"Follow me!" she directed.
Above the arched entrance to the refuge had been chiseled the words Poet's Nook, but the girls scarcely noticed it as they slipped into the niche.
"I must hide this box so the men can't take it, even if they catch us," Nancy declared grimly. Frantically the girls looked about them. Nancy noticed a loose stone in the wall directly above a bench in the back of their hiding place.
"George," she said, "see if it will move."
Luckily the stone could be eased out. A large, empty space was behind it. Nancy slipped the box inside, and George quickly fitted the stone into place.
By this time the men were very near, and had stopped walking. "How about working in the Poet's Nook?" one asked suddenly. "Maybe we'll find something there."
The girls flattened themselves against the wall and waited tensely, scarcely daring to breathe.
"We looked there once. That hiding place over the bench was empty."
"Sure, but it we take out the whole wall, we might find another one. You're lazy if you ask me."
"Did I ask you?" the first man growled. "This is hard work. We're not getting much money for it either."
The other laughed. "What we found already is good enough pay for me. And if we find the other loot, we can live anyway we please."
Nancy and her friends surmised that the men would not search the Poet's Nook again and relaxed slightly. But their hopes were dashed.
"How about it, Cobb?" the first man demanded. "Do we take out the wall or don't we?"
"Okay," the one addressed as Cobb replied. "You go ahead. I'll be with you in a minute. Here's the sledgehammer."
CHAPTER XIVCinderella's Slipper
Nancy, Bess, and George retreated deeper into the shadows, but their hearts sank. The men were sure to find them!
"I'll be right there, Biggs," Cobb called. "Just want to see if there's anything hidden in any of these other niches."
Biggs! The name electrified the girls. Hadn't Walter Heath mentioned the name Biggs in the diary as that of a suspicious person? Could he be the chauffeur, searching, perhaps, for the bottles of dye his former employer had hidden?
The next moment a tall figure appeared in the entrance of the niche with a sledgehammer. His back was turned to the girls as he called out:
"Hurry up! I'm not going to do the heavy work alone!"
At that instant the sound of running footsteps could be heard. Startled, the speaker moved off in their direction.
Nancy tiptoed forward and peered out. Biggs was the man who had signaled from the tower! Then she saw a boy who was racing toward the two men. Teddy Hooper!
"Hey, come quick!" he shouted. "I've got something to show you!"
Cobb was irritated. "You again!" he exclaimed. "We told you to keep away from here!"
"But I've got something to tell you!"
"What is it?"
"First you pay me," the boy replied.
"Get out of here and leave us alone!"
"Maybe we'd better hear what Teddy has to say," Biggs urged. "It may be important."
"Gimme a dollar and I'll tell you," the boy demanded impudently.
"There!" Cobb snapped, handing over the money. "Now talk!"
"You know where the hole is in the beach wall? Somebody came through it."
"How do you know?"
"Footprints. Want to see 'em?"
"Okay." Cobb sounded concerned. "If anyone is on these premises, we'd better find out about it."
"Maybe the place is being watched! I'm clearing out of here!" Biggs added.
"Don't be a fool!" Cobb replied. "If anyone came into the gardens through this passageway, he's got to go out the same way. All we have to do is watch the hole and we'll catch him."
The two men followed Teddy around the curve. When their voices died away, Nancy and the girls stepped from their hiding place.
"The boy was Teddy Hooper," Nancy said thoughtfully. "I wonder how he got mixed up with these men."
"Never mind him now," Bess said anxiously. "We must get out of here somehow, and fast!"
"As long as the men stay on the beach, we're pretty safe," Nancy replied. "But I'm worried about Salty. If only we had some way to warn him!"
"But how can we?" Bess asked. "Those men might pounce on us if we try to go."
"There's one possibility," George announced, pointing to a stone stairway between two of the columns which were intertwined with vines. "See if there's a way out through these."
The girls managed to force two of the heavy vines apart. Below them lay a small tangled garden.
"We can squeeze through here," Bess said. "Come on!"
"You go ahead," Nancy said. "I'll get the metal box."
A few minutes later she wriggled between the vines to join her friends. Eagerly they explored the little garden. It had sheer walls on three sides, too high to climb. They could not find a single opening!
Bess sat down in the middle of a weed-grown path. "I'm so discouraged I could cry," she admitted.
"Maybe a drink of water will revive you," her cousin suggested practically.
On the rear wall of the garden hung an artistic fountain from which spouted a little stream. Bess walked over to it and drank freely. "It's wonderful water," she said. "And cold. Must come from a spring."
Nancy and George cupped their hands and filled them several times. "It certainly tastes different from River Heights water," Nancy declared. "And you're right, it's delicious."
She was about to drink more when she spotted something on the crumbling wall just beneath the fountain. Parting the vines to get a better view, Nancy stared in astonishment.
"Girls, look! On the wall!" she exclaimed.
The vines had grown over a small block of cement which had been set into the stones. In it was the imprint of a woman's shoe. Beneath had been chiseled a single word: Cinderella.
"Cinderella's dancing slipper." George laughed. "Whoever would do such a crazy thing?"
"I'm not sure it was crazy," Nancy replied. "It's rather romantic and may have been Walter Heath's way of paying a compliment to Juliana. Don't you recall that note I found in his handwriting which began 'Dear C'?"
"C could stand for a dozen other names," George said.
Nancy measured the dainty little shoe print with her hand. "But if it's Juliana's, it could be the clue Walter Heath mentioned in his will! He said she would be able to identify herself in a special way, and this could be it, couldn't it?"
"The print is very small," Bess admitted. "Not many girls wear such a tiny size."
"If we've really stumbled upon a secret, Nancy, we mustn't breathe a word of it!" Bess warned. The other girls agreed and carefully covered the imprint with the vines.
"I wonder if there's anything of value hidden behind the cement block," Nancy mused.