As NANCY stepped out of the telephone booth, Alex Upgrove’s eyes bored into hers. She stared back. Neither would waver, but Alex was the first to speak.
“Nancy, why didn’t you tell me what was going on, so I could help you?” he chided. “I’m sure you’re all wrong about that man being the car thief. But we can investigate the used-car lots in the city and see if we can find your convertible.”
“Thank you, Alex, but I’ll leave that to the police,” Nancy replied. She was angry that Alex had followed her and deliberately listened to her conversation.
“Well, have it your own way,” he said, escorting her back to the table. “But I wish you wouldn’t be so mysterious. I could be a big help to you, really I could.”
“No doubt,” Nancy said in an offhanded way.
The young people thoroughly enjoyed their luncheon in the famous restaurant which had been operating in this same building since 1868. The lunch included the famous oysters Rockefeller, served in the half shell on hot salt, and garnished with a secret garlic sauce. Then came “chicken in the bag.” The waiter tore off the paper covering, revealing a succulent rice-stuffed bird. Dessert was pecan pie.
As they left Antoine’s, Bess declared she could not eat another morsel until the next day!
“Well, that’s fine,” said Donna Mae, laughing, “because I want to put on a rehearsal of the play and we won’t have to take time out for dinner.”
The visitors reluctantly acquiesced. But each was thinking that she could not become too excited about appearing in the fairy costumes. Nancy writhed inwardly at the thought of further delay in starting her investigation of the showboat mystery.
When they reached home, Donna Mae announced to her parents that rehearsal in full costumes would take place in half an hour. Colonel Haver puckered his lips and frowned.
“I was going golfing,” he said.
His wife smiled. “Time is getting short, dear. Maybe we’d better have the rehearsal.”
As George, a few minutes later, was zippering herself into the winged fairy costume, she suddenly burst into laughter. “If you girls think these wings will hold me up, I believe I’ll fly away and escape this rehearsal.”
Bess giggled. “You’d better not, or you may have Donna Mae or Alex flying after you.”
When the three guests appeared on the first floor, they found the others already assembled. Colonel and Mrs. Haver looked very regal in their king and queen costumes. Donna Mae and Alex, attractive in the prince and princess garments of a bygone era, smiled graciously.
“Oh, you look adorable!” Donna Mae exclaimed, but her mother gasped. “Why, I thought the three girls were going to be ladies in waiting.”
“Want to see how a winged fairy acts?” George asked impishly.
Instantly she bent double and began to do a dance step that resembled that of an Indian ceremonial. Then Bess began to chant a song in the manner of a three-year-old reciting a nursery rhyme. All but Donna Mae burst into laughter.
“I’m afraid,” said Colonel Haver, “that these fairy costumes are not appropriate, Donna Mae.”
“Then what are we going to do?” cried his daughter, who was on the verge of tears.
Her mother said she thought something more regal would be suitable. She herself would select new costumes for the girls.
Nancy sighed. “I had hoped to wear my mother’s beautiful shawl and fan to the ball. The suitcase they were packed in was stolen, you know.”
“That was most unfortunate,” said Mrs. Haver. “But I’ll plan your costume so that you can wear the shawl and fan that evening if you should get them back in time.”
Nancy flashed her a smile. “Thank you, Mrs. Haver.”
After the three fairies had unsnapped their wings and laid them on the sofa, the rehearsal began. Earlier Pappy Cole had brought in several boxes to form a platform on which the actors could perform.
“When we’re acting on the showboat, we’ll have a real stage,” said Mrs. Haver.
“I wouldn’t count on that too much, my dear,” Colonel Haver remarked, “unless Nancy Drew solves the mystery.”
Any reply Nancy might have made was interrupted by Bess who at that moment made a misstep on top of one of the boxes. As she fell backward onto the floor, everyone rushed forward to help her.
“Are you hurt, Bess?” Nancy asked solicitously.
“Oh, my arm!” Bess exclaimed, tears coming to her eyes. “I guess I wrenched it!”
Mrs. Haver insisted that Bess go upstairs and lie down. Nancy offered to massage the arm and George said she would get cold compresses.
“But what’s going to happen to the rehearsal?” Donna Mae wailed.
“We’ll have to postpone it,” her mother replied.
Donna Mae continued to complain peevishly that everything would be ruined, and had her friends and family forgotten that her engagement was to be announced the night of the ball?
“Everything just
must
go smoothly!” she exclaimed.
Nancy and her friends were disgusted with the girl’s attitude. Ignoring her, they climbed the stairs to George and Bess’s bedroom.
“What’s the matter with that cousin of ours?” George burst out.
“Oh, don’t pick on her, George,” said Bess. “I think Donna Mae is nervous and irritable because her conscience bothers her.”
“You mean about Charles Bartolome?” Nancy asked.
“Yes.”
Bess decided to spend the remainder of the afternoon and evening in her room. Nancy and George had supper with the family on the terrace. Shortly afterward, Nancy announced she was going to her room and planned to retire early.
“I’ve had a lovely day. Thank you so much. Good night, everyone.”
As Nancy walked into the house, Alex hurried after her. “Wait a minute, Nancy. Don’t leave yet,” he pleaded. “I want to talk to you. Won’t you please tell me what your plans are for solving the mystery?”
“Truthfully, I haven’t any,” said Nancy.
As she started to walk on, Alex took her hand. “If you have no plans, may I suggest some?”
Nancy was annoyed, but she did not want to be rude. “What kind of plans?” she asked.
“Well, first of all, I think you ought to see the showboat. What say you and I get up early tomorrow morning and take a canoe out there together?”
“How early?” Nancy asked, parrying for time to think up an excuse not to accept the invitation.
“Oh, before the others are up,” Alex said with a sly smile. “We’ll get back for breakfast.”
By this time Nancy had an answer. “Alex, I understand the bayou is very dangerous. Neither of us is familiar with it. Sorry, but I’m afraid I can’t go with you.”
With that, she went up the steps two at a time and hurried to her room, closing the door.
“What a pest he is!” Nancy said to herself. Then she smiled. “One thing I can do without is his company to the showboat.”
Nancy sat down in a chair by the window, lost in thought. Suddenly she arose. “I’ll find out right now about a guide to take me through the bayou.”
The young detective decided that Mammy Matilda and Pappy Cole might know a trustworthy guide.
Nancy peered into the hall to be sure Alex was not in sight, then she hurried to a back stairway leading to the kitchen and went down. Mammy Matilda and Pappy Cole were just finishing their supper.
“That was a delicious meal,” Nancy said, sitting down on a high stool. “I’ve never eaten anything that tasted better than that Creole rice.”
The elderly couple smiled and thanked her. Then Nancy changed the subject. “I’d like to visit the old showboat. Could you recommend a good guide?”
The two servants looked frightened, and Mammy Matilda said, “Miss Nancy, you mustn’t go near that there showboat.”
“Why not?” the young sleuth asked. “I’m hoping to solve the mystery in connection with it.”
Pappy Cole frowned. “I guess you haven’t heard that there’s a ghost on board. It’s a haunted showboat.”
“What does the ghost do?” Nancy asked.
“Oh, all kinds of things, Miss Nancy,” Mammy Matilda replied. “Every time a workman goes there an’ tries to fix the boat up, that there ghost comes along an’ ruins all that he’s done.”
“Hm,” said Nancy, thinking that such destruction sounded more like the work of a human being than a ghost!
“To tell you the truth,” Mammy Matilda went on, “I think our folks here are makin’ a big mistake tryin’ to move that there boat.”
“Why do you think so?” Nancy asked her.
The old couple looked questioningly at each other. Then finally Pappy Cole said, his voice rising excitedly, “The
River Princess
was sent into the bayou by a great flood. It’s Providence that did it. Providence. We got no right to change things. Mammy an’ I think that boat should rest there in peace.”
Nancy was amazed at this point of view. Instantly she wondered if there were others in the neighborhood who felt the same as Mammy Matilda and Pappy Cole. If so, they might be responsible for what was happening!
“Well, whether the old boat is moved or not,” Nancy said, “I’d love to look at it.”
“Well, if you insist, Miss Nancy,” said Pappy Cole, “I think there’s no better man than Uncle Rufus. He knows that there bayou like the alligators do an’ he’s as wise as the old owls in it, too.”
Nancy asked Pappy Cole if he would arrange for Uncle Rufus to come to Sunnymead so that she might talk to him.
“I’ll have him here directly after breakfast,” Pappy Cole promised. “Just come to the kitchen, Miss Nancy.”
Delighted, she thanked the couple for the information and went back upstairs. Nancy stopped at Bess and George’s room to tell them about her plan and ask them to go along. George at once accepted. Bess said she would go if her arm felt better in the morning.
By breakfast time Bess insisted that while her elbow was still sore, it did not bother her very much and she would like to see the old showboat.
At nine o’clock they went to the kitchen. A white-haired Negro immediately stood up. He was tall and slender, and his face had the look of a trustworthy, helpful person.
“This is Uncle Rufus,” Mammy Matilda introduced him. “Uncle Rufus, these here girls are the ones who want to go to that showboat. Miss Drew, Miss Fayne, and Miss Marvin.”
The elderly man made a low bow and said he would be very happy to take them.
“I got my ka-noo outside,” he said. “When you all is ready, Uncle Rufus will paddle you up the stream.”
As Nancy and George started upstairs to change their shoes, Bess walked out to the porch where the Havers were talking. Alex had gone out, they said. When Bess told them of the girls’ plan, the Colonel said:
“Fine. Perhaps you’ll find some clues to help solve our mystery.”
“But do be careful,” Mrs. Haver cautioned.
When Nancy, Bess, and George met Uncle Rufus at the rear of the garden, they looked at the canoe in amazement. It was a handmade dugout, very old and fragile looking.
“Are you sure it’s safe for all of us to go?” Bess asked nervously.
Uncle Rufus smiled. “This here ka-noo has taken me an’ my nieces and nephews miles an’ miles,” he said proudly. “Don’t you all worry about it.”
The girls stepped in and the old man started paddling. Soon the house vanished from sight. For some time there was no conversation as the girls tried to accustom themselves to the eerie stillness. The dismal atmosphere of the swamp and its rank odor disturbed Bess.
Uncle Rufus, seeing her holding a handkerchief to her nose, remarked, “Pretty soon you all won’t mind this stench. Right hereabouts it’s scarce in moss. Deeper in the swamp there’s plenty of it. You know, moss is one o’ God’s gifts to the swamp. It purifies the air.”
Farther on, the girls noticed quantities of moss growing on stumps and stones. The air did seem purer!
The sight-seers also noticed that on both sides of the stream, among the trees, was thick coarse grass.
“That’s crawfish grass,” Uncle Rufus told them.
He explained that the natives let down net baskets on the end of a pole among the blades of grass.
“They puts in fish bait,” he said, “an’ in no time they gets themselves a basket full o’ crawfish.”
For some distance the cleared stream through the swamp was about thirty feet wide, then it suddenly narrowed. Uncle Rufus explained that this was as far as Colonel Haver had cleared it out.
As they entered the narrow part, Uncle Rufus pulled in his paddle and let the boat glide. “Want ol’ Rufus to tell you ’bout the time—”
At that instant the canoe hit an underwater obstruction head on. The craft shuddered violently, then overturned, throwing its passengers into the murky water!
CHAPTER VIII
The Voodoo Preacher
UNCLE RUFUS and the girls came to the surface, shaking the mucky water from their faces. The four of them waded to the overturned dugout.
“There’s a big hole in it!” George exclaimed.
Uncle Rufus shook his head in dismay, then with the girls began to look for the cause of the accident.
Suddenly Nancy cried out, “There’s a barricade here!”
She had dived under the water. In its murkiness she had spotted a stout net of vines which had been strung across the narrow part of the stream and tied to trees on each side. The impact of the dugout had torn it apart.
“Hm!” said Uncle Rufus. “But that sure wasn’t what put a hole in my ka-noo.”
He went down under the water himself and felt around. A moment later he surfaced. He told the girls that several sharp-pointed stones had been used to weight down the vine net. These had pierced his craft.
“Someone did this on purpose to keep us from going any farther!” George declared.
Uncle Rufus looked startled. “You mean you all got some enemies around here?”
“It looks like it,” Nancy agreed. “But, Uncle Rufus, maybe you know of some other reason why the vine might have been put here.”