An Instinct For Trouble Part 12

"And you managed to get Richard and Piker hired as maintenance men in spite of their forged references," Nancy guessed.

"You hear that, guys?" Jack said mockingly.

"She's onto you."

"Come on, enough chitchat," Richard said.

"Let's pack up and get out of here."

Anger flashed across Jack's handsome face.

"I'm the one who makes the decisions around here," he growled. "Get those cages into the truck. I'll make our guest comfortable."

While Piker and Richard started carrying cages out of the cabin, he took some rope and tied Nancy's wrists behind her back, then tugged her toward a door in the comer of the room.

"Hey, Prof," he called, shoving it open, "here's some company for you."

Trainey was sitting on the floor of the small storeroom, his hands tied behind his back. His face was caked with dried blood from a gash on his forehead. "Are you all right?" she asked as Jack pushed her down beside him.

He nodded. "I'm sorry they got you, too,"

he said in a low voice.

"I'm sorry we got either of you," Jack cut in.

"I don't like complications. I did my best to convince you to stay out of our way. But you wouldn't listen, so you have to pay the price."

Keep him talking, Nancy told herself. "How did you manage to steal so many marmots?"

she asked.

"Easy!" Jack bragged. "I had Piker and Richard steal some cages, then I got a printout of the transmitter signals. I knew the counts were done in the afternoon, so we started trapping right after dark on Tuesday and worked all night. We hauled them up here and removed the transmitters long before the col- lege crowd was even awake."

"You missed Spike," Nancy commented.

"Spike," Jack spat out. "That friend of yours is really something. She is cute, though, I've got to give her that."

Nancy wanted to punch him.

Just then Piker and Richard returned for more cages. As they gathered up a second load, Professor Trainey asked, "Why did you try to kill Brad?"

Jack scowled. "I didn't," he said, robbing the scar on the back of his hand. "All I wanted to do was discourage him, so I rigged the stove."

"But you were giving a slide show during the time it was sabotaged," Nancy said.

Jack gave her a self-satisfied smile. "Hey, that's right. I guess I didn't do it after all!"

Nancy thought quickly. "Alicia used the stove to make hot chocolate at about six- thirty, and Brad came on duty at seven-thirty.

So the stove had been rigged by then."

Jack leaned back against the door frame.

"You're pretty good. Nancy. But you should have checked that out more. The narration for the show was taped. I started it, then slipped back to the campsite."

Nancy nodded.

"Borrowing the professor's coat and hat was a nice touch, you've got to admit," he went on.

"If anyone saw me, they'd suspect it was him."

"Except for the fact that one of the time- lapse cameras caught you leaving the hut,"

Trainey said dryly. "The moment I saw it, I realized it was you who had tampered with the stove."

Nancy turned to Trainey. "How? I found the picture in your tent but couldn't tell who it was."

"I had an advantage over you. Nancy,"

Trainey explained. "I remembered that Jack had been bitten on the nose by a marmot and wore a bandage for a few days."

"The white spot!" Nancy gasped. "So that's what it was."

There was a loud crash outside, and Jack rushed out the door.

The moment he was out of sight. Nancy started struggling against her rope. Pain shot through her wrists, and she could tell she was getting nowhere. "How did he capture you?"

she asked Professor Trainey.

"Sheer stupidity," he replied. "When I saw that picture, I got mad and rushed off to find him. I met up with him at feeding station two, which is near here. He hit me, and when I came to I was in this cabin."

Jack returned with Piker. "Okay, let's go,"

he said, and grabbed Trainey by the front of his shirt and pulled him to his feet. Nancy managed to stand up on her own.

To distract Jack, she asked, "Were you the one who pushed me off the platform and tried to run me off the road?"

"Not guilty," he replied. "That was Rich- ard. He knocked out your boyfriend, too. Ned walked in while Richard was stealing the tran- quilizer."

"You're a real bunch of creeps," Trainey lashed out.

"Calm down, professor," Jack told him. "I gave you all plenty of warnings. I even put a note on Nancy's windshield. Why didn't you pay attention? It's all your own fault. Okay, Piker, grab that roll of tape and a flashlight."

"Where are you taking us?" Nancy asked as Jack shoved her and Trainey toward the door.

"I want to show you one of Yellowstone's natural wonders," he replied blandly, taking the pistol from his belt.

He and Piker forced them to march up the hill behind the cabin while Richard walked off toward the truck. The fog had thickened. Even with the flashlight, it was impossible to see more than a few yards ahead.

They reached the crest of the hill and started down. At the foot of it. Nancy stopped abrupt- ly. Just ahead was a large crack in the earth, a dark, ominous ribbon snaking its way across the ground.

"What's that?" Nancy asked Trainey, trying to hide the fright she felt.

"It looks like a runoff fissure," Trainey said.

"Every geyser has one. It's the path the heated water takes after being shot into the air. It comes down the side of the geyser cone, col- lects, and runs along the fissure to under- ground pools."

"Exactly, Professor," Jack said.

While Jack held the gun. Piker taped Nancy's ankles together, then picked her up and wedged her down into the fissure. Trainey was lowered next to her.

"Come on. Piker," Jack said. "We've got to finish loading the truck. Let's get out of here."

"Wait," Nancy cried, but there was no response. "Professor Trainey?" she asked.

"What's going to happen?"

Trainey's voice was grave. "If I have my bearings right, the water from Princess Geyser takes this path down the hill." He stared at Nancy. "It erupts every two hours or so."

"You mean this fissure could fill up with boiling water soon?"

Trainey closed his eyes. "That's right."

A sudden hissing noise broke the silence.

Nancy gasped. It was the geyser! Any minute they'd be scalded to death!

Chapter Fifteen.

Nancy shut her eyes and concentrated on rubbing the ropes on her wrist against a rough place on the fissure wall. Was it her imagina- tion or could she feel one of them give just a bit?

Besides her, Trainey groaned.

She twisted her right arm, trying to get added leverage against the rope. She was sure that her skin was raw by now.

The hissing grew louder. Nancy saw the glitter of reflected moonlight on rushing water below where she was wedged. Damp steam rose and enveloped her. With a desperate yank, she managed to pull one hand out of the looped rope, then free the other. She let the rope fall.

"Listen, Professor, I've got my hands free.

I'm going to try to climb out, then pull you to safety."

"Good luck," Trainey said.

Nancy noticed the rotten egg smell of sul- phur. Her eyes were stinging. Cautiously, she brought her arms around in front of her and pressed her palms against the opposite wall of the fissure, then moved her knees up a couple of inches.

"We're running out of time," Trainey gasped. "The water is rising too quickly."

"I know." Nancy patiently worked her knees and hands upward. Her arm and leg muscles threatened to cramp, but at last one hand touched the top of the fissure. She grabbed hold, then quickly twisted, swinging her other hand to the other lip, just above where her head had been. Before her lower body could slide down into the crevice, she hoisted herself up. For a minute her feet dangled dangerously near the bubbling water at the bottom of the fissure.

Then she thrust herself onto the edge and rolled away. She took a deep breath, tore the tape off her ankles, then leaned over to unbind Trainey's hands and feet.

The professor was panting by the time she'd talked him through the maneuvers that al- lowed him to climb out of the fissure.

"We got out just in time," Trainey said, once he'd caught his breath. He looked back at the crevice. The boiling current was halfway up the walls now. "Thanks to you. Nancy."

"We can talk later," Nancy said. "Right now, we've got to stop that shipment from going out."

Nancy raced up the hill with Trainey behind her. Reaching the crest, she abruptly skidded to a stop. "Can you make it back to the campsite?" she asked.

Trainey nodded.

"Good!" Nancy said. "Go get help. Martin Robbins or his men have to be around here somewhere."

"What about you?" Trainey asked.

"I'm going back to the cabin."

As the professor veered off in the direction of the campsite. Nancy crept down the hill toward the dark shape of the cabin.

She dashed to one side of it and crouched against the wall. Cautiously, she poked her head out. Richard and Piker were on the trail in front of the cabin, heading downhill toward the road. Both carried cages of marmots.

Where was Jack?

Her pulse leapt as she heard footsteps be- hind her. Someone was coming! Nancy stood up and turned to find herself staring into Ned's eyes.

He threw his arms around her. "Nancy!" he whispered. "Are you all right?"

"I am now," she replied, returning his hug.

"How did you find me?"

"I was in the woods and ran into the profes- sor," Ned explained.

"We've got to stop that shipment from leav- ing," Nancy said urgently. She risked a quick peek in the window. Her heart sank. Only a few cages were still inside. There was no time to wait for reinforcements-they'd have to act alone. "Follow me to the truck," she whis- pered to Ned.

They crept quietly around the far side of it.

"Now we wait," she told Ned.

In a few moments Richard and Piker came down the hill. "I'm glad that's over," Piker said.

The two men climbed into the back of the truck. Nancy and Ned raced up, slammed the doors shut, and pulled the metal latch into place. Richard and Piker began to shout and pound on the door, but there was nothing they could do. They were trapped.