The Second Girl Detective Megapack: 23 Classic Mystery Novels for Girls

by Julia K. Duncan

  What was she to do? Scream? There was no one about to hear her. She was too far from the ranch house to summon help by calling aloud. Raising her head a few inches she took one look and let it drop back again. The gimlet eyes of the snake were coming closer. It would not be long before it struck, or had it done so already? It could scarcely send its poisonous fangs through her heavy boot, she reminded herself desperately. But what was she to do? Nothing, she told herself hopelessly, a sinking in her heart. There was nothing she could do. She might struggle for her freedom, but she could not hope to avoid the darting, poisonous fangs of the snake. It would surely strike soon, and when it did—

  She caught her underlip between two rows of white teeth to quell the groan of helplessness. Tears of impotence sprang to her eyes. If only there were something she could do—some way she could— Was it her imagination or did she hear a sound? Quickly she raised her head and a voice spoke from behind her.

  “Don’t move! Keep quiet!” the man, for it was a man’s voice, commanded.

  Gale wondered hysterically if he expected her to do anything else. She couldn’t move if she wanted to. Terror made her lifeless.

  “Please hurry!” she murmured.

  A revolver shot was her answer and when next she looked down at her boot she shivered. The sight of the headless, mutilated body was sickening.

  “Don’t look,” Jim whispered as he lifted Gale’s boot clear of the snake. “Did it bite you?”

  “I don’t think so,” Gale murmured fighting to control her nerves. Now that it was all over she felt as if she must scream. It was the natural reaction and as she stood up she leaned weakly against the tree. “How did—you happen—along just in time?”

  The cowboy replaced his revolver in the holster at his belt. It was the first time Gale had noticed that he wore a gun. How lucky it had been for her that he did!

  “I came lookin’ for you for some more practice with yore rope,” he drawled, as he sometimes did.

  “You saved my life,” Gale said gratefully.

  “Shucks,” the cowboy said, flushing deep red. “How did the snake ever come to wind itself about yore leg?”

  “I was asleep,” Gale said. “I’ll never forget the sight of that snake when I awoke. It was horrible!” She trembled involuntarily.

  Jim patted her shoulder with clumsy kindness. “Do you reckon you can come back to the house now?”

  “Of course,” Gale said and turned to follow him down the slope, sternly keeping her eyes away from that slippery, scaly, headless thing lying in the long grass.

  “Do you always wear a gun, Jim?” she asked. “I never noticed it before.”

  “No, Miss Gale, none of us cowboys do,” he answered. “Guns belong to the old, bad West. But here lately we been havin’ trouble and I kinda got used to havin’ one along when I go ridin’.”

  “Probably on account of the cattle thieves,” Gale said to herself. Aloud she said:

  “Trouble? What kind?”

  “Oh, like these bank robbers,” he said evasively. “There’s always somebody willin’ to steal and honest folk have to protect themselves.”

  “How did they get out of jail?” she asked as they reached the bottom of the hill and started along the trail to the ranch house.

  “Sawed clean through the bars on the window,” he answered. “Probably had help from outside.”

  “Has the Sheriff discovered either of them yet?”

  “I reckon not. The Sheriff is good at trailin’ crooks, but these fellas are probably experienced in hidin’ out. I ’spect they’re almost to the border by now.”

  “Which way are we going to travel tomorrow?” Gale asked.

  “Up into the hills would be the prettiest country,” he answered.

  At the corral fence they separated, Gale going on to the ranch house and Jim into the cowboys’ bunkhouse. The girls were on the porch, Janet and Carol perched at perilous angles on the railing, Virginia and Valerie on the top step, and Madge and Phyllis in chairs.

  “Where have you been?” Janet demanded.

  “What’s wrong?” Valerie asked.

  “Wrong?” Gale questioned. She did not realize that her recent experience with the deadly rattlesnake had left her face pale and a tinge of shadow in her eyes.

  “You look as though you had seen somebody’s ghost,” Carol declared.

  “I came near to being one,” Gale answered, squeezing between Valerie and Virginia.

  “What do you mean?” Madge asked. “Did you meet the bank robbers?”

  Gale described with all the terrifying details her adventure with the snake and the girls were all speechless with amazement. When she had finished they regarded her wonderingly, fully appreciating what a close call she had had.

  “I’ll bet that was the only rattlesnake in this part of the country for weeks,” Virginia declared. “But you would have to meet him.”

  “Hereafter you don’t go off by yourself,” Janet said determinedly.

  Gale laughed. “You needn’t caution me now. One experience is enough. You can be sure I won’t fall asleep like that again!”

  CHAPTER IV

  Discovery

  The ranch house was astir early the next morning. The girls dashed about in mad last minute haste. Horses were saddled and waiting. The few necessities the girls were taking were rolled in slickers and strapped behind their saddles. Tents, cooking utensils, and eating supplies were loaded on two pack horses which Tom was to lead behind his own mount. As the girls were about to mount, Mr. Wilson called Gale and Phyllis over to where he was giving some last minute instructions to Tom and Jim.

  Mr. Wilson handed a small caliber revolver each to Gale and Phyllis.

  “What—” Phyllis began wonderingly.

  “I think you ought to have them for protection,” Mr. Wilson explained. “Against rattlesnakes—and jack rabbits. I’m trusting you two with these because I think you are the steadiest ones.”

  “Gale knows about the rattlesnakes,” Tom said smiling. “I’ll bet she would have given a fortune for a gun yesterday.”

  “I’ll say I would,” Gale said with a shudder. “But we will have to have some target practice, so we know which end of the gun to aim.”

  “Tom can take care of that,” Jim interposed, “he’s right handy with a gun.”

  “I don’t like this,” Phyllis said to Gale as the girls walked back to their horses. “Why should we need guns for protection? We are going on a peaceful trip.”

  “What with bank robbers running loose,” Gale smiled. “We might be glad we have them.”

  The guns were stored in the girls’ slickers and soon the party was ready to start. They waved gay farewells to Mr. and Mrs. Wilson as their horses trotted down the trail. Jim rode in front to guide them and directly behind him came Gale, Virginia, and Valerie. The other three Adventure Girls followed and Tom brought up the rear with the pack horses.

  The sun was slowly creeping higher in the sky pouring its warm rays on the world below. Three hours after their start the party halted for luncheon which they ate cold from their saddle bags, pushing on immediately. Jim had a camping place in mind and he wanted to make it in plenty of time to pitch their tents by the light of day.

  Gale and Virginia watched Valerie with growing alarm. The girl was looking paler and more tired with the passing of the minutes. But Valerie was too plucky to call a halt on her own account. Once she swayed visibly in her saddle. Gale, reining her horse in beside Valerie’s, put an anxious arm about her friend.

  “Too tired to go on, Val? Just say so. Jim won’t mind camping right here.”

  “No, don’t stop because of me,” Valerie pleaded. “I’ll stick it out.”

  She would stick it out, Gale agreed admiringly, but it would take all her courage to do so. Certainly Valerie deserved to conquer the ill health that was robbing her of so much of the zest of living.

  The horses mounted to the ridge of a hill and there Jim called a halt. He gestured with
his arm to the valley below where a cool stream of water dashed over rocks on its way to join a bigger tributary.

  “There’s our camp site,” he said, beaming, “and we’ve made it with a good hour of daylight left.”

  “Thank goodness we made it at all!” Janet said vigorously, voicing the relief most of them felt. “I’ll be as stiff as a board tomorrow.”

  “I was going to suggest that we camp all day tomorrow,” Virginia added. “It looks like a nice spot, water and everything.”

  “As you say,” Tom said cheerily. “Let’s get going, Jim, down to our camp site. I want to get settled and smell something cooking over the fire.”

  It took them about ten minutes to work their way down to the little stream and when they descended from their horses there was a chorus of groans. All of them were stiff from their positions in the saddle. It was worse because it was the first time most of them had ever ridden all day.

  “Get the tents up first,” Virginia proposed. “You and Jim can do that, Tom, while we gather some wood for a fire.”

  After Tom and Jim had unsaddled the horses they set about erecting the girls’ tents. It was not long before a fire was crackling cheerily and bacon was spitting in a frying pan over the blaze.

  Directly the tents were erected and the girls’ beds made with a blanket spread over pine boughs, Valerie lay down utterly worn out. Gale brought her supper and then left her alone to fall asleep early and get as much rest as she could. The others gathered about the campfire, despite their weariness, to talk and to sing songs. Tom had his harmonica and it seemed the fire gave him inspiration for he played until the others begged for mercy.

  As Gale and Phyllis lay down on their bed of boughs in the tent with Valerie, a coyote howled dismally in the distance. From afar came an answering cry.

  “I’ll never get used to that noise if I stay here a hundred years,” declared Phyllis. “It will keep me awake all night.”

  But five minutes after she had spoken Gale heard her regular breathing and knew she was asleep.

  The next morning the girls were awakened by the aroma of coffee and by Tom banging on the frying pan.

  “Wake up, sleepy-heads!” he roared.

  The girls tumbled from their tents stiff and only half awake. The cold creek water, dashed in their faces, though, served to put life into them with its tingling properties. Breakfast was more delicious than they had ever remembered that meal to be. Perhaps it was the invigorating air, the exercise of the day before, or the excitement prevailing over this trip, but they all had big appetites.

  “What are we going to do today?” Virginia asked.

  “I am going to rest, rest, and rest some more,” Janet said loudly, as if daring someone to contradict her. “I shall never, never forget that ride yesterday.”

  “I’m going to do the same,” Valerie declared. She was looking a little weary this morning, but she seemed in good spirits.

  “Me likewise!” vouchsafed Carol.

  “Well, I think I’d like to take a walk,” Madge said. “How about it, Virginia?”

  “Just the thing,” Virginia declared.

  “Jim and I are going to follow the creek a ways and see if there could possibly be any fish in it,” Tom said.

  The latter two started off and Madge and Virginia started to walk along the creek in the opposite direction.

  “Let’s cross the creek and see what’s over the hill on the other side,” proposed Phyllis to Gale.

  The two crossed the creek on a series of stones placed just right for the purpose. From the other side they waved gayly at their remaining camp mates and started forward. Here the undergrowth was thick. In her hand Gale held the gun Mr. Wilson had given her. It was not her intention to be confronted unprepared by any more rattlesnakes. Jim had explained the working mechanism of the little gun and Gale was sure she knew enough about it not to hurt herself at least.

  “Oh!” Phyllis jumped as something darted across in front of them.

  “Only a jack rabbit,” Gale laughed.

  “You never can tell,” Phyllis murmured, treading through the grass more warily. “I knew of a man once who tread on a snake.”

  “That’s not as bad as finding one wound around your leg,” Gale declared. “Look, what’s that up there?”

  Half hidden by a growth of cactus and tangled vines, yawned a dark cavernous hole.

  “Let’s investigate,” proposed Phyllis. “It rather looks like a cave. I didn’t know they had caves in Arizona.”

  “I know there were a lot of huge subterranean caves discovered in 1909,” Gale answered. “But I don’t know in what part of the state they were. Phyllis, look!” The last words had come with a gasp of incredulity.

  They were closer to the cave now and could clearly see the man who stood in the opening. He was gazing away from them, toward the other side of the valley.

  “One of the bank robbers!” Phyllis gasped.

  The man, as though he had heard her, turned and looked in their direction. The next minute he had turned and disappeared into the cave.

  “C’mon,” Phyllis said excitedly, “let’s see where he goes.”

  The girls covered the few remaining yards to the cave in a run. Once at the cave, caution overtook them. The desperado might be lying in wait for them, and it would be well for them to proceed slowly and carefully.

  As they entered the mouth of the cave, darkness, black and impenetrable, dropped on them like a cloak.

  CHAPTER V

  Pursuit

  Gale’s left hand clasped tightly in that of Phyllis and with Gale holding her gun tightly and ready for instant action should the need arise, the two walked forward. They tried to make as little noise as possible, but though they walked on tiptoe, the sound echoed back to them dully. The ground underfoot was rough and uneven. On both sides of them the earth walls were damp and cold. The air was heavy and musty and the girls shivered as they tried to walk bravely forward. From up ahead of them came a sudden sound as of a boot heel striking against stone.

  “There he is!” Phyllis said in a sharp whisper. “What’ll we do?”

  “Follow him and see where he is hiding,” Gale returned.

  Slowly and with the utmost caution the girls crept forward. Once when they came to a turn in the passage they were unprepared for it and stumbled into the wall. Thereafter as they walked along, Phyllis kept one guiding hand against the wall. Suddenly her hand came in contact with something round and small set in a large niche in the wall.

  “Hold on, I’ve found something, Gale,” she said. “I wish we had a flashlight.”

  “What is it?”

  “I guess it’s a candle. It is a candle, and it’s been lit recently, too, because the end is still warm and the wax isn’t hard yet.”

  “Keep it, maybe we’ll find some matches,” Gale laughed.

  They came to a turn in the passage and for a moment a little speck of light showed ahead of them. But suddenly it flickered and died out.

  “I’ll bet it was another candle,” Phyllis whispered. “But if that was the man we are after who blew it out, he is awf’ly far away from us.”

  Gale stood still and Phyllis stopped also. Over and about them was silence. As they stood there they seemed to imagine all sorts of sounds, footsteps, whispers from unseen antagonists, scurrying of mice in the passageway.

  “I don’t like this,” Phyllis said nervously. “Let’s go back to camp and get Tom or Jim.”

  “If you will lead the way out,” invited Gale.

  “You mean to say we are lost in here?”

  “Well, I haven’t the faintest knowledge in which direction the entrance lies,” Gale said candidly. “Do you?”

  “It is back of some place,” Phyllis said uneasily. “We’ve got to find it.”

  “We’ve got to find it if we want to get out,” Gale agreed. “Suppose we turn around and walk the other way.”

  A mocking laugh arose from somewhere in the passage and echoed loudly
and weirdly. Both girls shivered from the ominous tone of it. They walked along, Phyllis’ hand against the wall to guide them, but soon her hand touched empty air.

  “There’s a turn here,” she cautioned.

  “It’s a cross passage,” Gale said. “Passages on both sides of us, but which one do we take?”

  Again that taunting laugh rumbled from behind them.

  “Whichever way we go, I hope it is away from him,” Phyllis declared trembling. “That laugh gives me the jitters, it is so melodramatic. Soon he will be telling us we are in his power.”

  Gale laughed nervously as the girls continued along the right hand passage. Phyllis stumbled wildly over something and shrieked madly as her exploring fingers came in contact with something cold and hard.

  “What is it?” Gale demanded.

  “It f-feels like a s-skull,” Phyllis murmured with difficulty.

  “Don’t be silly,” Gale said, repressing a shudder. “Probably only a rock. Come along, the girls will begin to worry about us soon.”

  “They would worry more if they knew we were lost in here,” Phyllis declared.

  They walked on for what seemed hours, straining their eyes into the darkness for that bit of light which would mean they were near the entrance, straining their ears to catch unfamiliar sounds.

  “G-Gale, do you really think we will find the way out?” Phyllis asked after a long while.

  “Of course,” Gale said staunchly, with far more cheerfulness than she felt. “We can’t stay in here forever.”

  “No,” Phyllis said and her voice shook uncontrollably. “Soon we would starve.”

  Gale, her own nerves on edge with the darkness and their hopeless search for the opening, recognized the hysteria in her friend’s voice. But before she could remonstrate, there arose that maddening, taunting laugh.

  “Gale,” Phyllis said hysterically, “I can’t stand it! I can’t! If we don’t find the entrance soon, I’ll—”

  Gale shook her sternly. “Phyllis! Pull yourself together! Don’t you see, that is just what he is trying to do, get us rattled? Of course we’ll find the entrance. We’ve got to, but for goodness sake don’t go to pieces now. Wait until we get back to camp and then we’ll scream and tear our hair.”