The Phantom of Pine Hill (14 page)

“You were right all along. The phantom literally goes ‘through the walls.’ ”

“Oh, bless you!” the housekeeper said, tears in her eyes. “I’m glad that someone believes me.”

George, always practical, asked, “But which wall?”

Mr. Rorick stood stupefied. He seemed completely unable to believe what had happened. Again the phantom had taken his money without any visible means of entrance and exit. The elderly man shook his head in dismay.

Finally Nancy answered George’s question. “As you know, I have searched this room thoroughly, and the police have, too. There’s one place left that the thief may use—a spot I thought was impossible.”

“What’s that?” Bess asked.

“The chimney.”

“But how could the phantom get through solid brick?” Bess argued.

George snapped her fingers. “When we were up on the roof, Dave said the flues slanted toward the outside of the chimney. Could that have anything to do with it?”

“It certainly could,” Nancy replied. “I wish I’d known this before.”

She looked up the flue in the library, then dashed out to the hall and into the dining room. In a few moments she was back.

“The flues are far apart from left to right as you stand in front of this fireplace,” she reported. “I wonder if, by any chance, there could be an opening between them which runs from here into the dining room!”

Everyone gazed at the wooden paneling which covered the fireplace wall from ceiling to mantel. For the first time Nancy realized that the mantelshelf was very wide—wide enough for a person to stand on. Grabbing the shelf with both hands, she pulled herself up and began tapping each panel. Suddenly a broad smile lighted up her face.

“There’s a small section here that sounds hollow!” she exclaimed.

Nancy hunted a long time for a hidden spring. She pushed on various sections of each panel and also tried to raise or slide them. But she failed to detect anything which might open a hidden door. The young sleuth refused to give up.

Although the panels were tightly wedged together, Nancy was sure there was some mechanism hidden between two of them.

“Bess, will you find me the thinnest nail file you can?” she requested.

In less than a minute Bess was back with an almost paper-thin one. Carefully Nancy tried inserting it between a hollow-sounding panel and the one next to it.

Suddenly her efforts were rewarded. The nail file pressed out a wafer-thin metal lever and at the same moment the whole section above the center of the fireplace swung outward. It swept Nancy to the floor!

“You’ve done it! You’ve found it!” Bess cried ecstatically as she helped Nancy to her feet.

The whole group gazed into a dark, narrow passageway which they felt sure opened into the dining room.

“We’ll find out in a minutel” Nancy said, running from the room. The others followed.

Nancy removed the candlesticks from the dining-room mantelshelf. Then she climbed up and inserted the nail file in the section that backed up the one above the fireplace in the library. A long, narrow door, reaching from the ceiling to the shelf, opened outward.

Mr. Rorick was flabbergasted. “This is one secret which was never passed down in the family,” he declared.

“But someone else learned about it,” said George. “Yippee! Nancy has solved the mystery of the phantom! He climbed through the passageway from the dining room, did his burglarizing and searching, then climbed up, closed the secret door behind him, and let himself out here.”

Mrs. Holman, who had been speechless all this time, now found her voice. “The police should be notified at once and come here to catch that criminal!”

Before anyone else could answer her, Nancy said, “Oh, please don’t do that. I want to catch him myself—not just to capture him, but to see if I can find out what else he has been searching for.”

She looked pleadingly at Mr. Rorick. Finally he said, “I think we owe it to Nancy Drew to let her have her way. But there must be restrictions and a time limit. Don’t take any chances. And if you don’t capture him by tomorrow, then I feel I ought to notify the authorities.”

Nancy was ready to put a plan into action at once. “When will Fred be here again working in the house?” she asked Mrs. Holman.

“I expect him early this afternoon.”

Nancy smiled. “That will be perfect.”

She suggested that after Fred arrived, the others were to talk about two subjects: first, that Mrs. Holman and Mr. Rorick would be gone for the afternoon, and that the three girls would drive out into the country and not return for several hours. The other was for Uncle John to announce loudly that he had brought some valuable jewelry back with him and would lock it in the safe before leaving.

“If Fred is helping his father or someone else, he’ll immediately pass the word along. I’m sure that either he or a confederate will come into the library to take the jewelry.”

She went on to say that Mrs. Holman was to telephone the house at a certain time and ask Fred to carry a large amount of trash out to a certain place in the woods. While he was gone, the three girls would sneak back, go through the secret passageway, and hide themselves behind sofa and chairs in the library.

Uncle John thought a few moments before giving his consent to the plan. “I suppose it won’t be dangerous with three girls against one small man!”

Nancy and her friends smiled. George, to show her enthusiasm, said, “I’m going to make a trial trip through that passageway.”

She pulled herself to the mantelshelf and started inside. She was forced to crouch a bit. Suddenly George gave a whoop of elation.

“Uncle John, I’ve found your coin collection!”

She appeared at the opening to the dining room, carrying several large coin collectors’ books. George handed them down to Mr. Rorick, who kept murmuring, “I can’t believe it! I can’t believe it!”

George went on, “I wonder why the thief didn’t take these along with him.”

Nancy ventured an answer. “Probably he was afraid to carry them to his home. They’re pretty large to conceal. Anyway, he wouldn’t dare dispose of many coins at a time and what better hiding place could he have than this passage? By the way, Uncle John, can you tell at a quick glance how much has been taken out?”

Mr. Rorick quickly turned the pages of the various books, then smiled in relief. “The thief took only a few hundred dollars worth. The most valuable coins are still intact. I suppose I was foolish leaving them here, but I like to take the coins out once in a while and look at them.”

“But shouldn’t you put them in a safe-deposit box now?” Bess asked.

Nancy spoke up. “Why don’t we leave them here where the thief hid them? Otherwise, he’ll know that the secret passageway has been uncovered and he won’t even come into the library!”

Mr. Rorick agreed, and George replaced the books where she had found them.

Mrs. Holman glanced nervously at her watch. “Sometimes Fred comes early. We’d better close these doors and busy ourselves with some kind of work so he won’t be suspicious.”

Fred arrived while the group was eating lunch. Mrs. Holman asked him to dust the hall where she knew he would overhear everything that was said. The afternoon plans were discussed.

Soon afterward, everybody in the house except Fred prepared to leave. At two o‘clock all had left, and Mrs. Holman telephoned Fred at two-thirty. By this time Nancy, Bess, and George had sneaked back to the Rorick home and hidden behind some shrubbery. When they saw Fred carrying the trash to the woods, they dashed inside the house. By three o’clock the girls had gone through the secret passageway, closing both the openings, and secreted themselves behind furniture in the library.

They never took their eyes off the chimney. At exactly three-thirty the secret door began to open. A man appeared in the opening and jumped down. He was Fred Jenkins’ slightly built companion. The man wore gloves and was in his stocking feet.

“No wonder he never left any fingerprints or footmarks here,” Nancy thought.

The intruder went directly to the safe, knelt down, and slowly turned the dial back and forth. Then he swung the door open, grabbed the velvet case containing costume jewelry which Mr. Rorick had put there, closed the safe, and started for the fireplace.

“He’s not going to search this time!” Nancy thought. “If we don’t capture him now he may get away and take the coin collection with him!”

Quick as a panther Nancy came from behind the sofa and made a leap for the thief. “You’re the phantom! Hands up!” she cried. Nancy was counting on the fact that the thief would not turn around and discover that she had no weapon.

Instead of complying, the man whipped a spray gun from his pocket and squirted it into Nancy’s face. Instantly she dropped unconscious and he leaped for the mantel.

As George tried to block his way, he turned and gave her a dose of the knockout spray. She too blacked out and fell to the floor. Swiftly the man climbed onto the mantel.

Bess had looked on horrified. If she tried to stop him, no doubt he would give her the same treatment. Then she could not help her friends.

“Oh, what shall I do?” Bess thought with a panicky feeling.

BESS Marvin quickly collected her wits. She stood up and cried, “Stop!” At the same time, she picked up a heavy book end from the desk.

As the thief turned to give her a dose from the spray gun, she hurled the book end directly at it and knocked the weapon from his hand.

The sudden move made the man teeter in his precarious position on the mantelshelf. The next instant he lost his balance completely and dropped to the floor. He hit his head hard and lay still.

Instantly Bess pulled herself up to the shelf and darted through the secret passageway. Though her legs were shaking with fright, she ran to the hall telephone.

Picking it up, she dialed Operator and exclaimed, “Send the police to Mr. John Rorick’s house at once! And have them bring a doctor! There’s a thief here and three people have been knocked out!”

She heard a gasp on the other end of the wire but quickly hung up so that no time would be lost in having the message transferred. Bess sat still, trembling like a leaf. Would the officers and the physician come before the thief might revive and escape? She felt too weak to try overpowering him a second time.

The worried girl became aware that the kitchen door was opening. From where she sat Bess saw Fred Jenkins enter. “I must do something fast to keep him from finding out!” Bess thought.

The only thing left to her was conversation. Mustering all the courage she possessed, Bess hurried to the kitchen and smiled broadly at Fred. “I guess you’re surprised to see me here,” she said.

Fred looked scared. “Y-yes I am,” he stuttered. “I thought you girls were going to be out for the afternoon.”

Bess giggled. “You know how girls are. I got a good distance from here and then I remembered I’d forgotten something. Had to come back and get it. Then I decided to use the phone.” Bess smiled. “Do you have a steady girl friend?”

“Why n-no,” Fred answered. He kept glancing around and looking very uncomfortable. Finally he said, “Are you alone?”

Bess laughed. “What do you think I am—three people? Maybe I’m heavy enough to make three, but I do try to diet. Fred, how do you manage to stay so slim?”

“Me? I don’t know. Did anyone come into the house after you did?”

Bess answered lightly, “Oh, I know Mr. Rorick and Mrs. Holman won’t be back for some time. As for Nancy and George, I’ll be joining them in a few minutes. As soon as I’ve talked to you a little longer.

“Tell me, Fred, do you like having odd jobs at different places? Wouldn’t you rather have a steady job somewhere?” Before he had a chance to answer, she went on, “You know, if you plan to get married sometime, your wife would want you to have a full-time job.”

Fred frowned. “I like what I’m doing. How soon are you leaving?’

Bess shrugged. “You sound as if you want to get rid of me. Don’t you like talking to me?”

“Why—er—yes,” Fred replied.

Bess kept listening eagerly for the sound of the police car. She wondered how much longer she could keep Fred in the kitchen talking about inconsequential matters. She struggled on bravely. “Wouldn’t you like a snack?” She opened the refrigerator door. “Umm, I see some delicious pudding. Want some?”

“No.”

“How about a piece of cake?” Bess moved over to the cakebox.

“No.”

As he said this, a feeling of relief came over Bess. She had heard a car roar up to the front of the house. “That must be friends of mine,” she told Fred. “I’ll be seeing you!”

As he stood rooted to the spot, she dashed to the front door and opened it. Chief Rankin, two other officers, and a physician hurried in. Quickly she said, “Go get that young man who’s just running out the kitchen door!”

Two of the officers raced in and captured the escapee.

As he was led back into the kitchen, Fred glared at Bess. “You! You double-crossed me!”

“Yes, I did. Your father—or whoever that man is you pal around with—is lying in the library unconscious.”

“What!” Fred cried out. “My father is hurt!”

“So he is your father,” said Bess. To the police she directed, “Follow me!”

She led the group into the dining room and showed them the open door and the secret passageway to the library. Having been in the house several times before, the officers stared at it, astounded.

Fred Jenkins’ eyes almost popped out of his head. “You found it!”

“Nancy Drew found it,” Bess answered. “She and my cousin George are lying in that room unconscious. Your father used a knockout spray gun on them!”

“You said my father was unconscious too,” said Fred. “What happened to him?” When Bess told him, the young man blinked. “You’re—you’re that brave?”