The Legend of Miner's Creek

  “We’re pretty sure it shows the location of Jeremiah’s gold mine,” Nancy said, explaining where she had found the map. “And tonight we’re going to use it as bait to catch a crook.”

  Nancy sent George to get a pinch of black sand from the prospecting pan in the display downstairs. While she was gone, Nancy quickly copied the important landmarks on the map, including the rocks of the cliff and the X. When George returned, Nancy had her drop the sand in an envelope. Then Nancy folded the map up.

  She handed the map to Charlie and put the copy in her pocket. “Tonight at the barbecue, wear a jacket and make sure everyone knows that map is in the pocket,” Nancy told him.

  Charlie nodded.

  “We’ll help you find an excuse to come back to the lodge and leave your jacket on the hook,” Nancy went on. “But before you hang it up, I want you to take a pinch of sand from this envelope and put it inside the folded map. If that sand is gone when we unfold the map, we’ll know someone else has looked at it.

  “When you come back to the barbecue without the jacket or the map,” Nancy continued, “our crook will know where to look for it. Then, when he goes to Prospector’s Canyon to look for the gold, he’ll get a big surprise—us!”

  14

  All Together

  Nancy, Charlie, and George had just finished making their plans when they heard the screen door of the lodge swing shut. All three of them hurried to the railing, where they saw Elsa and Rachel below.

  “Where’s Bess?” George asked as they came downstairs, eager for news. “Didn’t she come back with you?”

  “She’s fine.” Elsa’s voice sounded tired. “At least, the doctor thinks she’s all right, but he wanted to keep her in the hospital overnight—just to be sure.”

  “Bess didn’t get worse after she left here, did she?” Nancy asked anxiously.

  “No. Actually, when we were leaving, Bess told us her headache was almost gone,” Rachel said. “She was pretty mad about missing the barbecue tonight, too. She seemed to think that Elsa’s roast would be a lot better than the hospital food.”

  Nancy smiled. It sounded as if Bess was making a quick recovery.

  Elsa leaned toward Nancy. “She also said she bet you’d have something special planned for tonight, Nancy,” she said in a low voice. “I hope it’s nothing dangerous. I think one girl in the hospital is enough.”

  Nancy stiffened. “I’m sure that enjoying all that good food will be plenty of adventure for tonight,” she said, trying to sound cheerful.

  Elsa gave her a suspicious look, then shook her head and pushed through the doors to the kitchen.

  “I hope you can help me, Rachel,” Elsa said, sticking her head back through the door. “I’m way behind schedule.”

  Rachel sighed as she started after Elsa.

  “We can help, too,” Nancy offered. “Taking Bess to the hospital must have put you all behind.”

  A late lunch was the first order of business in the kitchen. Nancy and George quickly had a large tray of turkey sandwiches ready. Both the Smythes and the Kauffmans had picked up sack lunches at breakfast and left for day-long hikes. Rachel took a sandwich, chips, and a glass of iced tea up to Charlie in his office. George volunteered to help Elsa carry food and a large thermos of iced tea to Pete, who was barbecuing a large roast beef at the pit located near the side of the barn. While they were gone, Nancy filled Rachel in on their plan for the evening as they ate sandwiches at the dining room table.

  “Charlie won’t be in any danger, will he?” Rachel asked. “This person, whoever it is, has already hurt Bess.”

  “Charlie will be safe,” Nancy assured her. “And we’ve already agreed to call the sheriff if things get dangerous.”

  “All right. I have an idea to get Charlie back up here after he shows everyone the map,” Rachel said.

  Just then Elsa and George came back into the kitchen.

  “Pete is turning the roast,” George announced. “And that sauce smells delicious.”

  Under Elsa’s direction the apprentice cooks soon had a large potato salad and a platter of fresh fruit ready. Elsa was baking big loaves of French bread that had been rising since morning. The last chore was to toss a large green salad.

  When everything was ready, the girls helped carry the food to the barbecue.

  The guests had already gathered and were enjoying the perfect summer weather. Maddie Emerson was sitting in a lawn chair near a giant pine tree at the edge of the picnic area. She sat very still, and her head was tilted toward the sky. Nancy guessed that she was listening to the birds that were singing their evening songs in the trees.

  B.D. was deep in conversation with Frank Kauffman and Todd and Beth Smythe. His usual smiling face and large, sweeping gestures told Nancy that he was telling another story. Aaron Kauffman stood next to his mother, watching the roast turn slowly over the coals at the barbecue pit. Tyler was looking over the food on the table.

  “I wasn’t sure Maddie would come after your run-in with her this morning,” George whispered to Nancy.

  “I wasn’t, either,” Nancy whispered back. “But I’m glad she did. Now all of our suspects are present.”

  As soon as the girls had set the food down on one of the large picnic tables, Charlie started to tell his story.

  “Since most of you were at dinner the other night and heard the tale of Jeremiah Benner and the Miner’s Creek gold,” Charlie began, “I thought I would tell you all the sequel to the story.” He pulled the folded map from his jacket pocket and held it in the air.

  “I have here the map to Jeremiah’s hidden gold mine. Before everyone gets excited, I want to say that the map shows a cave in the mountains. I’ve been all over this retreat since I was a boy, and I can assure you, there is no cave like this. But this map should make a nice addition to my display of mining artifacts. I only wish Jeremiah had autographed it.”

  The group murmured with excitement. Shirley Kauffman asked Charlie where he had found the map, and Aaron said he wanted to get a look at it. Charlie answered their questions and managed to keep everyone from getting too close to the map.

  “It’s a bit fragile to pass around,” he said. “But next week I’ll get a suitable frame for it, and then you can all have a good look.”

  Charlie stuck the map back in his jacket and picked up a big pitcher of lemonade.

  “Now, who wants a drink of Elsa’s famous lemonade?” he said.

  Aaron Kauffman was first in line, followed by several of the other guests.

  “How’d I do?” Charlie asked Nancy when he got a chance. “Do you think I was convincing?”

  “We’ll soon find out,” Nancy replied. She smiled at Beth Smythe, who was energetically telling Rachel more about the hawk family they had been watching. B.D. came up to talk to Charlie. The other guests had gathered around the fire, sipping lemonade and enjoying the wonderful smell of the cooking roast. Aaron was once again talking about the gold mine, and everyone seemed to be enjoying his childish enthusiasm. But while Charlie’s story had sparked interest among the guests, so far no one had shown any suspicious reactions.

  By the time Pete announced that the roast was finished, the fresh evening air, the birds’ songs, and the wind in the trees had worked their magic. The hungry guests were relaxed and happy. It was a perfect party night, Nancy thought, except for the shadow of trouble hanging over the retreat.

  It was time, Nancy thought, for Charlie to slip away and deposit his jacket and its contents in the lodge. Suddenly she heard Rachel shriek.

  Nancy looked over to see a splash of barbecue sauce dribble down the front of Charlie’s jacket. Rachel was holding the bowl of sauce that Pete had been using to baste the roast and apologizing profusely to her grandfather. Nancy guessed that Rachel had spilled the sauce on Charlie’s jacket on purpose.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Charlie told Rachel. “I’ll just run up to the lodge and change.”

  So that had been Rachel’s idea, Nancy thought, making
an effort to keep a smile off her face.

  “Remember, that has to be dry-cleaned,” Rachel called after him loudly. “Just hang it by the door, and I’ll take it to the cleaners tomorrow.”

  “Nice touch,” Nancy whispered to Rachel a moment later. “You should be a detective.”

  “Do you really think so?” Rachel looked pleased. “I hope I didn’t overdo it.”

  “You were perfect,” Nancy said. “Our trap is set.”

  A few minutes later Charlie reappeared, minus his lightweight jacket.

  “I was too warm, anyway,” he assured Rachel with a wink, then returned to his plate of meat and salad.

  Nancy munched on fresh fruit, while George promised her the roast was well worth the calories.

  “We should save some for Bess,” George said.

  But Nancy was too busy watching everyone to eat very much. Finally, with dinner over, Pete excused himself.

  “I’ve got horses to feed and an early day tomorrow,” he said.

  Nancy watched as he disappeared into the barn. Where he would go from there, she could only guess. In the dark it was impossible to see the lodge from the barbecue area.

  Maddie and B.D. were the next to say good night, and the Smythes followed close behind.

  “I’d better be going, too,” Tyler said. “I’ve got a plane to catch tomorrow, and I have to finish my report.”

  Nancy watched Tyler walk away. Then she heard a voice behind her.

  “I just wanted to apologize in person for the thing with the quartz,” the woman said.

  Nancy spun around to see Shirley Kauffman talking to Rachel.

  “What do you mean?” Rachel asked.

  “About Aaron taking your quartz. I’m really sorry. We had a talk with him about it. He just got all wrapped up in the story about Jeremiah, didn’t you, Aaron?” Shirley Kauffman was holding the little boy’s hand, and he looked down sheepishly.

  “I was prospecting, like Jeremiah Benner,” Aaron said.

  “Aaron took the quartz?” Rachel said in surprise.

  “Why, yes. I told Pete that when I returned it.” Now Shirley looked confused. “I was going to bring it back to the lodge, but Pete offered to take it. That was Thursday—after the trail ride.”

  Rachel stared at Shirley. “It’s all right, of course,” she finally blurted out. “I’m sure Aaron didn’t mean any harm. And thank you . . . for returning it.”

  Shirley Kauffman nodded and released Aaron’s hand. As soon as he was free, Aaron galloped away, waving his arms and shouting, “We’re rich, we’re rich! I struck it rich!” in what Nancy guessed was an imitation of Jeremiah Benner and his burro hurrying down the mountain.

  Shirley Kauffman shook her head in dismay before trotting after her unruly son. Frank followed behind them.

  “We may have made a mistake, accusing Pete of taking the quartz,” Rachel said, coming up to Nancy. George was right behind her. She’d heard the conversation, too.

  “But why didn’t Pete say anything?” George asked.

  “Maybe he felt there wasn’t much to say, once the quartz was gone from the barn,” Nancy told her. “Anyway, we’ll know soon if he’s been involved in any of the incidents.”

  “What’s this about my quartz?” Charlie leaned over Rachel’s shoulder.

  “Granddad, so much has happened that I haven’t had a chance to tell you. Bess found your quartz in the barn. I have it in my room now,” Rachel explained. “We thought Pete stole it, but it looks as if we were wrong.” She told her grandfather what Shirley Kauffman had just said.

  “I guess I can straighten that out tomorrow,” Charlie said.

  The girls began to help Elsa clean up.

  “I suppose,” Elsa said, “that we can’t go back to the lodge for a while.”

  Charlie laughed and put his hand on her shoulder. “You always were a smart one,” he said. “What else have you figured out?”

  “I haven’t figured out a thing,” she said. “But you’re all moving around here like snails, when we could have this place slicked up and be straight off to bed in no time.”

  “I guess we’d better do something else, then,” Nancy said with a laugh. “How about sitting around the campfire and singing songs?”

  It took some coaxing, but Nancy finally got all of her friends in lawn chairs around the dying coals of the fire. After a few choruses of “Oh! Susannah” and “Red River Valley,” everyone began to relax.

  “Thank you for a great barbecue,” Nancy said to Charlie and Rachel when a half hour had gone by. “Now let’s go check our trap.”

  Charlie and Rachel carried buckets of water from a nearby horse trough to drown the fire. Then, with armloads of bowls and platters, the group started casually up the driveway toward the lodge.

  Once inside, the girls hurried to the kitchen to deposit dirty dishes.

  “You detectives run along now,” Elsa said. “I’ll take care of the dishes.”

  “Thanks, Elsa,” Rachel said. “I’ll make it up to you tomorrow.”

  Nancy, George, Rachel, and Charlie gathered around the coatrack by the front door.

  Charlie reached into the pocket of his soiled jacket and pulled out the map.

  “It wasn’t stolen,” Rachel said, sounding disappointed.

  “Let’s find out if it was read,” Nancy said. She brought a piece of white paper from the desk and placed it on the floor.

  Charlie carefully unfolded the map over the paper and shook it gently. The black sand was gone!

  15

  An Explosive Situation

  “Someone’s read the map, all right,” Nancy said. “Now we have to find out who.”

  “I’m putting this in a safe place right now.” Charlie refolded the map and started toward his office. “It really will make a nice addition to the display, don’t you think?”

  “That’s a good idea,” Nancy agreed. “We’ll use my copy from now on.”

  Nancy glanced at her watch. “Our thief may be watching to make sure we all go to bed. Let’s try to get a few hours’ sleep. We’ll meet back here at three A.M. That should give us time to get to the canyon before first light, right?”

  “Right,” Charlie said. “And I think I’ll call the sheriff and let him know what we’re up to, just in case.”

  As they walked back to their cabin, George said to Nancy, “It’s strange not having Bess here with us.”

  “I know,” Nancy said with a sigh. “But I’m glad the doctor kept her at the hospital overnight. She needs her rest, and no one here is going to get much.”

  “That’s for sure. I just wish I were sleepy now,” George said. “I can’t stop wondering if we’re really going to find a gold mine tomorrow.”

  “And who else will be there,” Nancy said as the two of them climbed into their bunks. “I still have a feeling there are some surprises left in this mystery.”

  “I think it’s Tyler,” George said. “Maybe Maddie and Pete are both helping him.”

  “Maybe,” Nancy said, just before she drifted off to sleep.

  A few hours later Nancy awoke with a start, quickly hitting the button to turn off her small travel alarm clock. She reached for the flashlight that she had placed under her pillow earlier. As she climbed out of bed, Nancy flashed the light on George’s bunk. Her dark-haired friend was still sound asleep.

  “Wake up, it’s time.” Nancy shook George gently.

  “Huh? What’s going . . . oh, right.” George opened her eyes, slowly remembering why her friend was shaking her at three o’clock in the morning.

  “It’s that time already?” she said. “I feel as if I just got to sleep.”

  “It’s that time,” Nancy assured George, handing her jeans and a shirt. “We’d better hurry. The others will be here soon.”

  Nancy and George dressed in the dark and sat silently, waiting for a knock on the door. It was only a few minutes until they heard a gentle rapping.

  “Rachel? Charlie? Is that you?” Nancy sai
d softly through the closed door.

  “Yes,” she heard Charlie answer. “Are you ready?”

  Nancy opened the door of the cabin, and she and George stepped out into the moonlight. She saw that Rachel was carrying a large flashlight, which she hadn’t turned on, and Charlie had a walkie-talkie.

  “I’m taking this in case we need to contact the sheriff,” Charlie explained. “I’ve already asked him to be ready to help about the time the sun comes up.”

  “Good idea,” Nancy said. She looked down the driveway. Both Tyler’s cabin and Pete’s house were completely dark.

  The three girls followed Charlie to the jeep and climbed in. He had moved it to the driveway side of the barn, and Nancy noticed it was pointing downhill.

  “Hold on,” Charlie whispered when everyone was seated. He released the parking brake, and the open jeep began to roll slowly down the hill. He steered it onto the driveway and let it bounce along in silence until they were almost to the main road.

  When Charlie finally turned on the engine, the jeep was far enough away from the cabins and Pete’s house to keep from disturbing any of the guests. They continued along the dusty road, with only the moon and stars to light their way.

  Charlie shifted into low gear when they drew near Maddie’s bird hospital.

  “Do you think she heard us?” George asked when they were past.

  “I don’t know. We were pretty quiet,” Nancy said.

  “If she did, she probably thought we were just ‘some fool city folks,’ ” Charlie said, mimicking Maddie’s voice.

  George and Nancy laughed, but Rachel just looked out at the trees going by. Nancy guessed she was still worried that Maddie might show up at the mine site when morning came.

  It took another twenty minutes to drive through the dark to the end of the old logging road. Nancy and Rachel jumped out of the jeep and used their flashlights to find a path through the trees to a good hiding place. Charlie parked the jeep behind some large granite boulders. Then the group started up the trail to Prospector’s Canyon.

  The hike was even more difficult in the dark. Rachel led the way, warning the others when she saw a rock or tree root in the path. Even so, the girls often tripped. The loose rocks seemed to jump out at them from the path, making the darkness seem like an enemy. Even Nancy was feeling a little shaky by the time they finally arrived at the mouth of the canyon.