Org's voice crackled on the walkie-talkie again. "Any more clues?"

Gwen told him what had just happened on the balcony. "We just missed Old Cheese Breath by a few minutes. Hang on while Howard figures out this clue he sent us. Maybe it'll tell us where to go next."

Howard bent over the paper the footman had given them.

G T HT CLP RHW HT VNK LTS HT STRT,
DN TG TSL DSN HT NKRB TRH!

After a short time he exclaimed, "Got it! This one was harder-he thought he'd trick us. But all he did was take out all the vowels, and then write the words backwards."

Howard wrote the strange-looking words in reverse:

G T TH PLC WHR TH KNV STL TH TRTS,
ND GT LST NSD TH BRKN HRT!

"Now read it out loud, and you can probably tell what it says by the way it sounds, and you know what vowels to put back in," he said.

Gwen did, and soon she, too, knew what it said:

GO TO THE PLACE WHERE THE KNAVE STOLE THE TARTS,
AND GET LOST INSIDE THE BROKEN HEART!

"Let's see-'the place where the knave stole the tarts'-that must mean the Queen of Hearts' castle. But what does it mean about the broken heart?"

"Who knows? We'll find out when we get there," said Howard. "In the meantime, it's getting really late. I sure could use some sleep. Do you think they'd have a room here for us?"

They radioed to Lance and Org to meet them at the Queen of Hearts' castle the next day. Fortunately the ball had gone well, and the princess was in a better mood. She invited them to stay for the night.

Meanwhile, the goose had given Lance and Org pleasant feather beds to sleep in for the night. The next morning after breakfast, the two parties met just outside of the Queen of Hearts' castle.

The Queen of Hearts' castle stood in the woods outside of the town. The front doors were decorated with huge hearts. The bell was answered by a butler in a red silk suit, also decorated with hearts. They followed the butler up red-carpeted stairs to a room that was wallpapered in hearts.

On a heart-shaped gold throne sat a haughty-looking queen. They bowed before her, and Org said, displaying his badge, "Storyland Security, Your Majesty. We've come to look into the disappearance of your tarts."

"Well, it's about time!" exclaimed the Queen.

Org asked, "Can you tell us exactly how it happened, Your Majesty?"

"The royal cook had just made a new batch of tarts."

"The rhyme said you made them," interrupted Gwen without thinking.

"Certainly not!" exclaimed the Queen. "Do you think I would lower myself to do the cooking? I am the Queen!"

"Sorry," said Gwen. "I guess the rhyme would be too long if it said "The Queen of Hearts' royal cook made some tarts all on a summer's day."

"Don't be impertinent, miss!" said the Queen, glaring at Gwen.

Lance asked, "What kind of tarts were they, Your Majesty?"

"They were raisin tarts," said the queen. "Lovely ones. And I had them on this table, right here." She motioned to a heart-shaped table.

"Raisin tarts?" asked Howard. He took out the velvet bag which contained their evidence, and produced the heart-shaped plate found in the treasure chamber. "Were they, by any chance, on this plate?"

"My plate!" squealed the queen. "Where did you get it? You must be the one who stole it! Arrest this boy immediately!" she said to Org.

"Calm yourself, madam," said Org. "This boy is one of my detectives, and your plate was found in the royal treasure chamber. Do you realize what this means?" he said to Howard.

"Yes," answered Howard. "We've found proof. The theft of the books of magic is connected to the theft of the tarts, Rapunzel's hostage situation, and the missing birds. The same thief committed all four crimes."

"And broke into the three bears' home and ate their breakfast, and left us all these clues," added Gwen eagerly.

"Did you see the thief?" Lance asked the Queen.

"No," she said angrily. "If I had seen him I'd have had him arrested. That horrible thief left such a mess-crumbs and fur all over the place."

"Fur!" cried Gwen. "What color fur?"

"Grey fur," shuddered the Queen. "Nasty. And it smelled. An awful cheese smell-not like the smell of my lovely raisin tarts."

"Grey fur and cheese again," said Org. "This confirms my theory."

"What theory?" demanded Lance.

"All in good time, my boy," said Org. "If we can find the broken heart, I feel sure everything will come together." Gwen turned to the Queen. "Please, ma'am, we need to look inside a broken heart here at your castle. Do you know what that might be?"

"Broken heart!" The Queen looked outraged. "Certainly not! There are at least three thousand hearts in this castle, young lady. The dishes, the furniture, the ornaments are all hearts. If any of them had been broken, I'd have heard about it-and the servant who broke it would have been fired immediately! Broken heart indeed! Not in my castle!"

"Oh, no!" cried Gwen, "That can't be true!" She and the others stared at one another in dismay.

"Anyone have any idea what to do next?" asked Lance. Howard and Org shook their heads.

"We were so close," Gwen thought. Her eyes filled with tears. Sadly, she wandered over to the window so that the others wouldn't see. Glancing down out of the window, she gasped.

"Org! Howard! Lance! Come quick! I've found the broken heart!"

"Nonsense!" snapped the queen, but the others rushed to the window.

"Look!" cried Gwen, pointing. Directly below them, in the castle's back garden, was a large maze in the shape of a heart. Made with hundreds of hedges, it was divided by many winding paths that crisscrossed its heart shape, making the heart look "broken".

"The maze!" cried the others.

"We have to 'get lost' inside the maze!" added Lance. "That's where we'll find the answer!" To the Queen's surprise, they all rushed down the stairs into the back garden.

When they reached the edge of the maze, they all hesitated. The maze was taller and more forbidding than it had looked from the window. The hedges were much higher than their heads. The entrance was dark and ominous.

"Hold on a minute," Lance spoke what they were all thinking. "I'm not going in there-not when I can't see what's around the next bend. It might be a trap. What if the thief jumps out and attacks us or something?"

"Wait a second-I've got an idea!" said Howard. Quickly, he opened the velvet "evidence bag" and pulled out several items-the milk cartons from the bears' house, some tape, the broken bits of mirror he had used before. As his astounded friends watched, he constructed a strange-looking gadget.

"It's a periscope!" he announced. "We can see around corners with it!" And it was true. They all tried it out and were surprised to find out that it worked!

Armed with the periscope, they carefully began to make their way through the maze, checking first to see what lay around each corner. Several times they made a wrong turn and ended up at a dead end.

"This is a real pain!" grumbled Lance as he turned yet another corner. "He's trying to make fools out of us. There's nothing in here at all!"

Just then, Howard grabbed him. "Look out!" Right in front of Lance was a yawning hole in the ground. Lance had nearly fallen into a deep pit!

"Careful!" warned Howard. "You were right about traps. This place is probably full of them!"

As they wound through the maze, Howard spotted several more traps through the periscope. Just in time, he saved his friends from being tangled in a snare that was stretched across the ground, smashed by a bucket of falling rocks, and flattened by a rolling log.

At long last they rounded a final corner to find themselves in the heart-shaped center of the maze. But it was empty! Stunned, the four adventurers looked around them in dismay.

"Look! Someone was here!" Gwen pointed to some large paw prints that had been left in the mud at the center of the maze.

Howard reached into his bag and pulled out a paper. "Here is the paw print I took off the bears' milk cartons. It's the same!" Near the paw prints, they found a series of snaky lines in the mud that looked as though they had been made with a rope, or something similar.

Org squinted at the prints. "Hmmm. I think I know what kind of animal left both these kind of prints."

Gwen interrupted him. "Look! In this corner! Another trapdoor, like the one at the pigs' house!" And indeed there was another square of wood embedded in the ground near the hedge. They lifted it up, and beneath it was another dark hole.

"Do we go down?" asked Howard. They all hesitated.

"Oh, come on," said Lance recklessly. "We've come too far to quit now!" He climbed down inside the dark opening. "It's another tunnel," he called back, and they all climbed down to join him. The tunnel seemed to go a long way.

"Org, what were you going to say before?" asked Lance.

"It's time we started using our heads, my friends," said Org.

"I agree," said Howard. "What kind of animal has gray fur, likes cheese, has a long tail that leaves a trail in the dirt, and likes to dig tunnels?"

His question went unanswered, because the tunnel finally ended in another dead end. They looked and saw a ladder against the dirt wall. "All right!" cried Lance, "Up we go!" They followed him up the ladder and through another trap door.

They found themselves in a small white room. It was empty except for a small table. On the table lay a note. Gwen picked it up and read aloud:

dear Yvonne,
Only thUrsday we met, And alREdy MY heart is Pounding. wRIte to me SoON, my dEaRest, and Say you'll be mine!!!

"What on earth?" she asked.

"It's a love letter. Yuck!" said Lance, disgusted. "Nothing to do with us. Throw it away!"

"Hang on, not so fast!" said Howard. "Let me see it." After scanning the note, he said, "It's another code! Look how only certain letters are capitalized. If we look at only those letters, they probably spell out words!"

"They do!" cried Gwen excitedly, and began spelling out the words. "Y.O.U, you, A.R.E, are.." "M." said Lance, "Y.my., P.R.I.S."

"Don't bother," said a voice behind them. "I'll finish it for you. It says, 'YOU ARE MY PRISONERS!' " And at that moment, the trap door slammed shut behind them. They were trapped!