Read Online The Whispering Statue by Carolyn Keene - Free Book Online

Ned’s arm and they stopped walking. He locked at her questioningly.
    “Ned,” she said in a very low tone, “the statue is whispering!”

CHAPTER X
    A Near Discovery
    NANCY and Ned moved toward the statue quietly, as if their presence might disturb it. The whispered sounds continued.
    Finally the couple reached the marble figure and stood listening. A moment later broad smiles spread over their faces. The sounds were not coming from the statue. In fact, it was not whispering at all!
    On the other side of the figure a couple sat on the ground, their backs against the sculpture. A young man was saying, “You must marry me. Life is nothing without you.”
    A girl’s trembling voice answered, “I can’t! Maybe a year from now when I graduate from college.”
    Chagrined, Nancy and Ned tiptoed away and returned to the yacht club. There they had a good laugh and Ned remarked, “I wonder how that romance will turn out.”
    “I guess we’ll never know,” Nancy replied. “I didn’t recognize the voices, so they must be a couple who came here just for the day.”
    The thought of the statue whispering stayed in Nancy’s mind. The following morning after church she and Ned strolled once more to the front of the club to look at the marble lady. A strong wind had come up, so Nancy took a scarf from her pocket and tied it over her wig.
    As they neared the statue, Nancy exclaimed, “Listen!”
    The two stood still. This time Nancy was not wrong—there were murmuring sounds coming from the marble figure!
    “This is remarkable!” Ned exclaimed. “The statue didn’t make a sound last night. What do you attribute this to?”
    “Two things,” Nancy replied. “The wind, for one. And as you know I suspect this is a reproduction. I believe the person who made it came here very late last night and did something to it so that when the wind blows, the statue will make a whispering sound.”
    “But why should he bother to do that?” Ned questioned.
    Nancy said whoever did it hoped to allay any suspicions that the statue was a reproduction.
    “I’d like George and the others to hear this,” she said.
    “I’ll get them,” Ned offered. “You stay here and see what the young lady has to say.”
    During his absence the wind died down completely. No sounds came from the statue, but just as the others arrived, the wind suddenly began to blow hard again.
    Bess put her ear close to the statue. “I can’t believe it!” she said.
    George admitted that there were sounds all right, but she could not distinguish any words. “Don’t tell me, Bess, that you can make anything out of it.”
    A slightly frightened look crossed Bess’s face. She said, “It sounded as if the statue were murmuring the words, ‘Go home! Go home!’”
    Dave shook his head. “You certainly have great imagination, Bess.”
    Nancy examined the statue but could not discover anything different about it.
    The three boys looked at their watches and said they must leave directly after dinner. “We’d better eat now,” Burt suggested.
    The young people went into the club. Nancy stopped to tell Mr. Ayer about their discovery but learned he had gone out to dinner.
    While they were eating, Dave said, “Girls, this has been a really groovy weekend. Invite us down again if you need some male help.”
    “You bet!” George replied. “But I have a hunch Nancy is going to solve this mystery within a few days.”
    “And that would mean you’d go back to River Heights?” Dave asked.
    “I’m afraid so,” Nancy replied.
    During the afternoon it rained hard and the girls were forced to stay indoors. By the next morning the weather had cleared.
    Before Nancy left for work she dropped into Mr. Ayer’s office. “Guess what,” she said. “The statue is whispering!”
    “You’re joking!”
    “It’s true, but only when the wind blows.”
    “I’ll go out and listen. By the way, the books Ned ordered arrived a few minutes ago. I thought you’d want to