The Secret of Red Gate Farm Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  CHAPTER I - A Strange Fragrance

  CHAPTER II - Mysterious Numbers

  CHAPTER III - Work on a Code

  CHAPTER IV - A Switch in Jobs

  CHAPTER V - Money, Money !

  CHAPTER VI - A Worrisome Journey

  CHAPTER VII - Nature Cult

  CHAPTER VIII - Hillside Ghosts

  CHAPTER IX - Black Snake Colony Member

  CHAPTER X - Plan of Attack

  CHAPTER XI - A Midnight Message

  CHAPTER XII - Secret Service Agents

  CHAPTER XIII - A Hesitant Hitchhiker

  CHAPTER XIV - Disturbing Gossip

  CHAPTER XV - Masqueraders

  CHAPTER XVI - Startling Commands

  CHAPTER XVII - Tense Moments

  CHAPTER XVIII - Prisoners

  CHAPTER XIX - Destroyed Evidence

  CHAPTER XX - A Final Hunch

  If only there was enough time to copy the code !

  PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER

  Copyright © 1989, 1961, 1931 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

  Published by Grosset & Dunlap, Inc., a member of The Putnam &

  Grosset Group, New York. Published simultaneously in Canada. .S.A.

  NANCY DREW MYSTERY STORIES® is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Grosset & Dunlap, Inc.

  eISBN : 978-1-440-67369-6

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  CHAPTER I

  A Strange Fragrance

  “THAT Oriental-looking clerk in the perfume shop certainly acted mysterious,” Bess Marvin declared, as she and her two friends ended their shopping trip and hurried down the street to the railroad station.

  “Yes,” Nancy Drew answered thoughtfully. “I wonder why she didn’t want you to buy that bottle of Blue Jade?”

  “The price would have discouraged me,” spoke up Bess’s cousin, dark-haired George Fayne. Her boyish name fitted her slim build and straightforward, breezy manner. “Twenty dollars an ounce!”

  Blond, pretty Bess, who had a love for feminine luxuries, laughed. “I was extravagant, but I just couldn’t resist such yummy perfume. After all, Dad gave me money to buy something frivolous, so I did!”

  Nancy by this time was some distance ahead. “Hurry, girls, or we’ll miss the next train to River Heights!” In her active life the attractive, titian-haired young sleuth had learned that being on time was important.

  The three eighteen-year-old girls continued their frantic pace until the railroad station finally came into view.

  Once at the station, they set down their packages to rest their arms. “Whew!” Bess sighed, looking at her watch. “I didn’t think we’d make it, but we have two minutes to spare. And this would be one of July’s hottest days!”

  Nancy was pensive, still contemplating their encounter with the mysterious woman in the Oriental perfume shop. She had realized the Blue Jade was much too expensive, and the unwillingness of the young woman to part with it had stimulated her interest. Instinct had told Nancy that there must be some special reason why the saleswoman had been so reluctant to sell the Blue Jade.

  Then another idea struck her. “You know,” she said aloud, “it’s possible that saleswoman deliberately raised the price of the perfume.”

  George frowned. “But why? You’d think she’d be thrilled to make such a good sale.”

  “Yes,” Nancy agreed. “That’s what perplexes me. There’s something very strange about it and I’d certainly like to know what it is!”

  “Oh, Nancy,” teased George, “there you go again, dreaming up another mystery!”

  Nancy’s blue eyes sparkled as she thought of the prospect. The young sleuth had already solved several mysteries, some of them for her father, Carson Drew, a famous criminal lawyer. Among the cases on which Nancy had worked were The Secret in the Old Clock and The Secret of Shadow Ranch.

  The girls heard the train approaching the station. As it came to a halt they quickly gathered up their packages and hurried aboard.

  “What a day!” Bess exclaimed as she pushed on through the cars. The train was crowded, and the girls walked through several cars before they found any vacant seats.

  George and Bess began discussing their many purchases. Bess gloated in particular over the bottle of exotic perfume. Even though the package was wrapped, it gave off a slight fragrance which was very pleasant.

  George took a quick inventory of their purchases, then laughed. “Bess, it’s a good thing we got you to leave that last department store or you wouldn’t have had enough money left to buy your ticket home,” she stated bluntly. “You should practice self-control, the way I do.”

  “Self-control!” Bess retorted. “I suppose you call a new hat, two dresses, three pairs of stockings, and a handbag self-control!”

  George mustered a smile and decided to drop the subject.

  Nancy leaned her head back against the cushion, and as she relaxed, studied the faces of the nearby passengers. She thought that the thin, sweet-looking girl who occupied the seat just opposite looked very tired, worried, and even ill. Nancy judged the girl to be her own age.

  “Why are you so quiet, Nancy?” Bess demanded suddenly.

  “Just resting,” Nancy returned.

  She did not tell her friends that she had become interested in the nearby passenger, for George and Bess often teased her about her habit of scrutinizing strange faces. However, it was Nancy’s lively interest in people that was largely responsible for involving her in unusual adventures, and she was always on the alert for a new mystery.

  Bess eyed her perfume package longingly and finally ripped off the paper. “I can’t stand it any longer.” She sighed. “I must try some of this delicious-smelling stuff!” She opened the bottle and dabbed a couple of drops behind each ear. Then she offered it to George. “Try some. It’s really lovely—makes me think I’m in the mystic Orient.”

  George could not keep from making a face. “No thank you!” she replied firmly. “It’s not my type!”

  Nancy and Bess laughed. Then Bess offered some to Nancy, who accepted willingly. Bess again took out the stopper and was leaning over to put some perfume on Nancy when the train lurched and jogged her arm.

  “Oh!” Bess cried in horror. The perfume sprayed over Nancy, as the bottle fell to the floor.

  “Such a waste of money!” George muttered as she picked up the half-empty container.

  “What a shame!” Nancy exclaimed. “It’s your perfume, Bess, and now I have a lot of it on me.”

  Bess groaned. “I should’ve waited till I was home to open the bottle. I’m lucky there’s some left!” Carefully she placed the small vial in her handbag.

  By now the concentrated odor of Blue Jade had permeated the car, and passengers in nearby seats flung open the windows.

  “I’m glad we’re getting off at the next stop.” Nancy giggled. “Everyone is laughing at us.”

  Nancy had become so engrossed with the spilled perfume that she had forgotten about the pale young woman who occupied the opposite seat. Now, as Nancy turned her head, she was startled to see that the girl had slumped down in a dejected heap.

  “She’s fainted!” Nancy exclaimed, moving quickly across the aisle.

  She shook the girl gently, but there was no response from the frail figure.

  “Bess! Ask if there is a doctor in the car!” Nancy cried urgently.

  By this time other passengers in the car were aware that something had happened, and were crowding about, asking unnecessary questions and getting in the way. Nancy politely asked them to move back.

&n
bsp; There did not appear to be a doctor in the coach, but as Nancy rubbed the girl’s wrists, she was relieved to see that she was showing signs of recovering consciousness.

  George quickly raised the window so that the fresh air fanned the girl’s face. Leaning against the seat, she looked deathly pale.

  “What can I do?” George asked.

  “Stay here while I get some water,” Nancy answered. “She’s coming around now. I think she’ll be all right in a few minutes.”

  Nancy hurried to the water cooler at the far end of the car. As she was trying to fill the paper cup, a man who had been standing near the doorway came toward her. He made a pretense of waiting his turn to get a drink, yet she realized by the intent look on his face that something had startled him. He was deliberately studying her! Was it because of the perfume? She fairly reeked with it!

  Nancy was not prepared, however, for what came next. The man edged closer to her, glanced quickly about to see that no one was close by, and muttered in a guttural tone:

  “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 ever since I can remember. We don’t have the money, though, to keep up the farm. That’s why I left home today—to find work here.”

  “Do you have something in mind?” Bess questioned.

  “I came in response to a particular advertisement,” Joanne replied, but did not say what it was. A faraway look came into her eyes. “We simply must raise enough money to pay the longstanding interest due on the mortgage of our farm or Gram will lose it.”

  “Surely no one would be mean enough to take over your farm,” Bess murmured sympathetically.

  “A bank holds the mortgage. It has no choice. Gram knows very little about money matters, so she takes anyone’s advice. Years ago she was advised to buy another farm and sell it at a high price. All at once values crashed and she couldn’t meet the payments on her extra farm, so it went back to the original owners. Then she had to put a heavy mortgage on Red Gate, too, and if she loses that, she’ll be penniless.”

  As Joanne finished her story, Nancy turned the car into the Drews’ driveway.

  “Come in, everybody,” she invited. “Perhaps we can think of a way to help Joanne.”

  The three girls followed Nancy into the house, where they were greeted by the Drews’ pleasant housekeeper. Hannah Gruen had been like a mother to Nancy ever since the death of Mrs. Drew when Nancy was a child. Nancy asked Hannah to make some sandwiches for them all, then led the girls to the living room.

  “You must be nearly starved,” Nancy said to Joanne a moment later. “I know I am.”

  “I am rather hungry,” Joanne confessed. “I haven’t had anything to eat since last night.”

  “What!” the other girls chorused.

  “It was my own fault,” Joanne said hastily. “I was too excited this morning to think about food.”

  “It’s no wonder you fainted,” Nancy said. “I’ll ask Hannah to fix you something hot.”

  Nancy returned from the kitchen with a tray of appetizing sandwiches and a bowl of soup. Joanne ate heartily. Nancy and her friends joined in, for they had had only a light snack while on their shopping expedition.

  “I do feel better,” Joanne announced when she had finished. “It was so good of you to bring me here.”

  “Not at all,” Nancy said softly. “We’d like to help you all we can.”

  “Thank you, but I believe everything will work out all right if only I get this position.” Joanne glanced anxiously at the clock. “I’ll really have to go now or I’ll be too late to make the call this afternoon. Could you tell me how to get to this address?”

  She handed a folded scrap o
f newspaper to Nancy. “This particular ad for an office girl caught my eye since it asks for someone who has had experience on a farm.”

  Nancy found the advertisement to be rather conventional, but it was the name at the bottom of the paragraph that held her attention.

  “Why, this ad says Riverside Heights!” she exclaimed. “You should have stayed on the train until the next stop!”

  “I thought Riverside Heights and River Heights were the same place!” Joanne Byrd cried in distressed surprise.

  “Riverside Heights is only a few miles away,” Nancy explained, “and the names are confusing even to people who live near here, so it’s a natural mistake.”

  “Oh, dear, I don’t know what to do now,” Joanne said anxiously. “If I don’t apply for that position this afternoon, I’ll probably lose my chance of getting it.”

  Nancy had taken a liking to the girl and wanted to help her. Not only was Joanne half sick from lack of food, but she had worked herself into a nervous state.

  “You must let me drive you to Riverside Heights,” Nancy insisted. “It’ll only take fifteen minutes and you’ll have plenty of time to apply for the position.”

  Joanne’s face brightened instantly, but she was reluctant to accept the favor. “I’ve really troubled you enough.”

  “Nonsense! We’ll start right away!” Nancy turned to Bess and George. “Want to come along?”

  Bess and George both declined, since they were expected home. The cousins gathered up their packages and all the girls went to the car. Nancy dropped Bess and George at their own homes, then took the highway leading to the next city.

  “I do hope I get there in time,” Joanne said worriedly. “The job will mean so much to Gram and me!”

  “You’ll get there,” Nancy assured her. “Have you ever applied for a job before?”

  “No. I’ve always helped Gram run the farm until now,” Joanne explained. “I felt I was more needed there than anywhere else. We keep a farm hand, but a great deal of the work still falls upon me.”