"I'll go, too." Bess waved for the waitress and paid the check while Nancy went on ahead to get the car.

            The fifteen miles to the campsite seemed to take forever. When Nancy turned in to the parking area, she flung the door open in one movement, then dashed up to camp and straight to the tiny cabin. Bess followed. Inside, Nancy saw Jack, Jennifer, and Alicia clustered around Ned with an open first-aid kit on the floor nearby. Ned was sitting propped up against the wall, holding his head in his hands.

            "Ned!" Nancy cried as she rushed in and knelt beside him. "Are you all right?"

            "I feel a lot better now that you're here."

            Jennifer reluctantly moved aside so Nancy could look at the back of Ned's head. There was a huge bump and dried blood on it. "What happened?" she asked.

            Ned shifted, and as he did, Nancy noticed something gleaming on the floor behind him. She picked it up and tucked it into her pocket.

            "Let me think. I was on my way over to the command post. The door was ajar, and it's supposed to be kept shut because there's a lot of valuable hardware in here. So I decided to make sure everything was okay. I got inside, and the next thing I knew, I was lying here with this lump on my head and the mother of all headaches. Somebody must have hit me."

            Just then Bess arrived. "Ned," she gasped, "are you okay?"

            "Hi, Bess," he answered, trying his best to sound normal. "Guys, this is Bess Marvin."

            Jennifer and Alicia nodded to Bess. Jack glanced at her, smiled broadly, and held out his hand to shake hers. "Hello there, I'm Jack Billings. Boy, does Ned Nickerson have some great-looking friends."

            Bess blushed but said nothing.

            Nancy got to her feet. "Someone obviously wanted something. Is all the equipment still here?"

            Alicia had been studying the computer table. "It doesn't look as if anything was taken."