The Clue of the Velvet Mask Read online

  “You won’t go too close, promise,” Bess begged.

  “Just close enough to do some looking. We’ll find out what Tombar’s up to.”

  The green sedan still stood on the weed-choked driveway, but Peter Tombar was not in sight.

  “He must be inside,” Nancy said.

  “If he catches us prowling around here, we may run into that danger George predicted!” Bess declared uneasily.

  “Now don’t get jittery,” Nancy begged. “We’ll stay out of sight.”

  Using the pine shrubbery as a shield, the girls slipped to the side of the inn next to the driveway. Nancy made her way cautiously through the shrubbery to a boarded window.

  “You keep watch,” she told Bess, and peered through a tiny crack.

  “What do you see?” her friend demanded in an impatient whisper. “Is Tombar in there?”

  “Someone’s moving around with a flashlight. Yes, it’s Tombar all right! But all the crates and cartons are gone!”

  “You’ve seen everything you can,” Bess whispered, tugging at her friend’s hand. “Come on!”

  Nancy held back. In fascination she watched as Peter Tombar lifted a trap door in the floor of the empty room and disappeared below.

  “I can’t leave now,” Nancy whispered. “I wonder what is in the cellar.”

  “Come away, Nancy!” Bess warned. “A truck is turning in here!”

  It was too late for the girls to retreat to the road without being seen. They flattened themselves against the boarded side window, hoping not to be observed.

  Luck was with them, for instead of coming all the way up the drive, the covered truck halted near the road. As the girls anxiously waited, it backed up again and drove away.

  “A Taylor company truck!” Nancy exclaimed. “And the store’s closed today!”

  “The driver saw us!” Bess insisted fearfully.

  “Maybe not,” Nancy replied. “Anyway, we’ll have time to see if Tombar brings up anything from the cellar.”

  “Let’s go now,” Bess urged nervously.

  Nancy ignored her friend’s plea. Squinting through the crack again, she waited patiently.

  Soon she saw Mr. Tombar emerge through the trap door. He carried something in his hands.

  “Oh, that proves it!” Bess whispered tensely. “Tombar is part of the gang!”

  “He’s probably one of the ringleaders,” Nancy replied. “They’re going to use those masks tonight!”

  Bess put her eye to the crack, too. She became so absorbed in watching that she forgot her job as lookout. The girls were suddenly awakened to their danger when Tombar started toward the side door.

  “Let’s leave, Nancy,” Bess urged. “We may be too late to—”

  The sentence was never finished. Nancy heard a crackle back of them. She whirled to face a man and a woman wearing black velvet masks. As Bess screamed, the two threw dark hoods over the girls’ heads. Strong arms seized them. Struggling frantically, Nancy almost broke away when crashing sounded in the brush and someone else grabbed her.

  “What is it? Who are they?” came Peter Tombar’s harsh voice.

  “The Drew girl and her friend,” the woman reported.

  “So!” Tombar exclaimed. “I know Nancy Drew has been spying on me for days. We’ll deal with her presently. Right now, get ‘em both out of the way. Harris is coming and I don’t want him to see ’em.”

  Nancy and Bess were hustled into the inn and taken down into the dark, musty cellar. There the hoods were exchanged for blindfolds, and the girls were bound and gagged.

  “You see what happens to people who don’t mind their own business?” Tombar taunted as he ascended the stairs.

  Though the captives could not speak, see, or move, they could hear plainly what went on in the rooms above. Presently the real-estate man arrived and was greeted cordially by Tombar.

  “I’m glad you drove out today, Mr. Harris,” he said courteously. “I’ve been thinking over your client’s offer to buy this place.”

  “Then you’ll sell?”

  “If the price is right, and we can make a quick deal. My wife is tired of River Heights. We want to travel. It will have to be an immediate cash sale, though, or it’s all off.”

  “Give me a couple of hours,” Mr. Harris replied. “I think I can swing it.”

  “Okay. I’ll meet you at your office.”

  Lying on the dusty, damp cellar floor, Nancy unhappily considered her predicament. Mr. Tombar intended to sell the inn and leave River Heights with his cronies before the police caught up with them.

  If only she and Bess could escape and bring state troopers there in time to thwart their plan! But the girls’ bonds were secure and there was no chance of loosening them.

  “And maybe no one will find us,” Nancy reflected despairingly as she heard Harris’s car leave.

  Only George Fayne knew where she and Bess had gone. Formerly their failure to return to River Heights in a reasonable length of time would have signaled trouble. But now George was not herself. Could she possibly be depended upon to send help? Nancy wondered.

  Twenty minutes elapsed, then the girls heard footsteps on the cellar stairs. Their ankles were unbound and they were pulled roughly to their feet.

  “Come along,” a man said gruffly. “You’re going to be moved.”

  The girls’ hearts sank. Their one chance of rescue was vanishing!

  “Unless,” Nancy thought, “our rescuers could pick up our trail.”

  As the girls were prodded up the stairway, Nancy pondered how she might leave a clue. She thought of the buttons on her dress. Could she possibly get one off?

  Stumbling sideways against the wall, she deliberately tried to tear one off. Luck favored her. A protruding nail ripped her dress. She heard a button drop on the step I

  “It’s a slight hope,” she thought as her captor yanked her around again.

  “Keep goin‘,” he ordered. “No stallin’.” When they reached the main floor of the inn, he said, “Okay, Pete.”

  “You two get those girls out of here,” Tombar ordered. “And make it snappy.”

  The girls’ ankles were bound again. Their arms still tied behind them, and with gags and blindfolds in place, they were lifted into a vehicle and put on the floor. The driver started the motor and pulled away at high speed. Nancy and Bess wondered if they were in the Taylor truck they had seen backing out of the driveway.

  As they rode along, the girls could hear the couple in the front seat talking. Nancy was sure they were speaking in disguised voices.

  “If I can catch them off guard,” she thought, “maybe they’ll speak in natural tones.”

  Nancy thumped her feet up and down.

  “Florence, what’s that?” the man cried.

  “The detective’s up to her tricks again.”

  Florence Snecker’s voice! Was the companion her husband? He did not sound like the man whose voice she had heard in the apartment.

  “You girls keep quiet or you’ll be sorry,” the woman warned. “We don’t want no trouble with you!”

  Nancy smiled inwardly. She had achieved her purpose, but as to making trouble, what chance did she have?

  “But I mustn’t give up hope,” Nancy chided herself.

  She wondered about Bess who had made no move. Had she fainted?

  The two girls were at opposite ends of the truck. Nancy tried to reach Bess but the effort was too painful. She longed for the journey to end.

  Presently the truck slowed down. They must be in a town. After turning several corners, it finally stopped. The motor was switched off. Apparently the truck was in some back alley, for there were no street noises. Nancy heard the woman remark to her male companion:

  “I’m glad our friend’s going to Harris instead of waiting for him at the inn. He used good sense to unload on Harris and pull out. This town’s getting too hot for all of us.”

  Nancy felt certain that Mrs. Snecker was speaking of Peter Tombar. If so, it m
eant that he would flee the city as soon as he had collected the cash from the real-estate agent. The police would not find him, even if it occurred to George Fayne to send them to the inn to investigate.

  The girls were hauled out of the truck, untied, and forced to walk into a building. There they were made to sit on the floor while their ankles were rebound.

  “Good-by, snooper,” Mrs. Snecker said, giving Nancy a vicious prod with her shoe. “Now let’s see you tell the police what you know!”

  The man added, “We’ll soon take you away to a place where you’ll never squeal!”

  A heavy door was rolled shut and locked. The room became silent.

  Nancy squirmed and twisted but she could not loosen the cords which held her prisoner. Seldom had she been in a more hopeless situation!

  She was certain now that Peter Tombar and the Sneckers were working together in the Velvet Gang. They meant to pull one final robbery and flee.

  But what good was this knowledge? She was unable to notify the police or even to free herself and Bess.

  “Oh, why did I let myself get caught!” Nancy scolded herself.

  CHAPTER XVIII

  A Threat Revealed

  IN River Heights the long absence of Nancy and Bess had begun to cause alarm. Hannah Gruen knew something had gone wrong because Nancy had not returned to dress for her date with Ned, Frantic with worry she had telephoned the Marvin home several times but had always received the same answer—there had been no word from Bess.

  At seven o’clock Ned arrived. Hearing that Nancy had not come home, he frowned in concern.

  “I was afraid of this. She becomes so completely wrapped up in a mystery. Now something’s happened.” He began pacing the floor.

  “Mr. Drew won’t be home until late,” Hannah informed him. “I’ve tried to reach him by phone but I can’t. I don’t know what to do about Nancy and Bess.”

  Tearfully she disclosed that the two girls had been seen last at the Fayne home. At that time they had told George that they might drive out to a place called the Blue Iris Inn.

  “But nobody seems to know where it is. The inn’s not listed in the phone book.”

  “I never heard of the place until Nancy mentioned it,” Ned admitted. “And she didn’t say where it was.”

  “Oh, Ned, can’t you think of something we can do?” the housekeeper pleaded.

  “I’ll go out to the inn as soon as I find out where it is,” the young man promised. “Maybe George can give me a clue.”

  He drove at once to the Fayne home. George was up and dressed, but in a near state of collapse from anxiety over the girls’ disappearance.

  “Oh, I knew this would happen!” George moaned. “I warned Bess and Nancy not to go, but they wouldn’t listen to me. Now the dreadful threat may be carried out.”

  “Threat?” Ned demanded. “What threat, George?”

  “Tell us quickly!” Mrs. Marvin urged. “Nancy and Bess’s safety may depend on what you can tell us.”

  The words stunned George and suddenly brought a marked change in her attitude. The old fire came back into her eyes and the color returned to her cheeks.

  “Well,” George began, “after those kidnappers drugged me I seemed to lose my nerve. That woman’s words just burned into my brain. She warned me that if I didn’t make Nancy drop the case, great harm would come not only to her but to Mrs. Gruen and Mr. Drew and my family and Bess’s.”

  “Oh, George, you should have reported this to the police,” Mrs. Fayne cried.

  “I didn’t dare. But now we must find Nancy and Bess.”

  “What else did the kidnappers say?” Ned asked. “It might be a clue to what happened to Nancy and Bess.”

  “Well, at the end of the threats, the woman said, ‘We’ll put Nancy on ice in the flour cellar!’ I’ve wondered ever since what they meant by that.”

  “A flour cellar?” Mrs. Marvin murmured. “What significance would that have?”

  “I never heard of a flour mill around here,” Ned said thoughtfully. “George, maybe they meant f-l-o-w-e-r cellar.”

  “That might have been it,” she agreed. “Do you suppose there’s one in the Blue Iris Inn? Wait! Nancy told me about a real-estate agent who has been wanting to buy that place for someone. I’ll ask him.”

  Excitedly, and now apparently completely recovered, George ran to the telephone and called Mr. Harris. When she rejoined the group in the living room, her face was worried but determined.

  “I’ve learned a lot,” she said. “Mr. Harris told me the inn once had a small greenhouse specializing in blue iris. The cellar of the inn was used for sorting bulbs and arranging cut flowers.”

  “Nancy and Bess probably are prisoners in that cellar!” Ned cried. “But where is it?”

  “Mr. Harris gave me directions,” George replied. “And listen to this. He also told me that he had arranged today to buy the inn from Mr. Tombar for a client.”

  “Tombar! Nancy suspected him all along,” Ned cried.

  “Mr. Harris was supposed to have paid Tombar at his office, but he had trouble raising the money on such short notice, so he told Tombar to return Monday.”

  “Maybe Tombar went back to the inn!” Ned exclaimed. “If he did, we can catch him and find out about the girls!”

  “I’m going too,” George announced with spirit. “No, don’t try to stop me, anyone! Nancy and Bess are in danger, and I want to help.”

  The rescue party, Ned, Mr. Marvin, George, and her father, assembled quickly. As they were ready to drive off, Mrs. Gruen telephoned that she finally had reached Mr. Drew.

  “He has notified the State Police and is on his way to the inn himself right now,” she said. “Oh, get there as fast as you can!”

  At the Blue Iris Inn, Ned’s party learned from Mr. Drew that Nancy’s parked car as well as tire tracks of a truck and another car had been found. The officers had broken into the boarded-up building and searched in vain for the missing girls.

  “Let me look,” Mr. Drew said, borrowing a flashlight from one of the policemen.

  It was not until he went to the cellar of the inn that Mr. Drew found a clue. He pointed out that some of the footprints on the stairway had been made by the type of shoes Nancy wore.

  “And look at this!” George exclaimed, picking up the button that had fallen off Nancy’s dress. “This was on the dress Nancy was wearing when she disappeared!”

  “Now we have something to work on,” one officer said excitedly. “No doubt the girls were taken away from here in the car or the truck. We’ll try to trace the tire tracks.”

  By inspecting the marks the police figured that the truck and the car, leaving the inn, had gone toward River Heights.

  “They came from that same direction, too,” remarked one of the troopers.

  “It’ll be impossible to follow the tracks on the highway,” another pointed out.

  “The best thing to do is broadcast a general alarm for Tombar’s green car,” Mr. Drew declared. “You may be able to stop it somewhere.”

  “This was on the dress Nancy was wearing when she disappeared!”

  “We’ll do everything we can,” the officer promised. “But the girls may be in the truck and we have no description of that. And don’t forget, those thieves have a good head start. They may be a hundred miles from here by now.”

  “On the other hand, they may be only a few miles away,” Ned put in. “Nancy believed that the Velvet Gang planned to pull a last big job tonight. If she’s right, they won’t leave town until they have the loot.”

  “Her theory is a good one,” the officer conceded. “It won’t help us rescue her and Miss Marvin, though. By the time we get a report on the robbery, the gang will be on their way to another place.”

  “And taking Nancy and Bess with them!” George exclaimed.

  “All the more reason why we must set up roadblocks,” Mr. Drew urged. As he started for his car he noticed that Ned had remained behind.

  “Hurry, Ned
!” he called.

  The young man shook his head. “I’m staying here. There’s an outside chance that the gang may come back tonight.”

  “But we’re trying to save the girls.”

  “They may bring Nancy and Bess with them.”

  “You’re going to stay alone?” Mr. Drew said dubiously.

  “I’ll be okay,” Ned insisted. “Maybe no one but Tombar will show up.”

  “But he may be armed, Ned,” Mr. Drew pointed out. “It seems to me you’re taking a dangerous chance. Better come along with us.”

  “I’ll watch my step. I have two good fists,” the athletic young man said grimly, “and I’m used to tackling opponents on short notice.

  “What’s more, if I ever meet that fellow who nailed me in the basement of the Dwight house, I have a score to settle with him!”

  CHAPTER XIX

  Fire!

  IN their prison room Nancy and Bess were suffering intense discomfort. Their gags made swallowing difficult, and the cords cut deeply into their flesh.

  “Those men made a thorough job of seeing that we don’t get away,” Nancy thought grimly.

  So tightly had her wrist bonds been tied, she realized that she could never unfasten them without aid. The ropes about her ankles were somewhat looser, but it was impossible to reach them.

  “I’ll wiggle around and perhaps I’ll find something to help me get them off,” Nancy thought eagerly. “But where is Bess?”

  As she rolled and twisted on the floor, Nancy brushed against an object with a sharp edge. It seemed to be a loose metal band around a large box.

  At once Nancy raised her bound feet and began to saw her bonds across the metal. It was hard work. Repeatedly she abandoned the task as fatigue overcame her. But after each rest period she tried again.

  Finally she succeeded. The frayed ankle cords broke. Her feet were free!

  Nancy scrambled up, and though she still could not see because of the blindfold, she groped backward with her tied hands until she found the sharp piece of metal. Another five minutes and both hands were free. She jerked off the blindfold and removed the gag.