Young Traveler

The airport was busy and crowded and Nancy was glad of Ned’s company as they hurried to the correct boarding area. Since her father’s plane had left a short time before theirs, there was no one to bid them good-bye.

“Nancy Drew? ” The voice was unfamiliar and Nancy turned slowly to see a very worried- looking middle-aged lady standing in the line behind them. “You are Nancy Drew, aren’t you? ” the woman asked rather shyly.

Nancy nodded politely, none too comfortable with the fame she’d gained from solving mysteries. “I’m afraid I don’t know who you are, ” she admitted.

“Oh, you wouldn’t know me, ” the woman said quickly. “I’m Mrs. Peterson from De Cateur Academy, the girls’ school.”

“I’ve heard of it, ” Nancy said, noticing for the first time that the woman was accompanied by a very pretty little blond girl who appeared to be about ten years old.

“I wouldn’t bother you, ” Mrs. Peterson went on, “except that I was wondering if you were going to be on this flight? ”

Nancy hesitated a moment, then decided that the woman seemed genuinely upset about something. “I’m flying to Cheyenne, Wyoming, ” she admitted.

The woman’s frown was immediately replaced by a relieved smile. “Oh, that’s wonderful, Miss Drew, ” Mrs. Peterson said, then turned her attention to the girl beside her. “Did you hear that, Jennifer? ” she asked. “Miss Drew is going to Cheyenne, too.”

Brown eyes looked at Nancy appraisingly and when Nancy smiled at her, Jennifer smiled back shyly, though she didn’t say anything. Nancy returned her attention to the woman.

“Jennifer has to make the trip alone, ” Mrs. Peterson went on. “It’s a family emergency and there’s no one to fly with her, so I was wondering…, She began to look uncomfortable. “I know it is presumptuous of me, Miss Drew, but I’d feel so much better if I knew that you would keep an eye on Jennifer, see that she makes the proper plane changes, things like that. I was going to ask the flight attendants, but they can get so busy... The woman let it trail off, her expression so full of hopefulness Nancy wanted to pat her shoulder reassuringly.

“I’d be happy to have Jennifer’s company, ” she assured the woman, then turned her attention to the little girl. “Is someone meeting you in Cheyenne, Jennifer? ” she asked.

“My mother, ” Jennifer responded softly.

Mrs. Peterson nodded. “Lorna Buckman, ” she confirmed. “She called and said that she would meet Jennifer in Cheyenne.”

Nancy introduced Ned to Jennifer and Mrs. Peterson, then the line moved and other matters claimed her attention. Before she knew it, they were on the plane and ready to take off for the long, cross-country flight.

It was an uneventful trip. Jennifer proved to be a good traveling companion, spending much of her time looking out the window at the clouds below them or reading the books and magazines Mrs. Peterson had given her before she said good-bye at the gate. She also had a rather elaborate board game that she taught Ned to play while Nancy took time to read the detective reports her father had given her before she left.

" I’m glad Jennifer came with us, ” Ned teased when Nancy stopped her reading to enjoy lunch. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have had anyone to talk to.”

Jennifer smiled up at him. “I’m glad you’re going to Cheyenne, ” she said. “Maybe you can come and have dinner with us, if Mom is well enough.”

“Has your mother been ill? ” Nancy asked, suddenly realizing that it was a little strange for a child Jennifer’s age to be in school so far from home.

Jennifer nodded, her eyes darkening. “She was in a car accident and had to stay in the hospital. That’s why I went to boarding school. I was supposed to stay the rest of the summer, but Mom must be better, ’cause she said I should come home.”

“Are you looking forward to the big rodeo? ” Ned asked.

Jennifer nodded. “Last year, I rode in one of the parades. I was in a Pony Club then.”

“Did you like boarding school? ” Nancy inquired.

“Mrs. Peterson is nice, ” Jennifer responded. “She is our housemother. But it was more fun last winter, when everyone was staying at school. There were only a dozen of us there for the summer. Of course, we had the horses to ride and we didn’t have any school work, but... She let it trail off, brushing back her long, straight blond hair. “It will be better with Mom.”

Nancy smiled at her. “I’m sure it will, ” she agreed. “And I bet she’s very anxious to see you, too.”

It was late afternoon when the plane circled and dropped down to the airport at Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Nancy was happy to gather her papers and belongings to get off. Though Ned and Jennifer had provided pleasant company, the reports had merely whetted her appetite for solving the mystery of what had happened to Clarinda Winthrop.

According to what the detectives had found in both of their investigations, Clarinda Winthrop had taken a train west, arriving in Cheyenne about two weeks after she disappeared from her father’s home. Once in Cheyenne, she’d taken a room in a boarding- house and was rumored to have found a job in a I x-al dry goods store.

Much checking, however, had not turned up any records of her residence or employment. In fact, it seemed that no one named Clarinda Winthrop had left a single trace in Cheyenne’s many records. The two agencies had also tried to locate her in Denver and even checked a few more-distant cities, but they had found nothing.

“Are we being met, too, Nancy? ” Ned asked, breaking into her thoughts.

Nancy looked around quickly, blushing slightly, then waved. “Mrs. Reed, ” she called, easily recognizing their hostess’s round figure and warm smile. “Over here! ”

Grace Reed hurried to give Nancy a hug, then stepped away from her. “Don’t you look more like your mother every day? ” she said. “And so grown up, too.”

“And you don’t get a day older, ” Nancy informed her, then quickly introduced Ned and Jennifer, adding, “Jennifer’s mother is supposed to be here to meet her.”

Mrs. Reed smiled at the little girl, who was looking around rather nervously. “She’s probably still stuck in traffic outside, ” she soothed her. “Seems like half of Cheyenne was coming out to meet someone today.”

“Why don’t we see about the luggage, Jennifer? ” Ned suggested. “You can show me which ones are yours, all right? ”

Nancy gave him a grateful smile as he took the little girl over to where the luggage was being unloaded. Once Jennifer was gone, she allowed a little frown to touch her normally smooth forehead. “I can’t imagine where her mother is, ” she told Mrs. Reed. “Mrs. Peterson assured me that she’d be meeting Jennifer.” “Mrs. Peterson? ”

Nancy quickly explained how she and Ned had come to have Jennifer’s company for the flight and also told the attractive, gray-haired widow the few facts she’d learned from Jennifer’s conversation. Mrs. Reed shook her head as Nancy finished.

“That’s an awfully long flight for a child that age to have to take alone, ” she commented. “She was lucky to have you and your young man to watch over her.”

Nancy blushed a little at the description of Ned and hastily informed Mrs. Reed that Jennifer had entertained Ned for her while she worked on the mystery she’d come to solve.

“It’s as though Clarinda Winthrop just vanished from the face of the earth, ” she finished. “I’m not sure where we can begin.”

“Well, I have some names for you, Nancy, ”

Mrs. Reed told her, “old timers who might be able to tell you about her. Carson told me that she might have worked for a dry goods store and I know Webber’s was the biggest store here at that time. Anyway, Joshua Webber is still living, so he might be able to give you some idea of what happened to her if she worked for him.”

“Oh, that would be a wonderful place to begin, ” Nancy agreed, her spirits lifting after the discouraging reports she’d read. Before she could go on, however, Ned and Jennifer came back to join them and she could see that Jennifer was looking very worried.

“No sign of your mother? ” Nancy asked.

The blond head shook emphatically.

“Why don’t I go talk to some of the counter people? ” Mrs. Reed volunteered. “Maybe Mrs. Buckman has been delayed and called in a message. It’s been so noisy and crowded, we wouldn’t have heard a page.”

“Maybe we could call your mother, Jennifer, ” Nancy suggested, looking around at the emptying airport. “Do you know your phone number? ”

“I don’t remember, ” Jennifer admitted nervously.

“We’ll look in the telephone book or call information, ” Nancy told her, taking her hand as they went to the bank of telephones.

Ten minutes later, she and Jennifer rejoined Ned and Mrs. Reed. “Any luck? ” Ned asked.

Nancy sighed. “Her phone has been disconnected and there is no new listing.” Nancy looked hopefully toward Mrs. Reed.

The older woman shook her head. Jennifer burst into tears.

“It will be all right, ” Nancy assured her, dropping to her knees beside the child. “We’ll find your mother, I promise.”

“Nancy is a very good detective, ” Mrs. Reed agreed, adding her soothing voice to Nancy’s assurances. “And in the meantime, we’ll all go to my house. You can stay with me, Jennifer, till we find your mother. Would you like that? ”

The sobs slowed a little as Jennifer looked at Nancy. “Will you really find her for me? ” she asked.

“I’ll do my very best, ” Nancy answered, sure that it would be much easier to find a woman who’d only been missing one day than to locate one who had disappeared forty years ago.

As they left the airport, Nancy cast one last glance around, her attention caught by a prickly feeling of being watched. Two young men she’d noticed before were now standing near the telephones and she felt their eyes following them as they crossed the room with Jennifer.