Part 3 (1/2)
Apparently rain water had filled them and frozen during the winter, bursting the vases.
”What a shame this place is being neglected!”
Nancy commented, pausing a moment. ”Mr.
Hector ought to take care of it. Surely there must be money in Mr. Heath's estate set aside for that purpose! If Juliana should come back, she would hardly recognize the place.”
At the end of the oak-lined avenue, the girls came to a weather-stained loggia of stone. Its four handsomely carved pillars rose to support a balcony over which vines trailed. Steps led to the upper part.
After mounting to the balcony. Nancy and her friends obtained a fine view of the nearby gar- dens. They had been laid out in formal sections, each one bounded by a stone wall or an un- trimmed hedge. Here and there were small cir- cular pools, now heavy with lichens and moss, and fountains with leaf-filled basins. Over the treetops, about half a mile away, the girls could see two stone towers.
”That's the castle,” said George.
Amid the wild growth, Nancy spotted a bridge.
”Let's go that way,” she suggested, starting down from the balcony.
In a few minutes the trio had crossed the rick- ety wooden span. Before them lay a slippery moss- grown path.
”The Haunted Walk,” Nancy read aloud the name on a rustic sign.
”Why not try another approach?” Bess said with a s.h.i.+ver. ”This garden looks spooky enough without deliberately inviting a meeting with ghosts!”
”Oh, come on!” Nancy laughed, taking her friend firmly by the arm. ”It's only a name. Be- sides, the walk may lead to something interest- ing.”
Spreading lilac bushes canopied the trail. Their branches caught at Nancy's hair and clutched at her clothing. Impatiently she pushed them aside and held back the branches for her friends to pa.s.s beneath.
”I wish we'd gone some other way,” Bess com- plained. ”This is no fun.”
”I think it is,” Nancy replied. ”It's mysterious here! It's so-”
Her voice trailed away suddenly. George and Bess glanced at her quickly. Nancy was staring directly toward a giant evergreen.
”What is it?” Bess demanded fearfully.
”Nothing.”
”You didn't act as if it were nothing,” George said to Nancy.
”I thought I saw something, but I must have been mistaken.”
Despite their coaxing, Nancy would not reveal what had startled her. For an instant she thought a pair of penetrating, human eyes had been star- ing at the girls from behind the evergreen. Then they had blinked shut and vanished.
”It must have been my imagination,” Nancy told herself.
She walked on hurriedly. As Bess and George sensed her thoughts, they drew closer to the young detective. Nancy rounded the evergreen and saw that it partially hid a vine-covered, decay- ing summerhouse.
The building was empty, but her eye quickly caught a slight quivering of the vines beside the doorway, although there was no wind. She stopped short, struck by the realization that someone had been lurking there 1 Quietly she told the others.
”I knew we shouldn't have chosen this walk,”
Bess muttered. ”It is haunted.”
”Haunted by a human being,” Nancy said grimly. ”I wish I knew who was spying on us!”
There was no sign of anyone now. The girls heard neither the rustle of leaves nor the sound of retreating footsteps.
”Let's go back to the car,” Bess proposed sud- denly. ”We've seen enough of this place.”
”I haven't,” Nancy said. ”I'm getting more curious every minute.”
Not far from the summerhouse was a stone wall. It occurred to Nancy that the person who had observed them might have scrambled over it to avoid detection. She announced her intention of climbing up to make sure.
While Bess and George watched uneasily, Nancy began to scale the vine-covered wall. Near the top, however, she lost her footing. With a suppressed cry, she fell backward!
George and Bess helped Nancy to her feet. Al- though uninjured, she was visibly shaken.
”I guess I'd better not try that again,” she said ruefully.
”Those are the most sensible words I've heard you say today!” Bess declared. ”Let's get out of here before we find ourselves in real trouble.”
”I'm with you,” George said. ”I have an ap- pointment in town, and anyway, it may rain.”
Nancy was reluctant to leave the estate without exploring the castle, but she had noticed that clouds were darkening the sky.
”All right,” she agreed. ”But we'll come back!”
The girls retraced their way across the bridge.
From that point on, however, they could not find the right direction to the road.
”We're probably a long way from the car,”
George said finally. ”I'll climb a tree and see if I can spot it.”
Nimble as a monkey, she went high among the branches. Then she shouted down that the river was close by and the road far away.
”We've wandered a great distance from where we started,” George reported as she slid down the tree and pointed out the route. ”We must cut straight through that woods ahead.”
”Are you sure we won't get hopelessly lost?”
Bess asked.
”Just follow me.”
Nancy and Bess were quite willing to have George lead the way. She pushed ahead con- fidently, tramping down the high gra.s.s and thrust- ing aside th.o.r.n.y bushes. But as the going became more difficult, her pace slackened.