The Message In The Hollow Oak Part 5

If the man was determined to find the hollow oak with the message in it, and had learned she had solved many mysteries, it was highly possible he was nearby to spy on her. He would try to intimidate her into leaving the area. She said nothing about it to Julie Anne or the others.

While Nancy was still speculating about Kadle, a farm truck came rattling into the yard. Everyone rushed outside.

A tall, slender, slightly-stooped man stepped to the ground. The goat, which had been munching gra.s.s and herbs, walked over to him.

"The man must be his owner," Nancy thought as the stranger came forward.

"Howdy, folks. Good mornin'. I see you got my goat."

Several of the girls giggled. Art called out, "Did we?"

The farmer paid no attention to Art's pun. He said, "I'm Clem Rucker and I live a piece away from here. Somebody opened my goat pen last night and took out Sammy Boy. Did one o' you fellows do it?"

The boys shook their heads. Nancy now explained what little she knew about the episode. Clem shrugged. "Some mysteries just ain'tgoin' to be solved."

His remark gave Nancy an idea. "Mr. Rucker, maybe you-"

"Oh, call me Clem," the farmer said. "I ain't used to this mister stuff."

Nancy grinned. "All right. I have a map showing where there's a certain oak tree I'd like to see. Will you wait a moment while I get the map?"

She hurried into the farmhouse and was back in a couple of minutes. Nancy unfolded the sketch which the New York detective had made and showed it to Clem. He smiled.

"I know all about this," he said. "You're lookin' for the secret message in the oak tree, same as them city detectives who were up here on their vacation. Sure," he added, "be glad to take you around. That is, if you don't mind ridin' in an old car."

"I don't mind," Nancy replied. "Of course I'll pay you for the trip."

The two arranged a price and then Nancy turned to Julie Anne. "Could you get permission to go with me?"

"I think so. Wait until I ask Theresa." While she was asking, Nancy inquired when Clem could pick them up.

He gave a wide grin. "Soon as I get Sammy Boy home, I'll bring my car over and away we'll go."

Nancy was delighted that she could start work at once on the hollow oak mystery. She was glad, too, when Julie Anne received permission to accompany her.

Sammy Boy was lifted into the farm truck and Clem drove off. An hour later the old man was back.

Nancy and Julie Anne found it hard to keep from laughing aloud at the conveyance which was to take them on their detective trip. The car was a very old four-pa.s.senger type with no top and had rather narrow wheels.

Nancy thought, "This should be on exhibit in an antique car museum!"

The two girls climbed into the back seat and Clem drove off. The old car was amazing. Though the cus.h.i.+ons were worn thin and the girls bounced up and down on the rough road, the engine purred along satisfactorily. Clem was a fast driver and did not seem to mind the b.u.mpiness of the ride.

A few minutes later he turned off the road suddenly and started across a plowed field. The girls held on tightly. Clem pointed to his left.

"See that little higher section with corn growin' on it? That was once a dig and they found plenty o' old Indian bones there."

"It certainly doesn't look like much now," Julie Anne remarked.

"That's right," said Clem. "Folks is funny. They make such a to-do about takin' care o' cemeteries but they sure ain't got no respect for the skeletons o' folks that lived around here three or four hundred years ago."

Nancy made no comment. She was deep in thought, recalling how carefully the Egyptians of thousands of years ago preserved their mummies.

Her reflections were interrupted when Clem made a sharp right turn and drove up a slightly hilly section.

"Was this an Indian gravesite?" Julie Anne asked.

"I don't know," Clem replied. "So far as I've heard, n.o.body has ever come to dig it up."

When he reached the top of the incline which had not been cultivated and was covered with coa.r.s.e gra.s.s, he stopped abruptly.

"Here's the stump o' that oak you're lookin' for, Nancy," he said.

Both girls hopped out of the car and went over to the stump. Nancy turned to Clem. "Where is the tree trunk?"

He pointed down the slope. Among some bushes lay a giant tree. Nancy hurried down to it. Facing her was a small lead plate embedded in the trunk. On the plate had been etched Pere Franois 1675. Underneath the inscription was an arrow.

The trunk was hollow but the outer part was still in good condition. The tree that had stood at the top of the slope more than three hundred years ago apparently had been blown over recently.

Nancy remarked, "I understand that when the tree was standing, the arrow pointed east."

Clem chuckled. "Now I just might be able to help you figure out that one."

The girls watched him as he walked along the side of the tree, then climbed back to the stump. After two such trips he said, "I reckon from the pattern o' that stump and the bottom o' this tree that they fitted together so the arrow pointed due east."

"Can you drive us in that direction?" Nancy asked.

"You never get anywhere if you don't try," Clem answered with a chuckle.

They all climbed into his old car and he set off. Clem continued to drive through farms and woods. Once they forded a stream. But he avoided taking any of the roads, although they had crossed several of them.

"Roads ain't much better'n the fields," he explained with a grin. "Besides, they wind around too much. We can go quicker this way. I'm aimin' for a nice picnic spot."

"That's good," said Julie Anne. "I'm starved." Five minutes later Clem stopped near a stream and they all got out. Julie Anne and Nancy had packed enough lunch for all of them. Clem also started to open a package of food.

"My wife Hortense," he said, "makes the best beaten biscuits you ever ate. Then she opens 'em and puts a little fishball inside. I brought along some of 'em."

The girls found the stuffed beaten biscuits delicious and said so. "Please tell your wife they're great," Nancy added, "and thanks to you both for supplying part of the lunch."

While they ate, Clem told one exaggerated story after another and kept the girls laughing all the time.

"One more and then we got to go," he said. "Once there was an Indian fis.h.i.+n' in the Ohio River. That ain't a long way from here, you know. He was standin' in the water with a club in his hand gettin' ready to whack a fish when it swam past. Well, a fish come along all right, but before the Indian had a chance to whack it, the thing jumped right out o' the water and knocked him over."

"What a whopper!" Julie Anne exclaimed.

"Now that ain't so much of a whopper as you might think," Clem replied. "We used to have catfish in the Ohio River as big as seals."

Clem said there were no more big fish in the river, then abruptly changed the subject. "Would you like to see my good-luck coin?"