The Message in the Hollow Oak

by Carolyn Keene

  Nancy looked around frantically for shelter. Below, at the foot of a steep bluff, she spotted a tumble-down red frame building.

  “There’s an old railroad station!” she exclaimed. “We can go in there!”

  Just then Ned swerved to avoid a boulder in the road. The heavy truck skidded out of control and slid down the muddy embankment straight for the old depot! There were screams from the rear.

  “Hang on!” Ned yelled.

  Crash!

  The truck came to a halt with the cab inside the station. Plaster and boards rained down on it. The riders in the back scrambled out and hurried to the front.

  “Nancy, Ned! Are you hurt?” George cried. Bess was white-faced with fright.

  “We’re all right, I guess,” Nancy said shakily as she and Ned got out of the cab.

  Ned gave a wry grin. “I don’t think we did this old depot any good.”

  “It was a wreck to start with,” said Burt.

  The boys looked over the truck and found it undamaged. Meanwhile, Nancy searched the abandoned station on a hunch Bob Snell might be imprisoned there. She found only a broken cabinet in the ticket agent’s office and a 1929 train schedule.

  “It has stopped raining,” said Bess.

  “Then let’s go!” Burt urged.

  The girls found clean rags under the truck seat and wiped off the wet hay in the back. Then they all climbed in and Ned backed out of the broken wall. He drove along the grass-covered railroad tracks until he came to a gravel road leading back to the bluff.

  Before long, Nancy recognized where they were. Straight ahead was the first hollow oak with the lead plate on it containing the name Père François, and the date, followed by an arrow. It was noon by the time they reached the area where the second tree was located. But it was on the other side of a deep creek.

  “I guess we came out of our way,” Nancy remarked.

  “I’m starved!” said Bess. “Let’s sit down here by this nice shady stream and have our lunch.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Dave spoke up.

  The three couples climbed out of the old truck and walked toward the water to wash their hands. Burt was the first to finish. As he turned back toward the truck he saw two little boys peering into the cab. Thinking they might know the best spot to drive across the stream, he hurried toward them. Instead of waiting for Burt, the two ran away as fast as they could.

  “I guess they’re shy of strangers,” he thought with a smile, and waited for the others to join him.

  Nancy, first to get there, reached into the cab for the box of food. The string which had been tied around it was gone. Quickly she took off the lid and looked inside.

  “Oh no! It can’t be!” she exclaimed.

  CHAPTER XV

  Strange Row of Stones

  AT Nancy’s outcry Bess looked into the box. She gave a little shriek. “What! No food?”

  “Those little boys I saw running away,” Burt remarked, “must have taken everything.” He dashed off in the direction the children had taken.

  Ned and Dave followed, while Bess sat down on the ground, disconsolate.

  “Oh, don’t be silly!” George chided her cousin. “It wouldn’t hurt you to go without a meal.”

  “You’re a good one to talk,” Bess replied. “You eat all you want and stay slim. I can’t help it if I get hungry.”

  It seemed like a long time before the boys returned. Ned was holding a package of sandwiches which the little boys had dropped. Burt and Dave had their hands filled with luscious raspberries. Streamers of watercress were trailing from their pockets.

  “I see you retrieved some of our lunch,” said Bess. “Did you catch those little monkeys?”

  “No. They had too much of a head start, but if we ration this food, we won’t starve.”

  Dave grinned. “I feel as if I’m on Operation Survival.”

  While they were eating, Nancy and her friends discussed how they were going to get across the water. They did not want to risk being trapped in midstream if the truck stalled.

  “Let’s follow the water upstream,” Ned suggested. “We may come to a shallow place. We could cross there and then drive back to follow the direction of the arrow.”

  They started off but found the going a bit difficult. What had been a wagon road was now overgrown with grass and bushes. The truck was sturdy, however, and finally they came to a shallow part of the stream.

  Nancy laughed. “I wonder if Clem knew about this road, but was in too much of a hurry to take this longer way.”

  She described the spill which she, Julie Anne, and Clem had taken when the farmer’s old car had tipped over in the water.

  When they reached the second hollow oak with the plate, Ned looked skeptically at the terrain due south. “We’d better not try taking this truck through those woods. I’m sure there’s not enough space between the trees.”

  The whole group climbed out and waited for Nancy to lead the way. Everyone kept looking for hollow oaks, but found none. Finally they climbed to the top of a wooded ridge.

  “Isn’t that an old oak tree ahead of us?” George asked.

  “It looks like one,” Nancy replied. The six searchers hurried forward.

  As they neared the tree, Ned remarked, “Somebody has mutilated this.”

  “But why?” Burt queried. “There’s no lead plate on it and the tree looks pretty sturdy to me, not like one with a hollow center.”

  There was no doubt but that someone with a hatchet had hacked at the oak over and over again to get to the middle of it.

  “The man who did this,” said Burt, “must have thought it was the prize one.”

  “What a shame to damage it!” Bess said. “This was a gorgeous tree. Nancy, do you think the person who hacked the trunk has anything to do with the mystery?”

  The young detective shrugged. “I’m not sure. He could have.”

  George spoke up. “If it was Kadle or his buddies they’re probably getting so desperate to find the treasure that they’ll hack any big oak.”

  Nancy wondered if the State Police had picked up Kadle or had any leads on him. She decided that before they returned to the dig she would go to Walmsley and find out whether there were any new developments.

  The group trudged on down the side of the hill. According to the sun they were still going due south. Ahead was open farmland with a stretch of woods beyond. As they stumbled along over the uneven ground, Bess suddenly gave a cry and went down in a heap.

  “Oh!” she exclaimed.

  “What happened?” Dave asked, running to help her up.

  “I stepped on a stone that moved,” she said. “For a few seconds I thought I’d sprained my ankle, but it’s okay.” She stood up.

  The others had come to see what had happened. Nancy, relieved to know her friend was all right, glanced down at the stone which had rocked under Bess’s foot. Noting the odd shape, she picked it up and brushed off the dirt.

  “It’s a spearhead!” she exclaimed.

  The others gathered closer to examine it.

  “That looks like an old Indian relic,” Dave remarked.

  “I wonder,” Nancy thought, “if someone put this on the ground to indicate a direction.”

  She decided it would be pure coincidence for the discovery to be associated with her mystery. But Nancy’s detective instincts led her to hunt for more spearheads. A little farther on were a row of them. She pointed out her find to the others.

  “They certainly mean something,” Ned remarked. “And they all lead the same way.”

  “But,” Burt objected,” they couldn’t possibly be directions to the hollow oak with the message in it. I think someone has put them here fairly recently.”

  “Why do you say that?” Bess asked.

  “Because they’re in such a neat line. If they’d been here for any length of time they’d have been disturbed by animals or people. Some would be missing, probably, or kicked out of order.”

  Nancy nodded. �
��Yes, I think so too.”

  All the young people wondered where the weaponheads had come from and who had placed them here. Suddenly into Nancy’s mind sprang an image of Bob Snell. Could he possibly have done this, hoping that someone would find them and go the way they pointed? She was skeptical of this, however, telling herself Bob’s abductors surely would not have given him time to place them.

  She and her friends followed the spearheads for a few minutes. There were no clues to the missing student’s whereabouts, nor to a hollow oak.

  Nancy noticed that Bess was limping a bit and said they should go back. On the way she picked up three of the spearheads, while asking Bess, “Can you walk as far as the truck?”

  “Oh yes,” Bess replied. “But I’ll be glad to get on level ground again!”

  The boys helped her hop on the good foot and finally they all reached the truck. Nancy said she wanted to stop in Walmsley and telephone the State Police. She was not sure of the right direction, but she made a good guess and after a while they rode into town.

  She called the police and told them about the spearheads. They were interested in her story and said they too would search the area.

  “Incidentally nobody has come to that house where you found Mr. Armstrong. We think Kadle abandoned him or one of the gang was watching the place from the woods when Mr. Armstrong was taken away. If so, those kidnappers will not show up again in Elizabethtown.”

  “Maybe you’ll have better news the next time I call,” Nancy said.

  She rejoined her friends and told them the discouraging news. Bess said, “Then this means, Nancy, that you’re still in great danger.”

  The young sleuth smiled. “How could I be harmed with all of you around?”

  When they arrived at the dig, the searchers found the young archaeologists jubilant. Art and Julie Anne together had unearthed the skeleton of a very important person.

  “We think,” said Theresa, “that he was probably the chief of the tribe. Others near him were no doubt his family and possibly they all were killed in a war. The chief’s brain had been pierced by an arrow.”

  “How do you know he was the chief?” asked Dave.

  “Because there was a fine antler headdress near his skull. Such a decoration was worn by an important man.”

  “This is exciting,” Nancy said. “What a lot you did here today! I also have something for your exhibit.” She took the spearheads from her pocket, and explained where they had been found.

  “These are fine specimens,” Theresa said. “I believe they’re Hopewell work.”

  Nancy noticed that Bess had not waited to take part in the celebration. She had gone into the house immediately. Nancy and George headed for the cousins’ room. Bess was not there.

  “Let’s find her,” George proposed. She and Nancy went into the large old-fashioned kitchen. Bess, wearing a big apron, was preparing supper.

  “I couldn’t stand the sight of all those skeletons,” she said.

  The other two girls laughed and let Bess go on with her work while they went to change their clothes. Everyone enjoyed Bess’s delicious supper of ham patties, macaroni and cheese, and banana ice cream topped with cherries and ground walnuts. Later all the boys left except Art. He had been elected to guard the lab that evening with its precious new collection from the excavation.

  The girls lingered outside with Theresa to enjoy the balmy night air. Presently they became aware of a car coming up the road toward the farmhouse.

  “Who can be calling at this time of night?” Theresa asked.

  A camper was driven up. It stopped and two men in uniform stepped out and came toward the group.

  One said, “We’re guards from the museum in Cairo. We’ve come for all the artifacts and bones.”

  Nancy and the others stared at the men in astonishment.

  CHAPTER XVI

  Fakers

  “OPEN the door to your laboratory!” the stranger ordered. “And any other place you keep artifacts the diggers found here.”

  Theresa stepped forward and asked for his credentials.

  “What do you mean?” the other man said haughtily. “Our word is good enough.”

  Nancy was already suspicious of them and their mission. She quietly drew back among the girls and went over to the camper. In the moonlight she scraped the mud off the rear license plate and read the letters and numbers. She repeated them several times so she would not forget them, then returned to the group.

  Theresa was still arguing with the men. One of them was saying, “Listen, lady, I could have this whole project stopped. Not one of you is from Illinois. You’re trespassers!”

  Theresa drew herself up very straight. “We have permission to work here,” she said with dignity. “We certainly are not going to give you any of our finds.”

  By this time Art had come to Theresa’s side. “Want me to put these men off the place?” he asked, and added in a whisper, “With the girls’ help we could do it.”

  Before Theresa had a chance to reply, the intruders started for the barn-lab. They were stopped short as the whole group moved toward them.

  In a loud, clear voice Bess shouted, “If you dare try anything funny, George will use some judo on you!”

  The men paused. Apparently they thought “George” was a man and they wanted no part of a judo encounter. Besides, Art was ready to fight them also. The two men looked from one to another in the group. Defeat in their eyes, they exchanged glances, then one said, “Okay for now. We’ll leave but you can bet we’ll be back!”

  With this threat they walked to the camper and got in. Theresa, her students, and the visitors watched in relief as the vehicle pulled away.

  When the chatter that followed died down, Nancy told Theresa that she had obtained the license number of the camper. “Would you like me to go with you to Walmsley now in Clem’s truck and report the incident to the State Police?”

  Theresa shook her head. “It might be dangerous. Those men were scared away because there were so many of us, but on the road they might waylay just two people. Wait until morning. Perhaps you and Ned could borrow Art’s motorcycle and make the report. How about it, Art?”

  “Glad to lend it,” he said, and Nancy was delighted to see that he showed no sign of jealousy. Perhaps working closely with Julie Anne had made him realize what a fine girl she was and he was becoming more interested in her.

  Theresa went on, “I’d ask you to go, Art, but you’ll need some sleep after standing guard here.”

  “I understand,” he replied.

  The following morning Ned arrived driving the motorcycle, and after breakfast he and Nancy set off. When they arrived in town, she called State Police Headquarters and reported the incident of the previous night.

  “I’m sure the men were phonies,” she said. “I visited Cairo a short time ago. The only museum I know of is the Victorian mansion, and there were no uniformed guards. We were taken around by a woman guide.”

  The police captain agreed the men were impostors. “I’ll alert my force to watch for them,” he promised.

  Nancy asked if any report had come in on Kit Kadle, alias Tom Wilson.

  “Not a clue,” he answered. “Did you say you got the license number of the camper?” When Nancy gave it to him, he said, “Please stay there by that phone and I’ll call you back. I’ll get in touch with the license bureau and find out who owns the camper.”

  While she and Ned were waiting, Clem Rucker drove up in his car. He greeted them warmly and asked how they had made out the day before.

  Nancy told him, then asked, “Do you know anything about that row of spearheads?”

  The old farmer looked puzzled. “Never heard tell o’ them. Where are they?” When he was told, he shook his head. “That sure is strange.”

  At that moment the telephone rang and Nancy answered. The State Police captain was calling back.

  “That camper was stolen!” he reported.

  The officer went on to say he had
also checked with the museum in Cairo. They had not sent anybody to get artifacts or skeletons. “It was going to be a case of clear thievery but you and the young archaeologists foiled their scheme. My men will make a search and try to pick up those impostors.”

  While Nancy had been talking to the police, Ned had been telling Clem about the latest trouble at the dig.

  “Somebody sure doesn’t want you around here,” the farmer remarked. “But pay no attention to ‘em. You scared ’em all away before. You can do it again.”

  As Clem rode off, Nancy told Ned about the camper having been stolen and that the men who had driven to the dig were phonies.

  Ned was thoughtful for a few seconds, then he said, “If those men who came to the dig last night are buddies of Kit Kadle, I’ll bet he’s in the area. I wonder if he moves around a lot, or has some particular place where he holes up.”

  “Wouldn’t it be great to find his hideout?” Nancy asked.

  “Big project,” Ned answered.

  He and Nancy mounted the motorcycle and it roared off toward the dig. At one point the road led through a rather thick copse. On a hunch Nancy asked Ned to slow down.

  “Let’s see if anybody is hiding in there,” she proposed.

  Ned cut down his speed while Nancy looked to left and right for signs of a trampled area. She not only could see one, but in the distance something shiny caught her eye.

  “Ned!” she exclaimed. “Please stop!”

  He brought the motorcycle to a halt, turned off the motor, and locked the engine.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “Look there,” Nancy said quietly, “among the trees.”

  “I see what you mean.”

  Ned insisted upon going first but told Nancy to stay close behind. As the couple advanced deep into the wooded area, they saw the stolen camper.

  “You’d better stay out of sight while I investigate,” Ned told Nancy. “If those thieves are around, they may try to harm you. They didn’t see me last night so I could pretend I was just walking in here.”

  No one was in sight and a knock on the rear of the camper brought no response. Nancy climbed up to the driver’s seat to see if she could find a clue.