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Cabin Escape






 

After passing two pale cars that carried the wrong license plates, Nancy was beginning to lose hope. Then she spotted the car they were seeking just as it turned onto the interstate highway and headed out of town. Ned accelerated after it.

“Where do you suppose they could be taking her? ” he asked.

Nancy shook her head. “I haven’t any idea, ” she admitted, “but isn’t this the way we came yesterday? ”

“It sure is, ” Ned agreed. “Do you think that means anything? ”

“We’ll find out soon enough.”

The night closed in around them as the traffic thinned and Ned eased back a little so as not to alert the men in the car ahead. Nancy kept her eyes on the red taillights, but her mind was busy and when the car slowed, she put a hand on Ned’s arm. “Go on by, ” she told him.

“But they’re turning off, ” Ned protested. “We could lose them.”

“That’s the road to the Catlin Ranch, ” Nancy reminded him.

“Do you suppose they are going to take her to the ranch house? ” Ned asked.

“There’s a side road, ” Nancy said, pointing. “We can pull off there and watch. I’ve got an idea about where they might be taking Jennifer.”

“What do you mean? ”

“It was something Mr. Westmorelin said when he was telling me about Pete and Diane.” Nancy told him what th& man told her about the abandoned cabin.

“Do you really think they could be using that cabin to hold Lorna Buckman a prisoner? ” Ned asked when she’d finished.

“Well, we know they haven’t been using the ranch house. We certainly would have seen signs if anyone had been in there, wouldn’t we? ” Ned nodded. “So what do we do? ”

“We can go into the Catlin ranch as far as the house, ” Nancy said. “The car went on past there—I’ve been watching the lights.”

“Then what? ”

“I’m afraid to try to follow them. I mean, they could see our lights and maybe trap us or something.’’ Nancy frowned out at the night. “Why don’t we just hide the car in the barn and wait? When we see them drive back out, we can go and see about the cabin.”

“You don’t think that they will stay at the cabin? ”

“I doubt it, ” Nancy answered him. “They’ve acted as interested in what I’m doing as they are in Jennifer, so I think they’ll be going back into town to see what happened to us.”

“Won’t they be surprised when they can’t find us, ” Ned murmured with a chuckle as he drove down the narrow road to where the ranch buildings waited in desolate darkness and silence.

It didn’t take them long to conceal the car in the old barn. After they closed the creaking door, Nancy looked around.

“How about over there, ” she suggested, pointing to a deeply shadowed area that had a good view of the road that led in from the highway. “I just hope that we don’t have to wait too long. Jennifer must be scared half to death.”

“I just hope there isn’t another road out of there, ” Ned observed after a few minutes.

Nancy sighed. “I hadn’t thought of that, ” she admitted. “I wonder how they found this place. I mean, it’s perfect for hiding someone, but how would they know that? ”

“I guess we’ll just have to ask them when...” Ned let it trail off and Nancy lifted her head, her ears catching the sound of an approaching car.

Lights tunneled through the darkness, touching the collapsing corral fence and the far corner of the barn. They held their breath, but there was no danger, for the lights came no closer.

“Well, I guess it’s time, ” Nancy said, getting to her feet as the pale car bounced its way toward the highway. “Now all we have to do is follow their trail to the cabin or wherever they went.”

“Let’s hope it’s a decent road, ” Ned commented. “Grace’s car isn’t made for really rough back roads.”

The road, though overgrown and rutted, proved fairly easy to follow once they left the immediate area of the ranch house. The land was rugged, but beautiful in the clear, starry night, and under other circumstances, Nancy would have enjoyed the ride. Tonight, however, she was glad when the car lights finally revealed an old log cabin tucked under the protection of a rocky wall.

“What now? ” Ned asked, stopping the car at once and cutting the lights. “Do you think they left a guard with them? —providing they are here, of course.”

Nancy took a deep breath, then opened her car door and slipped out into the cool night air. “There’s only one way to find out, ” she told him, wishing even as she spoke that she was wearing something less conspicuous than the bright red-and-white-checked gingham square-dance dress.

Approaching the cabin carefully, they could see no sign of light behind the two small windows and Nancy was terrified that she’d been wrong. What if Lorna and Jennifer had both been in the car that passed them? What if they’d just come up here to get their first victim?

When they reached the door, a new sound broke the restless night. It was a soft sobbing that nearly broke Nancy’s heart.

“Please don’t cry, Jenny, ” a woman’s voice whispered. “There’s nothing to be afraid of, really. They’re gone now.”

Nancy looked up at Ned, reading his expression clearly in the starlight. “Jennifer, ” she called. “Jennifer, are you all right? ”

“Nancy! ” The joy was unmistakable.

Nancy tried the door, but it didn’t open. She rattled it.

“It’s locked tight, ” the woman’s voice said. “They locked it before they left and took the keys with them.”

“How about the windows? ” Ned asked, testing the door with his shoulder. It didn’t budge.

“I’ve tried them, they’re nailed shut, ” was the answer.

“Want to try to pick the lock, Nancy? ” Ned asked.

“I guess I could try, ” Nancy replied, “but it might take quite a while. This lock looks as though it was just installed and it’s a good strong one.”

“Maybe it would be better to just break one of the windows, ” Ned mused. “We don’t want to hang around here any longer than we have to. You never know when our friends might decide to come back.”

Nancy nodded her agreement.

Ned called to the two inside, warning them to get away from the window and to cover themselves with a blanket so they wouldn’t be hit by the breaking glass. When they said they were ready, he picked up a piece of wood and attacked the nearest window, first splintering the glass, then breaking the old wood that divided the window into panes.

“Don’t you have any light in there? ” he called through the open window.

“They wouldn’t leave me any matches, ” the woman answered. “I think they were afraid someone might see the smoke if I started a fire.”

“There’s probably a flashlight in the car, ” Nancy suggested. “Grace is the type who’d carry one, I’m sure.”

“I’ll get it, ” Ned said. “I don’t want to go in there without some way to see what I’m doing. I spread a lot of broken glass around when I broke that window.”

While he ran to the car, Nancy introduced herself and was pleased and relieved to learn that the woman inside was, indeed, Lorna Buckman. Ned returned with the small flashlight, which Nancy held while he helped Jennifer, then her mother, to climb out the high, small window.

Only when they were all safe in the car did Nancy ask, “How did you happen to be in that cabin, Lorna? Who are those men and why did they want to kidnap you and Jennifer? ”

Lorna sighed. She was a pretty woman, her features very like her daughter’s. However, she was frail-looking and even in the dim light, Nancy could see the dark circles around her eyes and the lines of strain in her face. She appeared to be exhausted.

“Their names are Barry and Fred Mathews and the woman is Elinor. I think she is Barry’s wife.”

“Mathews? ” Nancy murmured, frowning. “But.. ”

“I met the woman first. She came to my house Wednesday afternoon. She was asking me some questions about my family. I thought she was another insurance person. Since the accident I’ve talked to dozens of them, so.. She trailed off, shaking her head.

“What happened? ” Nancy prompted.

“Well, I guess I told her whatever it was she wanted to know because all of a sudden she went to the door and opened it and the two men came in. They brought me to the cabin.” “Why? ” Nancy asked.

“I have no idea, ” Lorna answered and when her eyes met Nancy’s, the girl detective could see that she was telling the truth. “I begged them to tell me. I told them that I didn’t have any money, but they just laughed at me. They kept saying that my mother had told them different.”

“Whatever did they mean by that? ” Nancy asked. “It must have been awful for you.”

“It was terrible. They left me in that place for a couple of days, all alone. I thought they were never coming back, and I could hardly breathe. Very little air could come in.”

“Did they give you anything to eat, Mom? ” Jennifer asked from her position snuggled against her mother’s side.

“They left me a supply of groceries whenever they came out. They said they could keep me there forever and no one would know. They really didn’t even have to lock me in. Since the car accident, I can’t walk more than a few yards without having to lie down. There was no way I could escape.” Her voice broke and it was several minutes before she asked, “How in the world did you ever find us? ”

Nancy explained quickly about meeting Jennifer in the airport and the things that have happened since. She ended by asking, “How soon do you think they will be checking the cabin again? ”

“They said they’d see us in a couple of days, ” Jennifer supplied, sounding more like herself for the first time since their rescue.

“Did you know where you were, Lorna? ” Nancy asked. “I mean, where the cabin was located? ”

“Yes, I figured it out. I’d never seen the cabin before they brought me out to it, but I’ve heard it described often enough by Uncle Pete and Aunt Diane. They spent the first couple of years they were married living in that cabin.

Nancy gulped and her voice was a little shaky as she asked, “Your Uncle Pete and Aunt Diane lived in that cabin? ”

 






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