The Phantom of Pine Hill Read online

  Nancy’s supply of oxygen was cut off!

  We know that the treasures we’re looking for are not in the Lucy Belle or hidden underwater along this shore.”

  As soon as the couple had dried off, they walked back to the car. Nancy slipped her dress over her head and put on her slippers while Ned donned shirt and trousers.

  He glanced at the car clock and reminded Nancy that it was nearly suppertime. “Weren’t we going to meet the other four?” he asked.

  “Yes, if we could make it. But before we go back to the house, I’d like to drive to police headquarters and find out if they’ve picked up any safecrackers.”

  When they reached the police building, Nancy hurried inside. The chief was not there but a sergeant on duty answered her question. Two known safecrackers, now on parole, had been picked up for questioning. Both were tall men. They did not fit the description of the phantom thief.

  “Thank you,” Nancy said. When she reached the car, she relayed the message to Ned. “I have been suspecting a short, slight man of being the phantom. Now the question is, am I wrong or is the phantom someone who does not have a police record?”

  Ned chuckled. “Nancy, you certainly can pose the most unanswerable questions. I plead ignorance.”

  He started the car, but had gone no farther than the next corner when Nancy said, “Please turn left.”

  “But why?” Ned asked. “We go the other way to Uncle John’s.”

  Nancy explained that it was only a short distance to the guest house where Fred Jenkins lived. “I suspect he’s involved in this case, not as the thief necessarily, but in some way is connected with the mystery. We might just happen to be able to learn something.”

  Ned turned left and Nancy directed him to the street where Fred lived. As they neared his house, Nancy suddenly exclaimed, “Here he comes out the door! And look who’s with him! The man that Bess and George and I have caught glimpses of in the woods. We think he may be the phantom!”

  “But who is he?” Ned asked.

  “I believe he’s Fred’s father. Oh, Ned, maybe we’re going to learn something really worthwhilel Let’s follow them!”

  CHAPTER XVIII

  Secret Key Maker

  FRED JENKINS and the man with him proved to be fast walkers. They apparently were in a hurry to get somewhere and did not turn once, so Nancy felt sure that they had not spotted her car following them.

  After walking two blocks the men went into a garage. Ned parked some distance down the street and they waited. Soon a battered old car was driven out of the building by Fred Jenkins. The slight man sat beside him.

  “Let’s go!” Nancy urged. “But try to keep at least two cars behind them.”

  The trail led a good distance out into the country. As Ned watched the road, Nancy kept her eyes on Fred and the other man. So far as she could judge, they took no particular notice of the couple. Presently the men turned left on a narrow dirt lane which led toward the river.

  “Shall I still follow?” Ned asked, stopping at the turnoff.

  “Not with the car,” Nancy replied. “How about parking it over there among the trees? Then we’ll follow on foot.”

  “Okay.”

  After Ned had put the top up, locked the car, and pocketed the keys, the couple started down the lane. There had been no rain for several days and the roadway was extremely dusty. The tire tracks of Fred Jenkins’ car were easy to see.

  Nancy walked in the grass along the side, explaining that it was less dusty and also it might be just as well if the two of them did not leave footprints.

  The lane was long, and as they came near the river, there were trees on both sides. They were so close together that it was difficult to see anything beyond them.

  Suddenly Nancy stopped short. “I hear a car. It sounds as if it’s going from the river in the direction of the main road.”

  “Do you think Fred left his passenger at the river front and has taken another lane back?”

  Nancy shrugged, but quickened her step. A few minutes later she and Ned could see the water. The lane turned right and ended in a small clearing where a ramshackle cabin stood. Fred’s car was nowhere in sight.

  “He went that way,” Nancy said, pointing to a field of tall grass beyond the shack. A wide track of broken weeds showed where the car had been driven into it.

  “They must have spotted us,” Ned remarked, “or they’d have gone back up the lane.”

  “I wonder if they had business at this cabin,” Nancy pondered.

  As she started toward it, Ned caught her arm. “Better let me go first.”

  He knocked on the door. There was no answer.

  After several knocks the couple concluded the cabin was vacant. Ned tried the door, which opened easily. There was only one large room and no one was in it.

  “You stand guard at the door, Nancy,” Ned suggested. “I’ll just take a look around to see if I can pick up any clues.”

  Nancy looked out at the lane and the field, then turned to see what progress Ned was making. He was opening cupboards. All proved to be bare. Ned began to sing out:

  “Snoopy Ned Nickerson went to the cupboard

  To find Nancy Drew a clue.

  But when he got there,

  Each cupboard was bare

  And so there was no clue for Drew.”

  Nancy laughed heartily. She was about to remark that perhaps they had better go, when Ned slid back a panel under the sink. Forgetting that Nancy was standing guard, he cried out, “Nancy, look at this!”

  She darted across the room as he began dragging out a heavy machine. Nancy stared at it in utter astonishment.

  “It’s a key-making machine!”

  “It sure is,” said Ned. He reached farther back under the sink. “And here are boxes and boxes of blanks. This is a locksmith’s secret workshop!”

  “And I suspect,” Nancy said, “that the locksmith is Fred Jenkins’ father! If I’m right, he could make keys to open many locks.”

  Ned looked at her. “Are you trying to say that he opens any door he wishes to in the Rorick house? In other words, he’s the phantom thief?”

  “I have a strong hunch he is,” Nancy replied.

  “In that case,” Ned said, “I think we should take this machine and the blanks to the police and you should report your suspicions to them.”

  “I agree about taking the machine to the police, but I haven’t a shred of evidence that Fred or his father have anything to do with it.” She decided not to mention their names until she had proof of their guilt.

  Since the key-making machine was heavy, Ned said he would bring the car down. He asked Nancy to keep out of sight behind some trees in case the men returned. No one came, however, and in a little while the machine and the blanks were loaded into the car.

  Ned drove at once to police headquarters. Chief Rankin, on duty now, was very much interested in the couple’s story, and was glad they had brought in the machine. “I’ll have some of my men watch the cabin to see who goes there.”

  As Nancy and Ned finally drove toward the Rorick house, Nancy had an idea. “Are any hardware stores open this late?” she asked.

  “One is. What’s on your mind?”

  “I was just thinking,” said Nancy, “that if the key-making machine we found belongs to the phantom, he won’t be able to make any more. So if we put a new padlock on the library door, he can’t get in there!”

  “That’s right,” Ned agreed, and turned down a side street to a hardware store. The new padlock was purchased, this one with an alarm on it, then the couple left.

  When they reached the Rorick home, Mrs. Holman told them where the other young people had gone. She and Uncle John were just about to sit down to dinner and asked the young couple to eat with them. “Then you can tell us all that has happened,” the housekeeper said.

  Smiling, Ned sniffed the air and said, “I smell roast beef! How could we refuse?”

  The others laughed. A few minutes later the
four sat down at the table. Nancy and Ned both laughed and shuddered upon hearing the story of Dave’s fall into the chimney. Then they related all of their adventures and why they had bought a new padlock.

  “This is a brand-new type,” Ned said, showing how it worked. “The clerk told us they just came in and his store is the only one in Emerson to carry them.”

  “It has an alarm on it,” Nancy explained. “If anyone tries to pick it tonight we’ll certainly know it!”

  “Very good,” said Mr. Rorick.

  Mrs. Holman added, “I’m sure I’ll sleep better now.”

  Nancy said that she had a plan to put into operation after dinner. It would prove whether or not the phantom did enter the library by way of the door.

  “Uncle John, would you mind going in there as soon as it’s dark and turning on all the lights? Don’t draw the curtains. Take all the bills from your wallet and place them in a couple of the books with the word roar in them. Be sure to put them on the pages which match the amount of money.”

  Uncle John smiled. “You want to trap the phantom?”

  Nancy laughed. “That’s right. If he’s watching, I’m sure he won’t be able to resist the money.”

  Mrs. Holman remarked, “It’s deliberately inviting a burglar into your home. But I suppose it’s worth the risk if it will trap the thief.”

  About ten o’clock Bess and George and their dates arrived and the whole group talked for some time. Uncle John had played his role of planting the money in the library, the old padlocks had been removed and the new one installed. Everyone felt sure the mystery was about to be solved. Ned, Burt, and Dave offered to keep watch, but Mr. Rorick insisted that he could handle the situation.

  The boys left at eleven o’clock. Windows and doors were securely locked, then Uncle John, Mrs. Holman, and the three girls went to the second floor.

  Bess and George soon fell asleep, but Nancy was restless. She kept getting out of bed and walking to the window. About twelve o’clock, as she gazed toward the woods, she saw a flickering light spring up among the trees.

  “The phantom is here!” she murmured to herself.

  She watched for some time, then the light went out. Was the mysterious person on his way to the house? Would he soon let himself in and find the new padlock? Nancy tensed, waiting for the alarm to sound.

  The minutes crept by. All was silent. Nancy began to feel chilly and went back to bed. She listened intently but could hear nothing downstairs. Finally, in sheer exhaustion, she fell asleep.

  In the morning everyone compared notes. No one had heard the alarm go off!

  “But how about the money in the library?” Mrs. Holman asked. “If it has been stolen, then we’ll know that the thief is a phantom and goes through walls!” But the others were certain that the money would still be in the books.

  The group watched while Nancy opened the padlock, then they marched into the library. Everyone waited excitedly while Mr. Rorick went to examine the hiding places in the books.

  He picked up one and looked inside. A peculiar expression came over his face. He did not speak. Instead, he turned the book upside down and shook it. No bills fluttered out!

  CHAPTER XIX

  An Amazing Passageway

  THE whole affair took an unexpected turn. Nancy went up to Mrs. Holman and hugged her.

  “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!”