“So—” he muttered in satisfaction, “the pretty blond spy the boys were telling me about. I thought you were warned by the guard to keep away from here! This time, I take it, you’re lookin’ for something besides a stray cow!”
“Yes, and I’m going to find it!” Nancy said bravely.
“Oh, yeah? You’re going to find what? The police?” Hank looked at her costume. “You’re a spy. But your little game is up.”
Nancy’s pulse was racing. How could she get away? She could hear running footsteps coming through the tunnel, and knew her chance of escape would be over in another instant. In desperation she tried to jerk herself free from Hank. But her captor gripped her more securely and laughed as she cried out in pain.
“Let me go!”
Nancy twisted and squirmed, but her efforts only made Hank tighten his grip. By the time the others reached her, she had given up the struggle and stood quietly waiting for the worst to come.
“Good thing you got her, Hank,” Maurice Hale called. “The little wildcat! We’ll give her a double dose for this smart trick! No girl’s going to put anything over on me!”
At the entrance of the cave it was nearly as bright as day, for the moon was high. Maurice Hale glanced nervously about, as though fearing observation by unseen eyes.
“Get back inside!” he sharply ordered his followers. “It’s a clear night and some wise bird might see us without our costumes and wonder what’s up. We must destroy the evidence as quickly as we can and clear out of this place!”
Even as the leader spoke, Nancy thought she heard a rustling in the nearby bushes. She told herself that it probably was only the wind stirring the leaves. Rescue was out of the question, for no one knew that she and her friends had planned such a dangerous mission. How foolish of them not to have revealed their full plans to someone!
Nancy made no protest as she was dragged back into the cavern. Bravely she tried to meet the eyes of her friends, for she saw that they were even more discouraged than she. Poor Bess was trembling with fright.
“Th-the perfume did it!” she wailed. “I knew this masquerade was far too dangerous for us to try!”
“Cheer up,” Nancy whispered encouragingly. “We’ll find some way to get out of here!”
Bess only shook her head. She was not to be deceived.
“And to think I was the one who couldn’t wait for a spooky adventure on the hillside,” George moaned regretfully. “I really ought to have my head examined!”
The members of the syndicate were furious. There would be no second opportunity for these intruders to break away. At an order from the leader, Al Snead found several pieces of rope and bound Nancy and her friends hand and foot. He seemed to take particular delight in making Nancy’s bonds cruelly tight.
“I guess that’ll hold you for a while.” He grinned, gloating over the girls’ predicament.
“Get to work!” the leader commanded his men impatiently. “Do you think we have the rest of the night? If we don’t hurry up and get out of here, the cops are apt to be down on us! Don’t know what this girl’s done.”
All colony members, except Mrs. Hale, went to work with a will; the fear of the law obviously had affected them. With a sinking heart, Nancy realized the men planned to destroy all the evidence of their counterfeiting operations.
“The machines that we can’t take with us well wreck,” Maurice Hale ordered. “If we save the plates we can start up again in a new place. Get a move on!”
He stood over the men, driving them furiously. His wife had slumped down in a chair and had buried her face in her hands. She appeared crushed. Only once did she summon her energy to speak.
“Maurice,” she murmured brokenly, “why won’t you give up this dreadful life—always running from the police? We were happy before you got mixed up with such bad company.”
Her husband cut her short with a sarcastic remark. She did not try to speak again, but sat hunched over, looking sorrowfully at the girls. Nancy knew that she wanted to help them, but did not have the courage for further defiance.
The work of destroying the counterfeiting machinery went on, but several times Maurice Hale glanced impatiently at his watch.
“No use waiting until we’re through here,” he observed after a time. “Let’s get the prisoners out of here pronto. The sooner we’re rid of them, the safer I’ll feel. Al, you start on ahead with one of the automobiles. You know the way to the shack, don’t you?”
“Sure,” Al Snead agreed promptly.
“Then take Hank along to keep guard and get going!”
Nancy and her chums were jerked to their feet. The cords around their ankles were removed to permit them to walk, but their arms were kept tied securely behind them.
“Move along!” Al Snead ordered Nancy, giving her a hard shove forward.
The girls stumbled along through the dark passageway from the inner room to the mouth of the cave. Men and women followed them with angry, menacing threats.
Al and Hank pushed the girls to make them hurry. Nancy and her friends exchanged hopeless glances from time to time. George held her head up contemptuously, but Joanne was white as a sheet and Bess was on the verge of tears.
“Guess this’ll teach you girls to mix with the Black Snake Colony!” a raucous voice said as the group made its way toward the exit.
Nancy held back a retort, but her icy look told the man she did not appreciate the remark. Their walk seemed interminable. Finally, however, moonlight could be seen. In a moment they were approaching the mouth of the cave.
Nancy took a few halting steps and then paused as if she had turned to stone. Her eyes were riveted upon the entrance. There stood Mr. Abbott’s son, Karl jr.!
“Oh, Karl!” Nancy cried out. “These men are counterfeiters! Don’t let them capture you tool Run!”
CHAPTER XX
A Final Hunch
KARL ABBOTT did not run. Instead, he signaled with his hand. At once seven armed men sprang from the darkness of nearby bushes.
“Secret Service agents,” Karl explained quickly to the girls.
“Stand where you are! Don’t anyone move!” ordered one of the federal men.
So unexpected was their arrival that the counterfeiters were stunned. For an instant no one moved. Then, with a cry of rage, Maurice Hale darted into the cavern. He had taken only a few steps when one of the other agents grabbed him, firmly by one arm.
“None of that! We have you right this time, Hale. You won’t try any funny stuff with Uncle Sam again!”
Some of the counterfeiters who had not yet come from the cavern had turned back,
172 THE SECRET OF RED GATE FARM
“They’ll get away through the other exit!” Nancy cried out.
Karl smiled. “We have that covered too.”
He now introduced the four girls to Secret Service Agent Horton who was in charge of the group. The federal man gave Nancy Drew a quick word of praise for revealing the headquarters of the counterfeiting ring.
“Outwitted—by that snooping kid!” Maurice Hale screamed.
The thought seemed to unnerve the man completely. He did not protest when handcuffs were put on his wrists. Other members of the syndicate submitted to the agents without resistance, although Yvonne Wong vehemently protested her innocence.
“I didn’t know what it was all about until tonight,” she cried angrily. “It isn’t fair to arrest me! I’ve worked for Mr. Snead only a few days—”
“You’ll have to think up a better story than that!” she was told bluntly. “Your name has been mixed up in underhanded deals before, but this is the first time we’ve been able to get any evidence against you.”
While the prisoners were being rounded up, Karl Abbott rushed over to the girls and quickly freed their hands.
“Are you all right?” he asked anxiously.
“Yes,” Nancy told him, “but if you hadn’t arrived just when you did, it might have been a different story!”
She was
on the verge of asking what had brought him to the cave at the psychological moment when she saw that two federal agents were placing handcuffs on the wrists of Maurice Hale’s wife. Breaking away from her friends, Nancy darted to the other side of the room.
“Oh, don’t arrest Mrs. Hale,” she pleaded. “She isn’t like the rest. She tried to save us, but they wouldn’t listen to her.”
“Sorry,” Horton returned, “but we’ll have to take her along. If you want to intercede for her later, we may be able to have her sentence lightened.”
After the prisoners had been herded out of the cave to waiting government automobiles and the printing plates used in the making of the counterfeit bills had been collected, Nancy felt explanations were in order from Karl.
“How did you know we had come here?” Nancy asked him.
“From Mrs. Byrd. She was greatly worried. When I came to see Father tonight she told me that after you’d gone she found evidence of your costume making. She confided in me you might have done just what you did. She asked me to try and stop you.”
“Yes. Go on,” Nancy urged.
“Well, I’ve been suspicious of this hillside ceremony stuff, and after talking further with Mrs. Byrd, I decided to get in touch with the Secret Service men she said you had told her about. They couldn’t come, but the chief agent in this area sent some of his other men.”
“How marvelous of you to have put two and two together!” Bess exclaimed.
“By the time we all got here,” Karl went on, “no one was around. I sneaked inside just as all of you were coming out. Mr. Horton thought you girls would not be harmed if you walked outside before the gang was captured.”
“Thanks for that,” said George. “I’ve had enough!”
Just then Secret Service Agent Horton came over to Nancy’s group and extended his hand to her. “Miss Drew,” he said earnestly, “I want to thank you for your work which has resulted in the solution of one of the most baffling cases of counterfeiting the United States Government has ever had. How did you do it?”
Nancy blushed at the praise. “It was sort of a chain reaction, I guess,” the young sleuth replied, and told of the various circumstances that had led to tonight’s adventure.
When she finished, the agent shook his head in amazement. “You cracked a code this gang had thought was unbreakable. My congratulations.”
It was late when the four girls, escorted by Karl Abbott, left the cave. As they neared the farmhouse, Joanne observed that the lights were on. “I hope Gram hasn’t been too worried.”
Before the girls reached the porch, Mrs. Byrd came hurrying toward them. She clung tightly to Joanne for an instant.
“I’m so glad you’re back,” she murmured in relief. “And you girls are all right. I was terribly afraid those members of the Black Snake Colony—”
She was interrupted by Mrs. Salisbury’s voice from the dark porch. “You had us so worried we couldn’t go to bed. The idea of girls running around the country at this hour! That nature cult is all foolishness, anyway!”
“Absolutely!” Mr. Abbott agreed. “The less you meddle with their affairs, the wiser you’ll be!”
“You’re wrong this time, Father,” Karl Jr. announced. “If the girls hadn’t meddled, those counterfeiters would have operated indefinitely.”
“Counterfeiters!” the two boarders and Mrs. Byrd exclaimed together.
They were tense as Karl Jr. related everything that had happened. In fact, it was not until the next day that Mrs. Salisbury recovered from the shock sufficiently to boast:
“Well, I always said those girls were up and coming!”
Mr. Abbott was very proud of the part his son had played in the case, and said so several times.
Mrs. Byrd had nothing except praise for Nancy and her friends. “And who would think,” she said incredulously, “that Bess’s innocent purchase of a bottle of perfume would lead you girls to a mystery right here at Red Gate Farm!”
However, the removal of the Black Snake Colony from her property left her a serious financial problem. “I’m glad they’re gone,” she said, “but I’ll miss the money. I can’t hope to rent the land again. It isn’t fertile enough for farming. All this talk about counterfeiters is apt to give Red Gate a bad name, too. I’ll probably lose those other boarders who were coming!”
“Publicity is a queer thing,” Nancy said thoughtfully. “Sometimes one can work it to one’s advantage. That’s what we’ll do now.”
“How?” Joanne asked.
“We’ll advertise that counterfeiters’ cavern to sightseers and make enough money to lift a dozen mortgages!”
The others were enthusiastic. During the next week the girls, with Karl Jr.’s assistance, placed in the cave for public display an imitation setup of the counterfeiting operation. There were several old printing presses, and some dummy figures arranged before them as if “at work.” Scattered about the cave floor were stacks of homemade “money”—to represent counterfeit bills.
The following week Mr. Drew came to Red Gate Farm. A few miles away he halted his automobile at the side of the road, and with an amused smile studied a large billboard which read:
Follow the arrow to Red Gate Farm! See the mysterious cavern used by counterfeiters! Admission fifty cents.
As Carson Drew continued slowly in his car, he presently came to another sign, bolder than the first:
Regain health at Red Gate Farm. Boarders by Day or Week.
The traffic was unusually heavy, and the lawyer soon realized that all of the cars were headed for the farm. The place was crowded. He parked as near the house as he could and walked up the path. The grounds were well kept and equipped with swings and huge umbrellas. A number of persons, evidently boarders, were enjoying the garden.
Before Carson Drew had reached the front door, it was flung open, and Nancy rushed to meet him. “Dad!” she cried joyfully. “Isn’t this wonderful?”
“You’ve done a magnificent job, Nancy.”
After a hearty dinner Nancy and her friends took Mr. Drew to the hillside cave. Reuben Ames, looking most unlike himself in a new suit which was a trifle too tight, was in his glory as he conducted groups of visitors through the cavern.
“I’ve collected thirty dollars already today,” he hailed Nancy as she came up with her friends. “This beats plowin’ corn.”
Bess grinned. “Didn’t I always say that adventure follows Nancy Drew around?”
And Bess was right, for another exciting adventure awaited her courageous friend, who very soon was to become involved in The Clue in the Diary.
Mr. Drew laughed. “Nancy,” he said, “as I think of your adventure at Red Gate Farm I can’t decide whether you’re better as a detective or as a promoter!”
Carolyn Keene, The Secret of Red Gate Farm
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