Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion by Carolyn Keene

a suspicious person, I would think something wrong was going on there.”
    Mr. Scarlett’s eyes narrowed angrily. “Nonsense.”
    “Then why are you refusing to let me see it?”
    Mr. Scarlett bit his lip. “Oh, all right,” he said. “I don’t have time to show you the place myself.” He opened the drawer and took out a key with the letter W cut into it. A tag marked Webster was attached. “Here you are,” he said icily. “But if anything is missing or disturbed, you’ll be held responsible.”
    “I understand,” Nancy said.
    She took the key and joined Bess and George. They said good-by to the cleaning woman and went out to the car. Nancy drove directly to the lovely house on the Indian River and the three girls went in.
    “How wonderful!” Bess exclaimed, after looking around. “It’s even nicer inside than outside.”
    Nancy too was charmed by the place, which was attractively furnished. The walls of the modern Spanish-type rooms were artistically decorated. In this warm climate the whole place had an air of coolness and true hospitality.
    “I don’t see anything the matter with this house,” said George. “Mr. Scarlett’s opinion is for the birds.” The others agreed and all of them wondered why the realtor had tried to discourage them.
    Suddenly they were startled by the same chilling scream they had heard when looking over the grounds with Mrs. Nickerson.
    “There it is again!” Bess murmured. “Ugh! I wouldn’t want to live here with that gross thing next door.”
    “Let’s find out what it is!” Nancy urged.
    “Not me,” Bess said firmly.
    “Don’t be chicken,” George chided her cousin.
    Reluctantly Bess went outside and Nancy locked the door. The girls hurried toward the heavy wire-mesh fence. There was another scream, followed by a snarl.
    “It’s a wild animal!” Bess whispered. “We’d better run!”

CHAPTER IX
    Jungle Threat
    “No, Bess,” said Nancy. “If Dad decides to buy this place, we must know what’s going on next door. And I plan to find out right now. Let’s walk along the shore and investigate.”
    Though Bess was fearful, she followed the others along the fence. It ran onto a peninsula beyond the Webster property. At the riverfront the fence turned left abruptly.
    There was no bulkhead along the water and the earth was muddy and slippery. After a few steps Nancy, Bess, and George decided to take off their shoes and carry them. They rolled up their slacks knee-length and started across the swampy ground.
    “Watch your step!” Bess warned. “No telling what we might step on—a lizard, snake or—Oh!”
    She lost her balance but managed after a few gyrations with her arms to right herself. “I knew I shouldn’t have come,” she complained.
    Moments later the girls reached the corner of the steel-mesh fence near the far side of the peninsula. It turned left again. The three trekked alongside through the mass of trees and bushes. They found it helpful to use the steel wire for support.
    The girls had not gone far before they realized this was a real jungle. Going barelegged and bare-foot did not seem safe, so the three friends put their shoes back on and rolled down their slacks.
    “When will we get to the end of this?” Bess asked impatiently. Nancy said she judged it could not be much farther to the street.
    The next moment the girls stood stock-still. From inside the grounds had come a loud roar.
    “That’s a lion!” George exclaimed. “Maybe this is a zoo.”
    Nancy said it was certainly not a public one.
    “If it were,” she surmised, “I’m sure Mrs. Nickerson would have known about it and told us. Besides, we’d have seen signs posted.”
    She and George pushed ahead, with Bess at their heels, terror-stricken. She suddenly gave a cry and pointed inside the fence.
    A group of large African animals was galloping among the trees toward the girls. Roars, growls, and hisses filled the air. The big beasts, having scented the newcomers, pawed