The Flying Saucer Mystery (6 page)

“That night we were very tired and went to bed early. I slept soundly and when I woke up in the morning, my father was gone. At first I figured he was fishing or picking berries or maybe trying to catch a rabbit for some stew. But he did not come back for hours. I became alarmed.

“When he finally returned, I asked him where he had been. He said, ‘Oh, just out for a long hike.’

“I was puzzled, but he didn’t explain. Then suddenly one morning he announced that we were going back to the city. I asked him why and he told me he had business affairs to take care of.

“We never again came here together. Soon after returning to the city, he had a stroke. He wasn’t able to walk, talk, or write. He lived only three more years.

“Just before he died he looked up at me and managed to say, ‘F-forest. Mon—b-bur—’ ”

Spellbound, Old Joe’s listeners now began to ask questions.

“Do you think your father was saying he had buried the money in this forest?” Nancy asked.

Old Joe nodded. “I came here many, many times and searched but never had any luck. Finally I decided to leave the city and live here permanently. This forest is more like home to me than any other place. All these years I’ve hoped to find the wallet and my father’s great secret.”

Nancy was tingling with excitement. If she could only find that wallet! The girl detective wondered, however, what condition it might be in.

I hope for Old Joe’s sake it’s intact, she thought. Aloud she suggested, “Let’s talk about clues.”

All the campers had questions for Old Joe. Bess asked him, “Did your father have any special places in the forest he liked to go?”

“None that I recall,” the naturalist replied. “He loved everything in it.”

Ned inquired next if the elder Mr. Austin had any favorite trees.

After thinking over this question for a couple of minutes, Old Joe said, “The taller the tree, the more he admired it. I’d say perhaps the sky-reaching pines were his favorites.”

“Then we’ll examine those first,” Nancy told him.

Jan said she wondered if Old Joe’s father would have bothered to make it difficult for his son to find the wallet. “Perhaps your father had some cozy nook where he liked to spend time. Do you know of any?”

The old man told her the forest was full of wonderful small hideaways. “But so far as I know, there are no deep caves or overhangs of rock. I’m afraid I’m not much help to you.”

Nancy was not discouraged. She asked Old Joe where he had looked for the wallet.

He smiled. “Hundreds of places,” he told her, “but there are thousands more just waiting to be explored.”

Nancy had a strong hunch that Mr. Austin had hidden his valuable wallet in a well-protected place. She suggested that Old Joe accompany the group on a new search.

“I’d certainly like to find that wallet,” he said longingly. “Okay, I’ll go with you.”

Before the group had a chance to start off, however, they became aware of prolonged, frantic barking from Trixie. She had been left to guard the cabin.

“Uh-oh, trouble,” Old Joe said worriedly. “Some unwanted visitor, I’ll bet. I must go right back.”

Nancy offered him one of the saddle horses. “Thanks a lot, but I can make better time on foot,” Old Joe replied and hurried off.

Ned remarked, “I hate to see that old man go by himself. I think I’ll follow and see if I can help.” Dave decided to go along with him.

As the barking continued, George said, “Ned and Dave may be gone a long time. Nancy, if you want to start the search, I’ll be glad to go with you.”

The young sleuth was eager to begin. She mentioned the idea to Jan and Bess, who felt that they should stay behind to guard the camp.

“We don’t want any more trouble with the horses,” Jan said.

“Please watch your step,” Bess added.

Nancy and George took flashlights to explore the hollows of trees and other possible hiding places. They had been searching half an hour for Mr. Austin’s wallet when George found a tree with a deep hole in the trunk.

Excitedly she flashed her light inside, then exclaimed, “Nancy, there’s something at the bottom that looks like leather.” She laid down the flashlight and reached in. Almost immediately George cried out in pain and yanked out her hand.

“What happened?” Nancy asked, running to George’s side.

“Something bit me! Oh! Ow! It hurts!” George replied. She danced around, shaking her hand.

Quickly Nancy flashed her light on the tree. The beady-eyed head of a small snake was visible at the top of the hollow in the trunk. Blinded by the brightness, the reptile instantly slithered down into its den.

Was it a poisonous species? Nancy had no idea but decided not to take any chances. She whipped out a handkerchief and tied it tightly around George’s wrist. Then she grabbed a sharp-pointed twig and made a tiny hole in the end of her friend’s thumb. By now George’s hand was swollen.

“I’m sorry I’ll have to hurt you a little,” Nancy told her friend, “but we must get that poison out before it spreads.”

She hunted for a sharp stone. After cleaning it off with a green leaf, Nancy drew it across the end of George’s thumb. Blood flowed out and, she hoped, all the poison as well. Soon the swelling subsided, and George said the severe ache was gone.

“Thanks a million, Nancy,” she said gratefully. “I was really scared.”

Now that George felt better, Nancy removed the tourniquet. “Do you want to continue the search?” the girl detective asked. “Or would you rather go back to camp for further first-aid treatment?”

George said she was feeling fine. “The bleeding has almost stopped. Maybe we can find a stream where I can bathe my thumb.”

The two girls went on, looking intently for places where the Austin wallet might be hidden. Shortly they came to a babbling brook. While George swished her hand in the icy water, Nancy looked closely at the surroundings. She noticed an extremely tall pine tree, perhaps one admired by Old Joe’s father. There was no opening in the trunk, however.

“Before we leave,” she said to George, “I think I’ll climb the tree and see if there’s anything ahead.”

Hugging the thick trunk, Nancy started to shinny up the tree. George merely looked on, chiding herself for her sore thumb, as Nancy climbed higher and higher. She was examining every inch of the main trunk and looking at each limb and branch. Nothing indicated that a wallet was hidden among them.

Finally at the top Nancy scanned the surrounding countryside and shouted down to George, “I can see Dismal Swamp from here. Oh, no, I can’t believe it. The flying saucer is gone!”

“What a rotten break!” George said. “Let’s hope it’ll come back while we’re still here.”

Nancy felt miserable because she had lost her chance to see the flying saucer close up. Was her trip in vain?

I should have gone to the swamp as soon as the UFO landed, she thought. It was little consolation to her that the missing horses, Bess’s accident, and darkness had compelled her and the others not to ride to the swamp.

Nancy descended the tree. When she reached the ground, George said, “Don’t feel too bad. That flying saucer is bound to come back.” She grinned. “I just had one of your hunches.”

Nancy smiled wanly. “I hope it won’t take a hundred million light years, though,” she replied.

The girls walked on in silence. Despite their keen observance of many trees, short and tall, they found nothing in any of them to indicate a hiding place. George remarked that perhaps they would have to start digging.

Nancy nodded. “Next time we’ll bring spades and picks. You know, George, we aren’t very good woodsmen, not to have brought even a trowel!”

In a short while they came to another mountain stream, wider than the other and rocky. Water was rushing rapidly over the stones.

“Isn’t that pretty?” George remarked. “It looks like a picture for a calendar!”

“It really does.”

As Nancy stood on the bank, she noticed a pyramid of rocks about eighteen inches high in the middle of the stream.

“That’s strange,” she said. “I wonder what it’s for. A marker of some sort?”

“A marker for what?” George asked.

Nancy shrugged and did not reply. She decided to investigate. She took off her hiking boots and socks and waded in. Not only had the stones been cemented together, she discovered, but the foundation reached a foot below the bed of the stream.

Very excited, Nancy asked herself: Could Old Joe’s father have made this pyramid of rocks? Were his valuable wallet and secret papers inside?

Eager to communicate with Old Joe, but having no idea which direction to take to his cabin, Nancy and George decided to return to camp. Bess and Jan were glad to see them.

“We’ve been so worried about you. You were gone a long time,” Jan said.

Suddenly Bess saw her cousin’s finger. “George, whatever did you do to yourself?”

“A snake bit me,” George replied, and she told them about her painful encounter.

Jan took a protective plastic finger from her first-aid kit and gave it to George to wear over her thumb. Then she said, “Now tell us about your search for Old Joe’s treasure. Any luck?”

“Yes and no,” Nancy responded.

She told Bess and Jan about the pyramid of rocks—a possible hiding place for the valuable wallet.

“It certainly sounds like a good guess,” Bess remarked.

Knowing Jan was knowledgeable about wood-lore, Nancy asked her if the pyramid might have been used for something else—perhaps to ward off some superstitious fear.

Jan shrugged. “Possibly. Or maybe someone erected it as an art object. It must have been pretty with the stream splashing around the pyramid.”

“It was,” George replied, then asked, “Jan, do you think it could have been a marker for fishermen?”

“Could be,” Jan replied. “But I doubt that anyone would place one way out there in this wilderness.”

Jan said she felt Nancy’s guess was a likely one. “You should tell Old Joe soon.”

Then Nancy described how she climbed the tree and learned that the flying saucer was gone.

“Did you hear it take off?”

“No.”

“Feel any wind?”

“No.”

“See any lights?”

“No.”

“It’s gone,” Nancy said sadly. “I wonder if it will ever come back.”

“Let’s hope so,” Bess said and gave Nancy a hug.

When Ned and Dave returned a short time later, Trixie was with them. She jumped around, delighted to see the campers.

Nancy asked what had happened at the naturalist’s cabin. To her dismay she learned that the interior was almost wrecked.

“Old Joe found footprints of a bear that got in somehow,” Dave reported. “Evidently Trixie couldn’t scare him away. The bear ate most of the food he found. Besides that, he emptied the contents of a jar of honey and another of maple syrup.

“He made a shambles of the place,” Dave went on. “We helped Old Joe fix things up as best we could. We left him repairing the cabin door which the bear apparently broke down. He must have been hungry.”

Nancy and George related their adventures. When Nancy finished, she said, “I’ll write a note to Old Joe about the pyramid of rocks and have Trixie deliver it. That might make him feel better.”

Hastily she wrote down what the girls had discovered, then tied the note to a small piece of rope which she secured around the dog’s neck.

“Take this right to Old Joe,” Nancy instructed the animal. “It’s very important.” Trixie understood and hurried off.

Without warning a brisk wind sprang up, and it started to rain. The campers put on their rain gear, wishing that the tents were with them and not with the missing packhorses.

“This is more than a rainfall,” Bess remarked presently. “It’s a deluge.”

“A black deluge!” Dave added.

The campers huddled together under a maple tree as heavy drops of rain pelted through the spreading branches.

“I’m really beginning to worry about Hal and Burt,” Jan remarked. “They’re long overdue. And this weather won’t help them any.”

“Probably it’s too dark for them to proceed,” Nancy suggested.

“I hope they’ve found the horses,” Bess remarked. “Then at least they could have something to eat and drink from the packs.”

The conversation was interrupted when the forest suddenly lit up with a strange, bright glow.

“Maybe the flying saucer is coming back!” Nancy exclaimed. “Oh, I hope so!”

Ned offered to shinny up a tree to find out. Before he reached the top, however, the mysterious light was gone. Once again it was pitch dark. Gingerly he climbed down.

“This is positively spooky,” Bess said.

Nancy stated firmly that she was not going to miss another chance to see the flying saucer.

“Ned,” she asked, “are you game to go down to Dismal Swamp with me?”

“Sure,” he replied. “Let’s take two lantern searchlights with us.”

Jan begged the couple not to walk. “You should ride, and take some candy in case you get hungry.” Quickly she took two chocolate nut bars from her pack. “I almost forgot I had these,” she said.

Nancy put a poncho over her rain gear while Ned took one out of his backpack. They swung the saddlebags across the animals’ flanks, then put on the saddles and vaulted into them, covering the saddles as best they could with their ponchos.

“Keep close,” Ned advised Nancy and nudged his horse to start off.

Nancy pulled her rain hood snugly forward and followed him. If only the rain would stop, she thought, we could make better time.

But it continued to beat hard, creating slippery craters of mud through the unbroken forest. When the riders reached a small clearing Goalpost picked up speed. He kicked up mud, splashing Susan B’s forelegs and causing Nancy to rein in sharply. The mare, however, did not obey. She dug her hooves faster through the wet grass, sinking, then skidding and almost throwing Nancy out of the saddle.