Free The Mysterious Code by Kathryn Kenny

said. She was trembling so she could hardly speak, but her first thought was of her young brother. “Let Trixie brush you off, lamb,” she said. “Don’t cry. Spider will catch those bad men. There now, I’ll just put you down on the path. You’ll have to walk now, Bobby, and we’ve still a long way to go.”
    Trixie was angry, bitterly angry at the three thieves who had robbed them. “Spider will get them,” she promised Bobby.
    “I’m cold, Trixie,” the little boy said. “An’ it’s dark a’most. Are we losted?”
    “No, honey. Here, take my hand. Left foot! Right foot! Left foot! Right foot! Marching! Marching!”
    Bobby kept up sturdily for a while, then his steps slowed. “I—just—can’t—walk—any more,” he said and he sat down in the snow.
    “Try just a little harder, Bobby,” Trixie urged. “See, through the trees, that’s Glen Road ahead.”
    “I can’t see anything, Trixie. I’ll just sit here and rest,” Bobby said and settled down into the deep snow.
    “No, Bobby, we have to hurry home. Those men may still be around the woods. I’ll carry you.” Trixie was so worried she hardly noticed his weight. She was afraid he would be sick, he was so tired and chilled.
    Trixie was tired, too; very, very tired when she finally set Bobby down on the path that led to Glen Road.
    There, to her great relief, she saw Brian and Mart coming down the road. Mrs. Belden, concerned with the lateness and approaching dark, had sent the boys to meet them.
    At home Bobby was given a warm, comforting bath and put to bed. Trixie had a hard time calming down enough to tell her story.
    With great difficulty she, Mart, and Brian kept their father from going off to the police in Sleepyside.
    “Don’t you see,” Trixie said, “if we make a big fuss about the oak desk, a lot of other people may find outabout the things in Mrs. Vanderpoel’s house and break in … and they may break in the clubhouse.”
    “She’s right, Dad,” Brian insisted. “Spider will help us find out who stole the desk. He probably knows about the gang already.…”
    “See that you get in touch with Spider tomorrow, then,” Mr. Belden said. “I’ll check with him when I see him.”
    “Oh, Daddy, please don’t do that,” Trixie begged. “Let us Bob-Whites handle it with him, won’t you? After all, it’s
our
show.”
    “And you want to be self-sufficient,” Mr. Belden said. “I’m always telling your mother to let you manage your own affairs. I guess I’d better take some of my own advice.”
    It was left that way.
    The next morning Bobby had a bad cold. For days his temperature ran high and the doctor said Bobby had pneumonia. He was a very sick boy, so sick that it drove every thought of anything else out of the minds of the Belden family.

Chapter 8
Foreign Intrigue
    With good medicine and his mother’s careful nursing, Bobby grew better. While he had been critically ill it had been hard for the Bob-Whites to turn their attention to their work.
    Trixie had, however, gone with the Wheelers’ chauffeur, Tom, back to Mrs. Vanderpoel’s to bring out the other furniture she said they could have—the furniture that needed to be repaired.
    Trixie did not tell Mrs. Vanderpoel what had happened to the desk. She was ashamed to tell and, too, she hoped they would recover it soon. She would wait a little longer before saying anything about it.
    “Did you see anything of that boy who was shoveling my walks when you were here last time?” Mrs. Vanderpoel asked.
    “No,” Trixie answered. “Why do you ask, Mrs. Vanderpoel?”
    “It’s the first time anyone ever worked for me and ran off without waiting to be paid,” Mrs. Vanderpoel said. “I never saw him before he stopped and asked forwork. Oh well, he’ll stop and ask for his pay, too, I guess.”
    “I wonder,” Trixie said to herself on the way home, “I wonder if that boy had anything to do with the desk. I just wonder.”
    In the clubhouse after school,