Part 5 (2/2)
”I'll meet you in the park,” Sadie promised. ”I'll be there in a few minutes.”
The three friends were afraid the girl might not keep her promise. But eventually they saw a young woman with long blond hair approaching.
”I can't stay more than a minute,” she said nervously. ”The boss would have a fit if he knew I skipped out!”
”Will you answer a few questions?”
”What do you want to know?”
”First, tell me, did you ever hear of the Three Branch Ranch?”
”Never,” the girl replied with a blank look.
”Did you leave an envelope with money in the hollow of a tree near the river?” Nancy asked.
The girl moved a step away. ”Who are you?” she mumbled. ”Detectives? Why do you ask me such a thing?” Before Nancy could reply, she burst out, ”I've changed my mind. Keep your present!”
With a frightened look in her eyes, Sadie whirled and ran off through the park.
”That girl is afraid to tell what she knows!” Nancy exclaimed. ”But we may learn something by talking to her parents.”
Inquiry at the Lovelee personnel department brought forth the information that Sadie lived with an elderly grandfather, Charles Green, on North James Street. The girls went directly there.
Old Mr. Green sat on the front porch in a rocker, reading a newspaper. He laid the paper aside as the girls came up the walk.
”You friends o' my granddaughter Sadie?” he asked in a friendly way. ”She ain't here now.”
”We're acquaintances of Sadie,” Nancy replied, seating herself on the porch railing.
”If you're aimin' to get her to go some place with you, I calculate it won't do no good to ask.” The old man sighed. ”Sadie's actin' kinda peculiar lately.”
”In what way?” Nancy asked with interest.
”Oh, she's snappish-like when I ask her questions,” the old man revealed. ”She ain't bringin' her money home like she used to, either.”
Mr. Green, who seemed eager for companions.h.i.+p, chatted on about Sadie. She was a good girl, he said, but lately he could not figure her out.
From the conversation, Nancy was convinced that the case of Sadie Green was very similar to that of Lola White. After the girls had left the house, Nancy proposed that they drive out to the black walnut.
”I have a plan,” she said.
Nancy did not say what it was, but after examining the hollow in the walnut tree, which was empty, she looked all about her. Then she tore a sheet from a notebook in her purse. Using very bad spelling, she printed: My girl friend told me by leaving a letter hear I can get in touch with a pursen who can give infermation. Please oblige. Yours, Ruby Brown, Genral Delivry, River Heights.
”You hope to trap the man who took the fifty dollars!” George exclaimed admiringly. ”But how do you know you'll get an answer? It seems pretty definite that the racketeers aren't using this tree as a post office any longer.”
”We'll have to take a chance,” said Nancy. ”And if there is an answer, someone will have to call for it who answers to the name of 'Ruby Brown.' ”
”George and I will,” Bess offered eagerly. Nancy smilingly shook her head. ”You're well known as my friends. No, I'll have a stranger call for the letter, so that anyone a.s.signed to watch the post office won't become suspicious.”
Nancy arranged with a laundress, who sometimes worked at the Drew home, to inquire for the letter each day.
”Did you get it?” Nancy asked eagerly when Belinda returned the third day.
The good-natured laundress, lips parted in a wide grin, said, ”I got it, Miss Nancy!”
Taking the letter, Nancy ran upstairs to her room to open it in private. She gasped when she read the message enclosed, which was: If you're on the level, Ruby, go to Humphrey's Black Walnut for instructions. If you are a disbeliever, may the wrath of all the Humphreys descend upon you!
CHAPTER VIII.
The Ghost at the Organ REREADING the message several times, Nancy speculated about the Humphreys and their connection with the black walnut tree.
Deciding it best to keep the contents of the message to herself, Nancy went to the River Heights Public Library, hoping to find a book which would throw some light on the Humphreys mentioned in the note. The name sounded vaguely familiar, and it had occurred to her that it might belong to one of the very old families of the county.
Finally Nancy found exactly the book she wanted. Fascinated, she read that a famous old walnut grove along the river once had been known as Humphrey's Woods.
Even more exciting was the information that a duel, fatal to one member of the family, had been fought beneath a certain walnut tree. The tree, known since then as Humphrey's Walnut, was marked with a plaque.
The article went on to say that Blackwood Hall, the family home, was still standing. Built of walnut from the woods surrounding it, the mansion had, in its day, been one of the showplaces along the river. Now the grounds were weed-grown, the old home vacant, and the family gone.
”It seems a pity to neglect a fine old place that way,” Nancy thought. ”Why would-”
The next sentence aroused her curiosity.
”It is rumored that Jonathan's ghost still inhabits the place!”
Nancy decided she must investigate Blackwood Hall, although she smiled at the thought of any ghost walking there.
But first she would find Humphrey's Walnut. When she returned home, Nancy telephoned Ned, asking if he were free to accompany her, and told him briefly about the letter.
”I'll pick you up in my car in five minutes!” he promised eagerly.
At Nancy's direction, Ned drove as close as he could to the ancient walnut grove by the river. Then they parked the car and started off on foot. They examined each tree for a plaque. It was not until they were deep in the grove that Nancy spied the dull bronze marker with its tragic account of how Jonathan Humphrey had died in a duel while defending his honor beneath the shade of that tree. For fully a minute neither Nancy nor Ned spoke; then Nancy's voice shook off the spell of the place.
”I wonder if anyone will come,” said Nancy.
”The note suggested that you were to receive instructions of some kind,” Ned remarked.
”Perhaps this tree, also, is used to hold messages. Do you see any hollow in the trunk, Ned?”
The youth, noticing a deep pocket in the crotch of the walnut, ran his hand into it.
”Say, something's crammed in here!” he said excitedly. ”Yes, it's a paper!”
”And addressed to Ruby Brown!” Nancy cried, looking at it.
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