The Secret of Red Gate Farm by Carolyn Keene (1931, 1961, 1989) Part 2

---

After the girls leave the gas station they continue their journey to the Red Gate Farm. On the way there is some bad weather with lightning. Joanne even thinks she sees a woman on the side of the road during all of this. They have to end up taking a detour which they hoped didn't make them too late to the farm for the place to not be sold.

When the girls arrived they learned that the meeting to speak about the buying the farm had been postponed until tomorrow due to the sudden weather changes. Joanne urges her Grandma to call the potential buyer immediately and tell him that they had decided to not sell the place. After some uneasiness she makes the call and he warns her it could have been a very big mistake. They hear that two people had seen their advertisement for folks to come and stay there, and so far they were booked for two visitors besides Nancy and her friends. This gives Grandma some hope that they may not have to sell the farm after all. The next morning, Nancy receives a call from Chief McGinnis in regards to the plate she had called about yesterday. They were rentals and had already been returned to the rental company. The girls talk with Joanne about the caves that are on the farm and we learn that there is a nature group that lives near them and uses them called the Black Snake Colony. No one goes near them, they pay their dues for renting the land by mail. Bess reads the local paper and finds a very interesting news article.

The article referred to Yyonne Wong and the company she worked for was dealing in illegal imports of Oriental goods. There was a lack of evidence and she was not convicted. The next day when they received the mail, one was meant for the Black Snake Colony, but no one wanted to deliver it to them so it was given back to the post office to redeliver it. Nancy and the girls decided to try and get a view of the area where the group was to see if they could see anything. They find that their outfits are pure white, covering their entire body and head. They perform a small dance outside, then head into the cave.

After they all went back to the farm, Joanne's Grandma urged the girls to not speak of the group and to stay clear of that part of the farm. Nancy dropped the subject but went out alone later in the day to hopefully get more clues. While walking near the river she hears a woman cry. She finds a woman has fallen and her ankle. The woman insists that she does not want help but Nancy slowly encourages her to let her help get her back home. Nancy finds that this woman is a member of the Black Snake Colony. Nancy gets her to the edge of their camp and the woman tells her to never come back. Nancy returns to the house and talks with Chief McGinnis about the group in hopes they might know something about them. Unfortunately he had no record of them, in the possibility that they were a newer group formed and had remained quite contained out there without any contact with the outside world.

After breakfast Nancy and the girls head back near the camp in hopes to see if they can gain any more information. They see them once again in their white outfits performing their dance and proceed into the cave. The girls want to follow them and hope they don't get caught. Nancy tells them this is not the best approach, they should go back to the farm and make their own outfits to blend in so they can stay longer without easily being seen. They all agree to the plan and head back to the farm to start their outfits.

This book is starting to get very interesting and have some strange elements. I am not opposed to these people being on the outskirts of the farm, they are paying rent and not bothering anyone there. But one major issue is Nancy's curiosity. For the first time since re reading these, I do not like the fact that she is going by herself very often to attempt to gather clues for the mystery. Usually she has been pretty good about telling people where she is for safety, but does not look like she is doing this that much. What also concerns me is the lack of information on this group the police have. If she were to disappear, there would be little to go on. From what I gather, this group does not seem to have association with locals and tend to do what they want in their area. This groups reminds me of a group that I heard about when I was younger and I later did an article on them in psychology while in school. During the 1980's there was a place called Rajneeshpuram near Antelope, Oregon. It was a place that was formed that had a new outlook on life to make life more simple for people to come and live in. They did not follow laws and rules implemented by state and federal, as they viewed their place not a part of the U.S. so they followed their own laws and regulations. With that being said, if Nancy gets in there, she may not be able to leave, we don't know how they view outsiders. I have known Nancy to take risks, but for once I am not approving of her actions. I'm hoping there will be good outcome. But we will have to wait and see.