The Sky Phantom Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  CHAPTER I - The ELT Signal

  CHAPTER II - The Missing Palomino

  CHAPTER III - Revealing Rerun

  CHAPTER IV - Spooked!

  CHAPTER V - Mistaken Identity

  CHAPTER VI - A Puzzling Medal

  CHAPTER VII - Happy Discovery

  CHAPTER VIII - Good-by, Speed Boy!

  CHAPTER IX - Magnetic Cloud

  CHAPTER X - Awkward Situation

  CHAPTER XI - Masked Intruder

  CHAPTER XII - Breaking the Code

  CHAPTER XIII - Cave Mice

  CHAPTER XIV - A Frightening Message

  CHAPTER XV - Bess’s Dilemma

  CHAPTER XVI - Buffalo Spring

  CHAPTER XVII - Chilly Meeting

  CHAPTER XVIII - The Amazing Cache

  CHAPTER XIX - Surprise Attack

  CHAPTER XX - The Sky Phantom

  THE SKY PHANTOM

  Nancy goes to the Excello Flying School in the Midwest to take lessons, while her friends Bess and George perfect their horseback riding. At once the young sleuth is confronted with the mystery of a hijacked plane and a missing pilot. Then the rancher’s prize pony, Major, is stolen. Nancy becomes a detective in a plane and on horseback to track down the elusive sky phantom and the horse thief. A lucky find—a medal with a message to be deciphered on it—furnishes a worthwhile clue. Romance is added to mystery when Bess becomes interested in a handsome cowboy. Readers will spur Nancy on as she investigates a strange magnetic cloud, hunts for the horse thief, and finally arrives at a surprising solution.

  “Untie me!” the cowboy demanded.

  Copyright © 1976 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

  Published by Grosset & Dunlap, Inc., a member of The Putnam &

  Grosset Group, New York. Published simultaneously in Canada. S.A.

  NANCY DREW MYSTERY STORIES® is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster,

  Inc. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Grosset & Dunlap, Inc.

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 75-17391

  eISBN : 978-1-101-07754-2

  2007 Printing

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  CHAPTER I

  The ELT Signal

  “PULL back on the stick, Nancy!” Bruce Fisher ordered.

  Nancy Drew, an attractive strawberry blond, was taking a flying lesson from one of the new instructors at the Excello School, located in the Midwest. She and her friends Bess Marvin and George Fayne were spending their vacation at the nearby Hamilton Ranch. The other two girls were on the range, horseback riding.

  “Very good, Nancy!” said Bruce. “But one thing you must remember. An airplane is a temperamental bird and must be treated gently. Take it easy and the plane will work with you.”

  Nancy had run into turbulent air and the plane had become difficult to control. Now she zoomed upward to gain altitude and avoid being tossed around. Presently she saw a very large cloud looming ahead.

  “That’s the mystery cloud,” said her teacher. “You can get lost in there it’s so big.”

  The word “mystery” caught Nancy’s attention. To her the cloud looked like any other, but now it was the only one in the sky, which was blue and sunny. She asked why he called this particular vapory mass a mystery cloud.

  Bruce explained, “Because it’s there all the time—that is, this one or one just like it. This is a strange phenomenon.”

  “You mean the cloud never dissipates?” Nancy asked.

  Bruce nodded. “I guess it’s here continuously because of the high hills in this area. Meteorologists say that type of cloud formation is caused by orographic uplift.”

  Nancy chuckled. “That’s a big word to remember.”

  As she flew closer to the cloud, Bruce said, “Now turn away from it. It could be dangerous.”

  Flying low, Nancy banked the plane. While in the turn, she looked below. To her surprise she saw her friends Bess, in a bright-red bandanna, and George, wearing green jodhpurs. They had reined in and were standing still, waving their arms wildly.

  “I believe the girls are trying to signal me,” Nancy told her instructor. “I wonder why. Maybe something’s wrong!”

  Bess Marvin, who was blond, pretty, and slightly overweight, was pointing up to the sky. In a moment, she swooped her arm down toward the earth. Her cousin George, a slender, athletic brunette, went through the same motions.

  “The girls are trying to signal me!” Nancy said. “Maybe something is wrong.”

  “What are they trying to say?” Bruce asked as the girls repeated the gesture.

  “It’s my guess,” Nancy answered, “that perhaps they have spotted a plane in trouble somewhere above the other side of that hill. They want us to take a look. Let’s see what we can find out.”

  Guided by her instructor, she banked and made several turns around the area, but neither she nor Bruce could see a plane on the ground.

  “The pilot must have gotten his plane under control and flown away,” Nancy remarked.

  Bess and George continued to motion with their arms, but the two in the plane noticed that now, when the girls lowered their arms, they pointed opposite the area where Bruce’s plane was circling.

  “I’ll see if I can pick up anything on the radio,” Bruce said.

  He switched on his set and began tuning to various frequencies. Nancy could catch bits of weather reports and airport instructions to incoming craft. Then Bruce suddenly stopped at one frequency.

  “Do you hear that beeping?” he asked Nancy.

  She nodded.

  Bruce said, “That usually means someone is in distress. Maybe your friends did see a plane out of control, and it went down in a place where we haven’t looked.”

  Nancy remarked it might be a long hunt before they could find a craft on the ground. “Do we have enough fuel?” she asked.

  Bruce smiled and said, “Yes. It may take us a little while, but by using this ELT signal, we can probably shorten the time.”

  He explained that ELT meant Emergency Locator Transmitter. “We’ll fly in a search pattern and listen to those beeps. The stronger they are, the closer we’re getting to the source. If they become weaker, then we’re flying away and should turn back.”

  Nancy said to him, “You’d better take over. I’ll look out the window.”

  Bruce flew directly south. The varying volume of the beeping sound reminded Nancy of a game she played as a child. She would search for a hidden object and her father would indicate that she was “hot,” meaning close, or “cold,” meaning not close.

  After flying a few miles, Bruce banked sharply and took a northerly direction. The beeps were faint now, so he swung to the west. Here the signals were even fainter. He banked and went directly east.

  Presently Nancy cried out, “There it Is! I see it. I wonder if the pilot is inside.” She saw no one outside the craft and no signs of a parachute.

  Just ahead, in a scrubby area near the base of a high hill was a small two-engine plane. The sleek-looking craft was painted a dull silver. Above it loomed the great cloud.

  Bruce prepared to land near the craft. “This is the part I always hate to undertake,” he said soberly. “There’s no telling what we may find. Suppose I come down a distance away and you stay in the plane while I investigate?”

  Nancy sighed. “You’re my instructor, so I presume I’ll have to obey your orders, but I’m asking you to let me go along. Please. I may be able to help.”

  Bruce shrugged and said, “Okay. But I insist on looking inside the plane first.”

  He brought the flying school’s two-seater down to very rough, slightly sloping terrain. He did it so skillfully, t
hough, that his passenger was not shaken. The two got out and walked toward the other plane.

  “There’s no sign of life,” Bruce remarked with set lips.

  Finally the couple reached the craft. The ELT signal was still beeping. Bruce climbed aboard. To their amazement, no one was in the plane or anywhere near it!

  “Could the pilot have bailed out?” Nancy asked.

  Bruce shook his head. “I doubt it. In that case, the plane would have crashed. As you can see, it didn’t, and everything is in perfect order. No doubt it was a hard landing, however, and that may have triggered the ELT.” Bruce paused, then said, “If the pilot heard it, I can’t see why he didn’t turn off his radio.”

  Nancy suggested that perhaps he was in such a hurry to go somewhere that he had not bothered. Bruce said this could be true. Possibly the pilot met and dashed away with a friend.

  “He may even have had his ELT on while still flying and didn’t bother to turn it off when he landed,” Bruce added.

  Nancy had already made a mental note of the plane’s registration numbers on the fuselage. “Have you any idea whose plane it is?” she asked.

  “No. But I’ll climb inside and see if I can find any identification.”

  The nimble young instructor looked through every compartment in the craft. Finally he reported from the doorway, “Nothing about an owner or whoever was flying the plane. The pilot must be carrying the registration and airworthiness certificates with him. That’s a violation of FAA rules, by the way.”

  Nancy thought, “He means Federal Aviation Agency.”

  Bruce looked down at Nancy. “I understand you like to solve mysteries. Here’s one for you. Who was the pilot of this plane, why did he land here, and where is he?”

  The girl detective grinned. “If you’d like to know who the owner is, I’m sure I could find out.”

  They both laughed, and he said, “Go to it!”

  The two walked back to the flying-school plane and Bruce immediately contacted the tower at Excello. He gave the registration numbers of the mysterious plane and asked if they could identify the owner or pilot. In a little while the answer came.

  “The owner and pilot of the plane you asked about is Roger Paine. He purchased the craft only two weeks ago. It seems he left for the East in his old plane a few days before that, and no one has heard from him since. We’re a bit concerned about him because he said he expected to return in a few days.”

  Nancy and Bruce looked at each other. Though Bruce had never met him, both of them knew Roger Paine was well liked at the Excello School and was considered “a great guy.”

  Nancy said, “The last time I visited this area I took a couple of lessons from Roger. He’s a wonderful person. Oh, I hope nothing has happened to him!”

  CHAPTER II

  The Missing Palomino

  BY THE time Nancy and Bruce had taxied up to the operations building of the Excello Flying School, the place was buzzing with excitement over Roger Paine’s disappearance.

  Mr. Falcon, the manager, had already telephoned the young man’s home in the East. “I was told that no one in the family has heard from him for over two weeks. This isn’t like him because he worked with his father part-time and was expected home. I also phoned several of the larger airports to see if I could track Roger down, but no luck.”

  According to various Excello pilots, Roger was not secretive. He visited the school once in a while and sometimes gave a few lessons.

  “He’s a top-notch airman,” said one of the instructors. “If he wasn’t injured in a crash, he must be in some other sort of trouble.”

  Nancy whispered to Bruce, “Couldn’t a few of us start a search?”

  He relayed her question to Mr. Falcon.

  “I think that’s a very good idea,” the manager said. “It’s too late to do it today. Sunset is less than an hour away. I suggest you start out at dawn tomorrow. Who wants to volunteer?”

  Several pilots raised their hands, indicating they were willing to go.

  Again Nancy whispered to Bruce, “May I join the search?”

  He looked at her and smiled. Then he said, “Mr. Falcon, I’d like to introduce Nancy Drew, who is an amateur detective. But she’s an amateur only because she won’t accept money for her work. She is a marvelous sleuth, and she’d like to go with us.”

  The other men in the room clapped and Mr. Falcon said, “If Bruce wants to come, you may fly with him, Nancy. And good luck in your search.”

  “Oh, thank you,” the girl replied. “What time is dawn tomorrow?”

  Four A.M. was the answer. “Better set your alarm,” Mr. Falcon added with a smile.

  Nancy promised to do so and walked out with Bruce. He offered to drive her to the Hamilton Ranch, only a few miles from the airfield. On the way they continued to discuss what might have happened to Roger Paine.

  Bruce said, “If he had a hard landing and bumped his head, he may have suffered a concussion and be wandering around aimlessly in those hills.”

  Nancy had a new and disturbing thought about the disappearance.

  “I hate to say this,” she said, “but it’s just possible that Roger skipped out on purpose for reasons known only to himself. But the question is why? And where is he?”

  Bruce said he did not believe that had happened. “It’s possible, though, that Roger met with foul play in some way. Perhaps he had a passenger who was in some kind of tricky business and double-crossed him.”

  By this time the couple had reached the Hamilton Ranch and driven up to the long, logwood one-story house. They were greeted by Bess and George, who had met Bruce that morning.

  “Did you find the plane we were pointing to?” George asked. “The pilot seemed to be in trouble.”

  “Yes, we did,” Nancy replied and told them about Roger Paine and that his plane had been abandoned.

  “How dreadful!” Bess remarked. “What kind of man was Roger Paine?”

  “Young, handsome, and very friendly,” Nancy said. “You’d like him.”

  “Most of the pilots at Excello know him,” Bruce added, “and they’re all fond of him.” He turned his car and waved good-by.

  Nancy followed Bess and George into the comfortably furnished lobby with its huge stone fireplace. Everywhere on the walls hung pictures of cowboys and Indians, and over the fireplace was a mural showing stampeding Brahman cattle.

  The girls shared a large room, furnished with three cots. Nancy went to bed early and set her alarm for 3:30 A.M. When it buzzed, she instantly smothered the clock and turned it off so that Bess and George would not be awakened.

  Nancy dressed quickly in her jeans and a sweater and left the room. Bruce was waiting for her at the front entrance.

  “Morning!” he said. “Congratulations! I never thought you’d make it!”

  Nancy chuckled. “You have a lot to learn about detectives. Hours mean nothing to us.”

  “I stand corrected,” he said, as they drove off.

  At the flying school she found that four planes were to take part in the search. Nancy and Bruce were to be in the lead, since they knew where Roger Paine’s plane had set down. As they approached the area the great cloud seemed larger than ever.

  “It’s amazing,” Nancy said.

  “You know, you can get lost inside that cloud,” Bruce remarked. “And sometimes our compass needles go crazy if we get too close.”

  “Then I’ll be sure to stay away,” Nancy replied, and she decided to make inquiries about it.

  In a few minutes they thought they were over the spot where the missing aircraft had stood. It was not there! Bruce began to circle the area. “I was so sure I remembered exactly where it was,” he said, a puzzled frown creasing his forehead.

  “I thought so, too,” Nancy agreed.

  The pilot picked up his unicom transceiver and got in touch with the other fliers. He asked if they had seen the abandoned plane, but none of them had.

  “We’ll change our search pattern,” Bruce
directed. “I’ll fly around the big cloud. Number two plane will go in a larger circle, and three and four beyond that, so we can cover a sizable area. If you see the craft, be sure to report to me at once.”

  The search went on for some time. Nancy kept her eyes glued to the ground, but there was no sign of a plane, a pilot, a house, or any type of building that might be used as a hideaway.

  Nancy said, “Even if the plane is gone, maybe Roger isn’t. Couldn’t we go down and hunt for him on the ground? We might pick up a clue to the disappearance of the plane even if we don’t find him.”

  Bruce agreed that this was a good idea and radioed the other pilots to return to the school.

  “Nancy and I are going to conduct a ground search,” he said. “We’ll keep in touch.”

  The instructor made a perfect landing on the uneven ground and stopped at the spot where he and Nancy were sure Roger Paine’s plane had landed. They began to inspect the area and in a few minutes Nancy said, “Here are some wheel marks and imprints of cowboy boots!”

  Bruce said he was sure they had not been there the day before. Nancy agreed. She added, “Roger didn’t wear cowboy boots when he was giving me lessons.”

  “None of the pilots wear them,” Bruce said thoughtfully.

  “Then whose marks are these?” Nancy asked. “Maybe they belong to a skyjacker!” she surmised.

  “It sure is a puzzle,” Bruce replied.

  The couple hunted for further clues but found none. There was no trail either from or to the cowboy-boot prints. How had their wearer reached the spot?

  “He must have parachuted down,” Nancy concluded, and Bruce agreed that this could be the answer to the riddle. “And immediately removed the boots.”

  The couple flew back to the Excello Flying School. This time Nancy took the controls. She made such a good landing that Bruce praised her skill.

  “You’re getting along great,” he said.

  Nancy thanked him and confessed that she was really terribly excited now about flying. “I just can’t wait to get permission to make a cross-country flight.”

  Bruce said he felt this could happen soon. “In fact,” he added, “I have a hunch that you’re going to do some exciting flying in connection with this mystery before you solve it.”