CHAPTER XVII. The Chase

CHAPTER XVII

The Chase

“Brooms?” Bess echoed. “What do you mean, Fiona?”

“You will see. Nancy, speed up! We must put out the fire before it spreads to the tall trees!”

Nancy did not stop for questions. She raced the car along the road until Fiona said, “Slow down! The brooms are right ahead!”

At the edge of the field was a wooden stand containing stout brooms. Nancy pulled over. Fiona hopped out and dashed to grab four of them. As she rejoined the others, the Scottish girl said the brooms were made of birch twigs, bound together with stout wire. “These are always kept handy for fire fighting.”

Nancy quickly backed the car around and sped off. Fiona explained that anyone who spotted a brush fire was supposed to try putting it out. A few seconds later Nancy reached the scene of the burning seedlings.

“We’ll separate and work on the outer edges,” Fiona ordered. “It may feel a little hot on your feet, but we can’t do anything about that.”

The girls wielded the brooms vigorously on the burning hillside and within half an hour they had extinguished the centermost point of the blaze. The young fire fighters leaned on their brooms wearily. They had saved the big trees!

“I’m sure glad that’s over!” said Bess. She would have liked to sit down and rest, but there was no place to do this.

As the foursome trudged back to the road, they looked at one another. The girls’ faces were red and perspiring from the heat. Their hands were rough and beginning to show a few small blisters. Skirts and sweaters were dirty and the color of their shoes unrecognizable.

George remarked, “We’re sure a sorry sight! I hope we don’t meet anybody.”

Bess giggled. “You spoke too soon. Look who’s waiting for us!”

A car had stopped behind Nancy’s and two police officers were standing in the road.

“Anderson and Buchanan!” George exclaimed.

When the girls, carrying their brooms, reached the roadway, the two men looked at them in astonishment. Nancy spoke up, giving Fiona all the credit for knowing what to do.

“But the main thing is, you succeeded!” Buchanan said admiringly.

“I’m glad we were here at just the right moment,” said Nancy, and started toward her car.

Inspector Buchanan hesitated a moment, then walked up to her. “I’m sorry, Miss Drew, that I ever had any doubts about your honesty. I’m sure that no check forger would take time to stop and put out a forest fire.”

Nancy smiled at him. “You were only doing your duty,” she said. “Let’s forget the whole thing, shall we?”

Buchanan nodded and his companion grinned.

Nancy and her friends climbed into the car and waved to the two men. Nancy drove off, leaving Anderson and Buchanan to make a final check of the fire scene.

In a little while the girls reached a spot where Fiona suggested they park.

“We’ll climb from here. I think I can find that glen with the croft where we saw the sheep.”

The Scottish girl proved to be a good pathfinder and presently located a trail leading up the mountainside. Nancy figured that this probably was the route along which the stolen sheep were driven, then anesthetized and piled into a waiting truck.

The girls kept a sharp lookout but saw no one. A few minutes later they reached the croft and began a search of the premises. Not a single clue came to light.

“The only place we haven’t looked,” George said, “is in that heap of ashes in the dooryard.”

She and Bess found long twigs and began to scatter the ashes. Underneath was a heap of unburned trash. It contained tin cans, banana peels, and bits of broken glass.

“That phony shepherd who lived here was a good housekeeper, anyway!” said Bess. “He certainly tidied up this place.”

The remark intrigued Nancy. She wondered why, if the man had intended to get away in a great hurry, he should have bothered to clean up.

Bess was still delving and presently found a small canvas nailed to a board. On it was a conglomeration of colored paints. “What in the world is this?” she asked. After looking at it a moment, she tossed the canvas aside.

Nancy picked it up. Since it was so foreign to the rest of the debris, she felt it might have some significance. No explanation came to her at the moment, so she decided to take the canvas along.

The pile of rubbish was again put together and the ashes sprinkled over the top. Nancy said she thought it was time to call a halt to the investigation.

“Let’s go home now.”

During the ride back, Nancy was quiet and thoughtful. By the time they reached Douglas House, she had decided to try an experiment. After bathing and dressing, she went on a search and collected several hand mirrors.

Later Fiona, Bess, and George found Nancy in Lady Douglas’ sitting room with her great-grandmother. The young sleuth was bending over a table. On it she had laid the canvas, with the mirrors propped up in a circle in the middle of it.

“What on earth are you doing, Nancy?” Bess demanded.

“I had a hunch,” her friend replied. “This canvas, which has various colors that don’t seem to depict anything, may have been painted like the picture we saw of Bonnie Prince Charlie in the museum. Remember? The one with the cylindrical mirror in the center which reflects the portrait of the prince?”

The other girls nodded and peered into the mirrors. None of them could see anything like a picture. Lady Douglas examined the canvas, but could make nothing out of it.

“I agree with Nancy, though, that this might have some significance,” she said. “But how else can we try to find out?”

“Perhaps we have the wrong arrangement,” said Nancy. “Have you a circular glass object which I could make into a mirror?”

Lady Douglas said she could not think of anything, but Nancy was welcome to look around the house and use whatever she could find.

At once the young detective set off with the canvas. In a cupboard on the first floor she found a large goblet of clear glass.

“Just the right size,” Nancy decided. “I hope my idea works.”

She returned to her great-grandmother and asked if it would be all right to paint quicksilver on the inside of the goblet to make it serve as a mirror.

“Yes, indeed, Nancy. Perhaps Tweedie can help you. He has all sorts of things cached away, and possibly may have some quicksilver.”

Unfortunately Tweedie had none, so Nancy decided to drive into Fort William and purchase a small quantity of the coating.

The other girls wanted to go along, so presently the foursome was on its way. As they turned into the main street, Nancy said excitedly, “Look! Isn’t that the red-bearded stranger in the car up ahead?”

Her friends followed her glance. “Sure is!” George declared grimly. “He’s in a different car.”

Nancy set her jaw. This time he was not going get away from her! She memorized the license number of his car and then set out in pursuit.

The man was driving fast and Nancy increased her own speed. For a few minutes she was afraid she might be stopped by some constable. But presently both cars were out of town and the chase continued.

The red-bearded man seemed to know that he was being followed. He put on a tremendous burst of speed and raced down the road. Nancy kept right after him!

The pursuit went on and on, southward, in the general direction of Loch Lomond.

“Maybe he’s going to the houseboat!” Bess suggested when they were halfway there.

George said she hoped he would stop there. “It’ll give me great pleasure to nab him and turn him over to the police!”

Nancy took her eyes off the road for one second to look at her gas gauge. It registered empty!

“Oh, dear!” she exclaimed in dismay. “I’ll have to stop for gas, and we’ll lose our man!”

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