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Search for Bess






 

“Let’s get your things up to the resort, ” Penny said. “Then we can organize a search for Bess. She can’t have wandered far, and since we’re alone on the island, she’s not in any danger.” “Alone on the island? ” Mr. Drew gasped. “But surely there’s someone? ”

Penny shook her curly head. “I was really lonesome till Bess and George arrived.”

“What about the DeFoes? ” Nancy asked. “Jeff and Lena: are they your parents? ”

“Grandparents, ” the twenty-year-old answered. “And I honestly don’t know where they are. I arrived just the day before yesterday and there was a note waiting for me, saying that

I should make myself at home, that I’d be hearing from them soon. Nothing more.”

Nancy looked from the redhead to George. “Do they do that often? ” Carson Drew asked Penny.

“They’ve never done anything like that before, ” Penny answered. Nancy could see the worry in her open face. “They invited me to spend the summer with them, and the last time I talked to them, they were just full of plans for things we’d be doing.” She sighed. “I was a little surprised when they didn’t meet me in Nassau, but I took the island ferry over.” “What about you, George? ” Nancy asked. “How did you and Bess get here? ”

“A man called Tom came up to us at the airport. He asked Bess if she was Nancy Drew, and she said that she wasn’t, but that we were here to take your place. He seemed a little unhappy about it, but he told us he’d been sent from Sweet Springs to pick us up.” She shrugged. “He brought us as far as the dock in his boat, unloaded our suitcases, and just left.” Penny grinned. “I was so glad to see them. I didn’t know what arrangements my grandparents had made, but I’d missed having someone to talk to.” She paused as they reached the resort building. “Welcome to Sweet Springs Resort, ” she said.

“Bess, ” George shouted. “Bess, where are you? Nancy and Mr. Drew are here.”

Her words echoed hollowly through the large, comfortable reception area and into the dimness beyond. There was no answer except the soft whispering of the palm fronds above them and the sighing of the waves as they lapped against the well-protected beach.

“I hope you don’t mind taking the rooms next to the one Bess and George have been sharing, ” Penny continued. “The cabins are nicer, but I haven’t had time to make them up, and the staff had closed them and covered everything before they left the island.”

“Is that usual? ” Carson Drew asked after assuring her that any room would be fine. “I mean that everyone left the island that way.” “Pretty much, ” Penny answered. “Most of the people who work in the resort live on the nearby islands, so they go home as soon as my grandparents close for the summer.”

The rooms were small, but handsomely appointed and quite comfortable. Nancy was pleased to see that all three rooms were linked by a narrow, roofed balcony that was reached by sliding glass doors in each room. Still, her pleasure was tempered by the fact that there was no sign of Bess anywhere.

As soon as the luggage was placed in the room, Carson Drew turned to Penny. “George mentioned a radio-phone, ” he said. “Do you think I might use it? I’d like to try to contact the seaplane and ask for some kind of help.”

“I’ll be happy to let you use it, ” Penny answered. “Maybe it will work for you. George and I haven’t been able to get anything on it so far.”

“Someone called us from here, ” Nancy told the redhead. “At least, we were calling this resort, so I assumed the man I talked to was here. He said that the resort was closed and he was alone on the island. He claimed he was the caretaker.”

Penny frowned. “That’s not possible, Nancy.”

“The call must have come from another island, ” George said.

Nancy started to protest that the man had mentioned the name of the resort, then let it go with a shrug. “While Dad is trying to get help,

why don’t we go look for Bess? ” she suggested. “Maybe she sprained an ankle or something.” George nodded. “She’s not going to want to be out there alone after dark.”

Nancy noticed that the light was indeed beginning to dim, and she was well aware of the shortness of the twilight in the area. “Where could she have gone? ” she asked George and Penny.

“Beats me, ” George said. “She spent most of today lying on the beach and walking around the edge of the cove.”

Nancy sighed, looking around at the thick growth of tropical plants and flowers. Had everything been less orderly, it would have resembled a jungle.

“I doubt that Bess would have gone far from the resort, ” George said, echoing Nancy’s thoughts perfectly.

Nancy smiled at her. “She’s not that adventurous, ” she agreed.

Penny led the way outside. “Why don’t you two take the beach, ” she suggested. “I’ll explore around the cabins and in the gardens, since I know them better.”

“Good thinking, ” Nancy agreed, starting toward the path that led to the beach. “We can meet back here as soon as we finish. Maybe by then Dad will have made some contact with the radio-phone.”

“I hope so, ” Penny said. But her tone didn’t hold a great deal of confidence.

Nancy followed George to the beach, which was not very wide. They stopped and looked in both directions.

“I guess we won’t be able to find any footprints in the sand, ” George observed, watching as the waves lapped the damp sand, erasing all marks. “The dry sand won’t hold prints and the waves take any in the wet sand.”

“Well, we could see her anyway if she was on the sand, ” Nancy reminded her. “But if we follow the inside edge of the beach, we should be able to see her footprints leading off the beach.”

“You’re right, ” George complimented her. “Let’s get started while we still have some light. This place really gets spooky at night.” “You think so? ” Nancy was surprised at the comment from the usually down-to-earth George.

“It’s because there’s no one else on the island, ” George explained. “No lights, no noise except for the waves, wind, birds, and cats that roam wild on the island. The chickens run wild, too, but they’re quiet at night.”

“It does sound eerie, ” Nancy admitted. “So let’s find Bess before it gets dark.”

The two girls followed the line of flowering plants that formed the edge of the beach. Nancy quickly slipped off her shoes, enjoying the feeling of the warm sand on her bare feet as she peered into the shadowy area behind the plants. The ground there was still sandy, but much firmer than the beach. There were marks in it, but nothing that resembled a footprint.

The arm of land curved and grew narrower, so that sometimes she could catch small glimpses of the rocks that formed the outer edge of the land and could hear the more violent crashing of the waves on them. Palms shaded the area and the plants.

Nancy was almost to the end of the sand when something caught her eye. There was a tiny flash of bright blue among the soft greens of the remaining plants that clung to the narrowing ridge of land.

Nancy paused, then moved into the shade of the palm fronds and picked up a small triangle of cloth. She recognized it as coming from a flared skirt that she knew was one of Bess’s favorites. She saw the footprints immediately.

“George, ” she called to her friend, who had fallen behind to examine a shell. “I think I’ve found something over here.”

“Nancy, did you find Bess? ” It was her father calling down the hill from the resort.

“Just footprints, ” Nancy shouted.

“We’ll be right down, ” Carson called.

Nancy and George waited, watching as Penny and Nancy’s father came down the path from the resort. Neither of them was smiling.

“Any luck with the radio-phone, Dad? ” Nancy asked as they neared them.

He shook his head. “There’s something wrong, but I didn’t take the time to really look for the trouble. Perhaps this evening. Now, what did you find? ”

“This.” Nancy extended the scrap of material. “Bess’s skirt? ” she asked George.

George nodded. “She was wearing it today.” “The footprints lead this way, ” Nancy continued, stepping past the barrier of plants and following the marks through the shadowy area and coming out on the other side. There she stopped, her rising hopes dropping abruptly.

“Where do they go? ” Penny asked from behind her.

“Nowhere, ” Nancy answered, her voice close to a wail. “They stop right here! ” She pointed to the rocks that stood against the onslaught of the waves crashing against the shore.

 






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