train. Next she spotted Mr. Kent, and finally, the
woman with the upswept hairdo who had
brought her the faked letter.
“That woman’s the same one I saw at the serv-
ice station with the three men,” Nancy thought.
“If she hadn’t changed her hair style, I might
have recognized her the night she delivered the
note.”
The other unmasked members were strangers
to Nancy. Tensely now she watched as the leader
stood before Bess.
“Nothing to be afraid of, dear,” he said, and
gently lifted off the ghostly head covering. The
next instant Maurice Hale practically shrieked,
“A spy!”
His face contorted with rage, Maurice snatched
the white cloth headpieces from George’s face,
then Nancy’s. Their scheme was exposed to all
the members of the counterfeit gang!
For an instant there was stunned silence, then
angry cries arose from the Black Snake Colony
members.
“They’re the ones who bought the Blue Jade
perfume from me!” Yvonne Wong shrieked.
Al Snead glared at Nancy. “Yeah. I knew
something was wrong when you came into the of-
fice wearin’ the Blue Jade. I smelled it, but didn’t
let on.”
He then pointed accusingly toward Joanne.
“That girl is the one who applied at our city of-
fice for a job! When she told me who she was and
where she was from I knew she was the last per-
son in the world we’d want to hire!”
“That crazy idea of yours about someone with
farm experience,” the leader cried. “We didn’t
need anybody to talk to our agents about cows
and chickens-”
“But this place is in the country,” Al Snead
defended himself. “And in our codes we use a lot
of that kind of lingo.”
“Silence!” Maurice yelled, and turned to Jo-
anne. “So you thought you’d get a job at our of-
fice and spy on us! And your meddling friend
Nancy Drew was in cahoots with you.”
“No, oh no!” Joanne cried out. “It was only
by accident. I wanted to find a job and help my
grandmother. Nancy was just trying to help me
locate the office-”
“Don’t expect us to believe a trumped-up story
like that,” the leader said harshly. “We know all
about why you two have been snooping around
ever since Al had Pete trail you from Riverside
Heights. What’s more, we know how to deal with
such people!”
Hale turned menacingly to Nancy. “You’ll
wish you’d taken Pete’s advice when he called
your pal”-he indicated George-“and warned
her that you’d better mind your own business.”
“Oh, Maurice, please don’t be too harsh with
the girls,” a timid voice pleaded. “They didn’t
mean any harm.” As she finished, the speaker re-
moved her mask.
Nancy turned quickly to see the woman she
had helped in the woods and later had taken to
town.
“So she’s a counterfeiter!” Nancy told herself
incredulously. “I can’t believe it!”
“Didn’t mean any harm?” Maurice drawled
sarcastically. “Oh, no, of course not. They only
wanted to land the whole Hale Syndicate in jail!
Not that you would care! If I had known what a
whiner you are, I’d never have married you!
Mind your own business and let me take care of
this!”
In spite of the seriousness of her own situation,
Nancy felt pity for the woman. Undoubtedly as
the wife of such a tyrant as Maurice Hale she had
stayed with him against her will. She had hated
the life that he had forced her to lead, but evi-
dently she had been powerless to escape from it.
“No wonder the poor woman took a chance
and slipped away from time to time,” Nancy
thought.
Frightened by the harsh words of her husband,
Mrs. Hale moved back into a far corner of the
room. Nancy wished she could help her in some
way, but realized that the woman dared not say
more.
“What’ll we do with these girls?” the leader de-
manded. “We can’t let ’em go. They know too
much!”
On all sides angry mutterings arose. Yvonne
Wong heartlessly proposed that the girls be tied
up and left prisoners in the cave. But Maurice
Hale ruled down that suggestion.
“We’ll have to get ’em out of here,” he said.