The Secret of Red Gate Farm by Carolyn Keene Page B

see shadowy white figures flitting about in the moonlight.
    “Ghosts!” Bess exclaimed.
    “Ghosts nothing,” George retorted. “There’s no such animal!”
    “Don’t be alarmed,” Joanne said with a smile. “I imagine the members of the nature cult are having one of their festive airings by the light of the moon!”
    The girls watched the cult members go through their mystic rites.
    “They’re not doing much of anything,” Nancy observed, “except flapping around.”
    Within ten minutes the ceremony apparently was concluded. The white figures clustered together for a moment, then moved off across the hillside.
    “I wonder where they’re heading,” Nancy mused. “Back to their tents?”
    Joanne had been watching intently. Now she shook her head. “I don’t think so. I forgot to tell you—the cave has another opening on the slope of the hill, near the river. The colony members are going in that direction.”
    Immediately Nancy’s curiosity was aroused. Did this mean the white-robed group intended to go into the cave itself? If so, why? To continue the ceremony?
    “It certainly was a short performance,” Bess remarked as the mysterious “dancers” vanished from sight. “I wonder if the ritual has any significance.”
    “That’s what I’d like to know,” Nancy said quietly. “And that’s what we must find out!”
    “Not tonight!” Joanne said firmly. “Grandmother will be very upset if we don’t come right back.”
    Reluctantly Nancy gave up the idea. The girls started for the farmhouse, but Nancy kept looking back over her shoulder, determined not to miss anything. However, the hillside remained uninhabited and still.
    As the girls drew near the road, the motor of a car broke the silence and headlights appeared. The automobile slowed down in front of the farmhouse as if about to stop. Then suddenly the car went on. Why? Nancy wondered. Had the driver seen the girls and changed his mind?

CHAPTER IX
    Black Snake Colony Member
    NANCY was too far away from the car to see its driver or license plate. Thoughtfully she went to bed, but lay awake for some time, feeling completely baffled over the many mysterious happenings.
    By morning she felt eager for action. Ever since her arrival at Red Gate Farm, Nancy had wanted to visit the cavern on the hillside. The strange moonlight ceremony and the unidentified car which had hesitated in front of the house only intensified her interest in the place.
    She broached the subject of a visit there to Mrs. Byrd, but Joanne’s grandmother frowned on the idea. “I’ll worry if you go,” she said. “Those folks are probably harmless, but we don’t know much about them. I wish now I had never rented the land. The neighbors are saying I was foolish to do it in the first place.”
    “And so you were!” Mrs. Salisbury, who had overheard the conversation, chimed in. “You’ll ruin the value of your farm. Why, people around are saying dreadful things about the members of that cult. Even Reuben is afraid to go near the place!”
    “I’m not,” Nancy announced. “I think it would be fun to investigate.”
    Mrs. Salisbury snorted. “Fun! Girls these days have strange ideas of fun! First thing you know, Mrs. Byrd, she’ll be wanting to join the colony!”
    “Nonsense.” Mrs. Byrd smiled.
    In order to avoid further dissension, Nancy dropped the subject of the cave. But that afternoon she set out alone on a hike. Making her way to the woods which skirted the river, Nancy struck a well-worn path and decided to continue along it.
    She had walked only a short way when the sound of a faint cry came to her. Nancy halted in the path and listened intently. The cry was not repeated.
    “Maybe I imagined it,” she said to herself.
    Nevertheless, Nancy quickened her pace, looking about her as she walked. As she rounded a bend a few minutes later, she was startled to see a woman hunched over on the ground, writhing in pain.
    “What’s the matter?” Nancy cried out,