Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion by Carolyn Keene

Bess put in.
    Suddenly Hannah Gruen said, “Oh, I forgot!”
    All eyes turned in her direction. She went on, “There was a personal in today’s paper that caught my eye. Using the code words 1, 5, 9, and 13 the message read, ‘Beam ready for action.”’
    Each one at the table pondered the words. “What do they mean?” George asked. “This message is the hardest one yet.”
    The others agreed but no one had an interpretation to offer. After dinner Nancy sat down in a big chair in the living room and stared straight ahead of her.
    Mr. Drew said, “That brain of yours is cooking up something. How about telling us what it is?”
    Nancy told them she had come up with a daring idea to help solve the mystery. “Using the numbered words code, I’ll run a personal in Sunday’s paper. It will arrange a meeting for the people who are communicating through the personal column.”
    “That’s a clever idea!” her father said. “I wish you luck.”
    Nancy found a notebook and pencil. She drafted message after message but was not satisfied with any of the combinations of words. The whole sentence must make sense as well as the code words. Finally the others said good night and went upstairs. An hour later Nancy heard the Resardos’ car pull into the driveway.
    “Oh dear! I don’t want them to see these papers,” she thought and quickly gathered them up.
    When she reached her room, the young detective sat down to continue her work. Just as sleep was overtaking Nancy, a new idea for the wording of the personal came to her.
    “I have it!” she told herself.

CHAPTER XV
    Stolen Car
    NEXT morning nothing was said about the personal which Nancy wanted to put into the newspaper. The Resardos hung around, so the others kept their conversation to inconsequential matters.
    Finally Antin went off to the grove, presumably to see what fruit might still be saleable. Tina was unusually talkative. She assisted with all the work and even offered to help make the beds.
    “Thank you but that won’t be necessary,” Hannah Gruen told her.
    She was as eager as the girls to hear what Nancy had worked out on the code message. She kept Mrs. Resardo on the first floor, however, so the rest could go upstairs and talk out of earshot.
    They gathered in Nancy’s bedroom. Bess, bursting with curiosity, asked, “Nancy, did you finish the coded message?”
    “Yes,” she replied, and took a sheet of paper from her handbag. The others crowded around to see it.
    “Does that sound innocent enough?” she asked her father.
    “Very good, my dear,” he replied. “I see you have underlined the vital words.” He read it aloud:
    “‘Meet round ship museum Monday twelve.’ ”
    “Where is that?” Mr. Drew asked.
    Nancy explained it was in Cocoa Beach. “The museum has a replica of one of the Spanish Plate Fleet vessels which went down in 1715 off the coast of Cape Kennedy, then known as Cape Canaveral.
    “One of the worst hurricanes on record drove the ships onto the rocks. Nearly everyone on board was drowned. Only one ship escaped and returned to Spain to tell the story.”
    Mr. Drew nodded. “At that time the Spaniards had conquered the Aztecs in Mexico and were robbing them of all their exquisite gold objects. These in turn were made into Spanish coins and packed in boxes and shipped to Spain.”
    Mr. Billington added, “Some of this treasure has been salvaged. The museum contains many gold coins and pieces of eight as well as other treasures. You’ll be intrigued when you see them.”
    “Sounds great!” George said. “Nancy, I take it that you hope the coded message will be seen by the men involved in the explosive oranges mystery, and they’ll gather outside the museum.”
    Nancy nodded. “Once we see who they are, we can report them to the authorities.”
    “That’s right,” Mr. Drew said. “Don’t try capturing them yourself!”
    Nancy laughed and said she would like to put the ad in the paper at once. “May I borrow your