"Here's one that's in a straight line from my home in River Heights," she decided and read more about it.

Apparently the swamp was an unusual place. There was a hilltop in the center of a large circular area, which was wooded but mucky. The text said that it was impossible to drive through the swamp. The only way to explore it was either on horseback or on foot in high boots.

"But one must watch carefully for dangerous spots that seem to have no bottom," she read. "There are many rotted logs, some of them under the slimy water."

Nancy reread the paragraph. "It sounds like a good place to avoid," she thought, but immediately decided nothing would keep her away if there was any chance of going in and rescuing Ned.

She returned to the fraternity house just as students were coming in for the lunch hour. Bess, George, Burt, and Dave met her.

"A letter for Burt Eddleton," one of the students sang out.

Burt went to get it from the pile of recently delivered mail on the hall table. He looked at the envelope, then excitedly brought it to show to his friends.

"This is from Ned!" he whispered. "And here on the outside in another handwriting someone has written 'Found on road near Arbutus.' "

"Where is Arbutus?" Bess asked.

No one could answer her question.

Dave said, "Open it."

Quickly Burt slit the envelope and took out the enclosed note. In a hastily scrawled handwriting Ned had written, "Don't know where I am. Prisoner of red-haired nut."

At once there were conjectures about who the red-haired nut was. Could he be Crosson or perhaps someone else connected with a Cyclops gang?

Bess spoke up. "I still want to know where Arbutus is."

Nancy's trip to the college library suddenly paid off. "I remember now. It's a small town fairly close to the swamp that I've decided to investigate."

Dave asked how far it was from Emerson.

Nancy replied, "Not far. Let's go to Arbutus in my car right after lunch. We can take it as close as possible to the swamp and then walk the rest of the way."

"The rest of the way to where?" Bess asked.

George spoke up. "The place where Ned may be a prisoner, silly!" she chided her cousin.

Burt stared at the girls' feet. "I hope you brought hiking boots. You'll need them to slosh through a swamp."

Ruefully the girls said they had not packed any, but they would go anyway. Burt winked at Dave but said nothing. An hour later three pairs of men's small-size hiking boots, borrowed from short students in the fraternity house, stood in the guest room.

As Burt drove the group toward Arbutus, they discussed the case again. George wondered how Ned's note had got onto the road. She even suggested that it might have been planted there to lure Ned's friends to a place where they might become prisoners.

"In that case, we'd better not go," said Bess. "Nancy, what do you think?"

The young detective was inclined to believe that in some way Ned had managed to tuck the note in a crack on the outer wall of the mysterious copter.

"He hoped it would fall off while the whirlybird was in flight, and drop where somebody would find it."

"I'll bet you're right," said Dave.

They reached Arbutus, and obtained directions at a gas station to a road which led directly to the swampy area. The attendant looked at them strangely and finally warned the group that the place was dangerous. "People have been known to lose their lives in there."

"We'll watch our step," Nancy a.s.sured him. Burt drove as far as he dared, then parked. They all got out and started off on foot. Even before they reached the woods, the path became almost impa.s.sable.

It would not have been possible to proceed in anything but hiking boots. The group was so busy watching the ground that there was no conversation.

Then suddenly Dave cried out, "Look! There goes a copter."

It had risen from behind the hilltop ahead and now flew away. The hikers stopped short. The same thought ran through the minds of everyone. Was Ned aboard the helicopter?

CHAPTER XI.

Wilderness Cabin

As the copter turned and flew off, George said, "Come on! Let's follow that pilot!"

Bess looked at her cousin in amazement. "How would you do that?" she asked. "I didn't bring my wings."

The others laughed but Nancy's eyes were focused on the direction the helicopter had taken. It was going in a westerly direction. Where would it land?

Burt spoke up. "Maybe that craft isn't connected with your mystery case, Nancy."

"You could be right," she replied. "But the copter certainly looked like the one that landed on my front lawn. We never could follow it, though. Let's go on to the swamp."

They finally came to the edge of the mucky area and trudged up the hill, which, according to what Nancy had read, stood in the center of the swamp.

The incline was steep. Low-growing bushes and trees, partially withered, grew here and there on the hillside. A lot of shalelike rock made the climb hazardous.

Presently Bess stopped. "This is positively the worst hike I have ever taken."

Her cousin George teased, "It's going to be worse on the other side. Cheer up!"

When the group reached the top of the hill, they surveyed the landscape in front of them. The swamp below looked wider than the one through which they had just come.

When they reached it, the young people also found it was much more treacherous than the other one. They sloshed along in ankle-deep mud, then stopped to wash it off whenever they came to clear pools of water.

It was comparatively still in the wooded swamp, but suddenly a crow took off from the ground with a screech. It landed in a treetop and cawed raucously.

Nancy smiled. "I guess he's warning the flock that there are intruders on his premises."

Though the going was rough, the group did not think about the arduous hike. They became interested in the beauty of nature around them.

"Look over there!" said Dave. "A ringneck pheasant."

The large iridescent bird with the white ring of feathers around its neck did not stir from the log on which it was standing, its long tail sweeping out behind.