Part 13 (1/2)
”First you pay me,” the boy replied.
”Get out of here and leave us alone!”
”Maybe we'd better hear what Teddy has to say,” Biggs urged. ”It may be important.”
”Gimme a dollar and I'll tell you,” the boy de- manded impudently.
”There!” Cobb snapped, handing over the money. ”Now talk!”
”You know where the hole is in the beach wall?
Somebody came through it.”
”How do you know?”
”Footprints. Want to see 'em?”
”Okay.” Cobb sounded concerned. ”If anyone is on these premises, we'd better find out about it.”
”Maybe the place is being watched! I'm clear- ing out of here!” Biggs added.
”Don't be a fool!” Cobb replied. ”If anyone came into the gardens through this pa.s.sageway, he's got to go out the same way. All we have to do is watch the hole and we'll catch him.”
The two men followed Teddy around the curve. When their voices died away, Nancy and the girls stepped from their hiding place.
”The boy was Teddy Hooper,” Nancy said thoughtfully. ”I wonder how he got mixed up with these men.”
”Never mind him now,” Bess said anxiously.
”We must get out of here somehow, and fast!”
”As long as the men stay on the beach, we're pretty safe,” Nancy replied. ”But I'm worried about Salty. If only we had some way to warn him!”
”But how can we?” Bess asked. ”Those men might pounce on us if we try to go.”
”There's one possibility,” George announced, pointing to a stone stairway between two of the columns which were intertwined with vines. ”See if there's a way out through these.”
The girls managed to force two of the heavy vines apart. Below them lay a small tangled gar- den.
”We can squeeze through here,” Bess said.
”Come on!”
”You go ahead,” Nancy said. ”I'll get the metal box.”
A few minutes later she wriggled between the vines to join her friends. Eagerly they explored the little garden. It had sheer walls on three sides, too high to climb. They could not find a single opening!
Bess sat down in the middle of a weed-grown path. ”I'm so discouraged I could cry,” she ad- mitted.
”Maybe a drink of water will revive you,” her cousin suggested practically.
On the rear wall of the garden hung an artistic fountain from which spouted a little stream. Bess walked over to it and drank freely. ”It's wonder- ful water,” she said. ”And cold. Must come from a spring.”
Nancy and George cupped their hands and filled them several times. ”It certainly tastes dif- ferent from River Heights water,” Nancy de- clared. ”And you're right, it's delicious.”
She was about to drink more when she spotted something on the crumbling wall just beneath the fountain. Parting the vines to get a better view, Nancy stared in astonishment.
”Girls, look! On the wall!” she exclaimed.
The vines had grown over a small block of cement which had been set into the stones. In it was the imprint of a woman's shoe. Beneath had been chiseled a single word: Cinderella.
”Cinderella's dancing slipper.” George laughed.
”Whoever would do such a crazy thing?”
”I'm not sure it was crazy,” Nancy replied. ”It's rather romantic and may have been Walter Heath's way of paying a compliment to Juliana.
Don't you recall that note I found in his hand- writing which began 'Dear C'?”
”C could stand tor a dozen other names,”
George said.
Nancy measured the dainty little shoe print with her hand. ”But if it's Juliana's, it could be the clue Walter Heath mentioned in his will! He said she would be able to identify herself in a special way, and this could be it, couldn't it?”
”The print is very small,” Bess admitted. ”Not many girls wear such a tiny size.”
”If we've really stumbled upon a secret, Nancy, we mustn't breathe a word of it!” Bess warned.
The other girls agreed and carefully covered the imprint with the vines.
”I wonder if there's anything of value hidden behind the cement block,” Nancy mused.
”We can't find out today,” George said. ”We'd have to use tools to move it.”
”It would be just our luck if Cobb and Biggs decide to smash the fountains,” Nancy said.
”Then we'd be too late.” Suddenly she stiffened.
”I hear someone!”
The girls became aware of a loud creaking noise from the cloister. ”The rear castle door,”
whispered George.
Instantly they thought of the vines they had torn apart to get into the garden. Whoever was going in or out of the castle might notice the opening and come to investigate!