The Secret of Red Gate Farm - Carolyn Keene [42]
Then, just as she was giving up hope, Nancy spotted a dim light far ahead and knew she must be nearing the mouth of the cave. No one appeared to be left guarding the entrance. Her only chance! In a moment more she had reached the open air.
“Saved!” Nancy breathed.
At that instant a dark figure loomed up from the grass. Nancy felt a heavy hand on her shoulder!
CHAPTER XIX
Destroyed Evidence
“NOT so FAST there!” The man leered as he clutched Nancy firmly by the arm and whirled her around. “What’s the big rush, anyway?”
Nancy, staring into his hard face, saw that he was the man who had been addressed as “Hank,” one of the three men she had seen at the filling station. Frantically she struggled to free herself.
“So—” he muttered in satisfaction, “the pretty blond spy the boys were telling me about. I thought you were warned by the guard to keep away from here! This time, I take it, you’re lookin’ for something besides a stray cow!”
“Yes, and I’m going to find it!” Nancy said bravely.
“Oh, yeah? You’re going to find what? The police?” Hank looked at her costume. “You’re a spy. But your little game is up.”
Nancy’s pulse was racing. How could she get away? She could hear running footsteps coming through the tunnel, and knew her chance of escape would be over in another instant. In desperation she tried to jerk herself free from Hank. But her captor gripped her more securely and laughed as she cried out in pain.
“Let me go!”
Nancy twisted and squirmed, but her efforts only made Hank tighten his grip. By the time the others reached her, she had given up the struggle and stood quietly waiting for the worst to come.
“Good thing you got her, Hank,” Maurice Hale called. “The little wildcat! We’ll give her a double dose for this smart trick! No girl’s going to put anything over on me!”
At the entrance of the cave it was nearly as bright as day, for the moon was high. Maurice Hale glanced nervously about, as though fearing observation by unseen eyes.
“Get back inside!” he sharply ordered his followers. “It’s a clear night and some wise bird might see us without our costumes and wonder what’s up. We must destroy the evidence as quickly as we can and clear out of this place!”
Even as the leader spoke, Nancy thought she heard a rustling in the nearby bushes. She told herself that it probably was only the wind stirring the leaves. Rescue was out of the question, for no one knew that she and her friends had planned such a dangerous mission. How foolish of them not to have revealed their full plans to someone!
Nancy made no protest as she was dragged back into the cavern. Bravely she tried to meet the eyes of her friends, for she saw that they were even more discouraged than she. Poor Bess was trembling with fright.
“Th-the perfume did it!” she wailed. “I knew this masquerade was far too dangerous for us to try!”
“Cheer up,” Nancy whispered encouragingly. “We’ll find some way to get out of here!”
Bess only shook her head. She was not to be deceived.
“And to think I was the one who couldn’t wait for a spooky adventure on the hillside,” George moaned regretfully. “I really ought to have my head examined!”
The members of the syndicate were furious. There would be no second opportunity for these intruders to break away. At an order from the leader, Al Snead found several pieces of rope and bound Nancy and her friends hand and foot. He seemed to take particular delight in making Nancy’s bonds cruelly tight.
“I guess that’ll hold you for a while.” He grinned, gloating over the girls’ predicament.
“Get to work!” the leader commanded his men impatiently. “Do you think we have the rest of the night? If we don’t hurry up and get out of here, the cops are apt to be down on us! Don’t know what this girl’s done.”
All colony members, except Mrs. Hale, went to work with a will; the fear of the law obviously had affected them. With a sinking heart, Nancy realized the men planned to destroy all the evidence of their counterfeiting operations.
“The machines that we can’t take with us well wreck,