The Secret of Red Gate Farm - Carolyn Keene [32]
Nancy saw that it was useless to protest and let the matter rest. She made no comment.
After leaving her passenger in front of the post office, Nancy continued down the main street to the supermarket. Later, while she waited in the check-out line to pay for her groceries, two women took their places behind her. They were talking earnestly together, and did not pay any attention to Nancy. She, in turn, did not notice them until one of the shoppers began to speak on a startling subject.
“It beats me the way those people carry on,” she heard one of them say. “You’d think Mrs. Byrd would turn them out!”
Instantly Nancy became alert.
“I suppose she needs the money,” the other woman responded, “but someone should speak to her about it. The idea of those folks capering around in bedclothes! They must be crazy!”
“That’s just what I think!” the first woman remarked. “If I lived near that farm I wouldn’t feel safe! And I don’t think it’s decent for a law-abiding community like ours to have folks like that around. I’m going to get a big group together and call on Mrs. Byrd to tell her what we think of her!”
“I’ll certainly join you,” the woman said.
Nancy felt the situation was becoming serious; that the criticism of Mrs. Byrd would grow even sharper. If the two women carried out their threat, the consequences might be very unpleasant. Prospective Red Gate boarders might change their minds! The colony might take reprisals!
“One thing is certain,” Nancy decided. “Our costumes must be ready by tonight in case the colony members have a meeting.”
She paid for the groceries and went directly to the material shop, where she bought several yards of white muslin, then started for home.
Driving back to Red Gate Farm, Nancy kept a sharp lookout for the woman from the Black Snake Colony, but she was nowhere along the road. “I wish I could have talked to her more. It might have helped in my plan to attend the ceremony.”
Joanne, Bess, and George were just returning from the woods with pails brimming over with luscious-looking berries when Nancy drove into the barnyard. As they started to help her carry in the packages, Karl Abbott Jr. rushed gallantly from the house to assist. He glanced curiously at the soft, fat one which Nancy kept tucked under her arm, but she did not give any explanation of its contents. Besides, the elder Mr. Abbott and Mrs. Salisbury were within hearing distance.
Immediately after a late lunch and some pleasant conversation with the guests, Nancy excused herself and summoned the other girls to her room. There she unwrapped the material and brought out scissors, needles, and thread.
“We must work like mad,” she said, “in case there’s a meeting tonight.”
With great excitement and anticipation she cut out the first costume which was to serve as an entering wedge to the nature-cult ceremonial. As Nancy worked, she told the story of her adventure with her passenger and the conversation of the women in the market.
Joanne was alarmed. “Oh, Gram must never hear of this!” she exclaimed. “She’d be heart-broken!”
The others agreed. “We won’t tell Mrs. Byrd any more than we have to,” George said. “I do hope we can solve the mystery before something ugly happens!”
For the next few hours their needles flew furiously. At last the costumes were finished. The four friends could not control their laughter as they tried them on.
“You certainly look as if you’re ready for Halloween!” George told Nancy.
“Do you think I’ll pass?”
“In the moonlight they won’t be able to tell you from a full-fledged member of the cult,” Bess declared. “Let’s see you go through the mystic rites.”
To the delight of her chums, Nancy danced around the room, waving her arms wildly and making weird moans.
“Jo!” a voice called. “Dinner’s ready!”
Startled, the girls scrambled out of the white robes and hastily hid them. They tried to compose their faces as they hurried downstairs, but merely succeeded in looking guilty.
“Seems to me you girls spent a long time locked up in your rooms.” Mrs. Salisbury sniffed suspiciously.
“Planning some