Read Online The Clue in the Old Stagecoach by Carolyn G. Keene - Free Book Online

seeing us. What say we dress for tennis after breakfast and head for the courts, but carry skirts and purses in our beach bags?”
    “Good idea,” Nancy agreed.
    When the girls reached the tennis courts, only the boy who put up nets was there. He was so busy with his chore that he did not even notice Nancy and her friends, who avoided the courts, went through a trail that led out to the main road, and on down to Nancy’s car. Here they put on their skirts, then set off in the open car. Bess suddenly giggled. “This is like playing hare and hounds in reverse. Usually we’re the hounds. This time we’re the hares.”
    Nancy asked George to get the map out of the instrument-panel compartment. “Tell me when I’m nearing that road which Mrs. Strook penciled in,” she requested.
    Nancy drove for several miles, turning from one road to another, trying to get to the exact spot. It was very confusing but at last George cried out:
    “Here’s a road—that is, if you can call it a road. I’m sure this is the right one.”
    The one-car lane was rutty, bumpy, and full of stones. As rocks banged against the under part of the chassis, Nancy slowed to a crawl. In many places the grass in the road was so tall that George declared it was like driving through a wheat field. The girls were joggled from side to side.
    Finally Bess said she thought it was foolhardy to go on. “Nancy, we’ll break a spring on the car or do some other damage,” she declared.
    “I agree with you,” Nancy replied. “But I can’t turn around here. I’ll have to go on until I come to a wider spot. You notice it’s kind of mucky along the edges here—I guess from that rain yesterday. I’m afraid we’d get stuck.”
    There was a sharp turn a short distance farther on and just beyond it the girls found themselves confronted by a chain across the road. From it hung a sign, on which was printed in large letters:
    UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PROPERTY
KEEP OUT!
    “They certainly don’t want any visitors here,” Bess remarked. “This must be an experimental station of some kind.”
    Nancy had a hard time getting her convertible turned around. She had to do it inches at a time. But finally she was headed in the opposite direction and started the jolting ride back to the main road.
    “Since this wasn’t the right road,” said Bess, “I wonder where the one to the Zucker farm is. We might be miles from it.”
    Nancy disagreed. “Mrs. Strook seemed so sure of the spot, I believe we’ll find the road not far from here.”
    “I hope it isn’t as bad as this one,” Bess worried, as she suddenly flew off the seat. “I’d better stop talking or I’ll bite my tongue!” she added with a giggle as she landed.
    Bess had no sooner said this when the car stopped abruptly. The engine had died.
    “Goodness, what’s the matter?” Bess asked.
    Nancy’s eyes had darted to the fuel tank. “It’s empty—completely empty!”
    “But you just had the tank filled while we were in Francisville,” George told her.

    Bess gave an earsplitting scream
    “I know,” Nancy replied. “It’s my guess that one of the rocks we went over punctured a hole in the tank.”
    “And all our gas is gone?” Bess exclaimed in dismay.
    “I’m afraid so,” Nancy told her.
    The girls got out of the car and looked back of them. There was a long trail of gasoline on the grass-covered road.
    “This is a fine predicament!” said Bess. “Here we are in the middle of nowhere. What are we going to do?” Just then she glanced up and gave an earsplitting scream. “Look!”
    Nancy and George glanced up just in time to see a large black bear, its teeth bared, loping toward them. He was not more than fifty feet away!

CHAPTER X
    Secret Notes
    IN A flash the three girls jumped inside the car and Nancy pushed the buttons for the mechanisms to raise the top and the windows. The job was finished just as the shaggy black bear reached them.
    “Oh, I hope he won’t get nasty and