The Secret of Mirror Bay (15 page)

Miss Armitage said, “I’m proud of your detective work.” She smiled and her eyes twinkled. “After you’ve had a rest from this mystery, how about solving mine?”

Nancy promised they would go diving for the child’s royal coach the following afternoon. Miss Armitage arose to leave. Dave walked to her car with her.

Everyone was too excited to retire. The mystery on the mountain was discussed over and over. Aunt Eloise and Bess served a midnight snack. Finally all of them were yawning and went to bed.

The following morning they took two cars and went to the village to church. Later, as Nancy’s passengers were returning to her convertible, Bess hurried up alongside her.

“This morning I overheard Matt say to Aunt Eloise, ‘After you get back to the city I’ll be calling you for a date.’ ”

Nancy smiled. “That’s great! I can’t think of any nicer friend for Aunt Eloise than Matt.”

About an hour after dinner, everyone changed into swimsuits. Just then Miss Armitage arrived.

“Hello, everybody!” she said. “I have a surprise for Nancy and Ned. Are you driving over to the other side of the bay?”

“Yes,” Nancy replied.

“Well, when you come up to the road, I’ll show you what I have in my station wagon and transfer it to your car. In fact, that won’t even be necessary because I’m going to follow you. I have a strong hunch that today you’re going to find the child’s Russian coach.”

“We’ll do our best,” Nancy promised.

When she and Ned saw the surprise, they were delighted. There were two face masks with oxygen tanks. Now the couple could swim deeper and stay longer underwater!

Miss Armitage handed over the gear. When Nancy and Ned reached the search area, they adjusted the face masks and the oxygen tanks.

Nancy picked up the metal detector and Ned carried a probe. The other swimmers put on scuba diving equipment.

It was very exciting in the low depths of the bay. Fish they had never seen and plants galore grew up out of the mud floor.

As the couple swam along, Nancy listened carefully for ticks on the metal detector. After Ned had lodged the probe into the mud, he let Nancy take the lead. Suddenly she began to tread water and steadied the detector over one spot. The device was emitting a very loud, clear vibratory sound.

“This must be it!” Nancy thought. “Oh, I hope so!”

She motioned for Ned to get the probe. He swam back for it, then placed the tool at the spot from which the sound had come. Within moments the slender instrument struck something hard. Ned kept poking the probe in and finally indicated to Nancy that they had found a large square object. The couple tried to dislodge it, but this was impossible.

They rose to the surface and swam to shore. The couple removed their masks and Nancy reported excitedly, “We think we’ve found the coach but we can’t move it!”

Burt and Dave asked to borrow their equipment and take down some other tools.

“All right,” Nancy said. “We wish you luck.”

Between them the two boys managed to loosen from the mud what proved to be a large metal box. It was much too heavy for them to dredge up. They surfaced and announced that they needed strong rope or metal cable and a small derrick to lift the object onto shore.

Miss Armitage was walking up and down excitedly. The elderly woman wished she could help but said she did not have the strength.

“I wish I had proper diving equipment,” Aunt Eloise spoke up. “I think it’s going to take more than two people working down there to raise the chest.”

George grinned. “How about giving Matt and me a chance at it?”

Burt and Dave removed the equipment. George and Matt put it on. They swam off into the deeper water of the bay.

In the meantime Ned remembered that he had a long coil of heavy rope in the well of his car trunk. “I got stuck last winter in the snow near Emerson and had to be pulled out. Ever since, I’ve carried the rope with me. There’s also some heavy rope in that kitchen cabinet where we got the tools.”

He went back to Bide-A-Wee for it. When George and Matt surfaced, he showed the rope to them.

“The chest is mighty heavy,” Matt said, “but nothing ventured nothing gained. Burt, you game to go down again?”

“Sure.”

Each of them carried one end of the stout ropes, while those on shore held the other ends. They knew by the quiver of the ropes when they were being tied around the chest. Would they hold?

A few minutes later there were tugs on the lines. Ned, Dave, Nancy, Bess, and even Aunt Eloise pulled as hard as they could. They kept slipping and falling down and did not seem to be making any progress.

Beneath the water Matt and Burt simultaneously were keeping the box from being scraped against the shale while pushing it upward as hard as they could. To everyone’s delight the large object finally was lugged onto the shore.

“I hope it’s the right one!” Miss Armitage murmured.

Dave said to her with a grin, “This may not be a child’s coach, you know. Possibly it’s pirate gold!”

The remark eased Miss Armitage’s tension somewhat. She suggested that they wait to open it at Bide-A-Wee.

It was dragged up the incline and lifted into Miss Armitage’s station wagon. Burt and Matt removed their masks and tanks, then quickly all the swimmers donned robes. The happy searchers climbed into the cars. Nancy and Ned said they would ride in the back of the station wagon and help steady the cumbersome box.

Finally the mysterious object was deposited on the front porch of the cabin. It was tightly sealed and everyone wondered how they could pry it open.

Nancy examined the box carefully with a magnifying glass. She could barely discern a fine line around it and assumed this was the edge of the lid. Tools were brought out. The boys chiseled into the fine line and confirmed that indeed they were working on the cover.

There was complete silence among the onlookers as they waited to see what would be inside. After what seemed like an interminable length of time, Ned announced:

“It’s coming off!”

A few minutes later the boys lifted the heavy lid. Many pieces of soft cloth were tucked around the contents. Quickly the girls took these out.

Everyone gasped. Below was a white roof.

“It is a child’s royal coach!” cried Miss Armitage, hardly daring to believe her eyes.

Very gingerly the precious object was lifted from the box. It was fairly heavy.

“This is exquisite!” Aunt Eloise exclaimed. “Look at all those darling little cherubs painted in gold and white.”

The shafts for a pony were separately wrapped. They had been cut in half to accommodate them to the small space and laid diagonally across the bottom of the box. Bess ran for mending tape. The shafts were put together and set into place.

Miss Armitage was walking around excitedly. “Can’t you just see a darling little girl riding along in this!”

As she finished speaking, there was a hail from the water and everyone looked up to see Yo arriving in his boat.

“Hello!” Nancy cried excitedly. “Come up here and see what we found!”

If it were possible for anyone’s eyes to pop out of his head, this would have happened to Yo when he joined the group. The young man stared, speechless. “You—you pulled the coach up out of the water?”

Nancy smiled. “This is the secret of Mirror Bay!”

“I can’t believe it!” he said. “What are you going to do with this—this beautiful thing?”

Miss Armitage told him she planned to present it to the Fenimore Museum. “Of course I’ll have to notify the police about this treasure which belonged to an ancestor of mine.

“Yo,” she said, “would you go to the museum right now? See if you can find a couple of the officials and bring them here. There’s no phone in the cabin, so I can’t call.”

Yo said he would be delighted to do the errand. When he left, Nancy was deep in thought. Though thrilled by her eventful visit with Aunt Eloise, she was eager to tackle another mystery. The young detective got her wish when called upon to solve The Double Jinx Mystery.

An hour later two men arrived from the Fenimore Museum. Mr. Clark and Mr. Hill were astounded not only at such an unusual gift to the museum, but at Nancy’s astuteness and perseverance in solving the mystery. After Miss Armitage had told the history of the child’s royal coach, she formally presented it to the museum in care of the two men.

Mr. Clark said, “I am not a trustee of the museum, but I live in Cooperstown and this coach will be a wonderful addition to our exhibits. My congratulations to you, Nancy Drew, and your friends.” He smiled. “I’ll have a special key made for you. It will be the Key to Cooperstown!”

Nancy thanked him. Then, her eyes twinkling, she added, “And may I please have one to Mirror Bay also?”