The Secret of Shadow Ranch (6 page)

“In
where?”
asked George.

“Perhaps the place is named on the back of the missing photograph,” Nancy suggested.

“Let me see it,” Bess requested.

Nancy handed her the watch. Bess looked it over carefully. Finally she sighed, replaced the picture, and put the timepiece on the dresser. “What can that odd message mean? If—”

At that moment the girls heard a dog whining. It came from somewhere in the darkness beyond the portico.

Alice jumped up. “Listen!” she exclaimed. “Maybe that’s Chief!”

THE girls dashed onto the portico but could not see the big German shepherd.

“Here, Chief!” Nancy called.

From the dark yard came an answering whine, but the dog did not appear.

“Maybe he’s hurt,” said Bess as they walked toward the sound. Whines and barks filled the air as the searchers called again and again, but each time the sounds seemed farther away and definitely were coming from the big meadow. The girls reached the fence. Though they called repeatedly, there was only silence.

“Why wouldn’t Chief come to us?” Alice asked.

The same question had been troubling Nancy, and the answer flashed into her mind. “Perhaps there wasn’t any dog! Maybe someone imitated him to get us out of our room.”

Bess gave a gasp of alarm. “Nancy! Your watch! I left it on the dresser!”

Hoping they would not be too late, the girls ran back to their room. All sighed in relief. The watch was still on the dresser!

“Thank goodness!” said Bess. “If it had disappeared I never would have forgiven myself.”

George said, “We were gone long enough for someone to lift out Valentine’s picture and look at the writing on it.”

Nancy examined the picture carefully, but could detect no sign of its having been removed.

Alice spoke up. “What do you think those words on the back of the photograph mean, Nancy?”

The young detective thought they might be a clue to the treasure. “Valentine may have given the watch to Frances for a double purpose—as a gift and a way to tell her secretly where his treasure was hidden.”

“You mean it’s in a green bottle?” Bess asked incredulously.

Nancy shook her head. “More likely the bottle contains directions to it. Let’s look over Aunt Bet’s bottle collection.”

She pinned the watch onto her blouse and hurried to the living room with the others. Nancy showed Mrs. Rawley the clue in the secret compartment, and asked if any of the bottles in her collection had been found on the premises.

“Two,” said the woman. “And one of them is green!”

The girls went to the window with her and she removed a dark-green, narrow-necked bottle from the top shelf.

“It was for liniment,” she said, handing it to Nancy. “The old Western miners and ranchers used a lot of it. Collectors are always looking for those antique bottles. I found this one in an old shed behind the stable.”

Nancy removed the stopper, turned the bottle over, and shook it, but nothing fell out. Nancy asked Alice to bring a knitting needle from her bag. When she returned, the girl detective probed into the bottle with the long needle.

“It’s empty,” was her verdict.

“We’ll have to start searching the ranch for other bottles,” said Bess.

That night Nancy went to sleep wondering if someone else might also be looking for the green bottle. The answer came after breakfast next morning as she crossed the living room. The green liniment bottle was gone from the window shelf!

Nancy searched the other shelves at once, but in vain. It was obvious that the dog whining had been a trick and someone had read the clue on the back of Valentine’s picture!

Just then Dave passed the portico door. Nancy called him in and asked what time he had taken guard duty the night before.

“Eight o’clock to midnight,” he replied. “Why?”

“Just wondering. Did you hear a dog whine in the yard or see anyone?”

Dave had heard the dog but seen no one. When he had reached the yard, there had been no sign of the animal.

“Again, why?” The cowboy regarded Nancy quizzically.

“It was a trick to get us outside so someone could snoop in my room,” Nancy replied. She looked him straight in the eye, and he met her gaze without flinching.

“I think you’re right,” he said, and added quietly, “Be careful, Nancy. You’re on dangerous grounds.” He turned and walked away.

Was it a threat, or a well-meant warning? Nancy could not make up her mind. Although Dave was gruff, Nancy liked his straightforward manner.

“I must tell Aunt Bet about this,” the young sleuth thought.

The ranchwoman and her nieces were disturbed to hear about the missing bottle, but Mrs. Rawley commented with a smile, “The thief must have hated himself for his trouble when he found out there was nothing in the bottle!”

“That’s right,” Bess agreed. “But he’ll go on looking for green bottles and he just may find the right one before Nancy does.”

Her detective friend grinned. “Let’s not give him a chance!”

As the girls changed to riding togs, Aunt Bet told them of a ghost town on Shadow Mountain. “It’s possible Mr. Bursey lives there,” she said. “You might go to it first, then circle around and on the way back visit the cabin where you think the dog is.” She drew a map, then warned, “Be back by sundown. Mountain trails are treacherous after dark.”

Nancy took her pocket compass and the girls picked up the lunch Mrs. Thurmond had packed for them. Then they hurried to the stable.

Tex gave them the same horses they had ridden the day before, plus a large roan mare named Choo-Choo for Alice. But when the slender girl was astride, she began to giggle.

Tex, too, chuckled. “I don’t think I can shorten those stirrups enough for you, Missy,” he said. “We’d better put you on a smaller animal.”

Bess volunteered to give Alice the horse she was about to mount and the switch was made.

“Choo-Choo’s a perfectly good trail animal,” Tex said. “Only thing is, she’s no river horse.”

“I’ll remember,” said Bess.

With Nancy in the lead, the riders cut across the big meadow at a gallop and started up the mountain trail. Nancy followed Aunt Bet’s map, and after a long, hot climb, the girls sighted a group of weather-beaten frame buildings clinging to the slope above.

As they rode into the streets of the ghost town they were struck by the silence and the bleached look of the sagging buildings. In front of a dilapidated hotel they dismounted and tied their horses to an old hitching rail. As they stepped onto the board sidewalk, Alice exclaimed sharply:

“Look!” In front of her lay a crushed blue crayon. “It’s a pastel!”

Nancy dropped to her knees and examined the colored powder. “This is fresh,” she said with excitement. “It hasn’t been scattered by the wind or mixed with dust.”

Beyond the vivid splotch she saw smaller traces of blue and followed them swiftly to the end of the street. Below her, on the rocky mountain slope, she saw two men running.

In a moment they disappeared into a cluster of large boulders. Alice and the others dashed up behind Nancy just too late to see them. Though the girls watched, the men did not reappear.

“I just know one of them was my father,” Alice moaned. “He must have dropped the crayon. Oh, Nancy, why do you suppose they ran away? Do you think he’s a captive?”

“I don’t know yet,” Nancy replied. “But I mean to find out.”

“Come on. Let’s search the town,” George urged. “We’ll see if there’s any sign of an artist living here. If he is, he’ll come back.”

Alice agreed, and the four separated in order to cover the ground more quickly. Nancy picked a tall house perched precariously halfway up the slope. She entered cautiously and found the first-floor rooms bare. Gingerly she climbed the rickety stairs.

In the front room she found only a broken brass bedstead. Casually she looked out the window. On the ground was the long shadow of a man with a big hat! Apparently he was standing around the comer of the building.

Nancy ran to another window and saw the shadow moving toward the rear. She hurried to the back of the building and looked out onto a steep rocky slope. Suddenly among the big boulders on the hillside she spotted the figure in a black ten-gallon hat. He was climbing upward.

Nancy’s heart pounded. Was he the man from Tumbleweed? Did he know she was in the building? If, as she suspected, he was part of the plot at Shadow Ranch, he may have come here to ambush the girls!

“Perhaps I can turn the tables and find out what he’s up to,” she said to herself. But Nancy realized that she might be cornered in the old building and knew she must get out.

Quickly she started down the shaky stairs. Suddenly there came a rumble, growing louder. For an instant Nancy thought it was thunder, and paused, then she realized the truth.

“A rockslide!” she cried out, but the words were lost in the roar as the entire building was jolted from its foundation!

NANCY lurched against the balustrade. Trying to catch her balance, she grabbed the rail. With a loud crash the whole framework broke and she plunged through to the floor below! Stunned, Nancy hardly noticed that the roar of the rockslide had subsided and the old building had come to a shuddering halt. After a while she became aware of voices calling.

“Nancy! Nancy, are you in there?” came Bess’s frantic voice.

“I see her!” George’s deeper tones were coming closer. As Nancy managed to sit up, she saw that the floor now slanted steeply downhill, and her friends were crawling up toward her.

“Oh, Nancy, are you all right?” Bess asked anxiously.

Nancy managed a shaky smile. “I think I’m just bruised. Now that I’ve caught my breath, I’ll be fine.”

George and Bess helped her to her knees.

“We’ll have to crawl down,” said George. “And the sooner the better. This building might start to slide again.”

Nancy and her friends held their breaths and gingerly crawled backward down the slanting floor to the door. The sill was now almost waist-high. As they climbed out, Nancy saw that the building had slipped down to the road.

Alice, carrying a coil of rope, came hurrying up to them. “Oh, Nancy, thank goodness you’re all right!” she exclaimed. She explained that George had sent her back to the horses for the rope in case they needed it.

Nancy looked uneasily up at the rocky slope behind the wrecked house. She squinted her eyes against the glare of the sun but could detect nothing moving.

“What do you think caused the rockslide?” George asked.

Nancy told the girls of having seen the man in the black hat. “Maybe he started a boulder rolling,” she suggested.

“On purpose?” Bess asked, horrified.

“Perhaps,” said Nancy. “I have a feeling it’s the same man George and I saw in Tumbleweed. If he’s after Valentine’s treasure, this is one more move to scare us off the ranch.”

George reminded her that no doubt there were other men in the county with large black hats.

“I know,” Nancy admitted. She wondered whether the man had followed them there or had been disturbed by their coming.

The other girls said that so far they had found no signs of anyone living in the abandoned village. At Nancy’s suggestion they started down the street, and without entering, looked into the few buildings that they had not already checked.

All the while Bess kept glancing over her shoulder to see if anyone were following them. When they reached the end of the street, she and George peered into a tumble-down blacksmith’s shop.

Suddenly there was a rustling noise. Bess jumped back and squealed as something scurried past her.

“Really, Bess,” George said in disgust, “you’re hopeless. That was only a pack rat.”

Bess blushed. “I can’t help it. I keep expecting the man in black to jump out at us.”

Nancy spoke up. “I think Bess has a point We’d better get out of here. If the man is still around he just might cause another rockslide.”

In a few minutes the girls had mounted their horses and were riding out of town.

“Are we going straight to the cabin now?” Alice asked anxiously. “Perhaps the men we saw were on their way to it.”

“Yes,” said Nancy. As soon as they were clear of the dilapidated buildings she reined in and studied the map Aunt Bet had given her. After consulting the compass, she led the girls around the back of Shadow Mountain on a narrow trail. Now and then they passed a tall, creamy yucca flower in bloom or startled a bird from a thicket of chaparral. But they saw no other living creatures.

Near noon the riders reached a level place where a cluster of high rocks cast shade over a shallow stream. Here they dismounted, watered their horses, and ate lunch. An hour later the girls were in the saddle again and presently rounded a rock outcrop. They found themselves looking up at a small cabin set among the rocks some distance from them. As the horses climbed toward it, their iron shoes rang against the rock and some of the loose stones clattered down the hill behind them. Suddenly a dog began to bark, then stopped.

“That sounded like Chief!” Bess exclaimed.

While still some distance from the cabin, the riders dismounted.

“Bess and Alice, will you stay with the horses?” Nancy requested. “George and I will take a look around.”

The two girls walked stealthily up the hill and started to circle the cabin. They found that the rear wall was close to the side of the mountain and heavily overgrown with brush and small fern. There was an open window in the back wall, but a heavy burlap sack was hanging across it so the girls could not see inside. They stood still for a moment and listened, but no sound came from within. Quietly they completed the circle and returned to the others.