Part 4 (1/2)
As she turned into her own driveway she noticed a dark-green sports car parked in front. The driver came to meet her.
”Hi, Nancy!” Ned grinned. ”Guess I got here a little early.”
”I'm late. Been working on a case. Please forgive me.”
A week earlier she had accepted Ned Nickerson's invitation to a sundown picnic planned by Emerson College students spending their summer in River Heights.
”I'll be ready in fifteen minutes,” she promised.
While Ned waited on the porch, she rushed into the house, showered, and dressed. On her way downstairs, she paused in the kitchen to say good-by to Mrs. Gruen.
”It seems to me you're never home any more,” the housekeeper replied. But she added with a smile, ”Have a good time and put mystery out of that pretty head for tonight!”
”How could I?” Nancy laughed gaily.
Nancy had not asked Ned where the picnic was to be held. Therefore, she was surprised when she discovered that the spot selected was on the upper Muskoka River, less than a mile from the mysterious walnut tree.
”Want to do me a favor?” she asked Ned.
”Sure thing.”
Nancy told him about the money in the walnut tree, its puzzling disappearance, and her suspicion that something sinister was going on.
”And you want to stop and have a look for more envelopes,” said Ned. ”Okay.”
They found nothing in the tree, but the crossed twigs had been removed. Someone had been there! Ned promised to stop at the spot now and then to see if he could learn anything.
They drove on to the picnic spot, where their friends had already gathered. The aroma of broiling hamburgers made them ravenous.
Both Nancy and Ned were favorites among their friends, and soon everyone was laughing and joking. After all the food had been consumed, some of the young people began to sing. Others went off in canoes.
”Let's go out on the river, Nancy,” Ned suggested.
Nancy sat in the bow of the canoe, her paddle lying idle across the gunwales, while Ned paddled smoothly upstream. Moonlight streamed over the treetops and s.h.i.+mmered across the surface of the water. Presently Ned guided the canoe into a cove and let it glide silently toward sh.o.r.e.
”What a night!” he said. ”I wish-”
Suddenly Nancy, who was facing the sh.o.r.e, sat bolt upright and uttered a low cry.
”Look over there, Ned!” she exclaimed in a hushed voice. ”Am I seeing things?”
The youth, who had been watching the moonlight on the water, turned his head and was startled to see a ghostly white figure wading out into the river from the beach.
”Whew!” Ned caught his breath, nearly dropping his paddle.
As the canoe swung with the current, Nancy got a clear view of the figure in white.
The person wading deeper and deeper into the water was Lola White!
CHAPTER VI.
A New Lead ”QUICK, Ned!” Nancy cried, seizing her paddle. ”She'll be in over her head in a minute. We must save her!”
Her companion needed no urging. He sent the canoe forward with powerful strokes.
”Lola, stay where you are! Don't move!” Nancy called to her.
The girl did not appear to hear. On she waded, holding her hands in front of her.
As Nancy had feared, the shallow water ended abruptly. The next instant Lola had stepped in over her head. The ducking seemed to bring her out of her trance, and now she began to struggle frantically. If she knew how to swim, she gave no evidence of it.
Fortunately, the canoe was soon alongside her. Quickly Ned eased himself into the water, while Nancy steadied the craft. He seized the struggling and terrified girl, then began to swim toward sh.o.r.e. In a moment they were in shallow water.
Nancy was waiting with the canoe, and the sputtering Lola was lifted into the bottom of the craft. The girl was only half conscious. Nancy bent low over her and caught the words, ”the beckoning hand.”
”Gos.h.!.+” Ned observed uneasily. ”She's in a bad way!”
”We must get her home right away,” Nancy decided. ”And you, too, with those wet clothes.”
Paddling as fast as they could, she and Ned started toward the picnic grounds where he had left his car. Midway there, Lola seemed to recover her senses. She sat up and gazed at Nancy as if recognizing her for the first time.
”Lola, why were you wading out into the water?” Nancy asked.
”I can't tell you,” Lola answered weakly.
”You said something about a beckoning hand.”
”I did?” Lola's eyes opened wide and an expression of horror came over her face.
”You thought someone was calling to you?”
Lola spoke with an effort. ”I'm grateful to you for pulling me out of the river. But I can't answer your questions!”
Nancy said no more. Taking off her sweater, she put it around the s.h.i.+vering girl.
Later, when they reached the picnic grounds, she hurried Lola in secret to Ned's car, as the college group made joking remarks to Ned about his bedraggled appearance.
At the White home Nancy and Ned lingered only long enough to be certain that Lola had suffered no ill effects from her immersion.
”Please don't tell anyone what happened,” Mrs. White pleaded. ”Lola went out this evening without telling me where she was going. I can't imagine why she would go to the river.”
”Perhaps to meet someone,” Nancy suggested.
”So far as I know, she had no date. Oh, I do so need your help to clear up this mystery, Nancy!”