The Legend of Miner's Creek

  “Elsa goes into town to meet her sister on Thursday nights,” Rachel explained as the girls entered the large, empty kitchen. “And Pete always takes the guests to town for a movie.”

  Rachel flipped on the lights, and the girls gathered around a small counter in the center of the room, waiting for Bess to tell her story.

  Bess took a deep breath. “Okay,” she began. “It started when we got back early. Pete was unsaddling a horse—a sweaty horse that looked as if it had been ridden hard. And later I saw Pete talking to Tyler by Tyler’s cabin. They broke apart as soon as they saw me. I don’t know what they were saying.”

  Nancy nodded. “It sounds as if those two could be working together. Pete knows the layout of the retreat. He could easily have set up all the accidents, with Tyler’s help.”

  “Wait, there’s more,” Bess said, touching Nancy’s arm. “I went back to the barn—just to check on my horse, since I didn’t have anything else to do. I was going to give her a handful of grain. But behind the grain can, I found this. . . .”

  Bess reached in her pocket and pulled out the piece of gold-laced quartz.

  “That’s Granddad’s ore!” Rachel cried. She took the rock from Bess and held it in both hands. “But why do you suppose it was in the barn?”

  Nancy thought for a moment. “Can you tell if any pieces have been chipped off the rock?” she asked. “Maybe someone wanted an assay report on the ore.”

  Rachel frowned and turned the piece of quartz slowly in her hand. “It looks the same to me,” she said, handing it to Nancy. “But I’m not sure I could tell.”

  Nancy looked at the quartz carefully. There were no signs of scraping or grinding on the rock, but, like many quartz stones, it had so many bumps and angles that it would have been hard to tell if a small piece had been chipped away. She returned the ore to Rachel.

  “It doesn’t seem to make sense to me that Pete would have taken it,” Rachel said.

  Nancy didn’t answer. Her impulse was to agree with Rachel, but no one spent as much time in the barn as Pete.

  Bess’s eyes had wandered to a plate of brownies on the kitchen counter. “Maybe we’ll be able to think better after a snack,” she suggested.

  Nancy suddenly remembered that they hadn’t eaten dinner yet. “I’m pretty hungry,” she said. “But I’m afraid I’ll be just as baffled after I eat as I am right now.”

  Rachel sighed and slipped the piece of gold ore into her pocket. Then she led the girls to a large refrigerator, where they found leftover roast turkey and potatoes.

  “Wait until the barbecue tomorrow,” Rachel said. “Elsa’s fixing a special roast.”

  Rachel had told the girls that Charlie had planned the special event in honor of their visit. He had invited all the guests at the retreat. Maddie and B.D. were coming, too.

  “I can’t wait,” Bess said. “Nothing would keep me away from a barbecue.”

  Rachel set containers of food on a long white counter by the refrigerator. George and Nancy filled stoneware plates with turkey, corn, mashed potatoes, and gravy. Then they placed the plates in the microwave to heat, one by one, as Rachel pulled up stools around the center counter. Bess watched the others eat as she munched on a piece of celery.

  Nancy was just taking her last bite of corn when a huge crash sounded from the main room of the lodge. Nancy rushed through the swinging Dutch doors, followed by George, Rachel, and Bess.

  The floor was littered with scattered artifacts from Charlie’s historical display. A large framed picture of an old-time prospector lay facedown on the floor, and a pair of saddlebags that had hung on the wall was thrown carelessly in a corner. Looking through a window facing the front of the lodge, Nancy saw the dark figure of a man running down the porch steps.

  “Stop!” Nancy ordered as she darted across the big room, jumping lightly over a prospector’s pan. She pulled open the front door, hoping to catch another glimpse of the fleeing figure, but the porch was deserted.

  Nancy hurried down the steps, colliding with a tall, sturdy man. It was B.D. Eastham.

  Nancy was hit so hard that she fell backward. She would have tumbled onto the steps if B.D. hadn’t reached out and grabbed her arm.

  “Whoa, there, Nancy,” B.D. said as he helped Nancy catch her balance. “What’s the hurry?”

  “I—I was looking for someone,” Nancy stammered, stepping backward. “Someone who just ran out of the lodge.” Nancy looked at B.D. suspiciously. He seemed to have come out of nowhere. “Have you seen anyone?” she asked.

  “No. I just walked around here from my car beside the lodge,” he said, pointing toward the corner of the building. “And I didn’t see anyone till I ran into you—or you ran into me.” He grinned and pushed his hands into his pockets.

  “Are you here to see Charlie?” Nancy asked.

  “Yup.” B.D. looked at the lighted dial on his watch. “It’s nine o’clock. I’m right on time.”

  Nancy remembered that Charlie and B.D. played cribbage every Thursday. She watched B.D.’s face closely in the dim glow of the porch light. He wore his usual cheerful smile. Nancy felt a little embarrassed for having run into him.

  “Coming back in?” B.D. asked, gesturing for Nancy to go ahead of him.

  Nancy turned around and stepped back through the front door of the lodge. Inside, George, Bess, Rachel, and Charlie were stacking the papers and framed pictures from the floor.

  “What happened here?” B.D. asked, surveying the mess. “It looks as if a hurricane breezed through.”

  “Not a hurricane,” Rachel said. “Did you see anyone, Nancy?”

  “Just B.D.,” Nancy said. She looked around the room. Someone was missing. “Where’s Tyler?” she asked.

  “He left for town half an hour ago,” Charlie said. “He wanted to put a letter in the mail to the senator so it would go out first thing in the morning.”

  “I could have taken it in for him,” B.D. said.

  Charlie shrugged. “I told him that,” he said. “But Tyler wanted to take a drive, anyway.”

  At the same time the four girls looked up from sorting papers and exchanged glances. Tyler didn’t have an alibi for the ransacking.

  “You all look like you just saw a ghost,” B.D. said. “Am I missing something here?”

  Rachel nodded. “A real mystery,” she told him. “And it’s looking more and more interesting all the time.”

  Nancy was afraid Rachel was going to say too much. “Don’t you think we should let Charlie and B.D. get to their card game?” she said quickly. “We can clean up here. I’d like to look through these things again, anyway.”

  Nancy waited until Charlie and B.D. had climbed the stairs to Charlie’s office and closed the door behind them.

  “I think our culprit is getting desperate,” she told the others. “Someone has been here, looking for another clue.”

  Nancy was silent for a moment, then she looked at Rachel. “Do you think Jeremiah could have hidden a map somewhere?”

  “I’ve never heard of one, but it’s possible,” Rachel said. “Jeremiah was pretty secretive.” She picked up a framed photo and began to examine the back. “Maybe there’s some kind of map among these things.”

  The four girls were soon busy checking every possible place for a clue. As they searched, Nancy, George, and Rachel filled Bess in on their own discoveries.

  “It sure has been a busy day,” Bess said.

  “We’ve added some pieces to the puzzle, but nothing absolutely proves that Pete and Tyler are our culprits,” Nancy said. “After all, anyone could have hidden the ore in the barn. Maybe someone didn’t want to be caught with the evidence and figured the barn would be safe.”

  “But look at the other evidence,” George said, examining a large workhorse collar. “Pete was in the meadow the day of the fire. He was near the jeep when it was rigged to run into the tanker. And he took a horse out this morning, just before we found the rattlesnakes.”

  “But we know Tyle
r lied about when he flew into Eagle Point,” Bess said. “And he left here tonight just half an hour before we found all these things taken down. He had the perfect opportunity to ‘lose’ the documents Charlie sent to the senator, too.”

  “And don’t forget the book about prospecting,” Rachel added.

  “But Maddie could have done all those things, too,” Nancy said, glancing up from some papers.

  Rachel looked hurt. “It’s hard to think of Maddie or Pete trying to harm us,” she said. “I still can’t believe either of them is involved.”

  The girls worked in silence. Nancy didn’t want to say anything more to upset Rachel, who looked sad enough as she searched through the items from the historical display. As the mood in the room grew more and more gloomy, Nancy saw the need to liven things up. She leaned back on her heels and declared cheerfully, “I think we need a new approach.”

  The other girls looked at Nancy with interest.

  “What if there’s a clue here, and it was hidden by Jeremiah himself?” Nancy said. “Where do you think it would be?”

  The silence returned as each of the girls looked around again at the objects on the floor. Nancy reached for a fringed leather jacket and checked it carefully for secret pockets or papers hidden in the lining.

  “Nothing,” she said.

  George leafed through the book she was holding a second time, and Rachel checked a set of old saddlebags for secret compartments. Both girls came up empty-handed.

  Then Nancy reached for Jeremiah’s pick, which had hung above Charlie’s quartz stone. She examined it from top to bottom, finally focusing on the end of the handle.

  “It looks as if this has been cut,” she said. “Like someone hollowed out the handle and then fit another piece of wood in the hole.”

  “You’re right, it does,” Rachel agreed, looking over Nancy’s shoulder. “How can we get it out?”

  “I have an idea,” Nancy said. She got to her feet and hurried toward the kitchen, carrying the pick. There, she took two forks from a drawer and handed the pick to Rachel. “Hold this at an angle,” she instructed her. Then Nancy eased the prongs of the forks into the edge of the wooden plug in the center of the handle, one on each side. She wiggled them until the piece of wood began to work loose.

  Bess’s eyes widened as Nancy carefully removed the wooden plug. The handle of the pickax was hollow.

  “There’s something inside,” Rachel breathed, leaning closer.

  Nancy reached into the handle and pulled out a brittle, yellowed paper. It had been folded many times. She unfolded the paper and laid it on the kitchen counter. She gently flattened it out, holding the corners with her fingers.

  Everyone stared at Nancy’s find in amazement. It was a map of Prospector’s Canyon!

  12

  X Marks the Spot

  Rachel pointed to the roughly drawn map. “Look. This is the waterfall, and this peak with the three points . . . ”

  “Has got to be Castle Rock,” Nancy finished.

  “So, what else does the map tell us?” Bess asked.

  The girls bent over the paper. It was about six inches square, with several small tears along the edges. Nancy held it carefully as Rachel traced the line labeled Miner’s Creek. Then Rachel helped pick out landmarks that George and Nancy recognized from their ride that morning.

  “This looks like the cliffs and the open slope we saw today, where the holes were recently dug,” Rachel said, pointing to some carefully drawn lines. “It looks as if Jeremiah took extra care drawing this part of the map.”

  Each rock of the cliffs was clearly outlined. Near the center of the open hillside, a crevice was shown in the rocks that looked like a shallow cave. An X was drawn in the center of the opening.

  “I don’t remember any caves in that cliff,” Nancy said, frowning.

  “Neither do I,” Rachel said. “But this map was made almost a hundred years ago, and there are a lot of loose rocks on those cliffs. There could be caves that have been covered up by rock slides.”

  “Do you think that’s what happened to Jeremiah’s gold mine?” George asked. “Could it have been covered up by a rock slide so that no one could find it?”

  “Maybe,” Nancy said slowly, tapping the map. “Or Jeremiah might even have covered the cave himself to hide the mine. Maybe he was planning to come back later and finish mining.”

  “But how can we know for sure that this X means a gold mine?” Bess asked.

  “We can’t,” Nancy said. “Not without going back to Prospector’s Canyon and doing some digging of our own. In the meantime, maybe we can use this map to catch a crook.” She looked around at the others. “Let’s not tell anyone what we’ve found until I can think of a way to use it,” she cautioned. “Not even Charlie.” Nancy held Rachel’s gaze for an extra moment. She wanted to be sure she could count on her new friend to keep the secret.

  “Okay, but only for a while,” Rachel agreed finally. “After all, it is Charlie’s land.”

  “I understand,” Nancy said. “Now, let’s finish cleaning up.”

  Nancy refolded the map, taking care not to rip it more. She placed it in the pocket of her shirt and followed the others back into the main room of the lodge.

  The girls quickly rehung pictures and placed objects back on their shelves. Upstairs, the light under the door of Charlie’s office told Nancy that he and B.D. were still playing their card game.

  “I’m ready for bed,” Bess announced as she placed the last picture back on its hook.

  “So am I, but I’m not sure I can walk to the cabin,” George said, hobbling toward the door. Her legs were already getting stiff from the all-day horseback ride.

  “Don’t worry,” Rachel teased. “It’ll be worse tomorrow.”

  • • •

  By morning George could hardly lift her legs out of bed. Nancy, too, was stiff from horseback riding, but she had already stretched her legs by the time George got up.

  “They loosen up pretty quickly,” Nancy assured her friend.

  George put one foot on the back of a chair and gently stretched the muscles in her legs. It took her just a few minutes to work out the stiffness. She pulled on shorts and a sweatshirt, and she, Bess, and Nancy headed to the lodge for breakfast.

  They found an impatient Rachel hovering around the dining room table, on which scrambled eggs, sausage, and a basket of blueberry muffins were waiting for them.

  “I was about to come and wake you up,” she called when the girls walked in. When they had crossed the room to the table, Rachel whispered to Nancy, “Do you have a plan for today?”

  “I want you to take me to visit Maddie,” Nancy told her. “We need to ask her if she’s seen anyone drive by her bird hospital. George, you can keep an eye on Pete while we’re gone, and Bess, your assignment is Tyler.”

  The girls agreed, and after a quick breakfast Nancy and Rachel got in the retreat’s blue van and headed down the dirt driveway. When they reached the main road, Rachel turned right, in the opposite direction from Eagle Point. Then they drove about a mile to the next turnoff.

  “This road leads to both Maddie’s house and Prospector’s Canyon,” Rachel said, steering the van onto a dirt road that wound through the trees. It was several minutes before Nancy spotted a small green house off to the left. The road was heading toward the mountains, but Rachel turned off on a short driveway that led almost to Maddie Emerson’s front door.

  Maddie was on the porch before the girls even got out of the van. Her “good morning” lacked enthusiasm, Nancy thought, and her smile seemed strained. Her eyes darted back and forth from Nancy to Rachel.

  “We just stopped by to chat,” Rachel said cheerfully. “How’s Rocky?”

  “Pretty good, really,” Maddie said. Her voice sounded a bit friendlier. “He’s still eating, and he’s using his wing some now. I think he may even fly again, in a couple more weeks. You can help me release him.”

  “Rocky is a golden eagle,” Rachel explai
ned to Nancy. “His wing was broken.”

  “Yes, when he was shot by some fool city hunter,” Maddie broke in. Her voice was angry again. “And you wonder why I don’t want more people around here.”

  “The birds are lucky to have you as their guardian angel,” Nancy said. “I’d love to see Rocky sometime.”

  Maddie didn’t offer to show Nancy the eagle, but she invited both girls inside. Her house was small, not much bigger than the cabins back at the retreat. As she heated water for tea, Nancy let Rachel do most of the talking.

  “So, have you figured a way to get an operating room here?” Rachel asked.

  Maddie shook her head. “No. I can barely afford the bills to take the birds to the vet, let alone have him come here,” she answered.

  Rachel explained to Nancy that the trip to the veterinarian in town for surgery was hard on the injured birds. The trips back and forth over the dirt road, and being around the cats and dogs that were always at the vet’s, also increased their distress.

  “Maddie wants to build a new, bigger place for the birds, but she doesn’t have the money right now,” Rachel finished.

  “There may be a way, though,” Maddie said. “I’m working on something.”

  Nancy waited, but Maddie did not explain her plan. What exactly was the woman working on? Nancy wondered.

  Maddie grew a bit friendlier as the morning went on. By the time they had finished their tea, Nancy was beginning to understand why Rachel liked the woman so much. She showed a gentler nature to Rachel, and the two of them shared a love for the creatures of the forest.

  “Come on, I’ll let you see Rocky,” Maddie said finally. She led the way to a door at the back of her small house.

  “I’ve also got some baby owls,” she said. “A logger cut down the tree their nest was in, poor things, but they’re doing better now.”

  She put her finger to her lips, then slowly opened the door to her hospital.

  Nancy quickly saw that the large room was bigger than the part of the house that Maddie lived in. Along the far wall were shelves filled with large and small cages. In one cage two small owls were just losing their baby fuzz.