Nancy and the others joined Bess and Dave. After listening for a while, they looked at one another. All of them knew from their studies and from what they had seen in the museum that this bowl was not that old and probably had been dropped recently where Archie had found it.
“Everything around here is red in color,” Nancy whispered to her friends. “Later civilizations of Indians far to the south of us had the tan clay, but there is none of it in this area.”
She and her friends decided not to spoil Archie’s lecture. As usual he was being eloquent and pompous and having a very good time.
Ned whispered, “I’m sure his listeners will find out the truth sooner or later, so let him have fun.”
Nancy and her friends walked off and she said, “Well good night everybody. See you in the morning. I can’t wait to get out to the Valley of Fire again to make another search.”
By four the next morning the searchers were on their way. When they reached the spot where they always left their car, they were startled to find another automobile there. Mrs. Wabash stepped out.
“What a wonderful surprise!” Nancy said, running up to the Indian woman. “Good morning!”
Mrs. Wabash greeted everyone, then said, “I have some very exciting news for you that you won’t believe!”
“Fleetfoot didn’t escape, did he?” Burt asked.
“No, that’s not my news.” The Indian woman smiled. “What I have to tell you is what you call a bombshell. The police found out where Fleetfoot had been living. In a closet in his bedroom behind his clothes, they found my missing petroglyph dictionary!”
“How wonderful!” Nancy exclaimed. “Now we can deciper what’s on the four stone tablets we have, and get a connected story.”
Again Mrs. Wabash smiled. “I have not told you all my news,” she said quietly. “Crayoned onto the walls of his closet, Fleetfoot had put marks. When the police took me there, I thought at once they might indicate places where Fleetfoot had hidden the rest of the tablets.”
“Do you remember what the marks were?” Nancy asked.
Mrs. Wabash said she had not trusted her memory. She had asked the police to take a photograph of the marks. She opened her purse. “Here is a copy.” She handed it to Nancy.
The girl detective took it eagerly and looked at the various marks.
Suddenly she exclaimed excitedly, “I’m sure this one indicates the place where Wanna and Don found one of the tablets.”
“Which just about proves,” George said, “that the other marks are the rest of Fleetfoot’s hiding places. Let’s start our search!”
Mrs. Wabash said that she did not feel equal to climbing around the rocks. “I’ll wait for you here. With the hope that you find the rest of the tablets, I brought along the ones I have. I also have some magazines to read. I’ll be all right. Don’t worry about me.”
The young people decided to divide their forces. Wanna stayed with Nancy and Ned. The other two couples each chose one of the other places to hunt. Again it was arranged for them to use whistles at fifteen-minute intervals to signify that everyone was all right.
“Let’s change our signaling a little,” Nancy suggested. “If you’re just telling us you’re all right, give one long blast. If you find a tablet, give two blasts. If you find two, use your whistle three times.”
“This arithmetic is too much for me,” Bess said. “Dave, you remember it.”
The group separated and climbed to their various positions. Nancy, Ned, and Wanna had gone to a rock that looked like a poodle lying down. They hunted assiduously all around the stone animal but found nothing.
Nearly twenty minutes had gone by, and Nancy felt she should start signaling. She blew one long blast on her whistle. A few seconds later George and Burt replied with one blast. Several seconds went by. Then, to everyone’s delight, they heard the third whistle give two long distinct blasts.
“That’s Bess and Dave!” Nancy said. “They’ve found a tablet.”
She assumed that the couple would return to Mrs. Wabash’s car. Burt and George and her own group would continue to search.
Wanna sighed. “Maybe there’s more than one poodle around here,” she said.
With this thought in mind, the three searchers spread out a little and began hunting for another rock formation that resembled the poodle. None of them found one and they were puzzled.
Nancy sat down on a somewhat flat rock to think. “What does a poodle resemble?” she asked herself.
Wanna and Ned came to the girl’s side, and she asked them the same question. While each of them was trying to form a picture in his mind, Nancy realized that it was time for her to blow the whistle again. She gave a loud blast on it, then waited.
The answering signal soon came. To her delight there were two shrill responses.
“George and Burt have found a tablet!” she announced. “Fleetfoot’s directions were perfect!”
Wanna and Ned looked at her and he said, “So we get the booby prize. What’s the matter with us?”
In a flash the answer came to Nancy. “A poodle that hasn’t been clipped could look like a baby mountain lamb that has no horns yet.”
“You’re right!” Ned exclaimed. “And there’s one looking right at me.”
He climbed to a stone figure that had one paw lifted. Under it was the tablet!
Nancy and Wanna quickly joined him and examined the stone plaque.
“It’s one of them all right!” the young Indian student said gleefully.
Nancy checked it with her magnifying glass. “Yes,” she agreed, “and here is another phase of the moon pictured.”
“I’m glad the hunt is over,” Ned said. “I’m tired of hunting for wild animals that aren’t real.”
The three successful searchers hurried down to Mrs. Wabash’s car, Ned waving the plaque in the air.
“You found the last one!” the woman exclaimed. “How wonderful!”
Nancy’s friends were already there and had handed over the tablets they had found.
Tears formed in the Indian woman’s eyes. “I can’t believe it!” she exclaimed. “Oh you dear, dear people!”
Ned, who disliked tears, said, “Let’s try to arrange these stones in order, Mrs. Wabash. With the help of your dictionary we’ll see if we can piece out the full story about your ancestors and the Forgotten City.”
Everyone helped. With the aid of Nancy’s magnifying glass, they were able to accomplish this by putting the tablets containing the phases of the moon in the correct order.
Mrs. Wabash looked at the figures and kept consulting her paper, figuring out the probable translation of the petroglyphs.
After a while she heaved a sigh. “A complete analysis of this is going to take some time,” she said. “As I see it now, one man centuries ago pictured the world of his day. It included life along the Muddy River and the finding of gold. He had gathered many nuggets and fashioned a series of gold plates. An enemy tribe came, so he hid them.
“Unfortunately I can’t see that he told where they were,” Mrs. Wabash remarked. “It also says here that he had made other matching tablets on which future generations were to write their history.”
“One thing that puzzles me,” said Nancy, “is why you call these different tribes your ancestors, Mrs. Wabash.”
The Indian woman said she figured that whenever a conquering tribe took over, there was intermarriage and part of her family had remained near the site of the Forgotten City.
“I wonder what its real name is,” she mused.
Since it was becoming hot, Mrs. Wabash said she thought she would go home. The young people felt that the Indian woman should not travel without an escort. Nancy suggested that they all go to the camp. From there the boys would follow her home.
“You’re very kind,” Mrs. Wabash said. “I will accept your offer, since I will be carrying such a precious load in my car.”
As soon as the girls were left at the camp, Nancy sought out Don. He had just ret
urned from his dig. She told him of their unusual good fortune during the morning’s expedition.
“Magnificent!” he said. “When the story becomes known, what a buzz there will be in the scientific world!”
It was hard for Nancy to relax during the hottest hours of the day. Having solved part of the mystery, she was eager to go on a further hunt for the plates of gold. At four o’clock her group was ready to start out again.
When they reached the deep hole that led down to the water, she said, “This time I’d like to go down.”
“Okay, but take it easy,” Ned warned.
An underarm sling was put over Nancy and the ropes lowered.
“Don’t stay long,” said Bess, who was fearful about Nancy’s going at all.
When the young sleuth reached the bottom, she spotted an object in the wall of the watery tunnel opposite her. Wondering what it was, she tried to reach across. This was impossible.
“I guess the only way I can get there is to let myself out of this sling and reach over,” she told herself, and slipped from the ropes.
Nancy was in the midst of wading across, when there was a rush of water through the tunnel toward her. It knocked the girl over, and the current swept her along into the foaming tunnel.
Nancy never panicked, but now she knew she was in serious trouble. If the tunnel remained as wide as it was, she might be carried outside and be able to save herself.
“But if the passageway gets too narrow to carry me through—” she thought. Nancy closed her eyes and prayed.
CHAPTER XX
A Fagot of Treasure
AT the topside, Ned and the others waited for Nancy to tug the rope. Nothing happened. Ten more minutes went by and still there was no signal.
Finally Ned called down, “Are you ready, Nancy?”
There was no answer.
“Are you sure she can hear you?” George asked, alarm showing on her face.
Ned got down on his knees, leaned over the hole, and shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Nancy! Nancy!”
The only reply was the hollow echo of his own voice.
“Oh I know something dreadful has happened to her!” Bess wailed. “What are we going to do?”
Ned was grim. He tugged the rope and realized there was nothing on the end of it.
“She’s not there!” he announced.
Hoping Nancy had gone adventuring and sent up a note to explain, he pulled up the rope quickly. No note was attached. By this time everyone was frantic, and Bess was crying.
Ned tried to remain calm but was tense. “Nancy got out of this sling deliberately,” he stated. “I’m going down there to find her! If I have any information, I’ll send up a note.”
He fastened himself into the harness, and the others let the rope down. When he reached the bottom, Ned looked up and down the tunnel. Nancy was nowhere in sight.
“Nancy! Nancy!” he called.
He repeated her name over and over. There was no sound except the rushing water.
“I must go after her,” he thought, determined.
Ned wondered, however, which way to go. He decided that there was little likelihood that she had battled against the stream.
“She must have gone downstream,” he decided.
Before getting out of the sling, Ned pulled a notebook and pencil from a pocket and wrote a message to the watchers above. It said:
Nancy not here. Does not answer. Going downstream to try to find her. Suggest two of you go to water hole and dig tunnel in case she’s stuck.
Ned took off the harness, attached the note to it, then tugged on the rope. Quickly it was pulled up and the note read.
“We’ll follow instructions,” Burt called down. “George and I will go over to the waterhole. The others can stay here in case you send up more notes.” They let the rope down again.
George and Burt grabbed picks and shovels and raced off. When they reached the spring, the two started digging furiously to enlarge the hole. Soon a larger flow of water was coming into the water hole.
Meanwhile Nancy had been swept along the tunnel. She had managed to keep her flashlight on and kept looking for a place where she could stop or find something she could cling to. At first she found nothing, and went on. The tunnel curved and was so narrow at times that she had to duck under the water to avoid being hit.
“I mustn’t drown!” she kept telling herself.
Presently the tunnel widened and the roof sloped upward again. Her flashlight revealed a large square niche on one side. It was slightly above water level, and the young detective managed to drag herself up into it. To her delight and relief, the opening was high enough so she could stand up straight.
“Thank goodness!” she murmured.
Instead of wondering how she was going to get back, Nancy beamed her flashlight around the opening.
“What are these?”
At the back of the opening was a smaller niche, which formed a sort of shelf.
“Something’s lying on it!” Nancy thought, excited.
A couple of steps brought her to the spot. On it lay a bundle made of tightly woven twigs. Nancy lifted the fagot. It was small, but very heavy.
Just as the girl detective was speculating breathlessly on whether or not the fagot contained the missing plates of gold, Ned swam up to her.
“Nancy! Nancy! How relieved I am to see you!” he exclaimed, pulling himself out of the water and standing beside her. “Are you all right? Why did you come here alone?”
She told him what had happened, and he frowned. “A rush of water! That could happen again. We’d better get out of here!”
“Not yet, Ned,” she pleaded as she looked at her friend fondly. “I’m terribly glad you came. I think perhaps I’ve made a great discovery.” She pointed to the bundle on the shelf. “This may be the lost treasure of the Forgotten City!”
Ned’s mind was still on the danger they were in. “Treasure or no treasure, do you realize what can happen to us if the water rises?”
Nancy realized that he had risked his life to save her. “You’re right, Ned, but just give me half a minute. I do want to take that bundle with us. Then we’ll get back somehow.”
Ned told her that George and Burt were probably working frantically at the spot where the underground river came out through the bottom of the water hole, which was rather shallow.
“Listen!” he said tensely. “Do you hear a sound like digging?”
Nancy’s face lit up. “I certainly do. And it doesn’t seem far away.”
Hand-in-hand the couple waited expectantly. Presently they could hear voices.
“We’re saved!” Nancy said. “Your idea was an inspiration, Ned.”
Within minutes there was a breakthrough and the hole was large enough for Nancy and Ned to swim to their friends.
“Let’s go!” he said eagerly.
“Can you possibly take this package?” Nancy asked, handing it to him.
Ned lifted the fagot to his shoulders and held it there with one hand. Now he and Nancy let themselves back into the water, and he swam with one hand. Seconds later, the couple were swept out to the water hole.
“Thank goodness you two are all right!” George cried out.
Burt, mud spattered but grinning said, “What an experience!”
“I confess,” said Nancy, “that for a while I was scared. Thank you. Thank you a million.”
Burt asked, “Ned, what’s in that fagot on your shoulder?”
“We don’t know yet,” Nancy answered. “But I’m wishing it’s the lost treasure of the Forgotten City.”
“You mean the gold plates?” George asked skeptically.
Nancy nodded. “I’m hoping my guess is right, and that we won’t all be fooled.”
At this moment Wanna joined the group.
“Nancy,” she said, “we were dreadfully worried about you and Ned. I’m so happy to see you’re safe. Tell us what happened. And how did you get here?”
&nb
sp; Nancy pointed to their escape route.
Wanna surveyed the large opening of the underground river and cried out with joy. “My theory has been proved!”
The others nodded. Ned smiled. “This should get you an extra college degree!”
Wanna smiled. “But I shall have to give all the credit to Nancy Drew.”
“No, indeed,” Nancy objected. “Everyone in our special group had a hand in this whole exciting adventure.”
Wanna said she would summon Bess and Dave to join them. She blew a loud blast on her whistle. Within minutes the other couple arrived. Bess hugged Nancy and cried a little.
“It’s so wonderful to see you alive and okay!” she said.
Burt explained about the opening through which the underground river flowed. He said this no doubt would help speed the curator’s dream that this would become a lush area in the desert. “Once more it can be a great farming spot for the Indians.”
“Let’s open the bundle!” Ned suggested. “I want to find out whether that golden treasure is really in it.”
Unwinding the interlaced twigs was a tedious job. The whole group of young archaeologists realized that even the covering was valuable for historical purposes.
“This was certainly ingeniously woven,” George remarked.
“And it’s amazing,” Wanna added, “that it is in such good shape. It’s my guess that these twigs came from bushes by the Muddy River and the dampness inside the tunnel was like food for them.”
Finally the outer covering came off in one piece. Underneath were several layers of bark. These were carefully removed.
When the contents of the bundle were finally revealed, everyone stared in amazement. There were four oblong plates of gold. They were in perfect condition and all were covered with fine-lined symbols. Had they been done with a stone or some sharp-pointed instrument? The answer would take a lot of study.
“The story of the golden treasure is true!” Bess burst out. “And Nancy and Ned risked their lives to find it!”
At camp that night, Nancy found a few minutes to be alone. The usual feeling of emptiness came over her whenever she had solved a mystery. She longed for another, that came as The Sky Phantom.