The Secret of Red Gate Farm (11 page)

“If the rest of the code can be deciphered,” Nancy concluded, “that might give us the answer to everything, including the Hale Syndicate’s whereabouts.”

“So you’re the young detective Chief McGinnis mentioned in his reports to us,” one of the agents said admiringly. “What you’ve done so far is really astounding. Chief McGinnis didn’t mention you by name. He probably figured you would prefer him not to.

“Your deductions seem very sound, Miss Drew, and I’d advise you to be careful. That Hale gang may think you know too much already. I’ll take this note and pass it along to a handwriting expert. Perhaps Yvonne Wong was the person who delivered it.”

Nancy shook her head. “From what I could see of the woman, I know she wasn’t Yvonne.”

After the agent had wished Nancy luck on the solution of the mystery, she said good-by to the men, and, with the others, went back to her car.

Although Karl Abbott was eager to continue on to Red Gate Farm to see his father, he expressed concern about the three girls and their upsetting experience. He asked for a detailed account of the events which had led to Nancy’s predicament. He was most interested and sympathetic when the girls told him the whole story.

“Well,” he said admiringly, “I guess I won’t worry too much about you girls. You certainly aren’t easily daunted by emergencies.”

After Karl Jr. and the trio had exchanged good-bys, the young man got into his car and drove on to the farm.

Bess turned to her companions. “Where to? I’m more starved than ever.”

“It’s only a short way to town from here,” Nancy replied. “We can get breakfast there and then do our shopping.”

Soon the girls reached Round Valley. When they finished eating, Nancy looked at Mrs. Byrd’s list.

“There’s really not much on it,” she commented. “Two of us could do the shopping. Suppose you girls take over and I’ll go buy the material for our costumes.”

“Material?” Bess queried.

Nancy laughed. “If we’re going to join the Black Snake group in one of their rites, we’ll need ghost costumes, and I’ve decided it wouldn’t be fair to Mrs. Byrd to ruin four of her sheets and pillowcases.”

Suddenly George said, “What are we going to use for money?”

Nancy had only two dollars. Bess and George between them counted six.

“That will pay for the meat and groceries,” Bess said. “I guess our costume material and the other errands will have to wait.”

The food shopping was soon finished and the girls returned to Red Gate Farm.

Joanne met them at the kitchen door. “Guess what?” she burst out. “The telephone repairman was here. He said our line had been cut!”

Nancy nodded. “By those people who were here last night.”

“I suppose so. Oh, Nancy, I’m so worried for you. And Karl Jr. tells us you’ve had another adventure this morning. He said you’d explain.”

Nancy, with lively interruptions from Bess and George, related the girls’ recent experience.

“I gave those Secret Service men the note and told them the Hale Syndicate might be mixed up in some way with the counterfeiters. The syndicate may be the distributors of the phony bills.”

“Well, do let the authorities take care of it,” Joanne urged. “I want you girls to have a good time while you’re here.”

“Oh, I’m having a wonderful time,” Nancy assured her. “By the way, I think we should work on our costumes for the hillside ceremony. Could you repay us the money we spent today so I can buy more material? We decided it isn’t fair to use your grandmother’s good linens.”

“Oh, yes, right away. I’ll get it from Gram. And I think there are a few more groceries she needs.”

Joanne returned in a few minutes and handed over the money to which she added enough for the marketing. Nancy headed for town. She had gone about a mile when she sighted a woman hurrying along the side of the country road. She was limping slightly.

“I’ll offer her a ride,” Nancy decided. “She seems to be in a great hurry.”

She halted the car and called, “May I give you a lift to town?”

The woman glanced up, startled. Nancy was surprised to see that she was the woman from the Black Snake Colony whom she had helped several days before on the river trail! What she was doing so far from her camp Nancy did not know, but she was determined to make the most of the opportunity at hand.

“Please get in,” Nancy urged, as the woman hesitated. “I’m sure your foot must be paining you. I notice that you are still limping.”

“Thanks,” the woman returned gratefully, hobbling over to the car door which Nancy held open for her. “I am in a hurry to get to town.”

Before stepping inside she looked quickly over her shoulder as though fearing that someone might observe her actions.

She sighed in relief and settled back, looking very pale and exhausted.

“You weren’t intending to walk all the way to town?” Nancy asked in a friendly, conversational tone.

The woman nodded. “I had to get there somehow.”

“But aren’t the members of your colony permitted to use any of the cars I’ve seen around the camp?” Nancy questioned, watching her companion closely and hoping that she might tactfully glean some information.

“We aren’t allowed much freedom,” the woman answered.

“You shouldn’t be walking on that foot yet,” Nancy protested. “You’re apt to injure your ankle permanently.”

“It’s nearly well now,” the woman told her, avoiding Nancy’s eyes. “They didn’t know at the camp that I was going to town. I—I left in a hurry.”

Again the stranger cast an anxious glance over her shoulder. “She obviously thinks she’s being followed,” Nancy thought to herself. “Perhaps she’s even running away!”

Nancy wanted to ask her companion a number of questions but the woman’s aloofness discouraged her. Deciding on an entirely different course, the young sleuth pretended not to pay particular attention to the woman. For some time they drove along in silence. Nancy could see that her passenger was gradually relaxing and losing her fear.

“Am I going too fast for you?” Nancy inquired, thinking the time was right to launch the conversation.

“Oh, no,” the woman returned quickly. “You can’t go too fast for me.” She hesitated, and then added, “I have an important letter to mail.”

“Why don’t you drop it in one of the roadside mailboxes?” Nancy suggested casually. “The rural carrier will pick it up and save you a long trip.”

“I want to get it off this morning if I possibly can.”

“I’ll be glad to gro to the post office and mail it for you,” Nancy said, purposely drawing the woman out.

“Thank you, but no,” the woman mumbled. “I—I’d feel better if I did it myself.” As Nancy did not reply, she said, “I don’t mean to be ungrateful for all you’ve done—really I don’t. It’s only that I mustn’t get you into trouble.”

“How could I get into trouble by helping you?” Nancy asked with a smile.

“You don’t understand,” her companion replied nervously. “There are things I can’t explain. The leaders of the colony will be very angry with me if they find I have left even for a few hours, and especially that I’ve mailed this letter to my sister. The cult forbids communication with the outside world.”

“I can’t understand why you tolerate such rigid supervision,” Nancy said impatiently. “Why, the leader of the cult must treat you as prisoners!”

“You’re not far from wrong,” the woman confessed.

“Then why don’t you run away?”

The question startled the woman. She glanced sharply at Nancy, then as quickly looked away.

“I would if I dared,” she said finally.

“Why don’t you dare?” Nancy challenged. “I’ll help you.”

“No, you mustn’t get mixed up in this. Perhaps later I can get away.”

“I don’t see what anyone can do to you if you decide to leave the colony,” Nancy went on. “Surely you’re a free person.”

“Not any more,” her companion returned sadly. “I’m in it too deep now. I’ll have to go on until Fate helps me.”

“I wouldn’t wait,” Nancy advised bluntly. “Let me help you—right now!”

THE strange woman in Nancy’s car seemed to waver for a moment, as if about to accept the girl’s offer of help. Then she shook her head.

“No, I won’t drag you into it!” she said with finality. “You don’t know what you’d be getting into if you helped me. Why, if they even learn that you’ve aided me in mailing this letter—”

Nancy saw the woman shudder. For one fleeting instant she, too, felt afraid—afraid of something she could not define.

The young sleuth realized that the woman was trying to warn her of danger. Nancy knew the wise thing to do was forget all about the nature cult and the strange things which apparently went on in the hillside cave. Yet, she felt that she was on the verge of discovering an important secret.

Nancy’s companion was obviously relieved when the car rounded a bend and brought them within sight of town. “If you’ll just drop me off at the post office, I’ll be most grateful,” the woman said.

“May I take you back with me?” Nancy asked. “I’ll be returning in less than an hour.”

“No, I’ll walk back.”

Nancy saw that it was useless to protest and let the matter rest. She made no comment.

After leaving her passenger in front of the post office, Nancy continued down the main street to the supermarket. Later, while she waited in the check-out line to pay for her groceries, two women took their places behind her. They were talking earnestly together, and did not pay any attention to Nancy. She, in turn, did not notice them until one of the shoppers began to speak on a startling subject.

“It beats me the way those people carry on,” she heard one of them say. “You’d think Mrs. Byrd would turn them out!”

Instantly Nancy became alert.

“I suppose she needs the money,” the other woman responded, “but someone should speak to her about it. The idea of those folks capering around in bedclothes! They must be crazy!”

“That’s just what I think!” the first woman remarked. “If I lived near that farm I wouldn’t feel safe! And I don’t think it’s decent for a law-abiding community like ours to have folks like that around. I’m going to get a big group together and call on Mrs. Byrd to tell her what we think of her!”

“I’ll certainly join you,” the woman said.

Nancy felt the situation was becoming serious; that the criticism of Mrs. Byrd would grow even sharper. If the two women carried out their threat, the consequences might be very unpleasant. Prospective Red Gate boarders might change their minds! The colony might take reprisals!

“One thing is certain,” Nancy decided. “Our costumes must be ready by tonight in case the colony members have a meeting.”

She paid for the groceries and went directly to the material shop, where she bought several yards of white muslin, then started for home.

Driving back to Red Gate Farm, Nancy kept a sharp lookout for the woman from the Black Snake Colony, but she was nowhere along the road. “I wish I could have talked to her more. It might have helped in my plan to attend the ceremony.”

Joanne, Bess, and George were just returning from the woods with pails brimming over with luscious-looking berries when Nancy drove into the barnyard. As they started to help her carry in the packages, Karl Abbott Jr. rushed gallantly from the house to assist. He glanced curiously at the soft, fat one which Nancy kept tucked under her arm, but she did not give any explanation of its contents. Besides, the elder Mr. Abbott and Mrs. Salisbury were within hearing distance.

Immediately after a late lunch and some pleasant conversation with the guests, Nancy excused herself and summoned the other girls to her room. There she unwrapped the material and brought out scissors, needles, and thread.

“We must work like mad,” she said, “in case there’s a meeting tonight.”

With great excitement and anticipation she cut out the first costume which was to serve as an entering wedge to the nature-cult ceremonial. As Nancy worked, she told the story of her adventure with her passenger and the conversation of the women in the market.

Joanne was alarmed. “Oh, Gram must never hear of this!” she exclaimed. “She’d be heart-broken!”

The others agreed. “We won’t tell Mrs. Byrd any more than we have to,” George said. “I do hope we can solve the mystery before something ugly happens!”

For the next few hours their needles flew furiously. At last the costumes were finished. The four friends could not control their laughter as they tried them on.

“You certainly look as if you’re ready for Halloween!” George told Nancy.

“Do you think I’ll pass?”

“In the moonlight they won’t be able to tell you from a full-fledged member of the cult,” Bess declared. “Let’s see you go through the mystic rites.”

To the delight of her chums, Nancy danced around the room, waving her arms wildly and making weird moans.

“Jo!” a voice called. “Dinner’s ready!”

Startled, the girls scrambled out of the white robes and hastily hid them. They tried to compose their faces as they hurried downstairs, but merely succeeded in looking guilty.

“Seems to me you girls spent a long time locked up in your rooms.” Mrs. Salisbury sniffed suspiciously.

“Planning some kind of mischief, no doubt.” Mr. Abbott wagged his finger playfully at the four girls.

George had a hard time keeping a straight face, and hastily took a sip of milk. Bess could not restrain a giggle, whereupon Mrs. Salisbury gave her a sharp look.

“Humph!” she exclaimed. “I must say I’ll have to agree with Mr. Abbott this time. I’m sure you four
are
up to some prank.”

Even Nancy and Joanne had to smother tell-tale grins. They only smiled pleasantly, but offered no explanation.

Actually, the girls were so excited over their prospective adventure they could scarcely do justice to the excellent meal Mrs. Byrd had prepared. Karl Jr., as usual, was a charming companion.