Mystery Of The Tolling Bell Part 23

The Telescope Spy

As Nancy rushed to his side, the fisherman gasped, "I'm stuck! Loose boulder fell. Got to lift it-tide coming in!"

Nancy looked about for the boat, hoping to call to Bess and George for a.s.sistance. But the craft was too far away to signal it.

With a few quiet words Nancy tried to encourage the frantic man. Then she began to tug on the boulder. It moved slightly.

"If you can help me lift this," Nancy directed, "we'll have you free in no time. Together now-one, two, three-heave!"

The fisherman struggled to lift, but his position made it difficult for him to apply any leverage to the weight on his leg. As he strained, Nancy began to fear that he lacked the strength for the task.

The onrus.h.i.+ng tide was already drenching them both. It would be only minutes before the ledge would be completely engulfed.

"Try again!" Nancy urged. "When we lift the boulder, pull your leg out."

With one last effort the fisherman was able to help Nancy raise the heavy stone, and managed to free himself.

"Hurry!" Nancy cried as she a.s.sisted him to his feet.

She took his hand and pulled him along over the ledge to the safety of higher ground. Both were breathless, and so shattered by the narrow escape that for a few moments they could not speak.

Then the fisherman said, "I'm mighty grateful you came along! You saved my life!"

"I'm glad I could help," Nancy replied modestly.

"Fis.h.i.+ng is my business," the man began, after introducing himself as Steve Hopkins. "I know these ledges-except, of course, for that loose boulder that cost me a good rod and several worrisome minutes."

He smiled sheepishly, then turned to Nancy with a frown. "But you never should have been fooling around down there! More than one person's been drowned when the tide comes in!"

"I knew what I was doing," Nancy defended her actions. "I came here searching for an opening in the rocks. I know about the cave with its tolling bell and rus.h.i.+ng water. I thought I could find an explanation for them over here. The tide wouldn't have been in for at least ten minutes."

"I guess maybe that's so," the man admitted. "But around these here parts you never can tell what may happen. You say you were trying to find a hole in the rocks?"

Nancy explained her belief that strong waves, das.h.i.+ng through a small opening, might be responsible for the rush of water through the big cave.

"Could be," Hopkins agreed. "But I've lived in these parts for well onto sixty years. I've never heard tell of any such hole in the rocks."

"Did you ever see the ghost or hear the bell?" Nancy asked.

"I've never seen the ghost, and don't want to. But I've heard that mournful bell," Hopkins replied. "Folks figure that the spirit of the young man who joined the pirates comes back to prowl in that cave. They think the bell is the one he had on his dory."

"A boat with a bell on it might be caught somewhere in the cave," Nancy said thoughtfully. "Has anyone ever investigated to find out?"

"Folks hereabouts got too much common sense. Anyway, what good would it do for a body to go in there and fetch the bell? Long as it tolls a warning, it keeps a lot of people out of trouble."

Nancy talked a while longer with the fisherman, but soon was convinced he could contribute nothing to a solution of the baffling mystery. "I'd better go meet my friends on the bay side now," she said.

"I'll show you a safe path to it," Hopkins said. After thanking Nancy again for his rescue, he pointed out a well-worn trail which she followed without difficulty.

Reaching the beach, Nancy saw George and Bess waiting for her a hundred yards from sh.o.r.e. She knotted her shoes about her neck, then plunged in and swam out to the boat.

"What happened at the mouth of the cave?" Nancy asked as soon as she was in the boat. "Did the bell toll?"

"Exactly on the hour," George replied. "We didn't see the ghost, but the water did rush from the cave the same as before."

"Then I'm sure I'm right," Nancy said excitedly. "By the way, I was just going toward what looked like an opening in the rocks when a fisherman signaled me for help."

After relating her experience and her conversation with Steve Hopkins, Nancy said she thought it possible that an old, wrecked boat with a bell attached might be lodged somewhere deep within the cave.

"You mean when the water comes through, it makes the bell ring?" Bess asked. "But, Nancy, how do you explain the ghost?"

"So far, I can't. Someone must be putting on a ghost act. But where does he come from and where does he go? Frankly, I can't guess what reason a person would have for hiding there or dressing up in white robes. The only way to solve the mystery is by thoroughly investigating the cave."

"Not today!" Bess said emphatically.

Nancy smiled as she turned to start the motor of the boat. "No, I promised Dad and Mrs. Chantrey I wouldn't venture in there even at low tide. But that promise certainly hinders me."

"It may save your life, though," declared George. "This is one mystery I feel we should leave unsolved!"

Nancy did not debate the matter. Her silence as the trio returned to Candleton told Bess and George more clearly than words that their detective friend did not have the slightest intention of abandoning the enigma of the tolling-bell cave.

Nancy had no opportunity to discuss the day's events with her father. On reaching the Chantrey cottage, she learned that he had sent word he planned to remain another day in Yorktown.

"That means he must have unearthed some interesting clues!" Nancy thought. "Perhaps the police have traced those swindlers we're after!"

At Nancy's suggestion the three girls spent the evening at the Salsandee Shop, a.s.sisting their hostess. While George and Bess helped prepare Dandee Tarts, Nancy waited on tables, hoping she might see Amos Hendrick again. She regretted having forgotten to ask him where he was staying. But the man did not dine there that evening.

Among the customers she saw the same dwarflike stranger who made a practice of taking food when he left. He ate rapidly, with a display of very bad table manners. When he finished, he ordered the usual package of food, then departed. Though Nancy questioned several of the waitresses, no one could tell her the man's name nor where he lived.

"I've certainly seen that man somewhere besides here," she remarked. "It wasn't in a theater, yet he seems unnatural, like someone acting a part."

"He reminds me of an elf," one of the waitresses said. "Only he has such mean, cruel eyes!"

"An elf!" exclaimed Nancy. "Why, that's itl I mean," she added hastily, "he does have that appearance."

The waitress' words had recalled to Nancy the strange dream she had experienced last week on the cliff above Bald Head Cave. In a flash she knew that the characters in her dream were not visionary but actual persons! Had she identified one of the elves?

"I didn't walk from the cliff by myself," Nancy thought excitedly. "As Ned surmised, I was carried by two men. But why?"

Realizing that such a theory might sound fantastic to the others, she was careful to say nothing about it, not even to Bess or George. But she was determined to learn more about the stranger.

Hoping that he might lunch at the Salsandee Shop, she made a point of working there the next day. The man did not come, but to her delight, Amos Hendrick strolled into the tearoom.

"Well, well, my favorite waitress again!" He greeted her, then made a startling remark. "You bring a fellow bad luck, though!"

"How do you mean, Mr. Hendrick?"

"A. H., if you please," he corrected her. "Remember that man I was telling you about who was going to sell me a bell?"