Authors: Carolyn Keene

Tags: #Circus Animals, #Women Detectives, #Detective and Mystery Stories, #Girls & Women, #Charms, #Mystery & Detective, #Juvenile Fiction, #Mysteries & Detective Stories, #Fiction, #Women Sleuths, #Adventure Stories, #Drew; Nancy (Fictitious Character), #General, #Mystery and Detective Stories

Mystery of the Ivory Charm (15 page)

BOOK: Mystery of the Ivory Charm

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The girls knew from the change of expression on Rai’s face that he had not heard this piece of news before.

He recovered quickly and said calmly, “My duty does not change. Rishi must die!”

Both Nancy and George continued to plead in vain with Rai, but he paid no attention. Muttering angrily, he mounted the ladder and vanished into the loft.

“We must do something!” Nancy told George, tugging at her ropes. “We can’t let Rai commit this dreadful crime!”

Both girls worked at their bonds until their wrists were cut and bleeding. It was impossible to loosen the ropes.

Overhead they could hear Rai muttering in a singsong voice. Apparently he was intoning a weird incantation over Rishi. They could distinguish moans from the boy, and knew that he must be suffering intensely. Then all became quiet.

“Ah!” they heard Rai cry out in triumph. “Rishi enters the eternal sleep from which there is no awakening. Only the ivory charm can save him now—and I have it.” He gave a cruel laugh.

“Did you hear what he said?” Nancy whispered to George. “The charm! If only we could get it, we might still save poor Rishi!”

“The charm would bring him back to consciousness,” Nancy said, thinking aloud. “I am sure of it. For a long while I have suspected the truth—now I am certain of it. The ivory charm guards the secret of life and death!”

“Do you realize what you are saying?” George gasped.

“Yes! It all comes back to me now—what Dr. Stackpole told me about the life-giving fluid sometimes found in the hidden cavities of ancient Indian charms!”

“Nancy, I don’t know what you mean.”

She quickly explained, then said, “We must try to get that piece, George. It is our only hope of saving Rishi.”

“If we can ever untie these knots,” George started to say but did not finish.

Nancy would not give up. The girl detective and her friend strained and tugged until they were exhausted. Tears of disappointment came to their eyes. They tried not to think of Rishi in the loft above.

“Listen!” George whispered suddenly. “I hear a car coming!”

“Perhaps Peter Putnam has brought help!” Nancy said.

George commanded a view of the window. A moment later she whispered excitedly that she could see several men stealing toward the house.

“They may be detectives, Nancy. Let’s take a chance and call for help.”

“Wait until they’re at the door,” Nancy cautioned. “Then all escape will be cut off for Rai.”

A minute later, when the men were nearby, the girls raised their voices together. Alarmed by their cries, Rai scrambled down from the loft. Just then the men burst inside and announced they were police detectives.

“Arrest this man!” Nancy cried.

The animal trainer made a dive for the nearest window but was caught roughly by the shoulder and hauled back, handcuffed, and led away. Other detectives quickly set Nancy and George free.

“Rishi is upstairs in the loft,” Nancy told the detectives, as her ropes were being severed. “Rai says he’s dead, but maybe he’s not! Oh, I hope he’s not!”

On a sudden inspiration she asked a policeman to take the ivory charm from Rai’s neck and give it to her.

“This may help,” she said.

At that very moment Bess Marvin rushed into the room followed by a man.

“Mr. Tilak!” Nancy cried. “Here is the ivory charm from your family. Does it have any magical powers?”

“Yes,” he replied. “It contains a special antidote against various harmful drugs.”

“Then follow me,” she directed, and scooted up the ladder.

Puzzled, he and Bess followed quickly. George arrived a moment later. A discouraging sight met their eyes. Rishi lay on the floor, colorless and limp. An officer was giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, with no noticeable result.

“Mr. Tilak,” said Nancy, handing him the ivory charm, “this is your son Rishi. Please use the restorative quickly!”

The former maharaja was trembling with emotion as he gazed at the boy, but he took the charm and kneeled beside the young victim.

“Hold my boy’s mouth open,” he quietly said to Nancy.

When she did, Mr. Tilak deftly broke off one of the elephant’s feet and poured the fluid it contained under Rishi’s tongue. Everyone waited with bated breath for some response from the boy.

Nancy could see Mr. Tilak’s lips moving as if in prayer. A few seconds later Rishi began to breathe.

“He lives!” his father exclaimed

“He lives!” murmured everyone in the loft with a private prayer of thanks.

There was silence for several seconds, until the watchers were sure of this. When Rishi opened his eyes, the policemen quietly left the loft.

The young Indian boy looked at Nancy, Bess, George, and the strange man beside him.

“How do you feel?” Nancy asked.

“Rishi fine now,” he replied weakly. “Rai gone.”

“I have some wonderful news for you,” Nancy said. “Rai is in jail and can never harm you again. And Rishi, this man is your father, who thought you had died as a baby.”

Father and son gazed at each other, too overcome to speak. Nancy gave a signal to Bess and George that they should all go downstairs quietly and leave the two alone.

When the girls reached the first floor, Bess burst out, “Isn’t it wonderful. Just think, Nancy, you found Rishi’s father for him!”

Nancy smiled and asked, “Bess, how did you happen to come here and bring Mr. Tilak?”

Bess explained that when she finished her errands, she had stopped at Nancy’s house.

“Hannah told me where you had gone. Also Mr. Tilak phoned. On the spur of the moment I asked him if he’d like to come with me to meet you. While passing this place, I saw a lot of cars—policemen’s and yours, Nancy. So I drove in.”

“You certainly came at the right moment,” Nancy said.

George spoke. “Nancy, if Mr. Tilak hadn’t arrived to break open the elephant charm, would you have done it?”

“Yes, to save Rishi’s life. I admit I had a hunch it held some form of restorative,” she replied.

In a few minutes Rishi and his father descended the ladder. The boy had completely recovered and the two were smiling broadly.

Mr. Tilak held the beautiful ivory charm.

“Nancy,” he said, “Rishi and I can never repay you for what you have done for us. But as a token of our appreciation, we will have this ivory charm repaired, then present it to you as our most precious material object.”

“Oh, I don’t want to take such a priceless treasure from you,” she said quickly.

“We insist,” Mr. Tilak replied. “Rishi tells me you also recovered our stolen fortune in jewels. You and your friends who helped you shall have mementos from that collection, too.”

Nancy was embarrassed and quickly told him she never solved mysteries for anything but the sheer delight of it. Her mind wandered a moment as she hoped another mystery would come her way soon. It turned out to be an exciting adventure about
The Whispering Statue.

George suddenly grinned. “Mr. Tilak, before you repair the ivory charm for Nancy you’d better put a powerful restorative inside. She always has close calls when she solves a mystery!”

Everyone laughed and agreed the idea was a good one.