“Karen will love this,” she remarked. The scarf was tied and Nancy swung it over her shoulder like a little knapsack.
George asked Yo if the place he had seen the green man was near here.
“Oh no,” he replied. “It was way over on the other side of the trail.”
“One thing I’m sure of,” Nancy said as they started back toward the entrance, “this is not a thieves’ hangout. The bats would have chased them away and there’s no evidence of anyone’s having lived here.”
“Right,” Yo agreed. “Now I’ll take you to what I think is the green man’s place if you like.”
“Please do,” Nancy replied.
When they neared the exit of the bat cave, the hikers could see that it was nearly dusk. They would need their flashlights.
Before leaving, George said, “What is this cave made of?” She put her hand on the wall to feel the rocks. The next moment she cried out, “I’ve been bitten!”
Nancy and Yo turned just in time to see a giant worm-like creature on George’s arm. Quickly Yo knocked it to the floor of the cave and stepped on it.
At the same time he exclaimed, “It’s a poisonous centipede! Very poisonous!”
CHAPTER X
Footprint Lesson
As Yo made the horrifying announcement, he took George by the hand and yanked her quickly outside the cave. Even in the waning light, they could all see the puncture in the girl’s forearm.
Instantly Yo leaned down and put his lips over the wound. He began to suck the poison from it, stopped to spit out the deadly fluid, then started over again. Not a word was said by Nancy and George, but they watched intently.
“That’s enough,” the young man said presently, and straightened up. “But don’t move!”
George was too frightened to do anything but obey. Nancy asked, “Is there any way I can help?”
“Yes,” Yo replied. “Help me tear off some of this wild-grape vine and strip off the leaves.”
Within seconds the two had long streamers of it. Yo began to fashion a tourniquet around George’s arm just above the wound. He directed Nancy to put another directly below it.
When this was accomplished, he warned George, “Be very quiet.”
She stood stock-still and watched his next move. Beaming a flashlight, he searched for a small sharp stone. He cleaned it off very thoroughly on one of the grape leaves. Then he rubbed it up and down over the surface of George’s uninjured arm.
To Nancy the procedure looked like hocuspocus and she wondered, now that the danger to George was probably over, if Yo were just being silly.
She soon found out, however, that he was serious. Using the sharp edge of the stone very deftly, he made a small crisscross cut over the wound. Blood began to flow from it.
He explained, “Any poison left in the arm should drain out now. But you must still keep quiet, George. Anyone who has been bitten or stung should move as little and as slowly as possible so the heartbeat will not be stimulated.”
The three sat down and remained quiet. Nancy asked Yo where he had learned how to take care of this type of puncture.
The young man smiled. “From an old Indian over in Cherry Valley. By the way, the Indians in this territory knew a great deal about how to take care of wounds and even do minor surgery. They also knew how to use healing herbs that grow around here.”
As Yo removed the tourniquet, George asked him, “Was rubbing the stone over my skin some kind of magic?”
“Oh no,” Yo answered. “I cleaned the stone as thoroughly as I could without water or chemicals. Then, according to the old Indian, if there were any germs on it when I made the cut, they would be your own.”
Both girls looked at Yo with new respect. He was a puzzling person. George said to him, “You saved my life. I thank you very much.”
As the young man flushed in embarrassment at the praise, she added with a grin, “I suppose I’m full of germs, but I never thought of looking on my arm for them.”
Nancy and Yo laughed.
“George,” he said, “if you feel like walking, perhaps we’d better go. It’s getting dark.”
“I feel fine now, thanks to you,” George assured him.
With the aid of the flashlights, the trio moved forward. Nancy begged that they not descend the mountainside over such rough ground.
“Can’t we head for the trail and go back that way?”
“Sure,” Yo replied, and led the way.
The trek seemed long and the undergrowth was almost impassable. George declared it was positively a jungle. After a while they came to the trail, but instead of turning down, Nancy stopped short.
“Do you hear something?” George asked her.
“No, but look at the ground. I see a very clear shoe print.”
Her two companions stared at the mark made by a man’s shoe. Nancy beamed her flashlight around, trying to pick up a print of the person’s other shoe.
“There it is!” she said.
She leaned down and studied it intently. “If this belongs to either Sam or Mike, his right foot toes out. His left doesn’t.”
George added, “He walks a little unevenly and puts more weight on his right heel.”
Yo stared at the two girls. “Are you detectives?” he asked.
They did not answer, but Nancy crossed the trail and began searching in the woods beyond. But the undergrowth was so thick that shoe prints were impossible to detect.
Again Yo asked if the two girls were detectives. They smiled and Nancy said, “We like mysteries.”
She and George went on searching. Presently Nancy said, “The man is tall. He has a long stride.”
Moments later the girls spied a different set of shoe prints. Nancy remarked, “These were made by hiking boots that probably look the worse for wear.”
“How do you know that?” Yo asked, following the girls.
“You can tell by the unevenness. The man is shorter than the other one and walks straight ahead. But I’d say he makes a funny little ball-like motion with his right foot which wears out the sole rather quickly.”
Yo began to laugh quietly. “I suppose, Mrs. Sherlock Holmes, that you can tell me how old each man, and if he is a crook.”
Nancy confessed that she could not possibly tell from the shoe print whether either man was a crook but she would guess from the marks that both men were in top condition and walked rather quickly.
“I judge they’re in their late thirties or early forties.”
Yo remarked that the girls were certainly wonders. He reminded them they had all planned to go home down the trail.
“That’s right,” Nancy admitted. “And, George, we should get you back to the cabin to rest.”
Again George declared she felt all right and was eager to go on following the prints, so they pushed forward. Some distance ahead they came to a darkened lean-to almost covered with growth. When the girls flashed their lights inside, they found it empty.
The shoe prints ended here. Nancy was puzzled. The two men hikers could not have gone off in the air. How did they get away without leaving any marks?
Yo came up with a suggestion. “Maybe from here on, the men used the old Indian method of sweeping away their footprints with a branch with leaves.”
“That’s a good guess,” Nancy told him. “You’re probably right.”
“Maybe I can qualify as a detective’s assistant,” the young man said, laughing.
“Could be,” George agreed.
Nancy had bent down to pick up something her flashlight had revealed inside the lean-to. Then she grasped a second object.
“What are they?” George asked.
Nancy spread them on the palm of her hand and held it out.
“Bobbie pins!” George exclaimed. “A girl has been here. But why didn’t she leave any footprints?”
Nancy said that she might have, but that as Yo had suggested, the marks could have been brushed away.
Yo was intrigued. “Do you think she could have been the girl who looks like you, Nancy?”
“Yes. You saw her going into the woods, so these might be hers. I think I’ll leave them. She may come back here and could be captured!”
The girls found no more clues, and followed Yo to the trail. It was very dark by the time they said good-by to him and entered the cabin.
“Thank goodness you’re back,” said Bess. “Why, George, what ever happened to you?” Bess had noticed the mark on her cousin’s arm.
“Oh, a little confrontation between me and a poisonous centipede.”
“What!” Bess cried. “Why, he might have killed you!” When she and Miss Drew were told the story, they too praised Yo for his quick action.
Aunt Eloise noticed Nancy’s scarf. “What are you carrying in there?”
Nancy untied her bundle and turned off the lights. The luminescent mushroom glowed brightly.
“How marvelous!” Bess remarked. “What are you going to do with it?”
“Take it to Karen,” Nancy replied. She looked at her wrist watch. “It’s still early. Bess, let’s drive over to her camp now and present it.”
Bess was eager to go, so the two girls set off in Nancy’s car. When they reached Karen’s camp, the counselor was just coming back to her tent. She greeted the girls warmly.
When Nancy presented her gift, Karen was thrilled. “Where did you find this?”
Nancy told her and gave Karen directions to the cave. “But be careful. There are bats and poisonous centipedes in the place.”
Karen’s eyes grew large. “Oh, I’d hate to face them! I’ll think twice about going there. But thanks millions for everything. This was a wonderful find.”
At that moment her young campers began to arrive so Nancy and Bess said good night and headed home.
Early the following morning the girls spent an hour cleaning and straightening the cabin in preparation for the boys’ arrival. Nancy moved into her aunt’s bedroom and changed the sheets and pillowcase on the bed she had used.
Aunt Eloise had gone to pick some wildflowers and set them on the combination living-dining room table.
“What time are the boys getting in?” George asked.
“Between five and five-thirty, I believe,” Nancy told her.
The group went out to the porch to sit down and rest before going swimming. They heard footsteps on the path leading to the cabin and soon saw Miss Armitage approaching.
“Good morning! Good morning!” she said cheerily. “How is everything going?”
“We used scuba diving equipment a couple of times,” Nancy replied, “and really are hunting hard for the child’s coach. So far there hasn’t been a clue, but yesterday we did make a real find.” She told the woman about the valuable old coins.
“That’s wonderful,” Miss Armitage said. “Do you plan to scuba-dive this morning? I came down here hoping to watch you. I thought maybe I might bring you luck.”
“Yes, we’re going very soon,” George spoke up. “In fact, I think I’ll get ready now.”
Nancy and Bess followed her, and in a little while they were ready to make another search for the buried coach. Nancy held the metal detector and the three friends disappeared under the water. Miss Armitage and Aunt Eloise watched intently.
“They’re wonderful, brave girls,” the visitor stated.
“Yes, they are,” Miss Drew agreed, “but sometimes Nancy becomes too enthusiastic and runs into danger.”
Within minutes Nancy rose to the surface and swam to the dock. “Come here and get a treasure!” she exclaimed, setting an object on the dock.
The object proved to be a child’s metal piggy bank that rattled with coins. Both women laughed heartily as they returned to the porch. Miss Drew went inside to make some coffee. A minute later she heard Miss Armitage give a bloodcurdling scream.
“What could have happened?” Aunt Eloise asked herself in alarm as she rushed to the porch.
CHAPTER XI
Valentine Clue
“WHAT’S the matter?” Aunt Eloise cried out when she reached the porch.
Miss Armitage pointed to a fast-disappearing motorboat. “That driver nearly killed Bess!”
She explained that Bess had just surfaced when the boat raced past. Either the girl in the boat had not seen Bess or had deliberately tried to hit her!
“Where is Bess now?” Miss Drew asked anxiously.
“Bess saw the boat heading for her and dived. There she is!” Miss Armitage added as Bess once more appeared on the surface.
This time she did not dive again but swam toward the dock and pulled herself up. Miss Armitage and Aunt Eloise rushed down to her.
“Are you all right?” they both inquired as she took off her mask.
“Yes,” Bess replied rather weakly. “But that boat sure gave me a scare.”
Nancy and George came up a few seconds later and were told what had happened. Nancy asked Miss Armitage to describe the boat and the driver.
“The boat was the Water Witch and it was a nice-looking speedboat,” the woman replied.
“Witch is a good name for it,” George remarked.
Miss Armitage studied Nancy and then said, “The girl in the boat looked a lot like you, only she had a hard face.”
Bess, George, and the Drews glanced knowingly at one another. Finally Nancy said, “We keep hearing about that girl. Actually she’s wanted by the police. You heard about the vacation hoax, didn’t you?”
Miss Armitage nodded. Nancy went on, “She’s the one responsible for cheating all those people. We were told she has a man partner who probably lives in New York City.”
Miss Armitage asked, “What is she doing up here? If the police are looking for her, it seems to me she’s pretty brazen to be out on the lake and to come so close to the person who resembles her. It’s my guess, Nancy, that she was trying to hurt you but almost hit Bess instead.”
The girls decided not to do any more scuba diving until after the boys arrived. “We’ll continue working on your mystery tomorrow,” Nancy assured the woman as she drank the coffee Aunt Eloise had brought out.
A short time later the caller got up to leave. After she had gone, the others again discussed the boat episode. Nancy declared she was going to find out the name of the person who had piloted it.
Bess interrupted. “Let’s go see the sights this afternoon. It’s a lot safer than working on a mystery.”
Aunt Eloise begged off, saying she had been to all the museums the summer before. “One you’ll love is the Toy Museum. It’s on the west side of the lake and a good distance from town.”
The girls thought it sounded interesting, and as soon as lunch was over, decided to drive there. They went to Cooperstown, then took Route 80 toward Springfield Center. At last they came to the old farmhouse and barn which were now used as a toy museum.
Nancy parked and the girls went inside the house. They paid their admission, then a tall, slender, affable man introduced himself as the owner and said he would take them on a tour of the place.
“You understand,” he said, “that nearly everything here is very old. The toys and other pieces were gathered from this general area and are anywhere from fifty to two hundred years old.”
First they came to the dolls. Bess declared she had never seen so many altogether. There were men, women, boy and girl dolls made of various material, and dressed in every imaginable kind of costume.
Some had very pretty faces and lovely lace or embroidered dresses. Most of the boy dolls wore sailor hats and tight-fitting clothes. The amusing ones had grotesque faces, others were happy clowns. Also on display were many kinds of buggies and other vehicles in which children had given their dolls rides.
Bess whispered to Nancy and George, “I don’t see anything as beautiful as the child’s Russian coach must be.”
Another room contained mechanical toys, and another a complete antique train set which whizzed around corners and under mountains.
Finally they came to the room containing old books. The trio was amused by pictures of little girls in pantaloons with disproportionate bodies. Bess mentioned this to the owner.
He laughed. “Nobody knows the reason for this strange period in art. All old-time pictures of children were the same. The bodies always look stumpy and the head much too large. You’ll even find this to be true in fine antique gallery paintings, even those depicting angels.”
While he was speaking, Nancy was looking up at a shelf on which stood a row of valentines. They looked old and were very fancy with their imitation lace paper covers and pictures of hearts and cupids.
Suddenly something special about one valentine caught Nancy’s eye. In the elaborate scroll-work on the cover she could detect a name. It looked like Maud Jayson.
Excited, Nancy asked the owner if he would mind getting it down to let her see it more closely. She nudged Bess and George and traced the name when the man was not looking.
The cousins were startled. Could this be the same Maud Jayson involved in the mystery of the missing child’s royal coach?
Nancy carefully opened the letter-type valentine. Inside, written in precise, old-fashioned script was a message evidently intended for Maud Jayson. It read:
Ever faithful to thee
And the memory of the little lass
Her lovely pony coach
Lying ‘neath the Glimmerglass
NOE
5 R
The girls could hardly refrain from exclaiming aloud. Here was a wonderful clue to the mystery they were trying to solve!
As nonchalantly as she could, Nancy asked the owner, “Is this for sale?”
The man smiled. “Not really. I need it for my museum. But,” he added with a grin, “if somebody offered me a really good price for the valentine, I might sell it.” His eyes twinkled as he waited for an answer.
“I don’t know what to offer you but I’d like very much to have it,” Nancy told him, naming a price.
The owner replied, “It’s worth much more than that.”
Nancy made a second bid. She was trying to guess how much money the three girls had among them.
“Tell you what, young lady,” he said. “Add another ten and we’ll call it a sale.”
Nancy was relieved. She had only a little more than that with her! The amount seemed like a lot of money to pay for one valentine. Still she was sure the clue it contained about the child’s royal coach was well worth the price.
“I’ll take it,” she said.
As soon as the valentine was wrapped, the three girls thanked the owner for the tour and said they must go.
“Oh, I have lots more to show you,” the man said, surprised.
Nancy promised they would all come back sometime but right now they had an important errand to do and must leave.
When they were in the car, Bess asked, “What’s on your mind, Nancy?”
“To hurry to Miss Armitage’s and show her this valentine. Maybe she can decipher the code message. I’m intrigued by the N and the E with the backward C in between.”
When they reached her home, Miss Armitage greeted the girls warmly.
“Wait until you see what Nancy has to show you!” Bess exclaimed.
As soon as Miss Armitage saw the valentine, tears came into her eyes. Nancy asked her if she could translate the letters and number on it.
The woman studied them a few minutes, then said, “I can’t help you with the names on the left, but I’m sure the letter R stands for Robert. He was the houseman for the Russian lady whose little girl died.
“Robert was very much in love with Maud Jayson and asked her over and over to marry him but she always refused. We don’t know why. Neither of them ever married.”
Miss Armitage and the girls studied the other symbols for nearly half an hour, making many guesses but reaching no conclusions.
Bess looked at her watch. “We must go!” she exclaimed. “The boys will be arriving any time!”
Nancy said, “Miss Armitage, I suppose this valentine should become your property, but may I keep it for a while to see if I can figure out these other symbols? I’m sure there’s a clue in it that will help us find the child’s coach.”
“Please take it,” the woman said. “And good luck.”
The girls had barely reached Bide-A-Wee, washed their hands, and combed their hair when the weekend visitors arrived. Ned, tall and attractive-looking, was first. Behind him was Dave, blond and with a rangy build. Back of him came Burt, blond, short and husky. Following him was a very handsome, distinguished-looking man about Aunt Eloise’s age.
The three boys kissed their friends and also Aunt Eloise, whom they knew well.
Then Burt turned and said, “Miss Drew, I’d like to present my uncle, Professor Matthew Bronson, B.S., M.A., Ph.D. He’s going to be teaching chemistry at Emerson this fall. Uncle Matt, meet Nancy Drew and Bess Marvin and George Fayne.”
The professor smiled broadly, shook hands with everyone, and said, “Burt has given me a long frightening title. Please forget I’m a professor and call me Matt.”
He carried a suitcase with him so Aunt Eloise and the girls assumed he planned to stay. As if reading their thoughts, he said:
“The boys insisted that I come down and meet you. I know you’re crowded here so later I’ll go back into Cooperstown to a hotel.”
Aunt Eloise gave him a big smile. “Matt, you’ll do nothing of the sort. We have this extra cot on the porch. It can either be moved into the boys’ room or you can sleep out here if you wish. In any case, do stay.”
“I’d enjoy the fresh air,” the professor replied. “And how beautiful the view is! The bay is like a mirror.”
Miss Drew nodded. “We like to eat out here and watch the changing scenes on the water. I’m sure you’ll enjoy them too.”
“I couldn’t refuse such a hospitable invitation,” Matt said, giving his hostess a warm, friendly look which made Miss Drew blush.
Bess turned to look at Nancy and George. They knew she was thinking, “Is a romance coming up?”
CHAPTER XII
Firefly Secrets
NANCY and George grinned at Bess’s implication of a romance between Miss Drew and the professor. Romance or not, it was pretty thoughtful of the boys to supply a companion for Aunt Eloise. Then she would never be left alone when the three couples went off together. Both Aunt Eloise and Matt looked quite pleased with the arrangement.
The professor proved to be a delightful conversationalist and revealed that he had made a study of the early days in New York State when it was settled by the Dutch.
“I came across many amusing and puzzling items,” he said. “It seems that at the time every man was his own dictionary. For instance, the word wheat was spelled wett—weat—wheate—weate—whitt—whaet—witt and weett!”
“Tell us more,” Nancy begged.
“I’ll write out something,” Matt said. “See if you can translate the item which appeared in a ledger.” He wrote: 1 peare shouse meade for your wife.
Nancy studied the words a moment, then replied, “One pair shoes made for your wife.”
“Right,” Matt said.
Aunt Eloise and the girls went to prepare dinner. It was served on the porch. As they ate, Ned asked Nancy, “What’s new? Do you have a mystery that we fellows can help solve?”
“You mean mysteries,” Bess replied. “One is nice and kind of fun even if an enemy of ours tried to run over me with a motorboat.”
“What!” Dave exclaimed.
An account of Bess’s near accident was given. The discovery of the old coins was related next, and the finding of the piggy bank brought a good laugh.
“Was anything in it?” Burt inquired.
“Yes. We’re pretty sure it’s full of pennies,” George answered. “We haven’t tried yet to open it. Maybe they are old, old pennies and worth a good bit of money.”
George went to get the piggy bank and it was pried open with a screwdriver. There were several dollars’ worth of pennies, but none of them were old enough to have any extra value.
The girls then told the visitors about the child’s Russian coach reported by Miss Armitage to be at the bottom of the bay.
“Promise you won’t divulge any of this,” George ended.
Burt smiled. “Any of what?” he asked in mock confusion.
Dave and Ned chimed in, “Did you reveal a secret?”
After a moment of lighthearted teasing from the boys, Nancy spoke up. “We want you to help us hunt for it.”
Dave remarked, “The search really sounds intriguing.”
“It looks,” said Ned, smiling, “as if we just got here in time. Any more mysteries?”
Bess laughed. “We could keep you up all night telling everything we’ve heard and suspect and found out and haven’t found out.”
The episodes on the mountainside involving the luminescent green man, his strange disappearances, and the glowing mushrooms in the cave with the poisonous centipede were related.
“George!” exclaimed Burt. “What a terrible experience!”
Matt had been silent up to this point but now he said, “I never heard of so many things happening in such a short time to people on vacation. I myself am interested in bioluminescence of fungi and insects. In fact, in my chemistry courses I’ve done some special work on it.”
Bess said, “You’ll have to meet Karen, a counselor at a camp near here. She’s a botany major and is studying about luminescent fungi. You could probably give her a lot of pointers on the subject.”
Burt interrupted. “Now don’t you be making any dates for Uncle Matt. He’s here to have a good time and to forget chemistry for a while.”
Matt Bronson looked at his nephew and laughed. “When one is intensely interested in a subject, he never becomes tired of it, even on a vacation,” he said. “Look at Nancy, for instance. I suppose she was invited up here just to have fun, and now she’s involved in all these mysteries.”
The conversation was interrupted by a call from the dock. “Hello! Anybody home?”
“I think that’s Yo,” Nancy explained. “His full name is Johann Bradley but everyone calls him Yo.” She turned toward the water and shouted down, “Is that you, Yo?”
“Yes.”
“Come on up.”
When the pudgy young man arrived, he was introduced to the newcomers and shook hands with each of them. Then he said, “Nancy, I have a clue for you.”
“Wonderful. What is it?”
Yo said he had seen the girl who resembled her getting on a bus in Cooperstown. It was going to New York City.
“That is news,” Nancy agreed.
Yo grinned. “I guess she’s gone for good. Bet you’re glad of that.”
“If it’s true, of course, I’m glad,” she answered. “But she might come back.”
Nancy was wondering if the mysterious girl were mixed up in another vacation hoax. She asked Yo if he knew anything about a speedboat named the Water Witch.
“I’ve seen it at a Cooperstown dock,” he said. “I believe it’s a private one.”
When he was told that the girl who resembled Nancy had been piloting the boat and almost hit Bess, Yo offered to find out who owned it.
He abruptly changed the subject and said to Matt Bronson, “Have you ever been up in this neck of the woods before?”
“No, I haven’t. I understand it’s very interesting historically.”
Yo declared it was more than that. “It’s ghost country!”
“Really?” Matt said, a twinkle in his eye.
Yo was serious. “You don’t believe me? Well, I’ll tell you a story that’s absolutely true.”
The others listened intently as Yo began his ghostly tale. “Not far from here on a certain night a long time ago a man and his wife were riding in a one-horse carriage. It was a lonely road and they were pretty far from town. Both of them became very weary. Presently they saw a light in a house a short distance ahead and the man said, ‘Perhaps these people will let us have lodging for the night.’
“They rode up to the front door, which was opened by a nice elderly couple. The travelers explained their situation and asked if they might stay overnight. The farmer said, ‘Yes, indeed.’ He directed the man to unhitch his horse and put him in an empty stall of the barn. He did this, then the travelers went into the house.
“They were shown to a plain but comfortable bedroom upstairs and soon were sound asleep. They woke up early the next morning and decided not to bother their host and hostess but to slip away. They hitched up their horse and drove into town. People there asked where they had spent the night.
“When the travelers told them, everyone stared in amazement and fear. ‘What was so strange about that?’ the man asked.
“The reply was that the house had burned down many years before.
“‘But we did sleep there,’ the couple insisted and could not be talked out of it. Finally one of the men in town said he would drive back with the couple and prove it to them. They went all the way to the farm and sure enough the house had burned to the ground.”
As Yo stopped speaking, Ned remarked, “And there’s something else to the story. Before the travelers left the farm that next morning, the man put a fifty-cent piece on a marble-top table in the hall. When the couple returned, they could hardly believe their eyes. On the marble top, which was the only part left of the table, lay the fifty-cent piece!”
Yo’s eyes opened wide. “How’d you know that?” he asked.
For answer Ned merely grinned. Yo asked no more questions. Announcing he must leave, he stood up and said good-by to everyone. A few minutes later he was roaring off in his outboard motorboat.