Research Holp

Notes for #8 The Black Jacket Mystery © 1961, 2004
Page #	Quote
5	Bobby: "Gotta take my crayons this morning. Miss Elephant says so." Trixie: "Elliman. Not Elephant!"
6	Lately he (Mart) had grown a couple of inches taller than Trixie and was extremely proud of it, except that he was growing out of his clothing.
7	Trixie: "I overslept. I was awake 'most all night, thinking about Dolores and Lupe and the earthquake, wondering what the BWGs could do to help." Dolores and Lupe Perez were pen pals of Trixie's and of her best friend, Honey Wheeler. Their letters, received yesterday, had told of an earthquake that had partially destroyed their small village of San Isidro, located in a Mexican coast state. The biggest tragedy had been the destruction of their school library. The BWGs had gathered a lot of old schoolbooks for the small library.
8	The high school bus was just coming around the corner into Glen Road and Bobby's grade school bus had already left.
9	Mr. Wheeler had had the underbrush cleared off, a private game preserve established for hunting, and the mansion redecorated. His stables, in the charge of Bill Regan as head groom, held the finest of saddle horses.
10	Now adopted by the Wheelers, fifteen year old Jim was everything that Honey had dreamed a big brother could be.
11	Brian, their sixteen year old brother, was club treasurer. He was a senior at Sleepyside, having skipped a grade, and was getting ready to go to college next year.
14	Moms would be wearing one of his (Mr. Belden) own mother's big, old-fashioned, starched, white aprons while she worked. There had been Beldens at Crabapple Farm for six generations, and there was even a rumor that Washington Irving had boarded with them while he was writing "Rip Van Winkle."
16	Trixie, My home is going to be run by push buttons. I may not even have a kitchen! The window of the service porch was open a few inches.
19	Mrs. Belden: "He's (Bobby) had a long nap since he came from school." Trixie: "Oh, Bobby! My china cat!" The antique figure of a spotted, green-eyed cat was smashed into a hundred small pieces.
21	Dad's sister, Aunt Alicia, would have a fit when she found out that Spotty was among the missing. It was a family antique that she had sent Moms and Dad as a wedding present years ago.
23	Mrs. Belden: "And Jim had already arranged to be gone on a field trip with his biology group to study the Catskill wildlife."
24	Trixie: "The use of too many polysyllabic words is definitely a symptom of immaturity." Brian had spent half an hour at lunch time drilling her. Mart's jaw dropped and he stared at his sister with a bewildered expression.
26	Trixie watched through the pane a moment longer and saw that the rivalry for Honey's attention had started again.
27	Trixie: "I thought Miss Trask never let Regan and the chauffeur have the same day off." Celia was the upstairs maid and Tom's new bride.
28	Honey: "Maybe Regan's planning to lend them money so they can buy the red trailer they're living in." KK strikes again. Trixie and Mart gave the trailer to Tom in #4. Honey: "I heard him (Regan) tell Miss Trask once that he tried to send money to his sister."
31	Brian had deftly brought some hot plates from the warming oven and thrust them into Mart's hands. Mart made a dash for the dining room but collided with Trixie and lost his grip on the plates. Down they went with a crash.
32	Mart: "Hey, none of them got busted!" Trixie: "These are Moms's new plastic dishes. They don't break.
33	Mr. Belden took up his great-grandfather's horn-handled carving set.
35	Mr. Belden: "I wish you BWGs wouldn't be so stubborn about not accepting financial aid. I'm sure the bank would be glad to underwrite part of the expense." Mart: "Can't, Dad. But they can buy a full-page ad in our souvenir program."
36	Mrs. Belden: "Who donates the prizes?" Trixie, "Brian will take care of that. I'm sure he won't have any trouble getting the merchants to donate." Mart: "Hey! We're due over at the stables. Regan wants to show us how to bandage Thunderer's cut leg."
38	Brian: "About the carnival, are you thinking of a snowman theme or what?" Trixie: "Mexican! Because it's for the benefit of our Mexican pen pals! And we can wear the Western costumes we got for Tucson! And Jim can sketch some Spanish señoritas on the posters for us to color in."
40	Regan: "Tom and I will get back as early as we can Sunday afternoon and we'll meet at your place."
41	Regan was reaching up to turn a knob on the small radio that he kept on the shelf above the harness pegs. He liked to listen to the ball games as he worked.
42	Regan ignored her pointedly. Even Honey noticed how Regan was snubbing Trixie.
44	Mr. Belden, who had been up since six doing his weekly home chores, stared at them over the top of his paper.
45	Mrs. Belden: "I can't seem to find Bobby's other ice skate." Honey: "Last week at the lake, Bobby banged one of his blades against a rock, and Regan took it to the toolhouse to file the nick out of the blade."
46	Honey: "When it comes to speedskating, Mart's about the nearest to a professional I've ever seen."
47	Mrs. Belden: "Your father thinks his friend Mr. Burnside of the lumber company will donate some flooring from that old salt-box house they're wrecking. It seems to me it would be just right for your clubhouse."
48	Mrs. Belden: "They're so young and so — helpless." Mr. Belden: "Trixie and Honey helpless? After the situations they've managed to get into and out of again without getting hurt?"
52	As Trixie picked up the file box, the unfastened end of it dropped open. A pile of bills and papers slid out onto the shelf. Trixie: "A page from a letter '… but Judge Armen is willing to let you try. Your sister felt it was probably the last hope left to straighten …'
58	It was quite a distance into the woods before they would come to the lake. They went single file through the evergreen forest to the sloping hillside that sheltered one end of the lake from the heaviest wind. There was a good spot among the rocks where they always built a campfire.
59	Trixie heard the sound of a car's motor. It was coming from the private road over on the other side of the hill. It was a steep, narrow road and very bumpy. It wasn't made for anything but a four-wheel-drive car. The road led only to the game preserve and Mr. Maypenny's cabin in the the center of it.
60	She knew that Mr. Maypenny didn't have a car. When he didn't walk on his rounds, he rode Brownie, his old mare.
64	Bobby: "I love see-cruds. I know a see-crud. It's something Regan's bringing home from the city. It's a big sperimen."
65	Bobby: "Miss Trask says it's a dangerous sperimen."
67	There was no doubt about it. This car of Honey's mother was the same car that she had heard an hour ago climbing the rough, narrow road beyond the lake hill.
68	Brian had drawn a rough map of the lake, and he and Mart had their heads together over it, trying to decide just where the booths should be for the carnival and where to stage the ice show.
69	Bobby knew anything Brian said was true. He couldn't always depend on Mart or Trixie. They liked to tease him.
72	Honey, who was a whiz at sewing, had already sketched a few of the Spanish costumes they would wear. Di owned several Mexican shawls and high tortoise-shell combs.
73	Honey: "What we need is a good old-fashioned almanac." Trixie: "I saw one of those in Mr. Maypenny's kitchen."
76	A boy who looked about Mart's age came up the step. He had a thin, dark face, and was wearing a peaked black cap with a patent-leather band, and a broad-shouldered black leather jacket with the collar turned up. His black eyes peered out from under the shiny visor of the cap. His face was grim and unsmiling. A second person came up the bus steps and dropped two fares in the box. It was Mr. Maypenny, dressed in 'store clothes.' The shirt collar seemed to be choking him, and he had evidently put on some weight since he had last worn the suit.
77	Honey: "Maybe it's somebody who's going to help him with the work. I heard Dad say a couple of times that Mr. Maypenny needed a helper, especially in the winter, when the feeding stations have to be filled so often. It's too much work for one man alone."
78	Trixie: "You know, I get the funniest feeling about him. I feel as if I had seen him before somewhere."
79	They had filled their lunch trays at the cafeteria counter and taken them to the usual table in one corner of the lunchroom.
80	Now that Trixie could get a full look at the new-comer, she was less impressed by him than before. The style of shoes he was wearing. They were cowboy boots. They were pointed-toe boots with a high heel, and they were black and highly polished. Mart and the dark boy were at the table now. But in spite of Honey's quick smile and Di's admiring look, Dan only nodded stiffly to the girls.
82	Di was miffed, and Trixie knew it. That came of being so pretty that everybody swooned over you. When they didn't, it was a blow.
84	Dan: "Sure, I helped start our club. Nobody tells us what to do around our neighborhood. Switch blades? Not us! The cops get tough when they find 'em on you. We don't need stuff like that."
86	Regan: "Well, Trixie, a lot of people talk big because they think other people will like them better. Maybe Danny Mangan's like that." Honey: "I know how it is, Trix. I used to be scared of the water, till a girl at the boarding school where I used to go laughed at me and told everyone I was afraid. So the next day at the pool I jumped right in."
87	Honey: "I was sure I'd drown. And the first thing I knew, I was swimming."
89	Trixie: "Dan Mangan! And he's having quite a time on those high heels!"
90	Dan: "You can't give me orders, even if I do work for your pa." Trixie: "He's afraid!" Dan: "Big talk, freckles."
92	Trixie had had a course in first aid at school. Maybe Honey could help, even though she had had no training that Trixie knew of.
94	Dan: "That old square from squaresville? He's no relation of mine, and quit saying so!"
96	Honey: "Did you notice how sad he looked when he saw that tear in his jacket?"
97	Trixie: "Will he be here long?" Mr. Maypenny: "Rest of the term, I hope. The boy's a help already, even though he's innocent as a babe about farm life."
98	Regan: "Maybe we can spare old Spartan for the lad to use. I'll speak to Miss Trask about it next time I see her."
100	Trixie: "Moms has choir practice tonight."
101	Trixie: "Remember I thought Dan looked like somebody I knew? I know now." Honey: "Who?" Trixie: "Regan! There's something around their eyes that's the same." Honey: "I think Dan Mangan looks more like Mr. Maypenny. They have the same sharp, stuck-out chin."
106	Mart: "The toy-shop man, Mr. Martin, donated it (bear) as a prize for the best skater under ten."
109	Jim: "I can tell by the look in his eyes that no matter how big he talks, he's scared." Trixie: "Honey said almost the same thing. She thought he looked sad too. But I think he just looks ornery."
116	Trixie: "I try to be nice to him, but — well, he just sort of rubs me the wrong way.
117	Honey: "You're my big brother Jim's star pupil when it comes to wildlife."
118	Trixie: "These were made by an animal of the cat family. I see the thick pad marks. See the claw marks there."
124	Jim: "Just how big were the tracks? And about how far apart were they?" It sounds to me as if you missed meeting a lot bigger animal than a mere wildcat!"
126	There was a strict rule in the Belden household that Bobby was not to be terrified by fearsome stories at any time, and least of all just before bedtime. His imagination was a little too strong sometimes as it was.
129	Trixie: "I didn't know you kept it there. I thought you hung it on that ceramic jewelry-tree where I put mine every night when I take it off." Honey: "I do. That watch, my everyday one. This was the one Mother gave me that her mother gave her when she finished school. My dress-up watch."
130	Honey: "Mother said that the catch was made like that because the watch was so valuable!"
140	Honey: "Trixie, I get the strangest feeling about Dan Mangan. He's only as old as Mart, but he looks as if he had lived and been so unhappy."
141	Honey's shocked eyes were fixed on an object on the shelf behind the counter. It was a wrist watch. Honey's watch! Trixie: "Mr. Lytell! Where did you get the watch?" Mr. Lytell: "Some young feller in a black leather jacket sold it to me this morning for ten dollars."
142	Mr. Lytell: "This was a dark-looking boy, sort of sharp-faced and skinny. Said he was eloping, and this watch belonged to his girl and they'd run out of money."
143	Trixie: "If you'll look inside, you'll see some writing. What does it say, Honey?" Honey: "It says 'For Madeleine with Love, Mum and Daddy.' Mother's name is Madeleine, like my really true one. Her folks gave her the watch when she graduated from finishing school."
144	Honey: "But your ten dollars … I haven't that much right now. You'll have to wait till Dad and Mother come home from their trip before I can pay you back." Mr. Lytell: "Something tells me Miss Trask will be coming by here right soon, with a ten-dollar bill in her pretty hand. And don't forget to tell her I'm planning to brew a good strong pot of tea and serve genuine imported English tea biscuits when she comes." Mr. Lytell: "Guess I'd better phone Police Chief Moran to look him (Dan) up if he's still around."
146	Regan: "The boy has an honest job here. If he needed money for something important, Maypenny would have advanced it to him."
147	Trixie: "And sewing! I just can't get over the way you can sew and patch and do all those things. Why even Aunt Alicia …
148	… when she looked at the lining of my BWG coat, thought it had been tailor-made at some fancy shop!"
155	Trixie: "Hey, the window's broken. That's how they got in." Brian: "This pane has been smashed so they could reach in and unlock the window. And the snow's been wiped off the sill, probably by somebody's hand. I wish one of us knew something about taking fingerprints."
156	A moment later Trixie came rushing out with the small tin box that they called the Temper Box. Whenever one of them lost his or her temper, that one had to put a dime in the box as a penalty. There had been three dollars and forty cents in the box. It was empty now. Mart: "Temper? Most of those dimes were yours."
157	He picked up one of the cardboard posters. Jim: "He walked all over this one with wet boots." Clear as it could be, the imprint was of a pointed-toe and narrow-heeled boot.
158	Jim: "It's a serious charge to base on one footprint." Mart: "Especially when the footprint's a good inch longer than mine, and I know Dan wears a smaller size than I do!"
160	Honey: "Also, these boots were brown, not black like Dan's. The character put his feet up and rubbed shoe polish on our clean table." And the polish was a very yellowish, ugly brown. Trixie: "Look at that heap of half-smoked cigarettes beside the stove."
161	Jim: "There's another bit of evidence that Dan isn't the guilty party! He mentioned not smoking the other day when one of the kids offered him a cigarette."
164	Dan had been making a snare for one of the Wheeler pheasants that was to furnish a meal for a small party of Mr. Wheeler's friends a few days later.
166	Sunlight struck Dan as he stood looking after them with drooping shoulders.
169	Mr. Maypenny: "He's (Dan) a strange one all right. Kinda short-tempered, but not as bad as he thinks!"
174	Mart: "Did Dan forgive you? Bet he just hissed at you and coiled up." Honey: "That's a mean remark," she said, with as much anger as any of them had ever seen her show. "It's just not fair."
176	Mart: "Mr. Maypenny! There's been an accident! Looks as if a branch broke off one of the blue spruces. He's got a nasty gash and he's unconscious."
180	As he spoke, the old man sagged against him, and Dan was nearly borne down by his weight.
182	Honey didn't want the boys to know how ignorant she was. Then and there she made up her mind to start first-aid instruction when the new class started at school. The bowl fell to the floor and smashed, and a collection of cigarette butts scattered.
183	Trixie: "It's the same brand we found in the clubhouse."
185	Brian washed his hands thoroughly in the best surgical style he could remember seeing on TV.
188	Jim: "Think we ought to phone Doc Tremaine to ride over and see him in the morning?" Dan: "I've been conked on the bean a couple of times. I didn't have to drag in a sawbones to cure me."
189	Mart: "Rich kids! Boy! Are you misinformed. We Beldens aren't rich. I wish we were — I'm lazy. But we live on a farm, and all of us kids work hard to make it go."
190	Across it from shoulder to shoulder, a neatly lettered legend in white paint spelled out THE COWHANDS. And there wasn't a sign of a tear in either of the sleeves.
192	Mart: "Those cigs sell a million packs a week! How do you know Mr. Lytell hadn't been calling on Maypenny lately?"
193	Trixie: "Does he smoke that kind?" Mart: "I know if he does, Maypenny wouldn't have stopped him from smoking them there, even though he's so set against tobacco." Mart: "Why don't you two get off Dan Mangan's back? Trixie's done nothing but nag at him since the first day we met the poor boy!" Talk about two faced! One moment he agrees with them and wants to punch Dan in the face, the next Trixie is completely wrong.
195	Honey: "Don't you remember, when we were trying to decide what kind of jackets the Bob-Whites should have, we looked at leather ones in Brown's store."
196	Honey: "Mart might get into a fight with Dan and get hurt."
200	Trixie thought how good it was to have a fine horse to ride — even if Susie wasn't really her own personal private property. She was practically her own, because the Wheelers had bought the little mare so Trixie could ride with Honey. Really!?! Gee, I thought the reward for the diamond in #3 bought Susie.
201	There was a small branch lying at one side. It was only about twenty inches long, and someone had cut all the side twigs off it. Trixie was surprised to see that it wasn't a branch of the evergreen that towered overhead. It came from a crabapple tree. She noticed there was a dark stain at the heavy end of the piece of wood. And caught in the grain of the wood was a small tuft of gray hair.
204	Trixie: "Come on, Susie Pie! Let's go!"
205	Mr. Maypenny: "I had a notion maybe it wasn't an accident. I'm missing my wallet and the five dollars that was in it. I was hoping against hope it'd be there. I guess I knew better all along."
206	Mr. Maypenny: "I found this." He handed Trixie a torn sheet of paper. I won't be back. Don't look for me. Dan. Thanks. Trixie: "He is your grandson, isn't he?" Mr. Maypenny: "Nope. Dan's no kin of mine. I let him work here to oblige a friend of mine."
208	Trixie: "And what relation is he to Regan?" Mr. Maypenny: "Dan's mother was Regan's only sister. They were raised together in the orphanage, and she ran off to get married. Tim Mangan was killed in Korea and she had the boy to raise alone. Regan never knew where she was till the day he got word that his sister was dead and her boy was in a street gang fight and headed for reform school. Judge said he'd give the lad a chance to straighten out, if Regan would give him a home and work. Regan figured Mr. Wheeler might not like the idea of having a boy like that around with his youngsters."
211	Trixie: "Jim's told us how awful it is not to have a good home and people around who care about what becomes of you. He always says he was just lucky he didn't get in with the wrong bunch himself. I guess Dan wasn't so lucky."
212	Trixie: "Hope you like the jelly. Moms makes oodles of it every fall and she's won heaps of blue ribbons for it at the country fair."
215	The nervous young mare veered off the trail and crashed through the bushes. In a couple of minutes she had disappeared into the depths of the wild bit of forest that they called the labyrinth because it had no regular trails and was still as wild as it had been when the first settlers came to the valley long years ago.
223	Suddenly it came to her. Her white wool sweater! Aunt Alicia had knitted it on big wooden needles so it would be fashionably bulky. It would unravel easily.
226	Luke: "Your letter said there'd be good pickin's at the Wheeler joint and you'd show me the ropes so we could get in an' out again without any trouble. Now you're backin' down!"
227	Luke: "If I get nabbed by the cops, I'll tell 'em you're in on it too. And I'll tell 'em you clobbered old Maypenny and swiped his wallet."
233	He held up a stubby-looking pocket-knife and flicked open the long blade. Dan: "Luke just gave it it to me. He brought it for me to use when we held up the Wheelers." Trixie: "Is that what you call a switch blade?"
234	Dan: "Tip-tap, rip-rap, Ticka tack too! This way, that way, So we make a shoe! That's what the fairy shoemaker sings, my mother told me!"
242	Trixie: "I know what we'll do! We'll have Dan recite the rhyme and Bobby will do his little skating number dressed in a leprechaun costume! Honey can make it in nothing flat!" Regan: "Danny's a good skater, aren't you, boy? Didn't I hear you won a medal in the Police Athletic League games a couple of years ago?"
245	Trixie: "Go on! It's not snitching to protect your own self from a person like him!" Mr. Belden: "Mr. Wheeler hired extra guards to patrol the Manor House grounds when he came home and found out the clubhouse had been burglarized."
249	Mr. Maypenny: "That judge, I suppose. Well, I'll give him a letter to show that judge how much we'd like to have you stay on here." Regan: "The judge said he'd issue papers and send the boy away to the school, I was supposed to turn him over tomorrow."
250	Regan: "I'm afraid Dan'll have to go in with me." Trixie: "If it would help, maybe Dad would take me to the city so I could tell the judge." Regan: "I think when he's had a talk with Dan and I tell him the whole story, he'll let Dan come back with me."
258	Dan came in first. And it was Dan who received the lumber company's order for the historic flooring. He promptly turned it over to Jim and Trixie.
259	The hi-fi blared out the Mexican national anthem. Two very scared, but very pretty, señoritas rose and bowed timidly as the public address system announced that the special guests were the Señoritas Perez from San Isidro, Mexico. Honey: "We've been invited to visit them in Mexico."
261	Bobby had gone to sleep with his head on the toy bear, which was now his because the only other under-ten contestant had developed an early tummy ache and had to go home before the race began.