The Message in the Hollow Oak (15 page)

“I’d say,” Bob went on, “that because you found both Mr. Armstrong and myself, Kadle will pretty nearly go berserk. Nancy, I’m afraid you are in serious danger.”

The young detective brushed off the idea. She whispered to Bob, “Did you pick up any clues about a hollow oak?”

“Maybe,” he replied. “I did see something that the men didn’t notice. About two hundred feet beyond the open field there’s a giant oak. I don’t know if it’s hollow, but there’s a tremendous lump on the trunk. Perhaps something is underneath it.”

Ned remarked in a concerned tone, “I think the quicker we get these prisoners to State Police Headquarters the better.”

The other young people agreed he was right. Bob and Burt started off with their captives.

After they had gone, Nancy and her friends hurried across the open field and found the oak tree easily. There was indeed a good-sized hump on the trunk, but the tree was not hollow.

Ned brought out his hunting knife and chipped off the bark over the lump. The others watched intently. Finally his efforts were rewarded.

“Here’s a lead plate,” he said, and pried it loose. After he had cleaned it off, the initials P.F. were revealed. This was followed by an arrow pointing directly north.

Bess sighed. “Père François certainly must have traveled around to many Indian villages. When are we going to come to the end of our search?”

“Good question,” George replied. “Well, let’s head north!”

The five friends walked along silently, watching for a hollow oak. After a while they heard the sound of a waterfall. In a few minutes they arrived at the edge of a steep embankment. It led down to a rushing stream which tumbled over a rock ledge. In the wet and shadowy depths under the falls Nancy saw something which made her heart beat faster.

“Look!” she exclaimed. “There’s an oak tree wedged under that waterfall. It’s being held in place by rocks.”

“Great!” Dave remarked and added, “Here’s the stump on the embankment. The tree must have rotted, then been blown over by a heavy wind. It rolled down into the stream.”

The whole group was excited now. They realized that if the mammoth tree was rotten at the stump, it no doubt was hollow all the way through.

“I’m going down to investigate,” Nancy announced.

“Not without me,” Ned said firmly.

He took her arm and the two started down the slippery embankment. A moment later the earth gave way. The couple lost their footing and slid toward the water.

“Oh!” Bess screamed above them.

Nancy and Ned managed to break their fall just before reaching the rocky stream. Now they stood up and gazed at the giant oak which reached from bank to bank. They leaned down and peered through a hole in it. The tree was indeed hollow.

“Could this be the real hollow oak?” Nancy asked excitedly.

“Let’s inspect it!” Ned urged.

The two waded into the stream and examined the bark. Nancy hoped fervently that if there were a hump indicating an object underneath, it would not be on the underside of the tree.

“Here’s something!” she called out in a few moments.

George shouted down, “What do you think?”

“Tell you in a moment,” Ned replied. “Dave, did you bring along your little hatchet?”

“I sure did,” Dave replied.

He came down the embankment cautiously. George and Bess stayed at the top and kept looking around them to see if anyone were watching. If Kadle had not been captured and were in the neighborhood he would surely try to interfere.

Using the hatchet, Dave soon uncovered another name plate. On it were the initials P.F. but there was no arrow!

“We’ve found it! We’ve found it!” Nancy cried gleefully.

The tree was quite rotted. The young people figured it could not have been in the water very long, or it would have fallen apart. After a few gentle whacks with the hatchet they came to the hollow section.

“Oh!” Nancy murmured.

Inside lay a long, narrow metal box. Ned lifted it out, then the elated finders started up the embankment with it.

“I can’t believe it!” Bess called down. “You’ve found the treasure!”

Nancy was almost too excited to speak. She could hardly wait to see what was in the box. Because of its size and weight she realized there must be something more inside than just the message. The metal box was laid on the ground at the top of the embankment and brushed off.

“Here are Père François’s initials.” George pointed.

There was a lock but no key. The metal had rusted, however, and with little effort Ned pried the lid open. In the box lay a copper hunting horn decorated with exquisite Limoges porcelain work depicting scenes in France.

“It’s beautiful,” said Bess as Nancy lifted the horn from the box.

“The message must be hidden inside!” she exclaimed .

Nancy was about to put her hand into the horn when a voice near the group commanded:

“Hand that over to me!”

NANCY and her friends whirled to see who had ordered her to hand over the treasure.

Kadle! Beside him stood a man with a gun.

Nancy’s heart sank. After all her hard work, was she going to have to surrender her discovery to a thief? Defiantly she asked, “Why should I give this to you?”

“Never mind the reason!” Kadle shouted angrily. “Come here, all of you!”

Bess, trembling, started to walk ahead. Dave stepped to her side.

The next moment Nancy, Ned, and George spotted two state troopers hurrying toward them among the trees. The three friends exchanged looks. Then, playing for time, Nancy continued to oppose Kadle.

“What would you do with this?” she asked. “And how much would you pay for it?”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Kadle shouted, stepping forward a pace.

Bess turned her head. “You’d better do as he says, Nancy. We don’t want to get hurt.”

“She’s right!” Kadle called out.

Before he could move again, the troopers sprang from the woods and seized the two men.

“Hey! What’s going on here?” Kadle sputtered. The man with him looked thunderstruck at being disarmed.

One of the troopers said, “We’ve been looking for you a long time. You’re wanted on several counts and now we can add to the list threatening the lives of these young people.”

“It’s a lie!” Kadle blustered. He pointed to Nancy. “She has something that belongs to me!”

The trooper asked Nancy, “Is this true?”

“Of course not,” she replied. “I’d say that if this property belongs to anyone, it would be the State of Illinois. I promise to turn it in.” She told the officers a little of the mystery on which she was working.

“It’s lucky you arrived when you did,” Ned said to the troopers. “How did you find us? Did our friends tell you?”

“No, we haven’t seen them.”

“They’ve taken the phony guards to jail.” Kadle winced at hearing this.

The trooper went on, “We were hiding near the well house, and spotted you going through the woods. A few minutes later Kadle and his pal came along, following you. We trailed them, figuring we’d catch the two in action.”

Ned turned to Kadle. “Then you never did go to the well house to pick up the ransom?”

Kadle shook his head. “When I noticed you heading in this direction, I was sure you were up to something and I’d better find out what it was.”

Dave said, “There was a nice fat sack of paper and stones waiting for you at the well house.”

Kadle scowled. “I might have known Nancy Drew would pull a trick on me.”

Seeing that his position was hopeless, he talked freely. Nancy learned the answers to some of the questions which had puzzled her. The two men who had later posed as museum guards had come to the dig soon after her arrival and called out her name softly at the bedroom window. They were supposed to get Nancy to step outside and then kidnap her, so she could not pursue her search for the message in the hollow oak. The men had also stolen Clem’s goat to frighten her in the dark bedroom.

“But nothing worked,” Kadle admitted. One of his men left the note on the farmhouse bureau, hoping to scare Nancy off the case. Kadle had planned to steal the fossils and artifacts in the excavation and the barn, and admitted posing as Tom Wilson.

“Whenever I thought it wasn’t safe for me to appear, I gave the job to my men.”

Nancy asked, “Did you mutilate an oak tree in your search for the real hollow oak?”

Kadle admitted doing it.

George spoke up. “How did you learn Nancy Drew was on the case?”

Kadle replied, “When I couldn’t get any information from Armstrong about the hollow oak, I flew East and spied on the other detectives. I overheard Boycey Osborne say Nancy Drew from River Heights was taking over. I managed to get on the same flight with her to St. Louis.”

The trooper asked if the prisoners had any more to say. They shook their heads and were led away.

“Now let’s see what’s inside this hunting horn,” Nancy suggested.

While Ned held the beautiful instrument, she put her hand down inside the tube. Her fingers touched something metal. She pulled out a heavy solid-gold chain and cross.

“That’s exquisite!” Bess exclaimed.

“And worth a fortune, I’ll bet,” Dave added. Next Nancy removed a man’s large signet ring with a religious design on it. She tugged at the next piece but could not move it.

Finally she said, “Ned, you try.”

The object was wedged in tightly. Ned rocked the horn from side to side and finally the metal object in it gave way. He pulled out a slender brass box.

“This is a surveyor’s kit,” Dave remarked as Nancy raised the lid. “Père François must have been a surveyor as well as a missionary.”

Carefully Nancy removed an egg-shaped piece of metal with a rotted fragment of string attached to it.

“That’s a plumb bob,” said Ned. “It hangs on the end of a line to find the center of gravity.”

“And here’s a compass,” George added. “What’s this?” Nancy asked, picking up a brass tube.

“Père Francois could have used that for sighting,” said Ned. “Today we look through a telescopic instrument called a transit.”

Nancy slid her finger into the tube. “Something’s in here!” she exclaimed, and pulled out a tiny roll of paper. “It must be the message that tells about the treasure!”

The handwriting on the paper proved to be in French and some of the words were old-fashioned, but Nancy managed to translate them. She read aloud:

As Nancy paused, George remarked, “New France is now Canada, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Nancy answered, then went on reading:

The young people stood silent, awed by what they had just seen and learned.

Finally Ned said, “Nancy, I don’t think you realize what a tremendous find you’ve made.”

The young detective merely smiled. “Evidently someone found the crock with the note, and the story became a legend.”

George patted her friend on the back. “And then Nancy Drew turned the legend into a true story.”

Carrying the copper box with the fabulous hunting horn with them, Nancy and her friends returned to the farmhouse. As the truck clattered in, Theresa and the young archaeologists began appearing from all directions to find out what their friends had learned.

“It must have been a good day,” said Julie Anne. “You’re all smiling!”

Nancy jumped down and said, “My smile is as wide as the Illinois river country.” She told of their finding Bob and the capture of Kadle and his pals.

“How marvelous!” Julie Anne exclaimed. Ned and Dave now lifted down the copper box. Nancy opened it and displayed the beautiful hunting horn.

The first one to speak up was Claire Warwick. “What kind of a message is that?”

The others ignored her and asked Nancy to show them the other treasures. Finally she came to the note and once more translated it.

“You have done an amazing job, Nancy,” said Theresa. “As for that burial mound, I can’t wait to see it!”

She determined that as soon as the present dig site had been thoroughly excavated, she would ask for permission to work on the new one.

All the young people said they would like to join in the expedition. Todd remarked, “I doubt that what we’ll find will be as valuable as this hunting horn.”

“But much older,” Julie Anne reminded him. She was standing very close to Art and from the looks they were exchanging Nancy was sure they were now very good friends.

“We have a surprise for you, Nancy,” Art said. “We found the rest of the baby’s skeleton that matched the fingers and forearm you unearthed.”

“Great!” Nancy said. “And thanks for finishing my job.”

Bess gave a little shudder. “I’m glad I wasn’t here when you brought it up. The poor little baby!”

A short time later Burt and Bob arrived in a state trooper’s car. A rousing cheer went up for Bob. When the acclaim subsided, the boys reported that the two fake guards were in jail.