Nancy carefully glanced about the room. Maurice Hale was looking over some stacks of counterfeit money while several members of the gang talked quietly. Bess and George automatically followed Nancy's gaze but stood perfectly still next to her near the table.
Nancy, under ordinary circumstances, could not have told the counterfeit money from the real thing-with the picture of Jackson on the face, and the White House on the back. But now that she had been alerted to examine the bills carefully, she noted that the color and texture of the paper appeared to be at fault. When Nancy felt sure that she was not being observed, she stealthily picked up one of the bills and tucked it inside her robe as evidence.
We made a pretty fair week's profit," Maurice Hale said gruffly as he stacked the bills into several large piles. You distributors and passers keep up like this for another month and I'd say we'll all be on Easy Street."
"The racket won't last another month," Al Snead growled. "I tell you, the federal agents are getting wise that the phony stuff's being passed around here."
"Bah!" Hale replied contemptuously. "Let them be suspicious! They wouldn't think of this out-of-the-way place as our headquarters in a thousand years!"
Nancy could not help but smile at his words. "That's what he thinks!"
The next voice that spoke startled Nancy. She recognized it instantly as belonging to Mr. Kent -the would-be buyer of Red Gate Farm!
"Yeah, maybe not," he was saying. "Still, it's too bad the old lady wouldn't sell her place. Then we'd really have a setup!"
It flashed through Nancy's mind that her hunch had been right about Mr. Kent being involved with the hillside cult. No wonder they wanted to obtain Red Gate Farm; it would have been a better headquarters for the gang than the cave.
The girl detective strained her ears as the conversation continued. A woman next to Kent said scornfully, "I only hope your bright idea about that fake letter we took to the Drew girl, and cutting the farm telephone wires, doesn't backfire."
So, Nancy told herself, it was Kent, and the woman who had just spoken, who were the ones responsible for that part of the mystery. Mr. Kent also was undoubtedly the driver of the car which had slowed down one evening near the farmhouse.
Meanwhile, the leader went on deftly stacking the money. Nancy and her friends watched him with increasing uneasiness. When the various members of the organization were called upon to accept their share of the counterfeit bills, they would doubtless remove their masks. How would the girls escape detection then?
Nancy realized the situation was becoming more serious. She and her friends must escape before the actual distribution of the money began. If only Al Snead would move away from the door!
One thought comforted Nancy. Joanne was on guard outside the cave. If worst came to worst and escape was cut off, Joanne undoubtedly would become alarmed and hurry back to the farmhouse for help.
"We may have to make a dash for it!" Nancy warned George in a whisper. "If that man moves away from the door, be ready!"
Al Snead did not move, however, and it seemed to the girls that he was watching them. They wondered if their whispering had made him suspicious.
Bess trembled slightly, and moved nearer Nancy. Maurice Hale had finished counting the money, and, glancing over the assembly, announced in a commanding voice:
"Well, those of you who haven't removed your masks had better do it one by one. I want to be sure no one is here who shouldn't be!" He pointed to Bess. "You first!"
Nancy and her friends felt themselves go cold. They were trapped! There was nothing they could do now but make a wild dash for safety.
"Ready!" Nancy muttered under her breath.
Before the girls could put their ideas into action, they were startled by a loud commotion in the tunnel. An instant later the guard, who had been stationed at the entrance of the cave, burst into the chamber. He was half dragging a young girl who fought violently to free herself. The victim was Joanne!
CHAPTER XVIIIPrisoners
Nancy's first impulse was to dash forward and try to help Joanne. But instantly she realized the foolishness of such an act. George half started toward Joanne, but Nancy restrained her.
"Wait!" she whispered tensely.
If the situation had been grave before, it was even more serious now. With Joanne captured there was no one to go for help! The girls must depend entirely on themselves to escape from the cave. No one at the farmhouse knew that they were doing anything more than watching the Black Snake Colony from a safe distance.
"Let me go!" Joanne cried, struggling to free herself.
"Where did she come from?" Maurice Hale demanded unpleasantly.
"I saw her hiding among the bushes," the guard informed him. "She was spying! But she got just a little too curious!"
"Spying, eh?" A harsh expression crossed the leader's face. "Well, we know what to do with snoopers!"
"It's all a mistake," Joanne murmured, on the verge of tears. "I didn't mean any harm. I'm Mrs. Byrd's granddaughter and I was merely curious to know more about the cult."
Even as Joanne spoke, her eyes traveled about the room, noting the stacks of money and the queer printing presses. She tried not to show that she understood their significance, but it was too late. The leader had seen her startled expression.
"So?" he drawled smartly. "This time your curiosity has been the means of getting you into serious trouble. You'll learn, by the time we get through with you, not to meddle in affairs that don't concern you!" He turned quickly to Snead.
"Al, see that no one leaves this room!"
"Yes, Chief," the guard answered.
Nancy wondered what he had in mind. Just then Maurice Hale continued in a cold, harsh voice:
"Just to make sure that other spies haven't been pulling a fast one on us, I'll have everyone remove his mask at once. Be mighty quick about it tool"
"No!" Bess whimpered aloud. Then, realizing what she had done, she covered her mouth and sank back against the wall.
All heads turned in her direction. Nancy and her friends had deliberately delayed in removing their masks, but now Nancy knew their effort to gain time was doomed. With Al Snead still blocking the door, things looked black. Most of the others already had stripped off their headgear.
In addition to Maurice Hale and Al Snead, Nancy immediately recognized Yvonne Wong and Pete, the man who had spoken to her on the train. Next she spotted Mr. Kent, and finally, the woman with the upswept hairdo who had brought her the faked letter.
"That woman's the same one I saw at the service station with the three men," Nancy thought. "If she hadn't changed her hair style, I might have recognized her the night she delivered the note."
The other unmasked members were strangers to Nancy. Tensely now she watched as the leader stood before Bess.
"Nothing to be afraid of, dear," he said, and gently lifted off the ghostly head covering. The next instant Maurice Hale practically shrieked, "A spy!"
His face contorted with rage, Maurice snatched the white cloth headpieces from George's face, then Nancy's. Their scheme was exposed to all the members of the counterfeit gang!
For an instant there was stunned silence, then angry cries arose from the Black Snake Colony members.
"They're the ones who bought the Blue Jade perfume from me!" Yvonne Wong shrieked.
Al Snead glared at Nancy. "Yeah. I knew something was wrong when you came into the office wearin' the Blue Jade. I smelled it, but didn't let on."
He then pointed accusingly toward Joanne. "That girl is the one who applied at our city office for a job! When she told me who she was and where she was from I knew she was the last person in the world we'd want to hire!"
"That crazy idea of yours about someone with farm experience," the leader cried. "We didn't need anybody to talk to our agents about cows and chickens-"
"But this place is in the country," Al Snead defended himself. "And in our codes we use a lot of that kind of lingo."