The Phantom of Pine Hill Read online

  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.

  CHAPTER XX

  The Restored Treasure

  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?”

  Bess did not reply. Instead, she suggested that the group hurry through the passageway into the library. She herself would go to Nancy’s room for the key to the new padlock. When she returned and opened it, the alarm sounded. Bess inquired of the physician how Nancy and George were.

  “They’ll come around in a few minutes,” he answered. “No harmful aftereffects. As to Mr. Jenkins, he got a nasty bruise on his head as he fell. He’ll take a while to wake up.”

  As the doctor finished speaking, Nancy stirred and opened her eyes. George took a few moments longer. Both girls blinked and looked from face to face. They were amazed to see the police, and stared up at Fred Jenkins, then across the floor toward his father.

  Nancy sat up and asked what had happened. She and George were assisted to cha
irs and then Bess told her story.

  Both girls looked at her in utter astonishment. “Bess, our timid one!” said George.

  Bess merely smiled. Suddenly her legs were getting rubbery. She was feeling the emotional strain and flopped onto the couch.

  “I think Fred can clear up many points of the mystery,” Bess said.

  With a bit of braggadocio, the young man admitted that he had discovered the openings to the secret passageway. One day, while cleaning the dining room, he had caught the faint glint of metal between two of the panels above the mantelshelf. He had picked at it with a knife, and suddenly the door had opened. The rest was easy.

  “My father,” he went on, “has two friends who know a lot about the sinking of the Lucy Belle. They think a treasure was taken from the wreck and buried somewhere around here. They went to the public library and the one at the university for some books that might tell about it but learned nothing.”

  Nancy said, “They must be the men Ned heard talking one day.”

  “They helped us trail you girls wherever you went. John Tregger and Hank More are smart. Oh, I shouldn’t have mentioned their names.” The police had already made notes. Nancy was sure the men would be picked up for questioning.

  Fred shrugged and went on, “The four of us began to hunt and dig, but we didn’t have any luck. Then after I found the secret way to get into the library, and saw all those books, my father said he would look through them. He was sure there must be some old records which would give him a hint. While he worked, I stood guard.”

  Nancy spoke up. “If you were trying to keep this thing so secret, why did you use light in the woods?”

  Fred grinned. “That was my idea. After my father got into the locked room and disturbed the books, I heard Mrs. Holman say nobody but a phantom could get into it. I thought I’d make the whole thing spooky and scare people off while we were digging. By the way, we always covered the places over with leaves, so you wouldn’t find them!”

  “What about the money you stole?” Nancy asked.

  Fred looked blank. “I don’t know anything about any money, honest. You mean money taken from this room?”

  “Yes, plenty of it.”

  All this time the doctor had been working on Mr. Jenkins and now the thief regained consciousness. When he was assisted to a chair, Chief Rankin said, “As soon as you feel able, talk.”

  The man looked sullenly from face to face, but glared at Nancy, George, and Bess. At first he was silent, but after a few prodding questions from Nancy, he admitted his guilt.

  “I used to be a locksmith by trade,” he said, “and also an expert on opening safes.”

  He admitted that the outfit at the river cabin was his. He had made keys to the various doors and padlocks in the Rorick home.

  “If you could open the padlocks, why did you bother with the passageway?” George asked.

  “So I wouldn’t get caught. I was hiding in the passageway several times while other people were in the room.”

  Chief Rankin asked Jenkins why he had waited so long before robbing the safe. The man said he had found the combination a very tricky and difficult one to figure out.

  “Tell me,” said Nancy, “did you take only small amounts of money at a time from the books to avoid suspicion?”

  Jenkins gave a wise smile. “I knew that Mr. Rorick probably wouldn’t notice. A tenner here and there kept me supplied with all I needed.”

  Fred stared at his father in shocked surprise. “What else did you take?” he asked.

  Jenkins grinned at his son and confessed to the theft of the coins. He said those still missing were hidden in the guest house.

  He also admitted having tried to frighten Nancy away from the Rorick home. When he found out the owner had asked her to solve the mystery, he had coaxed his two friends to help him scare her away. One had swamped Nancy and Ned’s canoe, the other had shrieked in the woods when Ned was in the Indian costume, “We hoped these things would get you off our trail,” he told Nancy, “but I guess you don’t scare easy.”

  “Did you steal my pearl necklace?” she asked.

  “Yes. It’s hidden in the cabin. You look under the floor boards. Why do I want to give it back to you? Because I admire your grit!”

  This was the first time in Nancy’s life that a thief had voluntarily offered to return property because he admired her! She had to smile.

  During the next fifteen minutes Fred Jenkins and his father made several other admissions. Fred’s father had thought of the prank of the thumbprints. He knew a very large man with huge thumbs and for a fee got him to make marks on several papers.

  “I sure had you fooled that time I dropped one of the papers.” He smirked. “I was up in a tree all the time but you never spotted me.”

  Fred admitted to pretending that there had been a phone call for Nancy about Hannah Gruen, and pushing the threatening note under the front door. He had taken Nancy’s car away to wash it. His father had helped him start the motor without a key. They had taken the car to the shack along the river. While Fred washed it, his father had made a key to the ignition to make it easier to drive back.

  “We didn’t leave the key in the lock, but I said it had been there to make you think the phantom had done it and you’d worry.”

  “What I want to know,” said Nancy, “is whether or not you found any part of the treasure from the Lucy Belle.”

  Mr. Jenkins shook his head. “If it’s true that the treasure is still around, it’s well hidden.”

  Chief Rankin interrupted. “If you girls have no further questions to do with the robbery, we’ll take these two men in. Please ask Mr. Rorick to come down to headquarters and make a formal charge against them.”

  The prisoners were led away. Bess said, “Won’t Uncle John and Mrs. Holman be amazed when they return? Just think, the mystery is solved!”

  Nancy corrected her. “Only one of Uncle John’s two mysteries. Don’t forget we haven’t found the wedding gifts.”

  George said she did not have one single hunch to offer Nancy. Bess declared her brain would not work any more.

  “Well, I have an idea,” said Nancy. “Suppose that the Indians were kind to the exhausted survivors and helped the thieving crewmen bury the treasure, thinking it belonged to everyone. In return, the crewmen promised the Indians a share of it, but did not intend to keep the promise. When they sneaked back later to dig it up, the Indians, upon discovering they had been double-crossed, became furious at all the survivors and killed them.

  “The old map shows that the massacre took place near the village. I’ll bet that’s where we’ll find the pine tree landmark Ned thought he had located on the shore.”

  George stood up. “It’s a long chance, but let’s go!”

  “Now?” Bess asked.

  “Right now.”

  Once more the girls got their digging tools and set off for the site of the Indian village. They found no old pine trees, but after a short search they located a huge, old stump.

  “Let’s start here,” Nancy proposed.

  As Bess shoved a spade into the ground, she remarked, “Nancy Drew, you’d better be right this time, because this is the last digging I’m going to do!”

  Nancy and George laughed as they took positions and began to work. The ground was hard from lack of rain and the job was not easy. The girls kept on, however.

  They had almost completed a deep circle around the stump, when suddenly George exclaimed that her spade had hit something. The other two girls began to help her dig away the earth. In ten minutes two iron chests were uncovered, one on top of the other. After crusted dirt had been brushed off, the words Lucy Belle could be seen on the lid of the top chest.

  “We’ve found it!” George exclaimed.

  The chest was locked and it took a lot of prying with a spade to lift the lid. The girls’ eyes bulged at the contents—a huge heap of gold coins!

  “There must be millions of them!” Bess cried out.

&nb
sp; “What a haul!” said George.

  “But not for us,” Nancy reminded them. “I suppose this belongs to the town of Emerson.”

  At her suggestion, the three friends combined their strength to lift the heavy chest out of the hole. Then Nancy brushed the earth off the one below it. The name Rorick stood out in bold lettering cut into the metal. Eagerly the girls hauled the second chest to the surface. In it they found a small leather trunk with a curved top. On this the name Abigail Rorick had been painted.

  “The gifts!” Bess said in a hushed voice.

  “Uncle John has the key to it!” Nancy exclaimed.

  George said practically, “How are we ever going to get these things to the Rorick house? They’re too heavy to carry.”

  For a few minutes no one could answer her question. Nancy glanced around at the trees. “Maybe we could make a carry-all of poles like the Indians used to do.”

  At her direction, the three digging tools were laid a few feet apart. Next, the girls gathered blown-down saplings, which they debranched and placed side by side across the metal part of the spades.

  “Won’t we have to tie the chests onto the poles?” Bess asked.

  Nancy said she did not think so if the girls held the handles of the spades close to the ground as they dragged them along.

  It was hard work, but slowly the trio pulled their precious cargo through the woods and up to the Rorick back lawn. Just as they arrived at the rose garden, Mrs. Holman glanced from the kitchen window. A minute later she and Uncle John hurried out, astonished.

  “What on earth—?” the housekeeper began.

  For answer, Nancy slipped open the chest of coins. “And you have the key to the little trunk, Uncle John.”

  “I can’t believe my eyes!” he cried out. “Where? How?”

  The utter bewilderment on the faces of the two older people almost amused Nancy. “We’ll carry these inside while you get the key, Uncle John.”

  He went for it and inserted the dainty key into the corroded lock, and after much difficulty, finally turned it. As the girls pushed back the lid, everyone gasped in admiration.