"There was a bad accident," the girl replied. "The witch girl was in it!"

Bess and George glanced at each other and hurried toward the couple who had just arrived. They were afraid that the accident referred to involved Nancy and Ned.

"Please tell us in English what happened!" Bess begged the young woman.

"The witch girl-she flew into the air!"

The Amish girl went on to say that her younger brother had been racing with the carriage in which she was riding when they saw a couple in a buggy ahead of them. There was no time to slow down, and as they pa.s.sed, their vehicle had sc.r.a.ped the wheels of the other carriage. It had overturned, and the couple had seemed to fly out of it!

George was impatient. "What made you call her a witch girl?"

"Because she disappeared," the Amish girl replied in an awed tone. "After the accident, we stopped and went back and looked in the field where the couple were thrown. They were not there!"

"Oh, it must have been Nancy and Ned. They would surely have been here by now if something hadn't happened!" Bess wailed.

George, Bess, Burt, and Dave decided that they must go to the scene of the accident at once. After asking directions, the four hurried off in their car to the field where Nancy and Ned were reported to have disappeared. The open buggy was there, still overturned, but nothing else was in sight.

"My guess is that Nancy and Ned weren't badly hurt," Burt said. "Perhaps the horse ran off and they went to look for him."

Dave agreed and added, "Maybe they returned to Glicks' to report the accident."

The group drove to their host's home, but when they arrived they were told that Nancy and Ned had not come back. Alarmed, Mr. Glick contacted the hospital, but the admitting clerk reported that neither Nancy Drew nor Ned Nickerson had come in for treatment.

"Maybe the police came by and picked them up in a patrol car," Mrs. Glick suggested. They all waited anxiously as her husband got in touch with the police. They knew nothing about the accident but said they would investigate immediately.

"What could have happened to them?" Bess asked.

"Perhaps Nancy and Ned stopped somewhere to freshen up." Burt spoke up. "Right now I bet they're having a good time at the square dance!"

"Good thinking!" George exclaimed. "Let's go back and find out."

After telling the Glicks that they would let them know the outcome, the four young people drove to the Fischer farm. They rushed into the building.

Inside, Bess stepped onto a bench along the wall so that she could look over the dancers' heads. Every couple on the floor was Amish and Nancy and Ned were nowhere in sight!

"Oh, Dave!" she cried, looking down at her date. "What will we do?"

CHAPTER XI.

The Vanished Driver

AT this very moment about three miles away the missing couple were on a sleuthing mission. Nancy and Ned were astride the horse he had hired for the evening. They were riding along a lonely road in complete darkness. The animal still wore its blinders. Nancy, seated in front of Ned, held the reins firmly.

A short distance ahead of the unsaddled horse and its two riders was an Amish carriage being pulled by a black horse. The couple were trailing it, hoping their horse's hoofbeats were not being heard.

Ned leaned forward and whispered into Nancy's ear, "You're sure that's the stolen carriage with some of Mrs. Follett's missing furniture in it?"

"I'm almost positive," Nancy said softly.

"And you feel well enough to go on," Ned asked her solicitously. "Not faint or anything?"

Nancy a.s.sured him she was fine. "I can't miss this chance to nab Roger Hoelt!"

Suddenly the carriage they were following turned into a wooded road.

"This may be a trick," Nancy warned, "if the driver knows we're following him."

The girl pulled gently on the reins to slow the horse's gait. Meanwhile, the carriage ahead stopped and its driver got out. Nancy reined in their mount, turning him into the woods.

From among the trees, she and Ned could see a moving light along the road. Was the driver looking for them? As the light played about the nearby area, the hidden couple hardly dared to breathe. Nancy patted the horse soothingly to keep him from pawing the ground or making any sound.

In a few minutes the man turned, retraced his steps, got back in his carriage, and rode off. Nancy and Ned took up the trail again, hoping the hoofbeats of the man's horse would drown out those of their mount.

"I'm sure that fellow knows he's being followed," Nancy said. "We'd better watch out. He may try to trap us!"

Just then the man's horse began to gallop and the carriage swayed from side to side. Nancy and Ned expected it to turn over at any moment.

"That fellow must be crazy to drive so fast," Ned said, "or else he's trying to lose us."

He nudged their horse and it began to run, bringing them closer. After a chase of a quarter of a mile, the carriage stopped abruptly, blocked by a stream. The vehicle swayed a moment but did not go over.

"You stay here," Ned ordered, sliding off the horse. "I'll go ahead and find out what's going on."

Nancy insisted upon following Ned. After securing the horse's reins to a tree trunk, they tiptoed forward, hidden in the shadows of the trees. In a few minutes they reached the carriage.

No one was in it!

"Where did the driver go?" Ned said softly.

Nancy was listening to detect any sound in the nearby woods that might indicate where the man was. She could hear nothing but the chirping of crickets.

"Ned," she whispered, "will you stand guard while I examine the furniture in the carriage? I want to be sure it's part of the Follett collection."

"Go ahead," he urged.

The pieces of furniture were small, and Nancy lifted them out of the vehicle and carried them, one by one, to the carriage lamps to look them over. Each resembled items on Mrs. Tenney's list, but there was no way to identify them positively as the stolen articles.

Disappointed, Nancy had returned all but one piece, which she now examined. It was a small ha.s.sock with mahogany legs and a pet.i.t-point top with a design of red roses and festoons of green leaves. It fitted the description of a footstool taken from the Follett mansion!

"Ned," Nancy whispered, excited. "We're surely on the right track. This is exactly like one of the stolen pieces on the inventory. And this horse is black, like the one Hoelt took. I think we have enough evidence to report him to the police."

"Great!" Ned exclaimed, but he reminded her that by the time they could get to a phone, the thief might return and drive away with the evidence.

Nancy nodded. "You're right. Then we'll have to take the horse and carriage with us!" she declared. "You ride the horse and I'll drive the buggy."