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Authors: Carolyn G. Keene

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BOOK: The Secret of Mirror Bay
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“Yes, in their search for the magic formula of cold heat. I’ve been working on this problem, not with fireflies or anything else living, but with the chemicals which cause the phenomenon. So far I haven’t had much luck, but this year I’m going to concentrate solely on this subject.”
As Matt paused, the stillness was suddenly shattered by a wild cry on the hillside above the cabin. Then came the sounds of a body hurtling down the hillside.
CHAPTER XIII
The Vanishing Spook
EVERYBODY rushed from the porch of the cottage and hurried up the hill. On a level area about halfway to the road lay a young woman.
“You’re hurt!” Aunt Eloise exclaimed. “We’ll carry you to our cabin.”
“No, no,” the girl objected. “I got very scared and ran and lost my balance.” She sat up. “I’m all right, really I am.”
Despite what she said, the stranger was pale and trembling. She was covered with dust and her shoulder-length hair was tousled.
“Can we take you some place?” Ned spoke up.
The girl shook her head. “Just help me to the road and please stay until my boy friend comes. He’s going to pick me up. I was early getting off my job at the motel so I started walking toward Cooperstown. I’m Mary Storr.”
The boys assisted the young woman to her feet while the girls brushed off her clothes. Bess pulled a small comb from her pocket and smoothed the girl’s lovely curly brown hair. Nancy had taken some tissues from a pocket and helped Mary wipe the dirt from her face.
“My boy friend won’t know me,” Mary said ruefully.
“What frightened you?” George asked.
A shiver ran through Mary’s body. “A ghost that came out of the woods. You know, there are spooks around this area. I never heard of a green one, though.”
“The green man!” Bess exclaimed. “We’ve seen him too.”
Mary Storr looked startled. “Then I wasn’t dreaming? People tell me that there are no such things as ghosts. I didn’t want to say anything for fear you’d laugh at me.”
“That green man is no laughing matter,” Bess declared.
“The figure wasn’t really green,” Mary told them. “It was all in white with a hood. But a funny green light would glow around it for a few seconds, then go off.”
“Wow! I don’t blame you for being frightened,” Dave spoke up. “Where’d the guy go?”
Mary Storr said she did not know. “When this white thing started waving its arms toward me like somebody casting a spell, I started to run. I was getting ahead of him, but turned to look back. That’s when I stumbled on something near your path and lost my balance. I started rolling down the hill.”
By this time the group had reached the road, which was dark. There was no sign of the strange figure.
“Thank goodness he’s gone,” she said. “And thank you all very much for bringing me up here. You can bet I’ll never walk in this area alone again.”
As she spoke, headlights appeared in the distance and in a couple of minutes a young man drew up alongside the group. Mary excitedly explained to him why she and the others were there.
Her boy friend looked worried. “Thanks, folks,” he said. “Mary, hop in here and let’s get away from this place. I don’t like spooks.”
After they had gone, Ned said, “How about hiking up the mountain to find this weird creature?”
Aunt Eloise decided to go back to the cabin and clear away the dinner dishes. Matt said he would help her. The six young people were trudging up the hill on the opposite side of the road when Nancy remarked that they should have brought flashlights.
“I’ll go back and get a few,” Burt offered.
The others waited for him. When he returned he had lights for each couple. As they neared the place where the girls had seen the green man previously, George said she wondered if he were the same person who had frightened Mary Storr.
“If so, he has a variety of costumes,” Dave commented.
“I believe,” said Nancy, “that he’s the same person using various disguises.” She added that her conclusion was based on the conversation she overheard between Sam and Mike.
“So the ghost is a sorcerer too,” Ned said. “We’d better watch our step. By the way, I’ve heard that when a sorcerer bewitches a person, he in turn can pass the witchery on to someone else without the other one knowing it.”
George laughed. “You mean that Mary Storr might have passed the sorcery along to one of us here?”
“Could be,” Ned teased. “When we get back we might even find Aunt Eloise and Matt turned into stone statues!”
Nancy was grinning broadly. “Ned,” she said, “is this part of what you learned in your folklore lessons?”
“You’ve guessed it,” he said, chuckling.
As they trekked up the mountain, it was not necessary for the young people to turn on the flashlights. With their vision accustomed to the darkness and the twinkling of the fireflies, they were able to see ahead.
The three couples had been trudging in silence for some time, keeping a sharp lookout for any kind of strange figure.
“Guess the ghost is gone,” Nancy thought.
Suddenly Bess grabbed Dave’s arm. With her other hand she pointed to a strange glob of greenish light which grew brighter and brighter.
The six young people were astounded. A short distance ahead of them was one of the queerest-looking figures they had ever seen. Was he a man or a beast? He had a manlike body, but a shaggy coat of fur completely covered the creature. The head and body were iridescent.
“Shall we attack it?” Ned whispered to Nancy.
Her answer was, “Let’s separate and surround the spook.”
Before they could move, the strange creature intoned in a deep voice, “Leave these woods at once!”
“Why should we?” George called out defiantly.
The reply made Bess quiver. “If you do not go, trouble awaits you!”
“What do you say, Nancy?” Ned asked in a low voice.
The young sleuth still felt they should try to capture the ghost. Word was sent from one to another. They spread out in a circle, then began to close in.
Suddenly the green light went out and the iridescent figure disappeared. The searchers moved forward to the spot where he had stood. He was not there.
“He must be supernatural!” Bess said shakily.
Burt declared the earth must have swallowed him.
“I think,” Dave declared, “that the guy was wearing a special suit. He quickly took it off, turned it inside out, and ran off before we completed our circle.”
Nancy agreed this was the most reasonable explanation. She turned on her flashlight and began hunting for footprints. Large, animal-like prints were visible.
“Let’s follow them!” she suggested.
They led through tangled undergrowth and became undetectable. Nancy followed the direction in which they had pointed. Her friends were close behind.
In a few minutes she saw a log lying across a little stream. She went over this natural bridge and found footprints on the other side. Ned was directly back of her but the others had not followed.
“Come on!” she called. “Here are more footprints—or I should say a man’s shoe prints.”
George came over the log next, then Burt, then Bess. Just as she reached the group, they heard a loud grunt at their rear.
They turned quickly. Dave Evans was not with them. Bess called out in alarm, “Dave! Where are you?”
Bess pointed to a strange glob of greenish light
There was no reply. At once the others rushed back across the log. When they reached the other side, Bess beamed her flashlight around.
“Dave!” she screamed.
Her date lay sprawled on the ground, face down. He did not move.
Quickly Burt and Ned knelt beside him. Then Ned announced, “He’s breathing, but he was knocked out pretty hard.”
“How frightful!” Bess murmured.
Nancy asked herself, “Was the blow from the fall? Or was it a hand-delivered knockout, perhaps by the ghostly figure?”
CHAPTER XIV
Overboard!
A DISCUSSION followed among Nancy’s friends whether they should let Dave lie still for a little while or carry him down to the cabin. The vote was for helping him down to the cabin.
“And let’s start,” Bess urged.
Dave was gently turned on his back. Nancy kept track of his pulse, while Bess took a scented handkerchief from her pocket and held it under his nostrils.
A few minutes later Dave opened his eyes and glanced around. He closed them again, but said, “Something hit me on the back of the head. I have a terrible headache.”
“Better stay where you are,” George advised.
She went toward the tiny mountain stream and dampened her handkerchief. Upon returning she laid it on Dave’s forehead.
“That feels good,” he said. Breathing deeply, he added, “And something smells mighty refreshing.”
Dave looked up once more. This time he tried to get up but faltered.
“Take it easy there!” Burt said, putting a hand under one shoulder.
Dave was still a little groggy. He shook his head a few times and took several deep breaths.
“I’ll be okay,” he assured the others.
“But no more sleuthing tonight,” Bess insisted. “Not for any of us. It’s just too dangerous in these woods—especially after dark.”
The others agreed but said they would come back in the daylight and continue working on the mystery.
“I’d like to find the guy who socked me,” Dave said.
“And I’d like to take care of him for you,” Ned offered, his eyes flashing.
It was a slow trek down the mountainside but finally they reached the cabin and Dave went to bed at once. Aunt Eloise and Matt were very solicitous, and after checking Dave, concluded that he would not need a doctor.
No one else felt sleepy. They all gathered in the living room to talk in subdued tones. The conversation returned to the mystery of the child’s sunken coach.
“Nancy, let’s see that valentine you told us about,” Ned requested.
She went for it and laid the memento carefully on the table. Matt and the boys admired the quaint cover with the name Maud Jayson so cleverly worked into the scroll design.
Then Nancy opened it and read the poem aloud:
“‘Ever faithful to thee
And the memory of the little lass
Her lovely pony coach
Lying ’neath the Glimmerglass
NOE
5 R’ ”
Nancy explained who R was, then asked, “Any theories about that code?”
When no one answered, she went on, “I’m sure that the poet must have been referring to Otsego Lake and perhaps to this mirror-clear bay.”
“I’ll bet you’re right!” George exclaimed.
After studying the valentine, Ned suggested that the N and the E might well mean northeast.
Nancy nodded as Burt asked, “But what is that five under the backward letter C?”
She thought over the question a few moments, then replied, “It could stand for Five Mile Point across the lake.”
Nancy explained that the jut of land was about five miles distance from Cooperstown.
Aunt Eloise spoke up. “They tell a story about the Point. The man who owned it at one time went off on a long trip. While he was away, the people of Cooperstown used it for a picnic and swimming area.
“When he returned, they all hoped that he would make it a public park. Instead he chased everyone off the grounds and threatened arrest to trespassers.”
“The old meany!” George burst out.
Bess asked what was located northeast from Five Mile Point. She speculated that the code might refer to some spot beyond the bay.
Nancy produced a map of the area and drew a straight line from Five Mile Point directly northeast. She ended the line on the opposite side of the bay from Aunt Eloise’s cottage.
“That’s directly to the east of Glimmerglass Park,” Burt pointed out.
“Let’s go there early tomorrow morning,” George proposed.
Everyone agreed and Nancy suggested they take tools with them—picks, rakes, and a crowbar. By morning Dave was feeling like himself again and insisted upon going.
Ned said he would like to try out the
Crestwood
and asked Nancy to sail to the search site with him. “We’ll go across the lake first, then back to the bay.”
She smiled, “That would be fun but we’ll have to anchor a ways offshore. The water’s rather shallow there for some distance out.”
The other young people would go in Ned’s open sports car. Aunt Eloise had some errands in the village and Matt offered to accompany her.
He grinned. “We may even take a long ride so Eloise can show me the sights.”
Nancy, George, and Bess were very much pleased about this new friendship.
“If we’re not back by lunchtime,” Nancy said, “we’ll picnic at Glimmerglass Park. By the way, will you stop at Miss Armitage’s and give her the valentine? I think it will be safer there.”
BOOK: The Secret of Mirror Bay
3.28Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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