Carolyn Keene - White Water Terror

“Huh?” Max seemed to be jerked away from his thoughts. “What did you say?”

Paula put her hands on her hips. “If you’d been listening,” she said, “you’d know. I asked you and Ned to inventory the food. Mercedes, there’s a tarp in the raft. Better get it out-Tod will give you a hand. The tarp might come in handy if it rains tonight. Ralph, get the flashlight and the lantern.” She fished in her pocket. “Bess?”

“Yes?”

“Here’s a compass. I’m giving you the job of checking our direction so we don’t end up wandering in circles. When we get to the top of the cliff, I’ll show you how to read it. Okay?”

“Well, okay,” Bess said. “I mean, I’m not very good at things like that, but-”

“You’ll do fine,” Paula said shortly. She picked up her red-and-black plaid jacket and slung it over her shoulder. “Okay, everybody. Let’s break camp! Take what you need to keep warm and dry, but don’t take anything that you don’t want to carry for the next two days!”

The cliff wasn’t quite as steep as it had looked from below. Bushes and small trees grew in the rocky rubble, and the hikers found plenty of hand- and footholds.

“I want you to climb in front of me, Nancy,” Ned said as they got ready. “That way, if you slip, I’m right behind you.”

The climb took the group almost two hours. The rocks were soft and crumbling from exposure to the weather, and Nancy had to concentrate on where she put her feet. Above her, Bess and George moved up carefully, pressing close to the steep slope. Nobody said much.

They were almost at the top when Nancy heard a scream from below, then the sound of loose rock sliding and the babble of frantic voices.

“What’s happening?” Nancy called to Ned.

“I think it’s Linda,” he said anxiously, peering down. He pulled a coil of rope from his shoulder. “Hey, down there! Do you need a hand?”

It took three of them-Ralph, Max, and Ned-to hoist Linda to the top. The others were there already, sprawled on the rocky ground, breathless and weary from the climb.

“She’s going to be all right. It’s only a sprain,” Paula said brusquely, probing Linda’s ankle with her fingers. “Too bad we don’t have any ice for it.”

“It hurts,” Linda moaned. “I don’t think I can walk.”

“You’ll be okay,” Ralph comforted her. “I’ll help you.”

Ned came out of the woods with a long branch. “We can make a crutch out of “this,” he said.

After a few minutes, Linda’s crutch was ready and the group started out, following Paula. Bess, with the compass, was right behind her.

“We’re going northeast,” Paula told them, before they started. “Since there’s no trail, and the terrain is so rough, we’ll be moving slowly. We don’t want anybody getting lost.”

Nancy nodded, and she and the others set out through the woods. At every step, huge swarms of mosquitoes flew up, and Nancy had to keep swatting them. The sweat poured off her face in little rivers.

“Some vacation,” George grunted as she pushed up a vine and tried to crawl under it. “I’ll have to call our travel agent when we get home. I think we got into the wrong contest.”

“Either that,” Nancy said, half chuckling, “or we won the wrong prize.”

George swallowed a giggle. “Do you suppose Paula knows where’s she’s going?” she asked, peering through the tangle of underbrush. “I’d hate to walk through this stuff twice .”

“Hey!” Ned kidded. “How can you doubt her? After all, she’s got Bess right beside her, carrying our one and only compass.”

“That’s exactly what I’m worried about,” George said.

It was nearly noon by the time they stopped for lunch in a large clearing. The sun filtered through the dense trees, and Bess took off her jacket and tossed it on a nearby rock. She was eating a sandwich, her knees pulled up wearily, her back to a tree, when Nancy sat down beside her.

“Tired?” Nancy asked, taking a bite of her own sandwich. It was the last of the peanut butter, and there was only enough bread for one more meal.

“You know it.” Bess sighed. “Paula’s in good shape, and keeping up with her in these woods is tough.”

“I don’t suppose you’ve found out anything about her,” Nancy said, lowering her voice and looking around to be sure she wasn’t overheard.

Bess shook her head. “I’ve tried talking to her, but she won’t say a word. I did notice Max watching her in a funny way, though. It’s as if he knows something about her that the rest of us don’t.”

“Yeah, I noticed that, too,” Nancy said. She finished her sandwich and stood up, brushing herself off. “And maybe now is a good time to ask him about it.” But everybody else was finishing lunch, too, and Nancy didn’t have a chance.

“Will you get the compass?” Paula asked Bess just then. “I want to check our direction before we get started again.”

“Sure,” Bess said, reaching for her jacket, which was spread out on the rock. She felt in the pocket. Then her face went white. Frantically she began to search the other pockets as well.

“What’s wrong?” Paula snapped. “Where’s the compass?”

“I don’t know!” Bess exclaimed, sitting down limply on the rock. “It’s not in my pocket and I know it was there before lunch. The compass is gone-now we’ll never find our way out of here!”

“Gone?” George gasped. “You lost the compass? I can’t believe it. Bess Marvin, you are so incredibly careless.”

“But I wasn’t careless!” Bess wailed, holding her jacket like a shield against her. “It was here. Somebody must have taken it!”

Nancy glanced at the others. Mike, Tod, and Ralph, were staring at Bess, grim faced. It was obvious that they agreed with George: Bess had lost the compass. Sammy, Linda, and Mercedes had their arms around one another, and Linda was sobbing. They seemed to think that George was right, too. But Max was watching Paula, and he wore the same odd look on his face that Nancy had seen earlier.

What was just as interesting was that Paula seemed to be aware of his gaze. She kept her head turned away from him, and her cheeks were flushed.

She looked darkly at Bess. “Without that compass, I don’t know if we will find the trail,” she said. “These woods are really confusing. We could walk around in circles for a week!”

“What’s going to happen?” Sammy whispered. “Are we going to die here?”

“Nancy Drew is supposed to be the expert in finding things out,” Paula said. “Why don’t you ask her?”

“Wait a minute!” George shouted. “Nancy doesn’t know anything about the woods. You’re supposed to be that expert!”

“Yeah, well, you can’t expect me to be much of an expert without a compass,” Paula growled.

“Nancy, I have to talk to you,” Ned said quietly, coming up behind her. He pulled her into the woods. “Bess didn’t lose the compass,” he said when they were out of earshot. “I saw who took it!”

Nancy waited expectantly.

“It was Paula ,” said Ned, mystified. “She waited until she thought nobody was watching, and she took it out of Bess’s pocket.”

“Paula!” Nancy exclaimed. “Why would she do that?”

Ned shook his head. “I don’t know. But I wasn’t the only one who saw her take it. Max did, too. And it was funny: I was surprised, but I don’t think Max was. I think he half suspected that Paula might try something.”

“I saw him give her a strange look this morning, after we discovered the raft. Maybe he suspected then that she had wrecked it. I think he’s been keeping an eye on her all day.”