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!”