Chapter 15 The Secret at Shadow Ranch by Carolyn Keene
A Perilous Ride
Alice was on the verge of tears. The man in the cabin doorway was not her father!
He scowled at the two girls. “What do you want?”
Nancy was sure the man must have recognized her, but he gave no sign of it, so she pretended not to know him. Quickly she thought of an excuse for coming. “Are you Mr. Bursey?” she asked.
“Yes. Why?”
“We’d like to buy one of your pastels,” Nancy replied.
“My what?”
“Pastels—your pictures,” Nancy said.
“Oh.” The man paused. “I haven’t any more. How did you know I was here?”
Nancy explained casually that Mary Deer had told them the artist lived on the mountain. “Several days ago we happened to see this cabin and we thought perhaps it might be where you live.”
He gave Nancy a long, hard look. “My paintings are all gone,” he said. “No use coming back.”
Nancy apologized for bothering him, and as the girls turned to walk back to their horses, he closed the door.
Alice was deepl
y upset. “I just can’t believe that man drew those pictures.”
“I’m sure he didn’t,” Nancy replied as the girls mounted. “He’s no artist. He didn’t know what I meant by pastels and he called the pictures paintings. He should have known they’re drawings made with special crayons.”
She told Alice how she, Bess, and George had encountered the man before.
Alice was excited. “Maybe he’s holding my father prisoner somewhere!”
Nancy agreed that was possible. But where? she wondered. There had been no one else in the one-room cabin. Recalling how Chief had appeared mysteriously from behind it, Nancy surmised there was a hiding place nearby.
“What shall we do, Nancy?” Alice asked.
“Report to the sheriff as fast as we can.”
Nancy added that if Alice’s father was a prisoner of Bursey, the gray-haired man and his pals might very well be the Chicago bank robbers. “And since Bursey is also mixed up with the ranch trouble, his gang is probably responsible for the phantom horse.”
As the girls rode down the trail, Nancy’s thoughts dwelt uneasily on the man who said his name was Bursey. Could he possibly believe that she had not known him? “I’m afraid my trumped-up story didn’t fool him,” she decided. “He must know I’ll report him to Sheriff Curtis. But why didn’t he try to stop me?”
The answer was plain. The man believed that people knew the girls’ destination. “He doesn’t want us to disappear at his cabin,” Nancy told herself, “so he’ll arrange an ’accident’ for us on the way down the mountain.”
She turned in her saddle and warned Alice to keep alert for signs of pursuit. A little farther along they came to a fork in the trail.
“Let’s follow this other path,” Nancy suggested.
They soon found the new route a hazardous one, however, and were forced to slow down. The horses were picking their footing on the narrow trail which wound back and forth across a sheer cliff.
Alice glanced up. “Uncle Ed says that Westerners call this kind of path an ‘eyebrow trail.’ I can see why.”
A few minutes later the girls rode under a rock overhang, which prevented them from seeing the turn of the path above them. Suddenly pebbles and dust started falling from above. Someone was following them!
Nancy signaled to Alice, who nodded her understanding. The riders sat in tense silence as their horses slowly proceeded to the bottom of the cliff, where the trail became less steep. But it was narrow and precarious. The girls urged their horses to go as fast as they dared. Soon they heard the clatter of a horse’s hooves behind them.
Nancy knew they had no defense against the surprise attack she feared was coming. It would take only a few boulders rolling from above to spook the horses and cause the “accident.”
Nancy looked ahead for shelter. Some distance below, the trail disappeared among high rocks. “If we can reach that spot before our enemy strikes,” she thought, “we may have a chance!”
Again the girls urged their mounts on and rode desperately toward the screen of rocks. Jolting hard, Alice clung to the saddle horn all the way.
“We made it!” she gasped as they rounded a curve and were hidden between huge boulders which lay on either side.
Swiftly Nancy dismounted, signaling her companion to do the same. The younger girl followed as Nancy led her horse into a cluster of the giant rocks. Alice held her mount firmly and kept one hand soothingly upon his nose. If only the animals would stand quietly! One jangle of the bridle, or a hoof scuffing a stone, and their hiding place would be revealed!
Hardly breathing, the girls heard the clatter of stones as their pursuer approached. The sounds came closer, then suddenly stopped.
“He sees we’re not on the trail ahead,” Nancy thought. Would the rider figure that they had rounded the next curve but were hiding? For a long moment there was silence from the other side of the boulders.
“He’s listening!” Nancy thought.
The girls stood frozen. Then came the creak of a saddle and the sound of hooves as the rider moved on.
Nancy and Alice gave sighs of relief, and after waiting a few minutes, led their horses out of the boulders. Quickly the two remounted.
Alice said fearfully, “When he reaches open mountainside again, he’ll see that he has missed us and come back. We’ll meet him head-on!”
“I know,” Nancy replied. “We must look for another branching trail.”
Presently she spotted a side path among the boulders and the girls guided their horses onto it. The way downward was narrow and rough, but the two riders were sheltered first by rocks, then tall fir and tamarack trees. They reached the valley a mile from where the other trail came down.
“We made it safely!” Alice cried in relief. “Oh, Nancy, how can I ever thank you?”
Her companion smiled. “Don’t think I wasn’t scared myself!”
It was noon when the girls dismounted at the stable. They hurried to the living room where they found the Rawleys chatting with Bess and George.
While Alice excitedly reported all that had happened to them, Nancy telephoned the sheriff. She told him her suspicions of the man calling himself Bursey, and also the possibility that Ross Regor, Alice’s father, was being held prisoner on the mountain by the same gang responsible for the phantom-horse trick.
Sheriff Curtis said, “I’ll go up to the cabin at once with two men and arrest this hombre Bursey and his confederates.”
Nancy hastened back to the living room and reported the conversation.
“That’s great!” exclaimed George. “If the sheriff catches the bank robbers, it will mean the end of the damage on the ranch.”
“But they must have another hideout, where they keep Uncle Ross,” Bess objected, “and we don’t know where that is. Besides, the sheriff may find only Bursey.”
“But if he talks, we’ll get to the bottom of the mystery,” Nancy reminded her.
Suddenly the door to the portico burst open and Dave came in. “Mr. Rawley, we found the missing horses!”
Amid the girls’ exclamation of joy, the rancher beamed and asked. “Where are they?”
“Tex, Bud, and I put them in the meadow. We found them up on Shadow Mountain, grazing by a creek.” Dave hesitated. “The only thing is, they’re hurt.”
Mr. Rawley’s jaw tightened. “Bad?”
“Three of ’em are wire-cut and the mare is limping. We’d better call the vet.”
The rancher agreed and Dave hurried to the telephone. “Could be worse,” Uncle Ed said. “Maybe everything will be all right—provided there’s no more damage.”
Aunt Bet smiled cheerfully. “Nothing more is likely to happen. After all, the sheriff is on his way to round up the gang—thanks to Nancy.”
In a happy frame of mind, the girls hurried away to dress in their squaw outfits before lunch. While she showered, Nancy’s thoughts were on the treasure. Where could the outlaw have hidden it? Still puzzling, Nancy slipped into her blue costume. She brushed her titian hair until it gleamed, then put on a pair of small silver earrings and added a touch of lipstick.
The other girls were not ready yet, so Nancy went into the living room to wait for them. As she seated herself in one of the rockers, her glance fell on the fireplace. Once again, the Indian grinding stone caught her attention. She recalled what Aunt Bet had told her about it and about the other stones. Suddenly her eyes lit up with an idea and she jumped forward in excitement.
“Bess! George! Alice!” she called, running to the door.
“What is it?” asked George as the three girls came hurrying down the hall.
Nancy’s eyes sparkled with excitement. “I think I know where the treasure is!”