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building. Five smaller buildings were scattered among the trees along the road.
    The gravelly driveway crunched under Nancy’s feet as they approached the main building. No one came out to greet them. In fact, the place seemed deserted.
    Ned glanced at Nancy. “Weird, huh?” he asked in a low voice.
    Nancy nodded, slipping her hand securely into his. “You said they went on survival campouts on weekends. Maybe they left early.”
    The door to the main building was half open. It swung in noiselessly when Nancy pushed it. They stepped in.
    Nancy and Ned found themselves in one large room, in what looked like a warehouse. There was a small, makeshift podium off to one side, with a stack of straw mats piled near it on the bare concrete floor. A delicate iron stairway was built in against the opposite wall, seeming to lead underground. The air inside was cold and smelled of forest dampness.
    Twenty feet up on the walls, a catwalk circled the inside of the warehouse. A spiral staircase dropped to the main floor. Beyond the catwalk at one end, Nancy could see small rooms leadingoff from it. The center of the main room was open to the roof. As Nancy and Ned surveyed the area, a small figure appeared on the catwalk.
    â€œCan I help you with something?” Nancy recognized Karen Lewis, the girl she had met in the arboretum.
    â€œWe came to see Angela Morrow.” Ned’s voice sounded hollow in the large space. “Can you tell us where to find her?”
    As Karen headed down the spiral stairs, Nancy thought she saw a shadow lengthen along the wall of the room the girl had emerged from, but no one came out. As she approached, Karen looked at Nancy quizzically.
    â€œDon’t I know you?” she asked Nancy. “You look very familiar.”
    â€œI ran into your ‘rehearsal’ in the woods yesterday,” Nancy reminded her.
    â€œOh, right.” Karen flushed. “Nancy Drew. And now you’re here about Angela?”
    Nancy nodded, but Karen kept staring at her, as if she were waiting for her to talk about something else.
    Ned shifted impatiently. “Yes,” he prompted, “Angela Morrow. Can we see her?”
    Karen turned her attention to him. “Right. Angela,” she said, repeating his question. “She’s not here, I’m afraid. I can leave a note for her if you’d like.”
    Nancy couldn’t help thinking that Karen seemed distracted and a bit confused.
    Ned locked eyes with Karen. “Angela left me a note saying she was coming to live here.”
    His words seemed to pull Karen out of her thoughts. She folded her arms across her chest. “As a matter of fact, she will be joining us here. But when students move off campus, they need parental consent. Angela went home to discuss it with her mom and dad.”
    Before Ned could reply, Nancy laid a hand on his arm to silence him.
    â€œWhen people come here, where exactly do they stay?” she cut in, smoothly changing the subject. “I don’t see any signs of people living here.”
    â€œThis is just our meeting hall. There are a few offices up there on the catwalk, but no one lives here. We house people in the surrounding buildings. Right now, we have thirty full-time members,” Karen boasted. “And we’re still growing.”
    â€œKaren?” a deep voice boomed from the mezzanine.
    They all turned toward the man who appeared on the catwalk.
    â€œThat’s Philip Bangs,” Nancy told Ned in a low voice. “The environmentalist. Angela talked about him the other night, remember?”
    Philip Bangs swaggered down the stairs towardthem. “Thanks, Karen, for letting me use your phone,” he said. “I finally got ahold of the people at Saint Marks University and my speech is on for tomorrow. I appreciate your letting me stay but I have to leave for California now.” Bangs turned to Nancy.
    â€œIt’s Nancy Drew, right?” he said.