“What the …?” one of the men said.
Carole answered his question with action. Sat and Bodoni were in a small paddock next to the van. One of the men held Garnet by a lead rope.
“Open the paddock gate,” Carole called to Stevie. “I’ll get Garnet.”
“That’s what you think!” the other man said fiercely. He challenged her by swinging at her with his fist. That was a fight Carole would lose, so it was a battle she wouldn’t enter. Instead, she let Garnet do the “getting” for her. She rode up behind the mare and gave her a hard smack on the rear—not enough to hurt her, just enough to surprise her. Garnet, who hadn’t liked the idea of the van, was nervous anyway. The smack on her rump was all she needed to convince her to bolt, and bolt she did, right into the woods toward the creek, just where Carole wanted her.
Carole turned to see what her friends were up to. Stevie had the gate of the paddock open. Lisa rode Pepper in and circled behind Sat and Bodoni. “Hiyaaaa!” she cried, roundup style. “Git along little dogie!” Sat and Bodoni were as surprised as Garnet had been. They fled through the gate, and when they tried to veer to the left, Carole was there to steer them toward the woods, too.
“Let’s get out of here!” Stevie yelled, following the three freed horses into the woods.
“You took the words right out of my mouth!” Carole agreed. Starlight, Pepper, and Topside fled from the old farmyard as quickly as they’d entered it. The last thing Carole heard before she entered the woods after the horses was the sound of the engine on the horse van revving up.
The woods around the farmhouse were thick. There was no path there, except for the creek. The horses, perhaps because they’d been that way once before, naturally headed for the creek. That was a good thing, because The Saddle Club would have had a rough time trying to round them up out of the dense underbrush. The best part about the creek, though, was that it wasn’t too wide. It wasn’t, for example, wide enough for a horse van, though there was one trying to follow them into it.
Carole heard a loud noise that sounded an awful lot like metal hitting wood. It was followed by a loud outburst of words that her father told her Marines sometimes said. Carole pulled Starlight to a halt and looked over her shoulder. It was a beautiful sight. The horse van was tightly wedged between two trees at a narrow section of the creek. The horsenappers would never catch up with them now.
“Hey, we’re home free!” Stevie announced joyously.
“As long as we can get the horses back to Pine Hollow safely,” Carole said.
“In time to call the police so they can get back to the farm and arrest those guys before they skedaddle,” Lisa finished.
That was true. Sooner or later, the horsenappers would be able to back out of the creek, and as soon as that happened, they’d be gone.
“Let’s go!” Stevie said, urging her friends, though it wasn’t necessary. They were all moving their horses as fast as possible.
The girls had spent some time on a dude ranch in the Southwest with a friend of theirs named Kate Devine. They’d been on a genuine cattle roundup and had learned some skills that they put to use. They knew they had to surround the herd as well as they could, even if it was only a herd of three.
Carole went first. She picked up the lead rope tied to Garnet’s halter and began riding forward down the creek. Lisa was in the rear. It was her job to see to it that the other two horses kept up with the group. Stevie had the trickiest job. She rode in the center and she had to see that Sat and Bodoni stayed in line. As long as they were riding in the creek bed, it wasn’t hard, but as soon as they reached the fire road, where the woods opened up considerably, it became trickier.
Bodoni was not only a beautiful black stallion, he was also bold and independent. He seemed to get an idea in his head about showing off for the two mares, Garnet and Sat, and that made Stevie’s job much harder. She had to pay a lot more attention to Bodoni than to the horse she was riding. Fortunately, Topside was good at doing what he was told, even when his rider wasn’t paying all that much attention to him.
This was where Stevie’s dressage training stood her in good stead. They weren’t riding for ribbons, they were riding for real. Every time Bodoni veered off to the right, Topside circled around behind him and headed him back to the left. Sat, it seemed, was tired and was perfectly satisfied to simply follow Carole and Garnet. She didn’t cause Stevie any trouble at all, though she did drop behind a few times to nibble at the grass. Lisa tugged at her mane once and used her riding crop on her flank occasionally to remind her that her job was to move forward. She willingly followed along.
Although it had seemed like a world of time, because so much had happened, when Carole looked at her watch she saw that she and Stevie and Lisa had only been gone from Pine Hollow for two hours. Now, as they emerged from the woods and Pine Hollow was only a couple of hundred yards away, all of them felt the same relief and eagerness to return. That was especially true of Bodoni. It was as if he could smell the hay and oats he knew he’d get. That was enough to make him pick up his pace. Before Stevie and Topside could do anything about it, Bodoni was cantering, and then galloping toward Pine Hollow.
There was nothing for the girls to do but gallop with him. They followed along the street by Pine Hollow, and when Bodoni crossed, they crossed, too. Fortunately, there was no traffic coming at all.
Bodoni didn’t stop at Pine Hollow’s stable, he proceeded right past it, through the parking area, around the barriers, past the spectator stands, and right smack into the ring where the stadium jumping was taking place. One astonished rider, in the middle of the adult competition jump course, drew her horse to a halt and demanded to know, “What’s going on here?” A lot more people asked the same question when Carole, Lisa, and Stevie, on Starlight, Pepper, and Topside, arrived along with Garnet and Sat. Starlight was so hyped by the invigorating gallop that he even jumped one of the fences on the jump course. Carole tried not to smile. She didn’t succeed.
At that point, Max Regnery ran into the ring. His face was red with anger. “I’m sure there’s some explanation for this!” he blurted out furiously.
Stevie drew Topside to a halt in front of him. A big grin crossed her face. “You bet there is!” she announced proudly.
IT TOOK A few minutes to round up Bodoni and get him safely into a stall Garnet and Sat were tired out and only too willing to be led to safety by Carole, who put them in stalls and gave them fresh water and clean hay. It took a few more minutes for Stevie to explain some of what had been going on to Max.
While these things were happening, Lisa had another job to do. She called the police. It took more than a little effort to convince them that she knew what she was talking about and they didn’t have any time to waste. Finally, she told them that if they missed out on the collar of the century just because they didn’t believe her, they would look pretty silly. The dispatcher said a car would go to the farm immediately—and one would come to Pine Hollow to talk to her as well.
“Good,” she said. “There’s somebody here they have to meet, too.”
When she hung up the phone, Lisa found herself laughing out loud. She’d astonished herself by using the expression “collar of the century.” That was the sort of thing Stevie would say, not the kind of thing straight-A-student Lisa would say. She decided to thank Stevie for the inspiration.
“You what?” Max asked, astonished, as Stevie finished telling the story of their rescue.
Stevie just nodded. There was no point in telling it again. He’d heard it right. She told him as much.
“You rounded them up and herded them away from the—what did you call them—horsenappers? But how did you know?”
There was a good question. Stevie had known from the beginning that they really ought to have told at least Max what was going on. There was no way they should have taken the chances they did, but they’d taken them for good reasons. If they had told, all of the horses would have been endangered and maybe none of them ever would have m
ade it back. Still, if Stevie let on that they had actually seen the ransom note, they could be in more hot water than even she was willing to risk. So Max’s question hung in the air. How did you know?
Then inspiration struck. “Elementary, my dear Regnery,” she said. “Elementary.”
The answer was so astonishing that Max forgot that he hadn’t learned anything from it. He just burst into laughter and so did all the other people standing around.
A FEW MINUTES later a police car pulled into Pine Hollow. Lisa met the officers at the front door and brought them around to the back, where the combined-training event had been taking place until it was interrupted by the arrival of the rescued horses. Lisa wanted the police to talk to Stevie. She was the best at explaining what had happened. It took a while to unravel the whole story, but Stevie managed it, without mentioning the “missing” ransom note. She just said that their suspicions were aroused when all the expensive purebred horses seemed to be mysteriously withdrawing and disappearing. The part she had the hardest time explaining was the significance of the bubble-gum wrappers. The police just kept exchanging confused looks.
“Oh, forget about how we figured out what was going on,” she said. “We just did. And then, we trailed the horses into the woods …”
“So, where is this gum chewer?” one of the officers asked.
“I don’t know,” Stevie said. “Carole, what did you do with him?”
“Oh, you’ll find him in the tack room,” Carole said with a mischievous grin on her face. “I told him Mrs. Reg wanted him to polish the dressage saddles. All of them. You may find him reluctant to leave. He’s a very hard worker!”
Everybody who had seen Donald dashing around and working extremely hard, just to cover up the fact that he was doing things he shouldn’t have been doing, laughed. He was a hard worker.
The police emerged from the tack room a few minutes later, bringing Donald with them. They explained that they would be taking him back to the station house as soon as their colleagues returned from fetching the horsenappers from the van in the woods.
“I think we have some time, then,” Max said. “Why don’t we finish up the event?” Then he turned to his mother. “And while we’re watching the last two riders, could you call the owners of the three rescued horses and tell them what a wonderful show some of our junior riders have put on today?”
“I’d be pleased to,” Mrs. Reg said. “It seems small thanks since, after all, because of them, all the dressage saddles are clean as whistles!”
It was just like Mrs. Reg to think of the tack at a time like that.
The one disappointment Stevie, Lisa, and Carole had was that they had missed almost all of the adult jumping competition. Max saw to it that they got front-row seats to watch the final competitors. The adult course had more obstacles in it and they were higher, but the rules were the same. It was fun and exciting to watch the competitors, but, they all agreed, it had been more fun competing themselves.
When the last jump was cleared and the final salute given, Max announced that the parade and ribbon ceremony would begin in fifteen minutes. That allowed Red and a few volunteers enough time to take down the jumps and it allowed riders who hadn’t competed in the advanced competition enough time to saddle their horses.
Carole though Starlight looked less than enthusiastic about the idea of donning his saddle another time that day. “This is the last time,” she promised him. “And it’s going to be easy. No wild rides through the woods, no tracking through water, no jumps. Just a nice walk around the show ring and then a few times up and back to the judges for ribbons, okay?” He still seemed skeptical, but Carole thought he’d change his mind when he had a ribbon clipped to his bridle. She gave him a carrot in the meantime and that seemed to help, too.
All of the riders lined up as they had practiced before the event for the final parade. Mrs. Reg put some marching music on the public-address system and they all rode into the ring. It reminded The Saddle Club of the rodeo parade they’d been in once. The crowd, stirred up by the excitement of the rescue of the horses, stood and cheered for all of the riders as they entered. Carole felt exhilarated. She had always known that she would enjoy competing, but she’d never known it would be as exciting as this. She simply loved it, especially knowing that she and Starlight had done their best, both in the event and in the rescue operation. She hoped she’d never have to save a horsenap victim again, but she also hoped it wouldn’t be long before she was in another horse show.
The riders all drew to a halt, and turned to stand in a row, facing the judges’ stand.
There were a lot of awards to give out. Each event had first- through sixth-place winners, junior and senior.
When Max began handing out ribbons, Carole thought it seemed like it was just The Saddle Club show. In junior dressage, Stevie took the blue ribbon for first place, Lisa got red for second place, and Carole took a yellow for third place. Carole thought she was pretty lucky to have gotten third, but Stevie certainly deserved first and Lisa was just right in second place.
Then, for cross-country, Lisa got the blue ribbon. She was the only rider of all the junior entrants to have had a “clear” round without any mistakes, within the time limit. Stevie and Carole clapped long and loud for her. She’d worked hard on her riding skills and deserved that blue ribbon. Carole got second place, which surprised her, and Stevie took third. Then came the jumping awards and it still seemed like The Saddle Club show. Carole was the undisputed winner, and everybody who had seen her perform stood up again to give her and Starlight one more round of applause. Stevie got second place in that and Lisa took third.
“Doesn’t anybody else ever win anything?” Stevie whispered to Carole. Carole knew Stevie was joking. After all, Max was giving lots of ribbons to other people. It’s just that he was giving all the best ones to Carole and her friends. And, she decided, that was okay because they deserved them!
Then Max gave out the awards to the adult riders. There had been a lot of competitors in the adult division and there were a lot of ribbons to hand out. Carole didn’t mind waiting through that, though. After all, she was doing something she loved. It wasn’t just that she was in the saddle of her very own horse, though that was important. Nor was it that they were standing in the middle of a show ring, surrounded by an audience that had only recently spent a fair amount of time clapping for them, though that was nice, too. The best part was that when Carole looked straight forward, as she was supposed to, aiming her eyes between her horse’s ears, he had three well-deserved ribbons flapping from his bridle!
“And that brings us to the conclusion of our awards ceremony,” Max told the audience. “Except for two very special awards. In each division, we award a ‘Blue ribbon’ to the rider who accumulated fewer penalty points than all the others in each of the three categories. In the adult division, this is an easy matter because the winner is clearly John Malcolm.” He handed Mr. Malcolm his ribbon and there was polite applause.
“In the junior division, however, it’s not an easy matter, as those of you who were paying attention will realize.” He paused.
Carole, Lisa, and Stevie all looked at one another. They hadn’t even known that there was such a thing as the “Best in Show” ribbon. It had been enough that each of them had excelled in one of the three events. That had made it easy to root for each other. But, Stevie thought, if there was an overall ribbon for the single best rider …
“As you can see, we have three girls here who have done almost equally exceptionally well, finishing one-two-three in all three events.”
It would have to go to …
“So, choosing one from among them is almost impossible, but it’s a task I took on when I organized this event. So, I’m pleased to announce—”
Lisa leaned over to Carole. “It’s got to be you, Carole.”
Carole, Stevie said to herself.
“—Carole Hanson is hereby awarded the ‘Best in Show’!”
�
��Me?” Carole said, gasping with surprise.
“Of course,” her friends said in a single voice.
“Come on over here, Carole. Take your ribbon and enjoy a victory gallop along with Mr. Malcolm.”
A few minutes later, Carole decided that the only thing prettier than three ribbons hanging off of Starlight’s bridle was four ribbons flapping gaily as she galloped around the ring.
THREE MORE POLICE cars had arrived by the time the members of The Saddle Club were ready to untack their horses for the final time that day.
Mrs. Reg told the girls that the police wanted to see them.
“I bet they do,” Lisa said darkly. “They want to slap cuffs on us and put us in the pokey right next to the horsenappers.”
“Or instead of the horsenappers!” Stevie suggested.
“No way,” Carole said. “This is the day we all get blue ribbons in everything, including crime prevention. We can go see them as soon as we’re finished up, but first, our horses deserve a good grooming and feeding. We owe them some thanks, you know.”
Lisa and Stevie agreed. However, they didn’t think that necessarily meant they had to take a long time at the grooming. Within fifteen minutes, the three girls met up with the policeman who was waiting for them in the tack room.
Mrs. Reg introduced him as Officer Kent. He was a big man who looked very severe and frightening in his uniform. Even Carole, who was quite accustomed to uniforms, found herself a little intimidated. All thoughts about blue ribbons in everything fled from her mind as she listened to the man’s serious voice. “We found two men trapped in a van stuck between two trees,” he began. “That’s just about what one of you described on the phone. We’ve talked to a young man here, named Donald, and he told us a story pretty much like the one we heard that another one of you told Mr. Regnery about horsenapping and ransom.”
He paused. “Now, we’ve spoken with the owners of Saturday’s Child and Bodoni. It seems they got ransom notes and decided not to tell us about it because they were afraid for their horses. We’ve also reached a Miss Veronica diAngelo, a friend of yours?”
Horsenapped! Page 8