The Flying Saucer Mystery (5 page)

This struck George as a funny idea. She said, “Oh, sure, and a killing bolt of electricity may come shooting out from his body at any minute—z—z—z—look out!”

Burt muffled a chuckle, adding, “Do you think that’s his spaceship down in the swamp? He looks too big to live in it.”

Bess knew they were teasing her but ignored it. She had seen the Indian before the saucer arrived. Then a thought struck her: Maybe the spaceship came back for him. He might even be planning to kidnap us and take us away in it!

As the Indian continued to stare at the group, Dave glanced at Bess, as if reading her thoughts, and exclaimed, “Watch out! He may hypnotize you!”

Bess made a face at Dave, then said, “Okay, Nancy. Why don’t you and Ned approach the man?”

The couple walked forward, slowly. Nancy held a shining gold disc on a chain which she had removed from her neck. Perhaps, she thought, the Indian would be interested in the necklace.

Inch by inch, she and Ned continued toward him. The Indian remained immobile. He stared at the jewelry but did not take it. Finally he let the rock drop to the ground.

Ned sighed in relief. “Maybe he intends to be friendly,” he murmured.

As Nancy stepped closer, she smiled and said, “Hello.”

The girl detective repeated the greeting several times as she and Ned came right up to the man. He still did not move, but just looked straight at them. Would he attack? The onlookers watched with bated breath.

Now Ned pointed to himself, saying over and over, “Ned. Ned. Ned.”

Finally the Indian gave a slight smile and then pointed to Nancy. Ned complied with the sign language. “Nancy. Nancy.”

Everyone was delighted and started to applaud, but Jan signaled for silence.

A hush fell over the group as the man pointed to himself and said, “Shoso.”

The campers were thrilled. Again they wanted to clap, but Jan shook her head. She was afraid that loud applause might frighten the man away and send him racing off into the forest.

Now Shoso laid a finger gently on Ned and repeated his name several times. In turn, he and Nancy pointed at the Indian and said, “Shoso.” He nodded and smiled broadly.

He looked up at the sky and said something unintelligible to them.

“What’s he trying to tell us?” Ned asked Nancy.

The young sleuth admitted she was puzzled.

“Maybe he’ll tell us some more in sign language.”

Presently Shoso twirled quickly with his arms above his head. Still the couple looked puzzled. Shoso repeated the motion.

“I think I get it,” Ned remarked. “He’s trying to imitate the windstorm.”

Nancy agreed. “But I just can’t figure out his message.”

Shoso seemed disappointed and thought a few seconds. Then he leaned down, put his hands on the ground, and galloped about. Suddenly he ran off a short distance into the trees.

Nancy snapped her fingers. “Ned, I think Shoso is trying to tell us something about our horses.”

“We’ll soon find out,” he replied, “if we use some sign language of our own.”

He leaned over the way Shoso had done and told Nancy to hop on his back as if she were riding a horse.

As Nancy did this, she laughed and said,” I sure feel silly, but if it works, I don’t mind.”

By this time the other campers, no longer afraid of the Indian, began to roar with laughter.

“You two ought to join the circus,” Burt called out.

George scoffed. “A kindergarten circus.”

Ned and Nancy played their parts well, ignoring the jibes. Shoso nodded happily and pointed in the direction where the boys had left the horses.

“Something must have happened to them! Maybe they’ve been injured!” Nancy exlaimed, jumping off Ned’s back.

“Or perhaps they ran away,” he replied. “We didn’t tie them all. We let a few graze.”

“Yes,” Burt agreed. “They may have injured themselves being loose in this forest. I’ve noticed plenty of trailing vines.”

“Don’t say that,” Bess pleaded. “I can’t stand to see an animal hurt.”

Without wasting another minute, all the campers and Shoso rushed toward the spot where the saddle horses had been left.
Two of them were gone!

“Oh, what’ll we do?” Bess wailed.

“I blame myself,” Dave said. “I suggested we let some of the animals graze.”

“We’re all guilty,” Burt added. “We didn’t have to take your advice.”

Nancy noticed with relief that her lovely Susan B was still there with Goalpost standing next to her. Unfortunately the horses Burt and Dave had been riding were missing. Hal suggested that possibly the animals had gone back to the original campsite.

Jan said, “I have a hunch they may have rejoined the packhorses.”

“Oh, I hope you’re right,” Bess answered. “They have all the food and I’m starved.”

Hal said that he was less concerned with their supplies. He hoped that the great wind and the blinding bright lights of the saucer had not frightened the packhorses so much that they yanked themselves loose from the tie ropes.

Although the campers had had little to eat that day, they knew their main job was to find the horses.

Shoso seemed to feel sorry for the group. He beckoned them to follow him. Burt and Dave rode double with George and Bess.

The Indian led them directly toward the campsite where they had left the packhorses. The route was much shorter than the one the group had taken that morning while heading for Old Joe’s.

“Oh, thank you,” Bess called to him, then remembered that he could not understand her words. He waved and disappeared from view.

Nancy and her friends rushed to the area where the packhorses had been tied. To everyone’s dismay, the missing saddle horses were not there. Moreover, both packhorses were gone and so were the supplies!

“Four of our horses gone!” George exclaimed, sighing deeply.

“And all our food and clothes!” Bess moaned.

The campers were nonplussed. What were they going to do without them?

Hal remarked, “Judging from the frayed ropes, I’d say the animals went wild.”

“Then there’s no telling how far away they went,” Nancy commented. “Maybe Shoso knows.”

The Indian, however, was not in sight.

“He’s the most elusive man I’ve ever met,” Bess commented.

Nancy visualized the tall, erect figure stalking through the forest. Except for the deeper color of Shoso’s skin, his black hair and dark eyes, he was the same type of outdoorsman as Old Joe. The girl wondered if all naturalists were similar in stature.

Hal, in the meantime, was trying to reassure the campers about their horses. “Sometimes they return to their riders.”

“That’s right,” Jan agreed. “We’ll manage somehow. If Old Joe can subsist in this forest, so can we.

Nevertheless, Nancy was disappointed. “I was so hoping all of us could go to Dismal Swamp. After all, my main reason for coming here was to investigate the flying saucer. By now, it may have left.”

“I doubt it,” Ned remarked. “I’m sure we would have seen it take off.”

Nancy was not so certain of this. Perhaps the mystery ship had unknown powers that allowed it to depart silently and invisibly.

“We’ll get to the swamp somehow,” Ned assured her.

They both looked for hoofprints to see which way the missing horses had gone. The search indicated that the pack animals and riding horses had run off in separate pairs. But the hoofprints of all four led to the bank of a small stream where the prints ended. Evidently the horses had walked through the water. It was growing too dark, however, to continue the hunt.

Jan said, “Let’s fix a good meal. That will liven our spirits.”

“Fix it out of what?” Bess asked.

“The forest,” Jan replied. “I suggest we split up in couples and forage for food. In an hour I would bet we’ll have a great dinner.”

George laughed. “I’ll feel like a foraging cow.
Moo moo.
Come on, Burt.”

Jan asked Bess and Dave to stay nearby in case any of the horses came back. She smiled. “This time, please tie them.”

“You bet,” Dave promised, still upset about being partly responsible for the two runaway animals.

Hal and Jan went off in one direction, Nancy and Ned in another. To the young sleuth’s delight, she discovered a huge patch of wild blueberries. “But what can I put them in?” she asked.

Ned pulled a large brown handkerchief out of his pocket, filled it, and tied the four corners together. Before the hour was up, the couple had gathered wild scallions and grapes as well.

When they joined their friends, Nancy and Ned were amazed at the variety of food the others had brought back. George and Burt, both mushroom experts, had collected and peeled a large quantity of mushrooms. Hal had chased and caught two rabbits which he had dressed and cut into pieces. He had skewered them onto a sturdy branch broken from a sapling and was now cooking the meat over a small fire Dave had built.

He and Bess had discovered a sassafras tree and chipped off pieces of bark which they mixed with water in a camper’s abandoned canteen. Bess set it over the fire to brew into tea.

The meal was enjoyable and satisfying. The group discussed the day’s events and finally the conversation turned to the missing horses.

George said, “I think we shouldn’t dismiss the possibility that they were stolen.”

The remark shocked everyone. If this were true, they might never get the horses back!

“But who would steal them?” Ha! asked. “Very few people roam this mountain and I saw no footprints where the horses were tied. Besides, the frayed ropes seemed to indicate that they yanked themselves loose.”

Bess asked, “Even if you found footprints, how could you tell that the person who made them had ridden away?”

Hal smiled. “You don’t step over a horse’s back. You hoist yourself up so you’d make more of a depression in the ground.”

Bess giggled. “I guess I still have a lot to learn about horse detective work.”

It was decided that Hal and Burt would start to hunt for the missing animals after breakfast the next morning. Hal said they would pick up the search where the hoofprints ended, ride through the stream, and try to find out where the horses had left the water.

“We’ll take one of the walkie-talkies along,” Burt said, “so you can let us know if any of the animals return, or if we find any of them we’ll contact you.”

Dave called, “Big game hunters, bring ’em back alive!”

“Shush!” said Bess. “You make me shiver.”

That night the group collected pine needles and slept on refreshing beds of pine. The next morning, as daylight filtered down through the trees, Burt and Hal rode off. The campers who were awake wished them well.

“Watch out for wildcats and snakes!” Bess warned.

Burt laughed. “I dare any snake to try biting through these hiking boots.”

The searchers were gone several hours but did not call in a report. Then suddenly George exclaimed, “Listen! I hear hoofbeats.”

To be sure, she lay down and put her ear to the ground. “Yes, I hear at least two horses coming,” she announced.

Everyone expected to see Hal and Burt, but to their amazement Old Joe appeared. He was leading the two lost saddle horses!

“How wonderful!” Nancy called out as she ran to pat them. “Old Joe, where did you find the horses?”

Her new friend grinned. “They came to my cabin. Guess they were hungry for something sweet and thought maybe I’d feed them, which I did. I gave them maple syrup candy. How’d they get away from here?”

Nancy and Ned told him the story, adding that Hal and Burt had gone off to look for the four runaways and the supplies.

Old Joe became philosophical. “Horses are funny creatures. You never can be sure what they’re thinking. Sometimes they don’t do anything unusual for a long, long time, then something will frighten them and they’ll take off like they’d gone clean beserk.”

As the campers crowded around the kindly man, Bess asked him if he would like a drink. “We have water and cold sassafras tea.” She giggled and told about the campers’ supper the night before.

The naturalist chuckled. “You’ll be forest folk before you know it.” Then he thanked them and said he had had a good breakfast. “But I brought you something. I keep a few hens in a cage near my cabin. Trixie stands guard, of course. She chases the wild animals away. I have some hard-boiled eggs for you.”

As each person took an egg to eat, George remarked, “Too bad Burt and Hal aren’t here. I think we should try to contact them on the walkie-talkie and tell them that the two saddle horses are back.”

Nancy tried to signal the two searchers, but there was no response. Again and again she called in vain and finally asked Dave to examine the instrument.

“It seems okay,” he reported. “I’m puzzled why Hal and Burt don’t answer.”

Old Joe spoke up. “Maybe your friends have gone out of range. Or maybe there are too many trees in the way of the signal.”

When the old naturalist said he ought to be leaving, Nancy remembered that they had not yet heard about his mystery. She asked him about it, and he was delighted that she remembered.

He began by explaining that he and his parents lived in the city when he was a boy.

“However, my father was a great nature lover and used to bring me to this forest. I grew to love it as much as he did. After my mother’s death my father and I came here more often. In fact, we once spent several months in the forest. That was when the mystery began.

“One day soon after we arrived, my father seemed worried. When I asked him what the trouble was, he told me that he was carrying a lot of money and valuable secret papers in his wallet.

“He said to me, ‘Son, there’s a man who is an enemy of mine. He would like nothing better than to get his hands on all of this. But I don’t intend for him to do so. He must never learn the secret.’