(#30) The Clue of the Velvet Mask (5 page)

“I’m not worried.”

“You and Mrs. Gruen will be in the house alone tonight, won’t you?”

“Yes, Dad is still away on a trip. I’m not the least bit afraid, though.”

At that moment the telephone rang. In the quiet house the sound was startling.

“It’s probably Dad calling long distance,” Nancy said. “I’ve been expecting him to phone.”

Excusing herself, she went to the hall and picked up the telephone. At first there was no reply to her hello. Then a man’s voice spoke precisely and with a sinister inflection:

“Nancy Drew, keep out of affairs that aren’t your own! If you don’t, be prepared to pay the consequences. Another warning. Get rid of that hooded mask. Drop it within twenty-four hours over the wall of Hillside Cemetery.”

The receiver clicked, indicating the end of the one-way conversation. Bess and George had joined her, aware that something was amiss.

“Was it a threat?” George demanded.

Nancy nodded. “I’ve been ordered to get rid of the black mask I picked up at Gloria’s home.”

“Oh, Nancy!” Bess exclaimed. “Didn’t I tell you? Why did you ever keep the mask?”

“I intend to hold on to it until the police ask me for it.”

“Good for you, Nancy!” George approved. “Don’t let that man bluff you!”

Bess sighed. “Well, if you’re not afraid, I guess we may as well run along. It’s getting late. But do be careful, Nancy.”

After the girls had gone, Nancy locked the screen door, but left the front door open, for the night was very warm.

She sat for a while in the living room, thinking about the new developments in the case. Then, abruptly, she went to a desk drawer and took out the black hooded mask.

As she was gazing at it, Mrs. Gruen came downstairs from her room.

“Nancy, I think you should go to bed,” she remarked. Then noticing the mask in the girl’s hand, she added with a shudder, “Mooning over that sinister thing again?”

“It’s my most valuable clue! This might be the very thing I need to track down the thieves.”

Nancy revealed to the housekeeper that she had been ordered to get rid of the mask.

“Well, obey their orders. I heard you telling Bess and George about your adventure tonight. The whole thing sounds dangerous to me.”

“Now, Hannah, don’t get so upset. Please. You know when I’m caught in a tight spot I can usually manage to get out of it.”

“Just you wait, Nancy Drew. Someday you won’t be able to find a way out. I worry all the time about you and your father. Two of a kind!”

“Well, then,” Nancy replied, “there’s no need to worry if I’m like Dad. He has never failed to crack a tough case!”

The housekeeper realized that it was futile to urge Nancy to stop work on a mystery, once she had started.

“What is it now, Nancy? Why are you staring so hard at that mask?” Hannah asked.

“It just occurred to me,” Nancy replied, “that the thief must have a good reason why he wants this returned. Perhaps it contains some clue he doesn’t want me to find.”

While Mrs. Gruen watched, Nancy ripped out the white silk lining of the velvet mask. To her disappointment, nothing had been hidden inside.

“I guess I was wrong,” she admitted ruefully. “I thought jewels or something valuable might have been tucked under the padding.”

“I’ll sew the lining back in,” the housekeeper offered. “Not tonight, though. I’m too sleepy.”

As Nancy started to tuck the lining back in, she noticed some numbers written on the reverse side.

“What’s this?” she said.

Carrying it to a brighter light, Nancy studied the numbers. They read: 621 626 628 71 75.

“What do they mean?” Mrs. Gruen asked.

“I wish I knew,” Nancy replied.

“The ink appears fairly fresh,” Mrs. Gruen remarked. “Not faded as it would be if the cloth were old.”

“The numbers may be a code. I wonder—”

At that moment the telephone rang and Nancy hastened to answer it. This time it was her father.

“I’m so glad to hear from you. How’s everything?” Nancy asked cheerily.

“Fine on this end. How about you?”

She reported what she had been doing on the case, then told him of the numbers on the mask’s lining.

“The numbers may be a code,” Nancy said

“Read them to me,” Mr. Drew suggested.

After Nancy did so, he said, “Very interesting. They sound like dates.”

“You mean 621 is June twenty-first?”

“Yes. And the last one’s the day after the Fourth of July.”

“Oh, Dad, you’re wonderful! That’s probably exactly what they are—dates for planned thefts! The woman in the Javanese costume put them in, or someone wrote them down before giving her the mask so she wouldn’t forget them.”

“Nancy, here’s a suggestion. Call the Lightner Entertainment Company in the morning and find out if they coincide with parties they’re arranging. But be discreet in asking questions.”

“I will!” Nancy assured him. “And Dad, when are you coming home?”

Mr. Drew said that unless something unexpected came up he would return the following evening.

“We miss you,” she said. “By the way, you’re at the Excelsior in Amstar, aren’t you?”

As Nancy said good-by she heard a sound on the front porch. Thinking someone was arriving, she went to look out, but no one was there.

“My imagination, I guess,” she decided. She closed and locked the front door, then went up to bed.

Nancy telephoned Linda Seeley at nine o’clock the following morning. After explaining where she had obtained the dates, she asked if Lightner’s had any parties scheduled for them.

“Yes, we do have for the first three you mentioned,” Linda answered without hesitation. “I know, because I’ve worked on them myself. Wait, I’ll check the others.”

In a moment she returned to say that July first was on their books, but the office had no record of a party for the fifth.

“I’ll contact the social editor of the newspaper,” Nancy said. “Someone may be giving a big party without Lightner’s services.”

“Nancy, if you’re still working on the theft, you’d better be wary,” Linda advised hurriedly. “After what happened last night at the reception, I’m getting scared.”

Nancy wanted to ask more questions, but Linda suddenly warned her that she must end the conversation.

“Mr. Tombar is coming!” she said nervously. “I’ll get in touch with you later.”

“Just one thing,” Nancy interposed. “Has a masquerade party been scheduled for any of those dates I told you about?”

“No, only other types of parties,” Linda whispered. “Good-by!”

Nancy next called the newspaper. The social editor, a friend, said she knew of no large parties scheduled for July fifth. “If I hear of any, Nancy, I’ll call you.”

Nancy thanked her. Putting down the phone, she sat still, absorbed in thought. Her reflections were interrupted by the excited barking of Togo, her small terrier. He had jumped up on his hind legs and was scratching at a window sill.

“Togo, what’s wrong?” Nancy demanded.

Mrs. Gruen had gone to the window and was peering into the sunny side yard. Nancy joined her. No one was in sight.

“Togo, you were really fooled this time,” Nancy scolded him. “No one’s out there.”

The little terrier, however, continued to bark. He ran to the front door, jerking his head and scratching frantically with his paws to tell Nancy that he wanted to be let out.

“What can be the matter?” she said, frowning. “I’ve never seen him so persistent.”

She ordered the dog to come away from the door and lie down. To her vexation, the usually obedient Togo paid no attention to her command. She started toward him, but whirled around at a sharp exclamation from Hannah.

“There was someone lurking near the window!” the housekeeper whispered. “Nancy, I just saw a long shadow move across the porch.”

Nancy dashed for the door, recalling the sound she had heard the night before.

“Someone’s eavesdropping on us!” she exclaimed.

CHAPTER VI

Kidnapped!

As Nancy opened the door, Togo bounded outside. The little dog raced directly toward the garage, barking furiously.

“He saw someone, all right,” Nancy declared. She could see the vague impressions of a man’s footprints leading directly to the window near the telephone. “Someone was listening. I’m going to look around outside.”

She asked the housekeeper to watch from the window while she followed the dog to the garage. The building was empty.

Togo ran around the yard, his nose to the ground. Picking up the stranger’s scent, he followed it to the street but became confused.

“Whoever it was, he’s gone now, Togo,” Nancy said, calling him back into the house. “Good dog! You tried hard.”

The housekeeper was greatly upset by the disturbance.

“Probably it was a member of that Velvet Gang,” she remarked. “That’s what the newspaper called them. I suspect the man wanted to get his black hood.”

“Now stop worrying,” Nancy begged. “If he’d wanted it, he would have tried harder to get in. Nevertheless I’ll phone Chief McGinnis.”

She brought the officer up to date on all she had learned and asked if she might still retain the mask since her father wanted to see it again.

“All right,” the chief said. “So long as we have those dates, that’s the important thing.”

Mrs. Gruen remained jumpy and Nancy did not leave her. Hours later, when she and Nancy went upstairs, the housekeeper gave a sudden start.

“Listen!” she said tensely. “What was that?”

“Only the front doorbell. I’ll go.”

“Be careful, Nancy. It may be a trick.”

The housekeeper’s suspicions were unwarranted. Opening the door, Nancy found a messenger from the telegraph office. She took the envelope which was addressed to her and tore it open. The telegram read:

AMSTAR
HAVE FOUND WHAT DATES MEAN. COME MY
HOTEL THIS EVENING. BRING MASK.

It was signed “Dad.”

“Bad news?” Mrs. Gruen asked, hovering near.

“Not exactly.” Nancy was rereading the telegram. “This message has me puzzled, though. Why should Dad ask me to come to Amstar when he expects to arrive home tonight?”

She offered the telegram to Mrs. Gruen for her opinion.

“Apparently your father has some further information on the mystery,” she said after reading it.

“This telegram may be a hoax.”

“That’s possible,” Mrs. Gruen admitted. “Well, the only thing to do is to verify it.”

Nancy put in a long-distance call to her father. The hotel operator informed her that Carson Drew was not in his room. She assured the girl, however, that he had not checked out.

Turning from the telephone, Nancy said reassuringly to worried Mrs. Gruen:

“Evidently Dad sent the telegram, so I’d better take the mask and meet him.”

She got in touch with the railroad station and learned that the only through train to Amstar left in less than two hours.

“Since Dad wants me there this evening, I’ll have to take it,” she remarked.

As she spoke, Togo growled and ran to the door.

“Another eavesdropper!” Hannah Gruen cried. She followed as Nancy ran outside.

A man was dashing across the lawn. He jumped into a car parked in front of the house next door.

“There he goes!” Nancy said grimly as the automobile roared off. Sensing the housekeeper’s nervousness, she added, “Perhaps Bess and George should stay with you tonight. I’ll call them.” She phoned George and asked her to pick up Bess.

“Be there in fifteen minutes,” George promised.

While Hannah Gruen hurriedly pressed a suit for Nancy, the girl detective started packing her overnight suitcase.

“I mustn’t forget to take the black mask,” she told herself.

When Bess and George arrived, they were astonished to learn that she was leaving at once for Amstar.

“Nancy, you’re not going alone!” Bess protested. “George and I will make the trip with you. Why, someone might try to snatch that mask away if you’re alone.”

George snapped her fingers. “That gives me an idea. It will make your trip mugging-proof.”

“What’s your idea?” Nancy asked eagerly.

“I’ll masquerade as you! I can wear your clothes and carry your bag.”

“That’s a very dangerous idea. I don’t think—”

“I insist. After all, it’s the most foolproof way I can think of to protect River Heights’ number one detective,” George interrupted. She fluffed her hair and added, “We’ll rent a titian-haired wig for me and a dark-brown one for you.”

Nancy was thoughtful. Although she worried about her friend’s welfare, the idea appealed to her. If the girls’ hunches were right, she might even catch the person who wanted the mask back!

“Well, what say?” George prodded.

“There’s one drawback,” said Nancy. “With eavesdroppers around I don’t think any of us should rent the wigs.”

“That problem can be solved easily.” George looked over Nancy’s shoulder. “Here’s the person to do it. Hello, Mrs. Gruen.”

“What am I getting into?” the housekeeper asked with a smile.