"On the night the lawn caught fire I saw Mr. Podmore taking anxious glances at the cabin. At the time I thought he was worried about a historic building going up in flames, but now I'm guessing he had something stashed in there. There's another thing too. We thought that the fire was another scare tactic but maybe the intent was to get Jesse off the front lawn where he was close enough to see the cabin."

"But there's hardly anything in there!" Bess objected.

The girls were back on Ivy's property. Ivy went to borrow the key to the cabin from her father. Nancy said, "I'm afraid I'm out of clues. We'll just have to search all the likely spots. There aren't very many. Ivy, you go and check to see if the wardrobe has a false bottom or top. George, look for a secret space in the walls. Don't forget the bottom molding. Bess, check the fireplace carefully. I'll see if any of the floor planks lifts up."

Everyone set to work noiselessly on their assigned task. Bess went over to the fireplace and looked over the bricks in minute detail. When she reached the left side she spotted something that caught her attention. She pressed her fingertips into the joints above and below a brick and pulled. The brick slid out. Behind was revealed a rectangular space built into the fireplace. It was empty.

"Alright, Bess!" George enthused. Nancy came over and examined the fireplace. She saw that the dust on the mantle had been smeared. On her keychain was a tiny flashlight. She clicked this on and filled the secret compartment with light.

Bright sunlight swept into the room. The door was opened and Horace Eberhart stood on the threshold. "What are you girls doing here?" He glowered at them.

They watched each other warily until the silence was broken by Ivy. "We were walking past when we thought we heard a noise, so we went in to investigate."

"What, a raccoon? A bear?"

"Well, there's nothing in here."

"What's that on the floor?" Horace indicated the loose brick. Not pausing for an answer he peered down at the dark compartment in the fireplace. "What the heck is this?"

"We thought maybe you knew," Nancy ventured to say.

He shook his head in evident disdain. "No, you're the detective. I'm not one for secrets." To Nancy's relief, he was not paying any particular attention to her. The girls had the feeling that Horace was looking over them to see if they were concealing anything that might have been inside the secret compartment. As they were dressed for summer weather it was quite impossible for them to hide anything of substantial size.

"Well, if you don't know anything about it, and if we don't know anything about it, then there's not much to be said," Nancy pointed out.

Horace shrugged. "It's your cabin."

"Do you think he's putting on an act, or what?" wondered George when they were out of hearing range.

"He could be working for Podmore," Nancy speculated. "That would make it easy for them to get into the cabin. All I know is that the bags have been removed."

"Bags?"

Nancy nodded. "I'm just guessing that from the impressions they left in the dust on the mantle. We don't know who took them or when they did. If Podmore took them he must be passing them along soon, or why remove them from their hiding place."

"How did anyone know about that empty space behind the brick?" Bess wondered.

"That's easy," Ivy answered. "Horace could have done the work himself, taking out the bricks and creating the space. He's had ten years!"

George argued, "The space could have been original with the fireplace. Podmore could have found it when he was researching his book. He must have had a good look at the cabin then."

"Yes, and that's when Podmore could have gotten the key to the cabin," Nancy noted. "Remember that he cuts keys in his store."

"Why didn't he hide it in his own house?" Ivy wondered.

"There are such things as search warrants," George answered.

"It's time I brought the police into this. I know there's no police on Catriola Island but there's a Royal Canadian Mounted Police detachment on Haine Island. The problem is there's no hard evidence. Anybody could have dug that pit, and all we found were shirts. Now we have an empty secret compartment but we don't know who's been using it or what they put there."

They were sitting at the table after enjoying lunch when Jesse sauntered in. "It smells good in here. Anything left for me?" Without waiting for much of a reply he picked up a plate and began helping himself. "Guess where I've been." When no one answered his question he answered it himself. "Hey, I got onboard Podmore's boat."

"That's trespassing!" groaned Ivy.

"I don't know any of that nautical stuff, so I couldn't learn anything from his notes and charts," he said between mouthfuls of fettuccine. "But I took photos of everything in case."

"Podmore is a careful man," Nancy reminded him. "If he leaves anything lying around it probably isn't important."

Nancy outlined to Jesse her theories about Podmore and what they had been doing that morning. Jesse was more than quick to think the worst of Podmore.

"I saw a small notebook. It had names and phone numbers in it. I should have copied them down. I bet the police would like to get their hands on that information."

"Oh," said George sarcastically, "you're thinking of getting the police involved. I thought you were going to play hero and arrest the whole operation yourself."

"Now that would be cool."

"Don't even think about it," warned Nancy.

"Oh, definitely not, not with America's teen sleuth around."

They loaded the photos Jesse took on his digital camera into Mr. Fisk's laptop. After they had looked through them, Nancy concluded, "Mr. Podmore keeps a record of his boat trips but there isn't anything from the last two weeks."

"Maybe the boat's more for show than for go," offered Bess.

"Unfortunately, lack of evidence doesn't mean very much."

Nancy made the telephone call to the police that evening. Her friends found her looking glum. "I talked to a Corporal Robinson of the R.C.M.P. detachment in Medwell Bay a few minutes ago. He pretty well gave me the brush-off. He didn't seem interested at all. I'm not surprised. It's just as I said: we have only suspicions, no evidence. I'm not sure what we know about this case anymore."