Instantly Yo leaned down and put his lips over the wound. He began to suck the poison from it, stopped to spit out the deadly fluid, then started over again. Not a word was said by Nancy and George, but they watched intently.
“That’s enough,” the young man said presently, and straightened up. “But don’t move!”
George was too frightened to do anything but obey. Nancy asked, “Is there any way I can help?”
“Yes,” Yo replied. “Help me tear off some of this wild-grape vine and strip off the leaves.”
Within seconds the two had long streamers of it. Yo began to fashion a tourniquet around George’s arm just above the wound. He directed Nancy to put another directly below it.
When this was accomplished, he warned George, “Be very quiet.”
She stood stock-still and watched his next move. Beaming a flashlight, he searched for a small sharp stone. He cleaned it off very thoroughly on one of the grape leaves. Then he rubbed it up and down over the surface of George’s uninjured arm.
To Nancy the procedure looked like hocuspocus and she wondered, now that the danger to George was probably over, if Yo were just being silly.
She soon found out, however, that he was serious. Using the sharp edge of the stone very deftly, he made a small crisscross cut over the wound. Blood began to flow from it.
He explained, “Any poison left in the arm should drain out now. But you must still keep quiet, George. Anyone who has been bitten or stung should move as little and as slowly as possible so the heartbeat will not be stimulated.”
The three sat down and remained quiet. Nancy asked Yo where he had learned how to take care of this type of puncture.
The young man smiled. “From an old Indian over in Cherry Valley. By the way, the Indians in this territory knew a great deal about how to take care of wounds and even do minor surgery. They also knew how to use healing herbs that grow around here.”
As Yo removed the tourniquet, George asked him, “Was rubbing the stone over my skin some kind of magic?”
“Oh no,” Yo answered. “I cleaned the stone as thoroughly as I could without water or chemicals. Then, according to the old Indian, if there were any germs on it when I made the cut, they would be your own.”
Both girls looked at Yo with new respect. He was a puzzling person. George said to him, “You saved my life. I thank you very much.”
As the young man flushed in embarrassment at the praise, she added with a grin, “I suppose I’m full of germs, but I never thought of looking on my arm for them.”
Nancy and Yo laughed.
“George,” he said, “if you feel like walking, perhaps we’d better go. It’s getting dark.”
“I feel fine now, thanks to you,” George assured him.
With the aid of the flashlights, the trio moved forward. Nancy begged that they not descend the mountainside over such rough ground.
“Can’t we head for the trail and go back that way?”
“Sure,” Yo replied, and led the way.
The trek seemed long and the undergrowth was almost impassable. George declared it was positively a jungle. After a while they came to the trail, but instead of turning down, Nancy stopped short.
“Do you hear something?” George asked her.
“No, but look at the ground. I see a very clear shoe print.”
Her two companions stared at the mark made by a man’s shoe. Nancy beamed her flashlight around, trying to pick up a print of the person’s other shoe.
“There it is!” she said.
She leaned down and studied it intently. “If this belongs to either Sam or Mike, his right foot toes out. His left doesn’t.”
George added, “He walks a little unevenly and puts more weight on his right heel.”
Yo stared at the two girls. “Are you detectives?” he asked.
They did not answer, but Nancy crossed the trail and began searching in the woods beyond. But the undergrowth was so thick that shoe prints were impossible to detect.
Again Yo asked if the two girls were detectives. They smiled and Nancy said, “We like mysteries.”
She and George went on searching. Presently Nancy said, “The man is tall. He has a long stride.”
Moments later the girls spied a different set of shoe prints. Nancy remarked, “These were made by hiking boots that probably look the worse for wear.”
“How do you know that?” Yo asked, following the girls.
“You can tell by the unevenness. The man is shorter than the other one and walks straight ahead. But I’d say he makes a funny little ball-like motion with his right foot which wears out the sole rather quickly.”
Yo began to laugh quietly. “I suppose, Mrs. Sherlock Holmes, that you can tell me how old each man , and if he is a crook.”
Nancy confessed that she could not possibly tell from the shoe print whether either man was a crook but she would guess from the marks that both men were in top condition and walked rather quickly.
“I judge they’re in their late thirties or early forties.”
Yo remarked that the girls were certainly wonders. He reminded them they had all planned to go home down the trail.
“That’s right,” Nancy admitted. “And, George, we should get you back to the cabin to rest.”
Again George declared she felt all right and was eager to go on following the prints, so they pushed forward. Some distance ahead they came to a darkened lean-to almost covered with growth. When the girls flashed their lights inside, they found it empty.
The shoe prints ended here. Nancy was puzzled. The two men hikers could not have gone off in the air. How did they get away without leaving any marks?
Yo came up with a suggestion. “Maybe from here on, the men used the old Indian method of sweeping away their footprints with a branch with leaves.”
“That’s a good guess,” Nancy told him. “You’re probably right.”
“Maybe I can qualify as a detective’s assistant,” the young man said, laughing.
“Could be,” George agreed.
Nancy had bent down to pick up something her flashlight had revealed inside the lean-to. Then she grasped a second object.
“What are they?” George asked.
Nancy spread them on the palm of her hand and held it out.
“Bobbie pins!” George exclaimed. “A girl has been here. But why didn’t she leave any footprints?”
Nancy said that she might have, but that as Yo had suggested, the marks could have been brushed away.
Yo was intrigued. “Do you think she could have been the girl who looks like you, Nancy?”
“Yes. You saw her going into the woods, so these might be hers. I think I’ll leave them. She may come back here and could be captured!”
The girls found no more clues, and followed Yo to the trail. It was very dark by the time they said good-by to him and entered the cabin.
“Thank goodness you’re back,” said Bess. “Why, George, what ever happened to you?” Bess had noticed the mark on her cousin’s arm.
“Oh, a little confrontation between me and a poisonous centipede.”
“What!” Bess cried. “Why, he might have killed you!” When she and Miss Drew were told the story, they too praised Yo for his quick action.
Aunt Eloise noticed Nancy’s scarf. “What are you carrying in there?”
Nancy untied her bundle and turned off the lights. The luminescent mushroom glowed brightly.
“How marvelous!” Bess remarked. “What are you going to do with it?”
“Take it to Karen,” Nancy replied. She looked at her wrist watch. “It’s still early. Bess, let’s drive over to her camp now and present it.”
Bess was eager to go, so the two girls set off in Nancy’s car. When they reached Karen’s camp, the counselor was just coming back to her tent. She greeted the girls warmly.
When Nancy presented her gift, Karen was thrilled. “Where did you find this?”
Nancy told her and gave Karen directi
ons to the cave. “But be careful. There are bats and poisonous centipedes in the place.”
Karen’s eyes grew large. “Oh, I’d hate to face them! I’ll think twice about going there. But thanks millions for everything. This was a wonderful find.”
At that moment her young campers began to arrive so Nancy and Bess said good night and headed home.
Early the following morning the girls spent an hour cleaning and straightening the cabin in preparation for the boys’ arrival. Nancy moved into her aunt’s bedroom and changed the sheets and pillowcase on the bed she had used.
Aunt Eloise had gone to pick some wildflowers and set them on the combination living-dining room table.
“What time are the boys getting in?” George asked.
“Between five and five-thirty, I believe,” Nancy told her.
The group went out to the porch to sit down and rest before going swimming. They heard footsteps on the path leading to the cabin and soon saw Miss Armitage approaching.
“Good morning! Good morning!” she said cheerily. “How is everything going?”
“We used scuba diving equipment a couple of times,” Nancy replied, “and really are hunting hard for the child’s coach. So far there hasn’t been a clue, but yesterday we did make a real find.” She told the woman about the valuable old coins.
“That’s wonderful,” Miss Armitage said. “Do you plan to scuba-dive this morning? I came down here hoping to watch you. I thought maybe I might bring you luck.”
“Yes, we’re going very soon,” George spoke up. “In fact, I think I’ll get ready now.”
Nancy and Bess followed her, and in a little while they were ready to make another search for the buried coach. Nancy held the metal detector and the three friends disappeared under the water. Miss Armitage and Aunt Eloise watched intently.
“They’re wonderful, brave girls,” the visitor stated.
“Yes, they are,” Miss Drew agreed, “but sometimes Nancy becomes too enthusiastic and runs into danger.”
Within minutes Nancy rose to the surface and swam to the dock. “Come here and get a treasure!” she exclaimed, setting an object on the dock.
The object proved to be a child’s metal piggy bank that rattled with coins. Both women laughed heartily as they returned to the porch. Miss Drew went inside to make some coffee. A minute later she heard Miss Armitage give a bloodcurdling scream.
“What could have happened?” Aunt Eloise asked herself in alarm as she rushed to the porch.
CHAPTER XI
Valentine Clue
“WHAT’S the matter?” Aunt Eloise cried out when she reached the porch.
Miss Armitage pointed to a fast-disappearing motorboat. “That driver nearly killed Bess!”
She explained that Bess had just surfaced when the boat raced past. Either the girl in the boat had not seen Bess or had deliberately tried to hit her!
“Where is Bess now?” Miss Drew asked anxiously.
“Bess saw the boat heading for her and dived. There she is!” Miss Armitage added as Bess once more appeared on the surface.
This time she did not dive again but swam toward the dock and pulled herself up. Miss Armitage and Aunt Eloise rushed down to her.
“Are you all right?” they both inquired as she took off her mask.
“Yes,” Bess replied rather weakly. “But that boat sure gave me a scare.”
Nancy and George came up a few seconds later and were told what had happened. Nancy asked Miss Armitage to describe the boat and the driver.
“The boat was the Water Witch and it was a nice-looking speedboat,” the woman replied.
“Witch is a good name for it,” George remarked.
Miss Armitage studied Nancy and then said, “The girl in the boat looked a lot like you, only she had a hard face.”
Bess, George, and the Drews glanced knowingly at one another. Finally Nancy said, “We keep hearing about that girl. Actually she’s wanted by the police. You heard about the vacation hoax, didn’t you?”
Miss Armitage nodded. Nancy went on, “She’s the one responsible for cheating all those people. We were told she has a man partner who probably lives in New York City.”
Miss Armitage asked, “What is she doing up here? If the police are looking for her, it seems to me she’s pretty brazen to be out on the lake and to come so close to the person who resembles her. It’s my guess, Nancy, that she was trying to hurt you but almost hit Bess instead.”
The girls decided not to do any more scuba diving until after the boys arrived. “We’ll continue working on your mystery tomorrow,” Nancy assured the woman as she drank the coffee Aunt Eloise had brought out.
A short time later the caller got up to leave. After she had gone, the others again discussed the boat episode. Nancy declared she was going to find out the name of the person who had piloted it.
Bess interrupted. “Let’s go see the sights this afternoon. It’s a lot safer than working on a mystery.”
Aunt Eloise begged off, saying she had been to all the museums the summer before. “One you’ll love is the Toy Museum. It’s on the west side of the lake and a good distance from town.”
The girls thought it sounded interesting, and as soon as lunch was over, decided to drive there. They went to Cooperstown, then took Route 80 toward Springfield Center. At last they came to the old farmhouse and barn which were now used as a toy museum.
Nancy parked and the girls went inside the house. They paid their admission, then a tall, slender, affable man introduced himself as the owner and said he would take them on a tour of the place.
“You understand,” he said, “that nearly everything here is very old. The toys and other pieces were gathered from this general area and are anywhere from fifty to two hundred years old.”
First they came to the dolls. Bess declared she had never seen so many altogether. There were men, women, boy and girl dolls made of various material, and dressed in every imaginable kind of costume.
Some had very pretty faces and lovely lace or embroidered dresses. Most of the boy dolls wore sailor hats and tight-fitting clothes. The amusing ones had grotesque faces, others were happy clowns. Also on display were many kinds of buggies and other vehicles in which children had given their dolls rides.
Bess whispered to Nancy and George, “I don’t see anything as beautiful as the child’s Russian coach must be.”
Another room contained mechanical toys, and another a complete antique train set which whizzed around corners and under mountains.
Finally they came to the room containing old books. The trio was amused by pictures of little girls in pantaloons with disproportionate bodies. Bess mentioned this to the owner.
He laughed. “Nobody knows the reason for this strange period in art. All old-time pictures of children were the same. The bodies always look stumpy and the head much too large. You’ll even find this to be true in fine antique gallery paintings, even those depicting angels.”
While he was speaking, Nancy was looking up at a shelf on which stood a row of valentines. They looked old and were very fancy with their imitation lace paper covers and pictures of hearts and cupids.
Suddenly something special about one valentine caught Nancy’s eye. In the elaborate scroll-work on the cover she could detect a name. It looked like Maud Jayson.
Excited, Nancy asked the owner if he would mind getting it down to let her see it more closely. She nudged Bess and George and traced the name when the man was not looking.
The cousins were startled. Could this be the same Maud Jayson involved in the mystery of the missing child’s royal coach?
Nancy carefully opened the letter-type valentine. Inside, written in precise, old-fashioned script was a message evidently intended for Maud Jayson. It read:Ever faithful to thee
And the memory of the little lass
Her lovely pony coach
Lying ‘neath the Glimmerglass
NOE
5 R
The girls could hardl
y refrain from exclaiming aloud. Here was a wonderful clue to the mystery they were trying to solve!
As nonchalantly as she could, Nancy asked the owner, “Is this for sale?”
The man smiled. “Not really. I need it for my museum. But,” he added with a grin, “if somebody offered me a really good price for the valentine, I might sell it.” His eyes twinkled as he waited for an answer.
“I don’t know what to offer you but I’d like very much to have it,” Nancy told him, naming a price.
The owner replied, “It’s worth much more than that.”
Nancy made a second bid. She was trying to guess how much money the three girls had among them.
“Tell you what, young lady,” he said. “Add another ten and we’ll call it a sale.”
Nancy was relieved. She had only a little more than that with her! The amount seemed like a lot of money to pay for one valentine. Still she was sure the clue it contained about the child’s royal coach was well worth the price.
“I’ll take it,” she said.
As soon as the valentine was wrapped, the three girls thanked the owner for the tour and said they must go.
“Oh, I have lots more to show you,” the man said, surprised.
Nancy promised they would all come back sometime but right now they had an important errand to do and must leave.
When they were in the car, Bess asked, “What’s on your mind, Nancy?”
“To hurry to Miss Armitage’s and show her this valentine. Maybe she can decipher the code message. I’m intrigued by the N and the E with the backward C in between.”
When they reached her home, Miss Armitage greeted the girls warmly.
“Wait until you see what Nancy has to show you!” Bess exclaimed.
As soon as Miss Armitage saw the valentine, tears came into her eyes. Nancy asked her if she could translate the letters and number on it.
The woman studied them a few minutes, then said, “I can’t help you with the names on the left, but I’m sure the letter R stands for Robert. He was the houseman for the Russian lady whose little girl died.
“Robert was very much in love with Maud Jayson and asked her over and over to marry him but she always refused. We don’t know why. Neither of them ever married.”