here.”
Fearful of being seen, the girls tiptoed along
the cloister wall. Nancy carried the metal box,
which was heavy.
“We should have gone the other way, toward
the beach,” she whispered. “I hope we don’t get
trapped!”
As they rounded a curve the girls noticed that
the cloister ended abruptly in a rear wall of the
castle, with a huge wooden door. It was locked!
Nancy tried her key. It would not fit!
“Oh, what’ll we do?” Bess asked. “This is
awfull!”
The men could be heard moving slowly up the
flagstone passageway. In a moment or two they
certainly would see the girls.
“Nancy, we’ll have to hide the box!” George
said.
“We’d better hide ourselves,” Bess urged.
“Maybe we could break through the vines,”
Nancy suggested.
“No chance,” George decided. “There’s a net-
work of thick stalks between the pillars. I touched
them before when we were searching tor the
treasure.”
Not far from the castle wall was a large nook.
In their haste the girls had passed it with only a
fleeting glance. Now Nancy thought that it might
make a safe hiding place.
“Follow me!” she directed.
Above the arched entrance to the refuge had
been chiseled the words Poet’s Nook, but the girls
scarcely noticed it as they slipped into the niche.
“I must hide this box so the men can’t take it,
even if they catch us,” Nancy declared grimly.
Frantically the girls looked about them. Nancy
noticed a loose stone in the wall directly above a
bench in the back of their hiding place.
“George,” she said, “see if it will move.”
Luckily the stone could be eased out. A large,
empty space was behind it. Nancy slipped the box
inside, and George quickly fitted the stone into
place.
By this time the men were very near, and had
stopped walking. “How about working in the
Poet’s Nook?” one asked suddenly. “Maybe we’ll
find something there.”
The girls flattened themselves against the wall
and waited tensely, scarcely daring to breathe.
“We looked there once. That hiding place over
the bench was empty.”
“Sure, but it we take out the whole wall, we
might find another one. You’re lazy if you ask
me.”
“Did I ask you?” the first man growled. “This
is hard work. We’re not getting much money for
it either.”
The other laughed. “What we found already
is good enough pay for me. And if we find the
other loot, we can live anyway we please.”
Nancy and her friends surmised that the men
would not search the Poet’s Nook again and re-
laxed slightly. But their hopes were dashed.
“How about it, Cobb?” the first man de-
manded. “Do we take out the wall or don’t we?”
“Okay,” the one addressed as Cobb replied.
“You go ahead. I’ll be with you in a minute.
Here’s the sledgehammer.”
CHAPTER XIV
Cinderella’s Slipper
Nancy, Bess, and George retreated deeper into
the shadows, but their hearts sank. The men were
sure to find them!
“I’ll be right there, Biggs,” Cobb called. “Just
want to see if there’s anything hidden in any of
these other niches.”
Biggs! The name electrified the girls. Hadn’t
Walter Heath mentioned the name Biggs in the
diary as that of a suspicious person? Could he be
the chauffeur, searching, perhaps, for the bottles
of dye his former employer had hidden?
The next moment a tall figure appeared in the
entrance of the niche with a sledgehammer. His
back was turned to the girls as he called out:
“Hurry up! I’m not going to do the heavy work
alone!”
At that instant the sound of running footsteps
could be heard. Startled, the speaker moved off in
their direction.
Nancy tiptoed forward and peered out. Biggs
was the man who had signaled from the tower!
Then she saw a boy who was racing toward the
two men. Teddy Hooper!
“Hey, come quick!” he shouted. “I’ve got
something to show you!”
Cobb was irritated. “You again!” he exclaimed.
“We told you to keep away from here!”
“But I’ve got something to tell you!”
“What is it?”
“First you pay me,” the boy replied.
“Get out of here and leave us alone!”
“Maybe we’d better hear what Teddy has to