006 White Water Terror (10 page)

N
ANCY!
L
OOK OUT!
” Ned shouted. He lunged at her, grabbing her arm and pulling her but of the path of the careening boulder. Nancy could feel the huge rock rumbling the earth beneath her feet as it thundered down the hill. When it reached the bottom, it tore like an out-of-control truck into two pines, splintering them at the base, before it rolled to a shuddering halt in a spruce thicket.

As Ned put his arms around her, Nancy began to tremble uncontrollably. Ned’s arms felt so strong and protective, as if they could shield her from anything the world could throw at her. She leaned against him, gazing up the
hill, and caught a glimpse of shadowy movement, something darting into the trees. Was it an animal she had seen—or a human?

Suddenly she realized the enormity of what had just happened. If it hadn’t been for Ned’s quick action, she’d be smashed like those trees. She swayed dizzily and sagged against Ned.

He held her tightly, then lowered her gently onto a rock.

After a few minutes, Nancy pushed her hair out of her eyes. “I’m okay,” she said shakily. Then she laughed. “Lucky we let everyone go on ahead. At least they didn’t see me playing handball with that boulder.”

Ned grinned for a moment, tracing his finger along her cheek. But as he helped Nancy to her feet, he looked down at her, soberly. “I was scared, Nancy,” he said hoarsely. “You could have been killed!”

“Ned,” Nancy said, “I saw something moving up there, after the boulder came down. Do you suppose . . .”

“ . . . that it was Max?”

Nancy nodded.

“I didn’t see what you saw, Nan, but it’s entirely possible.”

“Max might not have intended to kill Paula, but she’s dead. Now he’s got to worry about us. If we get out of here alive, he knows we’ll go straight to the police!”

“So he’s got to kill us?” Ned asked.

“If he’s guilty,” Nancy answered. “Or he might try to scare us so thoroughly that we keep our mouths shut.” Nancy shuddered. “Hey,” she said, “will you lend me your jacket for a little while? Thinking about Max out there loose gives me the chills.”

Ned wrapped his jacket around her. “We’ve got to let the others know what happened,” he said. “Otherwise I’d keep you warm myself.”

Nancy grinned at him. “Control yourself, Nickerson—for the time being anyway,” she whispered.

• • •

The rest of the group had already chosen a camping spot for the night and had divided up the responsibilities for getting settled.

Mercedes was bent over the fire, her cheeks flushed with the heat. She was stirring soup in a small aluminum pan, balanced carefully on three rocks.

Nancy sat down beside her. “Mmm, that smells good,” she said appreciatively. “Vegetable?”

Mercedes nodded. “I wish we had more. I’m afraid this is just going to be enough to whet everyone’s appetite.”

“Well, maybe we’ll get lucky tomorrow and find a berry patch,” Nancy replied, laughing. “Minus the bear. Or a creek—then maybe we could catch some fish or something.”

Mercedes laughed a little, too. “This
has
been some trip, hasn’t it?” she said gravely. She shivered. “I can’t believe what happened to Paula. When I get home, I’m going to have to tell her family . . .”

Nancy nodded sympathetically. Then, choosing her words carefully, she said, “Earlier, I asked if you knew about the contest. I was wondering if you remembered anything else about it.”

Mercedes shook her head. “I
told
you,” she said impatiently. “I don’t know a thing. The contest was already set up when I first heard about the trip.”

“Well, then, maybe you can tell me something about Paula’s business,” Nancy went on, “or about her friendship with Max.”

Mercedes frowned. “I don’t think they were friends at all. Max was just somebody who was available for this trip. Somebody who knew the river.”

“Okay, what about her family?” Nancy asked. “Did your families see each other very often?”

Mercedes looked away. “Why do you want to know? There’s no point in dragging up the past.”

“What past?” Nancy asked sharply.

Mercedes looked flustered. “I—I just meant the things that have happened in the past two days,” she said. “We’ve got to get out of here.
What’s the point in trying to figure out why things happened the way they did? Especially now that—” She choked. “Now that Paula is dead.” Her eyes filled with tears and she turned back to the fire.

“You might be right. But why,” Nancy persisted, “weren’t you surprised to learn that Paula had taken the compass? Why did you suspect her?” Nancy knew that if Mercedes would open up, she’d have the key to the case.

“I don’t want to talk anymore,” Mercedes said sullenly. “You can’t
make
me talk to you.”

“No,” Nancy admitted. “But when we get back to civilization, the police can.”

“I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it,” Mercedes said, removing the pot from the fire and standing up. “Who knows? We might not even get back to civilization. We’ve still got another day to go, at least.” She turned away from Nancy. “Okay, everybody,” she called, “the soup’s ready.”

While Nancy was eating the soup and the piece of beef jerky she had been rationed, she thought about what Mercedes had told her:
There’s no point in dragging up the past.
Nancy was sure Mercedes
hadn’t
meant the events of the last two days. In fact, she was sure Mercedes knew something—something she wasn’t telling. Something she wouldn’t tell.

Nancy snuggled into Ned’s jacket, glad he wasn’t cold and she could keep it around her. Then she frowned, thinking more about the case. Sure, there weren’t a lot of clues, but she sensed there were a couple of possibilities right under her nose that she was overlooking. Every once in a while they began to form in her mind, then vanished before she had a chance to focus on them.

Well, she thought resolutely, Mercedes couldn’t keep her from finding out the truth. Nothing could, not even the frustration she was feeling. Nancy Drew always got to the bottom of things, and she’d get to the bottom of this case, too—if it
killed
her.

When supper was over, everyone huddled wearily around the fire, scratched and sore from their long hike. There wasn’t much conversation. It was a moonless night, and outside the circle of firelight, the dark pressed in ominously.

Then in the near distance, the quiet was shattered by an eerie scream.

“What was that?” Linda cried out, clinging to Ralph.

Tod laughed. “Just a mountain lion,” he replied.

“But don’t worry,” Mike said. “A mountain lion won’t attack you unless you corner him. He’s a whole lot more fond of rabbits and ground squirrels than he is of people.”

Sammy shivered. “Well, he can keep his rabbits and his ground squirrels,” she said. “I’ll settle for a hamburger with fries and onions.”

George groaned tragically, rubbing her stomach.
“Please.
Don’t talk about real food. You might just as well knock me out—it would be much kinder.”

Nancy threw a glance at Ned, who was sitting next to her. Now was the time to tell everyone what had happened before supper that evening. Briefly, she told her story.

“It must have been Max!” Ralph and Linda exclaimed when Nancy had finished.

“Max?” Bess asked, in a half-longing voice.

“Oh, will you stop, Bess,” George said impatiently. “Haven’t we got enough trouble without—”

“It’s trouble, all right,” Nancy said. “If Max really is dangerous, he’s not going to let us out of here to tell the police what happened.”

Bess shook her head stubbornly. “I can’t
believe
that.”

“You might believe it if you’d been standing on that trail, staring up at that boulder coming down on Nancy,” Ned said. “It was as big as a house. And it sounded like a freight train.”

Nancy shuddered, remembering how frightened she had been—and how strong and supportive Ned’s arms had felt around her when
for a minute she had lost her own strength. It was ironic, she thought. She had wanted Ned to come on this trip so that he could feel a little protective about her. Well, he certainly was protecting her.

“Yeah, but you don’t
know
that somebody pushed the rock,” Bess was insisting. “It might just have come loose. After all, rock slides happen here all the time, even when there’s no one around. Anyway,” she went on insistently, “you aren’t even sure you saw somebody up there. How do you know that it wasn’t just your imagination?”

“I don’t,” Nancy admitted. “Just the same, we can’t afford to take any chances. If Max
did
push that boulder down, he’s dangerous.” She looked around at the group. “We’ve got to be careful.”

“Careful?” Sammy asked, frowning. “And just how do we do that?”

“Well, for one thing,” Nancy answered, “we shouldn’t go off by ourselves.”

“Yeah,” Ned said, “and we need to pay attention to what’s going on around us, so that Max isn’t able to sneak up on us.”

“Then it might be a good idea to keep watches tonight,” Mike said, stirring the fire.

“Right,” Nancy agreed.

“I was afraid of losing sleep tonight,” Bess said, making a face, “but I had it figured a little
differently. I thought my
hunger
would keep me awake!”

Ned drew the first watch and Nancy the second. “I’ll wake you up in an hour,” he promised as Nancy crawled under her blanket between Bess and George. He bent over and kissed her.

“Thanks,” Nancy said sleepily. “And Ned?”

“Uh-huh?”

“Thanks for being there this afternoon. It feels good to be alive.” She smiled. “You know, if we get out of this in one piece, I swear I’ll never take another vacation the rest of my life. Detective work is a lot safer!”

Ned laughed and gave her another quick kiss.

In an hour, he awakened her and she took her turn beside the fire. At the end of her hour, she woke Mike, who had the third watch, before going back to sleep. But her dreams were full of gigantic boulders that roared down on her.

• • •

Nancy woke at dawn, curled up into a tight ball, cold and stiff. The campfire was out and Ralph, who had the last watch, was drowsing beside it.

No wonder I’m cold, Nancy thought. My blanket slipped down. She tugged on the blanket, but the end of it seemed to be caught on
something. A rock? She raised her head to look—and froze.

A huge rattlesnake lay coiled on the blanket. At Nancy’s movement, its head came up, staring at Nancy with beady amber eyes.

T
HE RATTLER’S TAIL
was buzzing like a swarm of angry bees. What could Nancy do? Even though her feet weren’t trapped under it, if she moved a muscle—or if George or Bess turned over—the snake was bound to strike.

“Ned,” Nancy whispered urgently. “Ned, wake up!”

Ned stirred sleepily on the other side of the fire. “What?” he mumbled.

“Ned,” she said again, in a low voice. “There’s a huge snake on the foot of my blanket.”

“A snake?” Ned exclaimed, throwing off his blanket. “Stay put, Nancy. Don’t move!”

“Don’t you move too fast, either,” she whispered.

“What’s going on?” Ralph sat up beside the cold fire, rubbing his eyes. “Is it Max? Where is he?”

“No, it’s a snake,” Ned replied softly, pulling on his shoes and signaling for Ralph to stay still.

The snake’s head began to weave back and forth and its tongue flicked nervously. Beside Nancy, George mumbled something in her sleep.
Oh, please, George,
Nancy thought,
don’t turn over!
Aloud, she said, “Hurry, Ned! I think it’s getting ready to strike!” The buzz of the rattles grew louder.

Noiselessly, Ned circled around behind the snake. He bent down, picked up a large flat rock, and raised it high above his head. Just as the snake coiled itself to strike, Ned brought the rock down hard on its head. For a moment the snake twisted and writhed, and then it lay still.

“Oh, Ned,” Nancy said.

“What’s going on?” George asked, sitting up. “Who’s throwing rocks?”

Bess stirred under the blanket and mumbled something.