The Secret of Shadow Ranch (2 page)

Bess paid the check and the girls walked to the door. They met George coming in. “Didn’t see him anywhere,” she said. “Guess he drove off. The thief! He—” George stopped short. “Nancy, you have your bag!”

Nancy grinned. “Thanks for your help, anyway.”

“I still don’t like Old Eavesdropper,” George declared.

As the girls walked through the terminal, Nancy stopped at a row of telephone booths. “Wait a moment,” she said. “I promised to call home and let Hannah know when I arrived here.”

Bess volunteered to fill the Thermos jug while Nancy phoned. “Give my love to Hannah,” she called back as she hurried off.

“Mine, too,” said George as Nancy entered the phone booth.

Mrs. Hannah Gruen was the Drews’ warm-hearted housekeeper who had looked after Nancy since her mother’s death when she was three. She and Nancy held a deep affection for each other.

Soon Hannah’s cheerful voice came over the wire. “Don’t worry about anything here, Nancy,” she said. “Just enjoy yourself.”

By the time Nancy hung up, Bess had returned. “I didn’t tell Hannah I might be right home,” Nancy reported.

“She’s going to get a big surprise when we turn up tomorrow,” George remarked gloomily.

Nancy smiled. “Not if I can persuade your uncle to change his mind.”

As the girls stepped from the cool building the afternoon sun was dazzling. Waves of heat shimmered over the parked cars.

George led the way past several lines of cars, then turned into a row and walked toward an old ranch wagon. As the girls drew closer, they exclaimed in surprise. A man was dropping something through the open window of the car!
He was the eavesdropper who had sat beside them
!

“What are you doing?” George called.

The stranger glanced up, startled, then darted away among the cars.

Nancy dashed to the ranch wagon, with the girls close behind her. There was a piece of paper on the seat.

Nancy picked it up. “A note!”

In crudely penciled letters it said:
“Keep away from Shadow Ranch.”

“Come on!” Nancy exclaimed. “We must catch that man and find out what this means!”

THE girls sped off in the direction the man had fled. At the end of the row of cars, they paused to look right and left.

“There he is!” Nancy exclaimed. The man was hastening toward the terminal. He looked back, then broke into a run.

Nancy and George sprinted ahead and saw him dash into the building. The girls followed, dodging people and baggage carts, but the fugitive had disappeared among the crowd.

“Where is he?” Bess panted as she caught up to them.

“Gone,” George said tersely. “No use looking for him in here.”

But Nancy had not given up. Their dash into the terminal had excited curious stares from passers-by and a newsstand attendant.

“Did you ever see that man before?” she asked the clerk behind the news counter. “The one we were chasing?”

“No,” he said. “What happened? Did he steal something? Should I call the police?”

“No, thank you,” said Nancy. “But I’d like to find out who he is.”

She questioned some other people nearby, but none of them had ever seen the man before.

Nancy returned to the cousins. “I’m afraid that’s that.” As they left the building, Nancy realized that she was still holding the note and tucked it into her knitting bag.

“One thing we learned,” she said as they crossed the parking lot again, “whoever the man is, he’s connected with the mystery at the ranch.”

“But why should he want to keep us away from there?” Bess asked.

“Perhaps for the same reason someone wants to drive your aunt and uncle off the property,” Nancy replied.

When they reached the ranch wagon, Nancy volunteered to drive. George agreed and acted as her guide through the streets of Phoenix.

As they left the outskirts, the road stretched before them like an endless white ribbon with brown desert on either side as far as the eye could see. Here and there were dark clumps of sage and salt grass. Beyond, on the horizon, lay the hazy blue shapes of mountains.

“That’s where we’re headed, pardner,” George said with a grin. “One hundred and fifty miles of the hottest, thirstiest ride you ever took!”

For a while cars passed the girls from both directions, then grew fewer and fewer.

Bess, who had been unusually silent, spoke up. “What I can’t figure out is why anybody would want to take Shadow Ranch from Uncle Ed. It’s in very poor condition.”

George agreed. “It almost seems as if Dirk Valentine’s curse has worked.” She told Nancy that shortly after the outlaw’s death, Sheriff Humber’s fortunes had begun to fail. He had been forced to sell the ranch, section by section. One large part was now state property, on which old Indian cliff dwellings still stood. Finally Humber had lost the property altogether.

The next owner had tried to build it up, but suffered bad luck, too. Others had followed and with each the ranch had fallen into a worst state of disrepair. Ed Rawley had been obliged to sink a lot of money in the place, trying to get it into running condition.

Nancy had listened thoughtfully. “The property must have some hidden value,” she said, “if somebody wants it so badly now.”

For a while the girls rode without speaking. The wind had risen and the rush of it past the open windows, combined with the roar of the motor, made conversation difficult.

Suddenly Bess gave a sharp exclamation. “Nancy! We completely forgot to tell you about Alice!”

George slapped her forehead. “Good nightl What brains we are!”

“Alice who?” asked Nancy.

“Our cousin, Alice Regor. She’s fourteen,” replied Bess. “She’s staying at Shadow Ranch, too.”

“That is, she hopes she’s staying,” George amended. “If we go home, she’ll have to leave, too.”

“I feel sorry for her,” Bess said. “She has a special reason for being here—and she’s hoping you can help her, Nancy.”

“Me?” Nancy exclaimed. “How?”

“We’ve told her about you,” Bess confessed, “and what a good detective you are.”

Nancy laughed. “Now, Bess, you know you don’t have to butter me up. Just tell me—what is Alice’s mystery?”

Bess smiled. “I knew you’d try to help.”

George explained, “Alice’s father is missing. He’s been gone almost six months.”

She said that Ross Regor had been president of a bank in a suburb of Chicago, where he had lived with his family. Someone reported having seen him enter the bank on the night it was robbed. Mr. Regor had not been seen since.

“Some of the newspapers implied that he was in league with the gang,” Bess said, “but naturally none of his family or friends believes that.”

“From the way the burglar alarm was tampered with,” George said, “the police were able to identify the gang easily. A few days later one of them was spotted in Phoenix, but eluded capture.

“Because of that, Alice thinks the gang is hiding out in this area and holding her father captive. Or, if he was released, he’s wandering around here, a victim of amnesia.”

Nancy was instantly sympathetic. “That’s not much to go on, but I’ll do my best.”

During the past five minutes the wind had been increasing and Nancy was using considerable strength to keep the wheel steady. Suddenly a brown swirling cloud of sand arose ahead of them.

“Sandstorm!” she cried. “Close the windows!”

Her words were lost as the wind shrieked and a stinging flash of sand hit their faces. While Nancy fought to hold the car on the road, Bess leaned over in back of her and managed to roll up the window. George closed the one on her side.

Nancy applied the brakes and the girls sat silent, astounded by the suddenness of the storm. The wind screamed and the sand sifted through the cracks around the windows and doors. The car rocked but stayed upright.

“Wow!” said George. “This desert is full of surprises!”

“Fearful ones,” Bess added.

After an agonizing wait, the wind gradually died and the sand settled enough to permit the girls to see the red glow of the sun. Quickly they opened the doors and stepped outside.

“Ugh,” said Bess, shaking her head. “I have sand in my hair!”

When they had brushed their clothes, Bess took one of the jugs from the back of the ranch wagon. Quickly she poured water into paper cups for all of them.

Nancy drank hers thirstily. “Umm, good old water,” she said with a sigh.

“It was wonderful the way you held the car on the road,” said Bess, helping herself to a second cup.

“Right,” said George. “If we’d gone into the soft sand, we’d have been stranded!”

Nancy looked over the empty desert and shook her head. “How awful it must have been for the pioneers!” she said. “Imagine riding out here for days in a bumpy wagon or walking in the burning sun.”

“With every drop of water precious,” Bess said.

“They ran out of it, too, sometimes,” George said soberly. “Uncle Ed told us that bones of pioneers and abandoned wagons have been found in many places.”

“It’s a ghastly thought,” Bess remarked, and there was silence for a while.

Finally Nancy said, “If I read the mileage right, we have about an hour’s drive yet.” She poured some water from the Thermos onto her dean handkerchief and wiped her face and hands. George and Bess did the same, then the girls combed their hair and put on fresh lipstick.

Bess giggled. “I don’t know why we bother. There’s no one out here to see us but prairie dogs and lizards!”

“Cheer up,” said Nancy. “You’ll soon be back among all those handsome cowboys!”

George poured the remaining water from the Thermos jug into a cup and offered it to the others. Nancy and Bess declined, so George drank it herself.

The girls got into the car and Nancy turned the key in the ignition. The engine started at once.

“You don’t know how glad I am to hear that,” she confessed. “I was afraid sand might have clogged the motor.”

As the car rolled along, Nancy said, “I’ve been thinking about the mystery of Shadow Ranch. Tell me more of the windmill episode. If somebody tore it down, there’d have been a tremendous racket. Didn’t the Rawleys hear it?”

“No,” said George. “And the mill wasn’t torn down. Uncle Ed figures from tire tracks and bumper dents that someone used the ranch truck, drove to the east meadow without lights, and backed hard into the windmill a few times. Over it went. That night there was a howling storm, so of course no one heard the noise.”

Nancy frowned. “Aren’t there any dogs on the ranch? Surely they’d have barked.”

Bess bobbed her head. “The Rawleys have a fine watchdog. There wasn’t a peep out of him. Besides, the east meadow is some distance from the ranch building.”

“Then,” said Nancy, “the whole thing must have been an inside job. The dog knows the person or persons who did this. Have you noticed anything suspicious about the ranch hands?”

Bess and George said all the men seemed very nice. “But then,” George added, “I suppose they’d be careful to avoid suspicion. Well, Nancy, you can see you have a job ahead of you.”

“If Uncle Ed will let us stay,” Bess said. “Say, is it my imagination or isn’t it getting hotter in this wagon?” She mopped her forehead with a handkerchief. “Better start on the second jug of water.”

As Bess turned around to reach for it, Nancy glanced at the temperature gauge. “Oh no!” she exclaimed. “We’re overheating!”

Grimly she slowed down and stopped. The girls climbed out.

Bess leaned into the car and released the lock of the hood. Nancy and George, using handkerchiefs on the hot metal, tried to lift it. At first the hood stuck, then suddenly flew up.

“Look out!” warned Nancy, unscrewing the radiator cap. She jumped back, pulling George with her as steam and boiling water spouted from the radiator.

“Are you all right?” Bess cried anxiously as she hurried toward them.

“I am. How about you, George?”

“I’m okay,” said George, brushing the moisture from her face and short-cropped hair. “Just what I didn’t need. A hot bath.”

“Good thing we didn’t drink that other jug of water,” said Nancy. “We’ll need it for the radiator.”

“There must be a leak in it,” George said, looking worried. “The water’ll run right through.”

“It can’t be too bad,” Nancy reasoned. “After all, we came a long way before trouble started.”

“That’s right,” George conceded. “We should be able to make it to the ranch.” She went to the back of the ranch wagon and quickly returned with the Thermos jug.

She removed the top and handed the jug to Nancy, who tilted it over the radiator.
Not a drop came out!