cular pools, now heavy with lichens and moss,
and fountains with leaf-filled basins. Over the
treetops, about half a mile away, the girls could
see two stone towers.
“That’s the castle,” said George.
Amid the wild growth, Nancy spotted a bridge.
“Let’s go that way,” she suggested, starting down
from the balcony.
In a few minutes the trio had crossed the rick-
ety wooden span. Before them lay a slippery moss-
grown path.
“The Haunted Walk,” Nancy read aloud the
name on a rustic sign.
“Why not try another approach?” Bess said
with a shiver. “This garden looks spooky enough
without deliberately inviting a meeting with
ghosts!”
“Oh, come on!” Nancy laughed, taking her
friend firmly by the arm. “It’s only a name. Be-
sides, the walk may lead to something interest-
ing.”
Spreading lilac bushes canopied the trail. Their
branches caught at Nancy’s hair and clutched at
her clothing. Impatiently she pushed them aside
and held back the branches for her friends to pass
beneath.
“I wish we’d gone some other way,” Bess com-
plained. “This is no fun.”
“I think it is,” Nancy replied. “It’s mysterious
here! It’s so-”
Her voice trailed away suddenly. George and
Bess glanced at her quickly. Nancy was staring
directly toward a giant evergreen.
“What is it?” Bess demanded fearfully.
“Nothing.”
“You didn’t act as if it were nothing,” George
said to Nancy.
“I thought I saw something, but I must have
been mistaken.”
Despite their coaxing, Nancy would not reveal
what had startled her. For an instant she thought
a pair of penetrating, human eyes had been star-
ing at the girls from behind the evergreen. Then
they had blinked shut and vanished.
“It must have been my imagination,” Nancy
told herself.
She walked on hurriedly. As Bess and George
sensed her thoughts, they drew closer to the
young detective. Nancy rounded the evergreen
and saw that it partially hid a vine-covered, decay-
ing summerhouse.
The building was empty, but her eye quickly
caught a slight quivering of the vines beside the
doorway, although there was no wind. She stopped
short, struck by the realization that someone had
been lurking there 1 Quietly she told the others.
“I knew we shouldn’t have chosen this walk,”
Bess muttered. “It is haunted.”
“Haunted by a human being,” Nancy said
grimly. “I wish I knew who was spying on us!”
There was no sign of anyone now. The girls
heard neither the rustle of leaves nor the sound of
retreating footsteps.
“Let’s go back to the car,” Bess proposed sud-
denly. “We’ve seen enough of this place.”
“I haven’t,” Nancy said. “I’m getting more
curious every minute.”
Not far from the summerhouse was a stone
wall. It occurred to Nancy that the person who
had observed them might have scrambled over it
to avoid detection. She announced her intention
of climbing up to make sure.
While Bess and George watched uneasily,
Nancy began to scale the vine-covered wall. Near
the top, however, she lost her footing. With a
suppressed cry, she fell backward!
George and Bess helped Nancy to her feet. Al-
though uninjured, she was visibly shaken.
“I guess I’d better not try that again,” she said
ruefully.
“Those are the most sensible words I’ve heard
you say today!” Bess declared. “Let’s get out of
here before we find ourselves in real trouble.”
“I’m with you,” George said. “I have an ap-
pointment in town, and anyway, it may rain.”
Nancy was reluctant to leave the estate without
exploring the castle, but she had noticed that
clouds were darkening the sky.
“All right,” she agreed. “But we’ll come back!”
The girls retraced their way across the bridge.
From that point on, however, they could not find
the right direction to the road.
“We’re probably a long way from the car,”
George said finally. “I’ll climb a tree and see
if I can spot it.”
Nimble as a monkey, she went high among the
branches. Then she shouted down that the river
was close by and the road far away.
“We’ve wandered a great distance from where
we started,” George reported as she slid down the
tree and pointed out the route. “We must cut
straight through that woods ahead.”