After Nancy arrived home in the afternoon, she lost no time calling on Mrs. Fenimore. The woman was reclining on a couch. She was exhausted from strain and worry.
"I shouldn't have become so upset," she said. "But Mr. Hector's attitude always disturbs me."
"He came to see you?"
"Yes. I had a dreadful session with him. He asked me so many questions."
"About your sister?"
The woman nodded. "He wanted to know if I had hired someone to search tor Julie."
"Did you mention my name?"
"Well, I did say you had offered to help me," Mrs. Fenimore admitted, "though I feel unhappy about having told him. From the way he behaved, I'm sure he intends to make trouble tor you."
"I'm not afraid of Daniel Hector," Nancy said.
"Oh, but you should have heard him talk! He said he wouldn't let anyone meddle in his affairs. He acted as if Heath Castle belongs to him!"
"Mr. Hector is worried," Nancy commented, frowning. "His remarks and the fact that he came to talk to you regarding your sister indicate a guilty conscience."
"Would you risk going to Heath Castle again, Nancy?"
"I would if I could accomplish something," the young detective said. "But I believe the mystery may be solved in another way."
She thought it best not to tell Mrs. Fenimore about the possibility that her sister might have been crippled as a result of an automobile accident. She merely said there was an interesting new lead to follow, one which would not involve her coming in contact with Daniel Hector.
Later, at home. Nancy reviewed the developments in the mystery. Intruders prowling around the Heath estate were looking for something important. She had heard them mention the clue in a stone wall and unnamed items they had already found. Where did Hector fit in? Were they all working together? What-if anything-did the search have to do with Juliana's disappearance? "And then there's the man who was eavesdropping," Nancy thought as she opened the top drawer of her dresser to get a handkerchief. There lay the torn note she had found in the debris at the Heath factory. In the recent excitement she had forgotten about it, "This may be my most valuable clue," she chided herself. "I must try to figure it out."
She sat down to piece out the message. Just then the telephone rang. The caller was George who wanted to know how the detective work was progressing.
"I have a clue to your stolen clothes," Nancy said, and told of the shirt at Mrs. Hooper's.
"Why, the nerve of that woman!" George cried indignantly "I'm going there at once and demand that she return my property!"
"You can't prove anything, George," Nancy said. "Better forget the matter for the time being, and come over here. I have lots to tell you. Bring Bess along."
"Be there pronto," George replied and hung up.
"If it was really Teddy who took those clothes," Nancy reasoned, "what was he doing in the Heath gardens?" She was still trying to figure this out when her friends arrived. Nancy told them everything that had happened on her trip.
"Poor Juliana!" Bess said. "How dreadful to have her career cut off that way!"
"I wish you could have found the nurse Emily Foster," George added. "Well, what are you going to work on next?"
"This note, or rather, this piece of a note." Nancy produced the bit of paper and the girls pored over it for some time, each with a pencil and paper, trying to fill in the lines to form a logical message. Bess was the first one to claim having pieced together the missing words.
"Listen to this," she said. "I've got it!
" 'Dear C,
Some place is the se-
cret which I hid
in a wall. I want to be
famous. If I can sell it, I will be
worthy of you.' "
George scoffed. "If he was going to sell it, why would he hide it in a wall?"
"Well, it fits the missing words," Bess defended herself.
"One guess is as good as another," Nancy said, then she stared thoughtfully at the paper before her. Suddenly she jumped up from the chair and said, "The solution to this mystery might be right in this very house!"
Without explaining her strange remark, Nancy ran from her room and down the stairs. A few minutes later she returned with a large book.
"How in the world are you going to find Juliana with that?" George asked.
The book contained a collection of colored photographs and descriptions of famous old homes and gardens in England.
"I forgot I had this," Nancy said, quickly turning the pages. "Look here!"
"Heath Castle!" exclaimed George.
"The original one in England. Only it wasn't called Heath, of course."
"And the gardens," cried Bess as they scanned picture after picture. Nancy was reading a description under one of them when suddenly a paragraph below caught her eyes.
"Listen to this! I think we have the clue we've been looking for!"
CHAPTER XIISecret Entrance
George and Bess studied the paragraph to which Nancy had pointed. It had been written in Middle English. Nancy had learned in school to read the works of the poet Chaucer, who wrote in that language. Eagerly she translated the quotation.
"'I have hidden my treasures in the niches of the cloister through which, all unsuspecting, the noble men and fair ladies pass each day to bathe.'"
"Sounds quaint," Bess said. "But how does it help us?"
"Don't you see?" Nancy said. "Ira Heath built his estate to resemble the one in England. Probably he and his son knew about the old cloister."
"Granted." George nodded. "But so what?"
"If the Heaths had a treasure to hide, wouldn't their cloister have been a good place to put it?"
"Do you really think they had a treasure?" Bess asked.
"I don't know," Nancy replied, "but I have a hunch they did. We know certain men are searching for a clue, but they also mentioned having found other things. Perhaps those were part of the treasure."
"Is there a cloister in the Heath gardens?" George asked. "I haven't seen one."
Nancy turned the page. The three girls looked at the picture on it, which showed a long passageway flanked by columns leading toward a river.
"This is the cloister!" said Nancy excitedly. "Oh, I wonder whether there's one at Heath Castle!"
"You didn't notice it from the tower?" Bess inquired.
"N-no," Nancy answered slowly. "But there was something leading from the castle toward the river-a kind of tunnel covered with vines."
"I'll bet that's it," George said enthusiastically.