Terry Scott, a young archaeology professor, seeks Nancy’s help in unearthing a secret of antiquity which can only be unlocked by three black keys. While on an archaeological expedition in Mexico, Terry and Dr. Joshua Pitt came across a clue to the buried treasure. The clue was a cipher carved on a stone tablet. Before the professors had time to translate the cipher, the tablet disappeared—and with it Dr. Pitt! Terry tells Nancy of his suspicions of the Tinos, a Mexican couple posing as scientists, who vanished the same night as Dr. Pitt.

The young detective is plunged into an adventure that demands all her ingenuity and bravery as she and her friends follow a tangled trail of clues that lead to the Florida Keys and finally to Mexico. Again, Carolyn Keene has woven a suspense-filled story that will thrill her millions of readers.

Was the fluttering handkerchief a signal of distress?

Published by Grosset & Dunlap, Inc., a member of The Putnam &
Grosset Group, New York. Published simultaneously in Canada. S.A.
NANCY DREW MYSTERY STORIES® is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster,
Inc. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Grosset & Dunlap, Inc.

eISBN : 978-1-101-07729-0

2007 Printing

http://us.penguingroup.com

CHAPTER I

An Urgent Request

NANCY Drew’s eyes sparkled as she and Bess Marvin stepped from the afternoon plane.

“Wasn’t it a grand weekend in New York?” Nancy said. “But it’s good to be back in River Heights. There’s your mother, Bess.”

Mrs. Marvin kissed the girls and offered Nancy a ride home.

“Thank you,” she answered, “but I left my car here.”

As the slender, titian-haired girl walked toward the lot with her small suitcase, a young man in a gray topcoat signaled her to wait. His worried look and the urgency of his pace gave Nancy the feeling something was wrong.

“You are Nancy Drew?” he asked. When she nodded, he said, “Your father—”

“Is Dad—is something the matter?” Nancy interrupted fearfully.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you. Your father is all right. But I’m concerned about a friend,” the stranger went on. “I consulted your father about him this morning. Mr. Drew said my case sounded more like a mystery for a detective than for a lawyer!”

Nancy studied the eager young man. He was not more than twenty-five, tall and attractive, with serious, blue eyes and reddish hair.

“Perhaps I should introduce myself,” he said. “My name is Scott—Terence Scott, but my friends call me Terry. I’m on the faculty of Keystone University. You may think it’s strange, my coming to meet you here. But when I learned how clever you are at solving mysteries—”

“I’ll do what I can,” Nancy promised.

Though still in her teens, Nancy had earned a reputation as a clever sleuth.

“It’s quite comfortable in the waiting room,” she said. “Suppose we go in there and you tell me your story.”

As soon as she had locked her suitcase in her car, they found a secluded bench in the main building beyond a group of waiting passengers. Terry Scott removed his topcoat, folded it, and placed it on the bench between them.

“The story,” he said, “begins in Mexico. I was with a group of professors working there last summer to unravel an ancient mystery. Our search led us to an unexplored area, where we planned to dig for a treasure.”

“Yes?” Nancy said, her interest aroused.

“According to old legends, something of great benefit to mankind is secreted with the treasure. We professors—Dr. Graham, Dr. Pitt, Dr. Anderson, and myself—are as interested in finding out what this is as we are in finding the treasure.”

“You have no idea what it is?” Nancy asked.

“No. After weeks of excavating, Dr. Pitt and I came across a clue which the four of us were sure would lead to the treasure.”

Terry Scott leaned forward, his face tense. “It was a stone tablet. We knew at once that all we needed to do was translate the cipher on it, and the secret would be ours. But then something terrible happened.”

“What?”

“The night the day of our find, Dr. Pitt and the stone tablet disappeared!”

“He stole it?” Nancy asked, shocked.

Terry Scott frowned. “I don’t know. Dr. Pitt was pretty secretive. He is a bachelor, and close-mouthed about his work. But he’s a fine teacher, and all the professors would swear he’s honest.”

“Perhaps he was the victim of foul play,” Nancy suggested. “Did you call in the police?”

“Yes. They haven’t turned up a thing, but I feel that Dr. Pitt is alive.”

“Being held captive somewhere?”

Terry Scott shrugged. “Whatever it is, I mean to get to the bottom of it. Dr. Pitt must be found. And I don’t intend that anyone else shall get the credit for something that belongs to us professors!” The young man’s eyes blazed.

“I can’t blame you,” Nancy agreed. “Have you any clues to help solve this mystery?”

“Yes. After Dr. Pitt disappeared, I found a couple of things in his tent that I believe are important. Here is one of them.”

He reached deep into a pocket of his topcoat and brought out an object wrapped in tissue paper. It was the bottom half of a large, ancient key, black in color and of an unusual luster.

“There were three of these keys originally,” he explained, “all made of obsidian.”

“That’s glass, isn’t it?” Nancy asked.

“Yes, a kind of volcanic glass,” Terry Scott answered. “The other keys disappeared when Dr. Pitt did.”

He held the curious half-key up to the light for Nancy’s examination, then returned it to the pocket of his topcoat.

“We’ll need the other half of the key before we’re through,” he stated. “But, in the meantime, I figure what we ought to do is find a man named Juarez Tino.”

“Why?” Nancy asked.

Terry Scott said that he suspected the man and his wife of being the thieves. They had been working near the Mexican campsite for some time before the stone tablet had been found.

“The Tinos passed themselves off as scientists, but my guess is they’re fakers. The same night that Dr. Pitt, the cipher stone, and the keys disappeared, the Tinos vanished.”

“You think Dr. Pitt went off with them?” Nancy remarked.

“Either with them or after them. I believe if we can trace Juarez Tino and his wife, we’ll find Dr. Pitt as well as solve our ancient mystery.”

“Oh, I hope so,” said Nancy. “Did any of you make a copy of the cipher on the stone tablet?”

The young man shook his head ruefully. “We found the tablet at the end of the day when we were tired. We never thought it might be stolen before morning!”

Suddenly Terry Scott glanced at his wrist watch. “I almost forgot!” he exclaimed. “I promised Dr. Graham I’d phone him. The old man gets very upset if he’s kept waiting. Excuse me for a moment, please.”

Leaving his coat at Nancy’s side, Terry Scott dashed off to a telephone booth around the corner. Nancy waited, pondering the events he had related.

A dark, swarthy man sauntered over and took Scott’s place on the bench. Out of the corner of her eye, Nancy saw the man fingering the professor’s topcoat.

“What are you doing?” she cried, jumping up and snatching the coat from him.

The man stood up hastily and hurried toward a side door. Just as he disappeared, Terry Scott returned. He noticed Nancy’s look of apprehension.

“Is something wrong?” he asked anxiously.

“I’m not sure,” Nancy answered. “A man who came to sit here acted as if he wanted to steal your coat.”

A frown came over the young professor’s face. “What did the man look like?”

“Dark, short,” she replied. “Sort of a crooked mouth and beady eyes.”

“That sounds like Juarez Tino, the man I was telling you about!” Terry Scott snatched up his coat and plunged a hand into the inner pocket. “It’s gone!” he gasped. “Juarez has the black key!”

“We’ll go after him!” Nancy rushed for the door through which the man had gone.

Terry dashed after her, and they hailed a policeman Nancy recognized as Sergeant Malloy of the River Heights police force.

“Sergeant,” she asked excitedly, “did you see a short, dark man come out of the waiting room?”

“You mean the one that was running, Miss Drew? He just drove off in a blue sedan with another fellow.” Malloy waved toward a departing car.

BOOK: (#28) The Clue of the Black Keys

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