Read Online The Clue of the Broken Locket by Carolyn Keene - Free Book Online Page B

the path through the woods near the lake front.
    “Let’s have lunch in the village,” Nancy proposed. “I want to stop in that gift shop where they had the iron bird.”
    “To find out if Karl Driscoll bought it?” Bess guessed.
    “Yes.”
    As soon as the girls finished eating, they went to ask the gift-shop owner about the iron bird they had seen in the window.
    “A man bought it,” was his reply.
    On a hunch Nancy described Karl Driscoll.
    “That’s the one,” the man said.
    The trio drove home. Nancy, although excited about this clue, kept wondering what Karl’s motive was. Did he hope to find the real iron bird? Or did he wish to keep the girls away from the lodge for some other reason? There were so many angles to the mystery—if she could only solve one!
    When the girls reached the cottage, they found Cecily there. She was depressed, reporting that she had missed Niko in Baltimore. “No one knew where he was.” The red-haired girl’s voice trembled. “At first I thought of staying longer, but then I began to think probably he didn’t want to see me again, so I came back.”
    Bess put her arms around the girl. “Now listen, Cecily,” she said, “Niko is—” Bess caught herself just in time. “You mustn’t lose heart. Niko loves you, I know.”
    “Oh, I want to believe that!” Cecily said.
    She turned down the girls’ invitation to go with them on the hike up the lake. Nancy, Bess, and George changed into blue jeans, shirts, and hiking shoes. They started out at a brisk pace. When they reached the swampy area, the afternoon sun was already waning.
    “We can’t go much farther and get back before dark,” Bess reminded the others.
    Nancy was hardly listening. She had noticed a shabby rowboat half hidden in the mud among the reeds. It had not been there on her former visit! All three girls took off their shoes, and carrying them, waded in to look at the boat. This might be a due to one of the mysteries!
    “I see something!” Nancy exclaimed.
    She reached inside the boat and picked up a small shiny object. Dangling from a bracelet was half of a heart-shaped gold locket!

CHAPTER XI
    The Treacherous Slope
    THE gold half-locket looked like Cecily’s. “And this one is in perfect condition!” Nancy exclaimed. “So it hasn’t lain in the boat very long.”
    “Do you think it belongs to that girl who looks like Cecily?” Bess asked.
    “Yes, I do,” Nancy answered. “Especially since I believe the two are related.”
    George was impatient for action. “I’ll bet that girl could clear up a lot of mysteries if we could only find her again.”
    Nancy’s thoughts were in a whirl. Why had the red-haired young woman seemed so frightened and run from the girls the first night at the cabin? “And why did she think we wanted to take the babies?” Nancy mused.
    If the girl was related to Cecily, and she too had been searching around Pudding Stone Lodge for the family fortune, why had not Nancy and her friends seen her on the grounds?
    Finally Nancy said, “The girl may come back here for the locket. Let’s wait.”
    “But she may run away again if she sees us here,” George argued.
    “We’ll hide,” said Bess. “I don’t like this soggy old place. Let’s go up in the woods where it’s dry.”
    Nancy decided to take the locket with her. If its owner did not appear, at least the young sleuth would have a valuable bit of evidence to show Cecily. The three girls sloshed out of the swamp, dried their feet, and put on their shoes. They climbed a steep slope and found a grassy spot among the trees from where they had a view of the rowboat. After fifteen minutes had gone by, George became restless.
    “We might have to wait for ages,” she said. “The girl may not have been wearing the bracelet. Perhaps it dropped out of her pocket or purse and she won’t miss it for some time.”
    “That’s possible,” Nancy agreed. “Well, let’s wait for half an hour more. If nothing happens,