The Clue of the Broken Locket by Carolyn Keene

Author:Carolyn Keene [Keene, Carolyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Penguin USA, Inc.
Published: 2011-11-02T18:34:43+00:00

CHAPTER XI

The Treacherous Slope

THE gold half-locket looked like Cecily’s. “And this one is in perfect condition!” Nancy exclaimed. “So it hasn’t lain in the boat very long.”

“Do you think it belongs to that girl who looks like Cecily?” Bess asked.

“Yes, I do,” Nancy answered. “Especially since I believe the two are related.”

George was impatient for action. “I’ll bet that girl could clear up a lot of mysteries if we could only find her again.”

Nancy’s thoughts were in a whirl. Why had the red-haired young woman seemed so frightened and run from the girls the first night at the cabin? “And why did she think we wanted to take the babies?” Nancy mused.

If the girl was related to Cecily, and she too had been searching around Pudding Stone Lodge for the family fortune, why had not Nancy and her friends seen her on the grounds?

Finally Nancy said, “The girl may come back here for the locket. Let’s wait.”

“But she may run away again if she sees us here,” George argued.

“We’ll hide,” said Bess. “I don’t like this soggy old place. Let’s go up in the woods where it’s dry.”

Nancy decided to take the locket with her. If its owner did not appear, at least the young sleuth would have a valuable bit of evidence to show Cecily. The three girls sloshed out of the swamp, dried their feet, and put on their shoes. They climbed a steep slope and found a grassy spot among the trees from where they had a view of the rowboat. After fifteen minutes had gone by, George became restless.

“We might have to wait for ages,” she said. “The girl may not have been wearing the bracelet. Perhaps it dropped out of her pocket or purse and she won’t miss it for some time.”

“That’s possible,” Nancy agreed. “Well, let’s wait for half an hour more. If nothing happens, we’ll leave.” The girl detective’s mind continued to dwell on all the possible clues they had uncovered so far. She had not forgotten the flashing light from the bull’s-eye window at the lodge which she still believed was a signal.

Nancy sat up straight. Certain pieces of the mystery puzzle were beginning to fit into place. “Maybe it’s too fantastic, but it is a pattern.”

“Detective Drew,” George said, “don’t keep your deductions a secret.”

Nancy smiled, then said somberly, “There might be something more sinister to this whole thing than we imagined.”

“Like what?” Bess asked, wide-eyed.

“Well, that red-haired girl may not show up because she might have been kidnapped.”

“Kidnapped! By whom?”

“The Driscolls.”

Bess gasped. “What makes you think that?”

Quickly Nancy revealed her recent speculations. “And,” she went on, “I’m sure the Driscolls are involved in something underhanded, and that their service business is a front.”

George caught the drift of Nancy’s thoughts. “You mean that this girl may have been searching around Pudding Stone Lodge and have discovered something crooked about the Driscolls? They caught her and are holding her prisoner to keep her from revealing it?”

“Exactly.”

George whistled. “This mystery sure is getting complicated.

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