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hesitated. The woman’s firm tone told her it would do no good to protest. She was not going to let Nancy come any nearer the camp!
    “At least let me find something that you can use as a cane,” Nancy said.
    She searched along the path and found a branch that was strong enough. The woman accepted it gratefully. Her face softened and she stood for an instant, looking intently at Nancy.
    “You’re a good girl to help a stranger like me. I wish—” The woman turned away abruptly. “Remember,” she advised sternly over her shoulder, “don’t ever come near the camp!”
    Still perplexed, Nancy watched the woman hobble away. It took her a long time to reach the top of the hill, but at last she disappeared from sight.
    “I can’t understand why the poor thing acted the way she did,” Nancy said to herself as she sat down on a log to think. “What harm could it have done if I’d gone with her to the colony? The cult must have some very important secrets!”
    The more Nancy considered the matter, the more baffled she became.

    “You must never come near the hillside!”
the stranger warned
     
    “The woman didn’t look as though being a member of the Black Snake Colony made her very happy,” Nancy thought. “If they’re so afraid that someone will discover their secrets, they must be doing more than just flitting at night in white robes! Maybe that’s only to keep people from guessing what really goes on there!”
    As Nancy reached this startling conclusion, she jumped up and walked briskly toward Red Gate Farm.
    “There’s one thing certain,” she said to herself with a chuckle. “Now that the woman has forbidden me to go near the camp, I can’t resist finding out what’s happening there!”
    Nancy was just approaching the farmhouse when she heard the phone ringing. She hurried inside and answered it.
    “Yes, this is Nancy Drew,” she replied to a strange man’s question.
    “One moment.”
    While Nancy waited, she wondered who the caller might be. Was someone going to threaten her to desist in her detective work?
    “Oh!” she said as the next speaker announced himself as Chief McGinnis. A sense of relief came over the girl.
    “I have some news, Nancy,” the officer said. “It’s discouraging. Nothing on the code or the missing men.” Then he chuckled. “We need another clue from you.”
    Nancy realized her old friend was teasing. “Glad to help,” she said gaily. “What’s the assignment?”
    “To find out where the Hale Syndicate moved to after it left Room 305.”
    “Then that was their headquarters!” Nancy cried excitedly.
    “Temporarily. But they left no forwarding address,” the police chief said.
    “If we could decipher the rest of the code we might be able to trace them,” Nancy said. “Anyhow, I’ll be on the lookout for any clues. At least it shouldn’t be too hard to find Yvonne Wong.”
    Chief McGinnis agreed and assured Nancy he would let her know if there were any new developments. Then he asked, “And what are you doing? Any mysteries up your way?”
    “There might be.” She told him the little she had been able to glean about the mysterious nature cult. She described the unusual moonlight ceremony the girls had witnessed and the appearance of the unidentified car.
    The police chief whistled in amazement. “Sounds as though you do have another mystery up your sleeve! Have you come across any possible clues to what the cult is worshiping, Nancy?”
    The girl detective hesitated a moment before telling Chief McGinnis about her curious conversation with the woman she had assisted in the woods. She decided to mention it, and added that although the woman had readily admitted to being a member of the cult, she had given Nancy no reason for her firm warning to stay away from the meeting place.
    “Black Snake Colony, eh?” the police chief said reflectively.
    “Yes,” Nancy replied. “Have you ever heard of it?”
    “No, but let me look in a report we have here