Research Holp

Notes for #2 The Red Trailer Mystery © 1950, 2003
Page # Quote
5 Trixie saw her father's car turn into the driveway from Glen Road.
7 The Wheelers' Silver Swan … little house on wheels.
8 Trixie: "Jim is really the most wonderful boy I ever knew. His ambition in life is to own and run a camp for orphan boys so they learn how to be good sports and how to get along in the woods at the same time that they have school lessons."
9 Mr. Belden:"He's (Jim) not going to have an easy time getting a job without written permission from his parents or guardian."
10 Mr. Belden: "I can get Mrs. Green out from the village to keep house."
11 Miss Trask:"There's quite an efficient kitchenette on the Silver Swan."
14 Honey: "That's one thing (sewing) that awful governess I had before you, Miss Trask, showed me how to do well."
16 The back door (of the Silver Swan) opened into a combination living-room and bedroom with a cozy little dining alcove. Beyond that was tiled kitchenette. The glistening modern bathroom was equipped with a glassed-in shower, fluorescent lighting and a compact mirrored cabinet. In the galley were an electric stove and refrigerator, and a stainless steel sink and worktable unit. In the stern, was a convertible davenport and the other side, double-decker bunks.
18 Honey: "The camp where we're going to have our headquarters is in the farming district far upstate. The trailer village, which is called Autoville, is only a few miles from Pine Hollow Camp and Wilson Ranch and a good long ride to Rushkill Farms."
20 A man with shaggy black hair had just emerged from the trailer next door. He was wearing a threadbare suit and scuffed shoes and the tight collar on his white shirt was frayed and worn.
21 "It's not polite to whisker," the little girl said. "Only naughty people whisker. My name's Sally. What's yours?"
23 A slim, eleven-year-old girl with black pigtails hurried out of the trailer. Honey and Trixie could plainly see her protruding shoulder blades. (Joeanne)
26 Honey: "The Swan originally belonged to a movie star who got bored with it and sold it to Dad."
35 Trixie: "He's (Reddy) nothing but an overgrown puppy, I guess."
41 Honey, several yards ahead of Trixie, had already kicked off her moccasins and was tearing off her shirt as she ran through the water. When Honey got near enough, she seized the collar of her shirt with one hand and threw the tail of it to Sally.
43 Trixie: "Where did you learn that life-saving trick with a shirt?" Honey: "At camp."
51 A uniformed attendant backed the Swan into its section of the auto village and 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."
58 A man moved out of the shadows and across the lawn. As he passed through the patch of light Trixie saw that he was about the same height and weight as Joeanne's father and had a crop of thick bushy hair.
59 Trixie: "Do you think the man Jeff (the clumsy waiter) was talking to is Joeanne's father?"
60 Trixie (at the riding academy) chose a quiet black horse named Prince.
61
  • Honey swung up on the back of a more frisky chestnut gelding named Peanuts.
  • Trixie: "Your parents are always worrying for fear you'll be kidnapped and held for ransom, aren't they?"
  • Honey: "They used to be before Miss Trask came. She told Dad she thought it would be better to risk being kidnapped than to grow up different from other girls."
68 Honey: "I wrote to Mother and Dad air mail before we left, telling them all about Jim and asking them if they would adopt him. Miss Trask and Mr. Rainsford talked about it for a long time. At first he wanted to adopt Jim himself but he travels a lot. And Miss Trask argued that Jim ought to grow up with other boys and girls. So finally he said he'd write to Dad himself about appointing him as guardian. They're old friends you know. As a matter of fact, Mr. Rainsford suddenly remembered that Dad and Jim's father knew each other years ago. They went to the same school or something."
69 Honey: "When I was little I heard my nurse talking to the cook and she said the reason my mother didn't pay any attention to me was because I was a girl instead of a boy."
71 Trixie: "The man driving that van had bushy hair, like Joeanne's father, and the other one looked like Jeff, the waiter!"
72 Honey: "All waiters look alike to me anyway!"
82 Trixie: "We don't need a quiz test to prove who's (Honey) the smartest."
92 One tall, blond boy was poised on the diving board. Honey: "Why, that's my cousin, Ben Ryker. I'd know him anywhere. Nobody else is such a clown."
94 Ben: "Say, you girls look as though you were about to have a sunstroke. Would it be all right for them to take a quick swim?"
95 Honey: "I can't help remembering that hunt breakfast at Grandmother's when you filled all the sugar bowls with salt. I didn't dare tell on him because he said he'd put toads in my bed if I did."
96 All of the boys were excellent swimmers, but Ben won with apparently no effort at all."
100 Honey: "You've got so many people hiding in the woods now it's a wonder we don't stumble over them."
104 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.
106 "I'm Mrs. Nat Smith," she said.
113 Mrs. Smith: "I'm so used to having men around the place what with seven sons."
116 Mrs. Smith: "He (Mr. Darnell) had plenty of work until he hurt his eye in an accident and had to have an operation. Worked a successful farm down the river a way."
119 Mrs. Wheeler (writes in her letter to Honey), "Your father asked me to write you that he is seriously considering the matter of adopting Jim. I am not at all sure that it would be a good idea."
122 Trixie: "No wonder we keep getting lost. We never look where we're going."
125 Mrs. Smith: "Solid gold it was (the locket), studded with real pearls and turquoises."
132 Mrs. Smith: "Mr. Darnell was very worried about that trailer. He only borrowed it until he could get steady work on a farm where his family could live."
145 Trixie: "There must be a fork off this trail that goes straight up the hill instead of around it. It's practically a young mountain. From the top we should be able to see the entire valley."
147 Honey: "If we could only see the sun, it rises in the west and sets in the east doesn't it?"
148 Trixie: "We are too dumb to be allowed away from home without guides."
153 Trixie: "It's funny how you can miss things on your own place. I'll bet you've never seen the old tenant house on your property."
154 Trixie: "It's down in a hollow and almost completely covered with wisteria and honeysuckle vines."
165 The two men were glowering at each other. Jeff was not whining and cringing now although Al, a big, heavy-shouldered man, looked as though he were going to knock him down any minute.
166 Jeff: "Who forged those references so we could get jobs at the trailer camp? Do you think they'd have given you that classy uniform without those big-shot signatures I copied on the letters of recommendation?"
171 Al's narrow, too-close-together eyes glanced up at the loft.
172 Trixie: "He (Jim) really is the most wonderful boy in the world."
178 Trixie and Honey felt perfectly safe in creeping to the edge of the loft to get a better view of the battle.
182 Al almost fell off the ladder, and Trixie chose that exact moment to help him on his way down. Raising both feet she kicked him on the chest with all her might.
183 Al: "You're all part of a teen-age gang," he howled. Honey: "That's right. We stole the Swan and the Robin too. This is our territory, see? Scram out of it, big boy, or you'll get hurt."
184 Dave and Bill are the two state troopers.
186 Al: "I'd rather kidnap a dozen wildcats barehanded than one of those two girls. The short one kicked me in the stomach and knocked me off the ladder."
190 Trixie: "The trail we took from the academy wound all around the countryside." Honey: "All bridle trails do that. The idea is to get a lot of riding in, not to travel along the shortest distance between two points."
194 Mr. Currier is a trailer salesman. He was shut in the car with the motor running.
199 Caught on a twig was a dilapidated bit of frayed blue sateen. "Joeanne!" they cried in unison. "It's one of her hair ribbons."
201 Trixie: "It's Jim's camp." A crude canvas tent had been stretched between two trees on the edge of the clearing. Nearby were the ashes of a small fire between two upright forked sticks.
204 Trixie: "Look under the boughs at the foot of the bed. Jim's cup and Bible and two long black pigtails."
221 Trixie: "Only people with very vivid imaginations dream in color. You'll probably be a writer or an artist some day, Honey. What was the dream about." Honey: "Bud had grown to an enormous size and he was hitched to the red trailer. I was riding on his back and you and Jim were running alongside. Jim's hair was red as the sunrise, and then suddenly it turned as black as night and I saw it wasn't Jim, but Joeanne. She ran along with her hair flowing behind her like a black cloud, screaming 'Nevermore.' All of a sudden she changed into a large black raven and flew away."
222 Trixie: "I ran away from home once when I was just about Joeanne's age. I hid in the woods between your place and ours and waited for them to come and find me with bloodhounds and mounted policemen. I had a wonderful time thinking how sad they were going to be. But nothing happened at all. Everybody went on about his business. They had a lovely picnic supper out on the terrace. After supper they went to bed. An owl swooped close, I scampered for home. Dad let me in the back door just as though it was perfectly normal for me to out until ten o'clock. I went upstairs to bed without even asking for something to eat."
225 Trixie: "The eldest child grows up fast. When Brian was only nine Dad taught him how to shoot, but I'll bet he doesn't let Bobby touch a gun until he's fifteen."
230 Mrs. Darnell: "The landlord said we'd have to get out the first of August if we didn't pay the rent."
232 Mrs. Darnell: "Mr. Lynch was our nearest neighbor. Darney knew he'd find work on one of the farms upstate-he knows this part of the country-his family once owned Wilson Ranch."
234 Mrs. Darnell: "Darney and Joeanne both have the same thick black hair that grows like weeds, and they're both as stubborn as mules and as honest as the day is long."
237 The state trooper slipped a twenty-dollar bill into the pocket of her (Mrs. Darnell's) apron. "Just a small token of our appreciation."
248 Mrs. Smith: "Nat's baby picture will have to come out, and I'll put one of you in its place, Jim Frayne."
251 Joeanne: "Daddy, are we going to live with the Smiths? I'd rather live here than anywhere else in the world." Mrs. Smith: "Here I was counting on three children to fill up those empty bedrooms and now we're going to have five. Jim Frayne's going to stay on too."
252 Honey burst into tears. "I want him for my brother. You don't need him Mrs. Smith, not with all the Darnells. But I haven't anybody."
256 Jim: "Say Wilson Ranch is a swell place. I'd sure like to get a job there." Honey: "You can, now. But I do wish you'd spend the rest of the summer with us."
257
  • Honey ran across the room to throw her arms around her parents and kiss them both. Later she told Trixie that she had never acted so impulsively before. It was the best thing she had ever done, for Mrs. Wheeler forgot her own shyness and hugged Honey.
  • Trixie thought Honey's mother was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen, and she looked just the way Honey would in another twenty years. She was tall and slender with wavy light-brown hair, and enormous hazel eyes.
262 Trixie: "Sometimes dreams do come true."