9
Fiery Chamber
Unfortunate for George, nobody noticed her disappearance until ten minutes later.
The first one to notice something was Joe. He had a strange feeling that something was wrong. He, Frank, and Ned were waiting at the lounge when Nancy came downstairs. "Where's George?" he asked the girl detective.
Nancy looked around. "I thought she was with you guys."
Ned thought for a moment. "She went inside first and we went a few seconds after her. She wasn't in the lobby, so I thought she went to her room. Frank, Joe, and I waited here when you came in and ran up the stairs."
"I was just getting my magnifying glass. I didn't see George in my room."
This stunned Frank. "We have to find her!"
The group quickly went outside. Nancy went to the place where she had last been and looked down. She saw a set of footprints belonging to a pair of shoes worn by a woman. She knew it belonged to George. She then saw that someone had dragged George into the orange farm!
"That person couldn't have gone too far," Frank said. "It's only been ten minutes since George disappeared."
The detectives followed the two lines. The orange farm was quite huge. Nancy saw many trees, but only half of them had oranges on it. The foursome ran faster, hoping that George was safe.
"That kidnapper must have moved pretty slow, since he was carrying George with him and couldn't run very fast. We are running at approximately twelve miles per hour and the kidnapper must have dragged George at the rate of three to four miles per hour, judging from the tracks made," Frank said. "Which means we'll catch on to the kidnapper any time now…"
Joe smelt the sickening odor of burning wood when they ran for a few minutes. His instinct told him that George was in danger. The detectives came to a burning cabin in the farm. It was half covered with flame.
"Who could've done this?" Ned asked, looking for something to put the fire out with. He noticed a hose nearby. Turning on the knob, he blasted cold water straight toward the flame.
It was not much help. The flame spread quickly than the detectives expected, and it was devouring the small cabin.
Suddenly, Joe noticed something on the ground nearby the cabin. His eyes got huge with surprise. It was a shoe belonging to George!
"It must have fallen off as the captor dragged her into the cabin!" Frank deduced. "That means George is still in there!"
"But the flame's spreading out too quickly!" Nancy said, raising her arms up to her face to cover the heat produced by the fire and to protect her face from the fire.
Joe didn't hesitate. He took the hose and pointed straight toward himself and turned the nozzle. Immediately, a blast of cold water shot out and down Joe's head to his shoe. Now, he was completely soaked. Taking a huge breath of air, he ran straight into the fire!
"Joe!" Frank shouted in astonishment. "It's too dangerous! You'll kill yourself!"
By the time Frank shouted out the last word, the fire covered the cabin completely. Its deadly heat and gas blanketed the small wooden shed and was about to make it collapse onto two hapless detectives who were in the shed!
George was tied down and was unable to move. The handkerchief covering her mouth prevented her from shouting, and she coughed each time she took a small breath. Her body couldn't take the heat, and her lung couldn't take the gas. Would it be the end of the brunette?
Joe was surprised to find out how big the shed was inside. Even though it looked like a one-room cabin, there were actually four rooms, each carrying some equipment used to harvest the fruit grown in the farm. And he spotted two feet in the room right beyond the open door.
Knowing it was George, Joe dashed into the room. Everything in the room but the floor was ablaze, and, fortunately, George was lying down on the floor, safe from fire. At least, she was temporarily safe from fire, but she was inhaling the toxic gas produced.
George opened her eyes, hoping to find Burt Eddleton coming to rescue her from the fire, but she saw Joe hurrying toward her, kicking the burning equipments away as he went toward her. George raised her eyes and saw that the ceiling was about to collapse! Joe took the handkerchief off her mouth so she could speak. The first thing she shouted was, "Look out! The ceiling's going to collapse!"
And it did. But Joe and George were in the other room when it fell down. Unfortunately, the room they went to was not the one with the door; it was the one facing the cliff. Joe ran into that room because all three other rooms' ceilings had collapsed, and there was no way for the two of them to escape.
But the last standing room was about to collapse as well. Joe and George exchanged nervous glances. Above them was the burning ceiling that could fall down any moment. In front of them was a room completely covered with fire. Around them was the toxic gas. And behind them was a cliff approximately thirty feet above sea level.
Joe searched his pockets and took out a Swiss army knife he was always carrying with him. He used it to cut the rope binding George's wrists and ankles. George was even more surprised when she understood what she and Joe were about to do.
They were going to jump off the cliff.
George looked down and saw the Atlantic Ocean. She had grown seeing and loving the ocean back in River Heights, but when she saw it now, it seemed scarier than ever. Joe was thinking the same thing, but he knew this was the only way to escape.
"Ready?" Joe asked George with a grin.
"Ready when you are," George replied, returning his grin.
"Alright… One, two…Jump!" Joe shouted. Together, the two jumped into the ocean below just as the ceiling of the room they were in collapsed.
Frank, Nancy, and Ned were desperately trying to put the flames out. But all they could do was spray water using the small gardening hose used to water flowers and grass. When the fire would go out, the two in the shed would be dead for sure.
The detectives hoped that Joe and George would come out of the fire, but when the ceilings collapsed at once, they just watched in despair and shock. The fire was still spreading throughout the shed, and as time passed, it grew larger. That was when they heard a loud splashing sound. It sounded like something had fallen into the ocean beneath the cliff!
The three teenagers quickly went to see what happened. They saw two figures splashing in the water, trying to reach the shore. "Nancy!" shouted one of the figures. It was George!
Frank shouted, "Hang on! We'll be right there!"
A few minutes later, the three teenagers went to the spot where the two teenagers had jumped in. Frank used the gardening hose to bring the two to the shore. George gasped for air when she reached the shore.
"What happened, George?" questioned Nancy. "And are you all right?"
George took a deep breath. "Yeah, I'm all right. As for what happened, I don't really know." She looked at the burning cabin. "All I know is that when I went outside, I saw a shoeprint near the hotel. I thought it could have been made by someone within twenty-four hours. Then, I was hit on the head and knocked out. When I opened my eyes, I was in the burning shed with my hands and feet tied and my mouth covered with the handkerchief."
"A shoeprint?" Nancy asked.
Frank said, "Maybe George was almost killed because she found the shoeprint. That means it could be a vital clue! Let's go back to the bed-and-breakfast and see for ourselves."
Back at the inn, the detectives looked at the place where George had been earlier, but no shoeprint could be found. George went to the exact place where she had seen it, but someone had erased the shoeprint cleanly, leaving no clue for the detectives after all. Because Joe and George were wet, the two decided to change clothes and then search Sam Cantu's room later.
Frank, Ned, and Nancy decided to wait downstairs by Sam's room while Joe and George went to change their clothes. When they were upstairs, George smiled at Joe and said, "Thanks for what you did, Joe."
Joe looked stunned for a moment, but then grinned. "It's what I do best!"
A few minutes later, the detectives knocked on the door to see if Mrs. Morley was in her room. She was, and she greeted the detectives with a smile and asked if they needed anything. Nancy returned the key of Christina's room back and asked if they could borrow the key of Sam Cantu's room. The middle-aged lady nodded and gave them the key.
All the furniture in the room was identical to those in Christina's room. The detectives searched the drawers and suitcases for clues.
The detectives talked for a while and decided that Nancy should search the bathroom. George decided to look in the cabinet. Ned went and looked in the drawers. Frank searched the bed, and Joe looked in the suitcase.
The detectives continued their search without a word spoken from anyone.
Nancy opened the compartment in which people usually stored their toiletries and found nothing unusual.
George looked in the cabinet, but all she could find were suits and ties hanging from the hangers. She decided to look into the pockets of the suits.
Ned opened all three of the drawers. He found many documents and books. "I hope this won't take long," he said.
Frank looked under the mattresses. He didn't find anything interesting and decided to look under the sheets. He again found nothing.
Joe opened the suitcase and found clothes and toiletries neatly put away. He took the clothes away and searched the bottom of the suitcase. The reason he did so was because he heard about the people who hid important objects in hidden compartments. When he felt the bottom of the suitcase, he noticed something odd.
"There seems to be a false bottom," he muttered.
The detective needed a way to open the barrier that prevented him from seeing what was inside the hidden compartment. When he flipped the suitcase upside down, he found that there was a small drawer under the suitcase. He pulled the small knob sticking out from the suitcase.
A secret compartment came out like a drawer.
Joe called to Frank and the dark-haired detective came to see what his brother had found. Inside the drawer there were many letters bundled up.
None of the letters seemed suspicious, so he put them back, but a small, black envelope fell out of the bunch, and it caught the two brothers' attention.
It was about five inches by seven inches. There was no sender or recipient's address, so they opened it. When they opened it, they saw a chilling message written on the black sheet of paper. The message was spelled with letters cut out of magazines, like the threatening notes sent to people so the sender's handwriting could not be verified.
The letters were all in black fonts. The Hardys deduced that they were cut out from newspaper articles and advertisements. Joe slowly read the message, remembering every word of it:
"You will pay for what you did, Samuel Cantu. You will pay…"
Postscript: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. The keywords for the next chapter are: threat, blackmail, dangers en route.