the Bob-Whites." Brian: "Never! United we stand, divided we'd be miserable."
266	Mr. Carver: "As a remembrance of your trip to Rosewood Hall, I want you to have this." He handed her the gold locket. Mr. Carver: "I'm sure you'll have a picture to put in the space where the secret message was." Trixie raised her head and looked down the table to Jim.