“Then what happened?” Ned prompted her, as she paused.
“The man turned and looked at me. I said, ‘Put those down and get out of herel’ All he did was glare at me for a few seconds. I had a sudden inspiration and threw all my packages at him hard.”
“Good for you!” George burst out.
“He was taken off guard,” the woman went on, “and I was able to grab the valentine and slip it under my pillow when he wasn’t looking. Then I tried to get the letter. By this time he had recovered his wits. He knocked me down so hard I fainted.”
“How dreadful!” Nancy said. “While you were unconscious, did he take anything else?”
Miss Armitage shook her head. “Fortunately no. I had only a little money with me. It was in a pocket. More money and credit cards were safely locked up. I have a feeling that the man was not a regular burglar; rather, that he had come to steal only the valentine and letter.”
“Then in some way he’s connected with the secret of Mirror Bay,” Nancy remarked. “I wonder if he’s the person who burglarized our cabin.”
This possibility was discussed pro and con. Aunt Eloise told Miss Armitage they suspected the girl who resembled Nancy of being part of a gang.
“We feel that she’s working with two of them who live or work up on the mountain.”
Ned asked Miss Armitage if she had called the police.
“Oh yes. They came at once. I didn’t want to tell them about the valentine and the stolen letter because I’m trying to keep that a secret—I just told them about the man in my house. They didn’t know of anyone around here who has a grotesque face such as I described and suggested, as you did, Nancy, that he may have been wearing a mask.”
Aunt Eloise asked Miss Armitage if she would have dinner with them, but she declined.
“I’m expecting some friends this evening.” She smiled ruefully. “I’ll really have something interesting to tell them!”
The caller stood up, and after warning everyone to be extremely careful, said good-by.
When she had gone, Nancy said, “I’m afraid that though Miss Armitage is trying to keep her mystery a secret, one or more persons besides us knows about it.”
“And I’m afraid you’re right,” Aunt Eloise added.
They had an early dinner. Then Dave announced that he wanted to put the sailboat in tiptop shape.
“I haven’t been much help since someone in the woods knocked me out,” he said. “Now it’s my turn.”
Bess joined him. Just as they reached the dock, Yo arrived in his little motorboat.
“Hi, everybody!” he shouted loudly.
Nancy had a hunch the young man was bringing a message to her and hurried down the porch steps and along the dock.
“I have news for you,” he said. “I found out more about the Water Witch that was rented to Mr. and Mrs. Michael Welch. They’ve turned it in.”
“What!” Nancy exclaimed. “Nothing else?”
The young detective was disappointed at Yo’s negative reply. She had hoped to find out if Mrs. Welch was the girl who resembled her and if her husband was the mysterious green man in the woods.
Aloud she said, “Thanks a lot for the information, Yo.” She grinned at him. “You’re really getting to be a detective. Well, keep up the good work. All clues are acceptable to Nancy Drew and company.”
Yo laughed. By this time Ned had joined Nancy on the dock. The Cooperstown boy looked at him and said, “Did you ever hear about the girl hitch-hiker who turned out to be a ghost?”
“Let’s hear about her,” Ned urged.
Nancy thought she detected a twinkle in his eyes. She had a hunch Ned knew the story but wanted to hear Yo’s version of it.
“Well,” Yo began, “this happened outside a town not too far from here. It was over a hundred years ago.”
Nancy spoke up. “Which means nobody can prove or disprove it now.”
Yo insisted the story was true. “A young man was driving along in a buggy. It had started to rain hard and he’d dropped the front curtain. As he passed a cemetery, he saw a girl dressed all in white standing at the roadside. She waved at him to stop. Of course he did and opened the curtain wide enough for her to get into the buggy.”
Yo said that she gave him an address in town and asked to be taken there. He wondered why she was dressed in such a filmy, evening-type dress. Then he thought perhaps she had been walking home alone from a party.
“She did not say another word and he asked no questions. When they reached the address, he stopped the horse, got out of the buggy, and helped her up the front steps of the house. He rang the bell, then turned around to see if his horse was all right.
“As a woman opened the door he turned back to watch the girl go inside. To his surprise she was not there. She had vanished completely!”
“What a strange tale!” Nancy remarked.
Ned was trying hard to keep from grinning. “Yes, it is,” he agreed. “The fellow with the buggy was so amazed he could hardly speak.
“But finally he said to the woman, ‘At the cemetery I picked up a girl who wanted to come here but she suddenly disappearedl’
“He felt very foolish of course, but the woman smiled tolerantly and said, ‘This happens every rainy night. That was the ghost of my daughter. She was buried in that cemetery four years ago.’ ”
Yo’s eyes grew large. “Say, you beat all! I thought sure I had you stumped this time. Where’d you learn the rest of that story?”
Ned mentioned his study of folklore in a psychology course.
“As a matter of fact, it is one of my favorites. For your information, Yo, that particular ghost story has appeared in one form or another in almost every country of the world.”
Yo scratched his thick hair. “I got to be going now, but I’ll have some more spooky stories for you next time we meet.”
Nancy and Ned waved good-by to the young man, then paused to see how Bess and Dave were progressing. Cleaning the mud from the sailboat was not an easy task but the industrious couple said they would keep on until dark.
When Nancy and Ned came up to the cabin porch, Burt met them. “The baseball museum in Cooperstown,” he said, “is open until nine o’clock tonight. Let’s go there and look around.”
Bess and Dave decided to finish their work and Aunt Eloise had seen the exhibit the previous summer. Matt accompanied Burt and the other young people in Nancy’s convertible. When they reached town, Ned, who was driving, parked the car along Main Street. The group crossed to the other side and entered the Baseball Hall of Fame.
After they had looked at various plaques and busts of outstanding players, Bess remarked, “I didn’t realize there were this many famous men in one sport!”
They paused at the showcase containing Babe Ruth’s uniform and Ned remarked, “I think he was the greatest of all time.”
“Why?” Matt asked.
“Because,” Ned replied, “he was equally good as a pitcher and a batter.”
The five sightseers walked along in silence for a while, reading the plaques and looking at the favorite bats of well-known hitters and famous balls that had won games.
Matt told the others that the player he most admired was Lou Gehrig. “What a record!” he said. “He played 2,130 consecutive games in fourteen seasons with the New York Yankees. His lifetime batting average was.340.”
“I believe he batted in 150 or more runs in seven different seasons,” Ned added.
Nancy smiled. “You’d never guess who I’m partial to. It’s not because of his record but something he said. A quotation from Leroy Satchel Paige.
“‘Don’t look back — something might be gaining on you.’”
The others agreed this was great advice, not only in a baseball game, but also in life.
Matt nodded. “Too many people waste time trying to see who’s behind them instead of advancing to the next base.”
When they finished their tour, it was nearly time for the museum to close. Matt and the young people left. As they were about to cross the street to her car, Nancy noticed a bus at the curb. The driver stood under a bright street light.
“Look!” she exclaimed. “There’s the man who drove the bus Aunt Eloise arrived in. Maybe that girl swindler has been on his route. I want to talk to him!”
She raced up the street.
CHAPTER XVII
The Girl Captive
BEFORE Nancy could reach the bus driver, he hopped aboard his vehicle and took off. She ran even faster, hoping to catch up to him. Fortunately he had to stop at a red traffic light.
He looked very much surprised to see Nancy. Hesitantly he opened the door and let her climb aboard. “I’m not going to New York on this trip,” he said. “Just to another town to pick up some folks at a conference.”
As the light changed and the bus pulled ahead, he said to Nancy, “So the police haven’t caught up with you yet! You know—” he paused-“I ought to turn you in myself!”
For a moment Nancy was taken aback, then realized he thought she was the girl who resembled her.
She said quickly, “I’m not the person you think I am. But evidently you know the girl who looks like me and is wanted by the police. A lot of other people are trying to find her, including me. She’s guilty of several things besides cheating those poor men and women who were stranded after the bus trip.”
The driver turned his head slightly to take a look at Nancy.
“I see now you’re a different girl. What else has the other one done?”
Nancy told him about the Water Witch episode on the lake when the boat had almost hit Bess; of the suspicion that the girl had been involved in the theft at the cottage; and the burglary at the jewelry store.
Noticing his name on an identification card above the dashboard, Nancy asked, “Mr. Patterson, did the girl ever mention her name to you?”
The bus driver said, “Yes. It’s Doria Sampler. At least that’s what she told me on the first trip she made up here. She came up several times, but I haven’t seen her in a long while.”
Nancy inquired if he could give her any other information which would be helpful in locating Doria.
“Not much,” Patterson replied. “She did say Sampler was her maiden name, but I noticed she was wearing a wedding ring. I asked her about it, and she admitted having a husband. Let’s see. She mentioned his name but I can’t recall what it was.”
Nancy asked him if the name Michael Welch sounded familiar. The driver shook his head. Next she inquired if it might have been Sam something.
“That’s it!” the driver replied. “Sam Hornsby.”
Nancy smiled broadly. “You’ve been a wonderful help. I suppose Doria didn’t tell you anything about her husband?”
Patterson laughed. “I guess that young woman is a great kidder. She said he was a green man. I asked her what she meant by that, but she just giggled and said, ‘Did you ever hear of male witches?’ ”
The driver was sure the girl was joking and said she seemed to be nice enough. When he had heard from the charter bus drivers about her cheating a lot of people, he was amazed.
“It’s hard to believe,” he muttered to himself.
Nancy asked, “Do you know where this Sam Hornsby is now?”
“No, I don’t.”
The driver said he had no more information. Nancy was delighted with what she had learned and thanked him.
“I’ll get off now,” she told him.
By this time they were some distance out of town. He asked in concern, “How are you going to get back to the village?”
Nancy had noticed that Ned and the others were following in her car.
“I see that my friends are right in back of the bus,” she answered, “so I’ll get off at the next crossroad.”
Mr. Patterson wished Nancy luck in her detective work. “I hope you track down this Doria Sampler Hornsby.”
Then he opened the door. Nancy said good-by and jumped off. She waved to him as he pulled away.
As she stepped into the car, Ned smiled at her and said, “I can tell from your eyes that you had some luck talking to that driver. What did you learn?”
Nancy told her surprising news and concluded by saying, “I’d like to go up on the mountain and hunt for the green man.”
George chanted:
“Sam, Sam, the green man,
Avoid Nancy Drew if you can!”
The others laughed. Burt added, “And that goes for Doria too.”
Ned turned the car around and they headed back to Cooperstown. Presently Matt looked at his watch. He informed the others that it was ten o’clock.
“Do you think there’ll be any activity up in the woods at this hour?” he asked.
Nancy shrugged. “Things happened pretty late the other times we were up there.”
She wondered if Matt were tired and this was a diplomatic way of coaxing them all home instead of climbing the mountain. By now they had rounded the curve into East Lake Road. Suddenly their headlights picked up the figure of a young woman on foot scooting up the hillside.
“That’s Doria!” Nancy exclaimed. “Now’s our chance to capture her!”
As soon as the car stopped they jumped out. Ned locked it, and the five pursuers started after the girl.
“This is a long way from where we saw the green man,” George remarked.
Nancy surmised that Doria was taking a direct line to the place where her husband was hiding.
“Could it be the lean-to where I had found the bobbie pins?” Nancy asked herself. “But she’s heading toward Natty Bumppo’s cave. Maybe she’s going to hide in there. I guess she knows that our headlights picked her up and she can hear us following her.”
They reached the cave made famous by James Fenimore Cooper in his Leatherstocking Tales. Their flashlights revealed no one inside. They hurried on through the woods. Here and there the searchers could see a fresh shoe print and kept on climbing.
“She’s fast,” Burt remarked. “We’d better double our speed or we’ll never catch her.”
There was no more conversation as Nancy and her friends dashed among the trees toward the summit. Nancy took the lead, beaming her flashlight in a great circle.
“I see her! I see her! We’ve caught up!” she cried excitedly.
The pursuers ran even faster and within another half minute they had surrounded Doria Sampler Hornsby.
“What’s the meaning of this?” she asked defiantly. “Get lost! All of you!”
Nancy and her friends closed in on the girl. When she tried to break away, Matt put a strong hand on her shoulder. But she wiggled loose.
“Don’t you dare touch me!” she screamed. “Go away! Leave me alone!”
Suddenly the captured girl began to fight like a tiger. She used her fingernails as claws and slashed at one, then another of her captors.
The captured girl fought like a tiger
“Hey!” Burt cried in pain as her nails dug into his arm.
Doria’s eyes blazed and her face grew red. When anyone came near her, she kicked at him.
“All this won’t do you any good,” said Nancy as Ned wrenched the girl from Burt. “I’m tired of having people accuse me of being a lawbreaker. We’re taking you to the sheriff!”
“You’ll do nothing of the sort!” Doria cried out. “I can’t help it if I look like you, Nancy Drew. But that doesn’t make me the guilty person. You can’t prove a thing against me.”
Before Nancy had a chance to answer, George spoke up. “Oh no? How about all those phony hotel reservations you sold to people for a vacation at Cooperstown?”
Doria insisted that she had not sold the tickets. She was ignorant of the whole swindle and was just as amazed as the passengers when she learned about it.
“Then who did sell the tickets?” Nancy asked. “We understood you were acting as agent.”
“I won’t say another word,” Doria replied.
Nancy reminded her that she had used the Water Witch to deliberately run down one of her friends.
Doria answered quickly, “I didn’t see her. She was underwater.”
“Is your husband Sam Hornsby mixed up in the racket?” Ned inquired.
Doria suddenly looked wild-eyed. Instead of making a break for liberty or fighting her captors any more, she sat down on the ground and buried her face in her hands. She began to weep.
The onlookers stared at one another. Were her tears genuine or was Doria putting on an act to gain their sympathy so that they would not turn her over to the police?
Matt answered their questioning thoughts. “Don’t be misled,” he advised.
Nancy had not finished interrogating the girl. Now she went and sat alongside her.
“I’m sorry everything is such a mess,” she said. “Doria, maybe you are innocent. Is your husband the green man? I mean, does he use the disguise to scare people away? Tell me why. Things will go easier for you.”
Doria did not answer nor did she raise her eyes.
There was silence for half a minute, then Matt spoke up. “I think I know the reason why Hornsby puts on those spook acts.”
All eyes turned to Matt. Everyone waited expectantly for him to explain.
CHAPTER XVIII
A Cage of Light
“One day,” Matt began, “I attended a private dinner for scientists on the subject of cold light. One of the men, Martin Larramore, told us the high points of a discovery of his. He had nearly perfected a formula, using the phenomenon of fireflies, and expected to complete it soon. A short time after the speech all his blueprints and notes were stolen.”
His listeners gasped but said nothing. He continued, “Some careful detective work revealed that two renegade scientists were the probable culprits.”
“What were their names?” Nancy asked.
“Michael W. Brink and Samuel H. Jones.”
Matt went on to say that the two men had vanished. It was assumed they had gone to some secret place to put the finishing touches on the formula and then present it as their own.
“I have a strong feeling that the pair may be in these very woods.” He turned to Doria. “Are they?”
There was no reply. Although the suspect had made no comment during Matt’s astounding revelation, she had listened intently. Her eyes were like burning coals and full of hatred for her captors.
The professor continued. He said Larramore had mentioned that the unknown quantity in the formula directly involved fireflies.
George spoke up. “So this would be an ideal time and place for those renegade scientists to work. There are lots of fireflies here and certainly it is a secluded spot.”
Nancy agreed. “Do you know what I suspect? That Welch and Hornsby may be Michael’s and Sam’s middle names.”
At this Doria jumped but still she said nothing. It was only a moment later that George noticed the young woman trying to inch away from the group.
“She may try to escape!” George thought, and moved nearer her.
Doria looked at the girl in dismay. She could not flee from her captors!
As Matt finished his story about the renegade scientists, he turned to Doria. “I’m giving you a choice of leading us to these men or of being taken directly to the sheriff.”
His remark was followed by a prolonged period of silence as the others watched Doria closely. Her expression did not change.
“Okay!” Matt said. “Let’s go!”
Once more the captured girl pleaded innocence but no one paid any attention to her. She was prodded along and carefully guarded.
As they reached the foot of the mountainside, and headed for Nancy’s convertible, a State Police car came along. Ned hailed it and the driver stopped.
“What’s going on here?” asked the officer beside him.
He turned a flashlight directly into the faces of the group. Doria instantly covered hers with one hand.
“Is something wrong, miss?” the other officer asked her.
Nancy introduced herself and quickly explained, “This young woman is the one wanted in connection with that vacation hoax.”
“Congratulations,” the driver remarked. “We’ve been looking everywhere for her.”
“We think she’s been hiding up in the woods,” Nancy replied.
The officer said it would not be necessary for Nancy or any of the others to come with them, since they had a warrant for the young woman’s arrest. “What is your name?” he asked the prisoner.
She still refused to answer, so Nancy replied, “Doria Sampler Hornsby.”
She purposely did not mention Matt’s suspicion about the two renegade scientists up in the woods. Actually the young sleuth and her friends had no concrete evidence against them.
As soon as the police had driven away with their prisoner, Nancy announced that she would like to climb right back up the mountainside and try to find Welch and Hornsby. The others were eager to go, so all of them set off once more.
They followed the path to the point where they had captured Doria, then looked for shoe prints and trodden grass. They were able to detect an indistinct trail.
“I think that we should be as quiet as possible,” Ned warned. “We don’t want to scare the men away if they’re in the area.”
George grinned. “Nor give Sam a chance to put on one of his scare costumes.”
The five trudged along in silence, with Nancy, Ned, and Matt in the lead. Finally they reached the spot where Nancy had overheard the conversation between Sam and Mike.
There were voices again!
One man was saying, “I’m worried. Do ia should’ve been back by this time. Something must have happened to her.”
Another voice said, “You worry too much. First it’s Doria, then the police and then those people in the cabin. Try to calm down.”
“That’s all right for you to say,” retorted the man whose voice Nancy now recognized as Sam’s. “But she happens to be my wife. I’m going to look for her.”
“Have it your own way,” Michael answered. “But what makes you think you’ll find her? Remember, she said something about taking a trip to New York City.”
Sam did not answer. Instead he said, “Lis en, Mike, if anyone starts snooping around, put on my green suit or the ghost outfit.”
The excited listeners realized now that the voices were coming from underground! Nancy waved her friends back, indicating they were to station themselves behind trees. She herself chose one nearby, so she could watch carefully.
Half a minute later she saw a tangled mass of briers rise up from the earth. A camouflaged wooden trap door! A man climbed from the pit.
He was about to close the trap door when his partner called up, “I’m coming with you. It’s too dangerous for you to go alone.”
Both men had flashlights and by their beams the hidden group could see the strangers’ faces plainly. Nancy and George had never seen either of them before.
As they walked away, Nancy noted that the one she associated with Sam’s voice walked with a slightly uneven gait. His shoe prints undoubtedly matched those the girls had found a few days earlier. Michael was taller and walked with a straight stride.
As soon as the suspects were out of sight and hearing, the group gathered. Nancy suggested, “Let’s investigate that pit while we have the chance.”
Ned and Matt were game but thought someone should keep a lookout. George and Burt offered.
“If somebody is coming, I’ll give our special bird call,” George told Nancy.
The trap door was lifted. Attached to the side of the pit was a rope ladder. Matt climbed down first, then Ned and finally Nancy. The three found themselves in an amazingly large well-lighted cavern.
Undoubtedly it was man-made. Nancy wondered if during the occupation of Indians at Otsego the boys in the tribe had used it either for ceremonies or for play.
“Pioneer soldiers may even have camped here,” she said to herself.
There was a center section with a room on either side. One of these proved to be a laboratory. The other was a huge cage of fine mesh wire filled with fireflies. Most of them were roosting in an artificial tree. The light they created together was dazzling.
Apparently the center section of the pit was used for living purposes, since there were three cots, a stove, and a refrigerator.
“Three cots indicate that Doria may stay here,” Nancy remarked. “And look!”
Under one lay the scare costumes and several flashlights with green bulbs!
“Good evidence,” Ned commented.
“I guess those men have their own electric plant,” Matt remarked, looking around, “although I don’t see their source of power.”
Ned grinned. “Maybe the continuous twinkling of the fireflies is enough illumination for their experiments.”
The visitors were so fascinated by the luminescent beetles that they watched them for several minutes.
“I can’t take my eyes off them,” Nancy said, interrupting the silence.
“Cold light,” Matt murmured. “One of these days we’ll be carrying flashlights that go off and on with the same ease, power, and cold light of these little creatures.”
Ned thought they should start their search for the stolen papers.
“We don’t know how long those men will be gone,” he reminded Nancy and Matt.
The professor laughed. “Where Doria is now would be the last place her husband and his friend would think of looking for her.”
“You mean in jail?” Nancy asked.
“That’s right. And Doria wouldn’t dare communicate with the men to supply bail for her.”
“Maybe she couldn’t get it anvway, after swindling all those people,” Ned remarked.
“That’s a fair guess,” Matt agreed.
The three stopped talking and now began to examine the underground laboratory. The stolen notes and blueprints were not in sight. Nancy said she felt reluctant about looking in the strangers’ luggage.
“Maybe we won’t have to,” Matt said.
He, Nancy, and Ned slowly cast their eyes about the center room. Finally they went back to the laboratory. Under a workbench Nancy saw a small chest.
“Maybe there’s something in that!” she said hopefully.
CHAPTER XIX
Trapped!
THE chest was heavy as Nancy soon discovered. She could not drag it out alone so Ned and Matt pulled it to the middle of the room.
“You found it, Nancy,” Ned remarked. “You should open it.”
In a jiffy she had lifted the lid and they all stared at the contents.
“The stolen papers!” Matt exclaimed.
Inside lay a sheaf of blueprints and several large hardcover books containing typed material.
Matt quickly examined a few of them. “This is the stolen formula,” he said. “And here is Dr. Larramore’s name.”
The three searchers agreed that they should take all the papers with them. But they were too large to be put into pockets and there was no bag or small suitcase in sight.
“We’ll have to take the chest,” Nancy stated, “and deliver it to the police as fast as we can.”
“Right,” said Ned. “Matt, I guess you and I can carry this between us.”
In the meantime Nancy had taken several books out of the chest and was gazing at some objects in the bottom. “What are these things?” she asked.
Matt examined them and said they were parts of equipment for manufacturing the formula. “It won’t be necessary to take these. If we leave them here, the chest will be lighter.”
Carefully the various gadgets were laid on the floor under the bench and the searchers got ready to leave.
Ned warned that they had better hurry. “The men might spot us walking through the woods, and make trouble.”
“Don’t you think it would be better for us to hide the chest nearby and bring the police to the spot?” Matt suggested.
Nancy said that if they hid the chest in the woods, rain might soak right through it and ruin the papers.
“No matter what we do, let’s get out of here,” Ned insisted.
“You go first,” Nancy told him.
As he and Matt lifted the chest, Ned said, “I believe I can carry this on my shoulder.”
He swung the chest up and started to climb the rope ladder. At that instant they heard George give the special bird call.
“The men are coming back!” Nancy whispered. “Hurry! We mustn’t be caught here!”
Matt stepped behind Ned and helped him steady the chest. Nancy waited at the foot of the ladder. She was certain their combined weight might break it.
Just then the bird call came again! Burt, crouched at the edge of the pit, quickly told his friends they could escape if they would hurry.
In the next second everything seemed to happen at once. Two strange men had come down a mountain trail. One knocked Burt into the pit. The other grabbed the chest.
Both men shook the ladder, causing Ned and Matt to fall off. Instantly the attackers pulled the ladder up. The camouflaged cover was slammed shut and something heavy was rolled on top of it.
“A rock,” Nancy cried out. “We’re trapped!” It took only a few seconds for the young people to collect their wits.
“We’re trapped!” cried Nancy
Nancy said, “Quick! Ned, hop onto Matt’s shoulders and try to get out of here.”
Ned did this, but his steady pressure against the trap door could not lift it. He climbed down.