Ned stepped forward. “Don’t you think I’d better go?”
Nancy shook her head. “That ladder looks mighty rickety and I’m a few pounds lighter than you.”
“A good many!” he corrected. “All right, but be careful.”
Nancy had no trouble descending the ladder until she came to the third rung from the bottom. Then, without warning, it splintered and threw her off balance. She landed in a heap beside the stricken boy.
From above Bess cried out, “Oh goodness! Nancy, are you hurt?”
“No. I’m all right,” Nancy shouted, as she scrambled to her feet. Then she leaned over the boy. “Tell me what happened to you. Didn’t you know about this place?”
“No, and I didn’t see the hole in the dark,” he replied. “But how am I going to get out of here?”
“Can you stand?” Nancy asked, wondering if the boy had any further injuries.
With her assistance he got up. “I guess I’m all right except for this arm.” It hung limp at his side.
“I’m so sorry,” Nancy said. She then asked him to try climbing the ladder by using one hand for support. “I’ll help boost you,” she offered.
With the old wooden ladder now groaning and cracking, she managed to help him until those above could grab his uninjured arm and the back of his coat and pull him to safety. Nancy scrambled up the few remaining steps.
Ned began to question the boy, who said his name was Jim Gorgo.
“We’ll take you to a hospital,” he offered. “Have you any choice about which one?”
“No,” Jim replied. “But I guess the River Heights General would be the best.”
He was helped into the rear seat. “You’re regular folks,” he commented. “And I’m mighty lucky you happened to come along.”
Nancy spoke to him kindly. “Jim, you’re a very good sport. I know that you’re in pain, but please explain why you were in that particular spot in the woods.”
The rickety ladder gave way.
The boy took so long to answer that she and Ned thought he was being evasive.
Finally he said, “I might as well tell you the truth. A man sent me for a package that was supposed to be left at the old oak tree. I thought I’d take a shortcut, but now I’m sorry I did.”
Ned asked him, “Are you a member of the gang who tried to beat us up?”
“Oh no,” Jim replied quickly. “I don’t know anything about that. I came here on my own. The man who wanted the package said he’d pay me well for getting it. I wasn’t supposed to tell anybody, but you folks have been so good to me, it’s the least I can do.”
Jim suggested that maybe one of the boys would like to go back and get the package and deliver it himself.
“I guess the man wouldn’t care as long as he gets the package.”
Nancy and Ned exchanged glances. She asked Jim, “What’s the man’s name?”
“I don’t know.”
“Oh come,” said Ned, “you must. Otherwise, how would you know where to deliver the package?”
Again Jim took a long time before answering. Then he said, “Honest, I’m telling the truth. I don’t know the man’s real name. He told me to call him Fleetfoot.”
Fleetfoot!
Nancy was so delighted she could hardly keep from showing it, but she calmly asked, “Maybe one of us could make the delivery. Where would we find this man?”
Jim answered, “You know where the Waterfall Motel is?”
“Yes,” Nancy replied.
“Well, I don’t think Fleetfoot’s staying at the motel,” Jim said, “but he told me to meet him in the garden there.”
“That sounds easy,” Ned said. “As soon as we leave you, we’ll decide.”
In a few minutes the group reached the hospital. Ned drove up at once to the emergency entrance and went for a nurse, who came outside with a wheelchair. Jim climbed into it. Again he thanked the young people for rescuing him; then the nurse opened the door and pushed the new patient inside.
At this moment the other two couples drove up. “That boy is lucky,” Dave remarked. “If we hadn’t happened to go out there, he might have died of starvation in that pit.”
The thought sobered the others, and there was little conversation as Ned turned Nancy’s car and they all went back to the site of the old oak tree. The package was still there. Dave got out of the other car and brought it to Nancy.
“Thanks,” she said. “Now which of you boys is going to the Waterfall Motel to deliver this?”
Dave said, “Suppose I do the errand alone. Fleetfoot has never seen me and won’t suspect my motives are anything but good.”
The two cars stopped some distance from the motel. As Dave started off with the package, Nancy whispered to him, “Don’t try to capture Fleetfoot. I want him to get the fake tablet!”
CHAPTER VII
Petroglyphs
DAVE walked slowly among the trees in the garden of the Waterfall Motel. It was large and well kept, with meandering walkways among various flower beds. Light filtered from motel windows and doors.
“It’s just dark enough,” the Emerson student thought, “so it will be easy for me not to be detected as a substitute messenger.”
Clutching the package under one arm, he sauntered along, watching the various paths but keeping out of sight.
“I hope I’m not too late,” he told himself. “If Fleetfoot expected Jim Gorgo some time ago, he may have left.”
At this moment, Dave saw two men coming along a walk near where he was standing. One was about five feet ahead of the other. Dave wondered whether or not they were together.
“Probably the one behind is a bodyguard for the man in front,” he told himself.
Dave decided not to announce himself but to wait for some sign from the men. To his disappointment there was none.
They walked on for some distance. Then they stopped abruptly, turned, and, taking the same positions, retraced their steps toward the spot where Dave was hiding. Now he was sure they had come for the stone tablet. Was one of them Fleetfoot?
When the man in the lead reached Dave, the boy called out, “Pardon me, sir, but are you waiting for a package?”
“Yes, I am. Have you got it?”
Instead of replying, Dave asked, “What’s your name? I can’t deliver it to the wrong person. It’s too valuable.”
The stranger became surly. “Never mind what my name is, but if yours is Jim Gorgo and you have the package, hand it over.”
Before the men had arrived, Dave had laid the wrapped stone petroglyph on the ground with a special purpose in mind. As he leaned over to get it, he pulled a miniature camera from his pocket. It could take pictures in the dark, without a flashbulb.
The whole episode lasted about two seconds. A picture was snapped as the package was being handed over.
Apparently the two men were unaware of what had happened. One of them quickly grabbed the stone tablet, and the two hurried up the walk.
Dave did not follow. Instead, he set the little camera in motion to develop the picture. When it was ready, he tore the paper out and walked toward a light. He had photographed the faces of the two men, and they were clear enough to be identified. Excited, he returned to Nancy’s house.
“How did you make out?” she asked.
Dave wore a big grin. He pulled the photograph from his pocket. “Here are the men who came after the package,” he announced.
Nancy stared at the two faces, then said, “Neither of these men is Fleetfoot, but that was a great piece of detective work, Dave.”
“What will you do with the photograph?” he asked.
Nancy said she would take it to police headquarters at once and find out if these men were among wanted persons. “Let’s go!”
“It’s my turn again,” Dave spoke up. “They may want to see my camera.”
Ned grinned and made no protest. Nancy and Dave set off for police headquarters. Chief McGinnis was not on duty, but the sergeant at the desk knew Nan
cy and the story about Fleetfoot.
He looked at the photograph, then sent for a book containing pictures of wanted persons. After a long search he announced that they had no record of the two men.
“They must be Fleetfoot’s pals,” Nancy suggested.
The sergeant nodded. He offered to have duplicate pictures made for Dave and Nancy. He would keep the original.
While a rookie was developing the extra prints, the sergeant asked to see Dave’s camera.
“We don’t have one as fine as this in our department,” he said. “Where did you get it?”
Dave said it had been a gift from his uncle, who had partially invented the camera. It was not on the market yet.
Presently the rookie returned with the pictures and handed them to Nancy and Dave. The sergeant said he would discuss the case with Chief McGinnis, and some men would be alerted to watch for the two suspects.
Nancy and Dave went back to the Drew home, but the group soon decided to separate and return to the girls’ individual homes.
“Breakfast at eight,” Nancy sang out, as the others were leaving.
The following morning a phone call came from Chief McGinnis. He reported to Nancy that his men had had no luck in tracing the two suspects who had taken the package the night before.
“I’m afraid,” the officer said, “that Fleetfoot and his friends had too much of a head start. They probably left town right after the pickup.”
As Nancy finished the conversation, the front doorbell rang. The postman was there with a special-delivery letter for Ned. Nancy signed for it, then took the letter to him.
“This is what I’ve been waiting for,” he said. “Our tickets! I asked the travel agent to send them here.”
Ned opened the envelope quickly and pulled out plane tickets for the whole group. He explained that they would fly from River Heights to Chicago, then to Las Vegas, Nevada.
“We’ll stay there with one of the boys from the University. He’s going on the dig with us.”
“When do we leave?” Nancy asked.
“Tomorrow morning.”
There was a loud squeal from Bess. “Why didn’t somebody tell me? I must go right home and pack. I haven’t even decided what to take.”
Ned reminded her that all she had to put in her suitcase were her clothes. Everything else was to be ready for them in Las Vegas.
“I burn so easily,” said Bess, “that I’d better take plenty of suntan lotion and a big hat.”
George asked, “Nancy, are you going to carry the precious stone tablet with you or return it to Mrs. Wabash?”
“I’ll call Mrs. Wabash—I mean Mrs. Mary Morton, and do as she wishes.”
Nancy phoned the woman and asked her what she wanted done with the tablet. At once Mrs. Wabash requested that Nancy keep it.
“You have a lot of people with you, so there is less chance of it’s being stolen from you than from me. I’ll be traveling alone.”
“Are you going back home soon?” Nancy queried.
“Yes.”
The girl detective now asked if it would be possible for the Indian woman to come to the Drew home and decipher the symbols on the tablet. “Do you recall what was on the other tablets?”
“Vaguely,” she said.
Mrs. Wabash agreed to disguise herself a bit and take a taxi to Nancy’s home. When she arrived, Nancy brought out the tablet. Mrs. Wabash began to explain some of the symbols.
“This wavering line means a stream. Over here, near the deer, is a cloud.”
Nancy asked, “These two men with crude spears—what do they mean?”
“I believe,” Mrs. Wabash replied, “that it indicates a fight between the men. By the way, notice that their crude spears are launched from atlatls. These were heavy pieces of notched wood. By putting the foot of the spear into this, a man could launch his weapon much farther than he could with his hands.”
There was silence for a few moments, then the Indian continued, “I think perhaps the two men who are fighting represent two tribes. They probably had had a war, but there is nothing here to indicate for certain who won the battle.”
“Maybe that’s on another tablet,” Nancy suggested.
“Possibly,” Mrs. Wabash agreed. “The tablets had no marks on them to indicate the order in which they were to be read. I was working on that just before they were stolen from me.”
The conversation was interrupted by the telephone, and Nancy left to answer it.
Chief McGinnis was calling. “I have a little news for you,” he said. “I don’t know how useful it is, though. Two of my patrolmen spotted the men in Dave’s picture. But they declared they had already delivered the package and were innocent of any wrongdoing. They would reveal nothing about Fleetfoot, nor would they identify the man to whom they had given the package as being the thief we’re looking for.
“Of course, we had to let them go,” McGinnis continued, “but they’ll be kept under surveillance. If anything else comes in, I’ll let you know.”
Nancy thanked him, then went back to hear more of Mrs. Wabash’s story. She confessed to having thought the chuckwalla lighted up but probably was wrong.
Bess had been studying one of the human figures. She giggled. “This creature doesn’t seem to be wearing any clothes but has a very fancy headdress.”
The Indian woman said she had translated this to mean that the two figures, which she thought were male and female, could indicate a battle between the chief and his leaders and the common people.
“I believe the common people won,” Mrs. Wabash said, “because of the elaborate headdress, which no doubt was taken from the chief and put on the head of the rebel leader.”
George remarked, “That’s a fascinating theory. It will be fun to prove it someday.”
As they all stared at the other figures, Nancy, who had been using her magnifying glass, suddenly exclaimed, “Look at this!”
CHAPTER VIII
Say It in Code
IN the lower right-hand corner of the plaque, Nancy had detected an almost obliterated oblong mark.
“It has very faint petroglyphs on it,” she announced.
First Mrs. Wabash, then Nancy’s friends, looked at it through the magnifying glass.
Finally Bess said, “What do you think the marks represent, Nancy? It doesn’t look like much to me.”
Nancy waited for Mrs. Wabash to answer but when she did not speak, the young detective said, “Could this carving depict one of the golden tablets?”
Ned remarked that if it were, this was an amazing deduction. Nancy, now thoroughly intrigued, went for an even stronger magnifying glass, which her father kept in a desk drawer. She trained it on the faint petroglyph.
“This looks like a man gathering something from a stream. I think this hairline mark indicates a stream. Maybe he has found gold nuggets and will make a plate from them!”
She handed the magnifying glass to the owner of the tablet. “What do you think, Mrs. Wabash?”
The Indian woman gazed at the symbol a long time. “I believe you’re right, Nancy,” she said, smiling.
She added that Nancy had made a valuable contribution to the mystery. “I would even guess that the long-forgotten city ran along the banks of this stream. The golden plates perhaps were made from nuggets found there, and the plates are hidden in that area.”
Bess sighed. “Do you think we can ever find that city and the sheets of gold?”
“I’ll wager,” said Burt, “that if anybody can find them Nancy Drew can.”
The young sleuth grinned. “It’s a big order, but I hope you’re right.”
Mrs. Wabash rose to leave. She said she would meet the young people in Las Vegas.
“I’ll memorize your address there, so if anybody takes my purse again, it won’t reveal where you are.”
Nancy thanked her for thinking of this. “Now my friends and I will memorize your address and phone number.”
They all repeated it several times, t
hen said good-by to the Indian woman. Soon afterward the three couples separated to attend to their packing.
Early the next morning they gathered again at Nancy’s house, and Mr. Drew said he would drive them all to the airport. Hannah Gruen bid them farewell, her eyes moist with affection. She pleaded with Nancy to be careful of Fleetfoot and of poisonous serpents or reptiles like the gila monster.
“I’ll do my best to avoid them,” Nancy agreed.
She hugged the housekeeper affectionately and hurried to the car.
On the way to the airport Nancy said to the others, “Don’t you think it would be a good idea if we had a signaling system in code?”
“Great,” Ned agreed. “You mean hand signals?”
“No, that is too obvious,” Nancy replied. “How about three or four sentences? The third word in each sentence will be a message to the rest of us.”
“Give us an example,” Dave suggested.
The girl detective thought a few moments, then said, “I always suspect bargains. Sometimes I’m standing near a sales counter. I inspect nearby merchandise also.”
For a couple of seconds her listeners looked blank, but Mr. Drew said, “I get it. The message is, ‘Suspect standing nearby.’ ”
“Pretty cool,” Burt commented. “Anybody else smart enough to think of one?”
At first nobody answered, but finally George grinned and said:Please, Santa, look in my empty sock.
Fill it up real high.
A hole’s in the toe, but never mind.
The Christmas tree won’t sigh.
The others burst into laughter. Dave thought it was a bit corny, but George’s message was good. “It said, ‘Look up in tree.’ ”
By this time, Mr. Drew had reached the airport, and farewells were exchanged. When the travelers arrived at O’Hare Airport in Chicago, they learned that the plane to Las Vegas would be late.
“We have a long wait,” Bess complained. “I’m going for a tall chocolate float.”
The three boys said they would rather take a walk. Nancy and George went with Bess to the concourse for a cool drink. On the way back to the gate at which they would board the plane, Nancy bought a newspaper.