HOMEWARD BOUND
In the mad, happy whirl of camp life, Nancy Drew and Helen Corning were
kept so busy that they had little time to think of Laura Pendleton and
her troubles.
At first, Nancy had been inclined to worry about her, for she could not
rid herself of the conviction that Jacob Aborn was not so kindly
disposed to his ward as he pretended. But as the days passed and no word
was received from Laura, she gradually faded into the background.
“There’s nothing we can do to help her,” Helen had summed up the
situation. “The court appointed Laura’s guardian, and unless he proves
himself incompetent, there’s nothing to be done about the matter.”
“I’m afraid you’re right,” Nancy sighed.
The two girls became engulfed in an endless round of swimming, tennis,
hikes, boating and handicraft work, and Laura was temporarily forgotten.
Helen, after her unfortunate experience on Moon Lake, was determined to
learn how to swim, and Nancy undertook to teach her the crawl stroke.
Each morning the girls spent several hours on the beach and in the
water.
“I’m beginning to think that by the time I leave Moon Lake I’ll be a
real swimmer,” said Helen with much satisfaction after a rather long
lesson from Nancy.
“You certainly swim very well, Helen. But of course it takes practice to
make perfect. I don’t think you want to swim across the lake just yet.”
“Across the lake! Well, I should say not! I think I’d be doing
wonderfully well if I could swim from this dock to the one above here.”
“You’re going to do that to-morrow.”
“Never!”
“Just wait and see.”
On the morrow, much to her delight, Helen managed to swim not only from
one dock to the other but to swim back again.
“I never thought I could do it,” the girl declared in great delight. She
was gasping a little for breath but her face was radiant. “Nancy, you’re
a great teacher. Any time you feel like giving up your idea of becoming
a detective you had better become a swimming teacher.”
“Thank you, Helen. That sounds nice. But I think I’ll stick to my hobby
of solving mysteries.”
So enjoyable was Nancy Drew’s vacation at camp that she was induced to
prolong her stay. But at last the day came when she announced that she
must depart for home. In vain Helen coaxed her to remain.
“No, I must leave this afternoon,” Nancy insisted firmly. “I’ve already
stayed longer than I intended.”
Directly after luncheon, to the keen disappointment of her friends,
Nancy Drew backed her blue roadster from the shed which served as a
make-shift garage. Tossing her suitcase into the back of the car, she
regretfully prepared to depart.
“I don’t see why you need to start so early,” Helen protested. “Can’t
you stay a few hours longer?”
Nancy Drew shook her head.
“I have a forty-mile drive ahead of me.”
“You can drive to River Heights in a couple of hours, at the most.”
“If everything goes well. But I may be unlucky enough to get a flat
tire. And look at those clouds!” Nancy indicated a mass of fleecy white
clouds which had settled near the horizon.
“Oh, those aren’t storm clouds,” Helen declared. “It isn’t going to
rain.”
“That’s what we thought when we were out on Moon Lake in the motorboat,”
Nancy reminded her. “From now on, I’m taking no chances with storms.
Especially when they come up as quickly as they do in this locality.”
“Then why not wait another day, if you’re afraid of the rain?” Helen
teased.
“And get marooned here for a week! You know how the roads are after a
storm.”
“I can’t blame you for not wanting to drive in mud,” Helen admitted; “so
I won’t plead with you any more.”
With a last good-bye, Nancy Drew started the engine. Girls stepped out
of the way, and she skillfully backed the car to the main highway.
The road followed Moon Lake for a considerable distance, and Nancy drove
slowly, enjoying a last glimpse of the shore. It was with regret that
she left camp, for she had enjoyed every minute of her vacation. She
loved the clear blue of the lake, the gigantic trees, the earthy odor of
the forest, and the whisper of the wind in the pine needles.
Presently, emerging from the timber, the scenery was less interesting,
and she made better time. Now and then, as she came upon a clearing, she
cast an anxious glance toward the sky. Although the sun was shining
brightly, Nancy Drew thought the clouds were becoming blacker. Soon, she
was convinced that a storm was rolling up.
“Just my luck to run into one,” she thought, in disgust. “Well, I have
chains with me, anyway.”
She glanced nervously at the speedometer and was relieved to note that
she was nearly half-way to River Heights.
“There’s no need to worry,” she told herself. “I’ll be home before the
storm strikes me.”
Although Nancy Drew had never been afraid of storms, her recent
experience on Moon Lake had made a strong impression upon her, and now
she stepped hard on the accelerator. The little blue roadster went
bumping over the ruts at a rapid rate.
On down the road Nancy sped. Suddenly she saw an obstruction in the path
ahead, and hastily put on the foot brake. The roadster came to a
creaking halt before a huge sign which read:
Detour. Bridge out. Take Melrose Lake Road.
An arrow pointed to the left.
“How aggravating!” Nancy exclaimed. “Just when I’m in a hurry! Now I
must travel miles out of my way before I strike the River Heights road.”
Another anxious glance at the sky told her that there was no time to be
lost. Already huge storm clouds had blotted out the sun.
“I’m going to be caught in the rain,” she thought. “There’s no escape.”
Hastily, she backed the roadster and headed down the Melrose Lake
detour. In spite of the need for haste, she dared not race the car over
the rutty highway. She was forced to reduce her speed to less than
twenty-five miles an hour, and even then it seemed as though the
automobile would shake to pieces.
Presently, the winding road ahead became indistinct against the black
background of the forest, for the storm clouds were nestling closer and
closer to the earth. Nancy snapped on the headlights and two beams of
light shot down the road, illuminating the rutty highway for a hundred
yards ahead.
Instinctively, she grasped the steering wheel more tightly, and every
nerve in her body seemed sensitized, for the uncertainty of her
situation gave her a feeling of uneasiness. She wondered how she would
ever reach the main road should the storm break and catch her in the
forest.
The uncertainty was soon ended, for Nancy saw great rain drops glisten
down through the headlight beams. Then the drops became
indistinguishable in a downpour of water that seemed to drop from an
opened floodgate in the sky. The two deep ruts ahead quickly changed
into swiftly rushing rivulets which spread out over the road in a wide
sheet of water.
“This is terrible!” Nancy Drew cried. “If my wheels get down into those
ruts, I’ll be stuck!”
The roadster skidded from one side of the road to the other, several
times barely missing the ditch. By a miracle, so she told herself, Nancy
Drew avoided the deep ruts and kept the car moving.
Then, directly ahead, she saw a hill, and, low as it was, knew it could
not be climbed without chains.
“There’s no use trying to make it,” she decided. “I must stop and put on
chains.”
Halting the roadster under a huge tree which offered a little protection
from the pelting rain, she rummaged under the seat for an old slicker
and a pair of galoshes. After putting them on, she pulled out the chains
and grimly set to work.
It was not an enjoyable task, for the wheels of the roadster were
covered with mud and the chains were stubborn. Nancy tugged and strained
and wished with all her heart that someone would come along and
volunteer to help her. However, the road was seldom traveled, and even
the farmhouses were miles apart, so she was forced to depend upon her
own resourcefulness.
“If it hadn’t been for this hateful detour I’d have reached a paved road
before the rain struck me,” she grumbled.
Fastening the last chain, she gingerly removed her mud-coated galoshes,
and with a sigh of relief climbed back into the roadster.
“Just in time, too,” she told herself. “The worst of the storm is
coming!”
Quickly starting the car again, Nancy Drew slowly crept up the hill and
descended the slope in intermediate gear. Before she reached a level
stretch, the storm broke in all its fury.
The trees along the roadside twisted and bent before the onslaughts of
the rushing wind and a roar from the threshing branches welled up from
the forest all about. The thunder crashed and went tumbling and rumbling
down the uttermost parts of the sky, and lightning streaked up in
brilliant zig-zags to the very dome of heaven.
“This storm is as bad as that one on Moon Lake,” Nancy thought, in
alarm.
In vain she watched the roadside for a farmhouse where she could seek
shelter until after the rain. There was nothing to do but keep on.
The windshield became clouded, and it was with difficulty that Nancy
made out the road ahead. It required close watching and quick thinking
to keep the automobile wheels out of deep ruts. One mistake of judgment
and the car would be mired down to the running board.
However, Nancy Drew was an excellent driver and had confidence in her
ability to handle the wheel. The condition of the road caused her less
worry than the vivid flashes of lightning. Sharp cracks of thunder on
all sides, warned her that the lightning was close to the earth.
Suddenly a blinding tongue of savage lightning shot down directly in
front of the roadster. There was a flash of fire and simultaneously a
deafening roar. For an instant Nancy Drew thought the car had been
struck.
Then came a splintering, ripping noise, and before the girl’s horrified
eyes a pine tree fell earthward. One glance told Nancy that the roadster
was in its line of fall.
Frantically she slammed on the brakes.