Part 1 (1/2)
The Message in the Hollow Oak.
CHAPTER I.
Indian War Secret.
”NANCY,” said the voice on the telephone, ”you are wanted in New York City!”
The eighteen-year-old girl detective looked a bit startled. Was this a joke? Or true? ”Why, Aunt Eloise, what for?”
Eloise Drew laughed at the apprehension in her niece's voice. ”For a mystery,” she replied.
Nancy relaxed. ”Oh! For a moment you had me scared. Your announcement sounded as if I was being brought up on some police charge.” Then she added, ”Tell me about the mystery. That's more to my liking!”
To Nancy's disappointment, her aunt said it was too long a story to explain over the phone. ”I was calling to see if you would like to visit me and meet a friend of mine, a detective. He wants some help on a baffling case.”
Nancy's pulse quickened. She was only an amateur detective. How could she possibly a.s.sist a man with professional training and ability in capturing criminals?
”Aunt Eloise, please tell me more!” Nancy pleaded, rumpling the reddish-blond hair that framed her attractive face.
”No, I'll leave that to my friend. His name is Boyce Osborne. All I can say is that the case involves a trip to Illinois.”
”It sounds interesting,” Nancy replied. ”I'll have to ask Dad if he has made any plans for me this weekend.”
Her aunt laughed again. ”We're one step ahead of you. He has already given his permission for you to come. Can you be here some time tomorrow afternoon?”
”Yes,” the young detective answered. ”See you then, Aunt Eloise.”
Nancy hung up. She was excited at the thought of a puzzling new case to solve. Going into the Drews' cheerful living room, she exclaimed, ”Well! The things that go on behind my back!”
Carson Drew, a prominent lawyer in River Heights where he and Nancy lived, glanced up from his paper. He was a tall, handsome man who had been a widower since Nancy was three years old.
Seeing his daughter's teasing expression, he relaxed. ”Going visiting?” he asked.
”Of course,” she replied. ”Have you ever known me to turn down a mystery? Maybe Bess or George will drive me to the airport tomorrow.”
Bess Marvin and her girl cousin George Fayne were Nancy's closest friends and she was eager to tell them about her latest a.s.signment. She secretly hoped that somehow they could be included in it.
Nancy hurried to the telephone and called the two girls. Both of them were excited at her news and agreed to take their friend to the airport.
After hanging up, Nancy went to the kitchen to tell the housekeeper, Mrs. Hannah Gruen, about the trip to New York. The motherly woman, who had taken care of Nancy since the death of Mrs. Drew, smiled. ”Please give your aunt my warmest wishes,” she said.
”I certainly will,” Nancy replied.
The following noon Bess and George arrived. Bess was a slightly plump blond with delightful dimples. George, in contrast, was very slender and athletic looking and wore her dark hair short. Both of them had on casual summer dresses.
”Oh, Nancy, you look neat!” exclaimed Bess as she and her cousin admired the young detective's smart beige suit.
After saying good-by to Hannah, they drove at once to the River Heights airport and Nancy hurried off to catch her plane to New York.