“Mr. Stryker is involved in this somehow,” Nancy insisted. “We’ve got to figure out how and why.”
“Curiouser and curiouser,” Aunt Elizabeth commented. The phone rang, and she rose to answer it in the hallway.
“It’s for you,” she said, motioning to Nancy. She covered the mouthpiece. “Mr. Tolchinsky,” she said with a wink, and handed the receiver to Nancy.
Nancy took the phone and said hello.
“Nancy, it’s James. Remember you asked for my help yesterday?”
“Yes,” Nancy replied, wondering what was on his mind.
“Well, I think I’ve got another clue for you,” he said.
“What is it?” Nancy asked eagerly.
“I’m not really sure,” James said. “Something I’ve found in the woods.”
“Can you tell me what it is?” Nancy begged.
“I could if I knew what it was,” James replied. “How soon can you get here?”
“Sooner than you think,” Nancy replied. She hung up the phone, grabbed George’s hand, and pulled her out the door. “We’ll be back!” she called.
“What’s going on?” George asked as they jumped into the car.
“I have no idea,” Nancy said, backing out of the driveway. “James Stanton has found something he thinks we should see.”
It didn’t take long to reach James’s house. Since the driveway was almost hidden from the road, Nancy slowed down as she searched for it.
She saw movement in the woods. Several yards away, Sarah was about to hop onto her bike.
Nancy saw that Sarah recognized her behind the wheel. The girl pedaled away quickly.
What was Sarah doing here? Nancy wondered. And did it have anything to do with what James had found in the woods?
12
There . . . and Gone!
James Stanton was waiting for them at the door to his house.
“We just saw Sarah Connor biking away,” Nancy told him when he joined them on the flagstone walk. “She looked guilty.”
James thought for a moment. “Is that the girl whose brother was killed?”
Nancy nodded.
“I’ve seen her around here a number of times,” James said. “She always looks guilty to me, too. But I just thought she was doing some kind of teenage thing. Teenagers often look guilty to me, I guess because lots of times they’re doing things they shouldn’t be.
“Now, wait a minute,” George said.
“Present company excluded, of course,” James said, grinning. “Now come on, let me show you what I’ve found. It’s in the stream.”
As they set off into the woods, he said, “I just don’t know what it is.” He pushed past some brush, and they were on the banks of the stream.
In the middle of the stream, held up by some wooden crossbars, was a coarsely made wooden structure several yards long and higher at one end than the other. It was shaped like a box, without the top lid, and lined with wire mesh.
“Any idea what that is?” James asked Nancy and George.
Nancy shook her head. She’d never seen anything like it before. It looked like an antique, except when she got closer she saw that the wood was new and still smelled of pine.
“Do you think your professor friend might know what it is?” James asked.
“That’s a great idea,” Nancy said. She turned to George. “Do you know where the college is? We could go over there and ask him.”
“My great-uncle was a professor there,” George responded. “We used to go for picnics on the grounds when we visited in the summer. I think I can find the way.”
They walked back to James’s house.
“Call me and let me know what you find out,” he said when they reached the car.
Nancy promised to call, and she and George hopped into the car.
On the way, George took a couple of wrong turns, but before long they drove through a gate in the brick walls of Fairport College. They parked in front of the main building and went in. A directory on the wall told them Professor Noble’s office was on the second floor.
“I hope he’s in,” Nancy said.
He was, sitting at his desk, writing. When he saw Nancy and George, he hopped up.
