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BOOK: The Secret of the Forgotten City
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After that there was silence. The group remained where they were for nearly a minute.
Finally Ned said he wanted to see whether the package was still at the old oak tree.
“Yes it is,” he called out. “Right where I laid it.”
George spoke up. “So the gang was not really after the package. They followed us only to punish you boys for having their friend arrested.”
The young people returned to the two cars. Nancy and Ned climbed into her convertible. Ned took the wheel and they set off for the Drew home. The rest of the group rode directly behind.
By this time, nightfall had come and the moon was shining brightly. Presently Nancy detected a moving shadow among the trees. She asked Ned to stop and signal the other car to halt.
“Look over there!” she said, pointing out the window.
A tall lanky boy was warily hiking in the direction of the old mine. The next second he disappeared.
Nancy and her friends got out of the cars and watched for a few minutes, but did not see the youth again. They could still see the old oak tree. No one was near it.
Finally Nancy spoke. “I believe something happened to that boy. He must have fallen and knocked himself out, or perhaps he slipped into an old mine hole.”
Thoroughly alarmed, the young people went toward the spot where the boy had disappeared, holding their flashlights.
“Watch out for a trap!” Ned warned.
The searchers walked carefully, surveying every inch of the ground before they walked over it.
“Listen!” Nancy said suddenly. “I think I heard a cry for help.”
Her friends stopped short and waited for another call. There was no doubt about it when another feeble plea came.
“Help! Help!”
The group swung their flashlights around but could see no one. Nancy walked forward.
“I’d say that cry came from down below. Let’s look for a hole.”
The group crept forward, and presently George said, “I see it!” She played her light on the spot.
A tangled mass of vines had apparently covered the opening. Now they were broken. Flashlights were beamed down into the hole. It was deep.
“Help! Get me out of here!” a frantic voice cried.
“We’ll try,” Nancy shouted.
She examined the hole and found a rickety wooden ladder on one side. The girl detective beamed her strong light straight down into the hole and could see the lanky young man lying on the ground.
“Climb up the ladder,” Nancy told him. “I’ll guide you with the light.”
“I—I can’t do it. My arm’s broken. It’s no use.”
“Then I’ll come down and help you,” Nancy offered.
Ned stepped forward. “Don’t you think I’d better go?”
Nancy shook her head. “That ladder looks mighty rickety and I’m a few pounds lighter than you.”
“A good many!” he corrected. “All right, but be careful.”
Nancy had no trouble descending the ladder until she came to the third rung from the bottom. Then, without warning, it splintered and threw her off balance. She landed in a heap beside the stricken boy.
From above Bess cried out, “Oh goodness! Nancy, are you hurt?”
“No. I’m all right,” Nancy shouted, as she scrambled to her feet. Then she leaned over the boy. “Tell me what happened to you. Didn’t you know about this place?”
“No, and I didn’t see the hole in the dark,” he replied. “But how am I going to get out of here?”
“Can you stand?” Nancy asked, wondering if the boy had any further injuries.
With her assistance he got up. “I guess I’m all right except for this arm.” It hung limp at his side.
“I’m so sorry,” Nancy said. She then asked him to try climbing the ladder by using one hand for support. “I’ll help boost you,” she offered.
With the old wooden ladder now groaning and cracking, she managed to help him until those above could grab his uninjured arm and the back of his coat and pull him to safety. Nancy scrambled up the few remaining steps.
Ned began to question the boy, who said his name was Jim Gorgo.
“We’ll take you to a hospital,” he offered. “Have you any choice about which one?”
“No,” Jim replied. “But I guess the River Heights General would be the best.”
He was helped into the rear seat. “You’re regular folks,” he commented. “And I’m mighty lucky you happened to come along.”
Nancy spoke to him kindly. “Jim, you’re a very good sport. I know that you’re in pain, but please explain why you were in that particular spot in the woods.”
The rickety ladder gave way.
The boy took so long to answer that she and Ned thought he was being evasive.
Finally he said, “I might as well tell you the truth. A man sent me for a package that was supposed to be left at the old oak tree. I thought I’d take a shortcut, but now I’m sorry I did.”
Ned asked him, “Are you a member of the gang who tried to beat us up?”
“Oh no,” Jim replied quickly. “I don’t know anything about that. I came here on my own. The man who wanted the package said he’d pay me well for getting it. I wasn’t supposed to tell anybody, but you folks have been so good to me, it’s the least I can do.”
Jim suggested that maybe one of the boys would like to go back and get the package and deliver it himself.
“I guess the man wouldn’t care as long as he gets the package.”
Nancy and Ned exchanged glances. She asked Jim, “What’s the man’s name?”
“I don’t know.”
“Oh come,” said Ned, “you must. Otherwise, how would you know where to deliver the package?”
Again Jim took a long time before answering. Then he said, “Honest, I’m telling the truth. I don’t know the man’s real name. He told me to call him Fleetfoot.”
Fleetfoot!
Nancy was so delighted she could hardly keep from showing it, but she calmly asked, “Maybe one of us could make the delivery. Where would we find this man?”
Jim answered, “You know where the Waterfall Motel is?”
“Yes,” Nancy replied.
“Well, I don’t think Fleetfoot’s staying at the motel,” Jim said, “but he told me to meet him in the garden there.”
“That sounds easy,” Ned said. “As soon as we leave you, we’ll decide.”
In a few minutes the group reached the hospital. Ned drove up at once to the emergency entrance and went for a nurse, who came outside with a wheelchair. Jim climbed into it. Again he thanked the young people for rescuing him; then the nurse opened the door and pushed the new patient inside.
At this moment the other two couples drove up. “That boy is lucky,” Dave remarked. “If we hadn’t happened to go out there, he might have died of starvation in that pit.”
The thought sobered the others, and there was little conversation as Ned turned Nancy’s car and they all went back to the site of the old oak tree. The package was still there. Dave got out of the other car and brought it to Nancy.
“Thanks,” she said. “Now which of you boys is going to the Waterfall Motel to deliver this?”
Dave said, “Suppose I do the errand alone. Fleetfoot has never seen me and won’t suspect my motives are anything but good.”
The two cars stopped some distance from the motel. As Dave started off with the package, Nancy whispered to him, “Don’t try to capture Fleetfoot. I want him to get the fake tablet!”
CHAPTER VII
Petroglyphs
DAVE walked slowly among the trees in the garden of the Waterfall Motel. It was large and well kept, with meandering walkways among various flower beds. Light filtered from motel windows and doors.
“It’s just dark enough,” the Emerson student thought, “so it will be easy for me not to be detected as a substitute messenger.”
Clutching the package under one arm, he sauntered along, watching the various paths but keeping out of sight.
“I hope I’m not too late,” he told himself. “If Fleetfoot expected Jim Gorgo some time ago, he may have left.”
At this moment, Dave saw two men coming along a walk near where he was standing. One was about five feet ahead of the other. Dave wondered whether or not they were together.
“Probably the one behind is a bodyguard for the man in front,” he told himself.
Dave decided not to announce himself but to wait for some sign from the men. To his disappointment there was none.
They walked on for some distance. Then they stopped abruptly, turned, and, taking the same positions, retraced their steps toward the spot where Dave was hiding. Now he was sure they had come for the stone tablet. Was one of them Fleetfoot?
When the man in the lead reached Dave, the boy called out, “Pardon me, sir, but are you waiting for a package?”
“Yes, I am. Have you got it?”
Instead of replying, Dave asked, “What’s your name? I can’t deliver it to the wrong person. It’s too valuable.”
The stranger became surly. “Never mind what my name is, but if yours is Jim Gorgo and you have the package, hand it over.”
Before the men had arrived, Dave had laid the wrapped stone petroglyph on the ground with a special purpose in mind. As he leaned over to get it, he pulled a miniature camera from his pocket. It could take pictures in the dark, without a flashbulb.
The whole episode lasted about two seconds. A picture was snapped as the package was being handed over.
Apparently the two men were unaware of what had happened. One of them quickly grabbed the stone tablet, and the two hurried up the walk.
Dave did not follow. Instead, he set the little camera in motion to develop the picture. When it was ready, he tore the paper out and walked toward a light. He had photographed the faces of the two men, and they were clear enough to be identified. Excited, he returned to Nancy’s house.
“How did you make out?” she asked.
Dave wore a big grin. He pulled the photograph from his pocket. “Here are the men who came after the package,” he announced.
Nancy stared at the two faces, then said, “Neither of these men is Fleetfoot, but that was a great piece of detective work, Dave.”
“What will you do with the photograph?” he asked.
Nancy said she would take it to police headquarters at once and find out if these men were among wanted persons. “Let’s go!”
“It’s my turn again,” Dave spoke up. “They may want to see my camera.”
Ned grinned and made no protest. Nancy and Dave set off for police headquarters. Chief McGinnis was not on duty, but the sergeant at the desk knew Nancy and the story about Fleetfoot.
He looked at the photograph, then sent for a book containing pictures of wanted persons. After a long search he announced that they had no record of the two men.
“They must be Fleetfoot’s pals,” Nancy suggested.
The sergeant nodded. He offered to have duplicate pictures made for Dave and Nancy. He would keep the original.
While a rookie was developing the extra prints, the sergeant asked to see Dave’s camera.
“We don’t have one as fine as this in our department,” he said. “Where did you get it?”
Dave said it had been a gift from his uncle, who had partially invented the camera. It was not on the market yet.
Presently the rookie returned with the pictures and handed them to Nancy and Dave. The sergeant said he would discuss the case with Chief McGinnis, and some men would be alerted to watch for the two suspects.
Nancy and Dave went back to the Drew home, but the group soon decided to separate and return to the girls’ individual homes.
“Breakfast at eight,” Nancy sang out, as the others were leaving.
The following morning a phone call came from Chief McGinnis. He reported to Nancy that his men had had no luck in tracing the two suspects who had taken the package the night before.
“I’m afraid,” the officer said, “that Fleetfoot and his friends had too much of a head start. They probably left town right after the pickup.”
As Nancy finished the conversation, the front doorbell rang. The postman was there with a special-delivery letter for Ned. Nancy signed for it, then took the letter to him.
“This is what I’ve been waiting for,” he said. “Our tickets! I asked the travel agent to send them here.”
Ned opened the envelope quickly and pulled out plane tickets for the whole group. He explained that they would fly from River Heights to Chicago, then to Las Vegas, Nevada.
“We’ll stay there with one of the boys from the University. He’s going on the dig with us.”
“When do we leave?” Nancy asked.
“Tomorrow morning.”
There was a loud squeal from Bess. “Why didn’t somebody tell me? I must go right home and pack. I haven’t even decided what to take.”
Ned reminded her that all she had to put in her suitcase were her clothes. Everything else was to be ready for them in Las Vegas.
“I burn so easily,” said Bess, “that I’d better take plenty of suntan lotion and a big hat.”
BOOK: The Secret of the Forgotten City
10Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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