The Ghost of Blackwood Hall Read online

  “You’ll what?” Red taunted. “Leave?” Then he added, “Okay, brother, we’ll both leave, but with those statues!”

  “What are you going to do?” Jimmy asked worriedly.

  Red gave a cruel laugh. “I hate to admit it, but that pesky detective is getting pretty close to where the gold is. We’ll find it first though … you wait! Now put our things in the old trunk,” he shouted, “and light that fire. We’ll burn everything, including that Drew girl!”

  Fire! Nancy thought desperately. Her heart was pounding.

  She strained at her bonds. To her amazement, they fell away easily! With no time to wonder why, she removed the gag and groped for George. Her ropes, too, were only loosely secured. Nancy was bewildered. In a flash, she had broken open the flimsy closet door. She rushed to the small fire the Sabuch brothers had started and quickly extinguished it with a bed pillow. She snapped on a nearby lamp. A gasp escaped her lips. Smoke emanated from a smoldering rag in a large ashtray.

  Jimmy? Nancy wondered. She touched, smelled, and then tasted the clear liquid sprinkled over the furniture. He used water instead of kerosene, she realized with relief. He never even tried to burn us.

  At that instant, a tall sandy-haired man burst into the cabin. “Nancy Drew?” he panted.

  “Jeff Butler?” she returned.

  “Am I glad to see you!” he cried.

  Nancy did not waste words as she and Jeff exchanged stories. In a moment, Jeff was on the phone to the police. Nancy gave George first-aid as she lay on the couch. After Nancy was assured that the other girl was all right, the three anxiously hurried back to the farm.

  Dawn broke as Whispering Oaks came into view. Nancy dashed ahead. The house seemed strangely quiet. Suddenly the Sabuch brothers staggered out of the front door. Red wielded an ax in one hand, and a book in the other.

  “I won’t let you do it!” Jimmy hollered as the men struggled.

  Suddenly Red saw Nancy and the others. Realizing he was trapped, he gave his brother a hard shove, dashed to his truck, and sped away.

  “He won’t get far,” Nancy said as they reached Jimmy, a police siren wailing in the distance.

  “I know,” Jimmy mumbled. “I never moved the tree.”

  Nancy smiled at Jimmy as they helped him into the house. Sally and Bess rushed forward. They had been cowering in a corner, terrified. There was a confusion of voices. Finally, Nancy managed to settle everyone into chairs. The complete story was revealed.

  “So all along, the Sabuch family were pretending to be ghosts to scare us away!” Sally exclaimed.

  “That’s right,” Nancy said. “They needed a way to look for the statues. I don’t think Jimmy wanted any more to do with it, though.” She glanced at him. He seemed exhausted.

  At that moment a police car pulled up. Two officers escorted Red Sabuch into the house. His face was livid.

  “We apprehended him down the road, trying to move a tree,” one officer explained.

  “I told you to move that thing!” Red screamed at his brother.

  “Jimmy didn’t want you to get away,” Nancy defended him.

  Red’s face became almost purple with rage. He lunged at Nancy, but the officers restrained him.

  “I’ll tell you everything,” Jimmy suddenly declared. “My father knew that the McDonalds had hidden the golden statues on the farm. When they died, Trass became obsessed with the idea of having the gold, but he needed a safe way of searching for it. Then, Red invented the story about the mistaken burial. He was always clever! Our father buried the dogs up on the hill as the McDonalds wished. But Red told him to tell the family that by mistake he had buried the dogs behind the ice house. Then, the two of them moved away from the farm and circulated the story about the ghost dogs. Red thought of the idea of the battery-powered gloves with eyes. He was also good at imitating animal sounds. Later, after I joined him, we played tapes from hidden speakers in the trees.”

  “What about the claw marks?” Nancy asked.

  “Those were made with a little steel rake placed in the gloves. Red was scared when you arrived,” he continued. “He tried to stop you with that tree. He also sent me down to the store to stop Jeff and buy fresh batteries. We used to listen at windows. Red was really worried because he could see that Nancy was too smart, so he pushed her down into the ice house to hurt her. That was when I decided I had had enough. I didn’t move the tree and I never replaced the batteries in the gloves.”

  “You also helped us escape from your cabin,” Nancy added, relating the incident to the police.

  “You idiot!”Red shouted.

  The police led both men away, after explaining that because of Jimmy’s conduct, they were sure the judge would deal lightly with him.

  Alone again, Sally beamed at Nancy. “Now we can finally live in this grand old place!” she cried.

  “It’s a shame the statues were never found,” George remarked sadly.

  Nancy’s eyes twinkled again. “I think I know where they are,” she said, smiling. “And I think Red, with my help, was very close to finding them—judging from what was in his hand.”

  The others stared at her. The young detective wrote the letters of the dogs’ names on four separate pieces of paper and handed them around.

  “Rearrange the letters,” she instructed, “and see what common words you can come up with.”

  In a moment, KOSOB, NESCAIN, DRAGENS, and SHROSE became BOOKS, CANINES, GARDENS, and HORSES.

  “Where have we seen books marked canines, gardens …”

  “In the library!” Sally cried excitedly. “The statues must be behind those labeled shelves. Nancy, you’re a genius!”

  The young people hurried to the library. When the three shelves marked canines, gardens, and horses were removed, a small door was revealed. Nancy pushed and prodded. Suddenly she found the spring. With a click, the door swung open. In an alcove were the exquisite gold statues of the four dogs!

  The amazed onlookers carried the heavy treasure to the living room. Sally was teary-eyed. She threw her arms around Nancy.

  “Thank you,” she whispered. “Thanks to all of you.”

  “I don’t know what to say,” Jeff added emotionally.

  “Just tell us that we can visit the farm again soon,” Nancy said with a grin. “It would be lovely to return and hear only the whispering oaks … not howling dogs!”

  Blackbeard’s Skull

  “G ood morning,” Nancy Drew called out cheerfully as the park ranger walked up the sandy path. Nancy and her two girlfriends, Bess and George, had rented a cottage on the harbor of a small island off North Carolina.

  “I hope you’re ready for your private viewing of pirate gold, Nancy,” pleasant, middle-aged Ranger Lane said with a chuckle. “Most people vacationing here on Pelican Island don’t get out of bed this early.”

  “I’m wide awake and eager to see the doubloons!” Nancy assured him.

  As they walked around the harbor to the ranger station, Lane told the attractive titian-haired eighteen-year-old that a local clammer had dredged up the doubloons off the northern coast of the island.

  “Pelican,” the ranger explained, “was a pirate hideout as were other islands in the area. Blackbeard was killed not far from here in 1718. The Governor of Virginia financed a ship with his own money and sent it down here with the sole purpose of putting an end to the pirate.”

  “It must have taken a clever and brave man to kill Blackbeard,” Nancy commented.

  “He had help,” Ranger Lane replied. “Lieutenant Robert Maynard needed five bullets and twenty stabs of his sword to kill Blackbeard. Maynard cut off Blackbeard’s head and stuck it on the bow of his ship. Or so the story goes. You should hear old George Habab sing the song he made up about Blackbeard’s death.”

  “Could the doubloons on exhibit have belonged to Blackbeard?” Nancy asked.

  “It’s possible,” Ranger Lane answered. “If so, I’d better watch out,” he added with a wink. “Blackbeard left
a deadly curse for anybody who stole his loot.” The ranger slowed down his walk. “Here’s the station.”

  The ranger station lay by the island’s main docks. A flat, wooden building, it looked like a small warehouse with no windows and only one large door.

  “The Coast Guard built this during World War II to house naval equipment,” Ranger Lane explained in response to Nancy’s puzzled expression. “Someday we hope to put up a real station.”

  Ranger Lane unlocked the heavy, wooden door and pushed it open.

  “Here’s the old chest,” he began to say, then gasped.

  Nancy followed his blank stare. A skull rested on an old piece of ship’s bow in an otherwise empty corner. “The doubloons! They’re gone!” the ranger exclaimed. He glared at the skull, then whispered, “Blackbeard!” The ranger began to look around. “I don’t see how anyone could have gotten in.”

  “When did you last see the gold?” Nancy asked.

  “Yesterday evening,” the ranger replied. “I checked it before I locked up for the night. Maybe this is part of the curse!”

  “Did anyone else have access to the room after you left?” Nancy gently questioned the agitated man.

  “No, I have the only key,” Ranger Lane answered. “Wait,” he added suddenly. “My assistant, Arthur Huber, ran back in for a minute to get his glasses, but he didn’t carry anything out. There was a strong clear plexiglas cover bolted to the chest to safeguard the coins. Besides, I trust Arthur,” Ranger Lane concluded firmly.

  “Are you sure the door was locked behind him?” Nancy asked.

  “I double-checked it myself,” the ranger declared, “and it was locked this morning.”

  Nancy glanced around the station. Nothing except the gold seemed to have been disturbed.

  “I’m afraid headquarters won’t be too pleased with this,” Ranger Lane sighed.

  “I’m sure you protected the gold as well as anyone could have,” Nancy comforted the ranger.

  She examined the station while Ranger Lane went to alert the Coast Guard and sheriff. She found no clues near the skull or elsewhere in the building, and decided to have a look outside.

  Nancy walked along the edge of the dock next to the station. Peering into the water below, she suddenly collided with an elderly man, teetered back and forth for a moment and almost tumbled off. Gaining back her balance quickly, she just managed to catch the old man before he fell.

  “I’m so sorry for bumping into you,” Nancy apologized breathlessly.

  “I fear I was asleep at the helm myself,” the man volunteered in a strong British accent. “No harm done, thanks to your excellent footwork.”

  Nancy introduced herself.

  “I’m Colin Hudson,” the white-haired gentleman responded. “I just arrived from England.”

  “What brought you to Pelican Island?” Nancy asked.

  “I served off the island in a trawler during World War II,” Mr. Hudson replied.

  “Off this island,” Nancy exclaimed. “I didn’t realize the war got that close!”

  “U-boats picked off a number of your merchant boats before we arrived to help,” Mr. Hudson said. “Your navy wasn’t used to fighting submarines.”

  “I would guess that’s a pretty tricky business,” Nancy ventured.

  “Deadly tricky,” Mr. Hudson agreed. “Indeed,” he added sadly, “a U-boat sank my ship, the Lancaster. Some of my mates may lie in the graves at the British cemetery here.”

  “I noticed a British flag over one of the cemeteries and wondered why it was there,” Nancy said.

  “The people of Pelican very kindly donated a graveyard for my countrymen who were killed at sea off the island during the war. I wanted to see that cemetery and visit the wreck of the Lancaster,” the elderly man told Nancy.

  “I’m sorry your ship was lost,” Nancy said softly. “But I’d love to hear some of your stories of those times, and so I’m sure would my friends. Would you like to come to our cottage and have dinner with us tonight?” Nancy asked.

  Mr. Hudson’s face brightened. “I’d be delighted,” he said, smiling.

  “I have a special island recipe I’d like to try,” Nancy continued. “If you don’t mind, I’ll test it out on you. Is seven o’clock a good time?”

  “Perfect,” Mr. Hudson replied.

  Moments later, Ranger Lane returned, and Nancy quickly explained about the theft to Mr. Hudson. Then, politely excusing herself, she added, “See you at dinner.” Swiftly she followed the somber-looking Ranger Lane into his office.

  “I’m afraid I can’t report any leads,” he said in a low tone. “I just can’t figure out how anybody got in the station. It almost makes me believe it was Blackbeard’s ghost. The Coast Guard is searching all the boats in the harbor. That’s the best we can do for now.”

  “Maybe they’ll find something,” Nancy said soothingly.

  “I hope so, but I doubt it,” the ranger replied. “I certainly appreciate your help, Nancy, whether we find the gold or not.”

  Nancy decided to take another look around the exhibit room. Kneeling on the rough-hewn wood floor, she scrutinized the skull. Peering at it from an angle, Nancy noticed an odd dark patch on one of the skull’s back teeth. It had a filling in it!

  Keeping this observation to herself, Nancy returned to her cottage.

  Bess and George listened wide-eyed as she told them about her morning.

  “I think our sleuth has found herself another mystery,” boyish George teased Nancy.

  Plump, pretty Bess shivered. “I don’t like that skull being left there,” she declared. “I hope Blackbeard’s ghost doesn’t try to get me!”

  “Don’t be so superstitious,” George chided her cousin.

  “I found a clue that should make you less worried about Blackbeard’s ghost,” Nancy said, her eyes twinkling. “The skull has a filling in one of its teeth.”

  “Couldn’t Blackbeard have had cavities?” Bess interrupted.

  “I’m sure he did,” Nancy chuckled. “But I doubt he ever visited a dentist!”

  “The whole thing must be a hoax,” George frowned.

  “I think you’re right,” Nancy agreed. “But we still haven’t figured out how anyone but a ghost could have broken into the ranger station.”

  “Now that you have a mystery, Nancy, are we still going to the beach this afternoon as we planned?” Bess teased her friend.

  “You bet,” Nancy replied smiling. “Pelican Island has a lovely beach and I don’t want to miss having a swim.”

  The girls spent a pleasant day in the water and sunbathing.

  “I’m going to need help gathering dinner,” Nancy announced mysteriously when the afternoon was almost over. Bess and George looked puzzled.

  “I’d like to make coquina chowder tonight,” Nancy explained, “and we need a bucket of coquina clams.”

  “They’re the shells that look like tiny butterflies!” Bess exclaimed.

  The three friends dug for coquinas in the wet sand as the waves washed back and forth around them. Soon they had filled a bucket.

  Afterward, George and Bess dropped Nancy off at the ranger station on the way back. Ranger Lane had no news. He introduced Nancy to a young, slightly built, spectacled man.

  “Nancy, I’d like you to meet Arthur Huber, my assistant,” Ranger Lane said. “Nancy here has been helping us try to solve the burglary,” the ranger informed Huber.

  “How did you become involved?” he asked her curtly.

  “Nancy was with me when I discovered that the gold was gone,” Ranger Lane interjected.

  “I appreciate the young lady’s curiosity,” the assistant snapped. “But I think we can handle this problem ourselves.”

  Embarrassed by his subordinate’s rudeness, Ranger Lane hastily escorted Nancy out of the station.

  “Arthur’s been very jumpy lately, especially today since the gold disappeared,” he apologized. “Please excuse him.”

  Nancy felt that the young man’s beh
avior had been uncalled for, but kept her thoughts to herself.

  Somewhat ruffled by the encounter with Arthur Huber, Nancy was thoughtful as she walked back around the harbor to the cottage. Once she reached the cottage, however, she busied herself preparing the coquina chowder with her two friends.

  Nancy, George, and Bess peeled potatoes and onions and threw them in with the boiling coquinas. The percolating soup smelled delicious, and the friends couldn’t resist a taste.

  “Mmmm,” George commented as she gingerly sampled a hot spoonful. “I can see why the islanders like to eat this stuff.”

  Bess made some grilled tomato, cheese, and onion sandwiches to round out the dinner. She and George sat on the porch to wait for Mr. Hudson while Nancy changed out of her dungarees.

  “I love the pink light on everything,” Bess sighed as she watched the evening sky. “The sailboats look especially pretty.”

  “What a gorgeous sunset!” Nancy agreed, stepping onto the porch.

  Mr. Hudson still had not arrived when the sun was completely gone.

  “I wonder why he’s late,” Nancy remarked in a somewhat worried tone. “I think I’ll go look for him.”

  “We’ll stay here in case he shows up,” George volunteered.

  Nancy walked all the way around the harbor in the rapidly fading light but saw no sign of the Englishman. Realizing she was near the British cemetery, Nancy decided to look there for the elderly man.

  The absence of street lamps made it difficult for Nancy to see, but she moved ahead slowly. Soon a dimly lighted lamp post and a British flag waving in the breeze appeared by the side of the road. Nancy picked her way to the small fenced-in plot. Mr. Hudson was not there, but Nancy caught sight of a plaque listing the British sailors who had died. Suddenly she started. One of the names was Colin Hudson!

  Spooked, Nancy headed back along the dark road toward the harbor. As she reached it, the young sleuth heard a banjo being played and a voice singing. Nancy caught the words, “British boys.” Following the sound, she came upon a weatherbeaten-looking old man sitting on the front porch of a store. He was the singer and banjo player.