“Don’t you think we should turn back, Helen? It’s getting dreadfully dark out here on the lake and I don’t like the look of those big black clouds.” As Nancy Drew addressed her chum, Helen Corning, sh...

As the motorboat settled into the lake, Nancy Drew leaped clear and began to tread water. Her first thought was for her chum. What had become of her? Nancy Drew was an excellent swimmer. But, as Nancy...

Grimly, Nancy Drew applied herself to the oars, although she feared her efforts would be useless in the end. Her arms ached and she was desperately tired. Chilled to the bone by the raw wind, hands nu...

“Do you think Laura Pendleton will visit us this afternoon, Nancy?” Helen Corning, who was reclining on a camp cot in the little cabin which she shared with Nancy Drew, asked the question. “I certainl...

Early the following afternoon, Nancy Drew and Helen Corning, faithful to their promise, boarded a launch which made regular passenger trips, and were ferried to the Lakeside Hotel. “I wonder if Laura’...

In the mad, happy whirl of camp life, Nancy Drew and Helen Corning were kept so busy that they had little time to think of Laura Pendleton and her troubles. At first, Nancy had been inclined to worry ...

With a loud crash, the stricken pine tree fell across the road, directly in front of the blue roadster. The trunk struck the earth less than half a dozen yards from where Nancy Drew had brought the au...

It was nearly six o’clock when Nancy Drew’s mud-splattered roadster finally reached River Heights and turned in at the driveway of the Drew residence. With a sigh of relief the two girls climbed from ...

At breakfast the following morning, Nancy Drew was gratified to observe that Laura Pendleton appeared happier and less nervous than on the night before. A little color had crept into her thin cheeks, ...

Abandoning her automobile, Nancy Drew hurried across the road and without an instant’s hesitation plunged into the thicket where she had just caught a fleeting glimpse of a man she believed to be Jaco...

“What are you doing here?” Jacob Aborn repeated harshly. His eyes burned with rage, and for an instant Nancy Drew believed that he intended to strike her. With as much dignity as she could command, sh...

Not until she had reached the blue roadster which stood waiting at the edge of the forest did Nancy Drew pause in her flight. As she climbed into the automobile, she cast a glance over her shoulder an...

As Nancy Drew crouched in the dark closet, she heard the door slam and knew that someone had entered Laura Pendleton’s room. At first, in an agony of suspense, the girl remained motionless in her hidi...

Stealing quietly into the living room, Nancy Drew paused at the foot of the stairway. Although eager to find out what Jacob Aborn was doing on the floor above, she told herself that it would be rash t...

For an instant, Nancy Drew was spellbound. Her eyes dilated with fear, she stood like a stone image, gazing down into the face of Jacob Aborn. How had the rascal reached the bungalow ahead of her? Wha...

When Nancy Drew heard the cry for help, she no longer considered her own safety. The thought that someone might be in pain drove her to action. Summoning all her courage, she hurried to the cellar doo...

The warning came too late. Before Nancy Drew could turn, the butt of a revolver crashed down upon her head. With a low moan of pain, she sagged to the floor and lay still. How long she remained uncons...

A deathlike quiet fell upon the old bungalow. Nancy Drew and Jacob Aborn stared at each other in despair. Stumpy Dowd had dared to carry out his threat. He had left them in the cellar to starve. Faste...

Nancy Drew urged Jacob Aborn to make haste, for she little realized to what desperate physical straits his long imprisonment had brought him. At the exultation of being free of his bonds, he had leape...

Leaving Jacob Aborn behind, Nancy Drew turned and ran from the bungalow. As she sped swiftly down the path, she passed the garage and halted long enough to glance inside. Stumpy’s racing car was gone....

Not without misgiving, Laura Pendleton stood at the window of the Carson Drew residence and watched Nancy start off for Melrose Lake in her roadster. “Perhaps I shouldn’t have allowed her to take that...

Nancy Drew could scarcely believe her ears when she heard an answering shout from the automobile which had halted near her roadster. She recognized the voice of her father. With a cry of joy, she spra...

As Nancy Drew recognized Stumpy Dowd in the racing car directly ahead, she remembered her promise to her father and pulled to the side of the road. Carson Drew flashed by in the brown sedan. He, too, ...

“I am afraid⁠—” began Carson Drew, but did not finish the sentence. Instead, he leaned over Stumpy Dowd and placed his fingers on the man’s pulse. “Is⁠—is he dead?” Nancy asked fearfully, after a few ...

Nancy Drew and her father did not forget their promise to call again at Jacob Aborn’s bungalow, and the following Sunday afternoon found them on the way to Melrose Lake. They started directly after a ...