(#39) The Clue of the Dancing Puppet (15 page)

Nancy quickly crossed the yard and went in the side entrance of the theater, which was unlocked. She had not made a sound in her soft-soled shoes, so anyone inside would not have become aware of her presence.

Suddenly Nancy stopped dead in her tracks. Were her eyes deceiving her? The theater was only dimly lighted, but she was sure her imagination was not playing tricks on her.

A life-size puppet was dancing jerkily across the stage!

“That must be the missing puppet!” Nancy told herself. “But someone has put a modern dress on it!”

Though moving jerkily, this figure was far more graceful than the dancing puppet Nancy had seen performing on the lawn.

Reaching the far side of the stage, the figure disappeared into the wings. At once Nancy ran after it. But before she herself had reached the opposite wing of the stage, the puppet suddenly returned. To Nancy’s amazement, it came at her and began to attack her wildly with its arms and legs!

Warding off the blows, Nancy reached out to hold the puppet back. At this point she received a distinct shock. The puppet’s body was warm! This was not a wood-and-plaster figure. It was a human being, wearing a mask!

Now Nancy fought with the attacker, and managed to pull off the mask.

“Tammi!” Nancy cried out, astounded.

“Yes, I’m Tammi,” the other girl flung back in a hoarse whisper. “I’ll teach you to steal my part in the show!”

In a frenzied rage the jealous girl grabbed Nancy and began to hit her with her fists!

CHAPTER XX

An Amazing Revelation

“DO YOU know what I’m going to do?” Tammi Whitlock panted as she tried to strike Nancy in the face. “I’m going to fix you so your acting career—”

Before she had a chance to finish her sentence, Mr. Spencer came dashing onto the stage. His face was livid as he cried out, “What’s the meaning of this? Tammi Whitlock, stop that!”

Without waiting for her to obey, he yanked the actress away from Nancy.

“While I’ve been home with laryngitis, you’ve been getting away with something out here, haven’t you, Hamilton Spencer?” Tammi screamed hoarsely. “You didn’t ask
me
about putting on a puppet show! Emmet Calhoun told me about it on the phone. I had other plans for the Footlighters—much better plans.”

Nancy, weak from the battle with Tammi, sat down on a couch. She managed to describe to Mr. Spencer her sudden encounter with Tammi as a dancing puppet.

“Yes, I was practicing,” Tammi went on, “so I could ruin that next show. I was going to come on as a puppet and spoil everything. I’ll still do it!” she croaked.

Mr. Spencer, now that he had recovered from his astonishment, glared at the girl. “You’ll do nothing of the sort,” he said. “Furthermore, I shall see to it that you are asked to resign from the Footlighters!”

“You wouldn’t dare!” Tammi could barely whisper now.

At this moment Emmet Calhoun rushed out on the stage to see what the commotion was. At once Tammi flew at him, her eyes blazing, and said in a fierce whisper, “You’re the one who started everything going wrong. If you’d kept away from me, my brother wouldn’t be in such a jam, you poetry-spouting old fossil!”

This remark angered Calhoun so much that he turned white. “You would do better to study Shakespeare,” he retorted stiffly, “instead of running around with night-club performers. There was a time when I thought a great deal of you. But now I see I was wrong.”

“That’s enough!” said Tammi as loudly and vehemently as her laryngitis would permit. “You’d better keep still.”

But Emmet Calhoun, now that he had started, had no intention of keeping quiet. Turning to Nancy, he said, “I have eavesdropped on you and your friends ever since you came here, because I was interested to find out whether you could locate the lost puppet.”

Nancy looked at the actor in astonishment.
“You
knew about the diary?” she asked.

“I was idly browsing around the attic one day, and found the diary in the trunk where you saw it,” Calhoun replied. “When I first met Tammi and took a liking to her, I realized the great difference in our ages and thought I would need to offer her something really valuable in order to win her. So, foolishly, I told Tammi what I had read in the diary.

“I expected she would keep the information to herself, and that together we would hunt for the lost puppet. Tammi just made fun of the idea, so I gave it up. But she had a little scheme of her own. Tammi told me you heard that Chuck Grant is her brother. She had told him the story of the valuable hidden secret, and he in turn sold the information to two men named Terrill and Longman.”

Nancy was amazed to learn of Tammi’s involvement. She looked at the actress and said, “So you’re tied in with the mystery of the dancing puppet!”

“I never had anything to do with the puppets,” Tammi maintained stoutly, “except I did telephone to you once and say I was the dancing puppet. I overheard Mr. Spencer’s plan to see your father, Nancy, so I knew about you Drews. I mentioned it to Chuck, and he told Longman, who’d heard of your detecting. He happened to be around here the day you arrived. It was Terrill and Longman who made all the trouble here.”

“Did you know,” Nancy asked her, “that both men are in jail?”

“N-no! Oh, it can’t be true!” Tammi looked as if she were about to faint.

Realizing this, Mr. Spencer helped the actress to the couch on stage. As the whole group sat down, he urged Tammi to tell all she knew about the crooked dealings of Terrill and Longman.

Tammi did not speak, so Nancy, now filling in the gaps in the mystery and doing a bit of guess-work, told what she knew of the story. She said the two men had found the cannon balls, probably in the attic, and had hidden them in the hay until they found a market for them.

“When I came here to try to find out about the dancing puppet,” Nancy went on, “one of these men followed me upstairs with the doll’s trunk containing a cannon ball. He hurled the trunk at me, hoping everyone would think it was an accident.”

Tammi began to cry. She nodded in agreement. With hardly any voice left, the young actress said, “I’ll tell you the rest of the story. It was Longman who did that. He later sold the cannon balls to a museum for a good price. He also persuaded me to make that witch phone call—and to spy on you one night. But I didn’t realize why.

“My brother Chuck is not a bad guy—he’s just always in need of money,” Tammi went on. “Terrill and Longman had come to the Green Acres Restaurant several times and became acquainted with Chuck. Once when he needed some quick cash, they obliged him.

“After that, he seemed to be in their clutches. Finally they asked him to help them with a necklace-lifting racket. For a long time I didn’t realize what was going on. I’d go to the various other places where Chuck sang. During his breaks, he’d always talk about the expensive jewelry the women were wearing and asked me to point out someone with a real diamond necklace, or one of pearls or rubies, or other valuable stones.

“Then in a little while he would say we had to leave. I would go out to the car and wait for him. In a few minutes Chuck would join me.

“After one of these singing engagements, he had slung his jacket over into the back seat of the car, and I saw a diamond necklace fall out of the pocket. When I demanded an explanation, he was forced to confess he was working with Terrill and Longman. Chuck would help distract the patron while Terrill would cut the necklace from the patron’s neck. Longman would gently lift it and quick as a wink drop it into Chuck’s pocket. Then Chuck would leave.

“I begged my brother to get out of the racket, but he insisted he couldn’t. The men had told him he was in it too deep and that they would soon have enough money so all three could quit the racket before the police caught up with them.”

Tammi paused. Then she faced Nancy. “Believe it or not, I’m glad the whole thing is over. I’ve done nothing but worry for weeks. It has made me cranky and hard to live with. I hope all of you will forgive me. I suppose I’ll be punished for my part in this thing. But as soon as I’m free again, I’m going to be strictly honest and go back to the legitimate stage.”

The others stared at her.

“You aren’t an amateur?” Calhoun cried out.

Tammi shook her head. “In California I had parts in stock companies. When I came East my parents requested that I pretend to be an amateur. They didn’t want me to be on the legitimate stage.” Tammi buried her face in her hands. “Don’t feel sorry for me. I deserve this. I just feel terribly sorry for my mother and father and aunt. They’re going to be crushed when the news comes out.”

She rose from the couch. With Mr. Spencer and Emmet Calhoun, walking on each side of her, she left the theater and went over to the mansion. Nancy learned later that the police had been notified to pick up Tammi and Chuck.

Presently the two actors returned to the theater. “We must get backstage,” said Mr. Spencer. “Nancy, we’ve used up all our rehearsal time, but to very good advantage.”

Nancy, still dazed by Tammi’s confession, nodded. Then she said to Mr. Spencer, “Have the prisoners said where they found the puppets?”

“In the attic,” the actor answered. “The witch and the dancing girl were in a trunk, so evidently someone removed them from the closet a long time ago.”

Mr. Spencer said Chief McGinnis had also told him that Terrill and Longman finally had talked freely about the puppets. The two prisoners had said that they used the dancer to scare residents away from the Van Pelt estate, so they could make a more thorough search. Moreover, they had wanted to test the puppets mechanically, so they could sell or rent them for a fancy price.

“Nancy, when you discovered Pierrot, Longman was hiding in the attic. Later he took the puppet.”

“That means the fourth puppet—the special one—is still missing!” said Nancy. “After the show tonight, let’s hunt for it! I still want to know the valuable secret it contains!”

That evening’s show was another overwhelming success. To make matters more interesting, Bess had been asked to play the part of a minor character. The girl who was to have taken the role had suddenly become ill. Bess, excited and happy, and looking extremely pretty, played the part well. Lines she could not remember she improvised, and her performance brought a good round of applause from the audience.

As soon as the show was over, the Footlighters were called together by the Spencers to vote on the idea of a puppet show. There was unanimous acceptance of the plan. Then the actors returned to the mansion and removed costumes and make-up. Congratulations and good-nights were said.

As soon as everyone had left, Nancy and the others living in the house hurried to the attic.

“I have a hunch that the fourth puppet is hidden somewhere near the secret closet,” Nancy said.

One by one, trunks and boxes were moved. With a flashlight the girl detective examined the floor carefully. Finally she decided on a spot and asked the men to help her pry up the floor boards.

George and Bess each held a flashlight. Margo looked on intently. Suddenly one of the wider boards came free. Below lay a handsome male dancer puppet in Spanish costume!

“We’ve found it!” Bess exclaimed gleefully. She whirled around, causing her light to shine in another direction.

“Bring that light back here!” Mr. Spencer called excitedly.

He and Emmet Calhoun, with Nancy and Margo helping, pulled up another floor board. The hidden puppet was freed.

“He looks almost real!” George remarked.

Nancy already was lifting his velvet bolero and white silk blouse to look at his back. In it was a door with a tiny knob. Quickly she turned it and opened the little door.

“Papers!” she cried.

Nancy pulled them out and with a quick reading of the first page discovered that here were the directions and working drawings for a clever invention.

Mr. Spencer was extremely interested. “I studied engineering before I switched to acting,” he said. “These drawings are of a device that we now call ‘fuel cells’—machines for continuously producing electricity from chemical fuels. The Van Pelt type was to be used on melted aluminum. Of course, fifty years ago that element cost too much to make this invention feasible. But today, with aluminum inexpensive, it’s a very worthwhile idea.”

“Oh, Nancy, you found it!” Bess cried proudly. “It’s yours! You can sell it for a mint of money.”

Nancy smiled and shook her head. “This discovery belongs to the Footlighters, and any money it may bring will go to them.”

During the momentary silence following Nancy’s announcement, the group in the attic heard a voice from downstairs calling, “Anybody home?”

Quickly Mr. Spencer descended the stairs, with the others at his heels. When they reached the main hall, everyone burst into laughter. There stood Chief McGinnis, grinning sheepishly. Under one arm he was carrying the Pierrot puppet; under the other, the witch!

Behind him, just coming through the doorway was Detective Dougherty, lugging the dancing puppet. Chief McGinnis explained that the two missing puppets had been found in Terrill’s apartment. Both had contained several pieces of valuable jewelry.

Just as the explanation was finished, the front doorbell rang. Mr. Spencer opened the door.

“Good evening, Mr. Trask,” he said. “Come in.” The actor introduced the caller as the owner of the puppet show which would be presented in the theater a week from that night.

Mr. Trask barely acknowledged the introduction. His eyes opening wide, he asked, “Where did these marvelous marionettes come from? If they’re for sale, I want to buy them. How much are you asking for them?”

Despite the fact that the caller was serious, the whole situation seemed so comical that everyone smiled. Emmet Calhoun threw back his head and gave a long, hollow laugh.

Nancy looked at him in amazement. “You were the one who laughed behind the secret closet! How did you do it?”

Emmet Calhoun stopped laughing long enough to say, “Nancy Drew, I’m surprised you didn’t discover the secret stairway which leads from the closet in my room to the back of that little attic closet. I’m a bit of a detective too, you see. I imagine that stairway opened into the attic years ago.” Gaily he quoted the lines from King John: