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

by Julia K. Duncan

  She was tired, but rolled in her blanket in the silent cabin, Gale found she could not sleep. All desire for sleep had left her and her mind was active. The other girls were sleeping, she supposed Tom and Jim were too, out in their tent. But her ears magnified a thousandfold each crackling of a log and each creak of the floor sent expectant shivers along her spine. She realized then she was waiting for the ghost of the cabin to return. She was sure he would. No self-respecting ghost would stop after such a mild attempt to frighten them away if he was really anxious to be rid of them. But who was it that was playing ghost? The bank bandit? Hardly. Whoever it was, why did he want people to stay away from the cabin? From where she lay, she looked around at the room. She could see nothing that anyone might wish to keep from prying eyes.

  Quietly she threw back her blanket and stood up. Tiptoeing, she went to the door and stepped outside. Stentorian snores were coming from the little tent. Tom and Jim were in dreamland. Smiling, she leaned against the door and stared up at the stars overhead. The storm had cleared and there was not a cloud in the sky. The stars hung low like brightly lighted lanterns. The moon cast its silver light on the earth, causing huge black shadows under trees and behind the cabin and the shanty set apart.

  Standing in the darkness, the wind ruffling her hair, gray eyes alight with a hint of the brightness of the stars in their depth, Gale sighed with sheer enjoyment of the scene. She had never before realized that a spot such as this, away from the noise and the people of the world, could be so lovely. It was almost like standing on the edge of the world. Behind her towered high and mighty mountains, before her lay a sea of moon-swept valley. Born and brought up in the little town of Marchton, Gale had known some outdoor life, but never the breathless beauty and limitless quiet of a night in Arizona. Quiet had she thought? Far away a coyote howled and yet another. She shivered. The sound was so—uncivilized. The cry of that animal was like a call straight from the wild untamed world of which she knew nothing.

  Gale was staring at the dark little shanty that Tom had said was doubtless the entrance to the old miner’s mine. She wondered if the man had ever realized his dream of great wealth, the dream he doubtless had when he settled here and began to dig. A shadow, a moving shadow, had detached itself from the spot of darkness which was the shanty and was going toward a thick clump of trees. Instantly Gale stiffened to attention. Who was it? Certainly it was no ghost, for no ghost was ever so solid. Was it the one who had tried to frighten them from the cabin? Certainly he had not tried very hard. Perhaps he was coming back later for a second attempt. Were there more mysterious men in the shaft to the mine? Gale had a sudden impulse to call Tom or Jim to investigate that shadow. No, she would investigate it herself, she decided. The man was out of sight now, lost in the blackness of the trees and she moved forward.

  It was not far from the shadow of the cabin to the protecting darkness of the shanty and Gale covered it quickly. She did not want to be seen by that other sleuthing person. She preferred to do her detecting unseen and unknown. Her exploring fingers found the latch, consisting of a nail and a piece of string, and in a minute the shanty door swung to behind her. It was dark and silent in here. From her jacket pocket she took a small flashlight. Ever since she and Phyllis had been lost in the cave she had carried her light with her, rather than leaving it rolled in her slicker. Now she was glad she had it. The little circle of light revealed a pair of worn wooden steps leading downward. Gale listened intently and when she heard nothing that indicated another’s presence, descended into the passage. It was nothing like the big coal mines she had read and seen pictures of. It was merely a tunnel that had been hewed out of the ground with pick and shovel. If the ground had once held a fortune of silver, it gave no evidence of it now. She had to stoop, so low was the ceiling, as she picked her way along over rocks and débris.

  Suddenly the thin ray of light from her lamp wavered and she noticed that it had grown dim. The battery was growing weak and would not last much longer. She switched it off. She must save it so she would have at least enough light to find her way back to the entrance. That was where she made her mistake. Creeping along in darkness, she did not see the black hole ahead and when her foot touched empty air, fell head foremost down—down—several feet.

  For a moment she lay stunned with the unexpectedness of her fall. Too, the jar of landing had knocked all collected thought from her head. Slowly she sat up and felt for an injury. Nothing but bruises, thank goodness. She had dropped her flashlight and had to feel out with her hands along the damp earth until she found it. She hoped fervently that the drop had not put it entirely out of commission. No, when she pressed the little button, a feeble ray of light shot out. The light was bright enough to see that she had fallen into a pit of some sort that stretched away out behind her into darkness which the lamp would not penetrate.

  She got to her feet and endeavored to shake some of the dirt from her clothes. It was a risk to go forward without a light, but a glance at the wall of dirt and rock had shown her that she could never hope to climb up to where she had been before her fall. There was no course but to explore this passage here and to hope that that mysterious shadow did not decide to come back into the mine immediately. But perhaps he had friends in here, friends that would not welcome her intrusion. The very thought that any minute she might stumble upon some mysterious, fearful unknown made her nervous and she proceeded with greater caution.

  Gale endeavored to readjust her sense of direction, which had been somewhat confused with her fall, to find in what direction this passage led. If she was correct, and she believed she was, it should lead across to directly beneath the cabin where her friends were sleeping. In that case, the man she had seen might have been the “ghost” who with his mysterious knocks and screams had frightened them. But, remembering the fall which she had had, how did he get down to this lower passage, and once down here, how did he get up again? She had not been able to find any means of gaining the higher level. She halted and switched her flashlight on again. The light was failing rapidly and she dared to keep it on only a moment. But in that moment she had switched it overhead and seen the row of four or five boards which she was sure were part of the floor of the cabin. She sought a rock and hurled it up against the boards, ducking as it rebounded back at her. She followed it with another and then another.

  “The ghost is back again,” said a nervous voice which she recognized as Janet’s.

  Certainly it was the floor of the cabin and she had discovered how the ghost had done his mysterious knocking. His voice from here would have been clearly audible to them, too, just as she could hear the girls now.

  “Gale’s gone!” she heard Valerie cry in alarm.

  “Gone!” the others echoed.

  She was just about to call out to reassure them when a sound in the passageway behind her made her hold her breath in suspense. Someone was coming along the tunnel. That must mean that the mysterious ghost had returned to do some more of his haunting. With quick and as quiet steps as possible, she retreated back the way she had come, and directly toward that unknown. Standing flattened against the earth wall, her heart thumping so she was sure he would hear it, Gale waited for the ghost to pass her. He did so, actually brushing against her in the darkness. He carried no flashlight and it was this fact alone that had saved her from discovery. Evidently he knew his way about in the darkness.

  Aided now by fear, she sped along the narrow, low tunnel to where she had had her fall. The man certainly had not been in here when she fell, hence there must be some way he had entered since. She had to find that entrance to gain her freedom. Now that the others had discovered her absence, they would be alarmed and a search would be begun. She must get back and reassure them. She must also send Tom and Jim to find this mysterious stranger.

  Flashing on the last faint rays of her flashlight, she saw the wall down which she had fallen and against it hung a crude rope ladder. So this was how he entered and left this lower tunnel! With on
e foot on the ladder, she slipped her flashlight into her jacket pocket. It had failed entirely now and she would have to depend on her memory to lead her to the entrance. It took but a few moments to climb the ladder and once at the top she pulled it up behind her. That would keep the ghost in the lower passage until Tom and Jim could come along and investigate him. There must be some reason why he “haunted” the cabin with his mysterious knocks.

  Swiftly as possible she went along the tunnel and after several minutes stumbled against the steps leading up to the door.

  CHAPTER VII

  Landslide

  “But I can’t understand how he got out!” Gale said again with a puzzled frown. “I purposely pulled the ladder up behind me to keep him in there.”

  “There must be another way out that’s all,” Tom said.

  “He’s gone and now we shall never know who the ghost was,” said Janet.

  Tom and Jim exchanged a fleeting glance that only Gale seemed to see.

  “Well, Gale gives a good imitation of a spook,” was Carol’s declaration. “Imagine, throwing rocks at the floor to scare us all out of our well earned sleep.”

  “I was only demonstrating how it was done for my own satisfaction,” Gale laughed.

  The nine of them were jogging along on their horses. They had had their breakfast while they discussed the disappearance of the ghost. For the man whom Gale had thought imprisoned in the lower tunnel had gone when Jim and Tom let themselves down on the rope ladder. They had not explored the tunnel to its full length so they were not sure, but they surmised that there must be another exit some place along the passage and it was this that the mysterious stranger had used. They had all endeavored to go back to sleep, but their rest was fitful and broken. They had eaten an early breakfast and now, two hours later, found them picking their way through cactus and undergrowth to the distant hills.

  “Git along little dogie, git along, git along,” Janet sang lustily.

  “I wish I had brought some cotton,” Carol commented darkly, “for my ears,” she added at Janet’s curious glance. “Then I wouldn’t have to listen to you sing.”

  “Oh, you don’t appreciate a good voice when you hear it,” was Janet’s retort.

  “A good voice, I do,” Carol declared, and moved her pony so that Gale was between her and Janet. “But who ever told you—”

  “What? Not another musical person?” Madge demanded as Tom blew vigorously on his harmonica.

  “If riding affects them like that,” Virginia laughed, “it is time we called a halt. What do you say, Jim?”

  “For ten minutes,” Jim nodded.

  They fell from their mounts, grateful for the respite. Tom promptly stretched out on the ground, his hat over his face to shut out the sun. Jim led the horses to a little stream of water as the girls stamped the stiffness out of their cramped legs.

  “Where’s Jim?” Virginia wanted to know at the end of the allotted ten minutes for Jim was not in sight. The horses were standing ready for their riders, but they could not proceed without the guide.

  Virginia went over and poked her brother into wakefulness.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked drowsily.

  “Jim hasn’t come back yet,” Virginia informed him, “and if we don’t get started, we won’t make our next campsite before dark.”

  Tom stretched lazily. “Well, stay here an’ I’ll find him.”

  Gale and Virginia mounted their horses and the others did likewise.

  “You know, I’m either going to wear the horse out or he is going to wear me out,” Janet declared with a grimace as she lowered herself into the saddle. “I’m afraid it is the latter.”

  They waited for fully fifteen minutes before either Tom or Jim came into sight. The horses had caught the impatience of their riders and were fidgeting to be off.

  “We thought you had deserted us for sure!” Virginia declared. “Where were you?”

  To Gale it seemed that the two men had the air of conspirators. There was a gleam in their eyes that had not been there before. The minute they came within earshot of the girls they stopped talking and came on silently.

  “Virginia,” Tom said immediately, “we want you to lead the girls to Bear Rock and have lunch. Wait there for us.”

  “But where are you going?” Virginia demanded.

  “Jim has found a trail that looks strange so we are going to follow it,” Tom explained. “But we’ll catch up to you at Bear Rock. You camp there until we come, understand?”

  “No,” Virginia said firmly. “I don’t understand. What is so strange about this trail? Why can’t we all ride that way?”

  “We couldn’t follow the trail with all of you along,” Tom declared. “It would be obliterated in no time.”

  “But, Tom, if we get lost up here we could never find each other again,” Virginia continued.

  “But Miss Virginia, you’ve been to Bear Rock lots of times,” Jim put in. “Yore Dad would want us to follow this trail, too. It shore looks mighty strange. You won’t get lost.”

  “You don’t know what you might be getting into,” Virginia said. “I think you should let that trail alone and mind your own business.”

  Tom shook his head, tightening his saddle strap.

  “We’re goin’ so you might as well save your breath. See you at Bear Rock,” he added as he and Jim swung their horses about and were off in a cloud of dust.

  The girls stared after them in surprise, then Virginia, with a shrug of her shoulders, turned her horse and led the way at an abrupt angle from the road taken by Jim and Tom. Gale undertook to bring up the rear with the pack horses. As the girls jogged forward, Phyllis rode directly behind Virginia with Janet and Carol following. Valerie had dropped behind with Gale.

  “Do you suppose that mysterious trail was left by the bank bandits?” Valerie murmured in a low tone to her friend.

  “I shouldn’t be surprised,” Gale answered. “You know, Val, that is what they are really looking for. I believe that is why Jim has a definite camping place in mind for each day and doesn’t let us loiter much along the way. He and Tom must think the rustlers and robbers are connected.”

  Valerie nodded. “Do you think the bandit might have been the man you saw at the mine last night?”

  Gale frowned. “I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about that. It might have been, but I can’t be sure because I didn’t get a close enough look at him. He might have been using the cabin as a hiding place.”

  “That’s why he tried to scare us away,” added Valerie. “I believe that’s it!”

  “What are you two chattering about?” Janet wanted to know.

  “About having broiled rattlesnake for supper,” Valerie retorted. “I’ve heard it is very good with mustard.”

  It was but a short ride to Bear Rock, so named because a huge boulder so resembled the head of a ferocious grizzly. Once there, the girls dismounted and gathered wood for a fire. They would eat a cold luncheon, but insisted on at least having hot coffee to drink. The horses were tethered and the girls gathered about the fire. Seated on stones, for the ground was still damp from the heavy rains of the day before, the girls waited for the two men to join them. They drank their coffee and had long finished their lunch before the clatter of hoofs reached them and Jim and Tom rode up.

  “We’ll have a new campsite tonight,” Tom said at once. “Jim and I want to do a little more sleuthing so we might as well go along and camp when it gets dark, no matter where we are.”

  “That’s better than leaving us behind at any rate,” Carol declared. “I’m rather anxious to get a look at this trail.”

  “Just a lot of hoof marks,” Tom answered blandly.

  That was all it proved to be and the girls were disappointed. They didn’t know what they had expected to find, but certainly more than this. Unexperienced in trail reading they didn’t realize what a wide, easy-to-read trail had been left. If they had, they might have been suspicious. Even so, Tom and Jim, western b
red and experienced in trailing both men and animals, should have been suspicious. But they weren’t.

  In the northern region of Arizona are plateaus broken by high mountains. Between the foothills of a high range was a winding trail and it was this that the Adventure Girls and their friends followed, winding in and out through forests thick with pine trees and cottonwoods, jack rabbits darting across the trail, making the horses prance and rear, and the girls getting so weary they could hardly stay in their saddles.

  At last Jim called a halt beside a small stream. The sun was sinking swiftly. Darkness was creeping into the east. When they had pitched their tents and supper was started, the girls took time out to admire the scenery of their surroundings. They were camped on the base of a rugged plateau broken in two by a narrow pass through which they proposed to ride on the morrow. Overhanging the pass was a huge boulder, balanced precariously on the edge of the jutting cliff.

  “Just one push is all that needs to block up that whole pass,” Tom declared.

  “Let’s hope nobody pushes it tomorrow when we are going through there,” commented Janet cheerfully.

  “Let’s see what is on the other side of the mountain,” proposed Gale to Valerie.

  “All right,” she agreed readily, getting up from her knees where she had been putting another piece of wood on the fire.

  “Or are you too tired?” Gale asked suddenly, remembering that Val couldn’t keep going as incessantly as the rest of them.

  “Of course I’m not too tired for that short walk,” Val said stoutly. “Come along.”

  “When supper is ready give us a halloo,” directed Gale as the two started out.

  “You’re taking awful chances,” Carol declared mischievously, “we might eat all the supper without you.”

  “You had better not!” Gale warned laughingly.