Keene, Carolyn – Nancy Drew 006 – The Secret of Red Gate Farm

gested as they paused beside her car. “I’ll be

glad to have you as my guest for the night, and in

the morning you’ll feel better and can decide

what to do then.”

Joanne shook her head proudly. “Thank you,

but I wouldn’t think of letting you go to any more

trouble. I have a little money. I can find a board-

inghouse and I’ll keep on looking for work here.”

Nancy saw that Joanne was disappointed and

discouraged and hated to leave her on her own,

but finally conceded. “I guess you’re right,” she

admitted. “But at least let me help you hunt for a

place to stay.” Joanne accepted the offer grate-

fully.

Even with the car, it was difficult to locate a

pleasant room. Joanne could not afford a high-

priced place, and the cheaper ones were unsatis-

factory. Finally, however, they found a suitable

room on a quiet street and Nancy helped Joanne

get settled.

“I may be driving over this way tomorrow,” she

said. “If I do, I’ll stop in to see what luck you’ve

had.”

“I wish you would,” Joanne invited shyly. “I’ll

need someone to bolster my morale.”

“All right, I will,” Nancy promised.

After a few words of encouragement she said

good-by, then drove slowly toward River Heights,

her mind again focused on the various events of

the day.

“I don’t know what will happen to Joanne if

she doesn’t find work,” Nancy told herself. “It

would be a shame if her grandmother loses Red

Gate Farm. I wish I could do something, but I

don’t know of any available jobs.”

It was nearly dinnertime when Nancy reached

River Heights. As she passed the Fayne home,

she saw George and her cousin Bess on the front

lawn and stopped to tell them about Joanne’s un-

successful interview.

“Isn’t that too bad?” Bess murmured in disap-

pointment. “She seems such a sweet girl. I’d like

to know her better.”

“I promised I’d drive over to see her tomor-

row,” Nancy told the girls. “Why don’t you come

along?”

“Let’s!” George cried enthusiastically. “I love

going places with you. We always seem to find

some sort of adventure!”

Nancy’s blue eyes became serious. “I’d say

this has been a pretty full day! I can’t seem to tor-

get that mysterious saleswoman in the Oriental

perfume shop or the strange man on the train. I

wasn’t going to say anything to you about this, but

something odd happened this afternoon in that

office.”

Nancy then related the mysterious actions and

behavior of the man named “Al.”

“You mean you think his telephone conversa-

tion was a little on the shady side?” Bess asked,

wide-eyed.

“It seemed that way to me,” Nancy answered.

“I doubt very much that it’s a manufacturing

business and those numbers I copied from his

pad were anything but stock-market quotations!”

“Well, here we go again! Never a dull moment

with Nancy around!” George laughed gaily.

“Don’t be too impatient, George,” Nancy ad-

vised with a grin. “We don’t have proof that any

of today’s incidents is really cause for suspicion.”

At this moment a foreign-make car went by.

Nancy glanced casually at the driver, then gave a

start. He was the man who had spoken to her on

the train!

He slowed down and stared at the three girls

and at the Fayne home. Nancy felt at once that he

was memorizing the address. He gave a self-satis-

fied smile and drove on. Nancy noted his license

number.

“I almost feel as if I’ll hear from him again,”

she told herself, then revealed to the girls, who

had not noticed the car’s driver, that he was the

man who had confronted her on the train.

“He’s still interested in you,” Bess teased.

But George found nothing to laugh about. “I

don’t like this. Nancy,” she said seriously. “I re-

member he had a hard, calculating face.”

Nancy, too, remained serious. A disturbing

thought had suddenly occurred to her.

“Why,” she told herself, “that man must have

been trailing me. But I wonder for what reason?”

She determined, for the moment at least, not

to mention her suspicions aloud and dropped

the subject of the mysterious man. Presently she

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