Read Online Carolyn Keene - Nancy Drew by The Kachina Doll Mystery - Free Book Online Page B

then,” Nancy said. “There’s no mention of any treasure in the journal.”
    Since everyone was tired from fighting the fire and from Nancy’s earlier excursion in the hall following the Kachina, Maria served an early lunch so they could all settle down for naps. Afterward they planned to spend the warmest part of the afternoon in the swimming pool.
    Even while she splashed in the water, however, Nancy kept watching the surrounding hills, hoping for a glimpse of the boy and the pinto horse. Later, after she’d changed out of her bathing suit, she made a search of the now smokeless ruin of the cottage. But there were no clues to be found in the charred wreckage of the building.
    Floyd did no better when he came by later. “There’s really not much I can tell you,” he said after he finished inspecting the ruined cottage. “With so much raw wood around, it would be easy to set a small fire, and once the building was fully engulfed.... Unless someone saw something, I guess we’ll never know for sure.”
    “It’s just that there is no way it could have been an accident,” Chuck stated as he joined them. “That’s what Grandfather said when I told him. No careless cigarettes left burning, no lightning, no mice in the wiring, nothing like that. It just must have been deliberately set.”
    Nancy thought of the missing journal and quickly told the two young men about it. “Perhaps someone saw me reading it and set the fire to get us all out of the house,” she suggested. “I mean, it is gone, so someone must have taken it.”
    “I guess if the thief thought the journal would lead him to the treasure that is supposed to be hidden here, he might do something so violent,” Floyd mused. “But who could it have been?”
    They all looked at Nancy, but she had no answers for them.
    She continued to watch for Ngyun, and when she saw the pinto in the distance, she excused herself and walked to the stable. She stopped first at Dancer’s stall, petting the mare and examining her scratched and swollen legs.
    When the boy brought his horse in, Nancy went over to him and leaned on the top of the stall. “Have a nice ride?” she asked.
    The boy nodded, but didn’t look up at her.
    “Did you happen to see any strange tracks, or anyone in a car or on horseback riding away from here?” Nancy went on.
    This time the almond eyes turned her way. “Why?” Ngyun asked suspiciously.
    “Someone set that cottage on fire and stole a book from my room,” Nancy told him. “I thought you might have seen him.”
    “I go to mountains,” Ngyun answered after several moments of considering the question. “No one live that way.”
    “But you do like to follow tracks?”
    The boy nodded, his shy smile returning. “Grandfather start to teach me, but I not good yet. If he here, he trail whoever do it.”
    “You must know a lot about the Superstition Mountains by now,” Nancy said, changing the subject as they started back toward the great, stone fortress of the resort.
    “They different all the time,” Ngyun answered. “Sometimes people ride or hike or dig gold. I see coyotes teach cubs to hunt and ... ”
    He was interrupted by a shout from the house and excused himself politely to run to his aunt. Nancy followed more slowly, certain now that Ngyun hadn’t set the fire in the cottage or taken the journal. If only she could prove it, she thought wearily. The poor boy must feel terrible, having people suspect him all the time.
    Chuck came to meet Nancy, his face grim. “What did he have to say for himself?” he asked.
    “About what?” Nancy was surprised by her friend’s tone.
    “The way he spent his day.”
    “He said he was riding in the mountains,” Nancy answered. “Why?”
    “I just got a call from Mr. Henry. One of his men rode in a little while ago to tell him that their catch pen and shed were burned, probably sometime early this afternoon. The men spotted the smoke, but by the time they got there, nothing was