Read Online The Secret of the Golden Pavillion by Carolyn G. Keene - Free Book Online Page B

the direction of the building. The woman was standing still and the watchers wondered if she were going to dance.
    “But she couldn’t have crawled from beneath the pavilion,” George spoke up. “Kiyabu told me it has no opening.”
    Nancy nodded. “And I didn’t find any. It must be well hidden.”
    Suddenly the woman started running toward the house. A moment later she disappeared among some shrubbery.
    “Oh, she’ll probably go inside!” Nancy cried out worriedly. “I’m sure the house is unlocked, and Bess and Hannah and Kiyabu and Emma aren’t looking that way!”
    She and George tried to signal the group on shore about what was happening, but none of them seemed to understand and stood awaiting the canoeists.
    “I wonder if she’s the ‘ghost’ Kiyabu saw,” Nancy mused, “and why she’s around in the daytime.”
    “The ghostly hula dancer!” Nancy exclaimed

    The canoeists worked the paddles furiously as they came nearer and nearer the shore. Finally Dave and Burt jumped out and pulled the out- rigger up onto the beach. With a quick explanation to those on shore, the others started running toward the house.

    The woman in the long white muumuu was not in sight, but Nancy felt sure this meant she had already entered the house. “We’ll surround the place, so that she can’t escape!” the young sleuth suggested.
    The others spread out, planning to encircle the building completely. Nancy and Ned dashed up the front porch and burst through the entrance into the hall.
    At that moment, from somewhere inside the house, came a bloodcurdling scream!

CHAPTER XI
    A Tantalizing Gift
    AS THE sounds of the scream faded, the watchers outside the house dashed in, some through the kitchen door, others through a side door to the sunroom. All ran to the front hall.
    “Who was it?” Bess cried out. “And where is she?”
    “We don’t know, but everybody look for her!” Nancy ordered.
    Part of the group bounded up the front stairway while Kiyabu and Emma took the rear one. Nancy, Ned, George, and Burt searched the rooms on the first floor. They looked in closets, behind curtains and screens, and even underneath pieces of furniture, but there was no sign of the woman in the white muumuu. Disappointed, the whole group of searchers met once more in the front hall.
    “How could that woman have escaped from the house?” Bess asked, puzzled. “We were watching every window and door.”
    “Up to a point, we were,” Nancy replied. “But when the woman screamed, everyone who was outside came running in. It’s my guess she grasped the opportunity to go out a window at that time.”
    “You mean,” George spoke up, “that she screamed on purpose to lure us inside so she could get away?”
    “Possibly,” Nancy answered. “But also she may have been injured or frightened. I’m going to get my magnifying glass and see if I can find any clues.”
    She hurried upstairs and from one of her suitcases took the magnifying glass which her father had given her for Christmas. It was a very fine one and Nancy called it her “Pride and Joy.”
    When Nancy came downstairs again, Kiyabu followed her from place to place, his eyes lighting up with amazement as she made such amusing, but accurate remarks as: “Kiyabu, you really should ask Bess not to lean her elbows on the piano. It makes marks. And, Dave, when you dance, better not wear that tan sweater. It sheds.”
    Nancy’s friends laughed and explained to Kiyabu that the young sleuth probably could have deduced this in the pitch dark. The caretaker shook his head in astonishment and remained silent. But he continued to follow Nancy around.
    In the sunroom she stopped in front of a statue of a Japanese warrior. The figure was holding a samurai sword poised for action. Nancy examined the weapon carefully with her magnifying glass. Then she smiled.
    “I believe the lady in the white muumuu screamed because she raked her head or arm on this sword.”
    “You mean