(#26) The Clue of the Leaning Chimney (15 page)

“Unfortunately, yes. Then you came into the case, Miss Drew. But you shall never bother my brother or me again. As soon as we have removed our valuable property,” Ching said defiantly, “we will come back and dynamite the leaning chimney. When it collapses, it will crush the roof of the smelter.” He paused significantly. “Your fate will not be pleasant. But let us hope the end will be swift!”

For several seconds after Ching had departed, Nancy and Mr. Soong were too dazed even to talk. It occurred to Nancy that Mrs. Gruen would not be concerned about her absence until the dinner hour. The housekeeper would act promptly then, but it might be too late. Desperately Nancy began to try to figure some way out of their dreadful plight.

“There isn’t a chance of escaping through the door with the mastiff on guard,” she pointed out.

Holding the candle above her head, Nancy stared at the domelike roof of the old smelter. The opening which funneled into the leaning chimney was about two feet in diameter. Through the opening she could just see a patch of sunlit sky. A thought clicked and she turned excitedly to Mr. Soong.

“Didn’t Eng Moy get up the inside of the chimney to attach the iron symbol?” she asked.

“Yes. He said he used a ladder and went up from here,” the elderly gentleman replied.

There was no ladder in the smelter. Nancy again peered up the chimney. Ladder or no ladder, she promptly decided to try the climb.

“Please help me get up,” she said.

Mr. Soong’s eyes widened. “You don’t intend to climb the chimney?” he asked in alarm.

“I must!” Nancy told him. “It’s our only chance of escape.”

“But you might slip and fall!”

“Nothing would be worse than the fate that awaits us here,” Nancy pointed out. “But if I can make the climb, I may be able to bring help to you and your friends before it’s too late.”

Recognizing that there was no choice, the Chinese, exerting his last ounce of strength, permitted Nancy to stand on his back so she could reach into the opening. As Nancy pulled herself up inside, Mr. Soong looked at her anxiously.

“Be careful,” he begged. “If anything should happen to you—”

“Please don’t worry,” Nancy reassured him. “And don’t give up hope. If everything goes well, I’ll be back with the police.”

“Good fortune go with you!” said Mr. Soong, sinking to the floor.

Nancy began her climb. Bracing her back against one side of the chimney and her legs against the other, she started to inch up the stack.

Her climb was made easier by the angle at which the chimney slanted. But the cement between the bricks was chipped and broken. With every movement she made, Nancy was in danger of dislodging a loose brick and plunging down the dank shaft to the floor of the smelter!

With utmost care, she crept upward. Finally, when it seemed as if her tense, tired muscles could carry her no farther, she reached the top. Then she climbed carefully down the outside of the leaning chimney to the sloping roof of the old brick building.

She was about to make the drop from the edge of the roof to the garden when she heard a noise.

“Someone’s coming!” she thought with alarm.

Swiftly Nancy flattened herself against the sloping roof, and a moment later saw Carr’s wife, now in street clothes, open the door in the stone wall and walk in her direction.

As long as the woman did not look up, Nancy knew she was safe from view. But the angle at which the roof sloped made her position precarious. As Carr’s wife approached, Nancy’s grip suddenly weakened and she started to slide down.

“I can’t fail now!” she told herself desperately. “I just can’t!”

CHAPTER XX

A Fitting Reward

FRANTICALLY Nancy pressed her hands harder against the roof, and just when it seemed she must tumble to the ground, her momentum stopped.

Carr’s wife paused to listen, but evidently did not detect the sound as coming from the roof. Finally she returned to the door in the stone wall and went through.

Nancy breathed with relief. Landing lightly on the spongy turf below the roof, she ran to where she had hidden the rope ladder. It was still there. Hooking the ladder to the top of the wooden fence, Nancy climbed over quickly.

She tossed the ladder behind a tree and ran headlong. Taking a circuitous route to avoid detection, she finally came to the parked car. She drove as swiftly as possible along the gravel lane; then sped toward Three Bridges Road. Crossing the intersection not twenty feet in front of her was the familiar car of a state trooper!

Nancy blew a long blast on her horn and the police car stopped. She slipped out of the convertible and ran toward the trooper.

“Thank goodness you’re here!” she told him. “I need help—right away!”

“What’s wrong, miss?”

Nancy apprised him of the situation.

“Looks as if we’ll need plenty of help,” the trooper said grimly.

He radioed his district headquarters, and after a short wait they were joined by six state troopers in a patrol car. With Nancy leading the way, they sped toward the enclosure.

The men went over the fence at various locations to make their roundup complete. Nancy and two of the officers went at once to the old brick building to free Mr. Soong.

None of the criminals was in sight, but some of the workers were arrested. Since none of them could speak English, they could tell the police nothing about Carr and his brother.

“You’ll have an ugly dog to tackle in a minute,” Nancy warned the troopers as they went on toward the old smelter.

“We’ll take care of him.”

To Nancy’s surprise the mastiff was gone. Nancy was puzzled. What of Mr. Soong? She darted to the door of the smelter and yanked it open. The place was empty.

“He’s been taken away!” she cried despairingly.

The troopers looked at her. Had they come too late?

Nancy had a sudden inspiration. “I believe I know where everybody is,” she said.

She led the men to the large corridor vault where Eng Moy had said the valuable potteries were locked up. As Nancy expected, the door would not open, but she could detect a faint whine from within. She told the men she suspected the criminals and their mastiff were inside.

“Come out of there at once!” one of the troopers commanded.

There was utter silence. Suddenly Nancy realized that if her Chinese friends were inside with the criminals, they might be afraid to answer. So she called loudly:

“It’s Nancy Drew! I’ve come with help!”

From inside came a cry of joy from Eng Lei, but it was stifled at once. The troopers said they would batter down the door if it were not opened immediately!

At last from the interior of the vault, their faces sullen, came Carr holding the dog by the leash, his wife, and Ching. Behind them were Mr. Soong and the Engs, who blinked happily.

The story was soon told. When Carr had discovered Nancy gone, he had rounded up his wife and brother to make a getaway. But Nancy had arrived with the police too soon. By hiding in the vault, Carr had hoped to make the group think he and Ching and the others already had left.

Before leaving, the Carrs would have disposed of the old Chinese and his friends. The workers outside did not know enough to give damaging evidence against the brothers.

“You meddlesome creature!” Carr’s wife burst out, pointing a finger at Nancy. “You’re to blame for our capture! In another year we would have become rich enough to leave this place forever. But you had to come snooping and spoil it all!”

At that moment another of the troopers approached to report that all the workers in the place had been captured. Nancy quickly introduced Mr. Soong, who was allowed to go. All the others would have to be held for questioning, the officer said, but he was sure the Engs would be allowed to stay at Mr. Soong’s home.

“Tell Eng Moy and Eng Lei good-by for me, Mr. Soong, please,” Nancy said with a smile.

“But you will see them again,” the old importer promised. “They will not return to China at once.”

The next day Mr. Drew, back from Washington, and thankful his daughter was safe, talked over the mystery with Nancy. The Carrs and Ching, they learned from the police, had signed a complete confession.

“One of the things I’m most curious about,” Mr. Drew remarked, “is how Carr and Ching obtained possession of the enclosure.”

Nancy showed her father a copy of the confession. It said the discoverer of the kaolin had been the brothers’ great-grandfather. His son had worked the pit for a while but had moved away. Then his son, the father of David and Ching, had gone to China as a merchant, and the property had been sold for taxes but never used.

Records, testifying to the existence and location of the pit, had lain untouched in Shanghai for many years. Then, five years ago, David Carr and his brother had found the records and had immediately come to the United States to look over the pit. Using the name of the geologist Miles Monroe, to avoid suspicion, Carr had purchased the tract of land, despite the fact that it did not have a clear title.

“Here’s something interesting,” Nancy said.

The Carrs had later learned that a man named Petersen had left papers which might upset their claim to the pit. David had been given a lead to the former owner of Mrs. Wendell’s house in Masonville, and this was the telephone conversation Dick Milton had overheard six months ago.

Carr, using the name Manning, had gone to her home, taken a room, and stolen the papers he wanted, as Nancy had guessed. He had installed the secret panel leading to the empty attic next door, to keep some of the valuable potteries there, in case the enclosure in the woods was raided.

“You spiked that one early in the game, Nancy.” Mr. Drew grinned. “And you figured all along that the religious colony was just a camouflage.”

“Well, in a way, the discovery of the leaning chimney in Masonville was a lucky coincidence.” Nancy smiled. “If I hadn’t found that, I might not have uncovered the secret of the enclosure.”

A week later Mr. Soong held a party in honor of the Engs. Nancy and Mr. Drew were there, as well as Bess and George, Dick and Connie, and Ned Nickerson.

Nancy noted with satisfaction that displayed on the living-room mantel were Mr. Soong’s jade elephant and the dragon Ming vase which had been recovered from the swindlers.

After dinner Mr. Soong made a short, touching speech expressing the debt of gratitude he and the Engs owed Nancy. Then Lei stepped forward, holding in her hands an exquisite vase.

Against a soft-green background was pictured a slender, golden-haired girl, pitting a lance at a scaly green dragon. Behind her stood a Chinese girl and two men in long Oriental robes.

As Lei presented the vase to a surprised Nancy with a warm smile, she spoke in Chinese.

“What is she saying?” Nancy asked Mr. Soong.

“Lei is trying to tell you that she and her father made this for you. Like all Chinese work, the design tells a story,” he explained. “The girl is Nancy Drew. The three Chinese are Lei, Moy, and myself whom you are protecting from the evil dragon: Ching, Carr, and his wife.”

He turned the vase bottom up. “It says, ‘Made in the hearts of Eng Moy and Eng Lei.’ ”

“It’s lovely,” she whispered. “Thank you,” Nancy said simply. “Thank you very much.”

She started to turn away, but there was a burst of applause from the smiling circle of guests.

“Speech!” George prompted, spurring the others to even greater hand clapping.

Nancy looked helplessly at Mr. Soong. “Please do,” he urged, smiling.

“Go ahead, Nancy,” Ned spoke up.

“I’ll do my best,” she promised with a little laugh. “There aren’t any words to express the way I feel about this vase. It’s more to me than just a gift. It’s a token of friendship; a bond between me and three of the nicest people I’ve ever known. I’ll treasure it always.”

Applause burst out again as she finished, then the circle broke up and Nancy found herself in one corner of the room with Bess, George, and Ned.

“Well, Nancy,” Ned said with a teasing grin, “now that you’ve located the China day and the missing Engs, what are you going to do next?”

“Next,” Nancy replied, “I’m going to tell you a secret. Mr. Soong is lending Dick the money to acquire the China clay, and the Engs are going to stay in America—for a while at least—and work with him making potteries. And now,” she added, laughing, “I’m ready and willing to take on any new mystery that comes along.”

Although Nancy did not know it then, the mystery was to be the baffling, exciting adventure of
The Secret of the Wooden Lady.

“Meanwhile,” Nancy whispered to Bess, “I think I’ll join you in the ceramics class. Now that I’ve learned from Ching and Carr what
not
to do in making potteries, I’d better take a few tips from Dick on what to do!”