(#26) The Clue of the Leaning Chimney by Carolyn Keene Read Free Book Online Page B

I’ll bet Professor Monroe doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
    Even George and Nancy wondered whether the old mine really existed.
    “Just a little farther,” Nancy urged.
    “We’ll be in the next state,” joked George. “But I’m willing.”
    The three trudged on, when suddenly a barrier loomed up ahead. It was a high, board fence, topped by strands of rusty barbed wire. The three girls stopped and stared in amazement.
    “Why would anyone put up such a thing in this wilderness?” Bess asked.
    The girls inspected the fence closely. It was about ten feet high. The boards adjoined one another so snugly that only the narrowest of cracks appeared between them. Nancy tried to peer through one to see what lay on the other side, but she could make out nothing.
    “Hypers!” exclaimed George. “The fence must be five hundred feet long!”
    “Come on,” Nancy urged. “Let’s try to find an opening we can see through.”
    The girls walked along the fence, their eyes probing for a gate or a wide crack.
    “Here’s the end of the fence,” announced Nancy, who was in the lead.
    Indeed, it looked like the end, but it was only the end of one side. The board barrier turned sharply at a right angle and continued another two hundred and fifty feet.
    When the girls arrived at the middle of the second stretch of fence, Nancy’s alert eyes spotted a small knothole.
    “At last!” she exclaimed.
    Stepping up eagerly, she closed one eye and peeked through the hole with the other. At first she was unable to see much because of a growth of trees and bushes. Then, shifting her gaze, Nancy saw an old, battered brick wall running parallel to the fence, a short distance back from it. The wall was about eight feet high and was topped by a sloping roof. Obviously it was part of a building. But within the range of her vision Nancy could see no windows.
    “Find anything?” George asked impatiently.
    “Only an old—” Nancy stopped speaking as she caught sight of something jutting from the roof of the building. Then she cried excitedly:
    “Girls, it’s a leaning chimney!”

CHAPTER VIII
    Mystery in Manhattan
    “LET me see!” George exclaimed excitedly.
    Nancy stepped aside so the dark-haired girl could look through the knothole.
    “Maybe it’s the abandoned iron mine and smelter!” put in Bess.
    “There are so many trees, it’s hard to see just what’s inside,” George said.
    “If this is the leaning chimney we’re looking for,” Nancy reasoned, “the China clay pit must be somewhere nearby. Possibly inside the fence.”
    “Let’s go,” she suggested, starting along the enclosure. “There must be an opening somewhere.”
    “You lose,” retorted George as the trio rounded the edge of the fence.
    No opening was in sight. Instead, the unbroken expanse of boards extended another five hundred feet.
    When the girls reached the end of this, the fence took another right angle turn. This time it stretched two hundred and fifty feet.
    Bess groaned. “Oh, I’m so tired—and hungry.”
    “Perhaps,” teased George, “there’s a baseball park inside. If there is, we’ll stop at the frankfurter stand.”
    “Think we’ll need a helicopter to get inside,” Nancy joked, examining the boards closely. “These planks are certainly fitted tight together.”
    As they walked on, she kept turning over in her mind several things that mystified her: the air of secrecy about the enclosure, the seeming lack of doors, and the apparent lack of activity.
    “Since we can’t get in,” Nancy said, “I’m going to try looking inside to see if I can spot any clay pit.”
    Making her way to a nearby tree, she shinned up to the first branch, then swung herself into the crotch of the tree.
    “Find anything?” George asked.
    “I can’t see much better from here,” Nancy reported. “Too many trees inside.”
    Suddenly she was struck by something near the top of the leaning chimney. It was a rusted iron ornament fastened to