Free The Legend of Miner's Creek by Carolyn Keene

office.
    â€œElsa said she was in the kitchen all day yesterday,” George told Nancy in a low voice. “And I believe her. She made those rolls from scratch. Plus three blueberry pies for dinner tonight, and homemade croutons for the salad.”
    â€œYou’re right. That probably wouldn’t leave Elsa much time to rig a jeep or blow up a dam,” Nancy said. “What about the Kauffmans?”
    â€œThey went into town after their early breakfast,” George reported. “Aaron told me they got back just in time to hear ‘the big boom.’ ” George used her hands to show how Aaron had described the sound of the dam blowing up.
    â€œThat seems to leave them in the clear,” Nancy said. “I wonder what Bess found out.”
    As if on cue, Bess walked through the front door of the lodge. She pulled up a chair beside Nancy and George and began to rub her legs.
    â€œTodd and Beth are in awfully good shape,” she said. “I would have been better off helping in the kitchen than trying to keep up with them.”
    Bess reported that she had invited herself on the Smythes’ morning jog through the meadow, but she had made only one short loop before giving up.
    â€œI did see the hawk’s nest that Rachel told us about at dinner last night,” she explained. “Apparently Rachel had told Todd and Beth about ityesterday morning. They watched the nest all day. They even showed me the small blind they built so the mother hawk couldn’t see them.”
    â€œIt sounds as if we’ve narrowed down our list of suspects,” Nancy said. “And I’ve got a call in to the Nature Preservation League.”
    She told Bess and George about her phone calls to the league and to her father, finishing up just as the retreat’s big triangle gong sounded.
    â€œThat’s the signal for our ride up Miner’s Creek,” George said.
    The three girls walked to the barn, where they found a group of horses saddled and waiting. Rachel had just finished tying saddlebags full of lunches on her big brown mare. She directed Nancy toward a palomino named Heather. George took the reins of a black-and-white pinto, and Bess climbed aboard a calm, all-black mount.
    Todd and Beth Smythe were already sitting on matching bays. Pete helped Shirley and Frank Kauffman onto their horses, then slid Aaron onto a gentle pony that he guaranteed was “a hundred percent safe.”
    â€œTyler isn’t coming?” Nancy asked.
    â€œNo, he’s busy researching,” Rachel explained. “And Charlie doesn’t like to ride that much anymore.”
    â€œMove ’em out,” Pete called when everyone was ready. He stood by the barn and watched as the horses headed up the retreat driveway toward Miner’s Creek.
    Rachel led the way to a shallow place in the stream, where the horses stopped to take a drink, then waded across. Within minutes the group was climbing into the hills toward Prospector’s Canyon, where Jeremiah had found the gold-laced quartz.
    Nancy’s horse quickly passed the others, except for Rachel’s mare.
    â€œHeather likes to lead,” Rachel said.
    They rode side-by-side until the trail narrowed. Then Nancy went in front. Nancy was enjoying the spectacular view as the trail wound around the side of a steep cliff when she suddenly heard a strange buzzing sound. At the same moment she felt her horse tense. The palomino snorted and reared. Nancy found the saddle horn just as the mare’s front legs came back to the ground. Heather jumped sideways, almost losing Nancy, and her back legs slid off the side of the trail. Fighting down panic, Nancy looked down and saw Heather’s back hooves scrambling in the loose dirt and rocks of the steep bank. Below them the mountainside dropped away to rocky cliffs. Nancy knew she had to stay in the saddle and hope that Heather could fight her way back onto the trail. If the mare