Chapter 7 The Secret at Shadow Ranch by Carolyn Keene
Rockslide!
The girls dashed onto the portico but could not see the big German shepherd.
“Here, Chief!” Nancy called.
From the dark yard came an answering whine, but the dog did not appear.
“Maybe he’s hurt,” said Bess as they walked toward the sound. Whines and barks filled the air as the searchers called again and again, but each time the sounds seemed farther away and definitely were coming from the big meadow. The girls reached the fence. Though they called repeatedly, there was only silence.
“Why wouldn’t Chief come to us?” Alice asked.
The same question had been troubling Nancy, and the answer flashed into her mind. “Perhaps there wasn’t any dog! Maybe someone imitated him to get us out of our room.”
Bess gave a gasp of alarm. “Nancy! Your watch! I left it on the dresser!”
Hoping they would not be too late, the girls ran back to their room. All sighed in relief. The watch was still on the dresser!
“Thank goodness!” said Bess. “If it had disappeared I never would have forgiven myself.”
George said, “We were gone long enough for someone to lift out Valentine’s picture and look at the writing on it.”
Nancy examined the picture carefully, but could detect no sign of its having been removed.
Alice spoke up. “What do you think those words on the back of the photograph mean, Nancy?”
The young detective thought they might be a clue to the treasure. “Valentine may have given the watch to Frances for a double purpose—as a gift and a way to tell her secretly where his treasure was hidden.”
“You mean it’s in a green bottle?” Bess asked incredulously.
Nancy shook her head. “More likely the bottle contains directions to it. Let’s look over Aunt Bet’s bottle collection.”
She pinned the watch onto her blouse and hurried to the living room with the others. Nancy showed Mrs. Rawley the clue in the secret compartment, and asked if any of the bottles in her collection had been found on the premises.
“Two,” said the woman. “And one of them is green!”
The girls went to the window with her and she removed a dark-green, narrow-necked bottle from the top shelf.
“It was for liniment,” she said, handing it to Nancy. “The old Western miners and ranchers used a lot of it. Collectors are always looking for those antique bottles. I found this one in an old shed behind the stable.”
Nancy removed the stopper, turned the bottle over, and shook it, but nothing fell out. Nancy asked Alice to bring a knitting needle from her bag. When she returned, the girl detective probed into the bottle with the long needle.
“It’s empty,” was her verdict.
“We’ll have to start searching the ranch for other bottles,” said Bess.
That night Nancy went to sleep wondering if someone else might also be looking for the green bottle. The answer came after breakfast next morning as she crossed the living room. The green liniment bottle was gone from the window shelf!
Nancy searched the other shelves at once, but in vain. It was obvious that the dog whining had been a trick and someone had read the clue on the back of Valentine’s picture!
Just then Dave passed the portico door. Nancy called him in and asked what time he had taken guard duty the night before.
“Eight o’clock to midnight,” he replied. “Why?”
“Just wondering. Did you hear a dog whine in the yard or see anyone?”
Dave had heard the dog but seen no one. When he had reached the yard, there had been no sign of the animal.
“Again, why?” The cowboy regarded Nancy quizzically.
“It was a trick to get us outside so someone could snoop in my room,” Nancy replied. She looked him straight in the eye, and he met her gaze without flinching.
“I think you’re right,” he said, and added quietly, “Be careful, Nancy. You’re on dangerous grounds.” He turned and walked away.
Was it a threat, or a well-meant warning? Nancy could not make up her mind. Although Dave was gruff, Nancy liked his straightforward manner.
“I must tell Aunt Bet about this,” the young sleuth thought.
The ranchwoman and her nieces were disturbed to hear about the missing bottle, but Mrs. Rawley commented with a smile, “The thief must have hated himself for his trouble when he found out there was nothing in the bottle!”
“That’s right,” Bess agreed. “But he’ll go on looking for green bottles and he just may find the right one before Nancy does.”
Her detective friend grinned. “Let’s not give him a chance!”
As the girls changed to riding togs, Aunt Bet told them of a ghost town on Shadow Mountain. “It’s possible Mr. Bursey lives there,” she said. “You might go to it first, then circle around and on the way back visit the cabin where you think the dog is.” She drew a map, then warned, “Be
back by sundown. Mountain trails are treacherous after dark.”
Nancy took her pocket compass and the girls picked up the lunch Mrs. Thurmond had packed for them. Then they hurried to the stable.
Tex gave them the same horses they had ridden the day before, plus a large roan mare named Choo-Choo for Alice. But when the slender girl was astride, she began to giggle.
Tex, too, chuckled. “I don’t think I can shorten those stirrups enough for you, Missy,” he said. “We’d better put you on a smaller animal.”
Bess volunteered to give Alice the horse she was about to mount and the switch was made.
“Choo-Choo’s a perfectly good trail animal,” Tex said. “Only thing is, she’s no river horse.”
“I’ll remember,” said Bess.
With Nancy in the lead, the riders cut across the big meadow at a gallop and started up the mountain trail. Nancy followed Aunt Bet’s map, and after a long, hot climb, the girls sighted a group of weather-beaten frame buildings clinging to the slope above.
As they rode into the streets of the ghost town they were struck by the silence and the bleached look of the sagging buildings. In front of a dilapidated hotel they dismounted and tied their horses to an old hitching rail. As they stepped onto the board sidewalk, Alice exclaimed sharply:
“Look!” In front of her lay a crushed blue crayon. “It’s a pastel!”
Nancy dropped to her knees and examined the colored powder. “This is fresh,” she said with excitement. “It hasn’t been scattered by the wind or mixed with dust.”
Beyond the vivid splotch she saw smaller traces of blue and followed them swiftly to the end of the street. Below her, on the rocky mountain slope, she saw two men running.
In a moment they disappeared into a cluster of large boulders. Alice and the others dashed up behind Nancy just too late to see them. Though the girls watched, the men did not reappear.
“I just know one of them was my father,” Alice moaned. “He must have dropped the crayon. Oh, Nancy, why do you suppose they ran away? Do you think he’s a captive?”
“I don’t know yet,” Nancy replied. “But I mean to find out.”
“Come on. Let’s search the town,” George urged. “We’ll see if there’s any sign of an artist living here. If he is, he’ll come back.”
Alice agreed, and the four separated in order to cover the ground more quickly. Nancy picked a tall house perched precariously halfway up the slope. She entered cautiously and found the first-floor rooms bare. Gingerly she climbed the rickety stairs.
In the front room she found only a broken brass bedstead. Casually she looked out the window. On the ground was the long shadow of a man with a big hat! Apparently he was standing around the comer of the building.
Nancy ran to another window and saw the shadow moving toward the rear. She hurried to the back of the building and looked out onto a steep rocky slope. Suddenly among the big boulders on the hillside she spotted the figure in a black ten-gallon hat. He was climbing upward.
Nancy’s heart pounded. Was he the man from Tumbleweed? Did he know she was in the building? If, as she suspected, he was part of the plot at Shadow Ranch, he may have come here to ambush the girls!
“Perhaps I can turn the tables and find out what he’s up to,” she said to herself. But Nancy realized that she might be cornered in the old building and knew she must get out.
Quickly she started down the shaky stairs. Suddenly there came a rumble, growing louder. For an instant Nancy thought it was thunder, and paused, then she realized the truth.
“A rockslide!” she cried out, but the words were lost in the roar as the entire building was jolted from its foundation!