“Are you sure we won’t get hopelessly lost?”
Bess asked.
“Just follow me.”
Nancy and Bess were quite willing to have
George lead the way. She pushed ahead con-
fidently, tramping down the high grass and thrust-
ing aside thorny bushes. But as the going became
more difficult, her pace slackened.
“It seems to me we’re moving in a wide circle,”
Nancy said at last.
George paused to catch her breath. Her gloomy
silence confirmed Nancy’s suspicion.
“George, are we lost?” she asked.
“I don’t know about you,” the girl answered
ruefully. “Myself-yes.”
“It’s going to rain any minute, too,” Bess said,
sinking down on a mossy log. “Oh, why did we
come to this horrible, gloomy place? Imagine any-
one building a home here!”
“If the roads were opened and some shrubs cut
down, the estate would be very lovely,” Nancy
pointed out.
After resting for a few minutes the girls decided
to continue their trek. Nancy proved a better
pathfinder than George and before long they came
to recently trampled grass.
“Now I know where we are!” Nancy ex-
claimed Jubilantly. “We’re near the front bound-
ary wall.”
A few hundred feet farther on they saw the
wall itself and scrambled over it. The trio reached
the shelter of the car just as the first raindrops
splashed against the windshield. Fortunately
Nancy was able to drive to the paved highway
before the side road became a mire of mud.
She dropped the cousins at their houses, then
went home. Over a late lunch of milk and a
sandwich, she thought about the mystery.
“I might get some kind of a lead from Walter
Heath’s will,” she decided, “and I’d like to find
out where Juliana did her banking. There might
be a clue in the last withdrawals.”
Nancy called Lieutenant Masters. “The police
couldn’t locate any bank accounts,” the officer
told her. “A very large sum of money was found
in Juliana’s apartment in New York. But she had
several bills from stores, and by the time they
were paid from this cash, there was nothing left.”
“Then that’s a dead end,” said Nancy. “How
about the will?”
“I don’t know,” said the officer. She agreed to
meet Nancy the next morning at the courthouse
to examine the document. Daniel Hector was
named as sole executor.
A quick reading confirmed what Mrs. Feni-
more had told her. The entire Heath estate had
been bequeathed to Juliana Johnson on the con-
dition that she claim it within five years of Wal-
ter Heath’s death.
One clause in the will held Nancy’s attention.
It read:
“It is my belief and hope that Juliana still lives
and will claim the property within the allotted
time. She will be able to identify herself in a
special way, thus insuring that no impostor can
receive my estate.”
“I wonder what that means,” Nancy mused.
“I haven’t any idea,” Lieutenant Masters said.
They went over the document again, but it
gave no clue to the way in which Juliana might
establish her identity.
“I must find out what Mr. Heath meant by
this,” said Nancy. “Obviously it’s a very impor-
tant duel”
CHAPTER V
Suspicious Figures
Nancy suggested to Lieutenant Masters that they
go at once to see Mrs. Fenimore. “She may know
by what special means Walter Heath expected
Juliana to identify herself.”
The young officer agreed. She and Nancy drove
to the Fenimore house in their own cars. They
found the woman seated in the living room.
“Good morning,” Mrs. Fenimore, who seemed
to be feeling better, greeted the visitors warmly.
She stared anxiously at the policewoman. “It’s-
it’s not Joan again?”
“No. In fact, my two rosebushes have been re-
turned. We came to ask you a few more questions
about your sister,” Nancy replied.
The woman relaxed but spoke wearily. “I’ll
tell you everything I can. A couple of years ago I
gave up hope that she would be found, but I’ve
never told Joan this.”
“Then you believe that your sister may not be
living?” Nancy asked soberly.
“Oh no. I’m sure Julie is alive,” Mrs. Fenimore
replied, “but I’m afraid she may have disappeared
for good, and I’ll never see her again.”