Contents
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1 A Nasty Neighbor
2 Elk River Ranch
3 Crash!
4 A Scream in the Night
5 Blizzard Blindness
6 Stolen Property
7 A Telltale Letter
8 The Hermit of Montrose
9 Trapped in High Places
10 The Elk’s Mysterious Message
11 On the Brink of Disaster
12 Wolf Alert
13 Five Small Clues
14 Danger Comes Calling
15 Member of the Pack
1. A Nasty Neighbor
“Hey, guys, check this out!” George Fayne said. Her
brown eyes sparkled with excitement as she scanned
the weather report in the Montrose Courier in the
baggage claim area of the tiny Montrose airport.
“There's a blizzard coming in tonight, a foot or two of
snow. Maybe we'll get snowed in. Awesome, huh?”
Bess Marvin peered at the newspaper over her
cousin's shoulder. “Awesome? You've got to be kid-
ding, George. How am I going to get to a mall? I mean,
I didn't come to Wyoming just to ski.”
Nancy Drew laughed. “I don't get it, Bess. Why
come all this way if you just want to shop? You can
shop till you drop in River Heights. Plus, I doubt
Montrose even has a mall. According to Alice Marshall,
this town is an old-fashioned cowboy town, more like
it's in the nineteenth century than the twenty-first.”
“Three guesses why I came to Wyoming,” Bess
teased, throwing Nancy a sly smile.
“Here's my guess,” George cut in. “Could it be be-
cause of those cute cowboy types with great tans from
riding the range? Those you can't get back home.”
Bess shot George a withering look. Turning to
Nancy, she said, “I came here in case you need my
help, Nan—if you know what I mean.”
Nancy grinned. She knew exactly what Bess meant.
Even though she was only eighteen, Nancy was an
experienced detective who had solved many difficult
mysteries, and her two best friends, George and Bess,
were usually there to back her up.
Smoothing back her shoulder-length reddish blond
hair, Nancy said, “There's only one problem with that,
Bess. Alice Marshall has invited us to stay at Elk River
Ranch for a winter ski vacation. As far as I know, she
doesn't have a mystery for any of us to solve.”
“But that's just so far,” Bess countered. “I predict
that before the day is out, you'll find some mystery at
the ranch—or it will find you, mark my words.”
“Mark my words'?” George repeated, hoisting her
skis from the baggage claim rack. “Where'd you get
that expression, Bess?”
“From that fortune-teller at the River Heights fair,”
Bess said, giggling.
“You mean the one who was always wrong?” George
said, playfully punching Bess's arm.
Nancy smiled as her friends gently kidded each
other. They were so different that sometimes she could
hardly believe they were cousins. Tall, dark-haired
George was definitely the jock of the family, and blond
Bess liked clothes and tempting desserts much more
than athletics. Despite their differences, though,
George and Bess were close friends.
An attractive red-haired woman hurried into the
airport. Her eyes lit up the moment she saw the girls.
“Nancy, Bess, George!” she exclaimed. “Sorry I'm late.
I was shopping for tonight's dinner and lost track of
time. Have you been waiting for ages?”
“Just about five minutes. My suitcase hasn't even
come out yet,” Nancy replied, giving the woman a
warm hug. Standing back, Nancy studied Alice Mar-
shall's pale heart-shaped face and huge green eyes with
their gentle, almost innocent expression. Nancy was
struck by her youthful appearance. She couldn't
believe that Alice was really in her early forties.
After introducing George and Bess to Alice, Nancy
added, “Alice Marshall is one of my aunt Eloise's best
friends from college.”
“I wish I could see more of Eloise, but she lives in
New York, and here I am in Wyoming,” Alice said
regretfully. “I'll have to lure her out to Elk River Ranch
one of these days. It's been several years since she's
visited. Anyway, it's so nice to meet you, George and
Bess. I've heard a lot about you from Nancy. Welcome
to Wyoming.”
Fifteen minutes later the three girls were loading
Alice's teal-colored Jeep with their skis and suitcases.
Blinking in the bright afternoon sunshine, Nancy
said, “I can't believe there's supposed to be a blizzard
tonight. The sky is incredibly blue.”
“The latest report says the snow may pass us by,”
Alice said. “Or we may get just a little.” Reading the
disappointment in George's eyes, Alice added, “Don't
worry, George. There's still a ton of snow on the
mountains. The skiing has been excellent this year. And
who wants such a big storm that we can't even get to
the slopes?”
“Well, since you put it that way,” George said,
brightening, “I guess a little snow is better than too
much.”
“In Wyoming we have to accommodate our lives to
whatever nature decides to dish out,” Alice remarked.
“But I do hope we don't get a blizzard.”
After everyone was comfortably settled in the Jeep,
with Alice and Bess in the front seat and George and
Nancy in the back, Alice pulled out of the airport
driveway onto a narrow road.
The view on all sides was incredible, Nancy thought.
For as far as the eye could see, huge snow-covered
peaks stretched toward the crystal clear sky. The snow
sparkled on the mountains like sequins on white velvet.
The sky seemed so close that Nancy felt as if she were
sailing through an enormous blue lake made of air.
“Tell us about Elk River Ranch,” Nancy prompted
Alice, leaning forward. “All I know is that you've got
about four hundred acres and Aunt Eloise claims
they're all beautiful.”
Alice smiled. “That's nice of her to say. My husband,
John, and I certainly agree that the ranch is lovely.
We've lived here for twenty years and raised our
daughter here. We moved to Wyoming from San
Francisco to get away from crowds and to surround
ourselves with nature.”
“Aunt Eloise mentioned that you run the ranch as a
ski lodge in the winter and a dude ranch in the
summer,” Nancy continued. “So I guess we'll get to
experience the ski lodge part.”
“You sure will,” Alice said, driving down the main
s
treet of a picturesque village of painted wooden
buildings and lantern-lined streets. It reminded Nancy
of gold rush towns she had seen in movies. “There are
tons of winter sports,” Alice went on. “For instance,
downhill skiing at Elk Mountain—a nearby resort—
snowshoeing on our ranch land, and dogsledding
courtesy of our own husky team. You name it, we've
got it.”
“What about that extreme sport, the one where you
sit in front of a blazing fire and sip hot cocoa?” Bess
joked.
Alice laughed. “You'll have plenty of company for
that, Bess, I promise. My daughter, Genevieve—
nicknamed Jenny—has just graduated from college.
She's living at home, and her fiancé, Paul, is also stay-
ing with us while he works on a zoology project for his
graduate degree. He's making a fifty-acre wolf
sanctuary on our land. They both spend a lot of time
sitting by the fire, planning the project. I'm sure they'll
be thrilled to have you brainstorm with them.”
“About wolves?” Bess asked doubtfully. “I'm not
exactly an expert on the subject.”
“Well, all of you girls are bound to learn something
navigating a particularly challenging curve on the now
twisty mountain road. “I don't know whether I
mentioned this, Nancy, but John and I have a pet wolf
at the ranch.”
A thrill went through Nancy. A wolf at Elk River
Ranch! She had always thought wolves were beautiful
in zoos and nature movies, but she'd never actually met
one in captivity.
“From the moment we bought the ranch, John and I
have always had lots of animals around—the more, the
merrier,” Alice went on. “We raise cattle, of course,
and we own a number of horses for us and our guests
to ride. We have a pet hawk named Beatrice and a
favorite husky named Grover. And we enjoy the usual
assortment of cats and dogs that any self-respecting
ranch owner keeps.”
“Including your very own husky team,” Bess re-
minded her.
Alice nodded. “Our huskies are lovely, and they're
such hard workers. They pull the dogsled whenever
our guests want a ride. But our most interesting pet is
the tame wolf, Rainbow. We found her as a three-
week-old pup after her mother and litter mates
drowned in the Elk River flood four years ago.”
“Her mother drowned?” Bess exclaimed. “How sad!”
“You should have seen her, poor thing,” Alice re-
marked, sounding like a doting mother herself. “She
was tiny, barely able to walk. Mother wolves usually
bring their babies out of the den the first time when
they're three to four weeks old. The puppies can't even
see until they're about two weeks old. For all I know,
that might have been Rainbow's first trip into the
outside world. Losing your entire family at that age
must have been devastating.”
“You'd never want to go out of your den again,”
George commented.
“You wouldn't,” Alice agreed. “And Rainbow has
always been kind of skittish. I understand her timid
behavior is typical of a tame wolfs, but I also wonder if
her early life traumatized her and made her even more
scared of the world than most wolves are.”
“Is she scared of you?” Nancy asked.
“At first she was,” Alice replied. “But now she loves
us—myself, John, Jenny, and now Paul. But she's ex-
tremely shy with other people. Of course, now that she
has her puppies, she's become especially protective.”
“Wolf puppies!” Bess exclaimed. “I bet they're cute.”
Alice's green eyes glowed with pride. “They are to-
tally adorable,” she declared. “If you girls are really
quiet and Rainbow doesn't seem too stressed out, it
might be okay for you to see them.”
“We'll be quiet—I promise,” Nancy said. “It'd be
great to meet them, but only if that's okay with Rain-
bow.”
“We'll play it by ear,” Alice said. “I know Grover
would be cool about having visitors. He's the father, by
the way.”
“Your pet husky?” Nancy asked, surprised that a dog
and a wolf could have puppies.
“A lot of people don't realize that dogs and wolves
are so closely related that they can produce puppies,”
Alice said. “Wolfdog puppies are really cute, even if
they can be kind of wild.”
Just as Nancy was about to ask Alice more about
Rainbow's puppies, a ramshackle house in the middle
of a field of rusty junk poking out of the snow appeared
on their right. Nancy gaped in astonishment. She'd
never seen a junkyard quite so big. Old refrigerators,
cars, and tractors half-shrouded in white lay in heaps
on about five acres of property, while a scattering of
pigs rooted aimlessly among the piles.
A wooden sign in front of the driveway warned
passersby, Keep Out, with red paint that dripped from
each letter like blood. A skull and crossbones was
crudely painted underneath the words.
Before Nancy could ask Alice who lived there, a
pudgy, hostile-looking man with gray hair, a long
beard, and wearing a dirty barn jacket leaped in front
Alice screeched on her brakes as the man stared at
them, a crazed gleam flickering in his flint gray eyes.
He raised his arms, aiming a slingshot straight at the
windshield of their car!
2. Elk River Ranch
Alice and Bess ducked, leaving Nancy and George
exposed in the backseat. The rock inside the slingshots
elastic pouch glistened.
“Get down girls!” Alice yelled, her voice muffled by
the dashboard and front seat. “He's going to shoot that
thing any second!”
Bending her head toward her knees, Nancy sneaked
a peek at the man. He was grinning at them, jumping
up and down, obviously enjoying every moment of
discomfort he was causing them. Then, for no apparent
reason, he lowered his weapon and jogged over to
Alice's window.
The man rapped rudely on the glass, and Alice
raised her head, her eyes wide with fright. The
sprinkling of freckles on her nose stood out against her
milk white skin.
Laughing in an eerie, high-pitched tone, the man
made a mocking gesture toward the road, as if he were
kindly allowing them to proceed. Without waiting
another second, Alice floored the accelerator, and the
Jeep peeled away.
“Do you know that guy, Alice?” Bess asked, her blue
eyes pools of fear as she cautiously raised her head. “I
hope he's not one of your neighbors.”
“Unfortunately, Rusty is our nearest neighbor,”
Alice replied, her voice trembling. “But I wish he lived
on the other side of the world. He's a hermit, and he
doesn't want anyone
to bug him. But he delights in
bugging everyone else.”
“Rusty?” Nancy repeated. “His name seems to fit all
that junk he's got in his yard.”
Alice laughed hollowly. “Rusty Marconi's nickname
does come from all that junk. No one around here is
even sure what his real first name is.”
“I take it he's kind of a tough character,” George
said dryly.
“ Tough' doesn't begin to describe him,” Alice ex-
plained. “Even though we can't see his property from
our house, it borders our land on one side and makes
this approach to Elk River Ranch look pretty awful.”
“Does it discourage people from staying at the
lodge?” Bess asked, smoothing her long blond hair.
“I think it must,” Alice answered. “I mean, we've
never had a problem keeping the lodge full because it's
such a nice place to stay and we don't have that many
guest rooms. Still, I have the feeling that Rusty's junk
so near the ranch might discourage guests. Most
people want to come to Wyoming to take in its
gorgeous untouched beauty, and they have to be
turned off by Rusty's place. Our guests have been too
polite to speak negatively about it, but they are shocked
by how much junk he's collected over the years. The
place is an environmental disaster.”
“Have you tried to get him to clean it up?” Nancy
asked.
“Oh, yes,” Alice said. “The first few years we lived
here, we asked him to clean it up several times, and we
were always very diplomatic. But when a nice approach
got us nowhere, we went to the Montrose town council
and asked them to help. Unfortunately, they can do
very little, because there's no law against keeping junk
in your yard. And our complaints only made Rusty
more hostile because he resented being told what to do
with his property.”
“But the community has to have some rights, too,
doesn't it?” Nancy asked. “I mean, it's not fair for one
crazy guy to be able to hurt everyone's enjoyment of
the area and make it harder for you to rent out rooms.
Plus, all that stuff he has probably isn't good for the
land. Old gasoline from his broken-down cars might