Nancy Drew in The Case of the Missing Case

"Isn't it marvelous to be up and about when others are sound asleep?  I find my brainwaves are at their most powerful during this time," proclaimed Nancy, as she and her friend Helen Corning stepped out into the air for their morning constitutional.

“A constitutional at 5 in the morning should be UNconstitutional, if you ask me,” answered Helen blearily.  “And if you’re so alert, why did you just put your shoes on the wrong feet?”

“That’s not to say it doesn’t take a few minutes to shake out the old cobwebs,” chirped Nancy.  “But five minutes in this morning air, and I’ll be ready to tackle any mystery, should we be so fortunate as to have one come our way.”

“Why does everything have to be a mystery with you?” asked Helen reprovingly.  “We came out here to Camp Avondale to indulge in the Three R’s, not to get involved in another one of your cases.”

“Three R’s?  Reading, Writing and ‘Rithmetic?” asked Nancy quizzically.

“Er, no.  Rest, Relaxation, and…” Helen began uncertainly.  “Well, I guess there are only two R’s,” she finished lamely.  “It seems I’m not any more awake at this hour than you are.  But however many ‘R’s’ there ‘are’, the point is that I thought we could come up here to spend a few days having fun!  I certainly don’t want to spend the weekend solving slider puzzles, dusting powdered doughnuts for fingerprints, playing “Duck, Duck, Goose” with suspects, or whatever else you do on these cases of yours,” she said grouchily.

“I did come here to have fun,” conceded Nancy as they walked along the hiking trail.  “But Crime doesn’t take a holiday, and neither can I.”

“If Death takes a holiday, so can Crime,” objected Helen.  “Besides, there’s no case here to get involved in.”

“There doesn’t appear to be, I grant you,” conceded Nancy. “But to a good detective, finding the case can be just as difficult as solving it.”

“I thought you were only a Junior Detective,” said Helen. “Don’t you still keep a Task List and everything?”

“That’s just a technicality,” answered Nancy.  “Dad says I can’t be a Senior Detective until I’m 65.  But either way, there could be a case right under our noses at this very moment.”

"Nothing like a good sneaking suspicion to keep you on your toes I say," sighed Helen. “But how would one go about looking for this case, assuming that it even existed?”

“By keeping her eyes open and her mind alert,” answered Nancy.  “Take this fellow, for example,” she said, as they approached a fellow camper.  “May I ask your name, sir?”

“Sax, ma’am.  Sid Sax,” the surprised camper answered.

“What’s he got in his hand?” Nancy asked, with the instinct of a true detective.

“Dirt?” answered Helen.

“No, I mean that big metal thing.  Unless I miss my guess, it’s a horseshoe.”

“What ‘guess’?” asked Helen.  “It’s a big, metal U-shaped thing.  What else could it be?  A giant magnet?”

“It’s a horseshoe, all right” said Sid.  “But there ain’t been no crime, has there,” he asked, having overheard part of their conversation as they approached.

“No, there hasn’t,” answered Helen, apologetically.

“That hasn’t been determined yet,” countered Nancy determinedly.  “Would you mind if I keep this?”

“No, ma'am.  ‘N it'd suit me just fine if I never saw it again," answered Sid, gladly handing it over.

The girls continued their walk, leaving a puzzled Sid behind. “Mind telling me what that was all about?” Helen asked, as soon as he was out of earshot.  “Or do you want me to put out an APB for Mister Ed?”

“Don’t you get it, Helen?” explained Nancy.  There are no horseback riding facilities here at Camp Avondale!”  “So?” replied Helen, not seeing the point.  “So, whoever passed through here on horseback came from outside the camp,” Nancy continued.  “So?” asked Helen again, still not seeing a point.  “So, why would anyone enter this camp on horseback in the middle of the night, and then leave again?” explained Nancy.  “The lateness of the hour suggests a nefarious purpose, while the method of transportation suggests the need for a speedy getaway.”

“Now, wait just a minute,” objected Helen. For one thing, there’s a riding camp a half mile down the road:  Camp Gitchie Goomee Noonee Wa-Wa. A rider from there probably got lost, and wandered onto this property, where his horse threw a shoe. For another thing, that horseshoe has rust on it.  It must have lain there for years.”

“You’re so unadventurous, Helen,” exclaimed Nancy.  “That’s probably why I don’t call you for hints during my cases.  Apparently you didn’t read this month’s issue of “Sassy Detective”.  It contains an article that describes how many criminals are now using a substance called “Instant Rust”, to make objects appear older than they really are.  If we continue in this direction, we’re bound to find something.”

“That would have been the April Fool issue, wouldn’t it?” asked Helen.

“It was the April issue, yes,” answered Nancy, momentarily uncertain. “But that doesn’t prove it was a joke.”

“Well, either way, a horseshoe on the ground is probably perfectly innocent,” answered Helen firmly, as they came to a fork in the road.

“With most people, I would agree with you,” Nancy replied persistently.  “But you don’t understand!  Things like this don’t happen to me, and then turn out to be ‘perfectly innocent’ in the end!  Oh no, we’ve stumbled onto another mystery, all right.  And I won’t rest until I’ve gotten to the bottom of it.”

“Well,” answered Helen.  “If you wouldn’t mind my making a suggestion, how about if we split up, and divide the job, as it were.”

“You mean one of us will take the left fork, and the other one takes the right?” asked Nancy.

“No, I mean you rest after the case, and I’ll rest now,” answered Helen, heading back to camp.