“What are you writing?” Nora asked, trying to peek at Nancy’s notebook.
“Just some notes,” Nancy said. Then she pushed back her chair. “Excuse me,” Nancy said. “I want to sit with Bess for a minute.”
She picked up her plate and walked around the table. She tapped Lauren on the shoulder. “Do you mind if I trade places with you?” Nancy said.
Lauren looked up from her breakfast, surprised. “Okay,” she said.
She got up and traded seats with Nancy.
For a while Nancy ate her breakfast and listened while Bess talked to Dana. Dana talked very fast. Sometimes she talked with her mouth full. But she said she didn’t know anything about Lauren’s camera.
Then Nancy tapped Bess’s arm and pulled her to one side.
“What’s up?” Bess asked.
“Lots,” Nancy said, whispering. “I think I have a suspect.”
“Who?” Bess asked.
Nancy put her mouth right next to Bess’s ear. She lowered her voice so that it was even quieter than a whisper.
“You’re sitting right next to her,” Nancy said. “It’s Dana.”
3
Arts and Creeps
Bess’s blue eyes opened wide. “Dana is the suspect?” she whispered back. “But why?”
“I’ll have to tell you later,” Nancy said, glancing around.
Everyone else at the table was talking and laughing as they finished breakfast—even Dana. She was telling a joke to someone across the table. But Nancy didn’t want to take any chances. She didn’t want anyone—and especially Dana—to overhear.
“What are you going to do?” Bess whispered to Nancy.
“I’m going to follow her today,” Nancy said very softly. “To see if she acts guilty. Or steals something else. Or tells someone she took Lauren’s camera.”
“Follow her?” Bess whispered. “But she’s going swimming.”
Before Nancy could answer, one of the counselors at the far end of the room got up to speak. “It’s time to sign up for morning activities,” the counselor said. “The sign-up table is outside the dining hall.”
“Let’s go!” Dana said, jumping up. “I want to go swimming!”
“Sit down,” Mary Ann said. “We’ll go when it’s our turn. Right now, it’s the Eagles’ turn.”
“No fair! They’ll get all the good stuff,” Dana complained.
“Maybe,” Mary Ann said. “But then maybe we’ll get to go first this afternoon.”
“Oh, please don’t sign up for swimming,” Bess begged Nancy quietly. “Please. I don’t want to be left all alone.”
Nancy bit her lip. She didn’t want to leave Bess alone. But she didn’t want to leave the mystery without solving it, either.
“Okay,” Nancy finally said. “I’ll do what you want this morning. But this afternoon I’m going to follow Dana.”
Soon it was the Bluebirds’ turn to sign up. All the girls jumped up and ran to the sign-up table. Nancy and Bess chose Arts and Crafts. Lauren did, too. She said she wanted to stay with Nancy. Then all three girls followed Mary Ann to Arts and Crafts. The other campers went with the other counselors to the activities for which they had signed up.
On the way, Nancy told Lauren and Bess about her suspect. “Why do you think it’s Dana?” Lauren asked.
“Because I remember what happened yesterday when we got here,” Nancy said. “We all stayed together until after dinner. Then Mary Ann called us outside to see the raccoon.”
“Right,” Lauren said, remembering. “But Dana, Nora, and Joanna didn’t want to come. They were playing cards.”
“Right,” Nancy said.
“So that means any one of them could have taken it,” Bess said.
“Not really,” Nancy said. “Would you steal a camera when someone else was watching?”
“I guess not,” Bess said.
“Anyway, Nora told me that she and Joanna went to the bathroom for about fifteen minutes to brush their teeth,” Nancy went on. “They left Dana in the cabin, alone. She could have taken the camera then.”
Lauren was quiet for a moment. She looked sad. “Why would Dana do something so mean?” she asked.
“We don’t know for sure that she even did it,” Nancy said as they took their seats in the Arts and Crafts room.
For the next ten minutes, Nancy and her friends couldn’t talk. They had to listen to Linda, the Arts and Crafts counselor. Linda had super-frizzy long blond hair. Nancy liked the way Linda tied her hair up with six different colored ribbons.
Linda explained how to use the paints and brushes without making a big mess. Finally the paper, brushes, and paper cups full of poster paint were passed out.
“Let’s take these things outside,” Linda said. “We can do our art projects on the picnic tables near the treehouse. It’s too nice a day to stay inside.”
“Excuse me,” Lauren called out, raising her hand. “May I have a paper towel?”
“Sure, but what for?” Linda said.
Lauren unbuckled her watch and held it up. “I want to wrap up my watch, so I won’t get it messy with paint.”
“Oh, good idea,” Linda said as she handed a paper towel to Lauren.
Pretty soon all the girls in the room were rolling their watches and bracelets up in paper towels.
Some of the boys in the room laughed. “What a dumb idea,” Mike Silver said.
“Ignore him,” Bess said to Lauren. “He’s a jerk.”
Then all the kids picked up their art supplies and went outside.
“You know who I think could have stolen Lauren’s camera?” Bess said as she climbed onto the picnic table bench.
“Who?” Nancy asked.
“That creep David Mulholland.”
Hmm, Nancy thought. David Mulholland. He had been playing pranks on the girls all summer at day camp. One time he had crawled under a picnic table and tied Nancy’s shoelaces together.
And on the bus, on the way to sleep-away camp, he put a bug in Nora’s hair.
“Could be,” Nancy said. “Almost anyone could have sneaked away from dinner and gone into our cabin.”
“Or taken it in the night,” Lauren said. “Like a cat burglar!”
“Oooh, do you think so?” Bess said.
Nancy shrugged. Would someone really sneak into their cabin at night? In the dark? And steal something from a duffel bag? She didn’t think so, but she didn’t know for sure.
“Hey, look!” Bess cried, pointing to the treehouse. “It’s him!”
Nancy looked up quickly and saw just the top of David Mulholland’s head. He was hiding behind a ramp leading up to a platform.
“Boo!” David said, jumping out from behind the ramp. He had a shoe box in one hand.
Bess made a face and turned up her nose at him. Lauren frowned, too.
“Hey, David! Come sit here!” Mike Silver called. He was sitting at the end of Nancy’s table.
David came over and stood at the other end of the table, right near Nancy, Bess, and Lauren. “Okay. But I can’t stay,” David said.
“What’s in the shoe box?” Mike asked.
“In here?” David’s eyes twinkled. He put the shoe box on the table. “Oh, nothing. Just something I’ll bet you girls would love to have.”
“What?” Bess asked.
“A ring,” David said. “A gold ring.”
Lauren’s head snapped up, and she gave Nancy a questioning look.
“Where did you get a gold ring?” Nancy asked suspiciously.
“Yeah, that’s what I’d like to know,” Lauren said. Under her breath she whispered to Nancy, “I’ll bet he stole it.”
“I found it in the sand, down by the lake,” David declared. “Ha-ha. Too bad you didn’t find it first. And too bad you’ll never get to see it, either.”
He pulled the box toward him, moving it farther away from the girls.
Then he looked up suddenly, staring at the treehouse.
“Uh-oh. Someone’s taking m
y turn in the tower,” he said. He turned around, cupped his hands to his mouth, and shouted, “Hey! Wait for me! It’s my turn!”
Then he ran off, leaving the shoe box behind.
“He forgot his precious gold ring,” Bess said. She stared at the box with curiosity.
“Well, let’s open it!” Lauren cried with excitement.
Putting the shoe box right in front of her, she leaned forward and lifted the lid.
“Arghh! No!” she cried as something leapt out of the box and sprang toward her.
4
Hide-and-Go-Treehouse
Help!” Lauren cried as two frogs hopped out of the shoe box.
Lauren jumped up and tried to scramble backward. But she was too late. One of the frogs had already knocked over a cup of red paint. Its belly and legs were coated with paint as it hopped toward her.
“It’s coming to get me!” Lauren screamed.
Instantly the frog leapt into her lap. It smeared red paint all over her clothes. “Eeee! Get me out of here!” Bess screamed as the other frog jumped toward her. Bess almost fell off the bench as she tried to stand up and get away as fast as possible.
“Yikes!” Nancy cried. She scrambled to her feet, too.
“Haa-haaa-haaa!” Mike Silver screamed. He laughed so hard that he had to bend over and hold his stomach.
“Oooh! Look at me! I could kill that David Mulholland!” Lauren said. She held out her messy hands and stared down at her paint-covered lap.
“What’s wrong? What happened here?” Linda asked, hurrying over.
“David brought a box of frogs over here!” Lauren screamed. “And they hopped all over everything! Look at my clothes!”
“Okay, okay, calm down,” Linda said. “You can go clean up and change your clothes. The paint is tempera. It won’t hurt you, and it will wash out. Don’t worry. Do you know the way back to your cabin by yourself?”
“Sure,” Lauren said. “It’s just up that hill.”
“Okay,” Linda said. “Go on. But come right back.”
“See?” Bess said, nudging Nancy and speaking softly. “I told you David Mulholland was a creep. He probably stole her camera as a joke.”
Nancy thought about that for a minute. It did seem as if David would do anything to make girls mad.
“Let’s sneak over to the treehouse to see what he’s doing,” Nancy said.
Bess’s eyes lit up.
“Really?” Bess said. “The treehouse looks like so much fun! But won’t we get in trouble?”
“Don’t worry,” Nancy said. Quickly Nancy scooped up the shoe box. She carried it over to Linda, who was helping some kids at another table. “This belongs to a boy in the treehouse,” Nancy said. “Bess and I are going to take it back to him. Okay?”
“Okay,” Linda said. “But don’t go anywhere else.”
The treehouse was only a few steps away. But Nancy didn’t want David to know that she was spying on him.
She put her finger to her lips. “Shhh,” she whispered to Bess. “Everyone else is playing hide-and-seek in the treehouse. So let’s hide, too.”
Bess giggled. “Okay. I love hide-and-seek,” she said.
As quietly as they could, both girls climbed the ramp. It led up to the lowest platform in the treehouse. From there, they could walk along a whole series of bridges and ramps, leading to different rooms.
“I’m just going to leave the shoe box here,” Nancy said. She put it down on the ramp.
“Now what?” Bess asked.
“Now we spy on him,” Nancy said.
Pretty soon the girls were caught up in the fun. They sneaked into the tower and hid. From the tower window they watched for David.
“There he is!” Bess pointed.
Nancy looked and saw David on the lowest platform, way below.
“Let’s follow him,” Nancy said, hurrying out of the tower.
She ran across the rope bridge toward the huge branch of the oak tree. From the bridge, she could look down and see David.
Just then a red-haired boy came running onto the rope bridge.
“Tag—you’re it!” he said, tagging Nancy on the arm.
“No, I’m not,” Nancy said. “We aren’t even playing. We’re just visiting.”
The boy cocked his head to one side. “That’s not fair,” he said. “You can’t just visit.”
“We are,” Bess insisted.
The boy looked annoyed, but he shrugged and ran across the bridge to the other side.
Nancy bent down and picked up an acorn. Then she stood near the bridge railing. She looked for David on the low platform. He was still there.
“Tag—you’re it!” Nancy called, tossing the acorn down on David’s head.
“Ow!” David cried, putting his hand up.
“We got him!” Bess screamed. Nancy and Bess giggled and then ran across the rope bridge to hide.
But a moment later a whistle blew.
“All in free!” a counselor called from below. “Everybody out of the tree!”
Nancy looked down and saw the treehouse counselor. He was named Frank. He blew his whistle again.
Nancy and Bess climbed down a wooden ladder to the next level. Then they walked down a ramp that led to the ground.
All the other kids from the treehouse gathered around.
“I just found a pair of glasses on the ground,” Frank said. “Do these belong to anyone here?”
Nancy looked at them carefully. They were sunglasses, with a red-and-white-striped frame.
“I know whose they are,” Nancy said, raising her hand.
“Whose?” Frank asked.
“Those are Mary Ann Remar’s. She’s our counselor in Bluebird cabin,” Nancy said.
“Oh, good,” Frank said. “How would you like to take them back to your cabin for me? I don’t know where Mary Ann is right now, and I don’t want them to get broken.”
Before Nancy could answer, David Mulholland started jumping up and down.
“Let me! Let me!” he said. “I’ll take them back.”
“Okay,” Frank said. He handed the glasses to David. “But you must come right back.”
“That creep!” Bess said. “Why did he want to go to our cabin so badly?”
“I don’t know,” Nancy said. “But I have a guess.”
“What?” Bess asked.
“Maybe he’s going to try to steal something else,” Nancy said. “Let’s keep following him!”
5
The Trouble with David
Nancy watched as David Mulholland took Mary Ann’s glasses from Frank. He had a sneaky grin on his face.
“He’s up to something,” Nancy whispered. “Let’s find out what it is.”
David headed toward the path. But before Nancy and Bess could catch up with him, he stopped. He spun around and smacked his forehead with his hands.
“Stupid me!” he said to Frank. “I forgot to ask you—where’s the Bluebird cabin?”
“Don’t you know?” Frank said with a little laugh. “It’s right next to all the other girls’ cabins.”
“Yeah, but where are the other girls’ cabins?” David said.
Frank laughed again. “If you don’t know, then why did you offer to take the glasses back?”
David shrugged, and his face turned red. “I don’t know,” he said.
Nancy and Bess huddled together at the outer edge of the group.
“He was going to do something,” Bess whispered. “See how guilty he looks?”
“Yes,” Nancy agreed. “But he couldn’t have stolen Lauren’s camera. He doesn’t even know where our cabin is.”
Bess’s shoulders slumped. “I guess not,” she said. “He was probably just going to play another trick on us.”
“Uh, excuse me,” Frank called pointing to Nancy. “What’s your name?”
“Nancy. Nancy Drew.”
“Oh, good. Well, Nancy could you take these glasses up to your cabin? That’s probably a better idea anyway.”
“Sure,” Nancy said. “May Bess come with me?”
Frank nodded. Then Nancy and Bess hurried to take the glasses from David.
“Ha-ha,” Bess said, sticking her tongue out at him.
“Jerk,” David said. Then he made a face and sniffed the air near Bess. “Ew, yuk. Do I smell frogs?”
“Creep!” Bess said, giving him a dirty look.
David burst out laughing and ran back to his group.
“Now what?” Bess asked Nancy.
“Now we take the glasses up to our cabin,” Nancy said.
By the time Nancy and Bess got there, Lauren was just coming out. She was wearing a pair of clean pink shorts and a matching pink T-shirt. A pretty silver locket hung around her neck. Her long dark brown hair was combed, and she had a pink scrunchie in it.
Just then a bell rang three times.
“What does that mean?” Bess asked. “I forget.”
“Time to go to the next activity,” Nancy said.
Nancy put the sunglasses on Mary Ann’s bed. Then all three girls ran down the hill and hurried across the camp to the soccer field. That’s where the Bluebirds were supposed to go after their first activity.
Nancy and her cabin mates played soccer against the Sparrows’ cabin. Finally the bell rang again.
“I know what that means,” Bess said. “Lunch. And I’m hungry.”
Nancy, Bess, and Lauren all walked together to the dining hall.
“I still want to keep an eye on Dana,” Nancy said softly before they went to their table. “So let’s sign up for whatever activity she signs up for this afternoon.”
“Okay,” Bess agreed. “As long as it’s not swimming.”
After lunch the Cardinals were called first to sign up. Then came the Goldfinches and the Chickadees. The Bluebirds were fourth.
Nancy, Bess, and Lauren hung back. They waited to see what Dana would choose.
“Phooey!” Dana said, stamping her foot. “Treehouse is full. I wanted the treehouse.”
“Maybe you’ll get to do it tomorrow,” Mary Ann said with a sigh.
Dana frowned, but finally she picked volleyball.
“Oh, that sounds like fun,” Nancy said to Bess. “Let’s do volleyball.”