Doria’s eyes blazed and her face grew red. When anyone came near her, she kicked at him.
“All this won’t do you any good,” said Nancy as Ned wrenched the girl from Burt. “I’m tired of having people accuse me of being a lawbreaker. We’re taking you to the sheriff!”
“You’ll do nothing of the sort!” Doria cried out. “I can’t help it if I look like you, Nancy Drew. But that doesn’t make me the guilty person. You can’t prove a thing against me.”
Before Nancy had a chance to answer, George spoke up. “Oh no? How about all those phony hotel reservations you sold to people for a vacation at Cooperstown?”
Doria insisted that she had not sold the tickets. She was ignorant of the whole swindle and was just as amazed as the passengers when she learned about it.
“Then who did sell the tickets?” Nancy asked. “We understood you were acting as agent.”
“I won’t say another word,” Doria replied.
Nancy reminded her that she had used the Water Witch to deliberately run down one of her friends.
Doria answered quickly, “I didn’t see her. She was underwater.”
“Is your husband Sam Hornsby mixed up in the racket?” Ned inquired.
Doria suddenly looked wild-eyed. Instead of making a break for liberty or fighting her captors any more, she sat down on the ground and buried her face in her hands. She began to weep.
The onlookers stared at one another. Were her tears genuine or was Doria putting on an act to gain their sympathy so that they would not turn her over to the police?
Matt answered their questioning thoughts. “Don’t be misled,” he advised.
Nancy had not finished interrogating the girl. Now she went and sat alongside her.
The captured girl fought like a tiger
“I’m sorry everything is such a mess,” she said. “Doria, maybe you are innocent. Is your husband the green man? I mean, does he use the disguise to scare people away? Tell me why. Things will go easier for you.”
Doria did not answer nor did she raise her eyes.
There was silence for half a minute, then Matt spoke up. “I think I know the reason why Hornsby puts on those spook acts.”
All eyes turned to Matt. Everyone waited expectantly for him to explain.
CHAPTER XVIII
A Cage of Light
“One day,” Matt began, “I attended a private dinner for scientists on the subject of cold light. One of the men, Martin Larramore, told us the high points of a discovery of his. He had nearly perfected a formula, using the phenomenon of fireflies, and expected to complete it soon. A short time after the speech all his blueprints and notes were stolen.”
His listeners gasped but said nothing. He continued, “Some careful detective work revealed that two renegade scientists were the probable culprits.”
“What were their names?” Nancy asked.
“Michael W. Brink and Samuel H. Jones.”
Matt went on to say that the two men had vanished. It was assumed they had gone to some secret place to put the finishing touches on the formula and then present it as their own.
“I have a strong feeling that the pair may be in these very woods.” He turned to Doria. “Are they?”
There was no reply. Although the suspect had made no comment during Matt’s astounding revelation, she had listened intently. Her eyes were like burning coals and full of hatred for her captors.
The professor continued. He said Larramore had mentioned that the unknown quantity in the formula directly involved fireflies.
George spoke up. “So this would be an ideal time and place for those renegade scientists to work. There are lots of fireflies here and certainly it is a secluded spot.”
Nancy agreed. “Do you know what I suspect? That Welch and Hornsby may be Michael’s and Sam’s middle names.”
At this Doria jumped but still she said nothing. It was only a moment later that George noticed the young woman trying to inch away from the group.
“She may try to escape!” George thought, and moved nearer her.
Doria looked at the girl in dismay. She could not flee from her captors!
As Matt finished his story about the renegade scientists, he turned to Doria. “I’m giving you a choice of leading us to these men or of being taken directly to the sheriff.”
His remark was followed by a prolonged period of silence as the others watched Doria closely. Her expression did not change.
“Okay!” Matt said. “Let’s go!”
Once more the captured girl pleaded innocence but no one paid any attention to her. She was prodded along and carefully guarded.
As they reached the foot of the mountainside, and headed for Nancy’s convertible, a State Police car came along. Ned hailed it and the driver stopped.
“What’s going on here?” asked the officer beside him.
He turned a flashlight directly into the faces of the group. Doria instantly covered hers with one hand.
“Is something wrong, miss?” the other officer asked her.
Nancy introduced herself and quickly explained, “This young woman is the one wanted in connection with that vacation hoax.”
“Congratulations,” the driver remarked. “We’ve been looking everywhere for her.”
“We think she’s been hiding up in the woods,” Nancy replied.
The officer said it would not be necessary for Nancy or any of the others to come with them, since they had a warrant for the young woman’s arrest. “What is your name?” he asked the prisoner.
She still refused to answer, so Nancy replied, “Doria Sampler Hornsby.”
She purposely did not mention Matt’s suspicion about the two renegade scientists up in the woods. Actually the young sleuth and her friends had no concrete evidence against them.
As soon as the police had driven away with their prisoner, Nancy announced that she would like to climb right back up the mountainside and try to find Welch and Hornsby. The others were eager to go, so all of them set off once more.
They followed the path to the point where they had captured Doria, then looked for shoe prints and trodden grass. They were able to detect an indistinct trail.
“I think that we should be as quiet as possible,” Ned warned. “We don’t want to scare the men away if they’re in the area.”
George grinned. “Nor give Sam a chance to put on one of his scare costumes.”
The five trudged along in silence, with Nancy, Ned, and Matt in the lead. Finally they reached the spot where Nancy had overheard the conversation between Sam and Mike.
There were voices again!
One man was saying, “I’m worried. Do ia should’ve been back by this time. Something must have happened to her.”
Another voice said, “You worry too much. First it’s Doria, then the police and then those people in the cabin. Try to calm down.”
“That’s all right for you to say,” retorted the man whose voice Nancy now recognized as Sam’s. “But she happens to be my wife. I’m going to look for her.”
“Have it your own way,” Michael answered. “But what makes you think you’ll find her? Remember, she said something about taking a trip to New York City.”
Sam did not answer. Instead he said, “Lis en, Mike, if anyone starts snooping around, put on my green suit or the ghost outfit.”
The excited listeners realized now that the voices were coming from underground! Nancy waved her friends back, indicating they were to station themselves behind trees. She herself chose one nearby, so she could watch carefully.
Half a minute later she saw a tangled mass of briers rise up from the earth. A camouflaged wooden trap door! A man climbed from the pit.
He was about to close the trap door when his partner called up, “I’m coming with you. It’s too dangerous for you to go alone.”
Both men had flashlights and by their beams the hidden group could see the strangers’ faces plainly. Nancy and George had never seen either of them before.
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As they walked away, Nancy noted that the one she associated with Sam’s voice walked with a slightly uneven gait. His shoe prints undoubtedly matched those the girls had found a few days earlier. Michael was taller and walked with a straight stride.
As soon as the suspects were out of sight and hearing, the group gathered. Nancy suggested, “Let’s investigate that pit while we have the chance.”
Ned and Matt were game but thought someone should keep a lookout. George and Burt offered.
“If somebody is coming, I’ll give our special bird call,” George told Nancy.
The trap door was lifted. Attached to the side of the pit was a rope ladder. Matt climbed down first, then Ned and finally Nancy. The three found themselves in an amazingly large well-lighted cavern.
Undoubtedly it was man-made. Nancy wondered if during the occupation of Indians at Otsego the boys in the tribe had used it either for ceremonies or for play.
“Pioneer soldiers may even have camped here,” she said to herself.
There was a center section with a room on either side. One of these proved to be a laboratory. The other was a huge cage of fine mesh wire filled with fireflies. Most of them were roosting in an artificial tree. The light they created together was dazzling.
Apparently the center section of the pit was used for living purposes, since there were three cots, a stove, and a refrigerator.
“Three cots indicate that Doria may stay here,” Nancy remarked. “And look!”
Under one lay the scare costumes and several flashlights with green bulbs!
“Good evidence,” Ned commented.
“I guess those men have their own electric plant,” Matt remarked, looking around, “although I don’t see their source of power.”
Ned grinned. “Maybe the continuous twinkling of the fireflies is enough illumination for their experiments.”
The visitors were so fascinated by the luminescent beetles that they watched them for several minutes.
“I can’t take my eyes off them,” Nancy said, interrupting the silence.
“Cold light,” Matt murmured. “One of these days we’ll be carrying flashlights that go off and on with the same ease, power, and cold light of these little creatures.”
Ned thought they should start their search for the stolen papers.
“We don’t know how long those men will be gone,” he reminded Nancy and Matt.
The professor laughed. “Where Doria is now would be the last place her husband and his friend would think of looking for her.”
“You mean in jail?” Nancy asked.
“That’s right. And Doria wouldn’t dare communicate with the men to supply bail for her.”
“Maybe she couldn’t get it anvway, after swindling all those people,” Ned remarked.
“That’s a fair guess,” Matt agreed.
The three stopped talking and now began to examine the underground laboratory. The stolen notes and blueprints were not in sight. Nancy said she felt reluctant about looking in the strangers’ luggage.
“Maybe we won’t have to,” Matt said.
He, Nancy, and Ned slowly cast their eyes about the center room. Finally they went back to the laboratory. Under a workbench Nancy saw a small chest.
“Maybe there’s something in that!” she said hopefully.
CHAPTER XIX
Trapped!
THE chest was heavy as Nancy soon discovered. She could not drag it out alone so Ned and Matt pulled it to the middle of the room.
“You found it, Nancy,” Ned remarked. “You should open it.”
In a jiffy she had lifted the lid and they all stared at the contents.
“The stolen papers!” Matt exclaimed.
Inside lay a sheaf of blueprints and several large hardcover books containing typed material.
Matt quickly examined a few of them. “This is the stolen formula,” he said. “And here is Dr. Larramore’s name.”
The three searchers agreed that they should take all the papers with them. But they were too large to be put into pockets and there was no bag or small suitcase in sight.
“We’ll have to take the chest,” Nancy stated, “and deliver it to the police as fast as we can.”
“Right,” said Ned. “Matt, I guess you and I can carry this between us.”
In the meantime Nancy had taken several books out of the chest and was gazing at some objects in the bottom. “What are these things?” she asked.
Matt examined them and said they were parts of equipment for manufacturing the formula. “It won’t be necessary to take these. If we leave them here, the chest will be lighter.”
Carefully the various gadgets were laid on the floor under the bench and the searchers got ready to leave.
Ned warned that they had better hurry. “The men might spot us walking through the woods, and make trouble.”
“Don’t you think it would be better for us to hide the chest nearby and bring the police to the spot?” Matt suggested.
Nancy said that if they hid the chest in the woods, rain might soak right through it and ruin the papers.
“No matter what we do, let’s get out of here,” Ned insisted.
“You go first,” Nancy told him.
As he and Matt lifted the chest, Ned said, “I believe I can carry this on my shoulder.”
He swung the chest up and started to climb the rope ladder. At that instant they heard George give the special bird call.
“The men are coming back!” Nancy whispered. “Hurry! We mustn’t be caught here!”
Matt stepped behind Ned and helped him steady the chest. Nancy waited at the foot of the ladder. She was certain their combined weight might break it.
Just then the bird call came again! Burt, crouched at the edge of the pit, quickly told his friends they could escape if they would hurry.
In the next second everything seemed to happen at once. Two strange men had come down a mountain trail. One knocked Burt into the pit. The other grabbed the chest.
Both men shook the ladder, causing Ned and Matt to fall off. Instantly the attackers pulled the ladder up. The camouflaged cover was slammed shut and something heavy was rolled on top of it.
“A rock,” Nancy cried out. “We’re trapped!” It took only a few seconds for the young people to collect their wits.
Nancy said, “Quick! Ned, hop onto Matt’s shoulders and try to get out of here.”
Ned did this, but his steady pressure against the trap door could not lift it. He climbed down.
“I wonder where George is,” Nancy said.
Burt was extremely worried. “We’ve got to get out of here!” he declared.
This time he and Ned climbed onto Matt’s shoulders. By pushing hard they were able to move the obstruction a little. Then suddenly it burst open. Burt raised himself out and looked around.
George was not in sight. “George!” he shouted. There was no answer.
Nancy swung up to Matt’s shoulders and climbed out. She also called her chum’s name. Still there was no reply. She berated herself for having urged the trip and the search. If only it had occurred to her that pals of the renegade scientists might come to the pit! Who were the men? She asked Burt to describe them.
The description of one fitted the man in woodsman’s clothing who had met the girls the first time they had gone up the mountainside. The other attacker was unfamiliar.
The rope ladder was lying on the ground. Burt set it in place. Ned and Matt climbed out.
Anxiously Nancy and her companions discussed what had happened to George. Had she been kidnapped by the men and was one or the other responsible for trying to abduct Bess and knocking out Dave?
Once more they called George’s name, but as before there was no answer to their frantic summons. They searched a wide area but could not find her.
“I’m going to the police,” Burt announced.
He started down the path toward Natty Bumppo’s cave. The others followed. They kept flash. ing their light
s to see if there was any sign of George. They found no shoe prints or any marks on trees, a method Nancy, Bess, and George sometimes used to indicate a trail they had taken.
“Now what are we going to do?” Burt sighed as he paused several feet from the cave entrance.
Almost at once Burt caught sight of something gleaming in a clump of grass. Without speaking, he pointed toward it. Nancy and Ned followed him to the spot. Before them lay a metal comb!
“This might belong to George,” Nancy said hopefully, and stooped to pick it up. “There are a few dark strands of hair still on it.”
“I’ll bet she’s being held in that cave,” Burt interjected with mounting concern.
Ned was less convinced. “Someone else could have dropped the comb,” he said.
“It’s only a hunch, but—” Nancy started to say as they edged closer to the cave entrance.
“What is?” Ned whispered. For the moment she had decided to reveal no more.
“Come on, tell us,” Burt begged anxiously.
By this time they were flashing their lights inside the pitch-black cave.
“Why all the suspense?” Ned asked finally. “Do you think anything serious has happened to George?”
Nancy smiled faintly. “Oh, you know me and my hunches. Sometimes they’re wrong.”
“Your batting average is pretty high, I’d say,” Ned answered. “You could be nominated for the Baseball Hall of Fame yourself.”
Nancy, whose thoughts were solely on George, did not reply to his quip. Instead she said fearfully, “I hate to tell you my hunch, but it certainly looks as if those men have kidnapped George.”
In a short time they reached the road and all of them exclaimed in surprise. Nancy’s convertible was gone!
Ned said angrily, “First those guys take the chest and kidnap George, then steal your car!”
“But how could they drive it?” Matt asked. “Don’t you have the keys with you, Nancy?”
She nodded but said that both George and Bess carried duplicate sets. “Perhaps George had them in a pocket.”
Burt groaned. “I get the whole picture now. Those men forced her down to the car by another route and made her hand over the keys. All the more reason why we should go to the police.”
The Secret of Mirror Bay Page 10
