The Witch Tree Symbol (10 page)

As she started toward the stove, Mr. Glick raised his hand. “That is good, Mama,” he said. “But first, we will say a prayer of thanks for the safe return of our guests.”

The group bowed their heads and he said a short prayer in German. At its conclusion everyone kept his head bowed in silence for nearly a minute. Each, in his own words, added a personal thanks for the safe return of Nancy and Ned. Then, after they had all eaten a hearty midnight snack, everyone went to bed.

After breakfast the following morning, the boys announced that they must leave for their summer jobs. Each declared that he had crowded a lot of fun and excitement into the short visit.

“I’m sorry you can’t stay long enough to solve the whole mystery, Ned,” Nancy said. “You’ve been a big help.”

After the girls had waved good-by to the boys from the lane, they went into the house to help Mrs. Glick with the household chores. As they worked, Nancy remarked that she wanted to start out soon and continue the search for Roger Hoelt.

Mrs. Glick’s face fell. “I was hoping you would go to Mrs. Stoltz’s quilting with me,” she said. “It is for her daughter.”

When Nancy asked her about the “quilting,” Mrs. Glick explained that an Amish woman spends many years before her marriage making articles for her new home.

“You mean that they know ahead of time whom they are going to marry?” Bess asked, wide-eyed.

The woman laughed. “Oh, no,” she said. “But Amish people like to be ready for the future. After a girl is asked in marriage, it is not long before the wedding takes place. She has to have her dowry ready.” Mrs. Glick looked steadfastly at the three girls. “Have you made no preparations for your weddings?”

The girls blushed scarlet and confessed that they had not even thought of a dowry. Mrs. Glick shook her head sadly. “You should not stay
leddich
too long,” she said.

Noting her listeners’ puzzled expressions, she translated, “That means not married. Ned, Burt, and Dave are such nice
yuung maane.”

“Yes,” said Bess, “they are nice young men, but none of us is ready to marry yet.”

“You are old enough,” Mrs. Glick insisted. “You should think about it. Anyway, I want you to go to the quilting with me. You will see what an Amish girl does so that she will have many things ready for her new home.”

The girls thought it would be interesting. They said they would stay at the quilting for a little while, then go on their sleuthing trip. An hour later they set off for the Stoltz farmhouse. Mrs. Glick drove her own car and the girls went in Nancy’s convertible.

At the Stoltz house they found that several women from neighboring farms had gathered in the parlor. It was explained to the visitors that these were friends and relatives of the family and that they were going to help sixteen-year-old Rebecca Stoltz make a fancy bedspread.

A large wooden quilting frame had been set up. Stretched taut across it was a white muslin bedspread. Rebecca had just finished cutting out pieces of colored cloth for the pattern to be sewed on the spread. Later, it would be quilted.

Around the edges of the spread was to be a diamond design in bright blue. The center section would be covered at intervals by big red tulips with green stems and leaves growing out of terra-cotta flowerpots.

Four young women had seated themselves around the quilting frame, threaded needles in hand. Quickly they began to stitch on the blue diamonds Rebecca handed them.

Nancy, Bess, and George were amazed at the dexterity of the sewers. Not a stitch showed!

The girls stayed for half an hour. Rebecca showed them her dowry, which she kept in an old cedar chest. It held several dozen embroidered pillowcases, dresser scarfs, towels, sheets, and another bright quilt.

Finally, when Nancy told her she and her friends must be on their way, Rebecca said she would like to give her guests something to remind them of the Amish quilting party. She lifted out a large pillowcase filled with pieces of material of various colors and designs, and gave a large handful of them to each girl.

“You will your own quilt begin, ain’t?” she asked, smiling.

Nancy and her friends promised to do this. “We will start patchwork quilts with these,” Bess said, and Rebecca nodded contentedly.

After thanking her and saying good-by to Mrs. Glick and the others, the three girls left the house. As they started off in the car, George asked, “Where are we going, Nancy?”

The young detective said she thought that the man who had run away from the carriage the night before had started toward the Hoelts’ hiding place. When the driver had realized he was being followed, he had deliberately taken another route.

“What I’m going to try to do,” said Nancy, “is figure out at which point he turned off from the direction leading to his destination.”

Bess asked Nancy if she had any idea where this was. “I think it may be where the man turned right into the wooded road,” the young sleuth answered. “When I reach that point, I’ll go in the opposite direction.”

Driving to the spot, she pulled to the left and followed a narrow road for about two miles. Here it became little more than a footpath. Nancy drove along for a short distance, then decided it was too rough for further progress in the convertible.

“I’m going to park in this field,” she said, “and we’ll continue on foot.”

The path they followed became more and more overgrown and finally ended at a woods.

“Well, this didn’t turn out so well,” George remarked, as the three peered ahead into the tangled undergrowth.

“The wilder it gets, the more likely it is to be Roger Hoelt’s hideout,” Nancy reminded her. “Let’s go on.”

She set off through the woods with determination, the cousins following. After they had tramped a quarter of a mile they came to a clearing. Through the trees the girls could see a tumble-down house at one side of it.

“We’d better be careful,” Bess warned.

The girls proceeded cautiously. They spread out, with Nancy in the middle, their eyes on the house. Suddenly George gasped “Oh!” as her right foot sank into a hole.

A second later, as she tried to wrench her foot free, George found she could not do it. Her whole right leg sank lower.

The next second, the earth caved in around her and she went down with it!

 

 

 

“HELP! I’ll be smothered!” George called out. The terrified girl was sinking lower and lower into the hole.

Thoroughly alarmed, Nancy and Bess hurried toward George, but stopped a short distance away.

“Careful, Bess,” Nancy warned. “We can’t help George if we fall in too. Some of this other ground may be treacherous.”

The two girls tested the ground before taking each step. Meanwhile, George kept giving urgent cries, for she had now sunk up to her waist in the earth. The more she struggled, the deeper she went!

“Try to keep calm, George!” Nancy cried. “We’ll get you out in a minute!” She turned to her other friend. “Bess,” she directed, “lie down on the ground behind me.”

While Bess did this, Nancy quickly stretched out full length on her stomach at the edge of the hole. She reached out toward George.

“Grab my ankles, Bess!” she called again. “When I count three, start wriggling backward.”

Taking hold of George’s wrists, Nancy said, “Lock your hands over my wrists. Ready! One, two, three!”

Instantly, Bess began squirming backward across the ground. Nancy did the same. But their efforts accomplished little to free George.

“Pull a little harder, Bess,” Nancy called.

Bess glanced backward. Almost directly behind her was a small tree. She hooked one ankle around it to give her better leverage. When she and Nancy tried a second time, they were able to heave George a foot out of the pit!

The girls rested briefly, then repeated the operation. A few more tugs and George was free, sprawled on the ground, a safe distance beyond the edge of the hole. A moment later the earth on both sides of the hole fell away.

“Good night!” she shuddered. “You were just in time. What a close call!”

“What could have caused the cave-in?” Bess asked.

“I think there may have been a sluiceway here long ago,” Nancy declared. “Probably at this point there was a water wheel and a little dam. It has partially filled in, but the water keeps the ground above it soft.”

Nancy went on thoughtfully, “Since nobody came out of the house when you cried for help, George, it must be deserted. Let’s find out!”

The others nodded and the three advanced cautiously toward the one-story dwelling. When they reached it, Nancy knocked on the door. There was no reply and finally she turned the knob. To her surprise, it opened easily and the young sleuth led the way inside. All was quiet.

“I doubt that anyone is here,” said George, as the friends wandered from room to room, noting that not one had a piece of furniture.

Finally they reached the kitchen, which did not even contain a stove. Nancy pointed out a trap door leading to an attic. They were about to turn away when suddenly they heard a thud overhead.

Nancy put her fingers to her lips, and the girls stood in complete silence. The sound was not repeated as they gazed steadily above them.

Finally George whispered, “I guess it was nothing.”

Nancy shook her head and again put a finger to her lips. Pointing upward, she indicated that she was going to investigate the attic.

She motioned for Bess to bend down. The plump girl groaned as Nancy climbed on her shoulders, reached upward, and tilted the trap door open.

The next second a shower of dusty newspapers dropped down. Nancy lost her balance and fell to the floor. Bess was bowled over, her eyes full of dirt. Almost at the same instant, a heavy bundle of papers landed squarely on George!

The room was a cloud of dust. Coughing and choking, the three girls ran to the front door. After clearing their lungs outdoors, Bess and George asked Nancy if she had hurt herself in the fall.

“Not much,” Nancy replied, “but I don’t believe those papers tumbled down by themselves.”

Bess became alarmed. “You mean someone was in the attic and pushed them down on us?”

“Yes, I do,” Nancy said. “Come on. We’re going to find out who it was!”

When the girls returned to the kitchen, they saw that the back door was open. Also, someone had jumped down from the attic. Footprints were evident in the heavy dust.

“They lead out the door!” George cried.

“I’m going to follow them,” Nancy said tensely. “Bess, you come with me. George, will you stay here as guard?”

“Sure.”

As Nancy and Bess ran through the rear exit, George fixed her eyes on the trap door, wonder- ing uneasily if there could be a second person in the attic. She decided to find out.

Going to the front door, George slammed it hard, then tiptoed back, peeking around the door to the kitchen. She waited for several minutes but no one appeared in the trap-door opening.

At last George went outside. She walked around the house, but found nothing suspicious. The girl’s attention was suddenly arrested by a gnarled old cherry tree in the nearby woods. From its limbs hung rows of a parasitic whiplike growth, giving the tree a grotesque appearance. Several branches crossed so that they resembled a witch on a broom.

“A witch tree!” George exclaimed.

As she stared at the tree, the girl became convinced it must have something to do with the hex symbol.

Suddenly a woman’s shrill scream split the silence. George turned in the direction from which it had come, but could see no one. She paused.

The scream might mean that George’s friends needed help, or it might have been uttered by someone else as a ruse to get her away from the old house. She decided to stand her ground.

A few moments later Nancy and Bess emerged from among the trees. George asked if either of them had screamed.

“No,” Nancy replied. “That was an Amish woman we saw in the woods. For no apparent reason, she screamed and ran off as fast as she could.”

Bess continued, “We decided she was probably some farm girl picking berries or wild flowers. Maybe a noise in the underbrush startled her.”

“Did you discover anything?” George asked.

“No,” Nancy answered. “We couldn’t find any trail or clues in this wooded area so we decided to turn back. Any more visitors?”

George shook her head. “But see what I found,” she said, pointing to the twisted old cherry tree. “Doesn’t it look like a witch tree?”

“It sure does,” Nancy said, and ran over to inspect it. She searched the crotches of the low branches, but found nothing unusual on or near the tree.

“If it’s tied up with the witch tree symbol and Hoelt,” she said thoughtfully, “it could be a landmark for directions to the
schnitz.
I’m going to investigate the attic for any dues to the identity of the person who was up there, or to the witch tree symbol.”