The girls will never dream that I came here.”
And her father thought that she intended to remain at the camp for a week! He would not become alarmed over her absence until it was too late. Oh, if only she had never left her home in River Heights!
“Someone may find my roadster at the side of the road,” Nancy reasoned, “but it isn’t very likely. Few persons pass this way so late in the season.”
What had become of Jeff Tucker, the caretaker? Certainly she could expect no aid from that quarter. The robber had hinted that he had done away with the old colored man, and, knowing the character of the rascals, it was impossible not to believe the worst.
As the full significance of the situation dawned upon the girl, panic again took possession of her. In a desperate attempt to break down the door, she threw her weight against it again and again. She pounded upon the panels until her fingers were bruised and bleeding.
At last she sank down on the floor to rest and tried to force herself to reason calmly.
“I’m only wasting my strength this way. I must try to think logically. If I don’t, I’m lost.”
Nancy Drew recalled that she had once read that it was possible to pick a lock with a hairpin. Feeling in her hair, she found a heavy wire one and began to work at the lock. But in the darkness she could not see and she made little progress. After fifteen minutes she gave the task up in disgust.
“It’s no use,” she decided miserably, “I’m afraid I’ll never get out.”
She began to think of her father, of Helen Corning, and other dear friends. Would she ever see them again? As despondency claimed Nancy she was dangerously near tears. Resolutely, she tried to shake off the mood.