Nancy smiled. “Then I guess I’m looking for some other person.”
Having drawn a blank, Nancy decided that her next move should be to write an advertisement for the River Heights Gazette.
It read:
SADIE: If you are blonde and know of a certain walnut tree, a beautiful gift awaits you in return for information. Reply Box 358.
The second day after the advertisement appeared, Nancy, with Bess and George, went to the Gazette office to ask if there had been any replies.
To their astonishment, nearly a dozen letters were handed them.
“Jumping jellynsh!” muttered George. “How many walnut-tree Sadies are there in this town?”
Carrying the replies to a nearby park, the girls divided the letters and sat down to read them. Several were from pranksters, or persons who obviously had no information about the walnut tree but were eager to obtain a free gift.
“Running that ad was a waste of money,” Bess sighed, tossing aside her last letter.
Nancy, however, was deeply engrossed in a letter written on the stationery of the Lovelee Cosmetic Company. “Girls, listen to this!” she exclaimed.
“ ‘I have blond hair. Do you refer to a black walnut tree along the Muskoka River? What is the gift you are offering? Sadie Green.’ ”
“We must find out more about this girl right away!” Nancy declared.
She telephoned the cosmetic firm and learned that Sadie was the telephone operator. When Nancy spoke about the letter, the girl pleaded with her not to come to the office.
“I’ll meet you in the park,” Sadie promised. “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
The three friends were afraid the girl might not keep her promise. But eventually they saw a young woman with long blond hair approaching.
“I can’t stay more than a minute,” she said nervously. “The boss would have a fit if he knew I skipped out!”
“Will you answer a few questions?”
“What do you want to know?”
“First, tell me, did you ever hear of the Three Branch Ranch?”
“Never,” the girl replied with a blank look.
“Did you leave an envelope with money in the hollow of a tree near the river?” Nancy asked.
The girl moved a step away. “Who are you?” she mumbled. “Detectives? Why do you ask me such a thing?” Before Nancy could reply, she burst out, “I’ve changed my mind. Keep your present!”
With a frightened look in her eyes, Sadie whirled and ran off through the park.
“That girl is afraid to tell what she knows!” Nancy exclaimed. “But we may learn something by talking to her parents.”
Inquiry at the Lovelee personnel department brought forth the information that Sadie lived with an elderly grandfather, Charles Green, on North James Street. The girls went directly there.
Old Mr. Green sat on the front porch in a rocker, reading a newspaper. He laid the paper aside as the girls came up the walk.
“You friends o’ my granddaughter Sadie?” he asked in a friendly way. “She ain’t here now.”
“We’re acquaintances of Sadie,” Nancy replied, seating herself on the porch railing.
“If you’re aimin’ to get her to go some place with you, I calculate it won’t do no good to ask.” The old man sighed. “Sadie’s actin’ kinda peculiar lately.”
“In what way?” Nancy asked with interest.
“Oh, she’s snappish-like when I ask her questions,” the old man revealed. “She ain’t bringin’ her money home like she used to, either.”
Mr. Green, who seemed eager for companionship, chatted on about Sadie. She was a good girl, he said, but lately he could not figure her out.
From the conversation, Nancy was convinced that the case of Sadie Green was very similar to that of Lola White. After the girls had left the house, Nancy proposed that they drive out to the black walnut.
“I have a plan,” she said.
Nancy did not say what it was, but after examining the hollow in the walnut tree, which was empty, she looked all about her. Then she tore a sheet from a notebook in her purse. Using very bad spelling, she printed:
My girl friend told me by leaving a letter hear I can get in touch with a pursen who can give infermation. Please oblige. Yours, Ruby Brown, Genral Delivry, River Heights.
“You hope to trap the man who took the fifty dollars!” George exclaimed admiringly. “But how do you know you’ll get an answer? It seems pretty definite that the racketeers aren’t using this tree as a post office any longer.”
“We’ll have to take a chance,” said Nancy. “And if there is an answer, someone will have to call for it who answers to the name of ‘Ruby Brown.’ ”
“George and I will,” Bess offered eagerly. Nancy smilingly shook her head. “You’re well known as my friends. No, I’ll have a stranger call for the letter, so that anyone assigned to watch the post office won’t become suspicious.”
Nancy arranged with a laundress, who sometimes worked at the Drew home, to inquire for the letter each day.
“Did you get it?” Nancy asked eagerly when Belinda returned the third day.
The good-natured laundress, lips parted in a wide grin, said, “I got it, Miss Nancy!”
Taking the letter, Nancy ran upstairs to her room to open it in private. She gasped when she read the message enclosed, which was:
If you’re on the level, Ruby, go to Humphrey’s Black Walnut for instructions. If you are a disbeliever, may the wrath of all the Humphreys descend upon you!
CHAPTER VIII
The Ghost at the Organ
REREADING the message several times, Nancy speculated about the Humphreys and their connection with the black walnut tree.
Deciding it best to keep the contents of the message to herself, Nancy went to the River Heights Public Library, hoping to find a book which would throw some light on the Humphreys mentioned in the note. The name sounded vaguely familiar, and it had occurred to her that it might belong to one of the very old families of the county.
Finally Nancy found exactly the book she wanted. Fascinated, she read that a famous old walnut grove along the river once had been known as Humphrey’s Woods.
Even more exciting was the information that a duel, fatal to one member of the family, had been fought beneath a certain walnut tree. The tree, known since then as Humphrey’s Walnut, was marked with a plaque.
The article went on to say that Blackwood Hall, the family home, was still standing. Built of walnut from the woods surrounding it, the mansion had, in its day, been one of the showplaces along the river. Now the grounds were weed-grown, the old home vacant, and the family gone.
“It seems a pity to neglect a fine old place that way,” Nancy thought. “Why would—”
The next sentence aroused her curiosity.
“It is rumored that Jonathan’s ghost still inhabits the place!”
Nancy decided she must investigate Blackwood Hall, although she smiled at the thought of any ghost walking there.
But first she would find Humphrey’s Walnut. When she returned home, Nancy telephoned Ned, asking if he were free to accompany her, and told him briefly about the letter.
“I’ll pick you up in my car in five minutes!” he promised eagerly.
At Nancy’s direction, Ned drove as close as he could to the ancient walnut grove by the river. Then they parked the car and started off on foot. They examined each tree for a plaque. It was not until they were deep in the grove that Nancy spied the dull bronze marker with its tragic account of how Jonathan Humphrey had died in a duel while defending his honor beneath the shade of that tree. For fully a minute neither Nancy nor Ned spoke; then Nancy’s voice shook off the spell of the place.
“I wonder if anyone will come,” said Nancy.
“The note suggested that you were to receive instructions of some kind,” Ned remarked.
“Perhaps this tree, also, is used to hold messages. Do you see any hollow in the trunk, Ned?”
> The youth, noticing a deep pocket in the crotch of the walnut, ran his hand into it.
“Say, something’s crammed in here!” he said excitedly. “Yes, it’s a paper!”
“And addressed to Ruby Brown!” Nancy cried, looking at it.
The message was short.
Name the girl friend who suggested you leave that letter.
“Wow!” exclaimed Ned. “Looks as if you’ve put your foot in it now, Nancy.”
Nancy read the message again, then asked Ned to put it back. “Come on!” she urged.
Nancy led the way back to the car and they drove to the walnut tree where she had left her first note signed “Ruby Brown.” Again Nancy printed a badly spelled message, asking for instructions on how to find the Humphrey tree.
“That ought to fool him.” She chuckled as Ned placed the note in the hollow of the tree. “He’ll think poor Ruby is dumb, which is exactly what I want him to think.”
“Say, why don’t you ask the police to guard the place?”
“Because I’m afraid I’ll scare off the man altogether. I want to trap the mastermind behind this thing, not some errand boy.”
For the next two days, no mail was received by General Delivery for Ruby Brown. On the third morning, in response to Nancy’s telephone call, she learned a letter was at the post office. The laundress went to get it.
“What does our unknown friend write this time?” asked Bess, who had arrived at the Drew home just ahead of the maid. “Does he tell Ruby how to reach the Humphrey Walnut?”
“He says ‘Ask Lola White.’ ”
“Lola!” exclaimed Bess. “That poor girl! Then she is involved in that swindler’s scheme.”
“I’ve suspected it all along,” Nancy admitted. “The fellow is clever. He’s suspicious that Ruby Brown is a hoax, but so far I don’t think he connects her with me in any way. And it’s my job to keep him from finding out.”
“What will you do next?” asked Bess. “Talk to Lola?”
“Not right away,” Nancy decided. “Unwittingly she might carry the information back to the writer of this note.”
“Then what’s the next move?”
“Dad says when you’re confused—and I admit I am—you should sit back and try to arrange the facts into some kind of order,” Nancy replied. “Dad also thinks a change of scenery is a good idea when you’re in a mental jam.”
“Where shall we go?” asked Bess.
“How would you like to go with me to Blackwood Hall?” asked Nancy. “The book at the library told various stories about this old mansion, which stands within a few miles of River Heights. It’s haunted, has a secret tunnel, and is said to house the ghost of one Jonathan Humphrey who lost his life in a duel. Would you like to explore it with me?”
At first Bess insisted that wild horses could not drag her to the deserted mansion. But later, when she learned that Nancy had persuaded George to accompany her, she weakened in her decision.
“I’ll go along,” she said. “But I’m sure we’re headed for trouble.”
The trio set off at once, although a summer storm seemed to be brewing. As the girls tramped through the woods along the river, Nancy suddenly stopped short. Below her was the cove where she and Ned had rescued Lola White. The girls were not far from Blackwood Hall now. Could there be any connection between the sinister old place and the strange, hypnotic state in which they had found Lola that night?
Without voicing her thoughts to the others, Nancy plunged on. At last they came within view of the ancient building. The three-story mansion, where several generations of Humphreys had lived, looked as black as its name, forbidding even by daylight. High weeds and grass choked off any paths that might once have led to the house.
The girls circled the mansion. The wind rattled the shutters and at intervals whistled dismally around the corners of the great structure. An open gate to what had once been a flower garden slammed back and forth, as if moved by an unseen hand.
Nancy walked to the massive front door, expecting to find it securely fastened. To her amazement, as she turned the knob, the door slowly opened on groaning hinges.
“Well, what do you know!” George muttered.
Bess tried to dissuade her friends from going inside, but they paid no attention.
Turning on flashlights, the three girls entered the big hall into which the door opened. The floor was richly carpeted, but Time had played its part in making the carpet worn and gray with mildew.
Velvet draperies, faded and rotted, hung from the windows of an adjoining room. Through the archway, the girls caught a glimpse of a few massive pieces of walnut furniture.
“This looks interesting,” Nancy observed. “There’s nothing to be afraid of here.”
At that moment the front door banged shut behind them. Bess stifled a scream of terror.
“Goose! It was only the wind!” George scolded her. “If you keep this up, you’ll give us all a case of the jitters.”
“I’m sorry,” said Bess, “but it’s so spooky.”
Just then a sound of sudden, heavy rain told the girls a storm had indeed begun.
Passing through what they took to be a small parlor, the girls found themselves in another long hall, running at right angles to the entrance hall. From it opened a huge room, so dark that their flashlights illuminated only a small section of it.
“Listen!” Nancy whispered suddenly.
As they paused in the doorway, the three distinctly heard the sound of organ music. Bess seized George’s arm in a viselike grip.
“W-what’s that?” she quavered. “It must be ghost music!”
“It couldn’t be—” George began, but the words died in her throat.
At the end of the room a weird, greenish light began to glow. It revealed a small organ.
At the keyboard of the instrument sat a luminous figure.
Bess uttered a terrified shriek which echoed through the ancient house. Instantly the dim light vanished, and the music died away. The long room was in darkness.
Nancy raised her flashlight and ran toward the place where the phantom organist had appeared. Only the old, dust-covered organ remained against the wall.
“It looks as if it hadn’t been touched for years,” Nancy remarked.
“Oh, Nancy! Let’s leave this dreadful place!” Bess wailed from across the room. “The house is haunted! Somebody’s ghost does live here!”
Refusing to listen to her friends’ pleas to wait, Bess rapidly retreated. A solid slamming of the front door told them she was safely out of the house.
George, keeping her voice low, commented, “To tell the truth, I’m a little nervous, too.”
“So am I,” admitted Nancy. “This place is haunted all right—not by a specter but by a very live and perhaps dangerous person.”
“How did that ‘ghost,’ or whatever it was, get out of the room so fast? And without passing us?”
“That’s what we must find out,” Nancy replied, focusing her light on the walls again. “There may be a secret exit that the—”
She ended in midsentence as a girl’s piercing scream reached their ears. The cry came from outside the mansion.
“That was Bess!” Nancy exclaimed.
Fearful, the two girls abandoned the search and raced outdoors. The rain was coming down in torrents, making it difficult to see far ahead.
At first they could not locate Bess anywhere. Then Nancy caught a glimpse of her, huddled among the trees a few yards away. She was trembling violently.
“A man!” Bess chattered as her companions ran up to her. “I saw him!”
“Did you get a good look at him?” Nancy asked.
Bess had been too frightened to do this. But she was sure she must have surprised the person who had come from the direction of the house, for he had turned abruptly and entered the woods.
“Any chance of overtaking him?” Nancy questioned.
“Oh, no!” Bess had no desire either to lead or join an expedition thr
ough the woods. “He’s gone. He knows his way and we don’t. Let’s go home, girls. We’re wet through, and we’ll catch colds.”
“I’m going back to the mansion,” Nancy announced.
“I’ll come along,” said George. “We’ll hunt again for the hidden exit that the ghost at the organ must have taken!”
Bess reluctantly accompanied her friends. As they reached the massive front door, Nancy noticed that it was closed.
“I’m sure I left it open. The wind must have blown it shut,” she remarked.
George tried to open the door. Though she twisted the knob in both directions and pushed hard, the door refused to budge.
“Bolted from inside,” George concluded. “The ghost isn’t anxious for company.”
“I can’t get it out of my mind that Blackwood Hall is part of this whole mixed-up mystery,” Nancy remarked thoughtfully. “I wish I could get inside again!”
Nancy smiled to herself. Ned was coming to dinner. She would ask him to bring her back to Blackwood Hall that evening. Ghosts were always supposed to perform better at night!
“All right, let’s go,” she said cheerfully.
Before returning home, Nancy did a few errands, so it was after six o’clock when she reached her own house. Hannah Gruen opened the door excitedly.
“Mrs. Putney has been trying all afternoon to reach you by telephone. She wants to talk to you about something very important.”
“I believe Mrs. Putney is going to attend another seance!” Nancy exclaimed.
Nancy hurried to the telephone and called the Putney number, but there was no answer.
“Oh, dear, I hope she won’t be taken in again by the faker,” Nancy said to herself.
Without the slightest clue as to where to find Mrs. Putney, Nancy turned her thoughts toward the evening’s plan. Ned, upon arriving, fell in eagerly with her idea of going to Blackwood Hall.
“I hope the ghost appears for me too,” he said, laughing, when Nancy had told him the story. “Say, how about going there by boat?”
“Wonderful.”
After dinner Ned rented a trim little speedboat, and in a short time they reached an abandoned dock some distance from Blackwood Hall. A full moon shone down on the couple as they picked their way through the woods.
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