Suddenly a totally different possibility entered Nancy’s mind. Mrs. Allison had fainted directly after seeing the ivory charm Nancy was wearing. Did its significance overcome her? Furthermore, Roach had probably noticed it. Would he tell Rai about it? The thought worried Nancy, but she decided not to mention it to anyone except her father.
She did, however, phone Mr. Strong to find out whether or not Rai had returned or if there was any news of him.
“No, unfortunately. How’s Rishi?” the show owner asked.
“Very happy,” Nancy told him.
Mr. Strong said his troupe would be moving soon to a new location. “But I’ll keep in touch.”
That evening Nancy talked privately with Mr. Drew about what had happened. He frowned and said, “You have a right to be worried, not only for Rishi but for yourself. I don’t trust those people if they’re friends of Rai’s. Please, Nancy, be very careful.”
His daughter smiled and nodded. “Are you going to contact Mrs. Allison?”
“We don’t know her address, but I’m certain we’ll hear from her again.”
The following noontime the lawyer phoned Nancy. “Hi,” he said, “I have a bit of information that may interest you. It concerns your new acquaintance—Mrs. Anita Allison.”
“She came to see you?” Nancy asked in surprise.
“No, but a real-estate dealer friend of mine, Mr. Howard, dropped into my office this morning. I gleaned a little information about the woman from him. She owns a house and grounds, which she had listed with him at a very high price. I learned its location. The property was left to her by her husband, but they never lived there.”
“Where is it?”
“You remember the old Dawson farm east of River Heights?”
“Yes.”
“Well, Mrs. Allison’s property adjoins it. The land includes several acres of forest, a creek, beautiful rolling hills, a ravine, and nearly everything essential to a good golf course. I think it might be sold for that purpose.”
“I remember the place,” Nancy replied. “Maybe Bess and George would drive out there with me. And Rishi, too, if you’re willing.”
“By all means take him along,” her father urged. “The boy deserves an outing. But don’t let him be seen in public, or Rai may spot him.”
Shortly after lunch Nancy and Rishi picked up the cousins. Nancy drove directly east through the city.
“Where are you taking us?” Bess inquired with interest.
“To a new place.” Nancy smiled enigmatically.
Rishi bubbled with enthusiasm and his gaiety was imparted to the others. He loved the outdoors and amazed the girls with his stories of country life in his native land.
He asked eager questions about the names of unfamiliar trees and birds he saw in the area. The girls were slightly embarrassed when they could not always answer him, and they resolved to devote themselves to nature lore with new interest.
“I’m ashamed that I don’t know the names of half the birds I see,” Nancy confessed. “I’ll find out. ”
Presently the car passed the Dawson farm. Following the directions given by her father, Nancy turned into a narrow, winding side road that led between rows of tall elm trees and a tangled growth of shrubbery.
“I never dreamed there was a place like this so near River Heights!” Bess gasped in awe. “Who lives here?”
“It’s Mrs. Allison’s land, but she doesn’t live here.” Nancy told Bess and George how she had met the woman.
Nancy parked and they all got out. As they gazed across a picturesque creek, Nancy said, “Can you imagine yourself standing here and driving a golf ball over the water?”
“I can’t,” Bess replied, “because my ball would certainly plop into it.”
“I’d want half of the trees cut down,” George added.
“But what made you think of a golf course?” Bess asked.
“A realtor told Dad some people want to buy the place for that purpose,” Nancy told her. “I suppose the old house would be torn down too and replaced by an attractive club building,” she added, pointing to a large, apparently abandoned homestead, barely visible through the woods.
Bess and George both turned to stare. “Do you suppose it belongs to the Allison property?” George asked.
“It must. I’d love to explore the house,” Nancy said, “but of course we have no right to. We’re really trespassing as it is.”
“At least it will do no harm to look at the outside of the building,” George said. “Let’s walk over.”
“All right,” Nancy agreed. “What became of Rishi?”
“He walked up this trail,” George answered.
The trail led through the woods directly to the abandoned homestead. They emerged into the tiny clearing. Rishi was standing on the front porch, apparently trying to raise one of the windows.
“Rishi!” Nancy called sharply.
The boy wheeled. “Yes?”
“What are you doing?”
“No harm. Rishi only look at old house.”
“I thought you were trying to get inside,” Nancy said. “You have no right to do that, you know.”
“Rishi think nobody care,” the boy replied.
Nancy said no more. She and the other girls walked slowly around the house. The windows were placed so high above the ground it was impossible to see any of the interior.
“It’s just an old, empty house, I guess,” Bess remarked. “Let’s go!”
The girls returned to the front of the building. Rishi had vanished.
“Where is he?” Nancy asked. “Do you suppose he dared to climb in that porch window?”
“Rishi had a mischievous look in his eye when he said he thought no one would care if he investigated,” Bess reminded the others.
“He’s probably inside,” Nancy acknowledged.
The girls sat down under a tree to wait for him, but minutes elapsed and Rishi did not reappear. At length Nancy grew impatient.
“I’m going in there to get him! It’s time we start for home.”
She rose and walked briskly to the porch. Nancy knocked on the door but no one answered. Bess and George watched her raise the window and step through. Five minutes elapsed, then ten.
“What can be keeping Nancy?” George asked. “I think it’s time I go after her. Want to come along?”
“I’ll wait here. But let me know if there’s anything interesting inside.”
“I’ll return soon,” George promised.
Ten minutes later, Bess became convinced that something was wrong. Hurrying toward the house she called loudly, “George! Nancy!”
Her cries went unanswered. A sudden fear gripped Bess. She was certain that Rishi and her friends were being held prisoners inside the old house. If she were to enter, she too might be captured!
CHAPTER V
Hidden Rock Door
“I’LL go for help!” Bess decided.
Almost overcome with fear and anxiety, she raced down the trail toward Nancy’s convertible. Once she stumbled and fell headlong, tearing her slacks. She scrambled to her feet and ran on again.
Reaching the car, Bess was relieved to find that Nancy had left her keys in the usual hidding place. Bess started the motor.
“Where shall I go?” Bess wondered, starting to panic. She recalled having seen a farmhouse at the end of a nearby lane and decided to drive there for aid.
In her excitement Bess stepped too hard on the gas pedal and the car leaped ahead with a jerk, which flung her against the wheel. She slowed down. The road twisted and turned in a bewildering maze and seemed to lead into even wilder country. To the right, a short distance from the road, a high cliff of boulders and jagged rocks loomed up.
For an instant Bess’s attention was fixed on the unusual formation. Then she stiffened, uttering a sharp, terrified scream. Her imagination evidently had not tricked her into believing that the center of one boulder had moved.
“It’s a man-made door hewn in the so
lid rock,” she thought, hardly daring to believe what she saw as the rock was slowly swung outward.
Intent on the strange sight, Bess suddenly lost control of the steering wheel. The car careened wildly in the road, then pitched heavily into a rain-gutted ditch.
The impact momentarily stunned the girl, but she recovered quickly and was relieved to discover that the car still stood on its four wheels, apparently undamaged.
A moment later Bess cried out, “Oh—the cliff! A boy’s coming out of it!”
He emerged hastily and pushed the rock door back in place. He ran down the steep embankment toward the girl.
“Rishi!” Bess screamed, and then laughed in relief. “For an instant I thought you were a ghost!”
“Rishi no ghost. Very much real.”
“You nearly made me kill myself.”
“Rishi sorry,” the boy murmured contritely. “You not hurt?”
“No, I’m all right, thank goodness. But I wonder if I’ll ever be able to get Nancy’s car out of this ditch?”
“Rishi push and it be all right, I think.” He ran to the rear of the car but Bess stopped him in his tracks.
“First tell me if I’m dreaming,” she said. “Did I actually see you come through a rock door in that cliff?”
Rishi nodded, politely waiting for another question from the girl before revealing any more information.
“But you were investigating that old place when I saw you last!” Bess exclaimed in bewilderment. “How did you get here? And what became of Nancy and George?”
“Rishi see no one in tunnel.”
“You’ve been exploring a secret tunnel?” Bess demanded eagerly. “Does it lead from the abandoned house?”
Again the boy nodded. His brown eyes danced with excitement as he tried to explain.
“Rishi step through window in strange house. House have no insides.”
“No insides? What do you mean?”
Rishi seemed unable to make himself understood. He groped for words.
“You mean it had no floor—no furniture?” Bess suggested.
“Yes, no floor, no insides! Steps lead down into blackness. Then Rishi fall. Find himself at bottom of stone stairs. Long tunnel lead here. See light through crack. Push rock away.”
“The rock!” Bess cried out. “A boy’s coming out of it!”
Bess was bewildered by the boy’s story, but thought his adventure offered a clue to the whereabouts of Nancy and George. Either in descending the stone stairway they had met with a mishap similar to Rishi’s, or they had remained in the tunnel to investigate. Aware of Nancy’s love for mystery, Bess was inclined to favor the latter theory.
“George and Nancy must be in the tunnel or the house,” she declared. “Come, Rishi, show me how to enter through the rock.”
Obediently he led the way up the steep bank to the boulder. He slipped his fingers into a crevice and pulled with all his strength. The rock did not move.
“Strange,” he muttered. “Most strange. Rock move easy when Rishi push from other side.” He tried again.
“Let me help,” Bess offered.
Although the two pulled hard, it was impossible to budge the boulder even an inch. The secret door remained firmly in place.
“It’s no use,” Bess said in disappointment, giving up her efforts and resting. “We must return to the abandoned house.”
Rishi hesitated, apparently afraid of risking further bruises.
“Nancy and George may be in serious trouble,” Bess said urgently.
“Then Rishi go with you,” the boy promised quickly. “But Rishi enter house in more safe way.”
They returned to the car. Bess started the engine and shifted into low gear while Rishi pushed the convertible from the rear. The ditch was not deep, and with a low, rumbling protest, its wheels spinning in the dirt, the car lurched onto the road again. Rishi sprang inside, and Bess drove to the spot where Nancy had left the car before.
She and Rishi got out and ran along the twisting trail to the deserted house. In her anxiety to reach Nancy and George, Bess did not notice that Rishi was lagging farther and farther behind. Half walking and half running, she reached the place ahead of him and waited impatiently by the porch.
“Hurry, Rishi!” she urged, trying to catch her breath.
The boy eyed the building with obvious misgivings. “No need to go inside,” he announced evenly.
“Nancy and George may be in serious trouble!”
“Not while Nancy wear wonderful elephant charm. If she meet bad trouble mystic power of charm save her.”
Rishi spoke with a conviction that Bess could not share. She was provoked by the boy’s attitude, sincere though it might be.
“Oh, Rishi, you place too much trust in that ivory piece! I can’t believe it has any unusual powers!”
“Ivory charm never fail,” the boy insisted.
Bess was so exasperated, she felt like crying. She knew it would be impossible now to induce Rishi to reenter the strange house. She must investigate herself. But Bess, always more timid than her friends, was afraid to go in alone.
She stared at the building in a torment of indecision. Suddenly from far away she heard a cry.
“What was that?” she asked sharply.
The call was repeated. Bess thought she heard her own name.
With Rishi close behind, she ran toward the sound. Rounding an abrupt turn in the path, Bess nearly collided with Nancy. The girl’s clothes were torn, her face was streaked with dirt, and her arm was bleeding from a scratch.
“Nancy!” Bess cried. “You’re hurt!”
“You cut!” Rishi added.
“I’m all right.” Nancy smiled. “But I’ve certainly had a strange experience.”
“What became of George?” Bess asked.
“Isn’t she with you?”
“No, When you failed to return she followed you into the abandoned house. I haven’t seen her since.”
“Then she must be somewhere in that wild labyrinth,” Nancy answered, looking troubled. “I thought I’d never find the way out myself. My flashlight smashed when I fell. I kept walking and stumbling in the dark until I came to a queer door in a rock. It sounds impossible but it’s true.”
“I know it is,” Bess said, “because I saw Rishi come out of that same boulder. He’s been telling me a strange tale about the house having no in sides.”
The boy’s eyes were glued on Nancy, waiting for her to answer.
“That’s true, too,” Nancy declared. “It’s the weirdest, most fantastic place I’ve ever seen. Only I didn’t see too much of it! It was almost pitch-black.”
“George must be lost somewhere in the tunnel you and Rishi were in, Nancy.”
“I’m afraid of that, Bess. We’ll have to go inside and search for her.”
“But we have no light,” Bess reminded her. “If you and Rishi could find your way out, I’m sure George could.”
Nancy agreed to wait a little longer. “Probably the wisest thing to do is to return to the boulder,” she said after a moment’s pause. “George could escape that way eventually and come back to the house.”
Hastily the three returned to the exit of the tunnel and began their vigil. First, however, Nancy convinced herself that Bess and Rishi were correct in saying that the mysterious door could not be opened from the outside.
Minutes elapsed and the lost girl did not appear. Bess and Nancy grew more worried, especially when they noticed that the sky was overcast with black, rolling clouds.
“Bad storm come,” Rishi predicted.
“And it will soon be here,” Nancy agreed. “I believe it’s useless to wait any longer. Let’s go back to the house and enter through the window.”
Once more the three retraced their steps down the road and along the forest trail, coming at last within view of the abandoned house. In the gathering darkness it looked even more sinister and forbidding than it had before.
“I don’t like the idea of going ins
ide.” Bess shivered.
“Neither do I,” Nancy admitted, “but we must find George.”
She moved boldly toward the front porch, with Bess and Rishi following reluctantly. Nancy paused to listen intently.
“It was only thunder,” Bess said.
“No, I heard something—”
The sentence was never finished. From inside the house came a terrific crash accompanied by the sound of glass splintering against a hard, metallic surface. Then silence.
CHAPTER VI
A Web of Ropes
“DON’T go inside!” Bess pleaded frantically. “Please don’t. Something dreadful will happen to you!”
Nancy paid no attention. Boldly she flung up the window and stepped through the opening to find herself on a narrow ledge. She was startled to hear a low moan directly below her.
“George!” she called. “Is that you?”
“It’s all that’s left of me,” a faint voice said with a groan.
Picking her way down the treacherous stone steps, Nancy descended quickly. When her eyes became accustomed to the gloom, she found George lying at the bottom, surrounded by broken glass. The girl’s arms had been cut in several places.
“What happened?” Nancy gasped, mopping the blood with her handkerchief.
“Oh, I’ve had a horrible time!” George complained. “I got lost in a musty old passageway. When I found it was a dead end, I stumbled back the way I’d entered. Finally I reached the top of these steps and then slipped. I clutched at something hanging on the wall. It couldn’t support my weight. I crashed down with it on top of me.”
“Apparently you pulled a heavy mirror loose, George. You could have been killed.”
“It sure was heavy,” George answered ruefully, rubbing her head. With Nancy’s supporting arm around her she slowly rose.
“Can you walk if I help you?”
“I think so.”
Cautiously groping their way, the girls began to climb the steep stairway. Before they reached the entrance ledge, Bess thrust her head through the open window.
“Nancy! George!” she called fearfully.