The Message In The Hollow Oak Part 17

Nancy turned to see a skinny blond youth in dungarees coming up the walk.

"This is my cousin Jimmy," said the deputy. "He lives next door and he don't miss much."

"I think somebody's livin' in the Hatchett place," the newcomer went on, "Hank and me were out that way in our car a couple o' nights ago and saw lights in the house and a car in the driveway."

Deputy Wooster stood up. "I'd better look into this," he said firmly. He reached into a trouser pocket, took out a badge, and pinned it to his blue s.h.i.+rt.

"Is there trouble?" Jimmy asked, his blue eyes sparkling. "Can I go with you, Ben?"

"Okay," said the deputy. "I guess we could use an extra man. But it might be dangerous. You do only what I tell you." He turned to Nancy and Ned. "Did you folks have lunch?"

"A little," Nancy replied.

"Jimmy," said the deputy, "go in the kitchen and fetch some apples and that bag o' doughnuts on the table. I'll start the car."

A few minutes later Nancy and Ned were riding in the back seat of the police car. The deputy drove down a dirt road outside of town. Jimmy shared the apples and doughnuts with them as they told him about the note. After several turns, Wooster headed along a rutted lane and pulled off into a small clearing.

"We'll walk from here," he said quietly.

Single file, the four made their way up the road, keeping inside the tree line. At the edge of a driveway they stopped.

"Wow!" Ned exclaimed. "What a wreck!"

Before them was a large gray frame house with broken shutters and a tumble-down porch.

"No car in the driveway now," Nancy noted. "I can't believe anyone is living in this place."

The four circled the old dwelling but saw no signs of life. Then they walked carefully onto the sagging porch. The front door was standing ajar. Quietly they entered.

"Let's try the cellar," Nancy urged. She took out her flashlight and the deputy turned on his.

"It's that door at the end of the hall," whispered Jimmy. "I explored this place a couple o' years ago."

As noiselessly as possible they went down the dark stairway. Except for a huge furnace and some odds and ends of junk the cellar was empty.

"Where were the lights you saw?" Nancy asked Jimmy.

"Upstairs."

Carefully the group searched the first floor, then climbed to the second. While Wooster and his cousin were examining the bedrooms, Nancy and Ned spotted a door which they suspected might lead to a third-floor attic. Ned opened it and the two listened. There was a stairway indeed but everything above was dark.

Nancy and Ned started up the steps. Suddenly they stopped. From somewhere ahead of them came the sound of heavy breathing.

CHAPTER XIII.

Alarming Moments

"SOMEBODY'S up there!" Nancy whispered to Ned.

The two hurried up the stairway and Nancy beamed her flashlight over the dark attic.

A man was lying on the floor, bound and gagged!

The couple rushed over to the prisoner and released him. He smiled weakly and whispered, "Thank you. How did you know I was here?"

Without replying to his question, Nancy asked, "Are you A. C. E. Armstrong?"

"Yes."

At that moment Ben Wooster and Jimmy hurried into the attic. They stared in disbelief.

"You found him!" exclaimed the deputy. "Are you all right, mister?"

"I think so," Armstrong said hoa.r.s.ely.

The deputy shook his head. "It's amazin'. I'll drive you to a doctor in town right away. He can look you over and send you to a hospital if need be. Take it easy. Jimmy, get the car."

While the youth was gone, Nancy asked A.C.E. about his abduction, adding that she had received the news of his disappearance from her aunt. "Your detective friends will be relieved to learn you've been found."

"I was waylaid in my car," he began, "by Kit Kadle and another man soon after I left the hollow oak area. They were armed and said if I didn't tell them where the tree was with the message in it, they would kill me.

"Of course I couldn't tell them because I didn't know myself. Kadle had a.s.sumed that since the other members of the detective club had left for New York, they had solved the mystery and knew where the treasure was, but hadn't had time to dig it up."

"You're sure there is a treasure?" Ned questioned Armstrong. "And that it's buried?"

"No, I'm not sure. Kadle a.s.sumed that the message would tell where a treasure was buried. They took me in my car to a shack in a woods, then to the cave and finally here."

Nancy told him about finding the note in the cave. "Why did the men take you there?"

"They had to meet another man, and I guess they were afraid to leave me alone. We arrived late in the afternoon and hid until after the park grounds closed. The third man must have done the same. When it was dark they met at the cave. I didn't get a good look at him nor hear his name. While the three were talking together I managed to write that note and stick it in the crack."

The deputy spoke up. "How long is it since you've seen Kadle and his pals?"

A.C.E. told them one or another of the men came to feed him three times a week. "Someone's due today so maybe you can catch him."

"I'll radio the State Police," Wooster said.

Ned asked A.C.E. if he knew Kadle was bothering the people at the dig, especially Nancy, and that he had planned to kidnap her.

"Yes, I was aware of all that," he replied. "I felt so helpless here when all I wanted to do was escape and expose Kadle."

"Did you know," Nancy queried, "that one of the boys at the dig disappeared and we suspect he too was kidnapped by Kadle and another man?"

A.C.E. said he had not heard the men say anything about this. "Ordinarily they talked freely in front of me and I have a feeling that sooner or later they were going to kill me so I couldn't expose them."

As Armstrong stopped speaking, Jimmy came pounding up the attic stairs. He, Ned, and the deputy helped the weakened man down to the car. On the way to town he expressed his thanks to Nancy and Ned for rescuing him.