Lost in the Everglades Read online

  buried. But neither I nor anyone else could search for

  it openly, since any archaeological remains found in the

  park are automatically the property of the federal

  government.”

  Nancy was amazed at how articulate and in-control

  Mrs. Drake seemed. Before, she had acted so goofy

  and scatterbrained. Clearly, that was not the real Mrs.

  Drake. This was.

  “That's where I came in,” Jade said with a grin.

  “Mrs. Drake was generous. She paid Griffin and me a

  lot of money, and we came up with a plan for me to

  disappear' so I could dig for the panther in secret.

  Griffin covered up for me back in Flamingo and made

  sure no one would come looking for me while I

  searched for the panther.”

  Then something else occurred to Nancy. “Is Griffin

  the one who ran us off the road while we were driving

  home from Miami? And sped by us in the motorboat?

  And left us the threatening note with the hunting

  knife?”

  Jade nodded. “Yup. He made sure he was going to

  keep you far, far away from me.”

  “What about the blond woman at the Save the

  Manatees benefit?” Bess piped up. “Was she his new

  girlfriend, or what?”

  Jade bristled.

  “That was my secretary, Sandy,” Mrs. Drake ex-

  plained. “She was giving him some instructions for me.

  She also followed you girls to the Café Blue Marlin that

  day you came by my office, Nancy.”

  That's why she looked so familiar, Nancy thought.

  “Where's Griffin now?” she asked.

  “Right here.”

  Nancy glanced up. Griffin emerged from a thick

  patch of mangroves. He had George with him. George

  had a gag over her mouth, and her wrists were bound

  with rope.

  Bess leaped to her feet. “George! Are you okay? You

  let go of her, you bully,” she shouted at Griffin.

  Jade pointed the gun at Bess. “Sit down! Everything

  was going fine till you all showed up. I guess my

  pretending to be a ghost last night didn't scare you

  away.”

  “Mrs. Drake and I came to the island earlier today,

  to check on Jade's progress,” Griffin spoke up. “Your

  friend here, George, stumbled into us. She overheard

  us talking about the panther. That's why we had to

  keep her quiet.”

  “Obviously she knows too much,” Mrs. Drake said,

  nodding at the bound-and-gagged George. “And now,

  so do the two of you,” she added ominously to Nancy

  and Bess.

  “We're, um, very good at keeping secrets,” Bess said

  meekly.

  “Get up,” Mrs. Drake ordered.

  Nancy and Bess got to their feet. While Jade kept

  the gun pointed at them, Griffin tied them up with

  rope and gagged them, too. Then he shoved the two

  girls, along with George, onto the ground.

  “Good luck,” Mrs. Drake said. “Maybe if you're

  lucky, a real panther will find you and put you out of

  your misery!”

  With that, she, Jade, and Griffin turned and dis-

  appeared into the woods.

  Nancy lay on the muddy ground, her heart racing.

  Mosquitoes swarmed all around her head. In the

  distance, she could hear the sounds of Mrs. Drake,

  Jade, and Griffin talking and laughing.

  She tried to make eye contact with George and Bess.

  As far as she could tell, George was unharmed—just

  scared as she and Bess were.

  If only I could get free of this rope, Nancy thought

  in frustration.

  Nancy could tell that George, who was struggling to

  loosen her knot, had the same idea. Neither of them

  was having any success.

  Nancy glanced around. Even in the failing light, she

  could see that there were some sharp-looking rocks

  nearby.

  As she scooted over to one, a lizard crawled out from

  under it and darted away. Nancy grimaced.

  Then she positioned her wrists over the rock and

  began sawing slowly, carefully.

  She felt a stinging pain in her right hand, and blood

  oozed out. She'd cut herself and knew she'd have to be

  more careful.

  Nancy continued sawing, methodically. She could

  feel that one of the ropes was starting to fray.

  Good, she thought. Just a little more, and I'll be

  free.

  Nancy continued sawing away at the bond. Come

  on, come on, come on, she thought. She lost track of

  time because she was so intent on freeing herself and

  her friends and going after Jade and the others.

  Finally she felt the rope snap. She wriggled her

  wrists out of the now-useless knot. Then she took off

  her gag and began working to free George and Bess.

  “Oh, thank goodness,” George said when Nancy had

  taken off her gag. She gulped down a deep breath, then

  another. “I thought we were going to die!”

  “Are you okay?” Bess asked George. “We were so

  worried about you! We thought you'd been eaten by

  sharks or something!” Bess grabbed her cousin and

  hugged her tightly.

  George hugged her back. “I'm fine. Just a little

  freaked out. But they didn't hurt me or anything. And I

  definitely didn't run into any sharks.”

  “Come on, we don't have a second to waste,” Nancy

  cried out. “We have to stop them before it's too late.”

  “Nancy, they have a gun,” Bess pointed out.

  “Shouldn't we just wait until Susan comes back with

  help and let them deal with it?”

  “We have to go after them,” Nancy said. “Otherwise

  they could disappear for good! We have no idea what

  they've planned. Come on!”

  Grabbing her flashlight, Nancy took off through the

  dense woods. In the distance she could see the dark

  waters of the Gulf of Mexico. She could hear a

  motorboat starting up its engine.

  Pumping her arms, Nancy ran as fast as she could.

  Bess and George followed close behind.

  I hope we're not too late, Nancy thought. I hope

  they don't get away!

  A few minutes later Nancy reached the thin patch of

  beach. Jade, Griffin, and Mrs. Drake were just getting

  into a motorboat. On the side of the motorboat was a

  single word: Panther. It was the same motorboat that

  had caused Bess to fall overboard during their sunset

  cruise, Nancy realized.

  Nancy could see that Jade was holding a small

  wooden panther in one hand. She had found the

  Calusa statuette!

  Nancy knew that the panther was officially the

  property of the federal government. But Mrs. Drake

  and her partners-in-crime were going to keep it for

  themselves and make their escape.

  “You guys stay here,” Nancy whispered to her

  friends.

  “Nan, what are you doing?” Bess whispered back.

  “Just stay here,” Nancy ordered. “Stay behind these

  trees, out of sight.”

  Without wasting another second, Nancy lay on the

  sand on her belly. Moving quietly,
she dragged herself

  along the ground, next to a path of low-lying shrubs.

  She made her way slowly to the motorboat, where

  Jade, Griffin, and Mrs. Drake were discussing some-

  thing. Nancy couldn't hear what they were talking

  about over the sound of the idling motor.

  Almost there, Nancy thought. It was dark out now,

  so she had an advantage. Jade and the others didn't

  seem to be paying attention to anything around them.

  She knew Jade was the one with the gun, so she

  would have to be very careful of her. Nancy was very

  close to the boat now.

  She took a deep breath. It's now or never, she

  thought.

  In one quick, fluid movement, she leaped to her feet

  and jumped into the boat. Mrs. Drake screamed.

  “What are you doing here? How did you get free?”

  Mrs. Drake shrieked at Nancy.

  Nancy could see that Jade was pawing the bottom of

  the boat, searching frantically for her gun. Nancy

  grabbed her arm, stopping her. At the same time,

  Griffin pulled the throttle, and the motorboat

  sputtered and kicked into gear. It sped away from the

  beach and into the Gulf.

  “The panther!” Mrs. Drake shouted. “Jade, give me

  the panther!”

  But Jade was still searching, groping along the

  bottom of the boat for her gun. Nancy grabbed her

  other arm and pinned her down. The panther fell out

  of Jades hand. Mrs. Drake grabbed the panther and

  clutched it to her chest.

  Nancy could see out of the corner of her eye that

  Griffin wanted to come to his girlfriend's rescue. But

  there was no way he could do that and operate the boat

  at the same time.

  Then Jade kicked out at Nancy and managed to

  break her hold. She got her hand on the gun, which

  was lying on top of one of the life preservers, and held

  it up in the air. “Got you,” she snapped at Nancy.

  At that very moment an enormous sea creature rose

  out of the Gulf. A manatee, Nancy realized,

  recognizing the amazing-looking creature from all the

  pictures she'd seen. Startled, Jade screamed and

  dropped the gun into the water.

  “Jade, the gun!” Griffin yelled.

  Taking advantage of the commotion, Nancy reached

  over to Mrs. Drake and wrestled the panther away

  from her.

  “Give that back!” Mrs. Drake screamed. “Give me

  back my panther!”

  “I don't think so, Mrs. Drake,” Nancy said, holding

  the panther over the side of the boat. “You tell Griffin

  to head back to shore, or I'm dropping this thing into

  the water.”

  All of a sudden Nancy was aware of the low roar of

  another motor. She glanced up. A boat with a high-

  beam light was coming their way, cutting through the

  dark water.

  “Nancy! Are you okay?” a familiar-sounding voice

  cried out.

  It was Susan. Nancy realized that her friend had

  arrived with help, as promised. Nancy could make out

  a couple of park rangers in the boat with her.

  Nancy turned to Mrs. Drake with a smile. “It's over,

  Mrs. Drake. And for you, too, Jade and Griffin. You're

  all going to be under arrest in about five seconds.”

  Mrs. Drake stared forlornly at the panther statuette.

  “We were so close,” she whispered. “So close.”

  Bess leaned back in the white wicker beach chair,

  her face buried in the front page of the morning

  newspaper. She, Nancy, George, and Susan were

  hanging out at a small, private beach near Flamingo

  that belonged to some friends of Susan's.

  “Check out this headline, guys,” Bess gloated,

  holding up the paper. “ Park volunteer and teen

  friends save rare Calusa artifact. Esther Drake of

  Panterra Corp arrested.' Are we cool, or what?”

  Nancy grabbed the newspaper from Bess. She

  quickly scanned the story. She knew their adventures

  had made major headlines all over Florida.

  Two days ago, after Mrs. Drake, Jade, and Griffin

  had been taken into custody by the park rangers,

  Nancy and her friends had returned to Flamingo.

  Nancy had presented the Calusa statuette to the head

  of the parks archaeological division.

  He wasn't the only one who had been incredibly

  grateful. Jeff Kelly, the leader of CAMC, had called

  Nancy after reading the story in the Miami Herald.

  “Even though Bill Drake didn't know anything about

  his wife's activities, this is going to be bad publicity for

  Manatee Commons,” Jeff had said to Nancy. “Maybe

  this will be the end of that project. That would be good

  news for CAMC, and more importantly, for the

  Everglades. We owe you girls a great deal.”

  Susan's voice cut into Nancy's thoughts. “I still can't

  believe Jade turned out to be a crook. I thought she

  was my friend.”

  “I'm sorry Jade disappointed you,” Nancy said to

  Susan. “But look on the bright side. You may have lost

  a friend, but we found a rare Calusa Indian artifact!”

  “Yeah, Susan. The park is going to love you forever.

  They'll probably promote you to president or

  something,” Bess piped up.

  Susan smiled. “Anyway, we can finally relax and have

  a real vacation together.”

  “We have three more days till we have to head back.

  That's plenty of time for me to work on my tan,” Bess

  said.

  “And plenty of time for Nancy to stumble into

  another mystery—if we're not careful,” George joked.

  The girls burst into laughter.