Research Holp

Notes for #26 The Mystery of the Headless Horseman © 1979
Page # Quote
13 Fourteen-year-old Trixie Belden stood on the school steps.
14 Honey's real name was Madeleine. She was the same age as Trixie, though taller and slimmer. On this fall day, it was Friday, all the teachers had to attend a conference that afternoon in White Plains. Their students had been released at midday.
16 Trixie: "For your information, Mart Belden, the word pulchritudinous means 'endowed with physical beauty.' We had to define it in English class yesterday. So thank you for the compliment, my dear little twin brother."
17
  • Mart was fifteen, eleven months older than his sister.
  • Diana Lynch, who was the same age as Trixie and Honey, was considered one of the prettiest girls in the ninth grade.
18 Honey: "I've often wondered if you're one of those people who have ESP."
19 Trixie: "Harrison has volunteered to supervise all the arrangements for tomorrow (charity bazaar). With Di's parents away in Arizona, I don't know what we'd do without him." Honey: "He even offered to help Di's cook make all the mountains of sandwiches and cookies we're going to need." Trixie: "Harrison has turned out to be a real good sport."
20 Trixie: "When Di got on the bus this morning, she sat in a seat all by herself and stared out the window."
21 Jim: "Come on, tell Uncle Jim all about it."
22 The Bob-Whites had worked hard for weeks, collecting donations of handmade quilts, hand-hooked rugs, plants and pots, and baked goods of all kinds. There were to be gaily decorated booths for games and side-shows for art exhibits and macrame displays.
23 Trixie looked at the tall, slim, dark-haired girl who had just gracefully climbed the bus steps.
24 Brian: "Remember, it's all for one and one for all."
25 Di: "I phoned my parents this morning, and they said we'll have to cancel all our plans for tomorrow. You see, Harrison has disappeared!"
27 They were remembering the daring robbery that had taken place not so very long ago. Since that time, Harrison had seen to it that his employer's security arrangements were strictly enforced. Mr. Lynch knew he could trust him.
31 Mart: "I have a book in my room that tells exactly how to train a dog. Reddy is a dog. Therefore, he can be trained."
32 Mart: "I bet I could train him in a week." Trixie: "What will you bet?" Mart: "If I win, you'll have to make my bed for a week." Trixie: "And if you lose?" Mart: "I'll make yours for a month."
34 Regan: "Harrison? Why, I saw him just last night."
35 Regan: "I saw him along Glen Road, riding his bicycle." Mart: "I didn't know he had a bicycle." Regan: "It was yellow."
39 The trail climbed steadily upward through tall trees. At the top of the hill the girls rode into the glare of bright sunlight. They were on the other side of the woods. A green and peaceful clearing in the middle of which stood a neat little white frame house.
40 Trixie: "It's Sleepyside Hollow."
41 Trixie: "This is the place where I saw the alphabet trees." Honey: "They seem to have something painted on their trunks." Trixie: "That one says ABD. The one next to it says CFG. Some of those trees are wearing bandages. Green bandages."
42 The yellow bicycle was propped neatly against the porch railing.
44 Trixie: "It was a terrible black hairy thing! It had long white fangs! There's a monster in that house!"
46 Sitting on the window seat and looking back at her, was not a monster but a very large, fluffy, black Persian cat.
48 Trixie had seen scarecrows that looked better than this! Harrison's graying hair stood on end. His black jacket was torn, his striped trousers wrinkled. A faint stubble of gray beard showed on his chin — and one side of his pale face was covered with dried blood.
50 Di: "I know it sounds silly, but with Dad away, I feel sort of responsible for seeing that the servants are —" Mart: "Comfortable and happy."
51 Trixie: "Are you going to tell us about last night?" Di: "I really don't think we ought to bother Harrison with questions now." Trixie: "I'm sorry. I only thought —" Di: "I think that sometimes you let your bump of curiosity get the better of you." What was wrong with Di? She had a funny lah-di-dah tone in her voice that Trixie had never heard her use before. It was a if Di were playing a part. Trixie: And the role she's playing is Lady Diana of the Lynch estate. Mart: "There's no need to sound so defensive."
52 Mart: "What made you think we were about to give you the third degree?"
53 The black Persian cat jumped down from the window seat. Trixie: "I'll bet his name is Fluffy." Harrison: "His name is Henry the Eighth. His owner and I think he's got a lot of wives." Trixie: "His owner?" Harrison: "Mrs. Rose Crandall."
54
  • Harrison: "She was called away unexpectedly." Trixie: "You came here last night to give Henry his dinner didn't you?"
  • Harrison: "I thought I heard a noise in the cellar. I went down the stairs. I shut the door behind me and accidentally locked myself in." Mart: "And you cranium?" Harrison: "I was trying hard to reopen the door, and I slipped and fell down the stairs."
59 Di: "I wanted everything to be so perfect tomorrow. With Dad away, I felt I was sort of in charge of everything. I wanted my parents to see that I could handle the responsibility."
62 Trixie: "Harrison said he went into the cellar and accidentally locked himself in. It's impossible. Honey and I really had to struggle with that bolt to let him out."
63 Greeting card had a series of drawings on the front of it. Mart: "There's a picture of Hoppy, the Town Hall weather vane." Di: "This next one looks like a drawing of Sleepyside Hollow." Trixie: "The next picture is a drawing of a hot dog, and the one after that is a flower."
65 Honey: "When I asked him (Harrison) what was wrong, he said he let himself into the house with a spare front door key. Mrs. Crandall always keeps it under a flowerpot on the porch. Harrison wanted me to put it back for him. He was certain he'd left in on the kitchen table. I never did find it."
70 Miss Trask: "It all began when Rose Crandall's husband died. He used to be the curator of Sleepyside's Fine Arts Museum." Honey: "Of course! Jonathan Crandall!" Jim: "Mr. Crandall died quite unexpectedly."
71 Brian: "What did he die of?" Jim: "Heart attack." Miss Trask: "Immediately after he died the museum discovered that a very valuable vase was missing. It had only just been lent for display for a limited time. The owner was very upset at its loss." Mart: "Jonathan Crandall was a thief?" Miss Trask: "Many thought so at the time." Brian: "Was the vase ever found?" Miss Trask: "No. The insurance company had to pay a great deal of money because of it. It was all very quickly hushed up for Mrs. Crandall's sake."
72
  • Miss Trask: "Rose Crandall's family has lived here for generations, almost as long as the Beldens."
  • Trixie: "Everyone must still think he's a thief." Miss Trask: "The vase was delivered to the museum late one Friday afternoon. Jonathan Crandall did receive it. Some saw him do so." Honey: "But when they came to look for the vase after he died, they couldn't find it."
73 Miss Trask: "Harrison and Mr. Crandall were very good friends. They were also enthusiastic chess players. Rose Crandall and I have known each other for some time. It was she who mentioned it to me once."
74 Before today, Harrison had seemed to Trixie to be just Di's butler — a reserved, quiet man who was good at his job. She had never given much thought to the fact that he, too, was a human being with feelings and loyalties of his own.
78 Trixie: "Miss Trask told us about the missing vase. Was it really that valuable?" Mr. Belden: "It was priceless. It was Ming."
80 Mart seems to have photographic recall in this book. He closes his eyes and recites from memory with great detail. Mart: "The finest achievement of Chinese ceramics is often considered to be the excellent monochromatic porcelain of the Ming period."
82 The phone rang. Trixie ran along the hall to the extension by the dormer window seat.
86 Trixie: "That is my brother Mart giving Reddy obedience lessons." Honey: "But Mart's underneath the table." Trixie: "So's Reddy. Mart's been trying to persuade him to come out for the last ten minutes. Reddy doesn't want to."
87 Soon they were riding along Glen Road toward the place that they were calling 'Harrison's Trail.'
89 A figure on horseback appeared silently through the trees. It had broad shoulders. It wore a long, flowing black cloak. Trixie: "He has no head!"
93 Mrs. Crandall told them that she had only just returned from Croton-on-Hudson and she had brought her sister home with her to keep her company for a few days.
94 Mrs. Crandall: "This is my sister, Mrs. Polly Ward."
97 Mrs. Ward: "You know what I think, Rose? I think it was all done by that same dreadful person who played that stupid practical joke on you yesterday. Someone called her and said I had been taken seriously ill. They said I had been rushed to Croton Hospital."
100 Mrs. Crandall: "This was the last card I received from my husband before he died."
101 Mrs. Ward: "Jonathan was a great one for puzzles."
102 Honey: "What does it (card) mean?" Trixie: "It says: Hoppy. Hollow. Wienie. Rose. If you say it quickly you get Happy Halloween, Rose."
104 Trixie: "I found a footprint. It looked as if it had been made by a horse wearing socks!"
105 The farmhouse kitchen. The polished maple furniture and gleaming copper utensils glowed softly in the lamplight. Treasured china waited on plate racks and cup hooks.
106 Mart had turned away from the refrigerator, his arms full. Packages of ham, bologna, and three different kids of cheeses.
107 A jar of mayonnaise and one of peanut butter. Two tomatoes, a head of lettuce, a bottle of catsup, and a jar of homemade sweet pickles. A large bag of potato chips. Mart built himself a towering sandwich, one layer of which was peanut butter and potato chips.
115 Trixie: "It's not like Di to be so bossy." Jim: "Maybe it's because you're so used to running things yourself." Trixie: "But I'm not bossy." Jim: "Oh sometimes you are. Just a little bit. But then, I guess someone's got to be the boss." Trixie: "I thought we were all bosses."
119 Trixie: "That tree looks like it has different kinds of leaves on different branches."
120 Mrs. Ward: "Jonathan was in the process of experimenting with them. He was trying to grow three different kinds of fruit on one tree."
121 Jim: "I'll bet I've figured out what those letters on the tree trunks mean. They were painted there to help Mr. Crandall keep track of which species of fruits he had growing on which trees."
123 Mrs. Ward: "Rose knew Jonathan had bought her a gift because he told her so. But he hid it. He did give her a clue. He kept saying, 'It's simple.'"
124 Trixie stared out the window at Sleepyside's small Fine Arts Museum. Built at approximately the same time as Sleepyside's white frame town hall, it too, was housed in one of the area's older buildings.
130 Jim: "The trouble with you (Trixie) is that you're beginning to get mystery-itis."
132 Trixie was just in time to see a uniformed man and a smartly dressed young woman leave the room at the end of the hall — Harrison's room.
142 Jim: That is Mr. Alfred Dunham, the acting curator. The white-haired, jolly-looking man beside him is a friend of Di's father. His name is Richard Parkinson, and he is the owner of the missing Ming vase."
145 Mr. Dunham: "The museum had ordered a special glass display case to hold the vase, but it didn't arrive in time." Mr. Parkinson: "Then Jonathan should have put the vase in his office safe." Mr. Dunham: "The police discovered that he couldn't do so on that particular Friday. The safe's lock was broken. I think that your Ming vase is still at the museum. I think Jonathan put it in with some of the other artifacts for safekeeping." Mr. Parkinson: "Nonsense! We searched that museum from attic to cellar. The ming vase isn't there!"
148 Trixie: "Suppose he took it home with him. What else did he hide?" Honey: "His wife's birthday present. Where did Mr. Crandall hide the present?" Trixie: "He died that same weekend, so I think the vase is still at his house."
149
  • Trixie: "There's a book of Mother Goose nursery rhymes on the bookshelves. Mother Goose has a rhyme that goes: 'Simple Simon met a pieman …'
  • Trixie looked up to realize that three people had been close enough to overhear. Mr. Dunham, Mr. Parkinson, and the young woman who was one of Harrison's mysterious visitors.
152
  • The Bob-Whites knew the total was not going to be as much as they'd hoped for.
  • Trixie: "There's a big reward for the recovery of that missing Ming vase."
153 Trixie: "I've been meaning to show you this." She pulled out the scrap of black material that she'd found. Honey: "Are you sure this came from the headless horseman's cloak?"
154 Honey: "In that case the headless horseman is a very modern thinking ghost. His cloak is made of polyester."
158
  • Mrs. Crandall: "After all the things he said about my husband, the only thing I'd sell Richard Parkinson would be a one-way ticket out of town."
  • Mrs. Crandall: "Polly has a dreadful memory. The real clue was 'It's elementary.'"
161 Trixie had often wondered what Reddy would do to protect her. She found out. He took one look. He gave one startled bark. Then he turned and fled. His tail was tucked firmly between his legs.
163 The path led them to another clearing high on a hill. A large building stood on top of it. They could see it was an old barn, which seemed to be deserted. From where they stood, they could see little but peeling paint and rotting timbers.
164 The three who walked in. The young woman still wore the same smart blue suit she had been wearing all day, and the bald-headed man still wore his guard's uniform. The third person, there was no doubt about. It was Harrison.
167 Trixie: "This old barn has a super view." Off to the left, down in a hollow, Honey could see Rose Crandall's little house. To the right, far across the treetops, the rising moon shone on a long winding ribbon of Glen Road. A broad trail wound its way through the woods toward home.
168 Trixie: "What am I going to do Honey?" She glanced across the aisle at Di's averted face. Trixie: "She won't talk to me. Now even Brian and Mart are angry with me. They say I'm always poking my nose in where it doesn't belong. They even said that if we can't get along as a group, maybe we should break up."
169 Dan: "I'm not angry with you, and I think the answer's easy. Go shopping. Show her that you really care that she's upset." Trixie: "She won't come." Dan: "Then get Honey to ask her. She's not mad at Honey, is she?"
175 Honey: "I made two sets of arrangements for today. One was with you and me. The other was with Di and me. You're going to kill me. I didn't tell Di you were coming with us this morning."
176 Trixie: "If we Bob-Whites can't get along together, how can we hope to help other people. I'm really sorry I've upset you. Won't you be friends again?" Di: "Will you admit that you were wrong to suspect my butler of being a crook?"
179 Trixie: "Maybe it's best if we get this settled between us. If we don't, I think it's always going to make a difference in how we feel about each other." Di: "We're going to settle this — now." Meekly they tagged along behind while Di marched across the square and along the street that led to the museum.
180
  • Trixie had visited here many times when she was in elementary school. It was one of the teachers' favorite places to visit. The town of Sleepyside was proud of its collection. Several of its wealthier residents had famous paintings on permanent loan.
  • A young woman wearing a name tag that read JANET GRAY.
181 Trixie: "That's another of Harrison's accomplices."
182 Charlie: "The bike's mine. I just lent it to Harrison when he needed quick transportation." Di: "Charlie Burnside here is the museum's guard. Miss Gray is its lecturer. Both are Harrison's friends."
183 Trixie and Honey bent down to see a beautiful little green jade goddess on an ebony pedestal. Her small arms and tiny cupped hands were outstretched as if to greet them. Di: "Her name is Lien-Ting. Dad lent her to the museum last year."
187 Mart: "It's Harrison. He's a thief. Di says she knew it as soon as she got a good look at the statue. It's a fake. Apparently the real statue has a small crack in her right arm. The statue you saw today is flawless."
188 Mart: "We've all tried to persuade her to talk to Sgt. Molinson, but she doesn't want to. She said it's a family matter and she wants to keep it confidential."
189 Mart: "Harrison's skipped."
194 Trixie: "The deserted barn smelled the same as Honey's stables."
195 Trixie: "That means a horse has been kept there and recently." Honey: "The headless horseman had to stable his horse somewhere."
197 Mart: "Are you admitting, my dear sister, that I have the ability to control our canine friend?"
198 Trixie: "That's not fair! Mart was supposed to teach Reddy to do as he's told." Mart: "Correction! I was supposed to teach Reddy to do what we want." (By telling Reddy the opposite of what they want.)
200 Mart: "I found this hanging on a peg over there. The cloak's rigged on a wooden frame."
204 Trixie walked straight to the old apple tree. The Bob-Whites saw her hand disappear into a deep hole.
205
  • Snuggled cozily in its satin bed was the squat green shape of the priceless vase.
  • Harrison was in his shirt sleeves. The pink scar on his forehead gave him a slightly sinister look. In his hand, he carried a knife. Trixie: "Mart! Stop! Harrison isn't the villain!"
206 Trixie: "The knife he's holding is for peeling potatoes."
208 The man in the derby had was the curator of the art museum, Alfred Dunham.
209 Trixie: "Harrison's been trying all along to clear Mr. Crandall's name. Charlie Burnside and Janet Gray from the museum were helping him."
211
  • Di: "We're going to get our real Lien-Ting back. He (Dunham) didn't have time to sell the original."
  • Harrison: "My hat has been returned to me." To their astonishment, one corner of his mouth lifted a fraction of an inch.
212
  • Prim and proper Harrison was actually smiling!
  • Trixie: "Mr. Crandall loved puzzles and puns and Sherlock Holmes. The apple tree is marked LMN but it had no grafts on it. He told his wife the solution was elementary. The L-M-N tree.