The Phantom of Pine Hill (4 page)

“Let’s hurry!” she urged, and started on a dogtrot. Ned followed.

Mrs. Holman answered their ring at the back door and looked at the couple aghast. “What in the world have you been doing?” she asked.

Quickly Nancy explained and the woman’s face took on a worried look. At once she had a solution. “That phantom was watching in the woods and he has a confederate with a motorboat!”

“Maybe,” Nancy said, shivering.

The housekeeper became solicitous. She told the young detective to go up and change. Mrs. Holman herself would find some of Mr. Rorick’s sport clothes for Ned to wear. “Follow me,” she directed.

As Nancy paused at her own bedroom, she said, “Mrs. Holman, have you a paddle here?”

The housekeeper nodded, saying that there were several in the cellar and Ned could help himself.

“I’ll walk back to the shore with you, Ned,” said Nancy. “I’d like to look for clues to the person who was spying on us.”

In a few minutes the two young people were ready. Nancy had put on slacks and a sport shirt.

She tried hard to keep from smiling as she looked at Ned. Mr. Rorick certainly went in for vivid sports clothes! She knew that Ned would be the victim of a lot of teasing when he reached the fraternity house, so she refrained from any of her own.

The couple walked through the woods slowly, keeping their eyes alert for footprints or any other clues to the man who had been watching them, but saw none.

“If that was the phantom he has winged feet,” Ned said finally, as he started down the embankment. “Be careful on your way back. I need you for the dance tonight. Burt and Dave and I will pick you girls up at seven.”

After he had paddled off, Nancy studied the edge of the embankment.

“Let’s see. That spy was standing over near those birches.” From the water she had noticed a clump of white birch next to the pine trees which the man was using for a shield. She went to the spot and picked up his footprints. The short spaces between the small-sized shoe marks indicated that he was a slight man of medium height.

The prints led along the top of the bluff for a short distance, then went down through thick bushes to the water. Nancy guessed the man had been hiding among the brush until the couple had left the area.

“Someone must have met him in a boat, unless he had one hidden among the bushes and Ned and I didn’t see it.”

The young sleuth retraced her steps up the embankment, looking for further clues. She saw nothing and with a sigh headed for the house.

The shadows were long as Nancy hurried through the woods. Suddenly she stopped short. Floating down toward her, seemingly out of nowhere, was a small white paper. As it fell almost at her feet, she looked up in the trees to see where it had come from. There was no person, bird, or animal in sight.

“I could almost believe there is a phantom in these woods,” Nancy murmured to herself as she stooped to pick up the piece of paper.

Her eyes grew wide in astonishment. On the paper were two large, very black, well-defined thumbprints!

For several seconds Nancy did not move. There had been a few times in her life when she had been utterly confounded by some event which seemed to hold no explanation except a supernatural one. This was one of those times. But presently she shook off the mood, telling herself this was nonsense. Someone had put those prints on the paper. But where and why? And how had it come to float down to her? Were these the phantom’s thumbprints?

Nancy took a handkerchief from her pocket and carefully wrapped the paper in it. Holding it in her hand, she continued to walk toward the house, hoping to find someone on the way. But there was not a sound in the grove.

When she reached the house she found Bess and George in the kitchen with Mrs. Holman. The housekeeper had just finished telling them what had happened to Nancy and Ned.

George looked at Nancy. “Hypers!” she said. “We let you out of our sight for two hours and
whamo!”

Nancy laughed. “Wait until I show you something else,” she said, and opened the handkerchief.

Bess gave a little cry. “That’s creepy! Where did it come from?”

Nancy told the girls and Mrs. Holman. George insisted that someone was playing a trick on Nancy, but Bess and the housekeeper were worried.

“This is a bad omen, Nancy,” Mrs. Holman remarked. “I don’t know how much more I can stand of this phantom!”

Nancy put an arm around the woman. “Please don’t worry. We’ll get to the bottom of this yet.”

“All right,” the housekeeper conceded. “I’ll try to keep calm, but my dear, be careful.”

After Nancy promised, George said, “Come on now, girls. Time to make ourselves beautiful!”

“This is really dress-up night,” Bess remarked as they hurried to their rooms. “The dance is going to be a honey, I know. Dave was telling me about decorating the gym.”

As usual, Bess had chosen a fluffy dress with a full skirt, while George’s pale-green silk was quite simple and fitted her boyish figure admirably. Nancy was wearing a yellow linen formal, embroidered in white with birds and flowers. It was a one-piece dress with a slightly full skirt. She secretly hoped that Ned would like it. He had never seen it.

Nancy was a quick dresser and was ready before the other girls. She called into their room, “See you downstairs. I’m going to do a little sleuthing while I’m waiting for you.”

As she came down the stairs, Fred Jenkins walked across the hall from the living room. He stared at her in complete astonishment and admiration.

“M-Miss Nancy, you look positively—super!” As Fred spoke he let a vase of flowers he was carrying crash to the floor. He looked down in dismay. “See what you made me do! You shouldn’t be so beautiful! You take my mind off my work!”

Nancy wanted to smile. Instead, she said, “I’m terribly sorry.”

Just then Mrs. Holman came bustling from the kitchen. She took in the scene at a glance.

“Oh, Fred,” she said angrily, “that was one of Mr. Rorick’s favorite vases.”

Fred Jenkins said, “I couldn’t help it.”

“Well, don’t just stand there,” Mrs. Holman said. “Go get the dustpan and broom and a clean cloth to wipe up this mess.”

Nancy came on down the stairs and Mrs. Holman beckoned her to come into the dining room. “You mustn’t mind Fred,” she said. “He just can’t seem to hold onto things. I keep him because it’s hard to get help and he’s the soul of honesty.”

Nancy, recalling his standing behind the tree while she and Ned were talking, asked, “Does he know about the phantom?”

“I’m sure he doesn’t,” Mrs. Holman replied, “or he’d never work here. He’d be too scared!” She smiled broadly and winked at Nancy.

Quietly Nancy told the housekeeper she was about to do some sleuthing. Just then Fred appeared in the doorway to report that he had swept up the broken vase, picked up the flowers, and mopped the floor. Now, he said, he must leave.

After he had gone, Nancy went to look at the wall on either side of the library door. Was one of the panels a secret entrance to the room? She stepped close to tap for a hollow sound.

As Nancy went from panel to panel of the hall, tapping each one and listening carefully, Mrs. Holman came to her side. “I’ve never seen a sleuth at work,” she said with a smile. “Show me how to do it.”

Nancy illustrated by laying her head against the wood and tapping softly with her fingers. As she finished “listening” to the woodwork on either side of the fireplace, Nancy sighed. “I’m sorry not to be able to show you what I mean. These walls are solid.”

Nancy glanced at her watch. There was still plenty of time for some investigating before the girls would have to leave for the Omega House.

“Mrs. Holman, would you mind unlocking the door to the library? I’d like to tap the walls there.”

The housekeeper went for the key and inserted it into the padlock. As the two entered the room, Mrs. Holman looked around uneasily, but nothing had been disturbed.

Nancy smiled. “Now,” she said, “maybe I can show you what I mean.”

After a few minutes of work, she reported there were no hollow-sounding panels.

The housekeeper frowned. “Then there’s only one answer to the phantom getting in here. He must be a spook and come through the walls!”

Nancy knew there was no point in contradicting Mrs. Holman, but she was amazed that this intelligent person could possibly believe what she had just said. On a sudden hunch Nancy went to look at the book titled
The Roaring
Twenties. As she opened it, the young detective looked grim.

There were now only one hundred and forty dollars instead of one hundred and fifty.
Moreover, the bills had been moved to page 140!

A thought which had been building up in Nancy’s mind now became even more disturbing. The only person with a key to the padlock was Mrs. Holman herself! Was it possible that the housekeeper had invented the story of the phantom to cover up thefts of her own?

“I just don’t want to believe such a thing!” Nancy told herself. “But I’m trying to solve this mystery for Mr. Rorick. I mustn’t get softhearted and miss a clue.”

Hiding her feelings, she walked out of the library. After Mrs. Holman had locked it, Nancy said, “Would you do me a big favor?”

The housekeeper smiled. “I’ll be glad to if it’s not too difficult.”

Nancy had decided to put Mrs. Holman to a test of honesty. “Oh, it’s a very simple request. I’d like to borrow this key for tonight. After I get home from the dance, I may want to hide in the library and watch for the phantom.”

Mrs. Holman looked startled. “Do you think that’s safe?” she asked.

“Oh, I’ll keep well hidden,” Nancy replied.

Mrs. Holman handed over the key. “Good luck. I’d certainly like to see this house rid of that spooky creature. He makes me so nervous!”

Nancy smiled, then started back upstairs to hide the key in her bedroom. “After we return from the dance,” she thought, “I’ll investigate the books with the money in them. If any more has been taken—or there’s other evidence that someone has been in the room during the evening—it’ll make Mrs. Holman’s guilt unlikely. Of course,” Nancy admitted to herself, “there’s the possibility that she has another key—”

Just then the telephone rang. Nancy paused a moment on the stairway to see if the call were for her. Mrs. Holman answered and almost instantly said, “Oh no! Y-yes, I’ll come at once.”

As the housekeeper put down the phone, Nancy asked, “Is something wrong?”

“My niece—Jill Ball—was in an accident. She’s in the hospital. Her husband wants me to come to his house tonight and take care of the children. Do you think you girls will be safe here alone? Oh, I hope the phantom—”

Nancy expressed her sympathy and said the girls would be all right. Mrs. Holman gave Nancy the front door key. Within a few minutes a taxi came for the housekeeper and she left.

Bess and George were ready by this time and in a few minutes the boys arrived in a big car which they had rented for the evening. They drove to the Omega House, where the dinner party was being held. Finally the couples began to leave for the university gymnasium. Nancy, Bess, George, and their escorts walked over together.

As they entered the big building, Bess gasped. “What marvelous decorations!” she exclaimed. “How in the world could you boys ever think up anything so artistic?”

Their three escorts pretended to be hurt. Dave remarked, “What makes you girls think you have a corner on the artistic market?”

The apparatus in the gym had been entirely concealed with garlands of artificial roses. The center of the floor had been left free for dancing. Tables holding six to twelve had been arranged around four sides, with each two tables screened by latticework also festooned with roses.

“Your decorating committee deserves a big cheer,” said Nancy. “I’ve never been to a dance with such pretty arrangements.”

The boys grinned. “Ladies,” said Burt, “on behalf of Mr. Nickerson, Mr. Eddleton, and myself, I thank you.”

“Our achievement was nothing,” Ned declared. “It was only great.”

Before the laughing girls could retort, there was a roll on a drum—the official announcement that the party had started. For nearly an hour, as broiled chicken, mashed potatoes, fresh peas, salad, and ice cream and cake were served, there was continuous laughter and joking.

Finally Bess remarked, “Please don’t anyone else be funny. I’ve laughed so much I hurt all over.”

“Tell you what,” said Dave, who was far from ready to be serious, “we’ll take you to the infirmary and give you some laughing gas. Then it won’t hurt when someone pulls a joke.”

Later, as Nancy was dancing with Ned, she told him of her early-evening sleuthing, of the missing money, and her plan to make a search when she reached home.