"Somebody with a key to the gate padlock must have driven into the estate grounds!" she thought.
As the sound drew nearer, Nancy decided to find out who was coming. She plunged through the woodland and reached a weed-grown clearing just as Daniel Hector drove up and stopped.
Nancy backed quickly into the shelter of the bushes. The lawyer did not see her. He parked his car under a gnarled maple, got out, and set off on foot.
"I"ll follow him," Nancy decided.
Mr. Hector walked so fast that she could scarcely keep him in sight. He seemed thoroughly acquainted with the layout of the trails, for he never hesitated when he came to a turn.
Before long the man vanished from view.
When Nancy came to a fork in the path, she wondered which way he had gone. Fearful she would lose track of him entirely. Nancy pressed her ear to the ground and very faintly could dis- cern a steady beat to her right. She hastened on.
Presently the trail branched off in three direc- tions. Again Nancy was baffled. When she flat- tened herself on the ground this time, she could hear nothing.
"I"ve lost him!" she thought in dismay.
Nancy chose a path at random and went on doggedly. She was so intent on her sleuthing she completely forgot about George and Bess.
Meanwhile Bess, still hidden in Daniel Hec- tor"s car, was wondering what to do. "I"d better find George and Nancy," she decided.
She cautiously climbed out and started up the trail the lawyer had taken. Bess had not gone far when the dogs began to bark. They were coming closer each moment!
"They"ve picked up my scent!" Bess was in a panic.
The hounds leaped into view. In terror, Bess shinned up a tree and hoped the dogs would pa.s.s by. Instead they took up a vigil at the base of the trunk.
By this time George had grown tired of wait- ing for Nancy to return to the tool house. From the window she could see her clothes, apparently dry, on the sunny bank of the pond.
"I can"t wait another minute!" she thought im- patiently. "I"ll get them myself!"
George went to the door and stopped short. A boy in faded overalls had emerged from among the trees. He seemed to be eleven or twelve years old.
George slipped out of sight behind the door and watched him. He suddenly s.n.a.t.c.hed up her clothes and hurried off.
"Hey, you! Those are mine!" George cried angrily from the window.
The boy paid no attention.
"Hypers!" George thought in despair. "Now what"ll I do? Nancy"s done a disappearing act, and I"m stranded here without any clothes!"
Nancy, unaware of her friends" problems, was intent on another subject. The trail she had chosen had not led her to Daniel Hector, but to Heath Castle. She could not resist the temptation to see the wonderful building at close range.
Its beauty, even at a distance, awed her. It was constructed of ma.s.sive gray stone covered with ivy. The roof line was broken by several turrets, a large one at each end of the residence, with smaller ones in between.
"It"s a perfect copy of an old English castle,"
Nancy thought, "only smaller."
Curious, she began to circle the castle walls.
"What a pity this stately home has to stand in the midst of ruined gardens!" she mused.
A ma.s.sive side door of the big house stood ajar.
Nancy wondered if Mr. Hector had opened it.
Quietly she slipped inside.
She found herself in a long corridor which twisted and turned crazily. Large rooms lined with beautiful paneled wood opened from it.
Many were empty, others contained a few pieces of fine old mahogany furniture. At a glance it was apparent to Nancy that nearly everything of value had been removed from the place.
"Odd," she said to herself. "I thought the castle was left to Juliana intact. Did thieves break in or did Hector sell the furniture?"
The inside wooden shutters in the gloomy rooms were closed, lending a ghostly appearance to the few sheet-draped chairs. The unexpected sight of herself in a long mirror gave Nancy a start.
Before long she found steps leading to the sec- ond floor. A search of the rooms there, including the many closets, revealed nothing of special in- terest.
"The only places left to visit are the towers,"
Nancy thought. "But how do I get into them?"
She could locate no entrance. Then, glancing from a window, she realized that the castle was built around a hollow square which was another tangled garden. Nancy figured that some of the smaller turrets actually were bedrooms. The high towers must be separate, with doors opening from the courtyard.
Nancy hurried down the stairway to hunt for an exit to the inner garden. At length she found a door in the shadows of the corridor. After trip- ping the bolt so she would not lock herself out, Nancy stepped into the sunshine.
She glanced around and discovered that her guess had been right. There were entrance doors to the two high, round towers. She opened the one on her left. It held one room which had a low ceiling and contained nothing. The walls, how- ever, had been chipped and damaged.
"Even the castle hasn"t escaped the hackers!"
Nancy mused. She turned her attention to the other tower, glad that the ma.s.sive door to it was unlocked. It was hollow and only dimly lighted by a high window. A circular iron stairway led to a small balcony at the top.
Nancy looked around on the ground floor but saw nothing of interest. She climbed up and found a little door at the head of the stairway.
Cautiously pushing on it, she peered beyond.
As her eyes became accustomed to the somber light, she saw that there was nothing in the tiny room, nor on the open parapet beyond it. In dis- appointment, Nancy leaned on the wide rail.
"All this work just to get a view," she thought.
"But at least I have an idea of the layout."
Suddenly her attention focused on a figure running far in the distance. A boy had moved to- ward the wall and was carrying a bundle under his arm. Just before he disappeared from sight be- hind tall trees, he dropped something. It looked like a pair of slacks.
"Oh, my goodness!" Nancy thought with a fear- ful pang of conscience. "Maybe he stole George"s clothes! I should never have left her alone at the tool house. And the boy looked like Teddy Hooper!"
The youngster appeared again, but this time outside the walls, running across the beach to- ward a boat. "There must be a way out besides the main gate," Nancy thought. Since the boy was much too far away for her to call him, she quickly retraced her steps to the courtyard door below.
When she tried to pull it open, the door would not budge. She yanked and yanked. Finally she realized that somebody must have locked it! She tried the key she had to the castle, but it did not fit.
She was a prisoner in the tower!
"Oh, I must get out!" she murmured.
Nancy refused to panic and told herself there must be some way to escape! She returned to the open parapet and looked about. It was a forty-foot drop to the ground and there was no possible way to climb down the tower wall.
Thoroughly discouraged. Nancy went to try the locked door again. As she twisted the k.n.o.b vainly, she heard voices. Her heart leaped! Two men were outside.
"We"ll get caught, I tell you!" one was arguing in a loud voice. "And if we do, the old man"ll say he never saw us before!"
Nancy wondered if "the old man" might be Hector.
"Oh, quit worrying," the other man growled.
"Just leave the brainwork of this job to me. We"ll find that clue yet. It"s somewhere in one of the walls of the estate."
"Yeah? Which wall?" the first man asked sar- castically. "The place is full of them. Anyhow, I"m satisfied with what we"ve found and kept."
"When he sees all the walls we"ve blasted, he can"t say we didn"t do a pretty thorough job for him." The other snickered.
The voices faded out, and Nancy a.s.sumed that the two speakers had moved away. Who were they? Their voices had been unfamiliar.
"Well, a few of my theories are confirmed, any- way," Nancy said to herself. "The walls of Heath Castle and the gardens have been damaged de- liberately, and on orders from a person who wants to find a valuable secret."
Nancy hoped to catch a glimpse of the men and returned to the parapet. She did not see them, but a moment later heard them whistling and calling to the dogs. Then all became quiet.
"They"ve gone," Nancy thought in relief.
"Maybe I should have let them know I was in here when I had the chance. But no, they"re not honest, and they probably would have ruined all my plans. I"ll get out somehow!"
Nancy was in a predicament, nevertheless.
George, stranded without clothes at the tool house, could not help her. Bess, she a.s.sumed, was still waiting in the parked car outside the castle gate.
Nancy roved restlessly about the ground floor of the tower in her vain search for an exit. Look- ing at her watch for the first time, the imprisoned girl was amazed to discover that it was after four o"clock-and she was hungry!
"By this time Bess and George must be pretty annoyed with me," she thought guiltily.
While Nancy worried, Bess was perched in a tree a considerable distance from the castle. Sur- rounded by the watchful dogs, she would not descend for fear they might tear her to pieces 1 Badly shaken and near tears, she suddenly heard a whistle. The dogs p.r.i.c.ked up their ears, then raced away.
"Thank goodness," Bess gasped, sliding down from her leafy prison.
So much time had elapsed she decided it would do no good to look for Nancy and George.
If they had not encountered Mr. Hector already, they surely would have returned to the car.
"I"ll go back there," Bess concluded. "But which way?"
Hopelessly confused, she started off. After a while Bess came to the estate wall. Just ahead of her she noticed something in the gra.s.s.
"George"s slacks!" Bess thought with a start.
There was no sign of either her cousin or Nancy. Bess could not believe that they had gone for a swim. As she picked up the slacks, she won- dered apprehensively what had happened.
"This path seems to run along the wall," Bess said to herself. "If I take it, I should get back to the gate eventually."
But she found that the trail changed direction.
Instead of the main gate she reached a large pond.
"Oh, where am I?" Bess fretted desperately.
Suddenly she heard her name called. She whirled around. No one was in sight. A few yards away stood a stone tool house, its window hidden by overhanging branches.
"Bess!" George shouted impatiently. "Over here! I"m in the tool house!"
Bess hastened to the small building and looked inside.
"I"ve been stranded here for hours!" George fumed.
"How did you lose your clothes?"
"I fell into the water and took them off to dry.
Nancy put them on the bank. Then she went off to do some exploring. A boy came along and ran away with my things!"
"How terrible! What became of Nancy?"
"I wish I knew. She"s been gone a long while.
But tell me, how did you get up your courage to climb the wall?"
When Bess told of her secret ride with Hector, George burst into laughter despite her worry about Nancy.
Then she sobered. "Hector is on the grounds!
Maybe Nancy ran into him!"
The cousins were not sure what they should do.
Finally Bess said, "Let"s go back to the car. Nancy might be there."
"How can I go anywhere like this?" George cried.
Bess handed the girl her slacks. "I found these by the wall. The boy must have dropped them.
And you can wear my sweater. I"ll be warm enough in my blouse."