Chapter 12 The Clue in the Old Stagecoach by Carolyn Keene
Shadowing
In her own room, Nancy almost automatically took a shower and dressed for dinner. There was to be dancing that evening in the garden on a platform built at one side. She decided to wear a summer cotton of yellow and white and rather tailored in design. She put on white slippers with medium-height heels.
When she was ready, the young detective lay down on the bed while waiting for Bess and George to open the door between their rooms. Nancy mulled over the mystery from every angle.
“I hate to admit it, but it has me stymied at the moment,” she told herself.
Just then someone knocked on her door. Raising herself up and swinging her feet to the floor, Nancy called out, “Come in!”
The hall door swung wide. Nancy’s eyes popped in surprise, then she burst into laughter.
In walked Bess and George, rigged out to look like Audrey and Ross Monteith. Bess as Audrey had her hair pulled high and tight on top of her head with a mop of curls at the crown. She wore an extremely tight-fitting sports dress of George’s. Her cheeks and lips were very artificially red and her fingernails looked as if they had been dipped in garnet paint. She swaggered in on her extremely high-heeled shoes.
George’s outfit was even funnier. She wore baggy slacks, which belonged to Bess, a white shirt, and a very loud sports jacket borrowed from Jack Smith. She swung a cane and kept blinking her eyes at nothing, exactly the way Ross Monteith did when he was assuming an affected pose.
“Beg pawdon, Nancy,” said “Mr. Monteith,” “but I’d be jolly pleased if you would tell me your plans for the evening.”
“Oh, yes,” added “Mrs. Monteith,” “Rossy and I don’t like secrets. We’d prefer being with you wherever you go.”
Nancy was giggling merrily. She got up from the bed and gave the door a slight push to close it. Then she sat down again.
“Oh, Audrey,” said “Ross,” opening a little box in which Nancy kept her costume jewelry, “heah are some perfectly stunning earrings. I’m sure Nancy would be glad to lend them to you in place of the ones you lost in the woods.” George spun the cane in a circle.
“Audrey” gave a sinister chuckle. “And maybe—just maybe—I shan’t return them,” Bess said. She took the earrings out of the box.
At that very moment Nancy’s eyes traveled toward the door to the hall. She thought she had heard a sound outside. Eavesdroppers?
Nancy tiptoed across the room and yanked the door open. Ross and Audrey Monteith stood there! Nancy was not sure whether their look of surprise had been caused by her opening the door so suddenly or because they had been caught eavesdropping. Their look of amazement lasted only a couple of seconds, however.
Then Audrey bubbled, “We came to ask—” Suddenly she looked at Bess and George. “For Pete’s sake, what—”
None of the three girls explained the little skit. If the Monteiths had heard themselves being ridiculed, Nancy and her friends hoped it would be a good lesson to them. If they had not, then there was no point in telling them.
When the callers realized they were not to be told what was going on, Ross Monteith changed the subject. “We came to ask you to help us get up a hayride. I think it would be a lot of fun, don’t you? Audrey and I thought the five of us might take tomorrow off and drive around the countryside looking for a farmer who has horses and an old-fashioned hayrack.”
“It sounds like a lot of fun,” Nancy remarked. “But I couldn’t possibly help you make any arrangements.”
“You have a previous engagement?” Ross asked quickly.
The young sleuth was sure that the man was angling for information about her plans. She decided to give him none, and hoped that neither Bess nor George would speak up.
“I have so many things to do,” Nancy said, “I don’t know which ones to do first. With tennis and swimming and horseback riding here—” She did not finish the sentence and for a few seconds there was silence in the room.
George decided this was an opportune time to get rid of the visitors. She looked at her wrist watch. “My goodness, Bess, we’d better jump out of this gear in a hurry and get ready for dinner or we’ll be late.”
“Yes,” Bess agreed. She giggled. “That wouldn’t do at all because I’m starved.”
As George opened the door between the two rooms, Audrey and Ross Monteith started to sit down. This was not to Nancy’s liking!
Quickly she said, “Sorry I can’t talk to you any longer, but I must help Bess and George.”
“Oh,” Audrey persisted, “they can help themselves. I wanted to ask you a few questions about your plans for—”
Nancy looked directly at Audrey Monteith. “I really must ask you to leave,” she said firmly. She walked to the door. When they still did not come, she went into the hall. The Monteiths realized their dismissal was complete and finally followed her. As soon as they were outside, Nancy stepped back in and bolted the door.
“Such pests!” she thought, and went into the girls’ room.
Her friends were peeling off their costumes, but thinking that the Monteiths might be listening outside, made no comment regarding the couple.
“I brought up a letter for you, Nancy,” said George. “It’s on the bureau.”
Nancy picked it up. “Ned Nickerson!” she told herself. “Good!” Ned, an Emerson College student, had been dating Nancy for many months and had helped her solve several mysteries.
Nancy was delighted with the contents of the letter. Ned had written that he and possibly Burt, who dated George, and Dave, a special friend of Bess’s, would come to Camp Merriweather for a couple of days at the beginning of the next week.
“That’s just a few days from now!” Nancy thought.
After Bess and George had removed their “Monteith” make-up and were putting on sports-type evening dresses, Nancy peeked into the hall. Their unwelcome callers had disappeared. Coming back, she told the girls what Ned had written.
Instantly Bess, blushing a little, said, “Yum, that’s super news.” And George added, “It sure is. But, Nancy, what are you going to do about Rick?”
Nancy pretended to look worried, then said, “Some situations just solve themselves.”
Before the girls left the room, George asked, “Nancy, what do you think the Monteiths are up to?”
The girl detective admitted that she was completely puzzled, except that the couple seemed to want to know where she, Bess, and George would be at all times.
“And that gives me an idea,” Nancy said. “Why don’t we turn the tables and shadow those two for a change?”
“Hypers!” said George. “Why didn’t we think of that before? It’s a swell idea.”
It was decided that as soon as they met Rick, Jack, and Hobe, they would take the boys into their confidence and ask them to do a little spying. Among the three couples they were to keep the Monteiths in sight at all times.
Rick and the other boys were delighted with the plan and Rick remarked, “We thought it was high time you let us know where you’ve been running off to.”
After dinner, while the three couples were talking in the lobby, the Monteiths walked up to them. In their conversation, Nancy and her friends tried to make it appear as if they could hardly wait for the orchestra to start playing and that they would be the last ones to leave the garden when the music stopped. Nancy wondered if it were her imagination or did Ross and Audrey seem to heave a sigh of satisfaction at hearing this?
At intervals during the evening the three couples met and exchanged information. Audrey and Ross were being elusive, darting in and out of the hotel, among the dancers, and even into the woods beyond. It was noticeable that they danced with no one else and even chatted very little with other people.
“I’m sure they’re planning something,” George remarked with determination.
“Yes, we mustn’t lose them,” Nancy replied.
A few minutes later as she and Rick were dancing near a path that led from the garden directly to the parking lot, they saw Ross and Audrey suddenly leave the dance floor and disappear. A moment later they emerged onto the path leading to the parking lot.
“There they go!” Nancy told her partner, and together they hurried up the path after the couple.
“I’ll go down to the main road and watch which way they turn, while you get your car,” Rick offered.
Within a minute Nancy had joined him at the entrance. He jumped in, pointing to the right. “That’s their car down there. They sure left in a hurry.”
Nancy put up the top of the convertible to make the automobile less conspicuous, then sped after them. The Monteiths headed directly for the road near which the explosion had taken place that afternoon. They pulled the car to the side of the road and turned off the lights.
As Nancy came closer, Rick said, “There they go across that field.”
“They must be heading for the spot where the cave-in was,” Nancy remarked.
She found a place a short distance in back of the Monteiths’ car where she could park the convertible without its being seen by them should they return. Then she and Rick jumped out and started to follow the couple. Each carried a flashlight but were afraid to turn them on for fear of being discovered. There was moonlight, although it was obscured at times by clouds.
About halfway to the cave-in, Nancy suddenly stopped and whispered, “Someone’s behind us.”
“And someone’s at that cave-in to meet the Monteiths!” said Rick.
The couple wondered if they would be trapped. Rick, wishing to protect Nancy from any harm, felt they should hurry away. But the young sleuth was determined to find out what was going on.
“It’s okay with me,” said Rick. “You keep looking ahead and I’ll try to spot the person in back of us.”
“All right,” said Nancy. “And we mustn’t forget how voices carry. Perhaps we’d better not talk any more.”
Silently the two moved ahead until they were very close to the cave-in. Now they could hear two men’s voices and knew that the Monteiths had met someone.
By this time the person following Nancy and Rick seemed much closer. Instinctively Nancy and Rick looked around for a place to hide. There was none. Nancy signaled to Rick that their only chance to keep from being seen by the oncoming person was to drop to the ground and remain motionless in the tall grass.
Seconds after they had done this, a tall, well-built stranger stalked by them. Apparently he was not aware of their presence, for he did not stop. He joined the other three at the cave-in and more conversation went on. To her disappointment, Nancy could not distinguish a word.
“I’m sure something sinister is afoot,” she thought. “I must find out what it is!”
She began to inch forward along the ground to reach a better listening post. Rick followed.