Part 6 (1/2)
The message was short.
Name the girl friend who suggested you leave that letter.
”Wow!” exclaimed Ned. ”Looks as if you've put your foot in it now, Nancy.”
Nancy read the message again, then asked Ned to put it back. ”Come on!” she urged.
Nancy led the way back to the car and they drove to the walnut tree where she had left her first note signed ”Ruby Brown.” Again Nancy printed a badly spelled message, asking for instructions on how to find the Humphrey tree.
”That ought to fool him.” She chuckled as Ned placed the note in the hollow of the tree. ”He'll think poor Ruby is dumb, which is exactly what I want him to think.”
”Say, why don't you ask the police to guard the place?”
”Because I'm afraid I'll scare off the man altogether. I want to trap the mastermind behind this thing, not some errand boy.”
For the next two days, no mail was received by General Delivery for Ruby Brown. On the third morning, in response to Nancy's telephone call, she learned a letter was at the post office. The laundress went to get it.
”What does our unknown friend write this time?” asked Bess, who had arrived at the Drew home just ahead of the maid. ”Does he tell Ruby how to reach the Humphrey Walnut?”
”He says 'Ask Lola White.' ”
”Lola!” exclaimed Bess. ”That poor girl! Then she is involved in that swindler's scheme.”
”I've suspected it all along,” Nancy admitted. ”The fellow is clever. He's suspicious that Ruby Brown is a hoax, but so far I don't think he connects her with me in any way. And it's my job to keep him from finding out.”
”What will you do next?” asked Bess. ”Talk to Lola?”
”Not right away,” Nancy decided. ”Unwittingly she might carry the information back to the writer of this note.”
”Then what's the next move?”
”Dad says when you're confused-and I admit I am-you should sit back and try to arrange the facts into some kind of order,” Nancy replied. ”Dad also thinks a change of scenery is a good idea when you're in a mental jam.”
”Where shall we go?” asked Bess.
”How would you like to go with me to Blackwood Hall?” asked Nancy. ”The book at the library told various stories about this old mansion, which stands within a few miles of River Heights. It's haunted, has a secret tunnel, and is said to house the ghost of one Jonathan Humphrey who lost his life in a duel. Would you like to explore it with me?”
At first Bess insisted that wild horses could not drag her to the deserted mansion. But later, when she learned that Nancy had persuaded George to accompany her, she weakened in her decision.
”I'll go along,” she said. ”But I'm sure we're headed for trouble.”
The trio set off at once, although a summer storm seemed to be brewing. As the girls tramped through the woods along the river, Nancy suddenly stopped short. Below her was the cove where she and Ned had rescued Lola White. The girls were not far from Blackwood Hall now. Could there be any connection between the sinister old place and the strange, hypnotic state in which they had found Lola that night?
Without voicing her thoughts to the others, Nancy plunged on. At last they came within view of the ancient building. The three-story mansion, where several generations of Humphreys had lived, looked as black as its name, forbidding even by daylight. High weeds and gra.s.s choked off any paths that might once have led to the house.
The girls circled the mansion. The wind rattled the shutters and at intervals whistled dismally around the corners of the great structure. An open gate to what had once been a flower garden slammed back and forth, as if moved by an unseen hand.
Nancy walked to the ma.s.sive front door, expecting to find it securely fastened. To her amazement, as she turned the k.n.o.b, the door slowly opened on groaning hinges.
”Well, what do you know!” George muttered.
Bess tried to dissuade her friends from going inside, but they paid no attention.
Turning on flashlights, the three girls entered the big hall into which the door opened. The floor was richly carpeted, but Time had played its part in making the carpet worn and gray with mildew.
Velvet draperies, faded and rotted, hung from the windows of an adjoining room. Through the archway, the girls caught a glimpse of a few ma.s.sive pieces of walnut furniture.
”This looks interesting,” Nancy observed. ”There's nothing to be afraid of here.”
At that moment the front door banged shut behind them. Bess stifled a scream of terror.
”Goose! It was only the wind!” George scolded her. ”If you keep this up, you'll give us all a case of the jitters.”
”I'm sorry,” said Bess, ”but it's so spooky.”
Just then a sound of sudden, heavy rain told the girls a storm had indeed begun.
Pa.s.sing through what they took to be a small parlor, the girls found themselves in another long hall, running at right angles to the entrance hall. From it opened a huge room, so dark that their flashlights illuminated only a small section of it.
”Listen!” Nancy whispered suddenly.
As they paused in the doorway, the three distinctly heard the sound of organ music. Bess seized George's arm in a viselike grip.
”W-what's that?” she quavered. ”It must be ghost music!”
”It couldn't be-” George began, but the words died in her throat.
At the end of the room a weird, greenish light began to glow. It revealed a small organ.
At the keyboard of the instrument sat a luminous figure.
Bess uttered a terrified shriek which echoed through the ancient house. Instantly the dim light vanished, and the music died away. The long room was in darkness.
Nancy raised her flashlight and ran toward the place where the phantom organist had appeared. Only the old, dust-covered organ remained against the wall.
”It looks as if it hadn't been touched for years,” Nancy remarked.
”Oh, Nancy! Let's leave this dreadful place!” Bess wailed from across the room. ”The house is haunted! Somebody's ghost does live here!”
Refusing to listen to her friends' pleas to wait, Bess rapidly retreated. A solid slamming of the front door told them she was safely out of the house.
George, keeping her voice low, commented, ”To tell the truth, I'm a little nervous, too.”
”So am I,” admitted Nancy. ”This place is haunted all right-not by a specter but by a very live and perhaps dangerous person.”
”How did that 'ghost,' or whatever it was, get out of the room so fast? And without pa.s.sing us?”