The Swami's Ring by Carolyn Keene

looks of things, I’d say he might have left voluntarily.”
    George flashed an I-told-you-so glance at her cousin.
    “Do you suppose he could have gone back to the hospital for some reason?” Bess suggested.
    “Now why would he do that?” George muttered.
    As she spoke, the policeman was examining a spot on the carpet which the others had overlooked near the entranceway.
    “Chloroform,” he said crisply.
    His listeners gasped. “Then Cliff was kidnapped!” Bess exclaimed.
    “But the front door was locked when we got here,” George pointed out.
    “Maybe Cliff recognized the person and let him in,” Hannah put in.
    “Or maybe—” the policeman said, heading for the back door. Bess and the others trailed after him. “Just as I thought,” the young officer concluded. He pointed to a hole in the kitchen screen door.
    The cousins now stepped outside, pinning their eyes to the ground for footprints.
    “There! Look there!” George cried as prints loomed from the driveway. They traveled across the dampened grass to the back steps.
    “He must’ve been very tall,” Bess said, observing the long stride and large footprints.
     
    While the mystery of Cliffs disappearance had not been resolved, Nancy, too, was seeking an answer to freedom. She twisted her arms, causing the rope to cut into her wrists, but steeled herself against the pain, looking for something, anything with which to sever the rope.
    There! she gasped, spotting a thick nail that protruded from the base of the wall. It wasn’t much, but it might work!
    The young captive pulled close, hooking the rope over the iron head. Back and forth she rubbed the twine, hoping to wear down the strong threads, but they held firm.
    I’ll never get out of here! Nancy moaned.
    Her arms ached now, and she lay back against the wall, intending to relax only for a minute, but instead falling fast asleep. When she awoke, two birds were chirping on the window ledge above and the sky had begun to lighten.
    Morning had come, and Nancy had lost precious time in her search for Ned. Although the hours of rest had given her renewed energy, her body felt stiff and she longed for freedom even more.
    Again she worked on the rope, stopping only when she heard the sound of footsteps outside the cabin.
    Was it her captor? the girl wondered.
    Panic-stricken, she froze and quietly lifted the rope off the nail.
    Who is it? she thought anxiously as the door creaked open, revealing muddy sneakers and blue jeans.
    “Ned!” she cried happily.
    “Nancy, are you all right?” he asked immediately.
    As Nancy spouted several questions, Ned began cutting the rope at her feet with a penknife. The rope binding Nancy’s wrists did not sever so easily, but after several minutes of steady pressure, it, too, came free.
    “Your wrists—” Ned murmured when he saw the deep red bruises.
    “I’m fine,” Nancy insisted, even though she felt a twinge of pain. “Really I am, Ned.”
    But the boy suspected otherwise.
    “Forget me. Tell me what happened to you,” the girl went on. She got to her feet slowly, with Ned’s help.
    “They dumped me in another shelter a few yards from here,” he said, adding, “I still have a throbbing headache from the chloroform.”
    “They must’ve given you an extra dose,” Nancy commented. “I didn’t see who the men were. Did you?”
    “Nope, and so far as I know they never came to check on me.”
    Nancy paused momentarily as they stepped outside into the sunlight. “I just don’t get it—why us?” she said.
    “Maybe someone doesn’t want us to find the retreat,” Ned suggested, a thought that had occurred to Nancy as well.
    “But why?” she repeated. “Retreats are places for quiet and meditation, not for trouble.”
    Nancy linked her arm into Ned‘s, leaning on him until the stiffness in her legs had passed. Although she would have liked to continue the hunt for the swami’s retreat, she knew that she must get home quickly. The Drew