The Secret of Mirror Bay (9 page)

Excited, Nancy asked the owner if he would mind getting it down to let her see it more closely. She nudged Bess and George and traced the name when the man was not looking.

The cousins were startled. Could this be the same Maud Jayson involved in the mystery of the missing child’s royal coach?

Nancy carefully opened the letter-type valentine. Inside, written in precise, old-fashioned script was a message evidently intended for Maud Jayson. It read:

The girls could hardly refrain from exclaiming aloud. Here was a wonderful clue to the mystery they were trying to solve!

As nonchalantly as she could, Nancy asked the owner, “Is this for sale?”

The man smiled. “Not really. I need it for my museum. But,” he added with a grin, “if somebody offered me a really good price for the valentine, I might sell it.” His eyes twinkled as he waited for an answer.

“I don’t know what to offer you but I’d like very much to have it,” Nancy told him, naming a price.

The owner replied, “It’s worth much more than that.”

Nancy made a second bid. She was trying to guess how much money the three girls had among them.

“Tell you what, young lady,” he said. “Add another ten and we’ll call it a sale.”

Nancy was relieved. She had only a little more than that with her! The amount seemed like a lot of money to pay for one valentine. Still she was sure the clue it contained about the child’s royal coach was well worth the price.

“I’ll take it,” she said.

As soon as the valentine was wrapped, the three girls thanked the owner for the tour and said they must go.

“Oh, I have lots more to show you,” the man said, surprised.

Nancy promised they would all come back sometime but right now they had an important errand to do and must leave.

When they were in the car, Bess asked, “What’s on your mind, Nancy?”

“To hurry to Miss Armitage’s and show her this valentine. Maybe she can decipher the code message. I’m intrigued by the N and the E with the backward C in between.”

When they reached her home, Miss Armitage greeted the girls warmly.

“Wait until you see what Nancy has to show you!” Bess exclaimed.

As soon as Miss Armitage saw the valentine, tears came into her eyes. Nancy asked her if she could translate the letters and number on it.

The woman studied them a few minutes, then said, “I can’t help you with the names on the left, but I’m sure the letter R stands for Robert. He was the houseman for the Russian lady whose little girl died.

“Robert was very much in love with Maud Jayson and asked her over and over to marry him but she always refused. We don’t know why. Neither of them ever married.”

Miss Armitage and the girls studied the other symbols for nearly half an hour, making many guesses but reaching no conclusions.

Bess looked at her watch. “We must go!” she exclaimed. “The boys will be arriving any time!”

Nancy said, “Miss Armitage, I suppose this valentine should become your property, but may I keep it for a while to see if I can figure out these other symbols? I’m sure there’s a clue in it that will help us find the child’s coach.”

“Please take it,” the woman said. “And good luck.”

The girls had barely reached Bide-A-Wee, washed their hands, and combed their hair when the weekend visitors arrived. Ned, tall and attractive-looking, was first. Behind him was Dave, blond and with a rangy build. Back of him came Burt, blond, short and husky. Following him was a very handsome, distinguished-looking man about Aunt Eloise’s age.

The three boys kissed their friends and also Aunt Eloise, whom they knew well.

Then Burt turned and said, “Miss Drew, I’d like to present my uncle, Professor Matthew Bronson, B.S., M.A., Ph.D. He’s going to be teaching chemistry at Emerson this fall. Uncle Matt, meet Nancy Drew and Bess Marvin and George Fayne.”

The professor smiled broadly, shook hands with everyone, and said, “Burt has given me a long frightening title. Please forget I’m a professor and call me Matt.”

He carried a suitcase with him so Aunt Eloise and the girls assumed he planned to stay. As if reading their thoughts, he said:

“The boys insisted that I come down and meet you. I know you’re crowded here so later I’ll go back into Cooperstown to a hotel.”

Aunt Eloise gave him a big smile. “Matt, you’ll do nothing of the sort. We have this extra cot on the porch. It can either be moved into the boys’ room or you can sleep out here if you wish. In any case, do stay.”

“I’d enjoy the fresh air,” the professor replied. “And how beautiful the view is! The bay is like a mirror.”

Miss Drew nodded. “We like to eat out here and watch the changing scenes on the water. I’m sure you’ll enjoy them too.”

“I couldn’t refuse such a hospitable invitation,” Matt said, giving his hostess a warm, friendly look which made Miss Drew blush.

Bess turned to look at Nancy and George. They knew she was thinking, “Is a romance coming up?”

NANCY and George grinned at Bess’s implication of a romance between Miss Drew and the professor. Romance or not, it was pretty thoughtful of the boys to supply a companion for Aunt Eloise. Then she would never be left alone when the three couples went off together. Both Aunt Eloise and Matt looked quite pleased with the arrangement.

The professor proved to be a delightful conversationalist and revealed that he had made a study of the early days in New York State when it was settled by the Dutch.

“I came across many amusing and puzzling items,” he said. “It seems that at the time every man was his own dictionary. For instance, the word wheat was spelled wett—weat—wheate—weate—whitt—whaet—witt and weett!”

“Tell us more,” Nancy begged.

“I’ll write out something,” Matt said. “See if you can translate the item which appeared in a ledger.” He wrote: 1 peare shouse meade for your wife.

Nancy studied the words a moment, then replied, “One pair shoes made for your wife.”

“Right,” Matt said.

Aunt Eloise and the girls went to prepare dinner. It was served on the porch. As they ate, Ned asked Nancy, “What’s new? Do you have a mystery that we fellows can help solve?”

“You mean mysteries,” Bess replied. “One is nice and kind of fun even if an enemy of ours tried to run over me with a motorboat.”

“What!” Dave exclaimed.

An account of Bess’s near accident was given. The discovery of the old coins was related next, and the finding of the piggy bank brought a good laugh.

“Was anything in it?” Burt inquired.

“Yes. We’re pretty sure it’s full of pennies,” George answered. “We haven’t tried yet to open it. Maybe they are old, old pennies and worth a good bit of money.”

George went to get the piggy bank and it was pried open with a screwdriver. There were several dollars’ worth of pennies, but none of them were old enough to have any extra value.

The girls then told the visitors about the child’s Russian coach reported by Miss Armitage to be at the bottom of the bay.

“Promise you won’t divulge any of this,” George ended.

Burt smiled. “Any of what?” he asked in mock confusion.

Dave and Ned chimed in, “Did you reveal a secret?”

After a moment of lighthearted teasing from the boys, Nancy spoke up. “We want you to help us hunt for it.”

Dave remarked, “The search really sounds intriguing.”

“It looks,” said Ned, smiling, “as if we just got here in time. Any more mysteries?”

Bess laughed. “We could keep you up all night telling everything we’ve heard and suspect and found out and haven’t found out.”

The episodes on the mountainside involving the luminescent green man, his strange disappearances, and the glowing mushrooms in the cave with the poisonous centipede were related.

“George!” exclaimed Burt. “What a terrible experience!”

Matt had been silent up to this point but now he said, “I never heard of so many things happening in such a short time to people on vacation. I myself am interested in bioluminescence of fungi and insects. In fact, in my chemistry courses I’ve done some special work on it.”

Bess said, “You’ll have to meet Karen, a counselor at a camp near here. She’s a botany major and is studying about luminescent fungi. You could probably give her a lot of pointers on the subject.”

Burt interrupted. “Now don’t you be making any dates for Uncle Matt. He’s here to have a good time and to forget chemistry for a while.”

Matt Bronson looked at his nephew and laughed. “When one is intensely interested in a subject, he never becomes tired of it, even on a vacation,” he said. “Look at Nancy, for instance. I suppose she was invited up here just to have fun, and now she’s involved in all these mysteries.”

The conversation was interrupted by a call from the dock. “Hello! Anybody home?”

“I think that’s Yo,” Nancy explained. “His full name is Johann Bradley but everyone calls him Yo.” She turned toward the water and shouted down, “Is that you, Yo?”

“Yes.”

“Come on up.”

When the pudgy young man arrived, he was introduced to the newcomers and shook hands with each of them. Then he said, “Nancy, I have a clue for you.”

“Wonderful. What is it?”

Yo said he had seen the girl who resembled her getting on a bus in Cooperstown. It was going to New York City.

“That is news,” Nancy agreed.

Yo grinned. “I guess she’s gone for good. Bet you’re glad of that.”

“If it’s true, of course, I’m glad,” she answered. “But she might come back.”

Nancy was wondering if the mysterious girl were mixed up in another vacation hoax. She asked Yo if he knew anything about a speedboat named the Water Witch.

“I’ve seen it at a Cooperstown dock,” he said. “I believe it’s a private one.”

When he was told that the girl who resembled Nancy had been piloting the boat and almost hit Bess, Yo offered to find out who owned it.

He abruptly changed the subject and said to Matt Bronson, “Have you ever been up in this neck of the woods before?”

“No, I haven’t. I understand it’s very interesting historically.”

Yo declared it was more than that. “It’s ghost country!”

“Really?” Matt said, a twinkle in his eye.

Yo was serious. “You don’t believe me? Well, I’ll tell you a story that’s absolutely true.”

The others listened intently as Yo began his ghostly tale. “Not far from here on a certain night a long time ago a man and his wife were riding in a one-horse carriage. It was a lonely road and they were pretty far from town. Both of them became very weary. Presently they saw a light in a house a short distance ahead and the man said, ‘Perhaps these people will let us have lodging for the night.’

“They rode up to the front door, which was opened by a nice elderly couple. The travelers explained their situation and asked if they might stay overnight. The farmer said, ‘Yes, indeed.’ He directed the man to unhitch his horse and put him in an empty stall of the barn. He did this, then the travelers went into the house.

“They were shown to a plain but comfortable bedroom upstairs and soon were sound asleep. They woke up early the next morning and decided not to bother their host and hostess but to slip away. They hitched up their horse and drove into town. People there asked where they had spent the night.

“When the travelers told them, everyone stared in amazement and fear. ‘What was so strange about that?’ the man asked.

“The reply was that the house had burned down many years before.

“‘But we did sleep there,’ the couple insisted and could not be talked out of it. Finally one of the men in town said he would drive back with the couple and prove it to them. They went all the way to the farm and sure enough the house had burned to the ground.”

As Yo stopped speaking, Ned remarked, “And there’s something else to the story. Before the travelers left the farm that next morning, the man put a fifty-cent piece on a marble-top table in the hall. When the couple returned, they could hardly believe their eyes. On the marble top, which was the only part left of the table, lay the fifty-cent piece!”

Yo’s eyes opened wide. “How’d you know that?” he asked.

For answer Ned merely grinned. Yo asked no more questions. Announcing he must leave, he stood up and said good-by to everyone. A few minutes later he was roaring off in his outboard motorboat.

Nancy said to Ned, “You’d heard that ghost story before.”

“Yes, but you’d never guess where. In connection with my psych course at Emerson this past year. We took up the study of ghosts. Scholars of this subject declare that all these stories are merely folklore.”

Night had come on by this time and the fireflies seemed to be everywhere. Aunt Eloise remarked how much they fascinated her and the various things she had learned about them.

“But I still don’t understand what gives them power to light up and then turn off.”

Matt smiled. “Perhaps I can help you if you can stand some big words. First of all, a firefly is a beetle and the term lightning bug is probably more appropriate than firefly. Five different chemicals, among them luciferin, are bound together in the abdomen of the beetle. Nerve stimulations release a sixth chemical which breaks up the bond of five. This reaction produces the light. A few seconds later a seventh chemical destroys the sixth one and the light goes out.

“Scientists are extremely interested in cold light which beetles can produce—but man hasn’t yet been able to! Many deep-sea fish light up, also, and some shrimp, jellyfish, worms, and mollusks.”

Aunt Eloise asked, “Do many scientists use fireflies in their work?”