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Blackout






 

“What happened? ” Nancy gasped, her fingers automatically closing around the medallion box.

“Someone has cut the electricity, I imagine, ” Mr. Drew answered quietly. “Where is the generator, Penny? ”

“It’s back along the ridge. There’s a small building that protects it, and the wires carry the electricity to the cabins and to the main building from there.”

“Then it would be very easy for someone to cut power to the resort, ” Nancy murmured.

“Just sit still, ” Penny ordered. “I know where there are candles and hurricane lamps. My grandmother keeps matches and everything we need handy because of the storms that pass through here and blow down the lines.”

They waited, hearing the sound of her chair, the whisper of her soft shoes on the tiled floor, the small noises of her passage through the forest of tables and chairs that blocked the area, and then the unmistakable opening of a drawer. A match flared and a candle caught.

At first the light seemed too feeble, but then as their eyes adjusted the shadows appeared to recede. More candles were lit, then four hurricane lamps bloomed to life.

“That’s better, ” Penny murmured, her hand shaking only a little as she carried one lamp back to the table, leaving the others on the old- fashioned sideboard.

“Does that generator power anything else? ” Carson Drew asked.

Penny looked confused for a moment. “Just the electrical appliances. The water comes from the spring that gave the resort its name, and the water heater and cooking facilities are gas.” “So we basically have a blackout, ” George summed it up.

“That’s about it, ” Penny agreed.

Nancy, however, was staring beyond them to the dark world outside the windows that gave a panoramic view of the cove and the ocean beyond. Suddenly she shivered—not from the cold, for the night was warm, but because she felt eyes in that darkness.

“What is it, Nancy? ” her father asked gently. “They must be out there, ” Nancy answered. “Watching us, listening to what we say.”

“And seeing the necklace, ” George gasped, moving to drop her napkin over the gleaming medallion.

“Could that be what they’re after? ” Carson Drew asked Penny while he moved to drop the bamboo shade that had been rolled up above the window.

Penny hurried to help him cover all the windows. “I don’t know, ” she admitted. “If they knew about it, it would certainly be valuable enough for someone to want to steal.”

“But it wasn’t here, ” Nancy reminded them both. “We found it in Florida.”

“On the Polka Dot.” Her father’s tone was thoughtful.

They sat in cozy silence, the world shut out by the shades, the flickering lamplight giving the large room a rather intimate air. Nancy stared at the half-hidden medallion, remembering only too well the way she’d showed it around to George and Penny—and to whomever might have been watching outside.

“Do you have a safe or something where the medallion could be kept? ” Carson Drew asked.

“There’s an office safe, ” Penny answered. “But I don’t know the combination, and anyway, I can open it with a bent hairpin.”

“That doesn’t sound too safe, ” George told her.

“Living on an island, people don’t do too much about security, ” Penny admitted. “There’s no easy place to run if you steal something, so most people just don’t bother.”

“Your grandfather doesn’t have a ‘hidey hole’ in the resort, does he? ” Nancy asked.

Penny shrugged. “If he does, he didn’t tell me where it is, ” she replied.

Nancy sighed. “I’m beginning to wish we’d left this with Sheriff Boyd, ” she said.

“We’ll just have to find a place to hide it here, ” her father told her.

“What about putting it on ice? ” George suggested softly.

“What? ” Penny looked at the brunette as though she thought she’d lost her senses.

“With the rest of the leftovers? ” Nancy asked, her blue eyes brightening.

“We’d better cover the windows in the kitchen first, ” her father reminded them.

“Good idea, ” Nancy said. “I feel as if there’s someone watching me all the time now.”

“I’ll pull down the shades while you two get the cake and ice cream for dessert, ” Penny told Nancy and George.

Carson agreed. “Bring back a dish and some plastic wrap for the necklace. We want it to blend right in with the rest of the frozen food.” Nancy giggled, feeling better. At least they were fighting back against their unseen adversaries. “So let’s do it, ” she said.

It went surprisingly well. The necklace was carefully enclosed in plastic wrap, then after a bit of discussion, placed in the middle of a loaf of frozen bread.

“If we put it in a new package, they might look for it, ” Nancy explained. “But who would think to go through a whole stack of frozen loaves of bread? ”

“Sheer genius, ” Penny told her. “Now if you could just figure out how to get the electricity fixed before things start to thaw...”

“How long do we have? ” Nancy asked. “Probably a couple of days if we don’t open the freezer much, ” Penny answered. “A large freezer like this full of frozen food can hold up quite a while. Of course, the dishwasher is another matter.”

Nancy laughed. “I guess we’ll just have to do dishes the old-fashioned way, ” she said. “After that, maybe we could look at the note your grandmother left and anything else that might give us a clue to what happened to them.”

“And to Bess, ” George murmured sadly.

Nancy’s light-heartedness faded immediately.

“I’m afraid we have to face the fact that they have her, ” she admitted.

“But where? ” George asked.

“That’s what we’re going to try to find out tomorrow, ” Nancy replied, trying her best to sound more confident than she felt.

“It’s going to be a long night, ” George prophesied.

Though Nancy had agreed with her friend, they were both wrong. Exhausted by all that had happened and lulled by the soft sounds of the night wind, Nancy slept deeply, waking just as the first rays of the sun entered her room through a tiny chink in the drapes.

Bess! Memories of her missing friend swept away the seeds of sleep and had her on her feet at once. She washed quickly and pulled on a pair of blue shorts and a top. A long look out the window at the scene beyond told her that their intruders were nowhere to be seen in the beautiful morning.

Opening the glass door to the balcony, she stepped outside and sniffed the sweet flower scents that rode the cool morning air. It was a lovely day and she could see the multicolored water in the cove and the gleaming pale sand that edged it. If she hadn’t been so worried about Bess, she would have found the island and its mysteries enchanting.

“See anything, Nancy? ” George asked.

A rooster crowed off to their right and was immediately answered by a second crow to the left. “What in the world is that all about? ” she asked.

“Island alarm clocks, Penny calls them, ” George answered. “She says they’re wild chickens. The descendants of some that were abandoned on the island one spring when everyone left for the summer.”

“It looks so peaceful, ” Nancy mused, frowning at the tranquil scene before them.

“We thought that it was, ” George told her. “We were really enjoying ourselves.”

Nancy sighed, then straightened her shoulders resolutely. “Well, let’s go see what there is for breakfast. The sooner we eat, the sooner we can start a search for Bess. She has to be somewhere on this island and we have to find her.” “Right, ” George agreed as they left the pretty view and went into the dim hallway.

They were just halfway along the corridor when Carson Drew opened his door and joined them. “Did you hear anything during the night? ” he asked.

Nancy and George shook their heads. “Did you, Dad? ” Nancy inquired.

“Not a sound, ” he replied. “I guess our security measures must have been enough.”

“I suppose we should check the doors, just to be sure, ” George said. “I’ll go make sure the kitchen is still locked.”

“I’ll get the front, ” Nancy agreed, hurrying across the lobby area to test the door and finding it firmly locked. She took two steps back toward the dining room, then stopped.

She hurried to roll up the shades that they’d closed the night before, then gasped. The door to the office safe, which Penny had showed them earlier, hung open, and the desk had been thoroughly searched. Someone had been in the resort while they slept!

 






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