The Secret of Mirror Bay

Table of Contents

 

 

Aunt Eloise Drew invites Nancy and her friends to Mirror Bay Bide-A-Wee cabin near Cooperstown, New York, for a visit and a chance to solve the mystery of the woman who glides across the water.

Upon their arrival Nancy becomes mixed up in a vacation hoax because she resembles the young woman involved, and is nearly arrested for fraud.

On the wooded mountain near the cabin further exciting events await Nancy and the other girls. There, in the deep forest, a weird luminescent green sorcerer appears who threatens to cast an evil spell on anyone investigating his strange activities.

In a dangerous twist of circumstances Nancy finds that solving one mystery helps to solve another. What happens when the young detective and her friends uncover a cleverly concealed criminal operation makes thrilling reading.

eISBN : 978-1-101-07750-4

2008 Printing

“It’s beautiful!”

“What is?”

“It’s spooky!”

“What’s spooky?”

“It’s fun but it’s dangerous!” Nancy Drew smiled at her two friends Bess and George who were listening intently.

George Fayne spoke up. She was a tall, slender athletic girl who loved her boyish name.

“You forgot to say it’s intriguing, but what is and where is it?”

“The spot we’re going to,” Nancy replied. “That is, you girls are invited to join me. I hope you can come.”

Nancy went on to say that Aunt Eloise Drew, her father’s sister who lived in New York City, had rented a cottage on a bay. “The name of the cabin is Mirror Bay Bide-A-Wee.”

Bess Marvin, blond, pretty, and always talking about going on a diet, looked at Nancy puzzled. “The place sounds wonderful. What did you mean by all those things you were saying about it?”

Nancy, slim and attractive-looking with reddish blond hair, said, “There’s a mystery, of course. Aunt Eloise heard that early on misty mornings a woman is seen gliding over the water.”

“In what?” George queried.

“Oh, she’s walking,” Nancy replied.

“How could she?” George asked skeptically.

“That’s one thing I want to find out,” Nancy answered. “The lake, of which the bay is a part, is a hundred and sixty-seven feet deep in the middle.”

“Wow!” Bess exclaimed. “Dangerous spot to fall overboard with heavy shoes on.”

Nancy said the water was shallow near shore and gradually became deeper. Bess and George, who were cousins, asked where the lake was.

“In New York State,” Nancy told them. “The Indians called the lake Otesaga and there’s a lovely hotel named after it. Later James Fenimore Cooper wrote stories about settlers and Indians in the area. He found the water so much like a mirror that he called it Glimmerglass. Now the official name is Otsego Lake.”

Nancy explained that at the southern end of the lake was the famous village of Cooperstown.

George’s eyes lighted up. “That’s where the Baseball Hall of Fame is.”

“Right,” Nancy replied, “and there are also many interesting museums in and around Cooperstown.”

“Sounds great to me,” Bess remarked. “When would we go?”

“Tomorrow morning,” Nancy replied. “Aunt Eloise is taking a bus to Cooperstown from New York. We’re to meet her there and drive along the water to Hyde Bay, then walk down to Bide-A-Wee cabin.”

“Bide-A-Wee,” said Bess. “That’s Scottish for ‘stay awhile,’ isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Nancy agreed. “Well, how about you girls getting on the phone and finding out if you can go with me?”

It took less than ten minutes for the cousins to call their parents and get permission. They hurried home to pack and Nancy went out to the kitchen to talk to the Drews’ housekeeper, Hannah Gruen.

Mrs. Gruen had been with the family since the death of Mrs. Drew when Nancy was only three years old. The tender-hearted woman was like a mother to her and was very proud of Nancy’s accomplishments as a young amateur detective Nevertheless, she was always a little fearful when Nancy set off on one of her sleuthing expeditions.

“Do you know what I heard?” she asked. “That there are bears in the woods of the Cooperstown area. You’d better be mighty careful if you go up in the mountains.”

Nancy laughed. “Suppose I carry a few combs of honey with me,” she teased. “If a bear comes my way, I’ll toss one at him.”

Hannah Gruen smiled. “You always know what to do,” she said.

Nancy’s father was out of town, but the next morning she said good-by to him on the telephone. Tall, handsome Carson Drew was a well-known attorney in River Heights. She picked up Bess and George in her convertible and they set off for Cooperstown.

The long drive in the fresh summer air was delightful. They stopped for lunch at a wayside snack bar. Soon after starting off again, they were confronted with a long detour.

“Oh dear!” said Nancy. “We’ll have to go miles out of our way and be late meeting Aunt Eloise. I just hate to think of her waiting on the sidewalk with her luggage.”

“Maybe she’ll go to the lovely hotel you mentioned,” Bess suggested.

Nancy shook her head. “Not if I know Aunt Eloise. She’ll be right at the bus stop.”

Nancy put on all the speed the law allowed and finally pulled into the main street of Cooperstown twenty minutes late.

“My goodness, what’s going on?” Bess asked.

Along one curb stood five large buses. People were milling about the street, arguing and making threats to no one in particular. There were suitcases and tote bags strewn on the sidewalk. Shop-keepers had come outside to learn what the trouble was.

Nancy parked some distance from the commotion, locked the car, and the three girls hurried up the street. They saw Aunt Eloise standing in the doorway of a shop guarding her own luggage.

“Nancy!” exclaimed the tall charming woman, who taught school in New York.

The three girls kissed her, then asked what was going on.

“Right after my regularly scheduled bus arrived here,” she said, “this group of charter buses drove in. These people were aboard. As I understand the story, they had been sold tickets in New York City for a week’s stay at a very elegant place called The Homestead on the Mountain. The round trip and all hotel expenses were only a hundred dollars per person. But now it seems the hotel reservation was a hoax. There is no such place here as The Homestead on the Mountain.”

“How dreadful!” said Bess. “Who’s responsible for this?”

Miss Drew said she did not know. The bus drivers claimed to be entirely innocent. Their company had been paid for making the charter trip from New York City. The agitated passengers looked closely at their brochures of the trip and now they discovered that the tickets did not include a return trip, even though they had been promised one.

“It’s an outrage!” screamed a red-faced woman.

Just then one of the irate men spotted Nancy. In a couple of leaps he was at her side and grabbing her shoulder.

“Here she is!” he shouted. “The faker!”

Nancy removed the man’s hand and stared at him. “What are you talking about?” she asked.

By this time a crowd of people was running toward the girl. Someone exclaimed, “She’s the one all right!”

Aunt Eloise stepped forward. “I demand to know what you’re accusing my niece of.”

For answer the man pulled a brochure from his pocket. He pointed to a reproduction of a photograph. The pamphlet was printed on the kind of paper used for newspapers and the picture was not distinct. It showed a round-faced man and a girl who certainly did resemble Nancy.

“There’s your proof!” the irate passenger said to Aunt Eloise. “Get the police, somebody!”

There was no need to summon them. Two State Police officers were already on hand and pushing their way through the crowd.

“What’s going on here?” one of them demanded.

The man fron New York answered. “This girl sold me a phony ticket and I want my money back.”

Aunt Eloise, Bess, and George exclaimed in unison, “She did not! There is some mistake!”

One of the officers faced Nancy. “What do you have to say?”

Quickly Nancy explained that evidently some girl who resembled her, and a man partner, had cheated all these people out of a vacation. She ended by saying, “I had nothing to do with it. My friends and I just arrived in a car. This is my aunt. She has rented a cottage on the bay and we’re about to go there.”