Nancy whirled around and raced up the stairs and along the hall to the rear of the building. She came to a second stairway leading to the third floor, and took the steps two at a time. The man shouted for her to stop, but she ran until she found a small closet to hide in.
Time passed. Her breathing finally slowed and she strained her ears, expecting a search, but none came! Cordova hadn’t even chased her, Nancy realized with a chill; he was so sure that she was trapped in the house that he didn’t feel the need to lock her up.
Confused and very much alone, the young detective finally emerged from the closet and retraced her steps to her room in the old wing. Just as she’d feared, there was no sign that Elena or Ricardo had come back. Discouraged and weary, Nancy ate the rolls from her purse and pondered what to do next.
She went to the window and looked out over the empty countryside that stretched away from the base of the cliff. Her search of the house so far had revealed no telephone that she could use to reach her father. But there must be a way to communicate with the rest of the world from here, the girl thought—maybe from somewhere outside the house.
“Meow!” Nancy turned to see her door opening as the black cat pushed his way in.
“Well, Maro, I’m happy to see you,” she told him, dropping to her knees and stroking the cat’s sleek fur. “You did me a good turn in the hall today.”
The cat’s purr increased in volume as he rippled under her fingers. “Now, if you could just tell me how to get out of here ...” Nancy’s voice trailed off as Maro leaped onto the bed and kneaded himself a nest in the covers. He settled down with a yawn that revealed sharp white teeth, then his green eyes closed.
“Thanks, anyway,” Nancy told him. “I’ll try on my own. There must be a way out, because I’m sure Ricardo didn’t carry me in through the front door with Senor Cordova watching.”
She recalled the side tunnels she’d noticed on her two trips through the secret passage. I’d better check them out, she decided, and went to the library. Once again she descended the stone stairs. The first passage proved to be a dead end, terminated by a pile of fallen rock, but the second rose steeply to a small door.
Nancy hesitated, afraid of what she might find on the other side. Then she took a deep breath and turned the ornate, old handle. To her surprise and relief, the door opened soundlessly into a thick tangle of green vines!
“Ricardo and Elena must have come in this way,” she thought, noting that several of the vines were withered and broken. “Now if I only knew where they are!”
The outside world was bright with sunlight. What had once been beautiful, formal gardens stretched in every direction, but the signs of neglect were obvious. Weeds and grass choked the flowerbeds, and trees and bushes grew in wild profusion, untrimmed and uncared for. In the distance, the property was surrounded by a tall stone wall. A guard was walking along the road near the gate.
“It’s a fortress,” Nancy mused. “No wonder Senor Cordova is so sure I can’t escape!”
She moved through the heavy undergrowth circling the huge building. The opposite side overlooked the cliff she’d seen from her window. In the rear, there were a stable, three sheds, and a fenced-in area where a number of burros were grazing.
Following an overgrown section of citrus trees, Nancy made her way to the compound. The curious animals trotted toward her immediately. Their leader, a dainty white jenny, extended her nose over the rail to sniff at Nancy’s arm.
“Hello there,” the girl said, patting the velvety nose, then scratching behind the long ears. “You’re a friendly creature.”
The rest of the burros wheeled and moved away at the sound of her voice, but the white jenny stayed, following Nancy along the fence as she headed for the stable. It was the first place she planned to search, and a moment later she slipped into the shadow of the small building.
It was empty. The stalls were not in use, and the hay was musty and dry. Elena and Ricardo were not there, so Nancy moved on, investigating the sheds, searching among farm equipment, seed, and old riding tack. But there was no sign of her friends.
Where can they be? Nancy asked herself, leaning against the outer wall of the last shed, her frustration and worry bringing her close to tears. She felt helpless with the huge mansion looming above her, knowing that guards patrolled the outer perimeters of the grounds.
A shout interrupted her thoughts, and Nancy looked around, afraid that she’d been spotted. Senor Cordova had emerged from the rear of the house and was striding rapidly in her direction. The girl detective dropped to her knees and scudded backward into a thick tangle of flowering bushes.
There were sounds of running feet, and in a moment she saw several men coming close to her hiding place. Her blood chilled as she realized that Senor Cordova had called in his guards. Obviously, he wanted them to search for her.
“There is an American girl on the property,” he began, his rapid Spanish rather difficult for Nancy to follow. “I want her found and taken to Mesa del Oro to join the others.” He described Nancy carefully, finishing, “She must not be allowed to leave the estate grounds. Is that clear? No matter what, she must not escape!”
The men murmured in assent and hurried back to their posts. Nancy cowered beneath the protective branches of the sheltering bush, watching Senor Cordova survey the area with cold eyes, his face hard and ugly.
She shivered, realizing what his words meant. He wanted her sent to wherever he was holding Elena and Ricardo!
10. Escape
Once Cordova had returned to the house, Nancy began her long and dangerous retreat to the hidden door. It was clear to her now that escaping from the estate would be almost impossible. Moreover, since she had no idea where the hacienda was located, she would not know where to go even if she could get outside the walls.
Alone in her musty room, Nancy lay down beside Maro, stroking the cat and trying to think. The outbuildings had revealed no clue, but the conversation she’d overheard had told her where Elena and Ricardo were being held—if indeed they were the “others” that Cordova had referred to. But where was Mesa del Oro?
“Well, I can’t just hide here with you forever, Maro,” she finally told the cat. “I have to help Elena, Ricardo, and Senora Rosalinda.”
The cat began to purr loudly.
“There has to be a phone somewhere,” Nancy mused. “Maybe in that office. If I could get in there and call Dad ...”
The idea quickly became a plan. She would wait until very late at night, then slip out of her room and go to the office, call her father, and search for a clue to why she’d been kidnapped.
Though hunger made her restless, Nancy waited until well after midnight, unwilling to risk being caught. The house was silent when she let herself out of the closet into the foyer. Moonlight shone in through the windows, making it easier for her to see. Though she longed to raid the refrigerator, she went resolutely toward the office.
The knob turned easily under her touch, but the door didn’t budge. Oh, no, she thought. He keeps it locked!
She set to work with her nail file, and in a moment the tumblers clicked and the door swung open. With her heart pounding, she hurried in and looked for a telephone. There was none!
Sighing, Nancy set her candle on the desk. “Well, let’s see what he does keep in here,” she murmured, opening the desk drawers and beginning a systematic search of the records.
Her disappointment over the missing telephone was quickly forgotten as she made discovery after discovery. Financial statements told her that the hacienda was the nerve center for a huge estate with holdings all over the world. They seemed to cover a vast variety of enterprises.
Nancy also found two important documents. One was the Last Will and Testament of Carlos del Luz, in which he left control of the estate to his wife, Rosalinda, and to his niece, Elena Escobar, on the day she became twenty-one. The other was an unsigned Power of Attorney made out to Senor Cordova.
“So that’s why time is
running out,” Nancy murmured. “Elena will be twenty-one soon. She’ll marry Ricardo and they won’t need Cordova. That’s why he’s trying to force Rosalinda into signing the Power of Attorney.”
Another file showed that Isabella, the housekeeper, had been hired by Senor Cordova a few days after Elena had left for college. This made Nancy suspect that she’d been employed to help Cordova change the independent aunt whom Elena had loved into the terrified stranger Nancy had talked to so briefly.'
The young detective sighed, replacing the papers. She’d solved the mystery, but it gave her no satisfaction, since she had no idea how she could use the information to help Elena or her aunt. Frustrated, she looked around the room.
Her eyes fell on a wall hanging above the file cabinets. She lifted the candle for closer inspection and realized that it was an old map of the estate.
Some of the drawing was faded and the lettering was in Spanish, but after a few minutes, Nancy was able to locate the burro pasture, which turned out to be much larger than she had realized, and, beyond it, a road. The village of Mesa del Oro was not too far south from there!
Tingling with excitement, Nancy looked for a piece of paper and a pen so she could copy that section of the huge map. As she turned, her elbow hit the heavy, brass desk lamp and pushed it to one side. She grabbed the lamp to keep it from falling, but she wasn’t quick enough to catch an ornate box that stood on the other side. It crashed to the floor, popping open to reveal a telephone!
The noise froze Nancy on the spot. She should run, she knew, yet the lure of the telephone was too great. It was her only chance to get in touch with her father . . .
She dropped to her knees beside the box and picked up the receiver. Before she could dial, however, she heard a door slamming somewhere. Knowing that she hadn’t a chance of reaching the closet sanctuary, Nancy blew out her candle and slipped under the desk out of sight.
Nothing happened for a few moments and she began to hope that somehow she’d escaped detection. She reached out for the phone box, planning to strike a match and call the operator.
Just then, however, the office door banged open and the light flashed on, nearly blinding her as she jerked back into her hiding place. She realized, even as she did so, that her candle was still sitting on the desk in plain sight.
“Who is in here?” Isabella demanded.
Nancy held her breath.
“Maro, where are you, you bad cat?” The woman came closer, picked up the telephone box, and set it back on the desk. “If you did this, Senor Cordova will be after your hide.”
Isabella’s feet were almost close enough for Nancy to touch. A moment later, the girl heard a sharp intake of breath and knew that the woman had seen the candle and realized what it meant.
“You are in here, girl,” Isabella said, her tone threatening now as she backed away from the desk. “You cannot hide from me.” Nancy looked up and saw the hard face peering at her, the thin-lipped mouth opening to scream. She slipped out of her hiding place, holding out a hand. “Please, Isabella,” she began, “I was brought here by kidnappers and I just want to leave. If you’ll help me—”
But the woman yelled loudly and grabbed Nancy’s arms, twisting them behind the girl’s back.
Nancy’s training as an athlete enabled her to break the vise-like grip. But as she whirled around, Isabella doubled her fist and moved to strike her. Nancy ducked and thrust out her arms, throwing the woman off balance. Isabella went down in a heap behind the big desk.
Instantly, Nancy grabbed her candle and fled across the foyer into the closet. As she opened the secret panel and stepped through it, she heard the heavy pounding of feet above her and knew that Senor Cordova was on his way!
Nancy lit her candle and hurried down the stone steps into the passage that led to the outside. A plan was forming in her mind. It would take Cordova and Isabella a while to search the house, and she was hoping they wouldn’t look beyond it until they were positive that she’d escaped.
In the darkness, it was much easier to make her way around the house. She stopped at the shed where the riding equipment was kept and risked lighting a match to locate a battered halter and lead rope. Then she headed toward the compound, hoping that the white jenny was still as friendly as she had been earlier.
But when she reached the fence, lights suddenly sprung up all along the high wall. Running feet and shouts echoed in the night air! Nancy slipped through the fence quickly, heading for the brush alongside a small ravine that ran through most of the field. There was no sign of the burro herd, but for the moment, she was more concerned with staying hidden than anything else.
The brush caught in her sweater and pulled her hair. Nancy moved ahead cautiously, pausing often to listen for pursuit. At first she heard nothing, but by the time she reached the midpoint of the field, there was a crackling behind her.
Nancy froze, crouching beside a rocky outcropping. The noise continued. It sounded like footsteps of more than one person. Yet no one spoke. Nancy tried to make herself smaller, burying her fair hair and light skin in her dark- clad arms. Suddenly, something touched her back. Nancy leaped to her feet, stifling a scream.
11. Mesa del Oro
The frightened girl stared into the face of the white burro, who jumped back, then looked at her questioningly, its long ears twitching.
“Oh!” Nancy breathed. “You scared me half to death.”
The jenny, evidently trusting Nancy, came forward again, her soft muzzle sniffing at the girl’s pockets. Nancy scratched her for a moment, then slipped the halter on her.
“You must be someone’s pet,” she said in relief when the burro accepted the halter without protest and followed her along the ravine. “I just hope you like to be ridden.”
When there was a break in the ground cover, Nancy peered back at the mansion. The old
house loomed against the night sky, and she could see the guards standing ready on the walls. Lights illuminated all approaches to the gates.
Will they think of looking this way? Nancy wondered. Or are they sure she couldn’t have escaped through the pasture? She tried to remember the details on the map in Cordova’s office, but she had had little time to study it, and the candle’s light had been unsteady.
The terrain began to change, and suddenly Nancy found herself in a thicket of trees that continued endlessly. At first she was relieved, for she felt safer in the shelter of the spreading branches. But then she began to worry about getting lost.
“Little burro, do you know where we’re going?” she asked.
The white head rubbed against her arm as the creature moved along next to her without hesitation. Nancy rested an arm across the animal’s furry withers, allowing herself to be led through the forest.
Suddenly several dark shapes materialized around them. After her initial fright, Nancy realized she was surrounded by the entire burro herd! They all made their way along purposefully, not halting until they topped a small rise,
and a break in the trees showed the fence at the end of the compound.
Nancy swallowed hard. The road she’d seen on the map was nowhere to be seen!
“Now how do I find Mesa del Oro?” she asked herself, staring at the forest on the far side of the fence.
There was no gate, but the fence was built of small logs resting on notched posts, and Nancy could simply lift two logs and lead the white burro through. When the rest followed, Nancy felt a twinge of guilt, then she smiled.
“Maybe Cordova will think you broke out on your own,” she giggled. “I just hope we’re not escaping into total wilderness, where we’ll all starve to death.”
The burros spread out to graze in a thick carpet of grass beneath the trees. Nancy watched them for a moment, then sighed. “Well, where some of us will starve to death,” she amended.
She led her jenny forward a short distance, seeking a clearing in the forest, then looked up at the stars, trying to remember the constellations that would be overhead in this p
art of the world. The intense darkness of the night made the stars wonderfully visible. It took her only a few moments to establish her directions. South should be this way, she decided, pointing
left. Maybe if I go straight for a little longer, I’ll get to the road after all.
Nancy spotted a distant rise and started toward it, still leading the jenny, not wanting to ride her until she was more confident of where they were going. The other burros watched their departure. Only one followed, and it stopped to graze again after only a few steps.
“They don’t have much confidence in my sense of direction, do they?” Nancy asked, feeling much the same way.
The hike through the dark forest seemed endless, and she was beginning to lose hope. Suddenly, the burro stopped, her ears bent sharply forward as though she was expecting something. Nancy took a stronger hold on the lead rope and held her breath, not sure what they might be facing. The sounds of a motor could be heard almost at once, then they stopped as light beams penetrated the brush just ahead of her.
“Do you really think she could make it this far?” a man asked in Spanish.
“I did not think she could even get away from the hacienda,” Senor Cordova growled.
The burro stamped her small hooves and lifted her head, but the young detective clamped strong fingers over her muzzle before she could bray and give their position away. It
was obvious that the jenny shared Nancy’s feelings about Senor Cordova. However, this was not the time to express them.
“Where would she be heading?” the other man asked.
“Away from the hacienda,” was the answer, “and that is the one thing we cannot risk. She must be caught and held until— We just do not want her wandering around loose.” Senor Cordova finished, obviously not trusting his companion with his plans.
“Shall we patrol the roads?” the man asked.
“We will have to if Isabella has not found her when we get back to the house,” Senor Cordova replied. “Now let us go and see if anyone else has been more successful.”