Part 17 (2/2)
She motioned for Bess to bend down. The plump girl groaned as Nancy climbed on her shoulders, reached upward, and tilted the trap door open.
The next second a shower of dusty newspapers dropped down. Nancy lost her balance and fell to the floor. Bess was bowled over, her eyes full of dirt. Almost at the same instant, a heavy bundle of papers landed squarely on George!
The room was a cloud of dust. Coughing and choking, the three girls ran to the front door. After clearing their lungs outdoors, Bess and George asked Nancy if she had hurt herself in the fall.
”Not much,” Nancy replied, ”but I don't believe those papers tumbled down by themselves.”
Bess became alarmed. ”You mean someone was in the attic and pushed them down on us?”
”Yes, I do,” Nancy said. ”Come on. We're going to find out who it was!”
When the girls returned to the kitchen, they saw that the back door was open. Also, someone had jumped down from the attic. Footprints were evident in the heavy dust.
”They lead out the door!” George cried.
”I'm going to follow them,” Nancy said tensely. ”Bess, you come with me. George, will you stay here as guard?”
”Sure.”
As Nancy and Bess ran through the rear exit, George fixed her eyes on the trap door, wonder- ing uneasily if there could be a second person in the attic. She decided to find out.
A shower of dusty newspapers poured down.
Going to the front door, George slammed it hard, then tiptoed back, peeking around the door to the kitchen. She waited for several minutes but no one appeared in the trap-door opening.
At last George went outside. She walked around the house, but found nothing suspicious. The girl's attention was suddenly arrested by a gnarled old cherry tree in the nearby woods. From its limbs hung rows of a parasitic whiplike growth, giving the tree a grotesque appearance. Several branches crossed so that they resembled a witch on a broom.
”A witch tree!” George exclaimed.
As she stared at the tree, the girl became convinced it must have something to do with the hex symbol.
Suddenly a woman's shrill scream split the silence. George turned in the direction from which it had come, but could see no one. She paused.
The scream might mean that George's friends needed help, or it might have been uttered by someone else as a ruse to get her away from the old house. She decided to stand her ground.
A few moments later Nancy and Bess emerged from among the trees. George asked if either of them had screamed.
”No,” Nancy replied. ”That was an Amish woman we saw in the woods. For no apparent reason, she screamed and ran off as fast as she could.”
Bess continued, ”We decided she was probably some farm girl picking berries or wild flowers. Maybe a noise in the underbrush startled her.”
”Did you discover anything?” George asked.
”No,” Nancy answered. ”We couldn't find any trail or clues in this wooded area so we decided to turn back. Any more visitors?”
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