"George's slacks!" Bess thought with a start. There was no sign of either her cousin or Nancy. Bess could not believe that they had gone for a swim. As she picked up the slacks, she wondered apprehensively what had happened.
"This path seems to run along the wall," Bess said to herself. "If I take it, I should get back to the gate eventually."
But she found that the trail changed direction. Instead of the main gate she reached a large pond.
"Oh, where am I?" Bess fretted desperately.
Suddenly she heard her name called. She whirled around. No one was in sight. A few yards away stood a stone tool house, its window hidden by overhanging branches.
"Bess!" George shouted impatiently. "Over here! I'm in the tool house!"
Bess hastened to the small building and looked inside.
"I've been stranded here for hours!" George fumed.
"How did you lose your clothes?"
"I fell into the water and took them off to dry. Nancy put them on the bank. Then she went off to do some exploring. A boy came along and ran away with my things!"
"How terrible! What became of Nancy?"
"I wish I knew. She's been gone a long while. But tell me, how did you get up your courage to climb the wall?"
When Bess told of her secret ride with Hector, George burst into laughter despite her worry about Nancy.
Then she sobered. "Hector is on the grounds! Maybe Nancy ran into him!"
The cousins were not sure what they should do. Finally Bess said, "Let's go back to the car. Nancy might be there."
"How can I go anywhere like this?" George cried.
Bess handed the girl her slacks. "I found these by the wall. The boy must have dropped them. And you can wear my sweater. I'll be warm enough in my blouse."
George put on the clothes and was relieved to find her sneakers still lying near the bank of the pond. The girls hurried off.
Without meeting anyone, or being attacked by the dogs, they managed to find their way to the front wall and climbed over. Nancy was not in the car.
"Let's drive to town and get help," Bess said. "Nancy has the car keys!"
"Oh, I'd forgotten. Well, we are in an awful mess!"
"We'll have to find Nancy, that's all there is to it," Bess declared.
Each of the girls ate a sandwich from the picnic lunch, then started to scale the wall again. On the ledge they hesitated. The dogs had come back and began to growl fiercely.
"Maybe if we feed them-" George said. She got the rest of the sandwiches from the car. At the sight of the food the hounds became friendly, but the instant they had gobbled it up, they lay down on the ground, panting. Again and again George tried to descend, but each time the dogs rose menacingly.
Bess would not even try to re-enter the grounds. "It's no use," she said.
"I suppose you're right," George said, and jumped down on the outside.
"Tell you what," Bess said. "You stay here and I'll go for help!"
CHAPTER IXTrap Door
For hours Nancy had refused to acknowledge that there was no means of escape from the tower. She had pried at the lock with a nail file from her bag. She had tried to break the door panels by sheer force, but their strength had defied her.
Now she wandered aimlessly about the dimly lighted circular room. Hungry and thirsty, she grew more and more desperate. What had become of George? And Bess? In utter dismay Nancy realized that she had the car keys with her. She sank down on the bottom step of the winding iron staircase to try to figure things out. Staring straight ahead at the dusty wooden floor, she thought, "This is the worst trap I've ever been in!"
Suddenly she became aware of something in the floor. A tiny crack outlined a space about three feet square. Because of the gloom and dust, she had not noticed it before.
"Speaking of traps," Nancy muttered, "maybe this is a trap door!"
Quickly she dropped to her hands and knees and inspected the crack. Obviously it marked the outline of an opening, but there was no ring or handle with which to pull up the wood. Nancy pried at first with her fingers, then with the nail file. The slender bit of steel snapped in her hands!
"Oh, how can I get this door open?" she thought, looking for something heavier.
There was not a single object in the tower room. After a while she sighed in despair. The room seemed to be growing stuffy. Or was it because she felt almost ill from hunger? Her tongue parched and her head aching, she slowly climbed the stairs and went out on the parapet for some fresh air.
The sky became overcast. In a short time it would be almost dark. Except for the occasional hoot of an owl and the intermittent croaking of frogs, there was no sound.
Then suddenly Nancy heard approaching footsteps. Her first impulse was to shout, but intuition warned her to remain silent.
Cautiously she looked over the parapet. A man was unlocking the door far below her! He snapped on a flashlight and entered the tower. Nancy's heart pounded. Should she walk boldly down the stairs and try to bluff her way out?
"No," she decided. "I'm sure something sinister is going on at Heath Castle, and this man probably is involved. Maybe I can get out of here while he's busy. He may have opened that trap door and gone below."
Nancy tiptoed across the little balcony room. Suddenly a light flashed through the open doorway. The beam missed her by a fraction of an inch!
As she shrank into the shadows, Nancy heard the man coming up the iron staircase. With sinking heart, she stepped in back of the door and pressed herself against the wall.
The intruder went directly to the parapet. As Nancy peered out, he began to flash his light slowly as if he were signaling. The backward reflection of the rays dimly revealed his face. Nancy had never seen this cruel-looking man before. Though the young detective longed to watch what he was doing, she dared not linger. Silently she slipped through the door and darted down the steps. Upon reaching the courtyard garden, she hurried to the arched doorway. Luckily it was still unlocked.
Nancy groped her way through the dark corridor in the castle. A moment later she bumped her knee into a piece of furniture and struck it so hard that she nearly cried out in pain. Precious minutes were lost as she carefully felt along walls for a door to the grounds. At last her efforts were rewarded. With a deep sigh of relief, she rushed into the open.
"What an adventure!" Nancy shuddered. "Now if only I can find George and Bess!"
Nancy made her way back to the tool house. It was empty. From there she walked toward the main gate, but because of weed-grown paths and treacherous rocks it took her quite a while before she saw the vague outline of a wall ahead of her.
"I hope it's close to the gate," she thought. "Oh-"
Something was moving through the bushes. In an instant the stillness was broken by the sharp barking of dogs.