"What's on the agenda today?" Bess asked lazily as she did her morning stretching exercises.
"I think when Mr. Podmore goes to open the store, we're going to have a look around his property," Nancy answered.
"Don't tell me you still suspect poor Mr. Podmore!"
Nancy raised her eyebrows but said nothing.
They ate breakfast hurriedly, eager to carry on their investigations. Jesse was not to be found. Apparently he had left very early, without informing anyone of his intentions.
"So much for being a team," said George.
The four girls were soon on the curving road that joined the Fisk residence to the Podmores' property.
"I wish we could have brought our spade with us," said Nancy. "It's just that if we met Mr. Podmore driving past it would be a little tricky explaining why we were carrying it."
"We could say we were going clam digging," offered George with a giggle.
"Anyway, I've got the portable one that came with the camping gear."
When they approached the Podmores' house they stepped off the road. Fortunately, there was enough dense shrubbery and trees to offer concealment.
"Well, make yourselves comfortable, girls," Nancy suggested. "It's only nine o'clock so Mr. Podmore shouldn't have gone to open his store yet, but we don't know if he has any place else to go this morning. It might be close to an hour before he leaves."
"So explain again why we're harassing poor… our unfortunate victim, Mr. Podmore." This was Bess asking, but the others were just as bemused.
Nancy smiled. She proceeded to explain. "Think of it this way. What's the difference between us finding the cave and being disappointed and us not knowing where the cave is?"
"If we didn't know where the cave was we'd be spending a whole lot of time looking."
"Precisely. And we'd be concentrating on Ivy's land, and in particular Fisk's Lookout. We'd be crawling over the rocks for days and days. You know that the ridge provides just a perfect spot to view Mr. Podmore's house and his dock."
"So the whole purpose of the trick was to prevent us from snooping on his activities, of a secret and no doubt nefarious nature." George grinned triumphantly.
"'Nefarious', yeah, something like that." Nancy smiled in turn. "He doesn't mind if we spend time at the cave for a day or two, but after that he wants us to be lying on the beach."
"What's on your mind, Ivy?" asked Bess, noticing the thoughtful expression on her friend's face.
"We were all thinking that the attempts to scare us off were to prevent us from finding the gold. But in fact it must have been Podmore who wanted us off the island as soon as possible to protect his criminal activities. When we didn't show any signs of leaving he thought up this scheme with the cave."
"Excellent, Ivy," enthused George. "We've got to bring you along on all our investigations."
"But there could be an innocent explanation," said Bess.
"There you go defending the guy again," said George.
"Bess is right," Nancy pointed out. "We have to find some evidence on him or all we have is guesswork."
"I wish I knew where Jesse got to," said Ivy.
"He's a responsible adult," noted Nancy. "We can't worry about him."
"Oh sure, 'responsible adult'!" was the response that came from George.
At a quarter to ten, Podmore's green truck roared past where the girls were in concealment. Mr. and Mrs. Podmore were both in the cab.
"He seems to be operating on schedule," said Bess.
George explained. "As far as he knows, his scheme worked perfectly, and we're all sitting around trying to find something else to amuse ourselves. So we'll let him think that as long as we can."
"By the way," said Ivy, "yesterday Horace asked me how our treasure hunt was going. I told him what a disappointment it was."
The girls stretched their legs. Nancy gave them their instructions. "I want you to walk slowly beside the road on either side, looking for any spot that might have been disturbed by digging recently."
The road was lined with slender trees. These were not the towering conifers of the forest but deciduous trees that had grown in quickly where the road construction had cleared space to either side of the road. Blackberry bushes grew thickly. There was no opening that looked very promising as a place to dig. It only took the girls a few minutes to reach the point where the long, steep driveway from the Podmores' house intersected the road. They carried on past this point for a hundred yards or so before Nancy called a halt to the proceedings.
"I really don't see anything. Well, I didn't think he would take the risk of digging so close to the road, even though there's so little traffic here. This place is so lush! It's really difficult to get past these trees and thickets without a trail. I saw one back there."
On the other side of the road opposite the driveway was a dirt path. The path couldn't have led very far because, of course, on the inland side of the road the rock slope rose steeply to Fisk's Lookout. The girls followed Nancy on the path. In minutes they were out of sight of the road.
George saw a patch of ground that was bare of plants. The exposed soil was also darker. She jogged over to stand on it. Immediately she felt it sagging beneath her. Nancy did not need an invitation to hastily assemble the spade in her small backpack.
"If there's going to be a dead body under there you'd better tell me or I'm going to scream." Ivy looked a bit wary.
Nancy smiled. "I doubt if it's going to be anything so dramatic."
Rapidly, the thin layer of loose soil covering a rectangular pit the size of a bed was scooped out.
"Shirts!" cried Bess. "Men's dress shirts, a pit full of them. I suppose this is what you were expecting, Nancy?"
"Not exactly, but I'm not surprised." She had to laugh, looking at the disbelieving faces of her friends. "Let's cover this stuff back up and get out of here. Then I'll explain."
The four companions retraced their steps. Along the way, Nancy revealed her thoughts. "You might think that this island is an isolated location, but only a little ways offshore, to the west, is a major shipping lane. Freighters going to major North American west coast ports pass by here all the time. Some of those freighters will make an 'unscheduled delivery'. A crate will slip overboard, a crate that contains something, shall we say, not on any official documents. A boat that's been waiting will speed towards the crate, hook it, probably rope it to the boat and drag it back to shore. It's important to get out of open water as quickly as possible in case there are any patrol boats or helicopters in the area. Once in a sheltered location, away from prying eyes, there's a chance to break open the crate, remove its contraband contents and dispose of the container."
"How do you know this stuff?" asked Ivy admiringly.
"It's my business to keep on top of news and information from the world of crime," Nancy replied casually. So accustomed was she to her investigative pursuits she often forgot how odd it must seem to someone new.
"Whoa, these are deeper waters than I expected," said George. The others could only nod in agreement. "But why not just dump the merchandise into the water?"
"I don't know, honestly," replied Nancy. "That's certainly the first thing that came to my mind. There could be reasons for it. These shirts may have come in plastic bags originally. They couldn't just be tossed into the water because they would have floated. Maybe even outside his house he was worried about being watched. He decided to bury them in the woods to be safe. I guess we're lucky."
"But what about the smuggled stuff? That wasn't back in the pit."
"No, it could have been, but Mr. Podmore is too cautious. He's either hidden it somewhere else or he's already passed it along."
"Then we still don't really have evidence, nothing that we could have him arrested for." George bit her lip as she thought.
"Nancy, do you know where he's hidden it?" Bess asked.
"I have an idea but it's only a guess."
"So you aren't going to keep us in suspense, are you?" said Bess.