Text differences.
1. The girl's name in the 1931 text is Millie Burd. In the revised text it's Joanne Byrd.
2. The farm has several cows in the 1931 text, but only one cow in the revised text.
3. In the 1931 text the road is muddy and the girls put chains on the tires.
4. In the original text Nancy is unable to break the whole code and it ends up at the Bureau of Cryptography where it is broken. In the revised text that's not done and Nancy is more successful.
Synopsis. SPOILERS!
Chapter 1
1931: Same thing as 1961 text.
1961: An 'Oriental-looking' clerk looks suspicious. She didn't want Bess to buy a certain perfume. All three girls have been shopping. Nancy gets doused with the perfume. A girl on the train faints. Some guy thinks Nancy is someone else he's supposed to meet since she smells like the perfume.
Chapter 2
1931: The girl on the train is named Millie Burd. The girl finds out she got off at the wrong stop.
1961: Nancy takes water to the girl who gets off at the same stop. She's Joanne, who lives on Red Gate Farm. There is a lack of money to keep the farm up. They all go to Nancy's home. The girl is looking for a job. She got off at the wrong stop and Nancy takes her to where she wanted to go. The place the girl goes to apply for a job is run down. The guy there is suspicious acting. The guy takes a message which is a series of numbers.
Chapter 3
1931: The place the girl goes to apply for a job is run down. The guy there is suspicious acting. The guy takes a message which is a series of numbers.
1961: He's hostile. Joanne goes to a boardinghouse. Nancy meets George and Bess. The guy from the train drives past and sees the girls. Nancy tells her father what is going on. She cracks part of the code.
Chapter 4
1931: Millie goes to a boardinghouse. Nancy talks to her father. Nancy works on the code.
1961: She decodes the message. Nancy then helps Hannah with the housework. The four girls go for a ride. Nancy sees Yvonne Wong, the clerk. She is at the office of the nasty guy Joanne tried to get a job with. Joanne will return to the farm. Some guy had offered to pay little money for the farm.
Chapter 5
1931: Nancy works on the codes then goes to see Millie. Millie says they have a few cows, but in the revised text there is only one cow. Millie has to return to the farm.
1961: The girls go to the farm. George had gotten a phone call warning her that Nancy needs to stop her snooping. There is a cave on the farm grounds. Nancy and the group stop for gas and food. Nancy sees a car with a woman and several nasty men in in, one of them being the guy from the train. Yvonne is the woman. They seem to have lots of money.
Chapter 6
1931: Nancy, George and Bess are going to go to the farm. In the town she spots the Oriental clerk. Nancy finds out the woman took the job that Millie wanted. They continue their drive to the farm.
1961: A storm is approaching and the girls have to take a detour. The car gets stuck in the mud. They get the car out and another storm hits. They see a woman running through the fields. She's going towards the cavern.
Chapter 7
1931: Millie talks about the cave. They stop to eat and Nancy goes to get gas for her car when she spots another car with 'tough customers.' They are rich.
1961: They reach the farm. The grandma says she won't sell the farm. The guy on the phone gets nasty. Nancy talks to the police. Bess gets chased by a turkey. The Black Snake Colony is renting the land the cave is on. There's an article in the paper about Yvonne.
Chapter 8
1931: Nancy uses a $20 bill her father had given her. They drive towards the farm and run into a bad storm. The road is muddy and they put chains on the tires to help get through the mud. (Not done in the 1961 text). They see a woman moving towards the cave.1961: A syndicate owned the shop that Yvonne worked in. Nancy thinks more about the code and talks to the police again. Two boarders arrive. The farm gets a letter that was supposed to go to the cult. Bess learns how to milk a cow. They girls at night walk to a hill and see the cult members in robes dancing around. A car stops for a moment and then takes off.
Chapter 9
1931: They get to the farm. The perfume that Bess bought apparently cost all of $3. Nancy is told about the Black Snake Colony. She's also told the colony people wear masks. There's a lot of members and several women. There's an article in the paper about Yvonne.
1961: Nancy goes for a hike and sees the woman who ran across the field. The woman is injured but doesn't want to accept help. She's in the cult. She tells Nancy to stay away from where the cult is. Nancy returns to the farm. The police call her. She's told the cult is not a real listed cult.
Chapter 10
1931: The article talks about the Hale Syndicate. Two boarders arrive at the farm. A letter to the colony arrives. Bess learns how to milk a cow. The girls see the colony members dancing in the moonlight. (Now the text says they wear white robes.)
1961: The girls agree to check out the cult and they watch it, noting a lot of cars and a lot of men. The girls plan to make similar costumes to try to infiltrate the cult.
Chapter 11
1931: Nancy runs into the woman who ran across the field. She has hurt her ankle. She's not nice.
1961: A nasty guy shows up about buying the farm. The cow has gone missing. Some guy shows up by the cave entrance. Nancy recovers the cow. Some woman brings a letter to Nancy, supposedly from her father.
Chapter 12
1931: The girls talk about the cult and then one night see them dancing. Cars arrive and men get out. They put on 'long white robes with head masks', thus uniting the two different descriptions of what the members wear. Nancy comes up with a plan for making a costume like the members wear.
1961: The letter is a fake. The phone at the farm is dead. All three girls later go to the town. They get some gas and food. Nancy reaches her father and he verifies that he didn't send any message. The place was given a counterfeit twenty. Some men arrive and claim to be from the Secret Service.
Chapter 13
1931: The girls enjoy working on the farm. One of the cows has gone missing. Nancy finds the cow on a hillside. Nancy's found the other entrance to the cave. A man appears and confronts her. Nancy works on the message some more.
1961: Karl's father is staying at the farm and he tells them who Nancy is. She talks to the agents about the coded message and the girls later get back to the farm. The phone line had been cut. Nancy goes back to town and sees a woman near the road. She's the woman from the colony and she talks about the cult. The woman is afraid to run away.
Chapter 14
1931: The girls drive to a town. They drive more and stop at a place for gas and food. Then there's the scene with the Secret Service agents and Nancy accused of passing phony money. All four girls are taken by the agents and pushed towards the door.
1961: the woman is very afraid of the cult. Two women gossip about the cult in a store. Nancy returns to the farm and the girls make their costumes. Karl Jr. leaves. At night George thinks a snake has bitten her.
Chapter 15
1931: Karl Jr. arrives. He explains about Nancy and her father. The man and woman who work there had been trying to blame Nancy and the girls for the phony money and avoid the fact that the rich men had arrived and also paid with cash. Nancy talks to the agents and mentions Yvonne. She also gives them the message. The agents decide to follow Nancy in her car; they still don't totally trust her.
1961: Nancy and Bess treat George for snakebite. They get her to the house and a doctor is called. Bess and Joanne go out to see if the cult appears. Nancy figures out the rest of the coded message. It connects a syndicate with the cult and the farm. The girls grab their costumes and go out. They see the hooded figures and the cars. Nancy, George and Bess go to infiltrate the dancers.
Chapter 16
1931: A car moves slowly past the farmhouse after the girls get there. It's the agents. Nancy then goes to get groceries and sees the woman from the colony again.
1961: All three girls join the dancers. They overhear the guys say that the cult is a fake. The guys go into the cave and the girls follow them. The women of the cult use the perfume Yvonne soldl. Yvonne is there. They talk about counterfeiting. They are going to make up a new code.
Chapter 17
1931: She gives the woman a ride to town. The woman seems afraid to try to run away from the colony.
1961:They enter a place where the fake money is made. The guy who wants to buy the farm is one of the cult. A guard comes in with Joanne as a prisoner.
Chapter 18
1931: Nancy drops the woman off, goes to the store and hears two women gossiping about the cult. She buys stuff for the costumes. The girls make their costumes. They go out to infiltrate the cult.
1961: The girls' masks are removed. The women Nancy helped is also a counterfeiter, the wife of the chief crook. Nancy runs, Bess and George are caught. Some man stops Nancy from escaping.
Chapter 19
1931: Automobiles arrive and the cult members start to dance. The girls join the dancers. They overhear guys talk about how the cult is fake. Everyone heads into the cave.1961: Nancy is caught. The girls are tied up. Karl is at the cave entrance and Nancy yells at him to run.
Chapter 20
1931: They get into the cave and smell the perfume. Some of the men start to give their reports. Yvonne is there. Hale says they need a new code. They all go into another chamber of the cave.
1961: Karl signals and seven armed men appear. They are Secret Service agents. The other cave exit is also covered. Karl frees the girls. Later, a museum is set up at the farm in the cave talking about the counterfeiting group in order to raise money for the farm. The farm is also taking in boarders so its financial problems are solved.
Chapter 21
All the counterfeiting equipment is there along with some fake money. Millie is brought in by a guard.
Chapter 22
Hale tells everyone to remove their masks. The girls are caught. The girls try to escape but only Nancy is able to break free. She gets to the cave entrance and there's someone there.
Chapter 23
Nancy is caught. The girls are taken by one of the crooks and led towards the cave entrance.
Chapter 24
Karl Jr. is there. He has seven federal agents backing him up. Yvonne tries to say she's innocent. The agents take the crooks prisoners and take them out of the cave. One of the agents explains that the code Nancy had given them had been sent to the Bureau of Cryptography. It was a difficult code, but Hale's name was definitely on it. Karl Jr. comes up with a way to make money for the farm.Chapter 25
Some time later Mr. Drew drives to the farm area and see the signs about the museum where the counterfeiters worked, and the ad for boarders for the farm. Nancy has stayed at the farm for a while to help out and doesn't know he's arriving. The farm is so successful with the boarders idea that a new wing is going to be built. He tells her the entire gang was sent to prison, and the leader was given a long sentence. His wife, the old woman Nancy had helped at times, was given a suspended sentence.
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