The Secret of Shadow Ranch Read online

  He added, “The foreman is riding fence in the east meadow—we even have to do it at night now. That way the cattle will be guarded twenty-four hours a day.”

  Dave rode off and Nancy went through the stable into the tack room, a long frame building attached to it. She turned on her flashlight and saw rows of saddles hanging from the walls and bundles of blankets stacked on shelves.

  After crossing the room, she lifted one of the saddles from the wall. Above it hung a bridle and bit which Nancy also took down, then picked up a saddle blanket. Turning back, she was surprised to see that the door was closed.

  Nancy hurried over, put her gear on the ground, and tried the door. It was locked! She remembered having seen a padlock hanging loose in the hasp outside. Had someone locked her in by mistake?

  Nancy pounded on the door and shouted, but no one came. Suddenly she realized that under the guard system no one would be within hearing distance of her voice. Grimly Nancy wondered if Dave had locked her in. Had he guessed her plan and done it to foil her?

  “I must get out of here!” Nancy thought desperately.

  She played her flashlight around the long room and saw one window high in the wall. “I can squeeze through, if I can find a way to reach it.”

  At one end of the room Nancy placed a pile of blankets under the window. Then she stacked saddles on top until she was sure of reaching the window.

  Nancy climbed the unsteady pile and tried to push up the sash. The window was locked. She found the catch and managed to turn it. Once again she tried to open the window, but it was stuck tight. Disappointed, she made her way down to the floor.

  “Maybe I can find a pole and force the window up,” she thought.

  “I must get out of here!” Nancy thought desperately

  Her flashlight revealed an iron crowbar in one corner. She dragged it back beneath the window, climbed up again, and tried to force the sash open. As she struggled with it she could see the kitchen end of the house and the spring house.

  Suddenly the window budged, and at the same moment, Nancy saw a gleam of light through a crack in the spring-house wall. With a gasp of surprise she let the crowbar fall, climbed out the window, hung for a moment from the sill, then dropped several feet to the ground.

  As she hit the earth there was a sharp yelp to her left, and Chief ran toward her, barking loudly. “Hush!” Nancy said.

  She patted the dog and tried to quiet him. “Stay here,” she ordered, and he sat down obediently while Nancy ran toward the spring house.

  When she was halfway there, the light went out. As she reached the door, Mr. Rawley came running from around the kitchen end of the house.

  “What is it, Nancy? What’s the matter?” he asked.

  Quickly she told him what she had seen. “No one came out,” she concluded.

  “Then whoever had a light there must still be inside,” he declared, and pulled open the heavy wooden door.

  Nancy shone her flash inside. The spring house was empty!

  CHAPTER X

  Hidden Entrance

  “I just can’t believe it!” Nancy exclaimed. “No one could have come out. I could see the door all the while I was running toward it.”

  Ed Rawley looked at Nancy. “I’m sure you didn’t imagine seeing the light. This worries me.”

  Nancy told him of the similar experience she had had the day before. “Perhaps there’s a secret exit,” she suggested.

  Using her flashlight, Nancy examined the walls of the spring house, but found they were solid adobe. It occurred to her that there might be a wooden trap door and a passageway under the earthen floor. She looked for any sign of seams in the earth. There were none. Nancy gave a baffled sigh and glanced at the stone vat.

  “No use bothering with that,” said Mr. Rawley. “It’s too small to hide in and too heavy to be moved in a hurry. Whoever escapes from here does it in a twinkling.”

  As Nancy and the rancher left the spring house, she gazed uneasily toward the meadow. “The last time I saw the light, the phantom horse appeared out there,” she remarked.

  “I’ll alert my men to watch for more sabotage,” Uncle Ed said quickly. “And I’ll take one off patrol duty to stand guard here at the spring house all night.”

  He hurried away. Nancy stood watching the dark meadow, puzzling over the problem of the disappearing light. The phantom horse did not appear and finally she returned to the house.

  Nancy went to the living room, lighted a lamp, and sat down alone to think over the mystery. How could someone disappear from the spring house without using the exit? Suddenly she remembered that a prowler had done the same thing from the cellar of the house.

  Nancy jumped up excitedly. “Of course that’s the answer,” she told herself. “The spring house is next to the kitchen and the cellar is under it! There must be a hidden passage from one to the other.”

  She hastened out of the house and around the comer, but stopped short. A shadowy figure was lounging outside the spring house. It was Dave on guard. Nancy decided against examining the spring house again that night.

  On the way back she glanced into the kitchen. Mrs. Thurmond was seated at the big table, reading a magazine. Next to her was Bud Moore. He saw Nancy at the door.

  “Howdy,” he said. “Mr. Rawley changed me into a house guard tonight, so you gals can sleep easy.”

  “That’s great. Thanks.”

  Nancy smiled, but inwardly she was disappointed. “Now I can’t investigate the cellar, either,” she thought, “with Bud around.”

  Nancy awoke at dawn. She dressed quickly and slipped out of the house. To her relief, there was no longer anyone on guard at the spring house. She stepped inside and walked to the kitchen wall. Nancy lifted the lid of the vat and looked in. It was empty.

  Nancy knelt and began to feel the bottom of the vat. Along the front edge her fingers suddenly encountered a piece of cord and opposite it another piece. Nancy pulled on them and the bottom moved. As she yanked harder, the floor of the vat lifted a few inches. It was made of wood, which had been covered with gray plaster to look like stone!

  Before Nancy could lift it higher, she heard footsteps outside. Quickly she dropped the bottom and closed the vat. She had just time to grab a tin cup and hold it under the stream of water before the wooden door opened. Nancy turned and saw Shorty standing there.

  For a moment he was speechless with surprise. “Wal,” he exclaimed, “you’re sure up mighty early, miss!”

  “Yes, I am,” Nancy said with a smile, then excused herself and left the spring house. As she strolled off, she could feel Shorty’s eyes on her.

  Nancy knew that the ranch hands rose early. “Did Shorty intend to get a drink of water? Or did he see me go in and come to find out what I was doing?”

  Excited by her discovery in the spring house, Nancy could hardly wait for her friends to awaken so she could tell them about it.

  At the news George sat up straight in bed. “That’s something!” she exclaimed. “You’ve found the secret entrance to the cellar!”

  “I think so,” Nancy replied. “It was still kind of dark and I raised the bottom only a few inches. There just might be a hidden compartment under the false floor. Let’s not tell anyone until we’re sure.”

  Bess said, “Good idea.”

  The girls dressed in jeans and shirts, hoping to investigate the mysterious vat very soon. But at breakfast Foreman Sanders ruined the plan.

  “Two of the men will be working on the pump most of the day,” he announced. “It hasn’t been right since the damage was done.”

  Before the meal was over, Nancy asked with a smile, “Who locked me in the tack room last night by mistake?”

  There was silence in the kitchen. Nancy learned nothing. No one wore a guilty expression.

  In midmorning Mr. Rawley asked the four girls if they would like to go with him to Tumbleweed. They all accepted eagerly and piled into the ranch wagon, with Dave at the wheel.

  On the way,
Uncle Ed told them he was going to the stockyards to pick up a dozen fine palominos for breeding. He had ordered and paid for the horses sometime before. “It’s a big investment.” He frowned. “I just hope nothing happens to them.”

  Dave drove straight through town and parked on the outskirts in front of the stockyards. As Nancy got out of the car she noticed a sign on the fence: TUMBLEWEED RODEO. BARBECUE AND SQUARE DANCE. SATURDAY.

  Dave called her aside. “Will you go to the barbecue and square dance with me?”

  Surprised, Nancy hesitated for a moment.

  “Please do,” he added earnestly. “Bess and George promised Tex and Bud they would go. We can make it a triple date.”

  “Okay. Thank you,” she replied.

  “Good,” he said, then excused himself and hurried into the stockyard after Uncle Ed.

  Meanwhile, the girls walked around the enclosures, looking at the animals. The visitors were attracted to a small corral where a man was offering trained horses for sale. The girls walked to the fence and joined the cowboys and ranchers who were watching a little chestnut mare perform.

  Her master stood in the center of the ring and gave various whistles. In response the horse pranced, reared, and kneeled. At the final whistle the mare ran to him and took a piece of sugar from his hand.

  “Isn’t she darling?” Bess murmured.

  As the girls strolled away they saw Dave near one of the horse enclosures. Nancy asked him if she had time to take Bess, George, and Alice to Mary Deer’s shop.

  “Sure,” he replied. “Go ahead. We’ll pick you up there in the ranch wagon.”

  The girls walked down Main Street and turned into the gift shop. A tall man was standing at the counter, talking to Mary. As he turned around, Nancy stopped short in surprise. He was the man in black she had seen near the shop after the attempted robbery!

  Mary greeted the girls warmly and Nancy introduced Bess, George, and Alice. The Indian girl presented the tall man as Mr. Diamond, one of her best customers.

  He smiled at Nancy smoothly. “Miss Drew, I congratulate you. Mary tells me that she has given you that pretty little antique watch I have had my eye on. For weeks she has been refusing to sell it to me.”

  Mary spoke up. “I told Mr. Diamond the history of Valentine and his treasure,” she said. “Ever since then he has been most eager to have Frances Humber’s watch.”

  Mr. Diamond gave a deep chuckle. “I like to collect mementos of the romantic Old West.”

  “Do you live around here?” George asked.

  “No, ma’am. I’m spending the summer in this area for my health. Staying at the Tumbleweed Hotel.”

  Mary smiled. “Mr. Diamond spends most of his days riding horseback in the mountains for exercise.”

  Nancy’s thoughts went to the man in the black hat she had glimpsed in the ghost town—the one who perhaps had caused the rockslide. Had it been Mr. Diamond? Nancy thought it possible, because of his knowledge of the treasure.

  After chatting for a few minutes, Mr. Diamond said, “Well, good-by now, girls,” and left the shop.

  While the others selected a few souvenirs, Nancy took Mary aside and asked her if she had heard from the artist, Mr. Bursey. When Mary said No, Nancy added, “If you do, please phone me right away.” Mary promised that she would.

  Dave pulled up in the wagon, so the girls hurriedly paid for their purchases and left.

  “The horses are going to be delivered this afternoon,” Uncle Ed said with satisfaction as they drove back to the ranch. “They’re first-rate animals.”

  The ranch wagon arrived home just as Mrs. Thurmond was ringing the triangle for lunch. Nancy wondered how she would endure the long afternoon waiting for darkness so she could investigate the vat in the spring house. Her attention was distracted, however, by vans bringing the new horses. The girls and Aunt Bet went outside and watched the men run the palominos into the big meadow.

  Nancy hurried to the fence for a closer look. “Oh, they’re just beautiful!” she cried out.

  Dave, who was on horseback beside the meadow gate, agreed. “They’re just the way they should be—the color of a new minted gold coin.”

  The last one, a little mare, trotted into the enclosure. Dave wheeled beside her and herded the pony to the fence. “Want to pet her?” he asked Nancy.

  With a smile Nancy stroked the sleek nose of the palomino. The mare nickered and shook her head.

  Dave laughed. “Okay, little lady,” he said, “on your way.” He slapped the pony on the rump and she ran off to join the others. With a wave at Nancy, Dave rode off.

  She admired the confident way he did his job and his kind, firm manner with the animals. “I do hope he’s not mixed up in the mystery.” She sighed.

  As soon as it was dusk, Nancy hurried to the stable and saddled her mount in case the phantom horse should appear that night. Then she asked Bess and George to join her and investigate the spring house. Bess inquired if they were going to take Alice along.

  “She’s writing letters in her room,” George said. Not knowing exactly what lay ahead of them, Nancy thought it wise to leave the younger girl behind.

  When it was dark, she took her flashlight and the three girls hastened to the spring house. They went inside and closed the door. Nancy turned on her light, raised the vat lid, and with heart thumping, pulled up the false bottom. A deep hole slanted downward.

  While George held the light, Nancy lowered herself into it and felt her foot touch something solid. She kicked lightly and a wood panel moved. In a few moments she dropped onto an earthen floor. She was in the cellar! Through the hole came Bess. She landed with a thud.

  From above came the noise of the vat lid closing. A moment later George appeared in the cellar, with her flashlight turned off.

  For a moment they stood listening. A shiver ran up Nancy’s spine. She thought she could hear someone breathing in the darkness.

  Quietly Nancy took the flashlight from George and turned it on. The sweeping beam caught a crouching figure in the corner! Dave Gregory!

  CHAPTER XI

  A Rewarding Search

  DAVE rose to his feet. “Well, Nancy, you caught me fair and square.”

  She noted the spade at his feet. It looked as though her suspicions about Dave had been right. “Are you digging for treasure?” she asked coolly.

  “Yes,” he said. “But I’m not pulling the phantom trick or causing the damage around here. Please believe me, Nancy. Let me tell you my story.”

  George advised, “It had better be good.”

  Dave said, “My brother and sister and I are the only remaining descendants of Frances Humber. I was born in Buffalo, New York, but our family moved to Phoenix when I was ten. We have Valentine’s original will, and had always known the story of his treasure, but never bothered to hunt for it.

  “However, since my father’s death two years ago, things have been hard with us. I’ve been working my way through college, but will need more money to help educate my younger brother and sister. So I decided to take a summer job on Shadow Ranch and look for the treasure.”

  “How amazing!” Bess murmured.

  Dave reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a small piece of paper. In the beam of her flashlight Nancy saw that it was a faded photograph of a pretty woman. She also noticed that the corner was torn and the picture was just the right size to fit into the watch case!

  “This is Frances Humber,” she announced.

  The cowboy looked surprised. “How did you know?”

  Instead of replying, Nancy asked him where he had obtained the picture. He explained that after Frances Humber Dale’s death, her friend in Tumbleweed, Miss Phillips, had removed the photograph from the watch and sent it to Frances’ children in the East. “It has been handed down in our family since then.”

  Dave turned the picture over and on the back the girls saw the word “cellar,” written in old-fashioned script. He told them that the tradition in his family was that the ce
llar was the location of the treasure.

  Nancy was excited at this new clue, but before telling him about the note in the watch, she asked him why he had not told Ed Rawley what he was doing.

  “I was afraid he wouldn’t hire me. He might have figured I’d spend all my time searching.” The cowboy assured Nancy that he had done all his treasure hunting in off-duty hours.

  “How did you know of the secret entrance?” Bess asked.

  “Stories about that have always been known in my family,” Dave answered. “Originally the trees grew thickly around the spring house, and in times of Indian attack, the occupants would escape by the secret exit into the woods and go to a hideout on the mountain slope.”

  Dave confessed that he was the prowler who had alarmed Mrs. Thurmond in the kitchen. He had hoped to search for the treasure in the cellar that night right after his turn on guard duty.

  “But you raised such a rumpus,” he said to Nancy with a grin, “that I knew it was no use to go on. I sneaked out through the spring house and came around to the kitchen a little behind the rest of the crowd.”

  “I believe you, Dave,” said Nancy. “But you must promise to tell Mr. Rawley first thing in the morning what you have been doing.”

  The cowboy assured her that he would. “I’m sorry I was kind of rude to you girls. I just didn’t want you hanging around and getting in the way of my treasure hunt.”

  “You were pretty awful,” said George. “But maybe we’ll forgive you.”

  “Of course we will,” Bess agreed.

  Nancy smiled at Dave and he chuckled. “All along I couldn’t help liking you,” he said.

  Nancy reached into her pocket and brought out the antique watch. She showed him how the secret lid opened. The picture of Frances fit perfectly to the torn fragment on the empty side.

  “You’re amazing!” he said. “What a detective!”