From the back of the book - "There was a small branch lying at one side. It was only about 20 inches long, and someone had cut all the side twigs off it. Trixie picked it up, curious as usual. It came from a crab-apple tree. There was a dark stain on the heavy end of the piece of wood. And caught in the grain of the wood was a small tuft of gray hair. The stain could only be blood..."
This time around the Bob-Whites are preparing to host an Ice Carnival on the Wheeler's lake and asking people to donate books so they can send them to the school of Trixie and Honey's mexican penpals who's school library was destroyed in an earthquake. The Bob-Whites are such nice guys and gals. But while they're preparing Trixie just has to nose into Regan's business. She overhears him asking her Mother for advice and Bobby tells her that he heard Regan is going for a trip to the city to bring back a "Sperimen", which she and Honey deduce to mean "experiment". Regan takes his day off and Trixie sees him driving a car out to Mr Maypenny's. The next day Mr Maypenny joins the Bob-Whites on their school bus and with him is a young man around Mart's age, named Dan Mangan. Of course Trixie and Honey never even think that Dan Mangan arrives with Mr Maypenny the day after Regan starts his "sperimen" that involved visiting Mr Maypenny (hmmm, Mr Maypenny and Regan experimenting, there's some hot fanfic there!). Anyway, the Bob-Whites and Dan get off on the wrong foot straight away. With his black leather jacket, high peaked leather cap and black cowboy boots, coupled with his street tough attitude he's at odds with how the Bob-Whites are.
Then Honey's watch goes missing and turns up at Mr Lytell's store, sold by a boy in a leather jacket! And the Bob-Whites club house is broken into and trashed and their club funds stolen and whoever did it left boot prints from cowboy boots! All signs point to Dan, not to mention he's not very polite and forthcoming with any alibis. It looks like Regans experiment has failed and Dan is going to be shipped off to a reform school. You see, Dan is Regan's long lost sisters kid and he got mixed up with a tough New York gang called the Cowhands when his parents died and it was only by agreeing to get him out of the city and out of trouble that Regan convinced a judge not to send Dan away.
Then the Bob-Whites discover that Dan's boots are much smaller than the print left in their club house and his are black and there's brown boot polish scuffed on one of their desks. Then Mr Maypenny is attacked and Dan was no where near the scene of the crime. It's not until Trixie and Bobby become lost in the woods and Bobby gets stuck in a crack in a cave that the truth is revealed. Luke, the leader of the Cowhands has followed Dan to Sleepyside and wants Dan to help him rob the Wheelers before they both run away back to the city. Of course, when Trixie asks for Dan's help with saving Bobby he accepts and helps little Bobby out but all the while they can hear the cries of a mountain lion getting closer and it's dark and snowing, will they last through the night?
Of course they do, everything works out in the end, Luke gets caught and arrested and Dan becomes a valuable member of the Bob-Whites, inheriting Mart's old BWG jacket that's too small (so he never has to wear the black leather one again) and even taking part in the Ice Carnival and winning the speed skating competition, the prize of which is flooring that the Bob-Whites can use to floor their club house.
Dan is the last official Bob-White (though some characters in later books are "honorary Bob-Whites") becomes one of my favourite characters in the series though of the Bob-Whites he's the least used. I was a bit miffed that Di only appears in this book for a page or so and then seems to disappear for most of the rest of the book. Di and Dan seem to get relegated to the background quite often from memory.
Next up - The Happy Valley Mystery where the Bob-Whites are off to visit Trixie's Uncle Andrew on his sheep farm in (I think) Iowa. It's another of my favourites! :)
The Black Jacket Mystery is another one that I remember ready in the "ugly" edition :)
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