The Secret of Red Gate Farm (2 page)

Read The Secret of Red Gate Farm Online

Authors: Carolyn Keene

Tags: #Cults, #Detective and Mystery Stories, #Girls & Women, #Children's Stories, #Mystery & Detective, #Juvenile Fiction, #Adventure and Adventurers, #Women Detectives, #Mysteries & Detective Stories, #Fiction, #Code and Cipher Stories, #Codes, #Mystery Fiction, #Women Sleuths, #Adventure Stories, #Farm Life, #Drew; Nancy (Fictitious Character), #Mystery Stories, #General, #Mystery and Detective Stories

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 of 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.”
The girls soon reached Riverside Heights, and Nancy had no trouble finding the address mentioned in the advertisement. It was in a run-down section of the city, but Nancy did not mention this to her companion.
“Here we are,” Nancy said cheerfully, stopping the car in front of a dingy-looking office building.
Joanne made no move to get out of the car, but sat nervously pressing her hands together.
“I’m a terrible coward,” she confessed. “I don’t know what in the world to say when I go in. I wish you’d come with me.”
“I’ll be glad to,” said Nancy, as she turned off the ignition and locked the car. They entered the building. There was no elevator, so the girls climbed the dimly lighted stairway to the third floor. Soon they came to Room 305, which had been mentioned in the advertisement.
“There’s no name on the door,” Nancy observed, “but this must be the right place.”
As they stepped into the reception room, Nancy noted that it was dirty and drab. The two girls glanced at each other, exchanging expressions of disappointment.
At that moment a man came from the inner office and surveyed the girls sharply. He was tall and wiry, with hostile, penetrating eyes and harsh features. His suit was bold in pattern and color, and his necktie was gaudy.
“Well?” he demanded coldly.
Joanne found sufficient courage to take the advertisement from her pocket.
“I—I saw this in the paper,” she stammered. “I came to apply for the position.”
The man stared at Joanne critically, then at Nancy.
“You lookin’ for the job too?” he asked.
Nancy shook her head. “No. I’m here with my friend.”
The man looked at Joanne again and said with a shrug of his shoulders, “Go on in the other room. I’ll talk to you in a minute.”
Joanne cast Nancy a doubtful glance and obediently stepped into the inner office.
“Look here,” the man addressed Nancy, “wouldn’t you like that job? I could use a good-lookin’ girl like you.”
“I’m not looking for work, thank you,” Nancy returned aloofly.
The man was about to make a retort when the telephone rang. He scowled and went over to the table to answer it. As he lifted the receiver he looked nervously back toward Nancy.
“Hello,” he growled into the phone. “This is Al. Shoot!”
Nancy listened to his end of the unbusinesslike conversation and watched him reach for paper and pencil and begin to scribble down a line of figures. This in itself would not have seemed so peculiar, except that he continued to eye Nancy suspiciously.
He kept on copying figures. All the while Nancy watched him curiously.
“O.K., Hank,” he muttered just before he hung up. “You say you’ve found a girl? ... Fine! We can’t be too careful in this business!”
All this time Nancy was wondering what kind of transactions went on in this office. There had been no indication on the door of what business the man was engaged in and nothing in the room gave her any clue. She realized now that Joanne’s chances of getting the position were slim, and Nancy was actually relieved. She was very suspicious of the whole setup.
“I was just taking down some stock-market quotations,” the man remarked lightly as he crossed the room toward Nancy.
“This isn’t an investment house, is it?” she asked.

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