The Clue Of The Whistling Bagpipes Part 20

Nancy crept out of her blanket, stood up, and scanned the mountainside. The moon was already out full, bathing Ben Nevis in a brilliant white glow. On a ridge, some distance below the summit and partially screened by mist, Nancy saw the silhouette of a piper. The whistling sound had stopped and now the figure vanished.

Had the piper been a phantom or a real person?

Nancy recalled that when she had heard the bagpipes whistle before, the truck she suspected of carrying stolen sheep had whizzed past Mrs. Drummond's croft. Was the whistling she had just heard a signal that all was clear to move out the sheep the girls had seen in the glen?

"There's no way of my stopping them!" Nancy told herself ruefully. "Even if all we campers climbed the mountain to find out, it's so far we'd be too late."

She chafed under her helpless position, but finally sheer weariness overcame her and she dropped off to sleep.

Nancy was awake early-before anyone else. When she saw Fiona stirring a bit later, she told the Scottish girl what she had heard the night before. "Would you go up to that same shoulder of Ben Nevis with me?"

"Of course!"

When the girls reached the crest, they hurried down the other side to look down into the glen. Not one sheep was in sight!

"Oh, dear!" Fiona exclaimed. "Your hunch yesterday may have been right, Nancy."

"Let's go see if we can find any clues," Nancy urged.

On the way, Fiona remarked that Scottish flocks are allowed to wander at will around the mountainside. "So we might yet see the missing sheep."

When the girls reached the glen, there was still no sign of animals or persons around. Nancy did notice a crude, tiny croft, and thought perhaps it belonged to the shepherd.

"We'll call on him," she said.

The two walked over and knocked on the door, but there was no response. Fiona suggested that the croft might be empty, and tried the door. It was not locked. She opened it and the girls walked in. They saw a cot, a table, and a small quant.i.ty of food in a cupboard. There were ashes in the fireplace.

"Someone certainly has been staying here," Nancy remarked.

Feeling like intruders, Nancy and Fiona were about to leave when Nancy's eye was attracted to an open book on the table. She stepped closer for a second look. It was a Gaelic dictionary. Underlined on the exposed page was the word mall!

"Fiona, this was one of the words in that strange message in Mr. Dewar's hotel room!"

Quickly Nancy began looking through the dictionary for other words in the message.

"Here's rathad!" she said excitedly. "It's underlined too!"

Next she found dig, glas, slat, long, bean, ball, gun, ail. All had been marked!

CHAPTER XVI.

Charge Against Nancy

IT took both Nancy and Fiona a few moments to realize what a great discovery they had made. Then the Scottish girl asked, "Will you tell all this to the police?"

"Yes, indeed, and also what happened at Mrs. Drummond's." Nancy's brow furrowed in concentration. "Fiona, I wonder if the words 'highway ditch' in the message could mean a particular road on which the thieves travel."

Fiona looked surprised. "I thought you had decided it meant Mr. Dewar or one of his friends was to force your car into the ditch."

"That was only a guess. And my new theory is too. I wish I could decipher 'lock rod' and 'wife member without stamp.'"

Nancy decided to leave the dictionary open at the page bearing the word mall so as not to alert the person staying in the cabin that anyone had been there. Nancy picked up the book to turn the pages and suddenly gasped.

Underneath it lay a paper with her autograph!

"What's the matter?" Fiona asked.

Nancy explained and her Scottish friend looked worried. "Then the man who bought your autograph from the little boy in River Heights is using this croft as a hideout."

Nancy was in a quandary. Although pieces of the puzzle were beginning to fall into place, she was now doubly worried about her involvement in the mystery. "I'm positive now that Paul Petrie or someone working with him has my autograph to use for an illegal purpose."

Again Nancy's thoughts flew to the word "wife" in the strange message. Was somebody's wife impersonating Nancy and using her signature?

The young sleuth wondered what to do. If she removed the piece of paper, the occupant of the croft would be put on guard and might run away and warn his friends to vanish also.

"This is too good a chance to miss for the authorities to capture one of the men red-handed," Nancy decided. "I'll leave the paper."

She replaced it on the table and covered the autograph with the open dictionary. Before leaving the croft, the two girls peered cautiously outside. No one was in sight, so they hastened up the slope and down the other side to the river. All the campers were awake and breakfast preparations were under way.

"Nancy! Fiona!" cried Bess and George together, when the two appeared. Bess added, "Where have you been? Everybody has been looking for you!"

"I'm sorry," said Nancy.

She quickly whispered her exciting news to the cousins. They were astounded and glad to start back for Douglas House directly after breakfast.

When they reached the estate, the girls found Lady Douglas walking in the garden. She was surprised at their early return and exclaimed, "Don't tell me you have solved the mystery!"

"No, Great-Grandmother," Nancy replied. "But we think we have a valuable clue. I want to report to the police immediately."

Lady Douglas' face clouded. "The police want to speak with you also, Nancy. I'm afraid I have disturbing news for you."

The elderly woman said that a telephone call had come from the local superintendent. "When they told me why they wanted to get in touch with you, I said the whole thing was utterly preposterous. The very idea of their being suspicious of you!"

Nancy took her great-grandmother's arm and said, "They are suspicious of me! What about?"

Lady Douglas explained that recently a number of worthless checks for large amounts had been cashed in Scotland. The signature had been traced to the girl whose picture was on the cover of PhotographieInternationale.

Nancy's face was grim. "So my autograph has been dishonestly used-by a forger!"

She now told Lady Douglas about the man who had purchased her signature from the little boy and how she had found it in the croft.

"This is more serious than I thought," said Lady Douglas. "I told the superintendent he had no right even to mention this to you, but he was insistent, so I finally promised him you would call the office as soon as you arrived and explain the matter yourself."

"Excuse me, please," said Nancy, and ran into the house.