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.”