Read Online The Message in the Hollow Oak by Carolyn Keene - Free Book Online

loud squeal. Then, spotting Nancy, she exclaimed, “What on earth!”
    Quickly Nancy explained and Theresa said, “I’m glad you didn’t run after the man. Where’s Bob?”
    “I don’t know,” Nancy answered. “I called him but he didn’t answer.”
    Julie Anne asked worriedly, “Do you think that thief might have knocked him out?”
    “Oh, I hope not!” Theresa said. “We’ll put the skeleton back in the lab and then hunt for Bob.”
    He was not in the big workroom nor anywhere else in the barn. The three searchers walked around the exterior of the farmhouse but did not find him.
    “He may have become ill and gone to the boys’ house,” said Theresa. “We’d better go over and inquire.”
    She and Julie Anne hastened to their bedroom and slipped into some clothes. Then the three headed across the field to the boys’ quarters.
    Nancy knocked on the door and moments later Art answered, pulling on his robe. Seeing the girls, he was alarmed. “What’s the matter?”
    Nancy told him what had happened.

    A skeleton was walking toward her!
    “I’ll check and see if Bob’s here,” said Art. In a few moments he came back to the door. “Not here,” he reported grimly. “We’d better search.”
    “Yes,” Theresa said anxiously. “He may have met with foul play.”
    In twenty minutes the field and woods were alive with flashlights as all the boys joined in the search for the missing youth.
    At dawn they still had not found any sign of Bob. Everyone returned to the girls’ farmhouse for a quick breakfast, then they started out on another search, this time by bright daylight.
    Art wrinkled his brow. “It’s odd. Bob would never go off without telling someone.”
    By this time all the searchers were sure that something had happened to him.
    “He may have been attacked and carried off into the woods,” Art suggested to Nancy and Julie Anne. “I et’s look there.”
    The girls followed him onto an overgrown path among the trees. The three became silent as they looked intently for clues.
    A few minutes later Art cried out, “Here’s something!”

CHAPTER X
    Disappearances
    A torn piece of bright-patterned material had been stuck into the crotch of a tree near the path.
    “This is from Bob’s shirt, no doubt about it,” Art told Nancy and Julie Anne.
    Nancy examined the scrap and said she was sure it had not been snagged off, but deliberately torn and placed there by Bob.
    “I believe he left it as a clue to where he was being taken—straight ahead.”
    Art went back to call the other searchers and soon the whole group was pounding down the trail. They could see various-sized footprints. Upon investigation, Nancy declared that besides Bob there had been two other men. The three had been together at first, then Bob had evidently dropped back, trying to escape. Unseen by them he had placed the cloth in the tree as a clue, in case he did not make it. His captors had run back and prodded him ahead.
    “Poor Bob!” Julie Anne exclaimed. “He must have been overpowered.”
    “And probably gagged,” Nancy added. “Otherwise he’d have yelled for help.”
    All agreed and hurried along the overgrown path. It was easy to follow the trail because grass had been trampled where no footprints were evident. Nancy and Art had outdistanced the others. As they turned a corner in the woods both of them could hear water running. In a few moments they came to a deep stream.
    “Now what do we do?” Art asked.
    Nancy gazed left and right. No footprints or trampled grass were visible. Had Bob been taken away in a boat?
    Holding her hands binocular-fashion around her eyes, Nancy focused on the opposite bank and tried to detect possible footprints. She could see none.
    “I’m afraid we’re stopped for the time being,” she said in disappointment. “Let’s retrace our steps and keep looking for clues.” They found nothing and in dismay returned to the dig.
    “We must notify the State Police,” Theresa