The Secret of Red Gate Farm - Carolyn Keene [24]
That night the girls were late in finishing the dishes. By the time they had put everything away it was quite dark. When they went out to the porch, they were relieved to find that the boarders had gone to their rooms.
The girls sat talking quietly for some time. The moon was high, and Nancy, from force of habit, glanced eagerly toward the distant hill.
“Look, girls!” she exclaimed. “They’re at it again!”
The four girls could see white objects moving to and fro, apparently going through a weird ritual. Nancy sprang to her feet.
“We’ll have to hurry if we want to see anything,” she said. “Come on! We’ll take the short cut!”
They dashed across the lawn, flung open the gate, and ran through the woods. Nancy led the way up the river path, then to the sparsely wooded hillside. Not until they were dose to the camp did she stop.
“We’ll have to be very careful,” she warned in a whisper. “Scatter and hide behind trees. And don’t make a sound.”
The girls obeyed, Bess staying as close to George as possible. Nancy found a huge oak tree well up the hill, and hid behind it. From this vantage point she could see fairly welL
Nancy had been there for less than five minutes when she heard the sound of several cars approaching. They came up the woods road and stopped at the foot of the hill, not far from the nature camp.
Several men stepped from the cars. Nancy was too far away to see their faces, but she did observe that they quickly donned long white robes with head masks, and joined the other costumed figures who were on the brow of the hill.
For nearly ten minutes the members of the cult flitted back and forth, waving their arms and making weird noises. Then they moved single file toward the cavern and vanished.
Suddenly Nancy felt herself grasped by an arm. She wheeled sharply and then laughed softly.
“George! For goodness sake, don’t ever do that again! You scared me silly!”
“What do you make of it, Nancy?”
“It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. I haven’t been able to figure it out.”
“What should we do next?” asked Bess, who had joined them.
“Let’s follow them into the cave!” George proposed rashly.
“And be caught?” Nancy returned. “No, this is serious business. I think it’s time to go home and plan our own costumes.”
“I wonder why so many people came here in automobiles?” Joanne mused, as the girls walked off slowly.
“That’s what I’ve been wondering,” Nancy replied soberly, “but I think I might know.”
“Why?” her friends demanded.
“It looks to me as if only a few persons are actually living in the Black Snake Colony. Apparently they want to give the impression that the organization is a large one, so they have these other people come the night set for the ceremonials.”
“There were certainly a lot of men in those cars,” added Bess.
“Why should they go to all that trouble?” Joanne asked doubtfully.
“I don’t know,” Nancy admitted, “unless it’s because they’re trying to hide something they’re doing here.” She changed the subject. “I think we’ll be able to make costumes like theirs if you’ll give us some old pillowcases and sheets, Jo. When we visit the cave, we must disguise ourselves to make our scheme work!”
CHAPTER XI
A Midnight Message
“WHEN shall we visit the cave?” George asked.
“As soon as we can,” Nancy answered. “Of course we must help Jo and her grandmother with the work.”
Since there was no further evidence of activity on the hillside, the girls went to bed.
The next morning George remarked, as she helped Nancy make her bed, “What do you suppose those men do between ceremonials? It certainly is strange how much time they spend in that cave!”
“What puzzles me is those automobiles that were on the hillside,” Bess said. “Why did they come? Surely those men were here for something besides ballet dancing. What’s your guess, Nancy?”
“I’m afraid I haven’t any answer. But I mean to find one for Mrs. Byrd’s and Jo’s sakes.”
The three