(#30) The Clue of the Velvet Mask (6 page)

While Nancy explained, George went to the phone and called Mrs. Fayne and Mrs. Marvin who gave their permission for the trip. Ten minutes later Mrs. Gruen was in a taxi on her way to the Lightner Entertainment Company.

Meanwhile, it was decided that the mask would be carried in Bess’s bag. As soon as Mrs. Gruen returned with the wigs and the train tickets, George took Nancy’s initialed suitcase and the cousins left to return home to dress for the trip.

“Hurry! There’s not much time!” Nancy called to them. “And, Bess, take a bag without initials. I will too.”

“I’m glad they’re going with you,” Hannah declared. “You’ll need protection more than I will.”

Bess and Nancy met on the station platform just as the train arrived.

By prearrangement they took seats near the rear of the second coach. Soon George came in with her luggage. Seating herself at the front of the car, she set the case so that the initials N.D. were plainly visible to anyone passing through the aisle.

“I hope the trick works,” Bess whispered.

“It will,” Nancy predicted, although both girls remained silently concerned for George’s safety.

Nancy nudged Bess to draw her attention to three passengers who had entered the car directly behind George. One was a dark-eyed, sullen-looking woman in smartly tailored clothes. She was accompanied by two men.

They scrutinized George, who was thumbing through a magazine. Then their gaze wandered down the aisle to Nancy and Bess.

The woman and one of the men sat down in the double seat across the aisle from George. The second man took the seat directly in front of Bess and Nancy.

This was an unforeseen complication, for now they were unable to talk without fear of being overheard. Nevertheless, Nancy and Bess were jubilant. They were certain their ruse had worked!

The three passengers easily might have chosen other seats. Instead, two had deliberately sat near the girl they thought was Nancy, and the third had probably stationed himself to listen to Nancy and Bess, the only other two young women in the car.

Nancy settled back in her seat and opened a magazine but did not read. The man in the seat ahead paid no attention to the other passengers and devoted himself to a copy of a New York newspaper.

An hour later the conductor called out the name of a small but busy town. Nancy noticed that the stranger had put aside his newspaper. Was he going to leave the train? Had she been entirely mistaken about him?

Nancy and Bess did not venture even a whispered remark. But they exchanged glances.

The train began to slow down for the station. Nancy and Bess looked up to see what the couple across the aisle from George would do.

The dark-haired woman rose, stepped across the aisle, and bent over George. When she straightened, the masquerading “Nancy Drew” had slumped over, apparently in a faint!

“Oh dear! Our daughter is ill,” the woman proclaimed in a loud voice. “We must get her off the train at once!”

By this time they had reached the station. The woman seized the suitcase with the initials N.D. Her companion gathered George up in his arms, carrying her toward the front exit.

Alarmed, Nancy and Bess grabbed their bags and started in pursuit. But their way was immediately blocked by the man who had seated himself directly ahead of them.

“What’s the hurry, sister?” he asked, swaying from side to side to prevent their pushing past him.

Nancy knew now why he had taken that particular seat. George’s kidnapping had been planned —her abductors wanted no interference!

“Let us through!” Nancy ordered.

“There’s plenty of time, girlie.”

“No, there isn’t,” Bess fairly yelled.

By now several other passengers began to take an interest in the commotion.

“The rear exit!” Nancy whispered.

She wheeled and Bess followed her. They leaped down the steps, and looking up the platform, saw the unconscious George being put into a waiting automobile. As Nancy and Bess dropped their bags and ran toward it, the car sped away from the station!

CHAPTER VII

Double Talk

“STOP! Stop that car!” Bess cried frantically. “They’re kidnapping George!”

“It’s no use,” said Nancy, seizing her friend’s arm. “I’ll go look for a policeman. Now brace up, Bess,” she added sternly. “Try to find the man who stopped us.”

As Nancy raced off, Bess bit her trembling lip and turned back. She spotted the man; but, to her dismay, he was driving away, in a different direction from the one which the kidnappers’ car had taken.

In the meantime George was slowly regaining consciousness. But she could not move a single muscle, not even those of her eyelids. As if from a great distance she heard a man say:

“Well done. This time Nancy Drew wasn’t so smart. You got the mask?”

“It should be in her suitcase,” a woman’s voice informed him.

“Then dig it out fast! We haven’t got all day, you know. It has to be burned before this girl comes to. Then we’ll make her talk.”

“The whiff I gave her will easily last that long,” the woman said.

George could hear her opening the locks on the suitcase.

“Something’s wrong,” the woman muttered. “It’s not here.”

“What!” the man thundered.

“Look at this blouse with the initials G.F. This girl isn’t Nancy Drew!”

“Idiot!” another man stormed. “Are you sure?”

“But we thought from the suitcase and her hair—”

“You thought!” the man mocked her. “I’ll take a look at the girl myself.”

He pulled the car into a clearing at the side of the road. Alighting, the driver opened the back door and stared at the seemingly sleeping George.

“She’s a phony! Look! She’s wearing a wig!” he cried, snatching it off.

“You’ve been outwitted, and by Nancy Drew!” the other man yelled. “No telling what she’s done about those dates in the mask by this time. Now we’re really in a spot. And this girl’s coming around,” he observed as George stirred. “She’ll be a nuisance to us. Blindfold her!”

George tried to open her eyes but she could not do it, her eyelids felt so heavy. A handkerchief was bound tightly across her eyes. She realized her danger, but even this thought failed to rouse her from the stupor into which she had fallen.

“Where is the black velvet hood?” the woman hissed in her ear. “What did Nancy Drew do with it?”

There was no answer. Even if George had wanted to, she would have been unable to respond. Her mind was so befogged at the moment that the woman’s question was a meaningless jumble of words.

“Talk!” ordered the driver.

But George was overcome with drowsiness and a new sensation of numbness spread through her limbs.

“You gave her too big a dose,” the other man accused the woman. “Can’t you see she’s going under again?”

“Yeah,” broke in the driver. “A lot of good she’ll do us now!”

“Okay, okay,” growled the woman. “So I gave her too much. We’d just better get out of here fast before the Drew girl puts the cops on us.”

“Listen! A car’s coming!” said the driver. “Let’s get rid of this babe and scram!”

Hastily George’s captors pulled her from the automobile and propped her beside a tree, together with her own handbag and Nancy’s suitcase.

“Now, young lady, how do you like that?” the woman sneered.

She grasped George’s arm tightly, whispering dire threats into her ear. Although George was dazed, the words burned deeply into her brain.

“And I advise you not to forget!” the woman finished with a harsh laugh.

“Come on! Hurry!” the driver shouted.

The couple jumped back into the car and roared away in a cloud of dust. George gave a sigh and sank to the foot of the tree in a deep sleep.

Meanwhile Bess had found Nancy, who was relating their story to a policeman. When she finished, Bess told about the escape of the other man.

“Did you get the license number of the kidnappers’ car?” the officer asked.

Both shook their heads. “Everything happened so quickly. I didn’t see the other one either,” Bess apologized, then broke off in sobs.

“The kidnappers had a brown sedan,” Nancy recalled. “It turned right at the first corner. Can you chase it?”

“I can’t leave here, but I’ll report it,” the policeman said. “Did you notice anything else?”

“No-o,” Nancy replied. “That is, nothing that will help us now.”

Actually she had made one other fleeting observation. Just as the car crossed the railroad tracks, she had seen a small object drop out of a window. From a distance it had looked like a shiny metal disk. Nancy wanted to search for it, but just now there was no time, and moreover another train was arriving.

“If the kidnappers took Old Mill Road, it’s a case for the State Police,” the officer said. “I’ll call them.”

The girls ran back to the platform for their bags but returned at once. They waited impatiently. Finally the officer appeared.

“Okay, they’ll try to pick up the trail,” he reported, “but they’d like you girls along.”

“Where do we meet them?” Nancy asked, fidgety that time was passing and George was getting farther away.

“Their headquarters are on Old Mill Road. I’ll take you there.”

The girls picked up their overnight bags and jumped into his car, which sped to the outskirts of town. There was no sign of the brown sedan.

They transferred to a waiting State Police car containing two officers who introduced themselves as Lieutenants Connolly and Whyte.

They recognized Nancy from newspaper pictures which had often accompanied stories of her detective work. Nancy thanked them for their praise but quickly turned their attention to the details of George’s abduction.

“The Velvet Gang, eh?” Whyte said. “This is serious.”

The four kept a sharp lookout for the kidnappers’ car. There was no way of knowing whether or not they had taken the right route as they followed the winding Old Mill Road.

Presently Whyte radioed to headquarters, reporting failure so far and asking if there was any news from surrounding towns which had been alerted. He was told that the abductors had not been picked up.

The officer had just replaced his transceiver when Nancy cried out, “Stop! Look over there!”

Her alert eyes had caught sight of a girl propped against a tree at the edge of a woods.

“It’s George!”

The titian-haired wig was gone and she appeared to be only semiconscious. Nancy and Bess leaped from the car and ran to her. As they shook George gently she opened her eyes.

“Nancy! Bess!” she murmured, and started weeping hysterically on Nancy’s shoulder.

“Everything’s all right, George,” Nancy said.

Bess slipped a protective arm about the trembling girl’s waist.

“Nancy, you must give up the case,” George sobbed. “I insist!”

“Give it up?” Nancy echoed in disbelief. “Why, George, it’s astounding to hear you suggest such a thing! You’re the one who has been urging me to solve it.”

The troopers had come up and were listening to the girls’ conversation. Quickly Bess gave a glowing account of Nancy’s brilliant sleuthing on the Velvet Gang case.

“That’s amazing!” Lieutenant Whyte remarked. “If you track down the party thieves, my hat’s off to you.”

“But she mustn’t do any more work on it,” George mumbled.

Nancy and Bess exchanged glances. This was not the old George Faynel What had happened?

CHAPTER VIII

Telltale Tag

APPARENTLY George had been badly frightened by her abductors, but after a good night’s sleep she would be her normal self, Nancy figured.

Lieutenant Whyte knelt down beside George, and taking her wrist counted the girl’s pulse beat. He puckered his brow.

“Tell me exactly what happened,” he said.

“A woman leaned over me in the train and put a handkerchief over my nose and mouth. It smelled very sweet and made me black out.”

“When did you first wake up?” Whyte asked.

“I don’t know. What time is it?”

“I mean, did you wake up while you were in the car or after?” the officer questioned.

“There were voices—I—”

George stopped speaking and again lost consciousness. By the time they reached town George had revived somewhat and was examined by the police physician in his office. He said it was impossible to determine what drug had been administered to the girl but advised that she be taken home and put to bed for a few days.

“I’ll phone Mother to come and get us,” Bess offered.

When Nancy telephoned her father’s hotel in Amstar to explain the delay, she was amazed to hear that he had checked out late that morning.

“Then the telegram was a hoax,” she thought. “Those people certainly are clever. They were eavesdropping at my house and heard us making plans!”

She dialed her home and learned that Mr. Drew was in his law office. She called him there and explained what had happened.

“I don’t like this at all,” he said. “That gang is dangerous. You’d better forget the whole thing,” he advised.

“But, Dad, you gave me a job to do and I want to finish it!” Nancy protested.

“Well, all right,” he agreed reluctantly. “But do your sleuthing in safer places. You’ll be home tonight?”

“Yes, Dad.”

While waiting for Mrs. Marvin to arrive, Nancy decided to search at the railroad station for the object she had seen drop from the abductors’ car.

“Oh, Nancy,” George said weakly, “please don’t do another thing about those awful people.”

Seeing how deeply worried her friend was, Nancy decided she would not go. But a moment later George had dozed off on the couch in the physician’s office.

“I’ll be back before she wakes up,” Nancy whispered to Bess and left the room.

Going directly to the railroad station, she spent twenty minutes searching along the tracks. Just as she was about to give up, her efforts were rewarded. Close to one of the steel rails lay a rectangular metal tag.