Trixie Belden's best friend Jim ran away before anyone could tell him that he is the heir to a major fortune. Secrets shift into high gear when Trixie and her friends set off on a road trip to find Jim--and uncover another mystery along the way!

When Trixie Belden’s friend Jim runs away, she and her neighbor Honey jump in an RV and hit the road. Someone has to tell Jim he inherited a fortune—but he needs to be around to claim it!

Unfortunately, Trixie and Honey’s troubles are only beginning. The girls learn there’s been a string of break-ins to campervans, making travel more dangerous than ever. What’s worse, a young girl named Joeanne has disappeared into the woods, leaving her family and their shiny red trailer behind. Trixie and Honey worry that Joeanne could be in danger—and the fear only grows as the car bandits get more bold. The race is on to find Jim and Joeanne and untangle the mystery of the road trip thieves before the burglars hit the brakes on Trixie’s adventure once and for all.

Sure enough, it was already sprinkling when the girls returned their horses to the riding academy, and they had to run all the way to the Swan to keep from getting soaked. The rain kept up a steady drumming on the roof of the trailer all day, and the girls were forced to play indoor games and read, but it was hard to control their impatience.
At last Trixie said restlessly, “I can’t stand being cooped up here any longer. Let’s dash over to the restaurant and play some Ping-Pong before dinner.”
“All right,” Miss Trask agreed. “I’ll take a nap, but wear your slickers and rubbers. If either of you should catch cold it would ruin the trip.”
“We won’t,” Honey assured her. “And please don’t let the dogs follow us. They’ve already brought in so much mud Trixie and I’ll have to spend most of the morning scrubbing the place.”
They raced around the park in their oilskin capes and hoods and sloshed up the steps to the cafeteria veranda. Everybody in Autoville seemed to have gathered inside and out of the clubhouse, and people were waiting in line for the use of the Ping-Pong table.
“Oh dear,” Trixie complained. “There’s nothing to do here either. I wish we could fall asleep and not wake up until it’s time to start looking for Jim tomorrow morning.”
Honey was examining a magazine at the newsstand. “This quiz test looks like fun,” she said. “Let’s find out how smart we are.” She bought two copies of the magazine and Trixie followed her to a quiet corner of the library. “Ready, get set, go,” Honey said. “The one who gets through first and has the most right answers is the smartest.”
Trixie scribbled a few answers in the blank spaces after the questions in the test, but in a short while her thoughts began to wander. “I always get sleepy on rainy days,” she yawned, bored. “Wish I’d stayed back at the Swan with Miss Trask and taken a nap.”
“I’m sleepy too,” Honey admitted. “Let’s doze right here in these comfortable chairs. We can finish the quiz later.”
It seemed to Trixie that she had hardly closed her eyes when she was awakened by the sound of whispering on the other side of the thin beaver-board wall that separated the library from one of the back rooms in the cafeteria.
“–abandoned barn,” someone was saying, “on that truck farm. Perfectly safe. Hasn’t been used in years. Doubt if the farmer even remembers it’s there.”
“You’re taking an awful chance,” came a whining whisper. “We were better off where we were.”
Trixie sat up. That voice, she felt sure, belonged to Jeff!
“Don’t be stupid,” the other voice said hoarsely. “Those kids rode into the clearing after we passed them on the highway. If they saw that net and guessed–”
“Those dumb kids!” Jeff snorted. “They wouldn’t suspect anything even if they did happen to notice the net. What do you think they are, state troopers?”
“I’m taking no chances,” the other man insisted. “They didn’t look dumb to me and you could tell by the way they were riding along, watching the side of the road, they were looking for something.”
“Oh, all right,” Jeff gave in. “But it beats me how you’re going to get to that barn without being seen by the farmer who owns it. That van’s not exactly small, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“I keep telling you,” the other man whispered impatiently. “Through the back fields. There’s an old road leading from the orchard to the barn.”
“And fine shape it’ll be in after this rain,” Jeff argued. “We’re sure to get stuck in the mud tonight; but have it your own way. I’ll play along, but it sure gets my goat that a couple of clumsy girls can make us change our plans.”
The two men moved away from the wall, and in a few seconds Trixie saw the silhouette of a bushy-haired man move furtively past the library window. She hurried to the veranda, straining her eyes to get a better glimpse of him. He turned as though he might have heard her tiptoeing after him, and she crouched down hastily behind a bench. Peeking through the slats in the back of the bench, Trixie held her breath as the man took a few steps in her direction. Then, jamming a battered hat down over his thick, unruly hair, he wheeled and vaulted over the porch railing to disappear in the shadows of the bushes.

Julie Campbell (1908-1999) was from Flushing, New York, and shares the same birthday as her character, Mart Belden. As the daughter of an Army Officer, she travelled widely during her childhood. When she was eight years old, she won her first short story contest while living in Hawaii. In 1933, Campbell married Charles Tatham Jr., and they worked together on many magazine stories and articles. Campbell lived in a remodeled farmhouse in the Hudson River Valley with her husband and two sons when she began writing the Trixie Belden series. The series was set in fictional “Sleepyside,” but was based on the town Campbell was living in at the time in the Hudson River Valley near Ossining. Her home, “Wolf Hollow,” was the model for Crabapple Farm, and Campbell actually lived on Glendale Road. Julie Campbell passed away in 1999 at the age of 91. Even at 91 she was still spirited and determined, just like Trixie. View titles by Julie Campbell