The Secret of Red Gate Farm - Carolyn Keene [2]
“She’s fainted!” Nancy exclaimed
“Any word from the Chief?”
Nancy was taken completely by surprise. She knew she had never seen the man before, for she would not have forgotten such a cruel face. His steel-gray eyes bored straight into her. Nancy was so bewildered she could think of nothing to say.
The stranger realized at once that he had made a mistake. “Excuse me, miss. My error,” he murmured, starting for the car ahead. “But that perfume—Well, never mind!”
CHAPTER II
Mysterious Numbers
NANCY stared after the stranger and wondered what he could have meant.
“Evidently he mistook me for somebody else,” she thought. “But even so, his actions certainly were peculiar.”
What message had he expected to receive from her? Who was the Chief? How strange that the man should speak of the perfume as though it had been the cause of his mistake!
If Nancy’s mind had not been occupied with the frail girl’s condition, she might have wondered more over the strange encounter. She dismissed it for the moment. Quickly filling a cup with ice water, she rushed back to George and Bess, who were giving first aid to the girl.
“Do you feel better now?” Nancy asked. “Here, drink this.”
“Thank you,” the girl murmured, gratefully taking the cup. “I feel much better now,” she added quietly. “It was very kind of you to help me.”
“It must have been the perfume that made you faint,” George declared. “A little is all right, but half a bottle is overpowering.”
“I’m sure it wasn’t the perfume,” the girl returned quickly. “I haven’t felt well since I first boarded the train early this morning.”
“What a shame,” Bess said. “I’ll get you some more water.” She soon returned with a second cup.
“By the way, Nancy”—Bess turned to her friend—“who was that man who spoke to you at the water cooler?”
“You noticed him?” Nancy asked, surprised.
“Yes,” Bess said, “but I didn’t recognize him.”
“Nor did I,” Nancy remarked. “The whole thing was quite mysterious. He simply approached me and said: ‘Any word from the Chief?’”
“The Chief!” Bess and George chorused. “What Chief?”
“I have no idea,” the young sleuth admitted. “But evidently it was this strange perfume that attracted his attention, or so he said.”
“I wonder what the perfume could have to do with it?” Bess looked perplexed.
By this time the train was slowing down as it approached the River Heights station, and Nancy and her friends realized they must hurry or they would miss their stop.
“I’m afraid that we must interrupt this conversation and say good-by,” Nancy told the girl reluctantly. “We get off at River Heights.”
“River Heights!” The girl glanced anxiously out the window. “I get off here too! I had no idea we were so close.”
“We’ll help you,” Nancy offered. “Do you really feel well enough to walk?”
“Yes, I’m all right now.”
George and Bess collected the miscellaneous packages, while Nancy helped the stranger along the aisle. The girl hesitated uncertainly as she stepped from the train.
“I’m not very familiar with River Heights,” she said to Nancy. “Which direction should I take to go to the center of town?”
“You’re still too shaky to walk any distance,” George spoke up. “Have you no friend here to meet you?”
The girl shook her head.
“Then why don’t you come home for a snack with us?” Nancy suggested. “I left my car parked here by the station, and I can drive you back.”
The girl started to protest, but Nancy and the others urged her on, and soon they were all settled in Nancy’s blue convertible.
“I haven’t even told you my name,” the strange girl said, leaning back wearily. “I’m Joanne Byrd. I live with my grandmother at Red Gate Farm about ten miles from Round Valley. That’s where I took the train.”
Nancy introduced herself and her friends as she started the car and headed it toward the Drew residence in another section of the city.
“How nice it must be to live on a farm!” Bess remarked. “And Red Gate is such a pleasant-sounding name.”
“Red Gate is a lovely place,” Joanne said feelingly. “I’ve lived there with my grandmother