buried. But neither I nor anyone else could search for
it openly, since any archaeological remains found in the
park are automatically the property of the federal
government.”
Nancy was amazed at how articulate and in-control
Mrs. Drake seemed. Before, she had acted so goofy
and scatterbrained. Clearly, that was not the real Mrs.
Drake. This was.
“That's where I came in,” Jade said with a grin.
“Mrs. Drake was generous. She paid Griffin and me a
lot of money, and we came up with a plan for me to
disappear' so I could dig for the panther in secret.
Griffin covered up for me back in Flamingo and made
sure no one would come looking for me while I
searched for the panther.”
Then something else occurred to Nancy. “Is Griffin
the one who ran us off the road while we were driving
home from Miami? And sped by us in the motorboat?
And left us the threatening note with the hunting
knife?”
Jade nodded. “Yup. He made sure he was going to
keep you far, far away from me.”
“What about the blond woman at the Save the
Manatees benefit?” Bess piped up. “Was she his new
girlfriend, or what?”
Jade bristled.
“That was my secretary, Sandy,” Mrs. Drake ex-
plained. “She was giving him some instructions for me.
She also followed you girls to the Café Blue Marlin that
day you came by my office, Nancy.”
That's why she looked so familiar, Nancy thought.
“Where's Griffin now?” she asked.
“Right here.”
Nancy glanced up. Griffin emerged from a thick
patch of mangroves. He had George with him. George
had a gag over her mouth, and her wrists were bound
with rope.
Bess leaped to her feet. “George! Are you okay? You
let go of her, you bully,” she shouted at Griffin.
Jade pointed the gun at Bess. “Sit down! Everything
was going fine till you all showed up. I guess my
pretending to be a ghost last night didn't scare you
away.”
“Mrs. Drake and I came to the island earlier today,
to check on Jade's progress,” Griffin spoke up. “Your
friend here, George, stumbled into us. She overheard
us talking about the panther. That's why we had to
keep her quiet.”
“Obviously she knows too much,” Mrs. Drake said,
nodding at the bound-and-gagged George. “And now,
so do the two of you,” she added ominously to Nancy
and Bess.
“We're, um, very good at keeping secrets,” Bess said
meekly.
“Get up,” Mrs. Drake ordered.
Nancy and Bess got to their feet. While Jade kept
the gun pointed at them, Griffin tied them up with
rope and gagged them, too. Then he shoved the two
girls, along with George, onto the ground.
“Good luck,” Mrs. Drake said. “Maybe if you're
lucky, a real panther will find you and put you out of
your misery!”
With that, she, Jade, and Griffin turned and dis-
appeared into the woods.
Nancy lay on the muddy ground, her heart racing.
Mosquitoes swarmed all around her head. In the
distance, she could hear the sounds of Mrs. Drake,
Jade, and Griffin talking and laughing.
She tried to make eye contact with George and Bess.
As far as she could tell, George was unharmed—just
scared as she and Bess were.
If only I could get free of this rope, Nancy thought
in frustration.
Nancy could tell that George, who was struggling to
loosen her knot, had the same idea. Neither of them
was having any success.
Nancy glanced around. Even in the failing light, she
could see that there were some sharp-looking rocks
nearby.
As she scooted over to one, a lizard crawled out from
under it and darted away. Nancy grimaced.
Then she positioned her wrists over the rock and
began sawing slowly, carefully.
She felt a stinging pain in her right hand, and blood
oozed out. She'd cut herself and knew she'd have to be
more careful.
Nancy continued sawing, methodically. She could
feel that one of the ropes was starting to fray.
Good, she thought. Just a little more, and I'll be
free.
Nancy continued sawing away at the bond. Come
on, come on, come on, she thought. She lost track of
time because she was so intent on freeing herself and
her friends and going after Jade and the others.
Finally she felt the rope snap. She wriggled her
wrists out of the now-useless knot. Then she took off
her gag and began working to free George and Bess.
“Oh, thank goodness,” George said when Nancy had
taken off her gag. She gulped down a deep breath, then
another. “I thought we were going to die!”
“Are you okay?” Bess asked George. “We were so
worried about you! We thought you'd been eaten by
sharks or something!” Bess grabbed her cousin and
hugged her tightly.
George hugged her back. “I'm fine. Just a little
freaked out. But they didn't hurt me or anything. And I
definitely didn't run into any sharks.”
“Come on, we don't have a second to waste,” Nancy
cried out. “We have to stop them before it's too late.”
“Nancy, they have a gun,” Bess pointed out.
“Shouldn't we just wait until Susan comes back with
help and let them deal with it?”
“We have to go after them,” Nancy said. “Otherwise
they could disappear for good! We have no idea what
they've planned. Come on!”
Grabbing her flashlight, Nancy took off through the
dense woods. In the distance she could see the dark
waters of the Gulf of Mexico. She could hear a
motorboat starting up its engine.
Pumping her arms, Nancy ran as fast as she could.
Bess and George followed close behind.
I hope we're not too late, Nancy thought. I hope
they don't get away!
A few minutes later Nancy reached the thin patch of
beach. Jade, Griffin, and Mrs. Drake were just getting
into a motorboat. On the side of the motorboat was a
single word: Panther. It was the same motorboat that
had caused Bess to fall overboard during their sunset
cruise, Nancy realized.
wooden panther in one hand. She had found the
Calusa statuette!
Nancy knew that the panther was officially the
property of the federal government. But Mrs. Drake
and her partners-in-crime were going to keep it for
themselves and make their escape.
“You guys stay here,” Nancy whispered to her
friends.
“Nan, what are you doing?” Bess whispered back.
“Just stay here,” Nancy ordered. “Stay behind these
trees, out of sight.”
Without wasting another second, Nancy lay on the
sand on her belly. Moving quietly,
she dragged herself
along the ground, next to a path of low-lying shrubs.
She made her way slowly to the motorboat, where
Jade, Griffin, and Mrs. Drake were discussing some-
thing. Nancy couldn't hear what they were talking
about over the sound of the idling motor.
Almost there, Nancy thought. It was dark out now,
so she had an advantage. Jade and the others didn't
seem to be paying attention to anything around them.
She knew Jade was the one with the gun, so she
would have to be very careful of her. Nancy was very
close to the boat now.
She took a deep breath. It's now or never, she
thought.
In one quick, fluid movement, she leaped to her feet
and jumped into the boat. Mrs. Drake screamed.
“What are you doing here? How did you get free?”
Mrs. Drake shrieked at Nancy.
Nancy could see that Jade was pawing the bottom of
the boat, searching frantically for her gun. Nancy
grabbed her arm, stopping her. At the same time,
Griffin pulled the throttle, and the motorboat
sputtered and kicked into gear. It sped away from the
beach and into the Gulf.
“The panther!” Mrs. Drake shouted. “Jade, give me
the panther!”
But Jade was still searching, groping along the
bottom of the boat for her gun. Nancy grabbed her
other arm and pinned her down. The panther fell out
of Jades hand. Mrs. Drake grabbed the panther and
clutched it to her chest.
Nancy could see out of the corner of her eye that
Griffin wanted to come to his girlfriend's rescue. But
there was no way he could do that and operate the boat
at the same time.
Then Jade kicked out at Nancy and managed to
break her hold. She got her hand on the gun, which
was lying on top of one of the life preservers, and held
it up in the air. “Got you,” she snapped at Nancy.
At that very moment an enormous sea creature rose
out of the Gulf. A manatee, Nancy realized,
recognizing the amazing-looking creature from all the
pictures she'd seen. Startled, Jade screamed and
dropped the gun into the water.
“Jade, the gun!” Griffin yelled.
Taking advantage of the commotion, Nancy reached
over to Mrs. Drake and wrestled the panther away
from her.
“Give that back!” Mrs. Drake screamed. “Give me
back my panther!”
“I don't think so, Mrs. Drake,” Nancy said, holding
to head back to shore, or I'm dropping this thing into
the water.”
All of a sudden Nancy was aware of the low roar of
another motor. She glanced up. A boat with a high-
beam light was coming their way, cutting through the
dark water.
“Nancy! Are you okay?” a familiar-sounding voice
cried out.
It was Susan. Nancy realized that her friend had
arrived with help, as promised. Nancy could make out
a couple of park rangers in the boat with her.
Nancy turned to Mrs. Drake with a smile. “It's over,
Mrs. Drake. And for you, too, Jade and Griffin. You're
all going to be under arrest in about five seconds.”
Mrs. Drake stared forlornly at the panther statuette.
“We were so close,” she whispered. “So close.”
Bess leaned back in the white wicker beach chair,
her face buried in the front page of the morning
newspaper. She, Nancy, George, and Susan were
hanging out at a small, private beach near Flamingo
that belonged to some friends of Susan's.
“Check out this headline, guys,” Bess gloated,
holding up the paper. “ Park volunteer and teen
friends save rare Calusa artifact. Esther Drake of
Panterra Corp arrested.' Are we cool, or what?”
Nancy grabbed the newspaper from Bess. She
quickly scanned the story. She knew their adventures
had made major headlines all over Florida.
Two days ago, after Mrs. Drake, Jade, and Griffin
had been taken into custody by the park rangers,
Nancy and her friends had returned to Flamingo.
Nancy had presented the Calusa statuette to the head
of the parks archaeological division.
He wasn't the only one who had been incredibly
grateful. Jeff Kelly, the leader of CAMC, had called
Nancy after reading the story in the Miami Herald.
“Even though Bill Drake didn't know anything about
his wife's activities, this is going to be bad publicity for
Manatee Commons,” Jeff had said to Nancy. “Maybe
this will be the end of that project. That would be good
news for CAMC, and more importantly, for the
Everglades. We owe you girls a great deal.”
Susan's voice cut into Nancy's thoughts. “I still can't
believe Jade turned out to be a crook. I thought she
was my friend.”
“I'm sorry Jade disappointed you,” Nancy said to
Susan. “But look on the bright side. You may have lost
a friend, but we found a rare Calusa Indian artifact!”
“Yeah, Susan. The park is going to love you forever.
They'll probably promote you to president or
something,” Bess piped up.
Susan smiled. “Anyway, we can finally relax and have
a real vacation together.”
“We have three more days till we have to head back.
That's plenty of time for me to work on my tan,” Bess
said.
“And plenty of time for Nancy to stumble into
another mystery—if we're not careful,” George joked.
The girls burst into laughter.