The Mystery at Lilac Inn.

Carolyn Keene.

CHAPTER I.

Mysterious Canoe Mishap.

"NANCY Drew! How did you and Helen paddle that canoe up here so fast from River Heights?" cried Doris Drake in astonishment.

Nancy, an attractive t.i.tian blond, grinned up at her friend. Doris was weeding a flower garden at her home along the riverbank. "How do you know when we left home?" Nancy's blue eyes twinkled.

"My friend Phyl told me on the phone just half an hour ago that she'd talked with you, Nancy, at the Elite Drug Store in River Heights."

Nancy looked surprised. "She couldn't have. Helen and I were on our way here at that time."

Slender, pretty Helen Corning, three years older than Nancy, frowned. "You must have a double, Nancy. Better watch out!"

"I can't understand it," Nancy murmured. "You say Phyl talked to her and she didn't say it was a mistake?"

"That's right, Nancy," said Doris. "But Phyl was wrong, of course. After all, she doesn't know you terribly well. Say, where are you and Helen going?"

"To visit overnight with Emily Willoughby and her aunt at Lilac Inn. They're family friends. Emily and her fiance-we've never met him-have bought the inn, and Em tells me, plan to run it full time."

Helen added, "Nancy and I are to be Emily's bridesmaids. We'll talk over wedding plans."

"How wonderful!" Doris exclaimed.

Nancy and Helen said good-by and paddled off upstream. The Angus River, a tributary of the Muskoka, was banked on either side with dense shrubbery, willow trees, and wild flowers.

"We're almost to Benton," Nancy said. "The old inn should be just beyond the next bend."

The next second something rammed the canoe violently. The impact capsized the craft, hurling Nancy and Helen into the chilly May water!

Fortunately, the girls were excellent swimmers. Each instinctively grasped her buoyant, waterproof canvas traveling bag, bobbing nearby, and swam to a gra.s.sy bank.

"Whew!" said Nancy, as she dropped her bag to the ground. "Are you all right, Helen?"

Her friend nodded, shivering in her bedraggled shirt and slacks, despite the warm sun. "What made us capsize?"

The impact capsized the canoe Nancy shrugged. She kicked off her moccasins and plunged into the water again to find out, and to retrieve the canoe. It was drifting upside down a short distance away.

After righting the canoe, Nancy towed it to where they had overturned. She ducked her head beneath the unruffled surface, but saw nothing unusual in the twenty-foot-deep water.

"That's strange," she thought. "Maybe we hit a floating log." But this explanation did not fully satisfy her. A drifting log probably would be still in sight, and there was none.

Nancy pushed the canoe toward sh.o.r.e. Helen grabbed the stern, and pulled the canoe far enough up the bank so the girls could examine it. To their relief, it was undamaged.

"Did you see that man with the crew cut in the rowboat?" Helen asked, "No. Where?"

Helen pointed to a small, high dock fifty feet downstream. She said that while Nancy was swimming, the man had climbed from the water into a rowboat, glanced their way, then gone in the opposite direction.

"He didn't even try to help us!" Helen said indignantly. "Do you think maybe he upset our canoe?"

"I don't see how he could have." Nancy smiled. "But he has upset you. Let's go!"

The girls stepped back into the canoe and pad-died off. As they rounded the next bend, Helen cried, "There's the Lilac Inn dock!"

When the canoe came abreast of the dock, Nancy secured it to a post. The girls hopped out and started up the path that led to the inn. On both sides of the path were groves of lilac trees which displayed a profusion of blooms, from creamy white to deep purple.

As the girls gazed in delight, a voice called, "Nancy! Helen! I'm so glad to see you. But what, ever happened?"

"Emily! Pretend I'm hugging you," Nancy said with a laugh, and explained their accident.

Emily Willoughby, a dainty young woman, had chestnut-colored hair, set off to advantage by her white linen dress.

Beside her stood a handsome, well-built man with wavy, black hair. Nancy and Helen a.s.sumed the young man was her fiance, d.i.c.k Farnham, but Emily introduced him as John McBride, an old friend of d.i.c.k's.

"John is going to be d.i.c.k's best man," Emily explained.

John smiled cordially. "d.i.c.k and I were boyhood friends in California, and roommates at college. I'm an Army sergeant on a month's leave." He looked at the new arrivals with twinkling eyes. "Emily will tell you why I'm here. And I'm sure glad I am."

"Now don't go making up to my friends, John," Emily teased. "Helen is engaged to Jim Archer, who has a position with an oil company overseas, and Nancy-well, she's mighty busy these days."

The visitors laughed, as Emily added, "You girls change into dry clothes at once."

John carried their bags, as Emily led the way along a shrubbed path which opened onto the s.p.a.cious lawn surrounding Lilac Inn. Helen and Nancy looked with admiration at the historic hotel, erected in Revolutionary times.

"Here are the new guest cottages," Emily said, as they reached a group of twelve trim white units. "And this one is where you'll stay."

She unlocked the door of the second cottage and the friends stepped inside. John set down the bags. "See you girls later," he said.

As Helen admired the attractive colonial-style bedroom, Nancy noticed a look of anxiety in Emily's eyes. But the next instant it vanished.

Nancy and Helen listened with great interest while their friend said that she and d.i.c.k were enlarging the inn. "John has been a big help with our projects. d.i.c.k is in New York working on publicity for us."

"I'm sure Lilac Inn will be a bang-up success," Nancy told her.

"Oh, I hope so," Emily said. For a fleeting moment Nancy again detected a worried look in the young woman's eyes. Why?

Emily went on, "You're almost the first guests in our cottage section-John was first. He's staying near you. The official opening of the inn won't be until July first. That is, if we can complete everything by then," she added dubiously.

"If your aunt is here, Em, I'd love to see her," Nancy said.

"Aunt Hazel's been looking forward to seeing you. I'll tell her you've arrived. Come over to the inn after you've unpacked."

Nancy and Helen changed into pastel cotton dresses, put away the few belongings they had brought, then headed for the inn. As they walked across the lawn, they pa.s.sed gardeners who were pruning trees and cultivating flower beds edged with pansies.

"It's perfectly beautiful here," Helen remarked.

The girls went to the front of the inn, a two-story clapboard building with a one-level wing on either side. All around it were lilac trees and other flowering bushes. Nancy and Helen mounted the wide steps and entered the center hall. Its paneled walls, old staircase, and beautiful cut-gla.s.s chandelier made them feel as though they had stepped back into an earlier century.

The reservation desk was in an alcove off the hallway. John McBride was just putting a letter into the outgoing mail slot.

"Hi!" He grinned. "Ready for a tour of inspection ? Delighted to escort you."

"We accept." Helen smiled. "After Nancy and I say h.e.l.lo to Emily's Aunt Hazel."

Just then Emily entered the hall. "Aunt Hazel is-er-busy, but she'll be free in a few minutes. In the meantime, I must speak to Mr. Daly, the former owner of Lilac Inn. He's staying to manage the dining room, which we've kept open for business."

She led the girls to a narrow corridor which ran off the lobby. "Why don't you two wait for Aunt Hazel and me in my office? It's the fourth door down."

Nancy and Helen proceeded along the corridor. As they pa.s.sed the second door, which was partially open, the girls heard a familiar voice say: "I can't lend you any more money, Maud! Please don't ask me again!"

Before Nancy and Helen could retreat, Aunt Hazel Willoughby walked quickly from the room. She was followed by a younger woman who had an angry look on her rather pretty but petulant face.

"Nancy! Helen!" Emily's aunt exclaimed, stopping short. "How nice to see you both herel I'm so glad you can be Emily's attendants."

"We are too." Nancy smiled and Helen added, "Emily's going to be a lovely bride."

Mrs. Willoughby, a woman of fifty-five, beamed. White hair framed her face in soft waves, and she was impeccably groomed. She introduced her companion as Mrs. Maud Potter, and said she was to be the inn's social director for the summer.

"That sounds exciting," said Nancy pleasantly.

For a moment Maud's eyes narrowed. Then she tossed her head. "I may not be here July first!" she exploded, and walked away rapidly.

The girls, somewhat taken aback, looked inquiringly at Mrs. Willoughby. The older woman, fl.u.s.tered, made no explanation. She excused herself and hurried after Maud.

Nancy and Helen exchanged glances.

"What a way for a social director to act!" Helen said in disgust. "I wonder why the two women were quarreling about money."

At that moment Emily rejoined the girls and led them into her office. The room was cozy, with a braided rug and pine furniture. The desk in front of the window was cluttered with papers.

"d.i.c.k's!" Emily laughed. Then she sobered. "He is worried about finances, poor boy! So far he hasn't been able to raise as much capital as we need," she confided. "I had a hard time convincing him to agree to a certain idea of mine."

"Can you tell us about it?" Nancy asked.

Before Emily could answer, there was a cry of pain from somewhere in the garden. The three girls dashed outside through the front entrance.

Apparently one of the gardeners had stumbled into a large hole in a pathway being strewn with gravel. The man was moaning.

"Oh, Hank!" Emily gasped.

The girls hurried to his side and discovered that one of his legs had gone down through some soft earth.

"Pull me out!" the gardener demanded.

With the girls' a.s.sistance, Hank was freed.

"I hope your leg's not broken," Emily said solicitously.

Hank shook his head. "Just a bad sprain. I wasn't lookin' where I was goin'. What I can't figure out is how that hole got here. Queer things have been goin' on at this inn. I'm thinkin' of quit-tin'. Anyhow, I'm goin' home now."

"Oh, don't quit!" Emily cried.

Several other gardeners had rushed up. All denied having dug the hole. Emily asked one of them, a thin, narrow-eyed young man, named Gil Gary, to drive Hank to his house.

The other men returned to their work, but the girls remained at the site of the accident. Emily's face was troubled.

Nancy said impulsively, "Something's bothering you, Em. What is it?"

Emily's whispered reply astonished her friends. "d.i.c.k and I seem to have a mysterious enemy. He is trying to jinx Lilac Inn!"

CHAPTER II.

Strange Happenings A JINX on Lilac Inn! Nancy and Helen stared at Emily in astonishment.

"Tell us about it," Nancy urged her friend.

Emily sighed. "I will. I didn't want to worry Aunt Hazel, so I've kept my suspicions to myself."

The chestnut-haired girl said that four days ago her fiance had left for New York. Prior to that time, everything had been running smoothly at the inn. An hour after d.i.c.k's departure, one of the waitresses had come to Emily's office to give notice.

"When I asked her why she was dissatisfied, she said it was because the inn was-was haunted!"

"What did she mean?" Nancy asked.

Emily said she had not taken the statement seriously. "At the time I was sure the waitress, Mary Mason, was just making up an excuse for leaving. She packed and left on the bus to River Heights that day. Now I'm not so sure she hadn't seen something strange.

"Sunday morning Gil Gary reported that our finest lilac tree near the front entrance had been stolen. No ghost did that!"

"What a shame!" Helen exclaimed.

"Mr. Daly was heartbroken," Emily said unhappily. "Several years ago he rooted this lilac-the Lucie Baltet variety with a lovely pinkish flower. It was just beginning to blossom abundantly.

"The third strange occurrence," Emily continued, "was around twelve o'clock last night. I was awakened by the sound of music and traced it to our record player in the recreation room. No one was there."