"Look at those black storm clouds," =NancyDrew pointed out to
her friend, =HelenCorning, who was seated beside her in the bow
of the small red motorboat.
Nancy, blue-eyed, and with reddish-gold glints in her blond hair,
was at the wheel. She gazed anxiously across a long expanse of water
to the distant shores of =TwinLakes. The =Pinecrest Motel, where the
eighteen-year-old girl and her older friend were staying, was almost
two miles away on the smaller of the two lakes.
=HelenCorning, dark-haired and petite, looked at =Nancy with concern.
"I think we're in for a cloudburst," she said, "and =TwinLakes becomes
as rough as the ocean in a storm."



Nancy was almost certain now that she and =Helen had met the unpleasant
Mrs =Aborn the night before. The woman's quarrelsome mood had extended
to Laura.
Aloud, =Helen said, "But don't forget it's no fun to have car trouble
on a bad night. That is apt to make anyone cross."
"I suppose so," =Laura conceded.
"How was Mrs =Aborn this morning," =Nancy asked?
Laura's face brightened somewhat as she admitted that the woman had been
pleasant and charming. "Mrs =Aborn apologized for her actions last night
and said both she and her husband could hardly wait for me to come and
live with them."
"I see," said =Nancy, but with inward reservations.



An embezzlement case!
Nancy was excited.
What, she wondered, did her father want her to do?
The young detective longed to place a call to him immediately, but
knew she must wait until eight o'clock.
"Where is Mrs =Gleason's sister," she asked?
=Hannah said that the woman had left a short while before, after hearing
that Nancy would be home by supertime.
"But first she fixed a chicken casserole dish for us," =Hannah added.
"It's all ready to pop in the over. My dear, I hate to bother you --."


"Nancy! Nancy! What's wrong with you," =Hannah cried out, as she tried to
hurry to the girl's side.
As the housekeeper limped toward her, =Nancy snapped to attention.
"I'm all right, =Hannah," she said.
"But =Helen's post card -- it brought back the phone call I had this morning --."
Nancy told Mrs =Gruen about the call which had ended so abruptly with a cry of
pain. "The caller's voice sounded vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place it," she
explained. "Now I think I know who it was."
"Who," said =Hannay?
"=LauraPendleton! I believe someone was trying to stop her from talking to me!"



If it had been possible =Nancy would have started out for =Melrose Lake at once, but
she felt that =Laura needed her. Besides, there was a job to do for her father at
the =Browns' barbecue next day.
"Helping =Dad comes first," =Nancy decided.
Laura spoke again of her mother's affairs. "She used to say I'd always be
financially independent if anything happened to her."
"We'll find out," Nancy said, and then took Laura upstairs so she might shower and rest.
In the meantime, Nancy selected some of her own clothes for the visitor. When she
appeared at the dinner table, =Hannah declared that =Laura looked pretty as a picture
and much more relaxed.





When =HannahGruen answered the telephone at the =Drew residence, =Nancy at once asked, "Is
=Laura all right?"
"Why, of course," =Hannah answered in surprise. "She's upstairs setting her hair for the party
this afternoon."
"Well, tell her to be very careful," Nancy urged. "Mr =Aborn has a detective looking for her!"
"Oh, dear," exclaimed Mrs =Gruen! "And when will you be home, =Nancy?"
The young detective explained where she was and that she planned to stay at =Melrose Lake and
do more sleuthing.
"I think I may be on the trail of something big."
"I don't like the idea of you prowling around the =Aborns' home in the dead of night," the
housekeeper objected.



Spellbound, =Nancy stood like a stone image, gazing down into the face of =JacobAborn. How
had the man reached the bungalow ahead of her? What was he doing sleeping in the musty cellar
of the old shack?
As these thoughts flashed through =Nancy's mind, the beam of her flashlight flickered again.
Then it went out, leaving her in total darkness.
Sheer panic took possession of the girl detective. Something very strange was going on! She
must not be caught in a trap!
Turning, she gave a low cry and stumbled up the stairway and toward the window through which
she had entered. Her flight was abruptly checked as she banged one foot on something metallic
that moved ahead of her. In a second, she smelled kerosene.



Back in =RiverHeights, meanwhile, =HannahGreed had spent a restless and worried evening,
expecting to hear =Nancy's convertible pull into the driveway at any moment. Moreover, Mr
=Drew had failed to call at the appointed hour and =Hannah had no knowledge of how to contact
the lawyer.
At ten thirty, when the front doorbell rang, the housekeeper limped hurriedly to answer it.
Instantly she felt a sense of keen disappointment.
"Oh, hello, =Laura," she said and turned to greet =DonCameron. "Did you have a good time at the
barbecue?"
"It was wonderful," Laura exclaimed happily, as she and Don entered the house!



As the automobile pulled to a halt, Mr =Aborn slumped to the floor in a faint.
Evidently, he had shared =Nancy's thought that the =Dowds were returning, and would
force their way in. The terrifying thought that he might become a prisoner again had been
too much for the exhausted man.
"Oh," =Nancy cried out!
From the window =Nancy saw four people hurriedly alighting from a car. A moment later the
bell rang and a woman's voice cried, "Mr =Aborn -- Mr =Aborn -- please let us in. It's
the =Donnells!"
Nancy hurried to the front door and flung it open. "=Cathy! =Jim," she cried out! "Oh, you
don't know how glad I am to see you!"



Stunned by the accident to the speeding car, =Nancy brought the sedan to a halt at the curve.
Everyone inside was reluctant to look down into the ravine below, from which there was not a
sound.
But only for an instant. Then =CarsonDrew urged, "Out, everyone, quickly! We must do what
we can for those people!"
=Nancy and =Don sprang from the car and rushed to the edge of the road. The lawyer was close
behind them.
As the three gazed down into the ravine, the first light of dawn revealed that the
foreign car had rolled nearly to the bottom of it and overturned against a boulder.
A wheel had been torn loose from its axle and the body had been smashed in.
There was no sign of any of the three occupants.