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The Figure in White






 

“LOLA dear, Nancy Drew is here to see you, ” called Mrs. White.

The woman had led the way to the back yard, where her daughter sat motionless, staring into space.

“It is quite useless, ” sighed Mrs. White. “She will talk to no one.”

“Oh, Lola needn’t talk, ” Nancy said in a friendly voice. “I came to take her for a little ride in the country. It’s a beautiful day.”

“Yes, it is! ” Mrs. White agreed. “Lola, wouldn’t you like to go for a ride, dear? ”

Lola, though looking none too pleased, made no protest. Once in the car, she sat in silence, gazing ahead as if hypnotized.

Nancy pretended to pay no attention as the car sped along the picturesque river road. The prolonged stillness seemed to wear upon Lola, who kept pushing back her long blond hair. Several times she glanced at Nancy. Finally, unable to bear the strain, she asked:

“Why did you bring me out here? ”

“To help you if I can.” Nancy smiled. “You’re worried about something to do with money, aren’t you? Is it about your job? ”

“Well, sort of, ” Lola confessed. “It’s just that my wages at the factory aren’t mine any—” She broke off and gazed forlornly at Nancy.

“Why not tell me everything? ” Nancy urged. “Perhaps I can help you.”

“No one can. I’ve pledged to give away almost every cent I earn.”

“Whatever induced you to do that, Lola? To whom are you giving the money? ”

“I can’t tell you, ” the girl replied, her head low and her voice scarcely above a whisper.

“Do you feel that’s fair to your mother? She must need part of your earnings.”

“That’s what worries me, ” Lola said miserably. “I’ve pledged myself and I can’t get out of it. I don’t dare tell Mother the truth either. Oh, I’m in a mess! I wish I were dead! ”

“Now that’s silly talk!. We’ll find a way out of this. If I were you I’d ignore the pledge.”

“I don’t dare, ” Lola said fearfully.

Nancy told her that any legitimate organization would not take money to the point of depriving Mrs. White of needed support. If Lola were paying money to unscrupulous persons, she should have no qualms about breaking the pledge.

“You really think so? If only I dared! ”

“I’m sure that your mother would tell you the same thing.”

“I guess you’re right, ” Lola admitted. “Maybe I’ve been foolish.”

For another half hour, Nancy talked to the girl in a friendly way, seeking to learn to whom she had pledged her salary. Lola, however, would not reveal the information.

When Nancy finally drove her home, Lola thanked her and promised to follow her advice. The next day Nancy was pleased to hear from Bess that Lola White seemed to be herself again.

“Splendid! ” Nancy commented. “I only hope whoever was taking her money will leave her alone now.”

As soon as Bess had gone, Nancy hurried to the widow’s home. Mrs. Putney herself opened the front door of the big house.

“Oh, I’m so glad you came, ” she cried excitedly. “While you were gone I remembered something I had forgotten to tell you. In the directions given me by my dear husband as to where I should conceal my jewelry, he mentioned specifically that I was to look for a sign of three twigs placed on the ground and that I should bury the jewel case two steps from the sign in the direction of the big walnut tree. When I reached the clearing I found the three twigs lying crossed on the ground, just as the spirit had directed me.”

“Oh, Mrs. Putney, I wish you had told me about this when we were at the spot before! ” exclaimed Nancy.

She glanced at her wrist watch. “It’s only four o’clock. I’ll pick up my friends and drive out now to see if the crossed twigs are still there.”

When the girls reached the clearing in the woods, there lay the three crossed twigs. The position seemed too perfect for Nature to have placed them there. Yet Nancy doubted that they were the same ones which Mrs. Putney had seen. Rain and wind would have displaced the others.

“The thief may use this method to communicate with his confederates, ” Nancy mused. “But why would—”

Her voice trailed off. Through the trees Nancy had seen a flash of white.

“Someone’s over there, ” Bess whispered uneasily.

“Let’s try to get closer without being seen! ” George urged.

Taking care not to step on dry twigs, the girls entered the woods. Through the bushes, they could see the back of a young woman with long blond hair.

“That almost looks like Lola White! ” Nancy exclaimed.

The girl appeared to be reaching high into the crotch of a black walnut tree.

“She’s hiding something there! ” Nancy whispered excitedly.

“She’s hiding something! ” Nancy whispered

 

The girl suddenly moved off in the opposite direction. Soon she disappeared.

Nancy went quickly to the big walnut. Standing on tiptoe, she reached into a hollow in the trunk of the tree. Triumphantly she pulled out a sealed envelope. The others crowded around her.

The envelope bore no name or address, but on its face was a crude drawing of three crossed twigs!

“Wow! ” said George. “The mystery deepens! ”

“What’s inside? ” Bess asked in awe.

“If I had one guess, I’d say money, ” Nancy replied. “I feel justified in opening it, too, for I’m sure it was meant for the person who stole Mrs. Putney’s jewelry.”

The other girls agreed. Carefully Nancy slipped her thumb under the flap, gradually peeling it free. Inside was a sheet of paper and ten five-dollar bills.

There was no message but the name “Sadie.” So the girl had not been Lola!

“I wonder who the girl was, ” said George.

“What I want to know is why she left the money here, ” said Nancy. “We must overtake her and find out! ” On second thought she added, “Maybe the thief will come to the tree to get the envelope. I’ll stay here. You two go.”

The cousins darted off, leaving Nancy alone beside the black walnut tree. Carefully Nancy put the envelope back in the hollow, and sat down a little distance away to watch.

As Nancy sat with her back to a tree trunk, she thought she heard the soft pad of steps. She straightened up, listening intently, but heard nothing.

“Probably some animal, ” Nancy decided.

Nevertheless, she glanced about carefully. Her skin prickled, as if in warning that some stranger might be nearby.

“Nerves! ” she told herself.

At that moment Bess and George, unsuccessful in their pursuit of the blond girl, were returning. Coming within view of the big walnut tree, George was astonished to see a strange sight. Though no wind was blowing, a leafless branch of a tree behind the walnut seemed to bend slowly downward.

“Bess, look—” she began, then ended lamely, “Never mind! It’s gone now.”

“What’s gone? ” Bess demanded.

“A branch. I guess my eyes tricked me, ” George admitted.

Hearing the voices of her friends, Nancy quickly arose and came to meet them. Seeing that they were alone, she said in disappointment:

“You weren’t able to overtake her? ”

“We had miserable luck, ” Bess admitted. “We didn’t even get close enough to see her face.”

“We trailed her to the main highway, where she must have hopped a bus, ” George added.

“I think we should take the money with us, ” Nancy said. “I’ll ask Dad what to do about it.”

On tiptoe, Nancy reached into the hollow of the tree. A puzzled expression came over her face.

“The envelope’s gone! ” she exclaimed.

“It can’t be! ” insisted Bess.

Nancy groped again and shook her head. “The envelope is gone! But no one was here! ”

“I’ve got an idea, ” said George. “Maybe someone climbed another tree, crossed over into the big walnut, and then snatched the letter from above! ”

“The trees are so close together I suppose it could be done, ” Nancy admitted doubtfully.

“Wait a minute, ” George cried out excitedly. Then she told about the slowly bending, leafless branch.

Nancy peered intently up into the old walnut and the maple next to it. “No one there, ” she observed. “George, you’re sure it was a branch and not a fish pole with a hook on the end that was used? ” she asked.

“It could have been a pole.”

“I understand several things now! ” Nancy exclaimed, thinking aloud. “That metal object I saw near here the other day must have been part of a collapsible pole! I’ll bet it belonged to the same person who was here today! ”

“And the same one who robbed Mrs. Putney! ” added Bess.

“George, did the stick bend down out of the tree, or did it come from the direction of the bushes? ” Nancy asked.

“I couldn’t see well enough to be sure, ” George replied. “But from where I stood, it appeared to bend down out of a tree behind the walnut.”

The three went back to the convertible, agreeing that it might be a good idea to keep a lookout for visitors to the walnut tree. Obviously it was being used as a collection station by someone extracting money from gullible people.

Later, as she drove homeward, Nancy began to wonder whether this might not tie in with Lola White’s peculiar actions.

As she turned into her own driveway she noticed a dark-green sports car parked in front. The driver came to meet her.

“Hi, Nancy! ” Ned grinned. “Guess I got here a little early.”

“I’m late. Been working on a case. Please forgive me.”

A week earlier she had accepted Ned Nickerson’s invitation to a sundown picnic planned by Emerson College students spending their summer in River Heights.

“I’ll be ready in fifteen minutes, ” she promised.

While Ned waited on the porch, she rushed into the house, showered, and dressed. On her way downstairs, she paused in the kitchen to say good-by to Mrs. Gruen.

“It seems to me you’re never home any more, ” the housekeeper replied. But she added with a smile, “Have a good time and put mystery out of that pretty head for tonight! ”

“How could I? ” Nancy laughed gaily.

Nancy had not asked Ned where the picnic was to be held. Therefore, she was surprised when she discovered that the spot selected was on the upper Muskoka River, less than a mile from the mysterious walnut tree.

“Want to do me a favor? ” she asked Ned.

“Sure thing.”

Nancy told him about the money in the walnut tree, its puzzling disappearance, and her suspicion that something sinister was going on.

“And you want to stop and have a look for more envelopes, ” said Ned. “Okay.”

They found nothing in the tree, but the crossed twigs had been removed. Someone had been there! Ned promised to stop at the spot now and then to see if he could learn anything.

They drove on to the picnic spot, where their friends had already gathered. The aroma of broiling hamburgers made them ravenous.

Both Nancy and Ned were favorites among their friends, and soon everyone was laughing and joking. After all the food had been consumed, some of the young people began to sing. Others went off in canoes.

“Let’s go out on the river, Nancy, ” Ned suggested.

Nancy sat in the bow of the canoe, her paddle lying idle across the gunwales, while Ned paddled smoothly upstream. Moonlight streamed over the treetops and shimmered across the surface of the water. Presently Ned guided the canoe into a cove and let it glide silently toward shore.

“What a night! ” he said. “I wish—”

Suddenly Nancy, who was facing the shore, sat bolt upright and uttered a low cry.

“Look over there, Ned! ” she exclaimed in a hushed voice. “Am I seeing things? ”

The youth, who had been watching the moonlight on the water, turned his head and was startled to see a ghostly white figure wading out into the river from the beach.

“Whew! ” Ned caught his breath, nearly dropping his paddle.

As the canoe swung with the current, Nancy got a clear view of the figure in white.

The person wading deeper and deeper into the water was Lola White!

The ghostly figure was wading deeper into the water


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