Free Mystery of the Glowing Eye by Carolyn G. Keene

that warbler?” George asked.
    They could detect the dainty trilling notes of the warbler’s song but it took time for them to find the bird. Finally Bess saw it seated high on the branch of a tree. “There it is!”
    Nancy remarked, “From here it looks like a bird without a head. If it weren’t for his eyes, you wouldn’t know he had one. He looks as if a black mask had been pulled down over the upper part of his head. I guess that’s why it is called the hooded warbler.”
    “Did you know,” George asked, “that the female of this species doesn’t have a mask? I suppose that’s so she’ll surely be seen by the boy warblers.”
    The group laughed and went on. Bess, intrigued by the wildlife, kept looking up. Without warning, she stepped into a deep hole of muddy, greenish water.
    Instantly the others pulled her out, but she was a mess. Nancy took several tissues from her pocket and began to clean her friend’s legs.
    “Ugh!” Bess said suddenly. “Look at these things crawling around on me!”
    Dave said kindly, “They won’t hurt you. They’re only miniature salamanders.”
    He tore leaves from several bushes and helped wipe off Bess’s dungarees and sweater, while George and Nancy worked on the girl’s hair.
    “What am I going to do?” Bess wailed.
    “Grin and bear it,” George replied. But she did admit feeling sorry for her cousin.
    “I guess from here on I’d better watch my step more carefully,” Bess said finally. She was still shaking from her unexpected bath and held Dave’s hand tightly for the rest of their trip through the swamp.
    Immediately ahead was a small, open field which everyone assumed must be the place from which the helicopter had taken off. Directly beyond was another swampy area. A small cabin painted dark green blended so well with the surrounding growth that it was hardly noticeable.
    “That could be the place where Ned is being held!” Nancy said excitedly.
    The three girls and their companions walked across the field and gingerly went forward. The ground was spongy, caking their boots with mud, but walking was not as difficult as it had been in the swamp.
    No one said anything at first, then George commented, “That swamp sure was an obstacle course, and I don’t relish going back through it.”
    “Nor I,” Bess said. “I hope somebody can figure out a different way of getting to the place where we left the car!”
    Nobody answered her because all of them were sure they would have to return along the same route.
    Nancy hurried in front of the group and walked up to the cabin door. She knocked. No one replied. She pounded loudly but in vain.
    “Nobody home,” she said. “Unless someone’s hiding in there.”
    Nancy added that it was possible Ned was a prisoner and could not make a sound. He must be rescued!
    She tried the door and finding it unlocked, she walked in. Her friends followed. No one was in sight.
    All gasped in astonishment. The one-room cabin was a fully equipped electronic laboratory with two cots, a small stove, and well-stocked shelves of canned food.
    “Well, Sherlock Holmes,” said George to Nancy, “what are your thoughts now?”
    Before replying, Nancy began to examine the laboratory. Burt and Dave did also. There were all sorts of gadgets, and open notebooks with numbers which meant nothing to the visitors.
    Meanwhile, Bess had been looking around. She announced that there were no clothes in the place. “Do you suppose whoever lives here knew we were coming and skipped out?” she asked. “Otherwise why would anyone leave all this good food—meat, eggs, milk, and bread? I could eat some of it right now.”
    Presently Burt and Dave called to the girls to come to a corner of the lab.
    “We’ve discovered a remote-control outfit, and here’s the sending set.”
    “And over there,” Dave added, “are a computer and programming tapes.”
    “Are you saying,” George spoke up, “that the robot copter was kept here and its