Sadly the Amish woman admitted that she did not know. She had never heard of such a place.

"If Manda was trying to find it," said Nancy, "where would she go to get information about it?"

Mrs. Kreutz replied that there was one very old man in the neighborhood who might be able to help. "He knows about everything that took place long ago," she said. "I have never heard of any new storehouses, so this place must have been used years ago."

"Who is this man and where does he live?" Nancy asked eagerly.

"He's GroeszdawdiEsch," Mrs. Kreutz answered. "He lives in one end of a three-generation house."

Bess wanted to know what this was, and Mrs. Kreutz explained that in Amish country, families rarely separate. Sometimes a man will build a house on part of his property for a son about to be married. "Other parents," she said, "build a wing onto the main house, and the father and mother move into it when one of the sons marries."

"And where does the third house come in?" Bess asked.

Mrs. Kreutz said it was hard to explain this in English. Anyway, there were three houses attached, each smaller than the one beside it. In the smallest house lived the grandfather, in the center building was the father, and in the largest house was the grandson and his family.

"GroeszdawdiEsch lives in the smallest house," she said. Pointing in a northwesterly direction, she added, "If you could fly like a crow, you would hit on it."

"I'm sure we can find it," Nancy said. "And now we had better go before your husband returns."

Mrs. Kreutz said yes. He had gone to a cow sale to sell the ugly bull that had attacked him, but he probably would be home any minute. The girls hurried outside, climbed into the car, and drove off.

They found the Esch farm with little trouble. As they reached the barn they were surprised to see a dozen Amish carriages a.s.sembled. "There must be a party going on," Nancy said.

At that moment a young boy carrying a bucket of apple parings dashed out of a small stone building. He dumped the contents of the pail into the pigsty.

"I'll bet this is an apple schnitzing," Bess remarked.

Realizing that GroeszdawdiEsch and everyone else on the farm would be in the kettle house, Nancy and Bess got out of the car and went directly there.

"Doesn't it smell heavenly!" said Bess as she sniffed the spicy aroma coming from the building.

Nancy and Bess stepped inside and watched the busy scene with fascination. Seated on chairs and apple crates were several men and women, old and young. Each one held a metal, box-shaped apple parer on his lap. It worked with a quick turn of the handle and rapidly took the skin off the apple. Next, the fruit was cored and put into large kettles, which were lifted into a warm oven. Here the moisture would be baked out.

Several minutes pa.s.sed before the girls were noticed. Then a young woman left her work and came over to ask if she could be of a.s.sistance to them. Nancy stated that she had come to talk to GroeszdawdiEsch.

"I will get him," the woman offered.

Presently an elderly man with snow-white hair and beard approached them. He had kindly blue eyes, and despite his advanced age was tall and erect.

The old man smiled pleasantly at the visitors. "Groeszdawdi can help you?" he asked.

Nancy explained that she was looking for a place known as the schnitz, which she thought was an old-time dried-apple storehouse.

"Ach, ya," the man said. "I know the place. A long time ago it belonged to a farmer named Hoelt."

Nancy could hardly conceal her excitement. "Yes, go on," she urged.

"The Hoelts have not lived there for a long time," Groeszdawdi went on. "They sold the place to city people named Fuller. But now they have abandoned it."

"Why?" Bess spoke up.

GroeszdawdiEsch looked first at one girl, then the other. "Before I tell you, explain why you want to know about it."

Nancy wondered what was behind the elderly man's question, but she replied that MandaKreutz was missing, and that she thought Manda might be hiding at the schnitz.

"Gfaiirlich!Essisswietoedt!"

The girls waited for Mr. Esch to translate. In a moment he did. "It's dangerous! It's like death!"

He went on to say that if Manda were there, she, too, might vanish mysteriously, as many others had on that farm.

"But why?" Nancy cried. "Tell us so that we can save her!"

GroeszdawdiEsch shook his head and wagged a finger at the girls. "Stay away from that spot! It is bad luck-very bad luck!"

CHAPTER XV.

The Gypsy's Story

WOULD GroeszdawdiEsch refuse to tell them where the schnitz was? Nancy and Bess wondered. Since he had p.r.o.nounced it a dangerous place from which people had disappeared, it was unlikely that he would reveal its location.

Nancy, however, finally persuaded him to tell her where the place was. He hesitated a long time, then finally said, "Go four miles north from here. You will see a lane running through a field that has not been tilled for years. The road is overgrown and rutty. n.o.body uses it, but you can't miss it if you keep your eyes open."

On a hunch Nancy asked whether there was another house on the property some distance from the main building. GroeszdawdiEsch nodded, saying that the old Hoelt family had several children. The father had built houses for them in several locations on the property.

"Was one of the women named Rachel Hoelt?" Nancy asked.

The old man looked at her searchingly and asked how she happened to know of a Rachel Hoelt, who had died fifty years before. Nancy said that she had seen an old Bible with the name in it.

"That's the farm," he said. "But I'm telling you again, stay away from it!"

"Why is it dangerous?" Bess spoke up.

GroeszdawdiEsch took a deep breath, then began his story. He used so many Pennsylvania Dutch words and phrases with English that it was difficult for the girls to understand him. But after they had questioned him several times, Nancy and Bess finally got the gist of the tale.

A long time ago, the storyteller related, when the Hoelts lived on the farm, some members of their family vanished mysteriously and were never seen again. Neighbors concluded that there was a hex on the family. One day a band of gypsies came along, and they set up their tents on the property.

"Old Mr. Hoelt was furious," Groeszdawdi said. "He was sure the gypsies would bring him even worse luck. He ordered them away, but instead of leaving they only moved to the woods on his property."

It seemed that old Mr. Hoelt was not aware of this, but several of his children went to the encampment and became friendly with the gypsies. One of the women was a beautiful, young fortuneteller. Mr. Hoelt's eldest son and she fell in love and planned to marry.

The old man found out and stopped the marriage by threatening to disinherit his son. The fortuneteller was furious. She told him that she knew the secret of why members of his family had disappeared, but she would never tell him unless he consented to the marriage. It was a terrible choice for the old man to make, but he decided to keep his son at home.

Later, people said that the gypsy woman, out of love for the young man, had left him a clue to the secret. She had written it down in English on a piece of paper and hidden it in a table, which she had left behind for her beloved. According to rumors, this table had somehow been acquired by the gypsies from the collection in George Washington's home.

As GroeszdawdiEsch finished the story, Nancy and Bess glanced at each other. Was this the table Roger Hoelt had been searching for?