The Secret of the Forgotten City Page 10

  “Ned and I will be first to whistle, then George and Burt should answer, next Bess and Dave, and finally Wanna and Don.”

  They started up one of the trails, each searcher looking carefully in every crevice and depression for the missing tablets. Nothing was found, and in a few minutes the group separated, each pair taking a different route.

  Nancy’s imagination conjured up all sorts of ossified prehistoric animals. She pointed them out to Ned, who was amused.

  “Yes,” he said at one point, “if I concentrate real hard I can figure that the formation ahead was once a white polar bear turned red.”

  Nancy knew she was being teased and continued her search for the stolen tablets. Suddenly it occurred to her to glance at her wrist-watch. Fifteen minutes had gone by.

  “It’s time for us to signal,” she told Ned. “Would you like to blast a real long sound on the whistle?”

  He put the whistle to his lips, and the shrill sound it emitted made Nancy put her hands over her ears.

  A few seconds later they heard a blast from another whistle. Several seconds later there was a third. The couple listened for the fourth whistle. They heard nothing.

  “That’s strange,” Nancy remarked. “Maybe Wanna and Don didn’t understand. Let’s try again.”

  The signal was repeated, but only two more whistles were blown. Nancy’s forehead puckered. “I hope this doesn’t mean Wanna and Don ran into trouble.”

  Still, there was no response from the missing couple.

  “Ned, sound long, short, long on the whistle.” This was a signal for the group to meet. “We should get together and start a hunt for the fourth couple.”

  This was done, and in a few minutes Bess, Dave, Burt, and George had joined Ned and Nancy.

  “What’s up?” Burt asked.

  “You didn’t hear a fourth whistle, did you?” Nancy asked

  The two couples shook their heads.

  “Then we must start a hunt for Wanna and Don.”

  They looked around until Nancy spied Don helping Wanna climb a steep incline.

  “Are you all right?” Nancy called down. “You didn’t answer our signal.”

  Wanna replied, “Sorry. We didn’t hear it. But come down here. We have a wonderful surprise for you!”

  CHAPTER XVIII

  Surprise Gift

  RELIEVED that the missing couple were all right, Nancy and her friends followed them down the rocky slope. At the foot of it was a deep recess.

  “Here it is,” said Wanna. She pulled out a package.

  Nancy’s eyes glistened. “Don’t tell me—”

  Wanna and Don smiled, and the young Indian woman said, “Yes it is—another one of the missing tablets. I’m sure.”

  She unwrapped the object, and Nancy looked at it eagerly.

  “This certainly looks like the others,” she said.

  Taking her magnifying glass from a pocket, she trained it on the left- and right-hand corners of the stone tablet.

  “This is one of the missing pieces, all right,” she said. “Here’s the chuckwalla in the left-hand corner, and in the right—” She stopped speaking.

  The others waited for an explanation. Finally Bess asked, “Did you find something else?”

  Nancy said she had a new theory about the markings in the right-hand corner. She had wondered all along if there were some ancient way of indicating the order in which the tablets should be placed to give a continuous story.

  “This may be a wild theory,” she said at last, “but I believe that the moon was used as a way of discerning how this puzzle worked. Seven phases could have been used. The new moon was number one. Number four was probably the full moon and five and six the waning moon.”

  Nancy’s friends were used to her logical deductions, but Wanna and Don stared at the girl in amazement.

  “That’s very clever,” Don remarked. “Which tablet do you think this one is?”

  Nancy’s guess was number three, the one just before the full moon.

  “The mark on this part of each tablet is so faint, it’s really difficult to decide what it was meant to be. But the petroglyphs the three tablets I’ve seen so far are similar to the way we picture phases of the moon.”

  Everyone in the group wondered if more of the tablets might be hidden in this niche in the rocks. They hunted inside it and all around the area. Finally they gave up, sure that there was nothing more in that particular spot.

  “I wish we could find Mrs. Wabash’s stolen dictionary,” Nancy said.

  “What do you make of this tablet?” Ned asked her.

  She studied it for a minute, then replied, “Possibly it’s the one right next to the tablet that wasn’t stolen from Mrs. Wabash. As I recall, that one had a full circle pictured on it, which could mean the full moon.

  “A large group of people definitely trekked into this area and settled here. Then something happened and many of them died. Perhaps it was a war or a drought or some epidemic.”

  “But they didn’t all die,” Bess spoke up.

  “I think not,” Nancy replied, “but they probably fled from here.”

  She asked Don which of the four civilizations he thought had made the plaque.

  “I believe every tablet will have to be carbon-dated to find out its age. The only thing certain is that all of them came from a peculiar sandstone type of rock in this area.”

  Dave noted that it was getting very hot. “And that means we should go back to camp and cool off.”

  Bess said she would be glad to get off her feet. “My ankle hurts a little,” she admitted. “Maybe I won’t join you this afternoon.”

  Nancy nodded. “It’s a good idea. Why don’t you spend most of the time lying down and reading?”

  “I think I will.”

  They all returned to their cars and rode off. When they reached camp, the searchers found it buzzing with excitement. Many diggers had been lucky that morning, finding various artifacts. Now they proudly displayed them.

  “Oh, see these beautiful shells!” Wanna remarked. “It’s unusual to find them in the desert. I wonder if these could have been brought here from the coast by visiting or warring Indians.”

  Don had a different idea. “I am pretty well convinced that at one time what is now an underground river was aboveground. Wouldn’t there have been all sorts of little creatures with shells in the water?”

  Like so many of the questions that had been brought up in connection with the Forgotten City this one also had to go unanswered for the present.

  Nancy and Ned had walked over to one of the Nevada students. He was proudly displaying an ancient pipe. It was cylindrical in shape and had a hole in the middle.

  “Not a very interesting way to smoke,” Ned remarked. He picked it up. “This weighs a ton!”

  The student said he wondered just how the ancient Indians used the pipe. “I understand they didn’t smoke for pleasure, just for ceremonials. When two warring factions finally declared a truce, the elders of the tribe would gather around a pile of burning tobacco. Then each man would suck the smoke up through the stem of his own pipe.”

  Nancy recalled having heard that later generations of Indians had stopped wandering around as hunters and had become farmers.

  “This gave them more leisure time, and they developed religious customs. The men had secret meetings down in great pits, which were called kivas. Smoking was part of their ceremonies.”

  As the campers were finishing their midday meal, someone called out, “Visitors for Nancy Drew!”

  Nancy was surprised. Who could be calling on her? She hurried outside the tent. One of the Nevada girls pointed to a car standing nearby.

  “There they are,” she said.

  Nancy walked over to it. The car was large and flashy. The couple inside were gaudily dressed, which seemed out of place in this desert landscape.

  “You’re Nancy Drew?” the man asked. When she nodded, he went on, “We’re Mr. and Mrs. Horace Greene from Los Ang
eles. We’ve been spending a little time in Las Vegas and—”

  His wife interrupted. “Nancy, it’s very hot out there. Please get into the back seat, where it’s cool, so we can talk to you.”

  Nancy climbed in. The car was cool. It made her sneeze several times.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” said Mrs. Greene. “Horace and I don’t mind the cold, but we positively cannot stand the heat!”

  Nancy wondered who the couple were. Beyond the fact that they evidently had a great deal of money, she could not figure out anything about them.

  Mr. Greene seemed inclined to talk about the heat, the long drive, and his annoyance that he could not play golf.

  Finally his wife interrupted him. “Why don’t you show Miss Drew what you came here to talk to her about?”

  “Oh yes, yes,” he said. “Well, a man walked into our hotel. He said he was from the University of Nevada Museum. They had too many artifacts there and he had been given special permission to sell some of them.”

  Mr. Greene paused and began to unwrap a box that lay on the front seat between the couple.

  Mrs. Greene turned around to face Nancy. “Horace paid a horribly big sum of money for this thing. But we just felt we couldn’t pass it up.”

  By this time her husband had the box open. He unwrapped the object inside. Nancy stared at it in astonishment.

  Another one of the missing tablets!

  “Queer looking, isn’t it?” Mr. Greene asked Nancy. “We drove over to the Lost City Museum to find out what it said. The curator there couldn’t tell us much, but he suggested that we come out here and find you. My, you look so young, Miss Drew. Are you a special student in this kind of work?”

  Nancy took the tablet and looked at it carefully. There was no doubt in her mind but that this was one of the original collection of six stolen from Mrs. Wabash.

  She looked up and asked, “You say that the man who sold this was from the University of Nevada museum?”

  “That’s what he said,” Mrs. Greene replied. “The way you ask that question sounds as if you don’t believe it.”

  “No, I don’t,” Nancy replied. “I’m sorry to have to say this, but you have purchased stolen property. It belongs to a woman I know.”

  “What!” Mrs. Greene shrieked.

  Her husband asked, “How do you know this?”

  Without going into too much detail, Nancy told the couple how she happened to become interested in the case and actually had helped to capture the thief, who was now in jail.

  “I believe he’s in Las Vegas. If you’d like me to, I can verify my story.”

  “Oh, I believe you,” Mr. Greene said, “but I am shocked to think that I was taken in so easily.”

  Suddenly Mrs. Greene threw the box and papers onto the back seat with Nancy. “Horace, don’t you have another thing to do with that! We’ve bought stolen propertyl We’re liable!”

  Nancy gathered that Mr. Greene was used to taking orders from his wife and that he would now follow her advice.

  He said to Nancy, “You know who the rightful owner is. Will you please give this to her? We want nothing more to do with it. Please wrap this up and take it. We will drive off at once.”

  Nancy was stunned by the announcement, but she made no protest. Quickly she got out of the car, taking the tablet, the box, and the wrapping paper with her. Mr. Greene backed up, turned the car, and sped off across the desert.

  Nancy stood looking after the Greenes. What an amazing way to receive stolen propertyl When she joined her friends and told them the story, they were perplexed.

  “You’re sure,” George spoke up, “that this plaque is one of the set?”

  Nancy laughed. “You think I might have been gypped and this is a clever copy? But remember, I didn’t pay anything for it!”

  After lunch Wanna and Don joined Nancy and her friends and gazed at the tablet. Nancy pointed out that it was almost entirely covered with wild animals, large and small, all the way from the giant sloth to the little chip fox.

  She turned to Ned. “I think we should return our two tablets to Mrs. Wabash immediately. Want to go to town with me? And how about any one else?”

  Burt and George decided to go. “You may need my judo protection in case of a holdup,” George stated, grinning.

  “We’ll go in the daylight so it won’t be so risky,” Nancy replied. “But I’d love to have you along.”

  The four set off in Nancy’s rented car. They reached Mrs. Wabash’s house without incident at five o’clock. She was overjoyed to receive the tablets and kept reiterating how amazing the whole story was.

  “You’re going to so much trouble for me,” she told the young people. “I never could repay you.”

  Nancy smiled. “Let’s just say that if we can be of use to our country by uncovering the secrets of the past, that will be a great big reward for us.”

  “Oh bless you!” the Indian woman said. “I’m sure my ancestors did not want the history of the people here forgotten entirely. It was pure luck that our paths crossed, but I am very happy about it.”

  “We’ve bought stolen property!” the woman shrieked.

  “We all are,” George assured her.

  Mrs. Wabash insisted that the young people stay to dinner. They were very glad to and watched her prepare it. Later, after helping the woman tidy up, the visitors said they must leave.

  Burt suggested that they park the car downtown and walk around a little. “I’d like to stretch and exercise after that big meal, and before our long trip back.”

  Ned left the car in a parking lot and took the key to the attendant.

  As they walked along the main boulevard, he said, “Maybe I should go back and lock the car. I forgot to.”

  “Oh, don’t bother,” Nancy told him. “There’s nothing in there worth stealing and we won’t be gone long.”

  After covering several blocks, the group turned around and started back. When they reached the corner, they were held up by a red traffic light.

  An instant later Burt said, “I really suspect we’d better go back. This tired man wants to go to the car. Please walk behind me, George.”

  Nancy and the others realized that this was a coded message, saying, “Suspect man behind.”

  The group turned so suddenly that they nearly knocked the man down. He balanced himself, then scooted off on the crowded sidewalk.

  “Shall we follow him?” Ned asked Nancy.

  “I doubt that it would do any good,” she said. “But I did recognize him. He’s one of the two men whose picture Dave snapped that night in the motel garden.”

  “I wonder why he’s here,” George asked. “I’ll bet he’s up to something!”

  Burt laughed. “If he is, we’ve nipped his idea in the bud.”

  The two couples reached their car and climbed in. Again Ned took the wheel with Nancy alongside him.

  They had gone less than a block when suddenly George from the rear seat cried out, “Nancy, there’s a snake beside you!”

  George made a lunge for the reptile just as its fangs were ready to strike her friend.

  CHAPTER XIX

  Nancy Disappears

  As George grabbed the back of the snake’s head with one hand, she opened the car door with the other.

  “Stop! Stop!” she cried out.

  Ned pulled up short, and instantly George got out. She had a good grip on the snake, which was wriggling and trying to free itself. The snake was not large but it whipped its tail up over her hand.

  “Turn the flashlight on him!” she requested.

  By this time Burt had climbed out of the car too. He held the light on the snake, which seemed to be confused by it and stopped wriggling.

  “Want me to kill it?” Burt asked.

  George looked disdainful. “Certainly not. This little creature is needed in the desert. If he weren’t around, the place might be overrun with rodents.”

  “Okay, lady professor,” Burt replied. “Now tell me what it is.”<
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  George admitted she was not sure, but thought it was a sidewinder. “I’ll know when I put it down, but I’m not going to do so here in town. We’ll take it out in the desert and let the poor thing loose.”

  Still grasping the reptile, she got back into the car, and once more Ned drove off. When they reached the turn to go into the desert road, George asked him to let her out once more.

  Burt trained his flashlight on the snake as George set it down on the ground. The little creature seemed stupefied for a few seconds; then it began to move. The snake progressed by looping its body as it slithered away.

  “It’s a sidewinder all right,” Burt remarked.

  There was a discussion as to how the snake had gotten into the car. All four young people agreed it could not have crawled inside by itself.

  “Someone put it here,” Nancy declared. “But who?”

  Ned recalled that he had not locked the car, so it would have been easy for anyone to open the door.

  George said, “If someone at camp was playing a joke, it was a mean one. Do you think Archie could be responsible?”

  “No,” Nancy replied. “Archie’s a nuisance but he isn’t bad. Besides, if the snake was in the car when we left camp, we would have seen it sooner.”

  Burt was more inclined to think that one of their enemies had done it. “Don’t forget that man on the street. Nancy thought he was a buddy of Fleetfoot’s.”

  “And he had plenty of time to put the snake in,” Ned said. “He might have been watching us all the time and was following us back here, expecting to watch the fun.”

  Burt remarked that some people’s idea of fun was warped. “Nancy, I’m glad you weren’t bitten.”

  Ned had a new suggestion. “Suppose someone we don’t know played this trick. The snake could have been in a torpid state and just revived in the parking lot.”

  When the four friends reached camp, they found Archie giving a dozen of the diggers a lecture on something he had found that afternoon. It was a small pottery bowl, which he had picked up in pieces but had mended nicely.

  The bowl, an attractive one, was light tan in color and had a black swastika-like design on it. Archie claimed that this had come from the very earliest civilization of the Moapa Valley.