Horse Spy Read Free Page A

van to even acknowledge the presence of the three girls.
    The Saddle Club was not deterred. No doubt it had been along trip in the big van. The women were probably tired and eager to see to the horses.
    “Where’s that Mr. Regnery?” asked the woman at the back of the van.
    “He’s teaching a student right now,” Stevie said. “We’ll let him know you’re here, but in the meantime, my friends and I can help get the hors—”
    “We told him what time we’d be here,” said the other woman sharply. “You think he’d have the courtesy to meet us so we can get this over with.”
    “He’ll be right here,” said Lisa. She was the closest to the stable door and only too glad to flee the mothers she’d so recently admired. Max would know how to deal with them.
    Lisa found Max in the ring with a new rider having a first lesson. It was a woman named Frieda who seemed to be getting the hang of riding very quickly. Lisa admired the way she sat in the saddle and already seemed to have absorbed many of the basics of riding.
    “Max, Polaris and Jennie’s Blue have arrived,” Lisa said when she could get his attention.
    “Why don’t you girls get them settled in? You know where they go, right? You did clean out the stalls, right?”
    “Right on all counts,” Lisa assured him. “But I think these women would like to see you. I think it would be a good idea.”
    “Well, I can’t leave a new rider alone,” Max said. “Tell them I’ll be there in”—he glanced at his watch—“eight minutes.”
    “Okay,” Lisa said. She returned to the driveway with the news, which was received with one grunt and one harrumph.
    “We just cleaned out the stalls,” Stevie said, trying to sound cheerful and welcoming. It hadn’t worked before and wasn’t working now.
    “You?” one of the women said. “Does that mean there’s no professional staff here for such duties?”
    Stevie gulped, swallowing the words she really wanted to utter, and said instead, “At Pine Hollow, everybody pitches in, especially when it comes to pitching out—um, manure, I mean. I think you’ll be pleased with the work we’ve done.”
    “Well, let’s get this over with,” said one of the women.
    “Yes, ma’am,” Lisa agreed. The sooner this pair was gone, the better.
    “I’m Carole Hanson,” Carole introduced herself, this time refraining from offering a hand to shake. “This is Stevie Lake, and this is Lisa Atwood.” The girls nodded and smiled.
    Finally the women relinquished their names. The woman by the cab of the truck was Mrs. Walker; her daughter, Ellen, rode Jennie’s Blue. The other woman was Mrs. Hatfield; her daughter, whose name was Lucy, rode Polaris.
    “We’ll get Blue off this thing first,” said Mrs. Walker, gesturing to the back of the truck.
    “I think Polaris should get off first,” said Mrs. Hatfield. “After all, he got on first and has been cooped up longer.”
    “Driver? Driver?” Mrs. Walker called.
    “I’ve got paperwork to do, ma’am,” the driver said from inside the cab. “And neither of those horses is getting off until I finish it.”
    At that moment it occurred to all three of The Saddle Club girls that the six-hour ride from Long Island must haveseemed much longer than that to the driver—more like six weeks!
    Stevie came to the rescue. She told the women they should take the few minutes to tour Pine Hollow and see where the horses would be housed.
    That turned out not to be such a good idea. The freshly cleaned stalls for the horses were near each other but on opposite sides of the aisle. The girls had never particularly noticed this before, but it meant that one of them had a window that looked south and the other’s window faced north. As was true with most stable windows, they were dusty and afforded little view, but the southern window did allow more sunlight through the grime.
    “This will do for Jennie’s Blue,” said Mrs. Walker possessively, smiling at the stream of