Marlin with the purple cell phone and the wide-
brimmed hat. At the time, she'd thought that the
woman seemed more than a little curious about Nancy
and her friends.
Could that woman be the same one Griffin was
talking to at the Manatee benefit? Nancy wondered.
Nancy and her friends got up very early the next
morning to pack their gear: tents, cookware, dried
food, solar showers, and other necessities. Water was
the most important item, since there was no fresh
drinking water where they were going. Then, right
after breakfast, they launched their boats into one of
the small rivers in Flamingo and began their long
journey on the Wilderness Waterway, to Whitewater
Bay.
Nancy and Bess were in a canoe together. George
and Susan were in separate one-person kayaks. Their
supplies were piled in the middle of the canoe, in
waterproof sacks.
Nancy was glad Susan had been able to arrange a
few days off from work. Without her, Nancy, George,
and Bess would have a hard time navigating the
Wilderness Waterway, which interconnected lots of
little canoe trails into one big one.
As Nancy paddled, she glanced around at the
amazing scenery. Mangroves, mahoganies, strangler
figs, and palm trees lined the muddy banks. There
were bushes of flowers like orchids and bromeliads
shooting out from the gnarly brown tree branches.
Nancy recognized them from her guidebooks, and
from a nature walk Susan had taken them on.
“This paddling is hard work,” Bess complained,
pushing her canoe paddle through the water.
“Good for your deltoid muscles,” George called out
from her kayak.
“My del-what?” Bess said with a frown.
“Canoeing is definitely a workout,” Susan agreed.
The four girls continued paddling in silence. Egrets
and other wading birds swooped through the air,
hunting for food. Occasionally, the girls would spot an
alligator sitting very still on a hot rock, sunning itself.
“It feels like we've gone back a thousand years,”
George said after a while. “Like we're a million miles
from civilization.”
“Personally, I like civilization,” Bess replied. “Still, I
guess this is kind of pretty. Except for the alligators,
anyway.” She shuddered.
“Don't forget, Bess, you're sitting up front. It's your
job to keep an eye out for rocks and logs that we might
run into,” Nancy reminded her.
“I've never made it as far as Whitewater Bay,” Susan
said. “It's supposed to be tricky canoeing and kayaking,
so we have to be careful.”
“No problem,” Nancy started to say. But all of a
sudden she felt the canoe hit something—hard. She
gripped the gunwales to steady herself.
“What was that?” Bess cried out. She rose to her feet
at the front of the canoe, forgetting one of the basic
rules of canoeing: Never stand up.
“Bess, sit down!” Nancy shouted. “Now!”
It was too late. The canoe began wobbling from side
to side, thrown off by Bess's weight and buffeted by the
churning water. The next thing Nancy knew, the canoe
had tipped over. She and Bess and all their supplies
were dumped into the river.
Nancy heard Bess hit the warm, muddy water with a
loud splash before she herself hit the water and was
sucked under.
“Help!” Bess screamed, coming up for air.
Nancy rose to the surface and gasped for breath.
Bess had found a log and was clinging to it. Seeing that
her friend was okay, Nancy swam over to the upturned
canoe and tried to right it. Nearby, she saw their
supplies bobbing around in their waterproof sacks.
“W-what h-happened?” Bess shouted, brushing her
wet hair out of her eyes.
“I think you guys hit that log,” Susan called out.
“I think you stood up when you weren't supposed
to,” George added. “Hang on!” She began kayaking in
their direction.
Treading water to stay afloat, Nancy continued to try
to right the overturned canoe. After a minute, she got a
good grip on it. She was just about to flip it when she
saw a movement out of the corner of her eye.
Nancy gasped. A large alligator had slithered off a
rock on the far side of the river. It was swimming right
toward Nancy and Bess!
11. Ghost in the Night
The alligator continued to swim toward Nancy and
Bess. Nancy could see its long, pointy snout and tail
above the surface of the muddy river. The creature
didn't look friendly.
We've got to get out of the water—fast! she thought
frantically.
Nancy glanced around. She needed to find
something, anything, for her and Bess to swim to, to
get away from the alligator. At the moment Bess was in
more immediate danger than she was, since Bess was
closer to the alligator.
George and Susan were having a hard time reaching
Nancy and Bess because of all the supplies that were
bobbing around in the water. Neither one of them
seemed to have noticed the alligator.
Just then Nancy spotted a big, gnarly tree with low-
lying branches. The tree was fairly close to Bess. If
Bess swam fast, she might be able to get to the tree
before the alligator got to her.
“Bess, see that tree over there?” Nancy called out,
pointing to the tree. “I want you to swim over to it—
now! Then climb the tree, as high up as you can go.”
Bess sputtered and frowned at her. “Huh? What are
you talking about, Nan? I'm doing just fine hanging
onto this log.”
“Bess, do as I say!” Nancy ordered her. She didn't
want to mention the alligator, in case it might send
Bess into a total panic.
“Okay, boss, whatever,” Bess grumbled. She began
swimming toward the tree.
Nancy let go of the still upside-down canoe and
began swimming after Bess. The warm water swirled
all around her. The alligator had sunk below the
surface. Nancy could just make out its two beady eyes
above the waterline. It was definitely heading in their
direction!
Bess reached the tree and began climbing. Nancy
did the same. “This is no good,” Bess complained. “Our
canoe is still upside down, and our stuff is going to get
washed down the river—or is it up the river? I never
know.”
“Nancy, Bess, what are you guys doing?” George
called out. She and Susan were pulling up to the base
of the tree in their kayaks.
Nancy nodded in the direction of the alligator,
which was just ten feet from the tree now. George
followed Nancy's gaze—and gasped. “Ohmigosh, an
alligator!” she exclaimed.
“A—what?” Bess's head darted around. “An alli-
gator? Nancy, why didn't you tell me? Oh, no, can
>
alligators climb trees?”
“Don't worry, Bess, you're perfectly safe up there,”
Susan assured her. “George, you and I might want to
paddle downstream a bit, though. You know, to get
away from the big guy.”
Bess didn't look convinced about Susan's assurances
of safety. “Great, we'll just hang out up here in this tree
until the alligator decides to have something else for
lunch!” she moaned.
Fortunately, the alligator lost interest in the girls
after a while. Nancy and her friends spent the next
hour rescuing their floating supplies and canoe and
resuming their journey to Whitewater Bay. There were
no more incidents with alligators or any other land of
wildlife.
It took the rest of the morning and afternoon to
reach Whitewater Bay. The Wilderness Waterway was
tricky canoeing, with winding turns. Tree roots jutting
into the water made the canoe trail even narrower.
When the girls finally reached the bay, they passed a
number of small islands and other potential camping
spots along Cape Sable and elsewhere. Mangrove trees
were everywhere, making the bay look like a wet
primeval forest.
Eventually the girls settled on an island that was a
little out of the way. After pulling their boats ashore,
they found a small clearing in the middle of some
mangroves and immediately began pitching their tents.
While they worked, Nancy pointed to some black-
ened branches that were lying on the ground. “Susan,
that's an old campfire, right?” she asked her friend.
Susan hammered some metal spikes into the
ground. “Right. Bess, pass me that rope, will you?”
Bess handed her the rope. “So there was a campfire
here. So what?”
“I know it's a crazy long shot,” Nancy admitted. “But
you don't think this could be Jade's campsite, do you?”
She poked at the blackened branches with a stick, then
touched them with her fingers. “They're still warm.
Not hot, but definitely warm.”
Susan shrugged. “This fire could have been any-
body's, although I checked with the rangers' office, and
no one's applied for a backcountry camping permit
around these parts in the last couple of days.”
“What does that mean?” George asked her.
“It means that whoever was here—whoever built
this campfire—was probably here illegally,” Susan
explained.
Nancy pulled a red tent out of its bag and shook it
out. Just then she heard the roar of a motorboat in the
distance. “I wonder where that's coming from?” she
said. “We didn't pass any motorboats in the bay.”
“Probably the Gulf,” Susan said. “The Gulf of Mex-
ico,” she added, smiling at Bess. “We're near the Gulf
here. Shark Point is way up there,” she said, pointing.
“Shark Point?” Bess gasped. “Alligators, sharks, how
much more of this do I have to take?”
“Shark Point is a camping spot,” Susan said,
laughing. “Don't worry, Bess, you're safe here. We'll
make sure you don't have any close encounters with
sharks.”
“Yes, please!” Bess said.
When the girls had finished pitching their tents,
Nancy walked to the edge of the clearing and glanced
around. It was a beautiful spot. Off in the distance,
through the trees, she could see a thin blue ribbon of
water.
It's so peaceful here, she thought.
Yet she was filled with anxiety and apprehension,
too. Jade had come to this area—possibly to this very
island—to go backcountry camping.
But then she had disappeared, seemingly into thin
air. What had happened to her?
George and Susan went off to collect sticks for a
campfire. When they got back, the four girls made
dinner—Spanish rice and chicken—and then settled
around the campfire to eat.
“Why does food always taste better when you eat it
outside?” Bess said enthusiastically as she popped an
oatmeal raisin cookie into her mouth.
“I don't know, it just does,” Nancy agreed.
The sky was growing dark with twilight. The tem-
perature had dropped. George put her hands over the
flames of the fire and rubbed them together.
“So what's our plan for tomorrow?” George asked
Nancy.
“I thought we'd spend the day searching this is-
land—and maybe some of the other islands nearby. We
can split up into teams. We'll search everything with a
fine-tooth comb,” Nancy answered.
“For what?” Bess asked her.
“For evidence that Jade Romero was here,” Nancy
replied. “And for evidence of what might have
happened to her.”
After the dishes had been washed and put away, the
girls brushed their teeth and went to bed. That was one
of the things Nancy had always liked about camping.
Because lamps and flashlights and other light sources
were in limited supply, there was nothing to do after
dark except go to sleep.
Early to bed, early to rise, she thought, nestling into
her sleeping bag.
Bess, Susan, and George fell asleep almost im-
mediately. Nancy yawned, closed her eyes, and tried to
fall asleep, too. She was tired and sore from the day's
hard canoeing.
It wasn't easy, though. Weird noises were coming
from outside—insect and bird and animal noises she
couldn't identify. Tiny footsteps rustled through the
underbrush. Twigs snapped.
At one point something came snuffling up to the
walls of the girls' tent, making strange grunting sounds.
Nancy held her breath, staying alert in case she had to
rouse the others, but the grunting sounds eventually
stopped, and the creature shuffled away.
How can these guys sleep through all of this? Nancy
wondered, staring at her friends in their sleeping bags.
Nancy changed positions, hoping that would make
falling asleep easier. She was just about to drop off
when she heard another noise.
It sounded like footsteps crunching through the dry
underbrush. Then a strange, eerie voice rang out.
“Goooooo away! Gooooooo away and never come
back!”
Nancy's eyes flew open, her heart pounding. The
hair on her arms stood up.
It sounds like a woman's voice, she thought.
“Goooooo away!” said the haunting voice.
The other girls continued to sleep. Nancy reached
over to George, whose sleeping bag was right next to
hers, and tried to shake her awake. George just
groaned and rolled over.
“Come on, George, wake up,” Nancy whispered, but
George lay very still and didn't respond.
“Susan? Bess?” Nancy whispered, but they didn't
wake up, either.
Nancy sat up, willing the crazy pounding of her
heart to slow. She reached out in the darkness and
fumbled
for the opening to the tent. She finally found
the mesh-covered window and peered out.
The moon was bright, casting a silvery glow on the
eerie nocturnal landscape. Nancy peered around,
checking for the source of the spooky sound.
“Goooooo away!” the voice rang out again.
Where is that sound coming from? Nancy won-
dered.
Then Nancy saw her. Under a tall palm tree was the
silvery white ghost of a woman.
Nancy gasped. The woman looked just like George!
12. Another Mysterious Disappearance
Nancy couldn't believe it. There was a ghost outside
their tent, one who looked like George!
There are no such things as ghosts, Nancy reminded
herself.
She felt around in the dark for her hiking boots. As
she put them on, she muttered to herself as her fingers
got tangled in the laces. Then she fumbled around
again, this time for the flashlight.
“Nancy?” It was Susan's sleepy voice. “What's going
on?”
Finally someone had woken up. “There's someone
outside,” Nancy whispered.
“What?” Susan sat up, sounding much more awake.
Bess and George woke up, too. “What's up, Nancy?”
George murmured.
“Is it morning?” Bess mumbled. “Because I'm way
too tired. And it's way too dark.”
“There's someone outside,” Nancy repeated.
“What?” Bess cried out.
“I'm going to check it out,” Nancy said.
Nancy scrambled to her feet, flashlight in hand. By
the time she got out of the tent, the ghostly woman was
gone.
Mosquitoes and no-see-ums buzzed around Nancy's
head. She swatted them away impatiently, clicked the
flashlight on, and swung it around in an arc.
There was no sign of the woman.
Nancy went over to the palm tree where the woman
had been. She pointed the flashlight down on the
ground.
“Aha,” she said to herself. “Footprints. That was no
ghost.” Still, it was hard to make out the prints clearly,
because so much underbrush was covering the dirt.
There were no other clues.
Susan, George, and Bess came rushing up to her.
“Nan, what's all this about a ghost?” George said
breathlessly.
“It was a real person, not a ghost,” Nancy replied.
“She just looked like a ghost in the moonlight. In any
case, she's gone.” She told her friends all about the