The Mystery of the Brass-Bound Trunk Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Acknowledgements

  Copyright Page

  CHAPTER I - Twoo N.D.’s

  CHAPTER II - A Vain Search

  CHAPTER III - The Jewel Thief

  CHAPTER IV - Inquisitive Locksmith

  CHAPTER V - Crashing Trunks

  CHAPTER VI - The Secret Plan

  CHAPTER VII - Nelda Is Missing

  CHAPTER VIII - Sign Language

  CHAPTER IX - The Sealed Tray

  CHAPTER X - Dutch Dials

  CHAPTER XI - Bits of Evidence

  CHAPTER XII - Little Bobby’s Clue

  CHAPTER XIII - Shambles!

  CHAPTER XIV - Stolen Documents

  CHAPTER XV - Helpful Ad

  CHAPTER XVI - Figuring Out a Capture

  CHAPTER XVII - Overboard!

  CHAPTER XVIII - Telltale Shoes

  CHAPTER XIX - A Tense Wait

  CHAPTER XX - The Trap

  MYSTERY OF THE BRASS-BOUND TRUNK

  From the moment Nancy Drew boards an ocean liner leaving for New York, she becomes involved in a new and dangerous mystery. A man on the pier gestures to someone on board in the sign language of the deaf. BEWARE OF NANCY DREW AND NE, he signals. Who is NE? Can it be Nelda Detweiler, a young South African who shares a cabin with Nancy, Bess, and George? When Nancy learns that Nelda has been accused of stealing a diamond bracelet in South Africa, she wonders whether the girl is a thief or the innocent victim of a vicious plot.

  Then an unclaimed brass-bound trunk, delivered to Nancy’s cabin by mistake shortly after she embarks, becomes the first clue that leads her to believe international jewel thieves are aboard. And soon afterwards she realizes that her life and the lives of her friends are in danger. Mystery and intrigue follow the girls across the ocean; but with her usual ingenuity Nancy solves the mystery and defeats her enemies before the ship reaches New York.

  “Nancy and Nelda, we want to question you about a theft,” the FBI man said.

  Acknowledgement is made to Mildred Wirt Benson, who under the pen name Carolyn Keene, wrote the original NANCY DREW books

  Copyright © 1976. 1968. 1940 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: 76-8371

  eISBN : 978-1-101-07718-4

  2008 Printing

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  CHAPTER I

  Twoo N.D.’s

  “All visitors ashore!” shouted a steward. All visitors a—!”

  As the call to leave the Winschoten faded away in the distance, there was a hum of excitement on the ocean-going vessel. Bells were ringing and the ship’s horn was bellowing out short blasts.

  “Good-by! Tot ziens!” passengers called to those on the pier.

  Three attractive girls stood together, leaning on the rail and watching the people onshore, who were waving. One was Nancy Drew, a strawberry blond who had sparkling blue eyes. On her right stood pretty Bess Marvin, a slightly plump blond, while on her left was Bess’s cousin, a slender, athletic girl who enjoyed her boyish name, George Fayne.

  The three girls were about to sail from Rotterdam in Holland to New York City. Along with other passengers they waved and shouted good-by to those on the pier, although they knew no one.

  Suddenly Nancy’s attention was directed toward a man on the dock. He was using the sign language for the deaf and finger spelling a message to someone on the ship. His hat was pulled low sothat she could not distinguish his face.

  Nancy watched his fingers move quickly; she was fascinated. Then, in a moment, she was startled to see him spell out the words NANCY DREW. Two years before, Nancy had learned the entire finger alphabet but had forgotten most of the letters except those that spelled out her own name. “How strange,” Nancy thought. “What does he mean by that?”

  Bess and George were looking in other directions and did not notice the man. Nancy kept try ing to figure out the rest of his message.

  After a short pause, he started again. Deciphering the letters she did know, Nancy pieced out part of a sentence. It read: -EWARE NANCY DREW AND NE—She could not decipher the last part because her view was obstructed by someone.

  Nancy, an amateur sleuth, looked up the deck to see if she could find anyone on board who was signaling in the finger language. She noticed no one, because the crowd of people along the rail blocked her view. Curious to solve the puzzle, Nancy leaned far out over the rail and turned to gaze along it, hoping to get a glimpse of someone spelling out words. Without warning, she felt her feet slipping and her balance going. She tried to steady herself, but could not. She would fall into the ocean below!

  Bess turned to Nancy just in time to notice that her friend was in trouble. With a great yank, she pulled the girl back. “What were you trying to do?” Bess asked. “You gave me a terrible scare.”

  Nancy smiled ruefully. “That was silly of me. But a man on dock was talking to someone on board in the deaf sign language and he signaled a warning about me!”

  “What!” George and Bess exclaimed, taken aback.

  “Where is he?” George asked.

  Nancy looked toward the spot where the man had been. “Oh,” she said, disappointed. “He’s gone now.”

  “What are you going to do?” Bess asked.

  “Well, if he talked to more than one person, the others might still be conversing in the finger language. Maybe we can find them.”

  George spoke. “You don’t even know which deck these people might be on. If you really want to find out, I suggest we split up and do a little sleuthing.”

  “Good idea,” Nancy agreed. “Suppose I stay here. Bess, you take the lower deck, and George, you go to the one above. If there are two or more deaf people together, they might still be speaking in the finger language. I’d like to know whom the man on the dock was talking to.”

  Bess and George hurried off, while Nancy continued to look around for suspects. She saw no one and kept thinking about the words she had translated. She was not on a case. Why should anyone be told to beware of her? And what did NE stand for?

  As she pondered this question, the girl detective kept a sharp watch on her fellow travelers, who were waving and calling out to those on the pier. Most of the people were speaking Dutch, but their speech was generously sprinkled with English and some German. Finally, picking up no clues, Nancy decided to go to her cabin.

  “Let’s see, it’s number one twenty-eight,” she recalled. As she went down the steps, the Winschoten left the pier and started on her voyage to New York. When Nancy reached her state-room, she opened the door and blinked in surprise. Bess and George were not there, but an attractive, fair-haired girl was seated on one of the four beds.

  She rose immediately and smiled at Nancy. “Hello,” she said. “I’m to be one of your room-mates.” She spoke with a slight accent. “My name is Nelda Detweiler. I’m the niece of the captain.”

  “I’m glad to meet you,” Nancy said, shaking hands with the strange girl. “My two friends who are sharing this cabin with me should be here in a minute.”

  “What were you trying to do?” Bess asked.

  Nelda explained that she was from Johannesburg, South Africa, and that she had decided rather suddenly to attend college in the United States. “I was accepted immediately,” she went on, “and I went to Rotterdam to see my uncle and his family. However, I almost had t
rouble getting on the ship, because it was booked out far in advance. The captain said there was an extra bed in this cabin, though, and I hope you and your friends don’t mind my intruding.”

  Nelda was a beautiful girl and very charming. She had large brown eyes and a soft musical voice. Nancy liked her at once. However, she was still thinking of the message -EWARE NANCY DREW AND NE—and wondered if NE could refer to Nelda. Perhaps their new roommate was a spy?

  “But she’s so lovely,” Nancy argued with herself. “I just can’t believe there’s anything dishonest about her.” However, Nancy decided to watch Nelda carefully, at least for a while, and to warn Bess and George to be alert, too.

  Aloud she assured the South African girl that the four companions would undoubtedly be very happy together.

  “Oh, thank you,” Nelda said and smiled. “I was afraid you might object to a stranger joining your group.”

  Soon Bess and George arrived. Nancy introduced them to Nelda Detweiler and explained how she happened to be rooming with them.

  “How nice!” Bess exclaimed, and George smiled at the girl.

  There was a knock on the door. George, who was nearest, opened it. A man walked in and introduced himself as Heinrich. “I’m your cabin steward,” he said, and looked intensely at each girl. His eyes rested on Nelda for a longer time than on the others. Nancy wondered if there was any significance in this.

  “Anything I can do for you, young ladies?” Heinrich asked.

  “Not just now, thank you,” Nancy replied.

  The steward was forced to back into the hall because the luggage was arriving. Several suitcases were brought in by a porter. As the girls tried to stow them away, he set a brass-bound steamer trunk down in the middle of the floor. Across the front of it were two large initials: N.D.

  Nancy tipped the porter, who left. Then she turned to Nelda. “This must be your trunk,” she said. “I have a similar one, but this isn’t mine.”

  Nelda turned to look at the piece of luggage. “No, I didn’t bring a trunk.”

  Bess giggled. “There must be a third N.D. on board.”

  Nancy went to the door. “I’ll try to catch the porter and tell him to take this one back,” she said and hurried outside into the corridor.

  It was crowded with baggage and passengers, and Nancy had to move slowly. The porter was not in sight, but just as Nancy was about to give up she heard loud talking from around the corner of a cross corridor.

  “You took my trunk to the wrong cabin!” a man declared. “I saw you! And there were instructions on it to put it in the hold. Now please get it out of there and take it downstairs.”

  “Certainly, sir,” another man replied. “Will you come with me and identify it, please?”

  The first man mumbled something that Nancy could not understand, but she was sure the man was talking about the trunk in number one twenty-eight! She tried to make her way past suitcases and bundles to clear up the mistake, but by the time she reached the spot no one was there!

  “That’s strange,” Nancy thought. “Maybe they weren’t talking about the trunk in my cabin after all?”

  She went back and found that more suitcases had arrived in the meantime. The mystery trunk, however, had not been picked up yet, nor had her own trunk been delivered.

  “I almost found the owner,” Nancy said to the others.

  “What do you mean?” George asked.

  Nancy told them about the conversation she had overheard, but, she explained, she had not found the man. She walked over to the trunk to examine it, thinking she might notify the owner. There were no stickers on it, nor any identification or handling instructions.

  Nancy frowned. “This is really strange,” she said. “I wonder if someone removed the tags, and if so, why?”

  CHAPTER II

  A Vain Search

  NANCY and the other girls stared at the brass-bound trunk. They struggled to turn it over to see if there were stickers on the bottom of it, or any clue as to the owner, but they found nothing.

  “This is very odd,” Nelda said as they set the trunk upright again.

  Bess remarked, “I heard someone say that pieces of baggage had been badly handled. Probably the tags on this were pulled off or knocked off accidentally.”

  “You could be right,” Nancy said, but did not sound convinced. “Something tells me, however, that there is a mystery connected with this trunk. What I’m wondering right now is, could my trunk have been put in the hold instead of this one? After all, it has the same initials on it and looks identical.”

  “Why don’t you go and find out?” George suggested.

  “I will,” Nancy replied, and stepped into the corridor again. She decided to go to the purser’s office first. He might be able to tell her what to do about her lost luggage.

  She hurried to the deck above and walked to the center of the ship. The assistant purser was on duty. According to a sign on the counter, his name was Mr. Rodman Havelock. He was about thirty years of age, sun-tanned, and good-looking. He smiled at Nancy. “May I help you?”

  The girl introduced herself, then said, “There seems to have been a mix-up of trunks. One that does not belong to me came to my cabin, but it has my initials on it.”

  “Did you look at the number on the sticker?” Mr. Havelock asked.

  “There are no stickers,” Nancy replied. “That’s just it. No identification whatsoever except the initials.” She told the man about the conversation she had overheard in the corridor, then added, “Perhaps my trunk was taken into the hold instead of his?”

  Mr. Havelock said he would look through the passenger list for someone else with the initials N.D. In a few moments he reported that the only two people aboard with those initials were Nancy Drew and her roommate Nelda Detweiler.

  “But the trunk doesn’t belong to Nelda either,” Nancy said.

  “Well, I’m afraid I can’t help you on that score,” Mr. Havelock said. “However, I will telephone the hold and ask if your trunk was delivered there by mistake.” He dialed a number and spoke to someone in Dutch. Then he turned to Nancy again.

  “I’m sorry, but they don’t seem to have a record of it either.”

  Nancy caught her breath. A fearful feeling came over her. Perhaps through some mistake her trunk was not loaded aboard the Winschoten at all! “That would be dreadful,” she thought. “No clothes to wear on the trip!”

  The assistant purser spoke. “I’ll do everything in my power to locate your trunk if it’s on the ship, Miss Drew. There are mix-ups in the baggage sometimes. If yours went to the wrong cabin, the occupants will surely report it.”

  “I appreciate that very much, Mr. Havelock,” Nancy replied.

  The young man smiled. “How about calling me Rod? I’m more used to that.”

  “Okay—if you’ll call me Nancy. And now I have another question.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Do you have a deaf person on board?” the girl inquired.

  “I don’t know,” the assistant purser replied. “Why?”

  Nancy decided not to divulge her suspicions until she knew Rod Havelock better, but she had not forgotten the message -EWARE NANCY DREW AND NE—in the finger language.

  She told Rod that before the ship sailed she had seen a person on the pier talking in the finger alphabet to someone on the Winschoten. “I was just curious to know if only one of the people was deaf, or both,” she explained.

  Rod smiled. “I’ll be glad to find out and let you know. The chief purser has a list of all persons aboard with any kind of physical disability. We try to give them special attention.”

  “Thanks,” Nancy said, and went back to her cabin. At once the girls asked her what luck she had had.

  “No luck with this trunk,” she replied, “and none with mine, either. I see it hasn’t arrived in the meantime.”

  Nelda said, “If you’re worried about your clothes, I have tons with me. You look as though you’re about my size and height. I’ll
be happy to lend you anything you want to borrow.”

  Nancy looked at her new-found friend and smiled. “That’s wonderful of you, Nelda,” she said. “Who knows? I might have to take your offer sooner than you think.”

  Nelda rose from her bed and opened one of her bags. From it she took a South African native’s costume. It was made like a sheath, and gay red flowers and ferns had been embroidered on it. A wide sash of gold with a fringe on each end was intended to be the belt. Gold-colored sandals completed the outfit.

  George giggled. “I can just see Nancy going to the dining room for breakfast in this getup. It’ll cause a stir!”

  The others laughed. Nelda slipped the gown over Nancy’s head, then adjusted the sash, which she wound around Nancy’s slender body twice. Nelda’s eyes were shining. “I understand there’s a costume party on board one night,” she said with enthusiasm. “Nancy, you must wear this!”

  Nancy looked at herself in the mirror and smiled. “It is lovely, but I’m sure you brought it to wear yourself.”

  “Oh, I have something else I can put on,” the girl replied. “Please use this outfit, Nancy.”

  Bess remarked, “Who in South Africa would wear a costume like this? All the pictures I’ve ever seen of the natives show dark-colored clothes.”

  Nelda laughed gaily. “This is a dress-up outfit,” she said. “Nancy, see if you can wear the sandals. They’re rather tight on me.”

  Nancy easily slipped her feet into the gold heelless sandals. “Aren’t they pretty!” she exclaimed.

  Bess said, “You look positively ravishing.” She giggled. “You’d better watch your step. Don’t captivate some young man on board and get your poor friend Ned Nickerson at home all worried!”

  Nancy grinned. “Not a chance,” she said. “Do you know who is the best-looking man I’ve seen on board so far?”

  As the others shook their heads, she said, “It’s the assistant purser, Rod Havelock.”

  Bess asked, “Well, there’s no law on the high seas to prevent you from dancing with him, is there?”