Chapter 13 The Secret of Red Gate Farm by Carolyn Keene
A Hesitant Hitchhiker
Unobserved by the girls, an automobile had driven up and parked near the filling station. A tall young man had alighted and started for the lunchroom. Upon hearing the amazing conversation inside, he had halted. Then, realizing Nancy was in need of help, he had stepped inside.
“Karl!” Nancy cried out. She had never before been so glad to see anyone!
“It looks as if I just got here in the nick of time.” Karl Abbott Jr. smiled.
“They’re trying to arrest us!” Bess exclaimed.
“You’re kidding!” Karl cried in astonishment.
“It’s no joke,” Nancy returned earnestly, then told him of her predicament.
“Look here,” Karl said bluntly, turning to the two Secret Service agents, “you can’t hold these girls.”
“Who are you?” one of the agents demanded.
“My name is Karl Abbott, and these girls are friends of mine. As it happens, my father is living at Red Gate Farm in Round Valley, where they also are staying. I was on my way there when I thought I’d stop for a bite to eat. Lucky I did, too!”
“These girls may be friends of yours,” the unpleasant woman spoke up shrilly, “but this girl had better explain why she gave me counterfeit money!”
“If you’re accusing these girls of deliberately trying to pass counterfeit money, you’re crazy!” Karl Abbott cried out.
“You’re willing to vouch for the honesty of this young lady’s father as well?” the agent asked.
“Most definitely. This is Nancy Drew. No doubt you’ve heard of her father, the famous lawyer. If you haven’t, you soon will!”
“Not Carson Drew of River Heights?”
“Yes,” Karl replied.
“Why didn’t you tell us who you were?” the restaurant owner asked.
“You didn’t give me a chance to tell you anything!” Nancy retorted. “And you didn’t seem ready to believe what I did have to say.”
The two agents looked at each other. One asked to see Nancy’s driver’s license, then with a smile he said, “Too bad you have such a loss because of the counterfeit money. The outfit which is distributing the twenty-dollar bills is a clever one.
“The money is turning up in many places. I’ll get in touch with your father to find out where he was given the bills. Incidentally, we understand a few women are mixed up in the racket. That’s why we detained you.”
“Let’s get out of here!” George urged.
The girls hurriedly left the lunchroom with Karl. The government agents leisurely followed them outside.
As Nancy was about to step into her car, she thought of something. It occurred to her that by some remote chance the investigators might be interested in the phony message which she had brought with her.
“This may or may not have anything to do with the case,” she told them, handing over the scented note. “But the signature is a forgery, and the perfume has some mystery to it.”
She gave a brief account of her own involvement with the mystery, beginning with her encounter on the train with the man who had mentioned “the Chief,” and ending with the code.
“If the rest of the code can be deciphered,” Nancy concluded, “that might give us the answer to everything, including the Hale Syndicate’s whereabouts.”
“So you’re the young detective Chief McGinnis mentioned in his reports to us,” one of the agents said admiringly. “What you’ve done so far is really astounding. Chief McGinnis didn’t mention you by name. He probably figured you would prefer him not to.
“Your deductions seem very sound, Miss Drew, and I’d advise you to be careful. That Hale gang may think you know too much already. I’ll take this note and pass it along to a handwriting expert. Perhaps Yvonne Wong was the person who delivered it.”
Nancy shook her head. “From what I could see of the woman, I know she wasn’t Yvonne.”
After the agent had wished Nancy luck on the solution of the mystery, she said good-by to the men, and, with the others, went back to her car.
Although Karl Abbott was eager to continue on to Red Gate Farm to see his father, he expressed concern about the three girls and their upsetting experience. He asked for a detailed account of the events which had led to Nancy’s predicament. He was most interested and sympathetic when the girls told him the whole story.
“Well,” he said admiringly, “I guess I won’t worry too much about you girls. You certainly aren’t easily daunted by emergencies.”
After Karl Jr. and the trio had exchanged good-bys, the young man got into his car and drove on to the farm.
Bess turned to her companions. “Where to? I’m more starved than ever.”
“It’s only a short way to town from here,” Nancy replied. “We can get breakfast there and then do our shopping.”
Soon the girls reached Round Valley. When they finished eating, Nancy looked at Mrs. Byrd’s list.
“There’s really not much on it,” she commented. “Two of us could do the shopping. Suppose you girls take over and I’ll go buy the material for our costumes.”
“Material?” Bess queried.
Nancy laughed. “If we’re going to join the Black Snake group in one of their rites, we’ll need ghost costumes, and I’ve decided it wouldn’t be fair to Mrs. Byrd to ruin four of her sheets and pillowcases.”
Suddenly George said, “What are we going to use for money?”
Nancy had only two dollars. Bess and George between them counted six.
“That will pay for the meat and groceries,” Bess said. “I guess our costume material and the other errands will have to wait.”
The food shopping was soon finished and the girls returned to Red Gate Farm.
Joanne met them at the kitchen door. “Guess what?” she burst out. “The telephone repairman was here. He said our line had been cut!”
Nancy nodded. “By those people who were here last night.”
“I suppose so. Oh, Nancy, I’m so worried for you. And Karl Jr. tells us you’ve had another adventure this morning. He said you’d explain.”
Nancy, with lively interruptions from Bess and George, related the girls’ recent experience.
“I gave those Secret Service men the note and told them the Hale Syndicate might be mixed up in some way with the counterfeiters. The syndicate may be the distributors of the phony bills.”
“Well, do let the authorities take care of it,” Joanne urged. “I want you girls to have a good time while you’re here.”
“Oh, I’m having a wonderful time,” Nancy assured her. “By the way, I think we should work on our costumes for the hillside ceremony. Could you repay us the money we spent today so I can buy more material? We decided it isn’t fair to use your grandmother’s good linens.”
“Oh, yes, right away. I’ll get it from Gram. And I think there are a few more groceries she needs.”
Joanne returned in a few minutes and handed over the money to which she added enough for the marketing. Nancy headed for town. She had gone about a mile when she sighted a woman hurrying along the side of the country road. She was limping slightly.
“I’ll offer her a ride,” Nancy decided. “She seems to be in a great hurry.”
She halted the car and called, “May I give you a lift to town?”
The woman glanced up, startled. Nancy was surprised to see that she was the woman from the Black Snake Colony whom she had helped several days before on the river trail! What she was doing so far from her camp Nancy did not know, but she was determined to make the most of the opportunity at hand.
“Please get in,” Nancy urged, as the woman hesitated. “I’m sure your foot must be paining you. I notice that you are still limping.”
“Thanks,” the woman returned gratefully, hobbling over to the car door which Nancy held open for her. “I am in a hurry to get to town.”
Before stepping inside she looked quickly over her shoulder as though fearing that someone might observe her actions.
She sighed in relief and settled back, looking very pale and exhausted.
“You weren’t intending to walk all the way to town?” Nancy asked in a friendly, conversational tone.
The woman nodded. “I had to get there somehow.”
“But aren’t the members of your colony permitted to use any of the cars I’ve seen around the camp?” Nancy questioned, watching her companion closely and hoping that she might tactfully glean some information.
“We aren’t allowed much freedom,” the woman answered.
“You shouldn’t be walking on that foot yet,” Nancy protested. “You’re apt to injure your ankle permanently.”
“It’s nearly well now,” the woman told her, avoiding Nancy’s eyes. “They didn’t know at the camp that I was going to town. I—I left in a hurry.”
Again the stranger cast an anxious glance over her shoulder. “She obviously thinks she’s being followed,” Nancy thought to herself. “Perhaps she’s even running away!”
Nancy wanted to ask her companion a number of questions but the woman’s aloofness discouraged her. Deciding on an entirely different course, the young sleuth pretended not to pay particular attention to the woman. For some time they drove along in silence. Nancy could see that her passenger was gradually relaxing and losing her fear.
“Am I going too fast for you?” Nancy inquired, thinking the time was right to launch the conversation.
“Oh, no,” the woman returned quickly. “You can’t go too fast for me.” She hesitated, and then added, “I have an important letter to mail.”
“Why don’t you drop it in one of the roadside mailboxes?” Nancy suggested casually. “The rural carrier will pick it up and save you a long trip.”
“I want to get it off this morning if I possibly can.”
“I’ll be glad to go to the post office and mail it for you,” Nancy said, purposely drawing the woman out.
“Thank you, but no,” the woman mumbled. “I—I’d feel better if I did it myself.” As Nancy did not reply, she said, “I don’t mean to be ungrateful for all you’ve done—really I don’t. It’s only that I mustn’t get you into trouble.”
“How could I get into trouble by helping you?” Nancy asked with a smile.
“You don’t understand,” her companion replied nervously. “There are things I can’t explain. The leaders of the colony will be very angry with me if they find I have left even for a few hours, and especially that I’ve mailed this letter to my sister. The cult forbids communication with the outside world.”
“I can’t understand why you tolerate such rigid supervision,” Nancy said impatiently. “Why, the leader of the cult must treat you as prisoners!”
“You’re not far from wrong,” the woman confessed.
“Then why don’t you run away?”
The question startled the woman. She glanced sharply at Nancy, then as quickly looked away.
“I would if I dared,” she said finally.
“Why don’t you dare?” Nancy challenged. “I’ll help you.”
“No, you mustn’t get mixed up in this. Perhaps later I can get away.”
“I don’t see what anyone can do to you if you decide to leave the colony,” Nancy went on. “Surely you’re a free person.”
“Not any more,” her companion returned sadly. “I’m in it too deep now. I’ll have to go on until Fate helps me.”
“I wouldn’t wait,” Nancy advised bluntly. “Let me help you—right now!”