Aunt Jane's Nieces on the Ranch

Author(s):
Van Dyne, Edith (L. Frank Baum)

Illustrator(s):

Publisher:
Reilly & Britton, Chicago

Year: 1913

The eighth volume in this series. Nieces Patsy Doyle and Beth De Graf and their millionaire uncle, John Merrick, visit third niece Louise Weldon in California. Also in the entourage is Patsy's father Major Doyle and Mildred Travers, a professional nursemaid. Following their arrival at the Weldon's California ranch, they coo over Louise's child, nicknamed "Toodlums". After an outing, the nieces return to the ranch to find that the baby and it's two nurses have vanished. After a frantic search all that night and next morning, nurses and child are discovered to have been accidentally imprisoned within the walls of the ranch house, in a secret chamber built by the former owner of the ranch. The rest of the story deals with the recovery of a lost treasure and the marriage of Mildred Travers to a neighboring farmer.