Notes for #21 The Mystery of the Castaway Children © 1978
| Page # |
Quote |
| 14 |
Mr. Belden:
"I feel sorry for David Dodge. He came into the bank again several
weeks ago to inquire about another loan, but we couldn't see our way
clear to let him have any more money. Now he's having to auction off
his property on Saw Mill River." Mrs. Belden:
"Isn't his wife one of the Jacksons? Surely their credit is good."
Mr. Belden: "They're both from families
that have been in the area a long time, but that's not what establishes
good credit rating anymore." |
| 15 |
- Mr. Belden's job at the First National Bank in Sleepyside taught
him to respect money management and credit rating. He handled
large sums of other people's money, while his own family lived
in comfortable yet moderate circumstances on Crabapple Farm.
- Trixie's thoughts drifted to a few indulgences she wouldn't
mind having at Crabapple Farm. Central air and an electric dishwasher
too.
|
| 16 |
Evidently they had a place over on Saw
Mill River between the Hudson River and White Plains. |
| 17 |
Trixie: "Better
watch out. The Dunderberg goblin will get you." |
| 19 |
Trixie: "Dad!
Moms! Come and play with us!" Mr. Belden:
"For two cents, I'd take you up on that." Bobby sprinted
over the the porch to plop two pennies into his father's hand. |
| 20 |
- Trixie: "Race you to the mailbox!"
Mrs. Belden: "Peter, you wouldn't."
Mr. Belden: "If they can do it,
I suppose their father might as well." He handed his watch
to his wife. Reddy showered Mrs. Belden with rain spray.
- Mr. Belden was seldom careless in his appearance, yet there
he sat, white shirt clinging to his chest and black hair dripping
water down his neck.
|
| 21 |
- Whenever he moved his feet, water squished from his shoes. And
he was smiling. Mart: "Our
sire? Methinks he has been led astray." Bobby:
"I strayed him for two cents." Brian:
"Money talks."
- Mart: "Except for Di Lynch's
twin brothers and sisters, you're the youngest child in the area."
|
| 23 |
Mart: "With
this hair, you can just shake yourself dry like Reddy." Trixie:
"Thanks for the tip." She leaned over Mart to do just that. |
| 26 |
Trixie: "Moms!
MOTHER!" Mrs. Belden hurried down the stairs and into the hall.
When she was called "Mother" instead of "Moms,"
there was usually an emergency. |
| 30 |
Mrs. Lynch had gathered up a wardrobe
for the new-comer simply by opening dresser drawers in a storage room. |
| 31 |
Honey: "Isn't
this exciting? The Belden-Wheeler Detective Agency has found a lot
of lost articles, but never a baby before!" |
| 36 |
Mr. Belden:
"Hear me out, Beatrix." Bobby:
"Wow. That's Trixie's company name, same as mine is Robert." |
| 37 |
Di: "Mrs.
Belden, if your house is too crowded, I'm sure we could care for the
baby in our nursery. After all, with two sets of twins and a nurse
for each pair, we're certainly equipped for it." |
| 42 |
Mart: "We
could decorate with bulrushes." Di:
"I never did find out what a bulrush was." Mart:
Never mind. You have black hair and violet eyes." The rest of
the group didn't see what that had to do with bulrushes, but Di seemed
satisfied. |
| 46 |
Trixie: "Unless
someone brought Moses through the raspberry patch, he must have used
the bike path." This trail ran downhill from the Manor House
stables. After crossing the farm, the path roughly paralleled Glen
Road all the way to Glen Road Inn. |
| 47 |
When coming down this hill from the
Wheeler stables, there were only two bicycle speeds — fast and
faster. |
| 51 |
Mart was the family clown, but he had
a well-stocked mind. |
| 53 |
Trixie was familiar with the nursery
routine in the Lynch mansion. Although they were no longer infants,
Trixie remembered how those privileged Lynch babies had squirmed with
energy. |
| 55 |
After the sergeant had gone, Mary Goodley,
a social worker from the county, arrived with her long list of question.
Miss Goodley, a tall blond woman. |
| 59 |
Honey and Di were both very pretty,
but Honey was more practical. Trixie knew herself to be both like
and unlike Honey and Di. She was more impetuous than Honey, outdoorsy
and healthy-looking rather than beautiful, and more practical than
either of her wealthier friends. Trixie's grades were not as good
as Honey's, but Di considered her a brain. She liked people and had
an insatiable curiosity about the tangled lives they led. |
| 62 |
Eventually, the girls reached the wide
curve of the path opposite the intersection of Louis Road with Glen
Road. Through the clearing, Trixie could see the woodsy tunnel of
the little used Louis Road on its way to the crumbling high bluffs
above the Hudson River. |
| 66 |
- Trixie wasn't a really "horsey" person.
- Trixie: "We both know Dan takes
care of Spartan's feet. He even carries a hoof-pick in his pocket
all the time."
|
| 67 |
A tall teen-ager carried in a huge basket
of laundry. Ella: "The inn has its
own laundry room in the basement. Pete brings a load when he has a
spare minute." |
| 73 |
Honey: "How
do you know when he's (Moses) had enough sun?" Di:
"It's like ironing. You touch him with a damp finger. If he sizzles,
he's had enough." Di kept a perfectly straight face except for
her pansy-colored eyes, which sparkled with mischief. |
| 74 |
Mrs. Belden:
"Oh, Mart. If you talk this way at fifteen, you're going to be
an unbearable old man." |
| 75 |
Mart was always ready to eat. Mr.
Belden: "Hollow legs." Bobby:
"Toes, too." |
| 80 |
Sgt. Molinson:
"I was wondering if you could give me a hand on this baby case
tonight?" |
| 85 |
Trixie became aware that they had entered
the "spider web," the tangle of roads that included Taconic
State Parkway, Saw Mill River Parkway, Saw Mill River Road, and all
the other roads and highways. |
| 87 |
They entered the Dodge house. Trixie
saw a young man in his mid-thirties, with electric blue eyes and stylishly
cut brown hair. |
| 89 |
Mrs. Dodge was almost as tall as her
husband but slightly built and blond. Her eyes were large and blue. |
| 91 |
Sgt. Molinson:
"These are my young, uh, friends. Trixie Belden and Honey Wheeler." |
| 97 |
Mrs. Dodge:
"We're such a nicknaming family. D.D. is for David Dodge, Junior.
Dodgy is for Robert, because we started out calling him the new Dodge.
D.D. had a pony named Wicky, short for Wickcliff. |
| 99 |
Trixie had the kind of mind that was
receptive to what her five senses told her, and she had the ability
to place bits and pieces of information into mental pigeonholes for
further reference. |
| 101 |
Sgt. Molinson:
"Trixie and Honey, you may keep your eyes peeled for clues as
to the whereabouts of Davy. However, under no circumstances are you
allowed to search for the kidnappers." |
| 107 |
Trixie: "Moms'll
scalp Mart." Di: "Oh, I hope she
doesn't. I like Mart's scalp." |
| 110 |
Trixie: "With
Mart for a teacher, Bobby'll never learn to speak English!" Di:
"But Trixie, Mart is so smart!" Trixie:
"How nice to have your very own fan club." |
| 111 |
Trixie: "The
horseshoe's gone!" Honey: "Regan
probably threw it in the scrap heap. There's a bin behind the barn." |
| 115 |
- Regan: "You can tell a lot about
people by the way they take care of their horses." Trixie's
eyes swept the barn that allowed for the circulation of fresh
air, white-washed fences, and meadow corners without weeds.
- Regan: "I knew that was no keg
shoe." Trixie: "What that?"
Regan: "A factory-made iron plate
ordered by blacksmiths in bulk in kegs. An ordinary riding hack
can use them with no trouble if he doesn't have foot problems."
|
| 120 |
Chunks of soap were kept in a covered
plastic carton nailed to the edge of the dock. There were drainage
holes punched in the plastic carton. |
| 134 |
Again Trixie felt a thrill of surprise
at the sergeant's real concern for the emotional welfare of the people
he served. Always before, she'd regarded him as a hardheaded, grouchy
cop. |
| 140 |
The ruins of the Frayne mansion had
stood here in hollow neglect since the fire. The barn had not burned,
but it, too, had fallen into disrepair. Trixie rode through the weed-choked
barnyard. |
| 144 |
Mr. Lytell was the neighborhood gossip.
Behind his wire-rimmed glasses, his pale eyes brightened with curiosity. |
| 148 |
Facing the protected forest of the Wheeler
game preserve stood an old Dutch barn. The contractor's sign included
the name of a well-known Hudson River artist. Jim:
"When I have my school, I hope I can find a solid old barn like
this to fix up for a craft building." |
| 150 |
Brian: "He
knew how to milk?" Boy: "Sure,
doesn't everybody?" Brian: "Not
I, and I live on a farm." |
| 151 |
Jim: "Sgt.
Molinson threatened to give me a speeding ticket if he ever caught
me riding on a public highway the way we go down the bicycle trail." |
| 155 |
Mr. Belden:
leaned forward and captured both her hands, "Trixie, where did
you get this great lump of curiosity that keeps all of us in hot water?" |
| 156 |
Mrs. Belden:
"Brian can afford to miss sleep once in a while. If he wants
to share this night with a sleeping baby, let him. That's part of
his growing up. Someday a child who is desperately ill may live because
Brian Belden learned to put a baby's comfort ahead of his own." |
| 160 |
Instead of pulling out his chair, Mart
tilted it backward between his long legs and dropped onto it with
a plop. With no lost motion, his right hand reached for the toast,
his left for the honeypot. Mr. Belden: (dryly)
"Good coordination." Mart: "But
lacking in finesse." |
| 167 |
Elmer Durham lived in a more than comfortable
house in a beautiful residential area. |
| 168 |
His hair was thinning at the temples,
he wore glasses, and he had teeth so perfect they had to be dentures. |
| 171 |
They had reached Balsam, which was the
first street east of Hawthorne, in Sleepyside's least desirable neighborhood.
The man who answered the door wore trifocal glasses and had ink on
his hands. Jeff Higgins simply looked worn out. While he was gone,
a younger man stepped over the porch divider rail and came in through
the open screen door with an opened can of beer. |
| 172 |
Roger Higgins was larger than his father
with a great brush of brown hair, a mustache, and a bushy beard. There
was puffs under his eyes and a bulge over his belt. This definitely
wasn't his first can of beer. |
| 186 |
Bobby: "What's
mutual?" |
| 187 |
Brian: "Two
people feeling or doing the same thing at the same time." Bobby:
"Then I mutual that guy. I don't like him, same as he doesn't
like us." |
| 189 |
Sgt. Molinson:
"It seems that Roger Higgins chose the worst possible company
for his poker game. They were all ex-cons from the state penitentiary.
Roger owes money to one named Sax Jenner, who got out last month." |
| 197 |
Sax Jenner was short, and slim and deceptively
handsome. |
| 198 |
His (Sax) voice made him seem friendly,
but those eyes were as cold as snake eyes. |
| 199 |
- Bobby: "I don't mutual you!"
He kicked Sax in the shins.
- Dan: "This little man (Sax) has
seen too many shoot-'em-ups."
|
| 203 |
Trixie couldn't help scowling at the
prisoners. Sax returned the stare coldly, but Roger looked embarrassed.
Trixie decided that Roger was really more of a weakling than a criminal. |
| 204 |
Roger Higgins:
"I was just hanging around. I'm supposed to be learning the business." |
| 206 |
Roger Higgins:
"Sax was crowding me for the five thousand dollars I owed him." |
| 210 |
Davy: "This
house (Crabapple Farm) is easy to get into. People go in and out all
the time and leave doors open." |
| 211 |
Mrs. Dodge:
"We aren't going to an apartment. Your daddy has a new job. He'll
be working on a farm, and we'll be living on the farm too." |
| 212 |
Jim: "Why
do we need a ride? Well, I'll tell you Regan. Brian's gas tank is
empty. The tires on my ten-speed are slashed. A police car, a red
convertible, and the Beldens' car are blocking the way of the Bob-White
station wagon in the lane." |
| 213 |
Di: "We're
having the party because I've already done all the preparations for
it!" |
