Chapter 13 The Invisible Intruder by Carolyn Keene
The Vanishing Horse
THE ghost hunters dashed up the stairs, with Ned in the lead. They hurried along the second-floor hall to a door leading to the attic. A woman stood at the foot of the stairway.
“Mrs. Hodge!” Ned exclaimed. “What fell?”
The woman was ash white. In her plain, pale-gray dress and white hair, she almost looked like a ghost herself.
She answered in a trembling voice, “A—trunk. It’s been standing on top of another one for years. All of a sudden while I was up there it began to teeter, then crashed to the floor.”
It was evident to Nancy that Mrs. Hodge was unnerved. Without waiting for an introduction she went up to the woman and put an arm about her waist.
“Please come and lie down,” she said gently. “We’ll investigate and see if we can find out why the trunk toppled over.”
She supported Mrs. Hodge, who led the way to her own bedroom. The others followed, all expressing sympathy over her fright.
Ned then introduced Nancy and the other ghost hunters. Mrs. Hodge acknowledged their friendly greetings and remarked that this was no way for the owner of a guesthouse to welcome anyone.
“Please don’t worry about it,” Nancy said. “We know you have had a great deal of trouble and we’d like to help you. Will it be all right if we search the attic?”
“Please do,” Mrs. Hodge said.
Since the attic was small it was decided that only Nancy’s group would go. Rita wanted to determine for herself if there were any supernatural angles to the incident and she went with them.
They climbed the stairs and looked around. The crudeness of the unfinished attic and the small windows indicated that the house was very old. Antique pieces of furniture and boxes stood here and there. An old blanket was flung across a rafter.
To one side lay the toppled trunk. Its lid had opened, scattering flimsy old-fashioned dresses on the floor. Behind it stood the other trunk.
Nancy hoped to find a reason for the accident. While the others in the group looked around the big room, she and Ned pushed the second lightweight trunk away from its position. They found that its contents were antique dolls and toys.
“Ned, look!” Nancy exclaimed, pointing to the floor.
Where the trunk had stood was a trap door with an iron handle. Ned pulled the door up easily. The underside was covered with wall paper which matched that of the bedroom closet below. The door to the room was open.
“Someone was under this trap door and pushed it up,” Nancy remarked. “I guess he stood on the dressing-table stool that’s in the closet.”
“Let’s go downstairs and see if anyone’s hiding,” said Ned.
With a quick explanation to the others, they scurried down the stairs and rushed to the bedroom with the trap door. No one was there. The couple made a quick search of the other rooms on the second floor, then hurried to the first floor. They had no luck there either.
“I guess the intruder made his getaway while we were all talking to Mrs. Hodge in her bedroom,” Ned surmised.
They went upstairs and told Mrs. Hodge what they had discovered.
Nancy asked, “Did you know there was a trap door in that closet?”
“No, I didn’t. Oh dear! This is just one more sign that I am being harassed by the real and the unreal.”
“Have you any suggestions as to where the mischief-maker might be hiding?” Nancy asked. “Do you have a basement?”
“Yes, but I keep it locked and carry the key with me. He couldn’t be down there. But it’s possible he might be hiding out in the barn.”
“We’ll look there,” Nancy said.
She went back to the attic and told her friends what she and Ned had found and their plan to search the barn.
“Please come and help us,” she said. Smiling at Rita, she added, “I’m afraid there was nothing supernatural about the fallen trunk. An intruder probably had been waiting for another chance to scare Mrs. Hodge. Perhaps he stayed in that room as a guest and found out about the trap door.”
The rest of the ghost hunters started for the barn, but Nancy stayed behind to speak to Mrs. Hodge. “Can you recall the names of all the people who rented the room with the trap door during the past year or so?”
“Not offhand, but I’ll show you my guestbook.”
She and Nancy went to the first floor and Mrs. Hodge brought out the old-fashioned register. Together, she and Nancy quickly scanned the list of guests.
Suddenly Nancy stopped at a date one year previously. She pointed to it excitedly. “Here are two names familiar to me,” she said. “Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur Prizer.”
Nancy asked what the man and woman looked like. Mrs. Hodge’s description exactly fitted the couple Nancy was trying to find!
“They’re the ones!” Nancy exclaimed. “Can you tell me anything else about them?”
“Well, not much. They seemed very nice and kept to themselves a lot. The two were great hikers. They spent much of their time outdoors walking through the fields and woods.
“Once Mrs. Prizer said to me, ‘I wish I had a place like this. Did you ever think of selling it?’ Of course, I told her no. At that time my business was very good.”
Elated with her clue, Nancy hurried off to join her friends and tell them what she had learned.
Ned said, “When I was kidnapped, I picked up a note on the car floor. It said, ‘Force sale red barn.’ I’m sure it’s this place.”
“Obviously you’re right!” Nancy exclaimed. “Prizer is trying to break down Mrs. Hodge’s resistance before offering her a low price for the farm.” The others agreed.
They had found no one hiding in the barn or any of the outbuildings and gave up the search. During the afternoon the group discussed ways to track down the mysterious horse and rider that appeared at the farm.
“It will be bright moonlight tonight,” Nancy spoke up. “Why don’t we take turns standing watch in the barn and see if the phantom animal appears?”
The ghost hunters agreed and drew lots for time periods. Nancy’s group was to be on duty from ten to two. They all took naps directly after supper and then appeared in the barn promptly at ten.
“We didn’t see a thing,” Helen reported as her foursome finished their watch. “Everything quiet.” She laughed. “I’d like to bet that if there’s going to be any excitement it will come during the time Nancy Drew is here!”
The young detective and her friends settled down to watch. There were the usual sounds of night birds and insects, but nothing else. The young people found it hard to stay awake and kept nudging one another when a head fell forward in sleep.
It was a beautiful night. Stars gleamed brightly and the moon shone brilliantly. Every tree, bush, and building was sharply silhouetted. If anyone should appear, he surely would be seen clearly.
Off in the distance a clock struck the midnight hour. One minute later Bess grabbed Nancy’s arm.
“There it is!” she whispered.
Emerging from the woods was a white ghostlike horse. It began to gallop across the field.
“There it is!” Bess whispered
As everyone watched tensely, its rider came from among the trees. He was dressed in white riding attire, and ran pell-mell after the horse.
At first the animal came directly toward the barn and the onlookers wondered if he intended to dash inside. They shrank back from the doorway. But a few seconds later the horse veered around and headed toward the woods. The trailing rider turned also and sped after it.
“We must try to catch him!” Nancy exclaimed.
She and the others rushed from the barn and raced across the field. Would they find the animal and the man among the trees or had they gone on farther? By the time the ghost hunters reached the spot where the man and his horse had entered the woods, there was no sign of either.
“They weren’t real! They were phantoms!” Bess said shakily.
Ned dropped to his knees and put his ear to the ground. “Funny,” he said, “I can’t hear the sound of hoofbeats.”
“Of course not,” said Bess. “The horse and rider were spooks!” She recommended that they all go back to the barn until two o’clock and then get some sleep.
Since it seemed impractical to try to follow the horse and rider through the dark woods, the searchers did as Bess suggested. No one else appeared during the rest of the period.
The episode was reported to the next set of watchers. In the morning they reported that nothing had happened during the rest of the night.
“But I wish it had,” Don said in disappointment.
At Sunday breakfast Nancy proposed that the ghost hunters make a search in the woods for clues to the strange horse and rider. All agreed that it was a good idea and set off together.
As they walked through the field leading to the woods, Rita said in a hushed tone, “There are no hoofprints! That means he was a ghost horse!”
“I agree,” said Bess. “Oh dear! I don’t like this.”
Nancy found a series of footprints, however, in exactly the direction the phantom rider had taken from the woods and back again.
“I’ll bet,” said Rita, “that these footprints belong to somebody else. The ghost horse had a phantom rider.”
Following the man’s footprints, the searchers came to a place in the woods where several bushes were broken down.
A moment later George cried out, “I see hoofprints!”
She started to run and soon outdistanced the others.
Suddenly Bess screamed, then cried in terror, “George fell out of sight!”
Seemingly the earth had swallowed her cousin!