Mystery of the Ivory Charm Read Online Free PDF Page A

“George! Nancy!”
    Her cries went unanswered. A sudden fear gripped Bess. She was certain that Rishi and her friends were being held prisoners inside the old house. If she were to enter, she too might be captured!

CHAPTER V
    Hidden Rock Door
    “I’LL go for help!” Bess decided.
    Almost overcome with fear and anxiety, she raced down the trail toward Nancy’s convertible. Once she stumbled and fell headlong, tearing her slacks. She scrambled to her feet and ran on again.
    Reaching the car, Bess was relieved to find that Nancy had left her keys in the usual hidding place. Bess started the motor.
    “Where shall I go?” Bess wondered, starting to panic. She recalled having seen a farmhouse at the end of a nearby lane and decided to drive there for aid.
    In her excitement Bess stepped too hard on the gas pedal and the car leaped ahead with a jerk, which flung her against the wheel. She slowed down. The road twisted and turned in a bewildering maze and seemed to lead into even wilder country. To the right, a short distance from the road, a high cliff of boulders and jagged rocks loomed up.
    For an instant Bess’s attention was fixed on the unusual formation. Then she stiffened, uttering a sharp, terrified scream. Her imagination evidently had not tricked her into believing that the center of one boulder had moved.
    “It’s a man-made door hewn in the solid rock,” she thought, hardly daring to believe what she saw as the rock was slowly swung outward.
    Intent on the strange sight, Bess suddenly lost control of the steering wheel. The car careened wildly in the road, then pitched heavily into a rain-gutted ditch.
    The impact momentarily stunned the girl, but she recovered quickly and was relieved to discover that the car still stood on its four wheels, apparently undamaged.
    A moment later Bess cried out, “Oh—the cliff! A boy’s coming out of it!”
    He emerged hastily and pushed the rock door back in place. He ran down the steep embankment toward the girl.
    “Rishi!” Bess screamed, and then laughed in relief. “For an instant I thought you were a ghost!”
    “Rishi no ghost. Very much real.”
    “You nearly made me kill myself.”
    “Rishi sorry,” the boy murmured contritely. “You not hurt?”
    “No, I’m all right, thank goodness. But I wonder if I’ll ever be able to get Nancy’s car out of this ditch?”
    “Rishi push and it be all right, I think.” He ran to the rear of the car but Bess stopped him in his tracks.
    “First tell me if I’m dreaming,” she said. “Did I actually see you come through a rock door in that cliff?”
    Rishi nodded, politely waiting for another question from the girl before revealing any more information.
    “But you were investigating that old place when I saw you last!” Bess exclaimed in bewilderment. “How did you get here? And what became of Nancy and George?”
    “Rishi see no one in tunnel.”
    “You’ve been exploring a secret tunnel?” Bess demanded eagerly. “Does it lead from the abandoned house?”
    Again the boy nodded. His brown eyes danced with excitement as he tried to explain.
    “Rishi step through window in strange house. House have no insides.”
    “No insides? What do you mean?”
    Rishi seemed unable to make himself understood. He groped for words.
    “You mean it had no floor—no furniture?” Bess suggested.
    “Yes, no floor, no insides! Steps lead down into blackness. Then Rishi fall. Find himself at bottom of stone stairs. Long tunnel lead here. See light through crack. Push rock away.”

    “The rock!” Bess cried out. “A boy’s coming out of it!”
    Bess was bewildered by the boy’s story, but thought his adventure offered a clue to the whereabouts of Nancy and George. Either in descending the stone stairway they had met with a mishap similar to Rishi’s, or they had remained in the tunnel to investigate. Aware of Nancy’s love for mystery, Bess was inclined to favor the latter theory.
    “George and Nancy must be in