“I’ll let you know what happens,” he promised.
Helen insisted that Nancy still have her swim, so the two girls went to the pool. Here Nancy whispered to Bess and George and their dates what had occurred and her plan for trying to capture at least one person involved in the mystery.
“Directly after lunch I’ll get a box from the housekeeper,” she said. “I suppose the easiest way to give it weight is to fill it with newspapers and some stones.” She smiled. “Would you boys mind bringing a few of them to my room after lunch?” They grinned and promised to do so.
“Ned, will you come along with me?”
“Sure thing. I certainly wouldn’t think of letting you go alone.”
“I’m glad of that,” said Bess. “Nancy can think up more dangerous things to do than anyone else I know.”
“And how!” George added.
During lunch not only Nancy’s group but all their ghost-hunting friends whispered excitedly about what was taking place. As Nancy left the table, each of them wished her luck in the errand.
Bess added, “Whoever that woman is who called, she was pretty mean to bring your Grandfather Drew into it.”
Nancy smiled. “I think so, too. He was a darling person and I don’t like to have his name dragged into some underhanded scheme.”
About twenty minutes to two she and Ned were ready to set off. Ned carried the box to the car.
Although Bess was worried about the whole adventure, she could hardly keep from giggling when she thought of the contents. “Somebody’s going to get a whale of a surprise,” she said to George.
“Serves her right,” George retorted.
Nancy and Ned drove to Vernonville and found Route 23. They watched the speedometer closely. At exactly one mile from town they came to a stone bridge and parked at the side of the road.
“I guess this is it,” Ned said, and they both climbed out of the car.
The bridge was old and partly covered with moss. The stream which ran under it was narrow and fairly shallow, and was full of sharp-pointed rocks over which the water gushed and gurgled.
Nancy and Ned looked on both embankments to see if anyone were lurking there. They saw no one and did not hear a sound. Finally they climbed down one embankment and peered under the bridge. No one was there.
It was evident that the bridge had been built a long time ago and had been rather crudely put together. There were many ledges on which the box could be set.
“I see a good spot,” Nancy remarked. “I’ll find out how level it is, and then you set the box up there, Ned.”
Nancy stepped along the muddy edge of the stream and reached up. Her hand touched something furry! Before she could yank it away, there was a hiss. Claws reached out and scratched her!
“Oh!” Nancy exclaimed as she looked at her hand. It was already starting to bleed.
The next instant the head of a large cat looked over at her. A moment later two tiny heads appeared. Kittens!
Ned began to laugh. “Old tabby doesn’t want to be disturbed,” he remarked. “I’m sorry about your hand,” he said as Nancy reached down to wash it in the cool water.
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At that moment they heard a boy’s voice behind them and turned quickly. He was about ten years old and looked as if he had just come from some farming chores.
“Hello,” Nancy and Ned said together, and Nancy added, “Is that your cat up there?”
“Nope,” the boy replied. “Say, mister, are you Ned Nickerson?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Your friends are up on the road. I saw them lookin’ around. I said maybe you were down here and I’d take a look.”
“Friends of mine?” Ned asked, suspicious as to wh) the people might be.
“That’s what they said. Their names are Burt and Dave.” The boy left.
“Ned, you’d better go see what they want,” Nancy suggested. “They may have brought some information or a message for us.”
“Okay. I’ll be right back.”
He handed the box to Nancy, who began looking around for, another ledge. Choosing a wide one, she stood on tiptoe and made sure no animal was resting there. Then she raised the box and set it in place.
“I’ll go up to the road now and see why the other boys came,” Nancy told herself.
As she walked along the muddy path toward the embankment, the young detective heard footsteps behind her. She turned quickly but was too late to defend herself against the sudden attack.
A huge hand was clapped over her mouth. Then a husky man began to drag her toward the water! I
CHAPTER XI
Spooky Mistake
CHIDING herself for having been duped, Nancy struggled furiously to get away from her captor. She tried again and again to scream but only muffled sounds came from her throat.
“You little vixen!” the giantlike man said. “It won’t do you no good to struggle. You’ll only hurt yourself. I should warn you I’m an expert at judo and karate. If you get too flip, I’ll use one or the other on you!”
Nancy was powerless but she kept thinking that Ned would return any moment. Where was he?
Now the girl’s captor pulled her into the water and began to push her down. Horrified, Nancy wondered if he intended to drown her. She began to struggle again.
Just then a voice demanded, “Hold it!”
Nancy’s assailant dropped her suddenly and she hit the rocks. Her captor had already started to run.
Nancy stood up quickly. Two men rushed past her after the fleeing figure. They caught him easily, and though he tried some judo and karate tricks, the other two men were more than a match for him.
“You’ve got no right to stop me!” their prisoner protested. “This was. a personal matter. This girl here is a troublemaker and needed to be punished.”
“We’ll hear her side of the story,” one of the men said.
The two newcomers introduced themselves as plainclothesmen from the local police department.
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One of them said, “I’m Sergeant Brothers. This is Detective Peron.”
“Who was in touch with you?” Nancy asked to double-check them.
“Mr. Kittredge.”
Nancy was satisfied. “Thank you for coming to my rescue,” she said.
Before leaving, Nancy pointed out the fake box. The men suggested leaving it. A policeman would come there to watch for anyone who might pick it up.
In all the excitement Nancy had forgotten that Ned had not returned. Was he still talking to Burt and Dave?
When she and the detectives and their prisoner reached the road, Nancy was amazed not to find Ned there. Her own car stood where it had been parked, but no other car was in sight nor any of their friends.
Nancy told the detectives about the boy who had come to give Ned the message.
“I’m worried that it may have been a hoax, and that something has happened to him, too.”
“That could well be,” said Sergeant Brothers.
He turned to his prisoner. “Do you know anything about this?”
“No.”
“What’s your name?” Detective Peron inquired.
The prisoner remained silent. The detective searched him, but he carried no identification.
“Have you anything to say for yourself?” Sergeant Brothers asked the man.
“Just one thing. Ordinarily I don’t work for nobody doin’ this kind of work. I went to see a medium and she told me I had to seize Nancy Drew when she was alone under the bridge.”
“And then?” Detective Peron urged him.
“She said if I didn’t do what I was told, I would be punished real bad—maybe be killed.”
“Who was this medium?” Nancy asked.
“I ain’t sayin’ ”
Sergeant Brothers spoke up. “Why not?”
The prisoner said he would say nothing more because he was afraid. “I guess you think that’s cuckoo, ’cause I’m such a big strong guy. But when the spirit world tells you to do something, all the physical strength in the world won’t help you none to keep out of it.”
Nancy looked at the captive in amazement. She had a feeling that the medium was probably the same person who had telephoned her. But since she could not be sure the man was not part of a gang headed by the Prizers, Nancy said nothing.
Changing the subject, she said, “I must hunt for my friend Ned Nickerson.”
The two plainclothesmen looked at each other. Finally Sergeant Brothers said, “You mustn’t do it alone. Drive your car into town to police headquarters. We’ll follow. As soon as this man is arraigned, we’ll come back here again with you and see what we can find out.”
The trip to town took only a few minutes. While Nancy was waiting for the officers to accompany her, she called the motel to find out if by any chance Ned was there. The answer was No. Then she asked if he had phoned a message.
“No, Miss Drew.”
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Nancy was becoming more alarmed by the minute. The longer it took to find Ned, the more he might be suffering at the hands of their enemies.
Nancy was asked to sign a statement charging one John Doe with assault and battery. Then the two plainclothesmen said they were ready to leave. Nancy drove back to the stone bridge, followed by the two police officers.
The three alighted and at once went down the embankment opposite the one where Nancy and Ned had been, since that was the way he had returned to the road. They began hunting for Ned’s footprints. At first they were hard to locate, because the soft embankment was full of foot-marks. After a search Nancy was able to spot some ripple-soled shoe prints she was sure were Ned’s. At the foot of the embankment, they led away from the stream toward a hollow.
“Let’s go!” Nancy urged.
The three proceeded silently, picking their way among rocks, mounds of coarse grass, and brush. At last they reached the hollow which was filled with a thick growth of trees. It was much easier walking.
Excited, Nancy ran ahead of the plainclothesmen. She had spotted a shack among the trees.
“Maybe Ned is a prisoner inside!” she thought.
“Hold on, young lady!” Sergeant Brothers called to her. “We don’t want anything more to happen to you.”
Nancy stopped, but urged the men to hurry. When they reached the cabin, the searchers found all the windows boarded up. Tall grass indicated that no one had lived there for some time, or if someone had, he was not using it as a permanent home.
The two detectives searched all around the place. They could not trace the footprints any farther.
“I’m so fearful Ned may be a prisoner in there,” Nancy said. “Would it be all right to look inside?”
The detectives agreed to unboard one of the windows. Using sharp-pointed stones, they managed to pry the wood loose. Sunlight streamed in through the window.
Nancy stood on tiptoe, then gave a gasp. A motionless figure lay on the floor, his back to the onlookers. He wore a white shirt and dark trousers as Ned had. The head was partially covered with a scarf.
Nancy’s heart was thumping, but she managed to say, “Oh, please break in! We must find out who that is.”
The detectives worked on the window until they had it open. As Sergeant Brothers climbed inside, Nancy held her breath. The detective walked over to the figure, knelt down, then burst into laughter.
“It’s a dummy!” he exclaimed.
“A dummy?” Detective Peron repeated.
Nancy was so relieved that she found it hard to keep from crying. Blinking back tears of joy, she climbed through the window and looked at the figure. It was indeed a large dummy, the kind used by magicians and ventriloquists.
So the footprints had not been Ned’s! Where was he, then? Nancy felt sure he had been kidnapped so he could not save her from the man who had tried to drown her. She tried not to think what might have happened to her friend.
“I wonder if this belongs to a medium,” Nancy remarked as she looked around the room.
Hanging on a wall hook was a robe similar to the one Madame Tarantella had worn at the séance. On a table lay a collection of tiny wires with miniature electric bulbs attached.
“If all this gear is used for legitimate purposes,” Detective Peron said, “why did the people board up the windows?”
Nancy said she thought the place was a hideout, and not a home.
“I think it warrants investigating,” Sergeant Brothers said. “First we’ll find out who owns this cabin.”
Nancy continued her search and a few seconds later came across a shell. A small card tied to it read:
A Crusader’s Shell, so-called because it was the emblem of the Crusaders and was worn by Saint James, patron saint of Spain. Generic name Pecten.
Detective Peron came over to see what Nancy was reading. “That’s a beautiful specimen,” he said. “My wife has a set of those scalloped shells. She uses them to serve salads in and sometimes creamed dishes.”
Nancy inspected the shell closely. At first it seemed to contain nothing of special significance. Then she discovered that two tiny initials had been carved into one of the scallops. They were M T.
“Madame Tarantella!” Nancy said to herself. “Does this shell belong to her? In fact, is all this paraphernalia hers?”
Sergeant Brothers interrupted the young detective’s speculations. “We’d better board this place up again and be on our way. Now what about your friend Ned Nickerson?”
Nancy’s heart suddenly sank again. Their search for Ned had been in vain! Where was he?
CHAPTER XII
Code Identification
THERE was no conversation as Nancy and the two detectives retraced their steps. Nancy’s heart was heavy. She was convinced that Ned had been kidnapped and taken from the area.
Noticing Nancy’s quiet, worried mood, Sergeant Brothers said, “We’ll make every effort to find your friend. I suppose it’s small comfort to you, but you’ve put us on the track of something I strongly suspect is not a legitimate operation.”
Nancy smiled wanly. “Please let me know what you learn from the owner of the shack.”
“I will,” the officer promised.
As they neared the embankment, Nancy noticed a third car on the road. The detectives saw it too and got ready for possible trouble.
They had just cautioned Nancy to stay behind them while they investigated, when four young people stepped from the car and one of the girls called, “Hi, Nancy!”
Detective Peron looked at the young detective. “Do you know them?”
“My best friends,” she replied, a note of relief in her voice.
“Where’s Ned?” Burt inquired as Nancy and the detectives climbed the embankment.
“We don’t know,” Nancy replied.
She introduced Bess, George, Burt, and Dave to the police officers. Then the conversation turned to the mystery. The newcomers were briefed on the present situation.
“Ned has been kidnapped?” George cried unbelievingly.
“We’re afraid so,” Nancy answered. “We don’t know where to look for him.”
Bess remarked, “You must have had some frightful moments when you saw that lifeless form and thought he was Ned.”
“I certainly did,” Nancy agreed. She looked at the car in which the young people had come from town. “Did you borrow this from Helen and Jim?”
“Yes,” Dave replied. “Do you want us to go on a search for Ned?”
Sergeant Brothers said he thought this was useless at the moment. The police would send out a missing-person alarm.
“I think it would be best for you young people to return to the motel and wait for some word from us.”
Burt and George decided they would ride with Nancy and bolster her spirits. They were careful, however, not to be oversolicitous, and talked calmly about their speculations. George was positive that the Prizers and Madame Tarantella were back of the whole mystery.
“But their motive eludes me,” she said.
Burt suggested hopefully that Ned might not have been kidnapped. “He could have hidden in the back of the car or truck that dropped off the gorilla who attacked you, Nancy.”
“He seemed like a gorilla, all right,” Nancy said with a smile.
“Burt is right,” George added. “I’ll bet Ned will return with a big surprise.”
Nancy hoped so, but she was well aware that her friends were trying to cheer her up. When they reached the motel, she insisted upon staying in her room.
“I want to be right by the telephone if any calls come. The police may phone or someone else.”
She did not mention Ned’s name, but Bess and George knew he was uppermost in her thoughts.
“Aren’t you coming to supper?” Bess queried.
Nancy shook her head. “I’ll have a tray sent here.”
There was no dissuading her so Bess said she would attend to ordering it. “I saw the menu. How about some jellied consommé, southern fried chicken, rice croquettes, beans with mushrooms au gratin, lettuce and cucumber salad, and a chocolate parfait for dessert?”
Nancy closed her eyes. “That much food would make me feel positively ill. I’ll just have a plain chicken sandwich, tea, and some fruit.”
After arranging a signal of three knocks on the door for safety, Bess and George showered and changed their clothes, then left the room. Nancy tried to read, but she could not keep her mind on the book. She paced the floor until interrupted by the knocking signal. She opened it. One of the bus boys from the dining room was bringing her supper on a tray.
He smiled. “You’re not feeling well, miss?” he asked.
“Oh, I’m all right,” Nancy replied. “I’m not very hungry and besides I’m waiting for a phone call.”
The boy placed the tray on a low table and left the room. Nancy sat down and began to munch the chicken sandwich. But after two bites she did not feel like eating any more. The hot tea was so refreshing that she drank two cups of it. She eyed a delicious-looking nectarine but could not bring herself to eat it.
“I’ll keep the fruit until later,” she told herself, and began pacing the floor again.
At eight o’clock the telephone rang and she sprang to answer it. “Nancy?” It was Ned’s voice!
“Oh, Ned, are you all right?” she cried.
“Never felt better.”
“Where are you?”
“At the third stop on our hunt.”
“You mean the red barn with the ghost horse?” Nancy asked in amazement.
“Right. Just outside of Middleburg.”
“How did you get there?”
“I got a ride most of the way, then walked the rest. I have lots to tell you, Nancy, but most of it will have to wait until I see you.
“I was kidnapped by two masked men but I escaped. I can’t tell you any more now. What I want you and all the ghost hunters to do is get up here as quickly as possible. I’ve made reservations at Red Barn Guesthouse for everyone.”
Nancy said she would speak to the others immediately and call back. He gave her the number.
She hurried to the dining room. The ghost hunters were just leaving. Quickly she explained to them about the call but added:
“There’s a possibility that Ned is being held by kidnappers who made him telephone. It might be a ruse to get us away from here and over to the Red Barn.”
“But how can you find out?” Bess asked.
Nancy smiled. “Sometime ago Ned and I decided on a code identification. When I call him back, I’ll use it.”
Dave was intrigued. “May we listen?” he asked.
“Come along,” Nancy said.
For privacy they all went to her room and she made the call. The woman who answered the phone said she would get Mr. Nickerson at once.
When Ned came on the phone, Nancy asked him, “What is your right name?”
He laughed heartily. “I get you. It’s Edward Emerson.”
“Hold the line a minute, Ned,” Nancy requested. She turned to the other ghost hunters and said, “That answer means Ned is not a prisoner. If he had been he would have said ‘I keep my middle name a secret.’ ”
Nancy spoke to Ned again. “We’ll be at the Red Barn Guesthouse early tomorrow morning.”
As soon as Ned had hung up, Nancy telephoned Sergeant Brothers and told him Ned had been kidnapped but escaped. Then she asked the officer if he had any information about the cabin with the dummy in it. He told her no one had come there in the meantime and the owner had said he had never given permission for anyone to use the place.
“We removed all of the paraphernalia and brought it here to headquarters,” Sergeant Brothers said. “By the way, that male dummy is very interesting. Actually he’s a kind of robot with all sorts of gadgets to make him perform. He can walk, run, and even attack a person with some karate-like motions.”
Nancy told the detective her suspicions about Madame Tarantella and the initials on the shell. “She may be part of the gang carrying on some shady business. We’re moving tomorrow to the Red Barn Guesthouse outside Middleburg.” The officer thanked her, then said that the police would get in touch with her if there were any further developments.
When Nancy told the other ghost hunters about the robot, George said, “Um! It could attack someone or steal without leaving a single fingerprint!”
“One thing is sure,” Nancy went on. “The person who built it is a clever engineer. That, of course, points to Wilbur Prizer.”
When the ghost hunters reached the Red Barn Guesthouse the following morning, Ned took them into the living room. They found that he was the only person staying there. George remarked upon this.
“People are afraid to come here,” Ned told her. “The owner, Mrs. Hodge—she’s in the attic now —is very discouraged and said she may have to sell the place for far less than it is worth. Does that sound familiar?”
In a chorus the ghost hunters answered, “Sevanee Lake and Pine Grove Camp.”
“I suspect something similar may be occurring here,” Ned remarked. “We’ll have to find out.”
Nancy asked, “Have there been any other ghostlike happenings here besides the phantom horse with the rider running after it?”
Ned nodded. “Mrs. Hodge says all sorts of queer things have been going on here lately, some of them inside the house. The old ghost story had long since been forgotten. Then a few weeks ago a guest actually saw the apparition.
“She told others, and little by little everyone moved out. After that, newcomers stayed only a short time because one of them always saw the horse and the rider. Of course the story spread and now no one writes for reservations or stops here.”
“What a shame!” Bess exclaimed.
Burt said in a quiet voice, “You don’t think Mrs. Hodge is having hallucinations, do you?”
“No, I don’t,” Ned replied. “I was introduced to one of the happenings last night.”
“Oh, what was it?” Bess asked excitedly.
Ned said he had been awakened by terrible screaming out on the road. “It sounded as if someone were beating another with a chain.”
“Horrible!” Bess shuddered.
“It alarmed me, naturally,” Ned went on. “I ran to the window and looked out. There wasn’t a person in sight. I half expected to see an apparition, maybe even the horse and rider, but nothing appeared.”
“The screaming had stopped?” Nancy asked.
“Yes. This morning I asked Mrs. Hodge about it. She had heard the sounds too and looked out, but saw nothing suspicious. She’s convinced that someone is trying to ruin her business on purpose.”
For a few minutes they discussed the strange affair, then Nancy said, “Ned, tell us what happened to you after you left me under the bridge.”
“A couple of thugs jumped me from some bushes. I was no match for them so I pretended to black out. They dumped me in the back of their car. An hour later on a side road they had a flat tire and got out. I suddenly ‘came to life’ and ran off in the woods. But why did they kidnap me?”
Nancy told him about her experience at the bridge and added, “They wanted you out of the way.”
The conversation was suddenly interrupted by a loud crash upstairs!
CHAPTER XIII
The Vanishing Horse
THE ghost hunters dashed up the stairs, with Ned in the lead. They hurried along the second-floor hall to a door leading to the attic. A woman stood at the foot of the stairway.
“Mrs. Hodge!” Ned exclaimed. “What fell?”
The woman was ash white. In her plain, pale-gray dress and white hair, she almost looked like a ghost herself.
She answered in a trembling voice, “A—trunk. It’s been standing on top of another one for years. All of a sudden while I was up there it began to teeter, then crashed to the floor.”
It was evident to Nancy that Mrs. Hodge was unnerved. Without waiting for an introduction she went up to the woman and put an arm about her waist.
“Please come and lie down,” she said gently. “We’ll investigate and see if we can find out why the trunk toppled over.”
She supported Mrs. Hodge, who led the way to her own bedroom. The others followed, all expressing sympathy over her fright.
Ned then introduced Nancy and the other ghost hunters. Mrs. Hodge acknowledged their friendly greetings and remarked that this was no way for the owner of a guesthouse to welcome anyone.
“Please don’t worry about it,” Nancy said. “We know you have had a great deal of trouble and we’d like to help you. Will it be all right if we search the attic?”
“Please do,” Mrs. Hodge said.
Since the attic was small it was decided that only Nancy’s group would go. Rita wanted to determine for herself if there were any supernatural angles to the incident and she went with them.
They climbed the stairs and looked around. The crudeness of the unfinished attic and the small windows indicated that the house was very old. Antique pieces of furniture and boxes stood here and there. An old blanket was flung across a rafter.
To one side lay the toppled trunk. Its lid had opened, scattering flimsy old-fashioned dresses on the floor. Behind it stood the other trunk.
Nancy hoped to find a reason for the accident. While the others in the group looked around the big room, she and Ned pushed the second lightweight trunk away from its position. They found that its contents were antique dolls and toys.
“Ned, look!” Nancy exclaimed, pointing to the floor.
Where the trunk had stood was a trap door with an iron handle. Ned pulled the door up easily. The underside was covered with wall paper which matched that of the bedroom closet below. The door to the room was open.
“Someone was under this trap door and pushed it up,” Nancy remarked. “I guess he stood on the dressing-table stool that’s in the closet.”
“Let’s go downstairs and see if anyone’s hiding,” said Ned.
With a quick explanation to the others, they scurried down the stairs and rushed to the bedroom with the trap door. No one was there. The couple made a quick search of the other rooms on the second floor, then hurried to the first floor. They had no luck there either.
“I guess the intruder made his getaway while we were all talking to Mrs. Hodge in her bedroom,” Ned surmised.
They went upstairs and told Mrs. Hodge what they had discovered.
Nancy asked, “Did you know there was a trap door in that closet?”
“No, I didn’t. Oh dear! This is just one more sign that I am being harassed by the real and the unreal.”
“Have you any suggestions as to where the mischief-maker might be hiding?” Nancy asked. “Do you have a basement?”
“Yes, but I keep it locked and carry the key with me. He couldn’t be down there. But it’s possible he might be hiding out in the barn.”
“We’ll look there,” Nancy said.
She went back to the attic and told her friends what she and Ned had found and their plan to search the barn.
“Please come and help us,” she said. Smiling at Rita, she added, “I’m afraid there was nothing supernatural about the fallen trunk. An intruder probably had been waiting for another chance to scare Mrs. Hodge. Perhaps he stayed in that room as a guest and found out about the trap door.”
The rest of the ghost hunters started for the barn, but Nancy stayed behind to speak to Mrs. Hodge. “Can you recall the names of all the people who rented the room with the trap door during the past year or so?”
“Not offhand, but I’ll show you my guestbook.”
She and Nancy went to the first floor and Mrs. Hodge brought out the old-fashioned register. Together, she and Nancy quickly scanned the list of guests.
Suddenly Nancy stopped at a date one year previously. She pointed to it excitedly. “Here are two names familiar to me,” she said. “Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur Prizer.”
Nancy asked what the man and woman looked like. Mrs. Hodge’s description exactly fitted the couple Nancy was trying to find!
“They’re the ones!” Nancy exclaimed. “Can you tell me anything else about them?”
“Well, not much. They seemed very nice and kept to themselves a lot. The two were great hikers. They spent much of their time outdoors walking through the fields and woods.
“Once Mrs. Prizer said to me, ‘I wish I had a place like this. Did you ever think of selling it?’ Of course, I told her no. At that time my business was very good.”
Elated with her clue, Nancy hurried off to join her friends and tell them what she had learned.
Ned said, “When I was kidnapped, I picked up a note on the car floor. It said, ‘Force sale red barn.’ I’m sure it’s this place.”