The Haunted Carousel (3 page)

Nancy lounged on the grass and Ned leaned against a tree trunk, watching the amusement- park area grow dark as the lights were turned off one by one.

Meanwhile, the carousel operator’s young assistant finished his chores, called good night to his boss, and left the park. A few minutes later, Leo Novak turned off the merry-go-round lights, and the two watchers saw him trudge off toward his trailer, which was parked near a few other vans and campers in which lived other park concessionaires.

Finally, all was dark.

“How long do you want to wait, Nancy?” Ned found himself speaking in a hushed voice.

“I think if nothing has happened by—oh, say, one-thirty, we may as well leave. From what I’ve heard and read in the news reports, the carousel has never started up later than that.”

They sat quietly and watched and waited. It was a lovely, starlit night and, with the crickets chirping, very peaceful. Nancy’s eyelids grew heavier minute by minute, and began to close.

Suddenly, Ned nudged her awake. “Did you see something move over there?” he whispered, reaching for his binoculars.

Nancy’s eyes widened quickly. “Yes! . . . Look, Ned!”

Even without the night glasses, she could make out two dark figures heading toward the carousel. They stepped up on the outer edge of the merry-go-round, and Nancy saw them dimly silhouetted by a small glow of light, as if a flashlight had been turned on. After pausing for a moment, they began moving from horse to horse.

“What the dickens are they up to?” Ned grumbled. “It’s hard to see with their backs turned.”

He handed the binoculars to Nancy. As she focused on the two intruders, they stopped and now appeared to be centering their interest on one particular horse.

An instant later, Nancy caught her breath as the lights of the carousel suddenly blazed on! Organ music churned loudly and the merry-go- round began to revolve!

Nancy and Ned gaped in amazement. The effect was almost as if the carousel had magically come alive in the middle of the night!

“What happened?” Ned exclaimed. “Did those two spooks start it up?”

“No, they weren’t even near the controls! In fact, they almost fell off when the merry-go- round started turning! I think they were caught by surprise—and scared! Here, see for yourself, Ned!”

Nancy handed him the binoculars. By now, a few lights were coming on in the park trailers as the carousel music blared out through the night stillness.

The two dark figures abruptly fled!

“I’m going after them!” Ned blurted. He -prang to his feet, leaped across the chain barrier enclosing the amusement area, and headed in pursuit. Nancy followed close behind.

The two mysterious intruders were running away from the carousel in the opposite direction from Ned and Nancy’s stakeout position. So far, the only lights in the park were those turned on in the campers and trailers belonging to the concessionaires and ride operators. Already, the two fugitives were disappearing in the darkness.

Nancy paused for a moment as Leo Novak came running up. Evidently, he had dressed in haste and had not even taken time to pull on a jacket or other top over his undershirt.

He looked both startled and angry, but his eyes widened in surprise on seeing the pretty teenager. “Where did you come from?” he demanded.

“A friend and I were keeping watch,” she said briefly, “over there among the trees.”

“See anything?

“Yes, two men came up to the carousel.”

“Did they monkey with it?”

“I don’t think so—at least not with the operat-

ing machinery. They seemed to be interested in the horses. But you’d better make sure everything’s all right!”

Without bothering to explain further, Nancy resumed running after Ned and the two intruders. Her last glimpse of the boy had been as he veered off to the left, behind the Ferris wheel. But now he, too, was no longer in sight.

From the direction Ned had been heading, Nancy guessed that his pursuit of the fugitives must have taken him between the video-game arcade and a row of refreshment counters. She ran the same way.

Beyond loomed an array of booths, stands, and rides that made up the gaudy heart of the park’s midway. Just now they were a maze of gloom and shadows.

Where had Ned gone? Nancy could hear running footsteps somewhere in the distance, but it was hard to judge the exact direction the sound was coming from. She could only plunge forward at random, zigzagging among the concessions, hoping to catch a glimpse of her vanished friend.

At first, she had been reluctant to call out his name, for fear of alerting the sinister prowlers. But as her worries grew for his safety, Nancy threw caution to the winds and shouted, “Ned!

.. . Ned, can you hear me? Where are you?” Her heart flew into her mouth as she rounded the corner of a shuttered souvenir stand and almost stumbled over something lying on the ground. The obstacle, barely visible in the semidarkness, felt bulky enough to be a human form.

At that moment, someone switched on the overhead lights of the midway. Nancy gasped in fear as she saw the figure at her feet. It was Ned, sprawled motionless on the ground!

“Oh, Ned—Ned!” she cried, dropping to one knee. “What happened?! Are you all right?!” She turned him over and touched his forehead and cheek. He stirred, and his eyes opened. With a faint groan, Ned struggled to his feet. “Wow!” he muttered, rubbing the back of his head. “Someone must have conked me!” “Maybe you’d better rest awhile,” Nancy urged anxiously.

Ned gave her a quick hug and a sheepish grin. “Don’t worry, I’m okay,” he reassured her. “I don’t think I was out more than a few seconds.”

In any case, further pursuit seemed useless. After a quick circuit of the amusement-park area, the couple gave up their chase of the two intruders and returned to Ned’s car.

Next morning, the young sleuth slept later than usual. When she came downstairs, a copy of the River Heights News was lying on the sofa. Nancy’s eye was caught by her own picture on the front page. The accompanying story told how the famous girl detective had accepted the newspaper’s challenge to solve the mystery of the haunted carousel.

“Oh, you’ve seen it already. I was going to show it to you, Nancy.” Hannah Gruen, the Drews’ motherly housekeeper, came into the living room from the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron, and saw the teenager reading the newspaper article.

“Yes . . . my, it really puts me on the spot,” Nancy commented ruefully.

“In more ways than one!” said Hannah. “Our phone’s been ringing all morning. Thank goodness, it didn’t wake you.”

“Who was calling?”

“My goodness, I don’t know. Some were cranks, I guess. Everybody wants to tell you how to solve the carousel mystery.”

“Hannah, you should have put on the answering machine.”

“That’s just what I finally did, dear. Oh, wait a minute,” the housekeeper added. “There was one sensible call—a girl who gave her name,

Joy Trent. She wants you to solve a private mystery for her.”

Just then, there was a knock on the front screen door, and a familiar voice called in, "Nancy, it’s me—Bess!”

“Oh, just a minute,” Nancy said, getting up and going to the door.

The pretty girl looked bright-eyed and eager as she accompanied Nancy into the living room from the front hall. “What’s going on?” she inquired keenly. “I tried to call you this morning, but I kept getting busy signals. I couldn’t get through, so I came over to invite you to a cook- out at my place tonight. Hello, Mrs. Gruen,” Bess finished in a rush.

“How would you two like some breakfast?” the housekeeper responded with a twinkle. “Bess? Nancy?”

“Sounds good to me.” Bess laughed. “Actually I did have a nibble when I first got up, but that was quite a while ago.”

Nancy turned to the housekeeper. “Never mind, Hannah. We’ll just pop into the kitchen and get something for ourselves.”

After making themselves a leisurely breakfast of waffles with blueberry syrup and sausages and coffee, Bess and Nancy washed the dishes and made the kitchen tidy again.

“Bess, how would you like to come to the amusement park with me?” Nancy asked as she took off the apron she had donned for their dishwashing chore. “We won’t be long. Then I’ll drive you home.”

“Sure, great.”

On the way, Nancy told Bess of her and Ned’s adventure in the park the night before.

“Oh, golly! Is Ned okay?” Bess inquired sympathetically.

“He seemed to be, thank heavens. Luckily he was only hit hard enough to stun him.”

“Honestly, Nancy, you do get into the wildest adventures!”

The teenage sleuth chuckled. “Not on purpose, believe me—but at least that’s better than getting bored, isn’t it? Anyhow, that’s why I’m going to the park. I’d like to see if I can find out what those two sneaks were doing on the carousel last night.”

As noontime neared, the limited parking space outside the amusement-park entrance was already filling up with cars. So Nancy turned in to the nearby marina lot instead, as Ned had done the night before. Then she and Bess headed back on foot to the carousel.

Soon after they had entered the amusement- ride area, Bess nudged her companion and

pointed off to the right. A park policeman was waving at them. “He’s the one who went after those pickpockets yesterday!” the plump girl exclaimed.

“Yes, his name is Officer Doyle,” Nancy murmured. “I wonder what’s up? He looks like he wants to talk to us.”

They met the policeman halfway. He was accompanied by a hard-jawed man in a gray suit, whom Nancy had never seen before.

“Say! You were mighty lucky yesterday, Nancy,” Officer Doyle greeted the teenager. “Maybe you didn’t realize it, but when you tangled with those crooks here in the park, you were really flirting with danger!”

“Flirting with danger?” Bess echoed, then turned to her friend, aghast. “Oh, Nancy!” Even Nancy was taken aback. “Were they really that dangerous?” she asked Officer Doyle.

“They sure were! This gentleman here is Detective Mike Norris from the St. Louis Police Department. He can tell you all about them.” As Nancy flashed a quizzical smile at Doyle’s companion, the park policeman suddenly realized that he had not yet introduced her properly. “Oh, sorry. Mike, if you haven’t guessed already, this is Nancy Drew, a very clever young lady. She’s mighty good at solving mysteries.”

“And not bad at collaring pickpockets, either,

I hear.” The detective grinned as he took Nancy’s hand.

“Luckily, I had friends to help me, including Bess Marvin here,” Nancy said modestly and introduced her companion to the two officers.

“One of those older crooks you saw yesterday was an escaped con named Fingers Malone,” Detective Norris told the girls. “He was the little scrawny one. He’s an expert dip and also a fugitive from the state penitentiary. He served twenty years of a twenty-five-year sentence. Then he broke out.”

“Who was the big man?” Nancy asked. “He looked quite vicious.”

“He is! His name’s Baldy Krebs, and he’s got a violent record. Fingers joined up with him after breaking out of the pen. They were almost caught at a park in St. Louis, but Krebs wounded the officer who tried to arrest them, and they got away.”

“I take it they got away yesterday, too?” Nancy said to Officer Doyle.

He nodded regretfully. “Yes, I lost them outside the park. They split up. Krebs hopped on a passing bus and got away before I could signal the driver to stop. Malone gave me the slip by darting across the street through traffic.”

Doyle added that after turning in his report at

the station house, he realized that the pair’s description matched that of two wanted criminals, so the St. Louis Police Department was notified.

“And that’s why you came here?” Nancy asked Detective Norris.

“Right. I just flew in this morning. Pickpockets usually operate in crowds, so we’re hoping they may show up here at Riverside Park again.”

Taking a couple of Wanted posters from his inside coat pocket, Norris unfolded them to show the two girls and went on, “With Krebs, of course, purse snatching and picking pockets are just a sideline—most of the crimes he’s wanted for are more serious, like armed robbery. But Fingers Malone almost seems to have a fancy for amusement parks.”

“Funny thing,” Officer Doyle put in, “but this morning we got an anonymous phone tip by a caller who claimed to have seen Fingers and Baldy in Riverside Park, so that’s another reason for believing they may be skulking around here again today.”

“We’ll keep our eyes open,” Nancy promised.

“Well, we just wanted to warn you to be care-

ful. Have a good time, girls!” Both policeman smiled at Nancy and Bess and walked off.

The two girls sauntered on to the carousel. It was a lovely, warm summer day, and as they approached, the air was filled with the merry- go-round music and the shouts and laughter of the children riding the horses and other carved animals.

Leo Novak was nowhere in sight. His teenage assistant was running the concession by himself. Nancy didn’t bother speaking to him. She wanted time to inspect the horses slowly and without interruption.

“What are we looking for, Nancy?” Bess asked in a low voice.

“I really don’t know. I’m not even sure which horses those fellows were examining last night, except that they were in the outer circle.” The pretty young sleuth tapped her forefinger against her lips while thinking. “Guess we’ll just have to look for anything unusual, or see if they show any sign of tampering.”

“Okay, I’m going to take the other side of the merry-go-round.” Bess turned and began walking around the whirling riders.

When the carousel stopped and the children had gotten off, both girls stepped onto the plat-

form to examine the horses more closely. It was tedious, but soon they had looked over every mount in the outer circle. Neither girl had noticed anything out of the ordinary.