Carolyn Keene - Nancy Drew by The Kachina Doll Mystery

canyon! A small, rough cabin had been erected in the center clear area, and there was a corral next to it.
    What brought a gasp from Nancy, however, was one of the horses that stood in the corral. It was a pinto and looked almost exactly like Cochise!
    Nancy looked at Ngyun, who had silently crept up next to her. Together, they watched the men for several minutes, then Nancy let herself slip and slide back down the rocky rise to the grass. The boy followed at once.
    “Who are those men, Ngyun?” she asked, keeping her voice low so the sound wouldn’t carry.
    Ngyun shrugged. “Prospectors, I think.”
    “On the resort land?” Nancy frowned. “Chuck and Heather never mentioned it.”
    “This belong to resort?” Ngyun seemed surprised.
    Nancy looked around, trying to recognize the landmarks that Chuck and Heather had pointed out to her during their first days with the McGuires. Finally, she was sure. “The boundary of their land is supposed to be along that purple cliff there,” she said, pointing off to the right. “The men must be on the resort land.”
    “Maybe they find gold,” Ngyun suggested with a timid smile that was quickly gone. “Make everybody happy.”
    “Have you seen those men around here before?” Nancy asked.
    The boy moved nervously, not meeting her gaze. “I watch here sometimes.”
    “Have they seen you?” Nancy asked, sensing that there was more to the story, something that he wasn’t telling her.
    For a moment, he didn’t answer. Then he sighed. “One time. Not here. They out in wash that go from canyon. I ride up. See what they do. They get angry. Big one shoot at me. I not come this way a while. ”
    “They shot at you?” Nancy gasped, unable to believe her ears.
    Ngyun nodded. “I not do anything. I just ride up to look, honest.”
    “I believe you,” Nancy assured him. “Do you think they were prospecting for gold in that wash?”
    Ngyun nodded. “They do same thing prospectors do in mountains. I watch a lot. I see plenty.”
    Nancy considered his words for a moment, then changed the subject. “Where were you going today?” she asked. “Why did you leave the resort without telling anyone?”
    The thin face closed and the boy’s eyes skittered away from hers once again. “I go for ride.”
    Nancy said nothing, sure that the boy would tell her more if she waited. He quickly proved her correct.
    “I run away,” Ngyun admitted at last. “I no go back. ”
    “But you can’t do that,” Nancy protested. “Your aunt and uncle love you, they’d never let you leave them.”
    “They send me away. They think I steal. The sheriff tell them I bad. I not take jewelry, so I no can give back. They take Cochise away.” Tears filled the sad, dark eyes. “He mine, I not steal him.”
    Understanding the boy’s feelings, but sure that she couldn’t let him go, Nancy took a deep breath and began to tell him what had happened to her the night before. She described how she’d followed the pinto horse into the wash and nearly died for it.
    As she talked, Ngyun nodded. “Horse like one in canyon,” he said when she finished. “Maybe he ride that horse?”
    Nancy smiled at him. “That’s what I think,” she confirmed.
    “What you do?” Ngyun asked. “How you find out?”
    “Do they ever leave the canyon?” Nancy inquired instead of answering.
    Ngyun thought for a moment, then nodded. “Sometimes. Why?”
    “I want to search that cabin,” Nancy answered. “If they are the ones causing all the trouble that has happened to you, there should be some clues down there. Something that will tell me why they are trying to frame you.”
    Ngyun grinned at her. “I make them chase me,” he told her. “You go down cliff.”
    Nancy shook her head. “That’s too dangerous. If they shot at you before, they might . . .” She was given no chance to finish, as the boy raced across to Cochise and jumped into the saddle. Ngyun waved to her, smiling as he rode away.
    The young