Part 16 (2/2)

”You are old enough,” Mrs. Glick insisted. ”You should think about it. Anyway, I want you to go to the quilting with me. You will see what an Amish girl does so that she will have many things ready for her new home.”

The girls thought it would be interesting. They said they would stay at the quilting for a little while, then go on their sleuthing trip. An hour later they set off for the Stoltz farmhouse. Mrs. Glick drove her own car and the girls went in Nancy's convertible.

At the Stoltz house they found that several women from neighboring farms had gathered in the parlor. It was explained to the visitors that these were friends and relatives of the family and that they were going to help sixteen-year-old Rebecca Stoltz make a fancy bedspread.

A large wooden quilting frame had been set up. Stretched taut across it was a white muslin bedspread. Rebecca had just finished cutting out pieces of colored cloth for the pattern to be sewed on the spread. Later, it would be quilted.

Around the edges of the spread was to be a diamond design in bright blue. The center section would be covered at intervals by big red tulips with green stems and leaves growing out of terra-cotta flowerpots.

Four young women had seated themselves around the quilting frame, threaded needles in hand. Quickly they began to st.i.tch on the blue diamonds Rebecca handed them.

Nancy, Bess, and George were amazed at the dexterity of the sewers. Not a st.i.tch showed!

The girls stayed for half an hour. Rebecca showed them her dowry, which she kept in an old cedar chest. It held several dozen embroidered pillowcases, dresser scarfs, towels, sheets, and another bright quilt.

Finally, when Nancy told her she and her friends must be on their way, Rebecca said she would like to give her guests something to remind them of the Amish quilting party. She lifted out a large pillowcase filled with pieces of material of various colors and designs, and gave a large handful of them to each girl.

”You will your own quilt begin, ain't?” she asked, smiling.

Nancy and her friends promised to do this. ”We will start patchwork quilts with these,” Bess said, and Rebecca nodded contentedly.

After thanking her and saying good-by to Mrs. Glick and the others, the three girls left the house. As they started off in the car, George asked, ”Where are we going, Nancy?”

The young detective said she thought that the man who had run away from the carriage the night before had started toward the Hoelts' hiding place. When the driver had realized he was being followed, he had deliberately taken another route.

”What I'm going to try to do,” said Nancy, ”is figure out at which point he turned off from the direction leading to his destination.”

Bess asked Nancy if she had any idea where this was. ”I think it may be where the man turned right into the wooded road,” the young sleuth answered. ”When I reach that point, I'll go in the opposite direction.”

Driving to the spot, she pulled to the left and followed a narrow road for about two miles. Here it became little more than a footpath. Nancy drove along for a short distance, then decided it was too rough for further progress in the convertible.

”I'm going to park in this field,” she said, ”and we'll continue on foot.”

The path they followed became more and more overgrown and finally ended at a woods.

”Well, this didn't turn out so well,” George remarked, as the three peered ahead into the tangled undergrowth.

”The wilder it gets, the more likely it is to be Roger Hoelt's hideout,” Nancy reminded her. ”Let's go on.”

She set off through the woods with determination, the cousins following. After they had tramped a quarter of a mile they came to a clearing. Through the trees the girls could see a tumble-down house at one side of it.

”We'd better be careful,” Bess warned.

The girls proceeded cautiously. They spread out, with Nancy in the middle, their eyes on the house. Suddenly George gasped ”Oh!” as her right foot sank into a hole.

A second later, as she tried to wrench her foot free, George found she could not do it. Her whole right leg sank lower.

<script>