The Secret of Red Gate Farm - Carolyn Keene [6]
Even with the car, it was difficult to locate a pleasant room. Joanne could not afford a high-priced place, and the cheaper ones were unsatisfactory. Finally, however, they found a suitable room on a quiet street and Nancy helped Joanne get settled.
“I may be driving over this way tomorrow,” she said. “If I do, I’ll stop in to see what luck you’ve had.”
“I wish you would,” Joanne invited shyly. “I’ll need someone to bolster my morale.”
“All right, I will,” Nancy promised.
After a few words of encouragement she said good-by, then drove slowly toward River Heights, her mind again focused on the various events of the day.
“I don’t know what will happen to Joanne if she doesn’t find work,” Nancy told herself. “It would be a shame if her grandmother loses Red Gate Farm. I wish I could do something, but I don’t know of any available jobs.”
It was nearly dinnertime when Nancy reached River Heights. As she passed the Fayne home, she saw George and her cousin Bess on the front lawn and stopped to tell them about Joanne’s unsuccessful interview.
“Isn’t that too bad?” Bess murmured in disappointment. “She seems such a sweet girl. I’d like to know her better.”
“I promised I’d drive over to see her tomorrow,” Nancy told the girls. “Why don’t you come along?”
“Let’s!” George cried enthusiastically. “I love going places with you. We always seem to find some sort of adventure!”
Nancy’s blue eyes became serious. “I’d say this has been a pretty full day! I can’t seem to forget that mysterious saleswoman in the Oriental perfume shop or the strange man on the train. I wasn’t going to say anything to you about this, but something odd happened this afternoon in that office.”
Nancy then related the mysterious actions and behavior of the man named “Al.”
“You mean you think his telephone conversation was a little on the shady side?” Bess asked, wide-eyed.
“It seemed that way to me,” Nancy answered. “I doubt very much that it’s a manufacturing business and those numbers I copied from his pad were anything but stock-market quotations!”
“Well, here we go again! Never a dull moment with Nancy around!” George laughed gaily.
“Don’t be too impatient, George,” Nancy advised with a grin. “We don’t have proof that any of today’s incidents is really cause for suspicion.”
At this moment a foreign-make car went by. Nancy glanced casually at the driver, then gave a start. He was the man who had spoken to her on the train!
He slowed down and stared at the three girls and at the Fayne home. Nancy felt at once that he was memorizing the address. He gave a self-satisfied smile and drove on. Nancy noted his license number.
“I almost feel as if I’ll hear from him again,” she told herself, then revealed to the girls, who had not noticed the car’s driver, that he was the man who had confronted her on the train.
“He’s still interested in you,” Bess teased.
But George found nothing to laugh about. “I don’t like this, Nancy,” she said seriously. “I remember he had a hard, calculating face.”
Nancy, too, remained serious. A disturbing thought had suddenly occurred to her.
“Why,” she told herself, “that man must have been trailing me. But I wonder for what reason?”
She determined, for the moment at least, not to mention her suspicions aloud and dropped the subject of the mysterious man. Presently she bade Bess and George good-by, climbed into her convertible, and drove home.
“I think I’ll ask Dad what he thinks about that man Al’s mysterious telephone message,” Nancy decided as she hopped from the car.
She had often taken some of her puzzling problems to her father. He, in turn, frequently discussed his law cases with his daughter and found Nancy’s suggestions practical.
“You look tired, dear,” Carson Drew observed as she entered the living room and sank into a comfortable chair. “Have a big day shopping?”
“I can’t remember when so much ever happened