“It isn’t broken,” Nancy said gently, “but you have a bad sprain.”
“Oh, what’ll I do now?” the woman moaned.
“Do you live far from here?” Nancy asked.
The stranger looked at her rather queerly and did not answer at once. Nancy thought she had not understood, so repeated the question.
“About a quarter of a mile up the river,” was the mumbled response. “I’ll get there all right.”
“You’re scarcely able to walk a step,” Nancy said with a troubled frown. “Please let me run back to the farm and bring help.”
“No, no,” the woman protested, clutching Nancy fearfully by the arm. “I don’t want to be a bother to anyone!”
“Nonsense! You shouldn’t be walking at all. It won’t take me a minute to get someone to help you.”
The woman shook her head stubbornly. “My foot feels better now. I can walk by myself.”
She started off, but nearly collapsed by the time she had taken three steps.
“If you won’t let me go for help, then at least let me take you home.”
Again the woman protested, but Nancy took hold of her arm and placed it over her own shoulder. With Nancy’s support, the woman made slow and painful progress up the path.
“This is killing you,” Nancy said, dismayed that the woman was so foolishly stubborn. “I can get our hired man to carry you—”
“No!” the woman objected vehemently.
Her unwillingness to accept help puzzled Nancy. As they made their way slowly along, she became aware that her companion’s distress was not entirely due to pain, but partially to Nancy’s own presence. This mystified Nancy, but she could not turn back as long as she knew the woman really needed her.
“I don’t remember seeing any houses along the river,” Nancy said after a time. “You’re not a member of the nature cult, are you?”
A half-cynical expression crossed the woman’s face, then one of sadness. “Yes,” she returned quietly, “I’m one of the members.”
Nancy took time to scrutinize her companion more carefully than before. She wore a blue gingham dress which was plain and durable, and certainly did not appear to be a costume. The woman did not speak or act as Nancy imagined a member of the cult would. She seemed like any other person.
“It must be healthful to live an outdoor life,” Nancy remarked, feeling that some comment was necessary. “I’ve often looked over at your tents and thought I should like to visit the colony some time.”
The woman stopped abruptly in the path and faced Nancy, an odd look on her face.
“You must never come near!”
“Why not?”
“It wouldn’t be safe!”
“Not safe!” Nancy echoed in astonishment. “I don’t understand.”
“I—I mean the members of the cult don’t want folks prying around,” the woman said hastily.
“I see. The rites are secret?”
“That’s it,” the woman said in obvious relief.
“But why couldn’t I visit the colony sometime when ceremonies aren’t being held?” Nancy persisted.
“You mustn’t come near the hillside—ever!” the stranger warned.
The two continued up the path. To Nancy it was apparent that her questions had disturbed the woman, for several times she caught her looking distressed and worried.
As they approached the hillside colony, and before they were within sight of the tents, the woman stopped short.
“Thank you for your help,” she said quietly. “I can make it alone from here.”
Nancy hesitated. The woman’s firm tone told her it would do no good to protest. She was not going to let Nancy come any nearer the camp!
“At least let me find something that you can use as a cane,” Nancy said.
She searched along the path and found a branch that was strong enough. The woman accepted it gratefully. Her face softened and she stood for an instant, looking intently at Nancy.
“You’re a good girl to help a stranger like me. I wish—” The woman turned away abruptly. “Remember,” she advised sternly over her shoulder, “don’t ever come near the camp!”
Still perplexed, Nancy watched the woman hobble away. It took her a long time to reach the top of the hill, but at last she disappeared from sight.
“I can’t understand why the poor thing acted the way she did,” Nancy said to herself as she sat down on a log to think. “What harm could it have done if I’d gone with her to the colony? The cult must have some very important secrets!”
The more Nancy considered the matter, the more baffled she became.
“You must never come near the hillside!”
the stranger warned
“The woman didn’t look as though being a member of the Black Snake Colony made her very happy,” Nancy thought. “If they’re so afraid that someone will discover their secrets, they must be doing more than just flitting at night in white robes! Maybe that’s only to keep people from guessing what really goes on there!”
As Nancy reached this startling conclusion, she jumped up and walked briskly toward Red Gate Farm.
“There’s one thing certain,” she said to herself with a chuckle. “Now that the woman has forbidden me to go near the camp, I can’t resist finding out what’s happening there!”
Nancy was just approaching the farmhouse when she heard the phone ringing. She hurried inside and answered it.
“Yes, this is Nancy Drew,” she replied to a strange man’s question.
“One moment.”
While Nancy waited, she wondered who the caller might be. Was someone going to threaten her to desist in her detective work?
“Oh!” she said as the next speaker announced himself as Chief McGinnis. A sense of relief came over the girl.
“I have some news, Nancy,” the officer said. “It’s discouraging. Nothing on the code or the missing men.” Then he chuckled. “We need another clue from you.”
Nancy realized her old friend was teasing. “Glad to help,” she said gaily. “What’s the assignment?”
“To find out where the Hale Syndicate moved to after it left Room 305.”
“Then that was their headquarters!” Nancy cried excitedly.
“Temporarily. But they left no forwarding address,” the police chief said.
“If we could decipher the rest of the code we might be able to trace them,” Nancy said. “Anyhow, I’ll be on the lookout for any clues. At least it shouldn’t be too hard to find Yvonne Wong.”
Chief McGinnis agreed and assured Nancy he would let her know if there were any new developments. Then he asked, “And what are you doing? Any mysteries up your way?”
“There might be.” She told him the little she had been able to glean about the mysterious nature cult. She described the unusual moonlight ceremony the girls had witnessed and the appearance of the unidentified car.
The police chief whistled in amazement. “Sounds as though you do have another mystery up your sleeve! Have you come across any possible clues to what the cult is worshiping, Nancy?”
The girl detective hesitated a moment before telling Chief McGinnis about her curious conversation with the woman she had assisted in the woods. She decided to mention it, and added that although the woman had readily admitted to being a member of the cult, she had given Nancy no reason for her firm warning to stay away from the meeting place.
“Black Snake Colony, eh?” the police chief said reflectively.
“Yes,” Nancy replied. “Have you ever heard of it?”
“No, but let me look in a report we have here on all cults. I’ll call you right back.”
Nancy waited eagerly for the phone to ring. When it did she snatched up the receiver. “The Black Snake Colony is not listed,” Chief McGinnis told her.
“You mean it’s a phony?” Nancy asked excitedly.
CHAPTER X
Plan of Attack
CHIEF McGINNIS refused to comment on the possibility that t
he Black Snake Colony might be a phony group.
“They may not have been in existence long enough to be known,” he replied. “But you might try to find out what you can and let me know.”
“I’ll do that,” the young detective agreed.
After Nancy had put down the phone, she reflected for a long minute on the new twist to the hillside mystery, then walked out to the front porch, where Mrs. Salisbury, Mr. Abbott, and the three girls were seated.
Nancy had not planned to tell them of her experience, but her face was so animated it revealed her thoughts. They besieged her with questions until finally she revealed her meeting with the woman member of the strange nature cult.
“Told you not to come near, did she?” Mrs. Salisbury cackled. “Well, I hope you intend to follow her advice.”
Nancy laughed and shook her head. “I’m more interested than ever in what’s going on up there on the hillside. I’m ready for a little adventure right about now!”
“So am I,” George chimed in.
Joanne nodded vigorously, while Bess, always more cautious, agreed rather halfheartedly.
“Better stay away,” Mr. Abbott advised, for once not contradicting Mrs. Salisbury. “You can’t tell what may be going on there.”
Nancy was tempted to comment, but instead she forced a smile and said, “It seems to me that this matter may be of deep concern to Jo and her grandmother, if not to me.”
Mrs. Byrd had stepped to the porch door in time to get the gist of the conversation, and at once spoke up.
“I think Nancy is right,” she declared thoughtfully. “Of course, I don’t want the girls to go looking for trouble, but I’m beginning to think someone ought to investigate those mysterious people. If anything questionable is going on, I want to know about it. I’ll ask the Black Snake Colony to move out, even if I do lose the rent. Why, I might get into trouble myself if they stay.”
Mr. Abbott and Mrs. Salisbury fell into an injured silence. Nancy gave her friends a sly wink, and in a few minutes they all quietly withdrew to the springhouse to discuss their plans. Here, she told the girls about her conversation with Chief McGinnis.
“Something peculiar is going on at those cult meetings, I’m sure,” Nancy went on, “and I must find out about them if I can. Do you all want to join me in the investigation?”
“Of course,” Joanne and George said.
“Do you think it’ll be safe?” Bess asked.
“I’m not making any rash promises.” Nancy laughed.
Bess gave a little shiver. “I don’t like it, but count me in.”
“How can we visit the colony without being caught?” George asked.
“That’s the problem,” Nancy replied. “We must make our plans carefully. Before we do anything, I suggest we find out about the robes the cult members wear. We may need to wear similar ones to help us in our investigation.”
“There’s only one way to find that out,” Joanne said. “Some night when they’re having a ceremonial meeting, we can sneak through the woods and try to get a closer look at what’s going on.”
Nancy nodded excitedly. “The double entrance to the cave will be perfect!” she said. “If we can’t sneak into the meetings any other way, we can get into the cave at the end they don’t use.”
“Sounds terribly risky to me!” Bess commented.
“Oh, for Pete’s sake,” George said scornfully. “Don’t be such a wet blanket, Bess!”
Her cousin opened her mouth to retort, but Nancy interposed quickly to forestall any further argument.
“We’d better not tell our plan to anyone except your grandmother, Jo,” she advised. “Otherwise, Mrs. Salisbury and Mr. Abbott will try to talk her out of letting us investigate.”
After a light supper and some rather forced conversation on trivial matters, the girls retired. They had tried to keep silent about the activities of the nature cult, but their secretive manner did not escape the notice of Mrs. Salisbury and Mr. Abbott.
“You’re up to something,” Mrs. Salisbury remarked the next morning. “And if I were Mrs. Byrd, I’d put a stop to it at once!”
Mrs. Byrd, however, went on serenely with her work, being careful not to interfere with the girls’ plans. They maintained a close watch of the hillside, but for two days seldom saw anyone in the vicinity.
“I think they’ve holed in for the rest of the summer,” George declared impatiently at breakfast. “Either that, or they’ve moved out.”
“The cult’s still there,” Joanne reassured her. “The rent check arrived in the morning mail.”
“By the way, where do these nature people get their food?” Nancy queried. “They can’t live on blue sky and inspiration.”
“I think friends must bring food to them in automobiles,” Joanne answered. “Several times I’ve seen swanky cars drive up and park near the hillside.”
“The cult members must be fairly well off, then,” Nancy said thoughtfully. “I’m getting tired of marking time. I wish something would happen soon. If it doesn’t, I think I’ll investigate that cave, anywayl”
That night the girls were late in finishing the dishes. By the time they had put everything away it was quite dark. When they went out to the porch, they were relieved to find that the boarders had gone to their rooms.
The girls sat talking quietly for some time. The moon was high, and Nancy, from force of habit, glanced eagerly toward the distant hill.
“Look, girls!” she exclaimed. “They’re at it again!”
The four girls could see white objects moving to and fro, apparently going through a weird ritual. Nancy sprang to her feet.
“We’ll have to hurry if we want to see anything,” she said. “Come on! We’ll take the short cut!”
They dashed across the lawn, flung open the gate, and ran through the woods. Nancy led the way up the river path, then to the sparsely wooded hillside. Not until they were dose to the camp did she stop.
“We’ll have to be very careful,” she warned in a whisper. “Scatter and hide behind trees. And don’t make a sound.”
The girls obeyed, Bess staying as close to George as possible. Nancy found a huge oak tree well up the hill, and hid behind it. From this vantage point she could see fairly welL
Nancy had been there for less than five minutes when she heard the sound of several cars approaching. They came up the woods road and stopped at the foot of the hill, not far from the nature camp.
Several men stepped from the cars. Nancy was too far away to see their faces, but she did observe that they quickly donned long white robes with head masks, and joined the other costumed figures who were on the brow of the hill.
For nearly ten minutes the members of the cult flitted back and forth, waving their arms and making weird noises. Then they moved single file toward the cavern and vanished.
Suddenly Nancy felt herself grasped by an arm. She wheeled sharply and then laughed softly.
“George! For goodness sake, don’t ever do that again! You scared me silly!”
“What do you make of it, Nancy?”
“It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. I haven’t been able to figure it out.”
“What should we do next?” asked Bess, who had joined them.
“Let’s follow them into the cave!” George proposed rashly.
“And be caught?” Nancy returned. “No, this is serious business. I think it’s time to go home and plan our own costumes.”
“I wonder why so many people came here in automobiles?” Joanne mused, as the girls walked off slowly.
“That’s what I’ve been wondering,” Nancy replied soberly, “but I think I might know.”
“Why?” her friends demanded.
“It looks to me as if only a few persons are actually living in the Black Snake Colony. Apparently they want to give the impression that the organization is a large one, so they have these other people come the night set for the ceremonials.”
“There were certainly a lot of men in
those cars,” added Bess.
“Why should they go to all that trouble?” Joanne asked doubtfully.
“I don’t know,” Nancy admitted, “unless it’s because they’re trying to hide something they’re doing here.” She changed the subject. “I think we’ll be able to make costumes like theirs if you’ll give us some old pillowcases and sheets, Jo. When we visit the cave, we must disguise ourselves to make our scheme work!”
CHAPTER XI
A Midnight Message
“WHEN shall we visit the cave?” George asked.
“As soon as we can,” Nancy answered. “Of course we must help Jo and her grandmother with the work.”
Since there was no further evidence of activity on the hillside, the girls went to bed.
The next morning George remarked, as she helped Nancy make her bed, “What do you suppose those men do between ceremonials? It certainly is strange how much time they spend in that cave!”
“What puzzles me is those automobiles that were on the hillside,” Bess said. “Why did they come? Surely those men were here for something besides ballet dancing. What’s your guess, Nancy?”
“I’m afraid I haven’t any answer. But I mean to find one for Mrs. Byrd’s and Jo’s sakes.”
The three girls learned that Reuben was due to be absent most of the day and offered to do his chores. During the morning they picked cherries and took them to town to sell at a local market. When they returned, a small, strange car was standing in the driveway. Loud voices were coming from the living room.
“I don’t have to sell and I won’t sell!” Mrs. Byrd said with finality in her tone.
“That’s what you think,” a man said sneeringly. “You’re going to lose this farm and I can buy it cheaper from the bank. Why don’t you sell it to me and make a little profit? Then you can go to the city and take life easy.”
“We don’t want to go to the city,” Joanne spoke up. “We’re getting along all right here. More boarders are coming soon and we are paying off our back mortgage interest. So we don’t have to sell.”