The Clue of the Leaning Chimney Read online

  Nancy felt a twinge of excitement. The mystery was unraveling fast now! And this was the first real evidence that the swindler’s brother was working with him!

  The group had stopped, safe for the moment. Then terror struck their hearts. Outside the wall where the four were huddled the horrible mastiff began to bay.

  Had an alarm been given?

  CHAPTER XVIII

  Meeting the Enemy

  ESCAPE was now impossible.

  “Our only chance is to hide until the dog is taken away,” Nancy said to Mr. Soong. “Ask your friends if there’s a place where we can wait without too much risk of being detected.”

  Eng Moy led them to a small room at the extreme rear corner of the building. He pointed to a battered old brick wall.

  Walking to the end of it, Eng Moy pulled open a rusty iron door. As it creaked back on rusty hinges, he stepped into a dank, dark cavern and lighted a candle. Then, turning, he motioned to the others to follow.

  Nancy exclaimed in surprise. They were standing in a large, dome-shaped area about eight feet high at the center. The circular brick wall was dilapidated and battered, and the rough stone flooring cracked. Nancy noticed that the roof of the oven funneled into the leaning chimney.

  “This must have been the smelter of the old iron mine!” she told Mr. Soong excitedly.

  The elderly gentleman spoke a few words to Eng Moy.

  “You are right, my dear,” he reported. “When Eng Moy came to the enclosure, this old smelter was used as a kiln to fire pottery. But it seemed as if the chimney might topple over, so a modem kiln was constructed across the garden.”

  Lei went off to stand watch at the far door, to give notice the instant anyone might come along the corridor. Nancy, Eng Moy, and Mr. Soong sat down on the floor to await a favorable time to escape. As they marked time, the pottery maker haltingly told his friend all that had happened to him and his daughter since they had arrived in San Francisco five years before.

  Eng Moy said that the man known to him as David Carr had been a business acquaintance in China. He had tricked the Engs into coming to America by making the father promises of an important position in one of the country’s modern pottery plants. As the final stop in their tour of United States factories, Carr had lured them to the enclosure in the woods, and there made them prisoners.

  The Engs had lived in captivity four and a half years. During that time they had been forced to make fake Chinese porcelains, using as their models genuine, rare old Oriental pieces that Carr had stolen.

  “But didn’t the Engs ever try to escape?” Nancy asked.

  Mr. Soong translated her question, then turned back to the girl.

  “Yes, many times,” he told Nancy. “Twice they even reached the woods outside the board fence before their absence was discovered. But the dog soon found them, and their poor bodies still bear the marks of the whip Carr used to punish them.”

  Nancy’s ire was aroused anew. Poor Lei and her father had been the victims of extreme cruelty.

  “Then it was Lei I heard scream for help?” Nancy asked. “The cry that sounded like bong?”

  “Yes,” Mr. Soong answered. “The two Phang characters you saw attached to the chimney also were appeals for help. Eng Moy put them there, hoping to attract someone’s attention. He shaped the characters out of old scraps of iron he found.”

  “That, of course, is why Eng took down the old ornament,” Nancy observed. “But who removed the new one?”

  “My friend was compelled to remove it the day he put it up,” Mr. Soong said. “One of the Lavender Sisters saw it and punished him.”

  Nancy’s conscience pricked her. She had told the woman about it and no doubt caused this punishment! Quickly Nancy had Mr. Soong explain this and offered her regrets.

  “Eng Moy says he is so glad you saw it, the offense does not matter,” Mr. Soong translated. “The clue of the leaning chimney is the means of your finding him and Lei.”

  Nancy was told that Eng Moy’s signature, cunningly worked into the designs of various pieces of pottery, had also been intended by him as an appeal for aid.

  Carr had made sure his prisoners were given no opportunity to learn English. Knowing that government authorities would be trying to locate him for illegally remaining in the United States, Eng Moy hoped one of the signatures would come to the attention of Federal officers and lead them to the enclosure.

  “Are the other people,” Nancy said suddenly, “those men and women we saw working in the pit and in the shop, prisoners too?”

  Mr. Soong put the question to Eng Moy.

  “The men are foreigners,” Mr. Soong translated the answer. “The women are their wives. Carr and his brother smuggled them into the United States by plane. He promised them wonderful things, then he made them prisoners. Finally he threatened if they did not dig the clay and operate the machines, he would expose them and have them put in jail for life!”

  At that moment they heard the iron door squeak open. Lei slipped into the candlelit smelter. She spoke breathlessly to her father and from the sudden fear that flitted across his face Nancy knew something had gone wrong.

  “The Engs’ absence has been discovered!” Mr. Soong told her with alarm. “Carr and the woman are out in the corridor!”

  Motioning to the others to wait, Nancy stole from the old smelter into the shadowy room outside and listened.

  “You fool!” cried a man’s voice. “If you’d paid more attention to the Engs, they couldn’t have disappeared!”

  “They can’t have gone far!” the Lavender Sister replied.

  “Get the dog,” Carr said shortly. “She and that father of hers are probably in the smelter room. My mastiff will attend to them!”

  Nancy turned and ran softly back to the smelter. “They’re coming!” she whispered.

  Eng Moy blew out the candle, and the four waited with mounting suspense in the dark. Then, after an interval that seemed to be years, a voice spoke sharply in Chinese outside the iron door.

  “It is Carr!” Mr. Soong whispered fearfully to Nancy. “He demands that the Engs come out! What shall we do?” he asked in panic.

  Before she could reply that it would be best for them to slip out without betraying her and Mr. Soong’s presence, the door was pulled open.

  Carr stepped into the doorway and shone a flashlight about. When he saw Nancy and Mr. Soong, his thin lips spread in a slow, mocking smile.

  “So! I have caught you at last!” he said sarcastically.

  The Lavender Sister, who arrived with the mastiff, gave a dry, harsh chuckle when she saw Nancy.

  “Take the Engs away and make sure they do not try to escape again,” her husband ordered.

  The woman beckoned sharply. With a despairing glance at Nancy and Mr. Soong, the Engs followed Carr’s wife through the doorway.

  Nancy watched them go with a heavy heart. How happy they had been when freedom seemed so near, she reflected. And how utterly defeated they now appeared.

  Carr studied Nancy and her companion silently, then spoke again in a cold, sharp voice. “I intend to do away with you two before any of your friends can get here to help you!”

  CHAPTER XIX

  Escape

  AT David Carr’s harsh words, Mr. Soong moaned.

  “Nobody,” Carr shouted angrily, “is going to interfere with me and get away with it! You, Nancy Drew, have interfered with my plans since the first time you saw me on Three Bridges Road.”

  “And I’ll keep on interfering—until you and your brother are locked behind bars!” Nancy retorted.

  Carr’s face tightened. “Ah! So you know about my brother?”

  “I do!” Nancy declared, hoping it would induce the swindler to reveal what part his brother had played in Carr’s nefarious schemes.

  Instead, Carr said, “You are very clever. Since you probably know it, I’ll admit he stole the vase from the Townsends and the jade elephant from your home.”

  Nancy nodded. “Why did he
bother to steal the vase when he knew it was a fake?”

  “My wife is to blame for that!” he replied harshly. “Because of her stupidity, Eng Moy was able to paint his name on several porcelains I sold. My brother and I stole back as many as we could. We were afraid the signature would be traced by Federal dicks.”

  “You managed to remove Eng’s name and sold the Townsend vase again. But who posed as Mr. Soong to collect the money orders in Masonville?” she asked quickly, hoping to catch Carr off guard. “Your brother?”

  The man was much too cagey, however, to refer to his confederate by name. He addressed his reply tauntingly to the elderly Chinese gentleman, who stood listening close by.

  “That was clever, eh, Soong? It’s just too bad for Miss Drew his scheme didn’t completely succeed. If she’d believed you guilty of selling fake potteries, she might have stopped meddling in my affairs and wouldn’t be here now to face the consequences!”

  “I’m glad I was able to help Mr. Soong,” Nancy declared hotly.

  Carr gave a mirthless, sardonic laugh, then turned to go. “I advise you not to try to escape,” he warned. “The mastiff has a nasty temper and very sharp fangs! I’ll be back in a few minutes and then we’ll see how brave you are!”

  He swung the iron door shut. Nancy found the candle and lighted it. She turned to Mr. Soong who had sat down on the floor, too weak to stand any longer.

  “It’s my fault you’re in this dangerous situation,” he murmured to Nancy. “I shouldn’t have asked you to come with me.”

  Nancy smiled wanly. “Please do not feel bad. It was my own wish to untangle this mystery that brought us here.”

  She crossed to the door to listen, hoping the dog might be gone. But the mastiff outside, sensing her presence near the iron barrier, uttered a low, menacing growl.

  Nancy took the candle and started to examine the battered brick walls. There had to be some way of escape!

  Suddenly the iron door creaked slowly open. Standing in the doorway was Mr. Soong’s short, inscrutable-looking servant Ching! He regarded them impassively, then gave them a toothy smile.

  “Ching!” Mr. Soong arose and advanced toward him eagerly. He spoke excitedly to the servant in Chinese. But Ching suddenly gave a boisterous laugh and roughly pushed his gentle employer away.

  “Fool!” he cried in English. “Are you so stupid you cannot guess who I really am?”

  “Carr’s brother!” Nancy exclaimed.

  Ching made her a mock bow. “Exactly!”

  “Now I understand several things,” Nancy said. “You were the one who posed as Mr. Soong and cashed the money orders!”

  “Yes, Miss Drew,” Ching replied mockingly. “But my impersonation need not concern you any longer. You made a fatal mistake in coming here. Now you must pay for your stupidity.” He chuckled contemptuously. “There is an old American saying, ‘Curiosity killed the cat.’ You see the parallel, Miss Drew, I’m sure.”

  “There’s no use threatening us. You know my father will come and bring the police!” Nancy burst out.

  “Wouldn’t you like us to believe that, Miss Drew?” Ching taunted. “But unfortunately for you, I know that your father is in Washington. You see, I called his office, intending to tell him that you would be—er—slightly late for dinner.”

  Nancy realized how serious her plight was, but there was a ray of hope. When she did not return to dinner, Mrs. Gruen certainly would telephone the Miltons, and when the housekeeper learned that Nancy and Mr. Soong had gone to the enclosure, she would call the police.

  Sparring for time, she continued to ask questions which Ching freely answered.

  He said it had been prearranged between David and himself that he would get a job at Mr. Soong’s. In this way he could watch the man’s mail and waylay any messages about the Engs. At all times he kept track of his employer’s movements.

  “But once you slipped,” Nancy spoke up. “A letter about the Engs did reach Mr. Soong.”

  “Unfortunately, yes. Then you came into the case, Miss Drew. But you shall never bother my brother or me again. As soon as we have removed our valuable property,” Ching said defiantly, “we will come back and dynamite the leaning chimney. When it collapses, it will crush the roof of the smelter.” He paused significantly. “Your fate will not be pleasant. But let us hope the end will be swift!”

  For several seconds after Ching had departed, Nancy and Mr. Soong were too dazed even to talk. It occurred to Nancy that Mrs. Gruen would not be concerned about her absence until the dinner hour. The housekeeper would act promptly then, but it might be too late. Desperately Nancy began to try to figure some way out of their dreadful plight.

  “There isn’t a chance of escaping through the door with the mastiff on guard,” she pointed out.

  Holding the candle above her head, Nancy stared at the domelike roof of the old smelter. The opening which funneled into the leaning chimney was about two feet in diameter. Through the opening she could just see a patch of sunlit sky. A thought clicked and she turned excitedly to Mr. Soong.

  “Didn’t Eng Moy get up the inside of the chimney to attach the iron symbol?” she asked.

  “Yes. He said he used a ladder and went up from here,” the elderly gentleman replied.

  There was no ladder in the smelter. Nancy again peered up the chimney. Ladder or no ladder, she promptly decided to try the climb.

  “Please help me get up,” she said.

  Mr. Soong’s eyes widened. “You don’t intend to climb the chimney?” he asked in alarm.

  “I must!” Nancy told him. “It’s our only chance of escape.”

  “But you might slip and fall!”

  “Nothing would be worse than the fate that awaits us here,” Nancy pointed out. “But if I can make the climb, I may be able to bring help to you and your friends before it’s too late.”

  Recognizing that there was no choice, the Chinese, exerting his last ounce of strength, permitted Nancy to stand on his back so she could reach into the opening. As Nancy pulled herself up inside, Mr. Soong looked at her anxiously.

  “Be careful,” he begged. “If anything should happen to you—”

  “Please don’t worry,” Nancy reassured him. “And don’t give up hope. If everything goes well, I’ll be back with the police.”

  “Good fortune go with you!” said Mr. Soong, sinking to the floor.

  Nancy began her climb. Bracing her back against one side of the chimney and her legs against the other, she started to inch up the stack.

  Her climb was made easier by the angle at which the chimney slanted. But the cement between the bricks was chipped and broken. With every movement she made, Nancy was in danger of dislodging a loose brick and plunging down the dank shaft to the floor of the smelter!

  With utmost care, she crept upward. Finally, when it seemed as if her tense, tired muscles could carry her no farther, she reached the top. Then she climbed carefully down the outside of the leaning chimney to the sloping roof of the old brick building.

  She was about to make the drop from the edge of the roof to the garden when she heard a noise.

  “Someone’s coming!” she thought with alarm.

  Swiftly Nancy flattened herself against the sloping roof, and a moment later saw Carr’s wife, now in street clothes, open the door in the stone wall and walk in her direction.

  As long as the woman did not look up, Nancy knew she was safe from view. But the angle at which the roof sloped made her position precarious. As Carr’s wife approached, Nancy’s grip suddenly weakened and she started to slide down.

  “I can’t fail now!” she told herself desperately. “I just can’t!”

  CHAPTER XX

  A Fitting Reward

  FRANTICALLY Nancy pressed her hands harder against the roof, and just when it seemed she must tumble to the ground, her momentum stopped.

  Carr’s wife paused to listen, but evidently did not detect the sound as coming from the roof. Finally she returned to the door in t
he stone wall and went through.

  Nancy breathed with relief. Landing lightly on the spongy turf below the roof, she ran to where she had hidden the rope ladder. It was still there. Hooking the ladder to the top of the wooden fence, Nancy climbed over quickly.

  She tossed the ladder behind a tree and ran headlong. Taking a circuitous route to avoid detection, she finally came to the parked car. She drove as swiftly as possible along the gravel lane; then sped toward Three Bridges Road. Crossing the intersection not twenty feet in front of her was the familiar car of a state trooper!

  Nancy blew a long blast on her horn and the police car stopped. She slipped out of the convertible and ran toward the trooper.

  “Thank goodness you’re here!” she told him. “I need help—right away!”

  “What’s wrong, miss?”

  Nancy apprised him of the situation.

  “Looks as if we’ll need plenty of help,” the trooper said grimly.

  He radioed his district headquarters, and after a short wait they were joined by six state troopers in a patrol car. With Nancy leading the way, they sped toward the enclosure.

  The men went over the fence at various locations to make their roundup complete. Nancy and two of the officers went at once to the old brick building to free Mr. Soong.

  None of the criminals was in sight, but some of the workers were arrested. Since none of them could speak English, they could tell the police nothing about Carr and his brother.

  “You’ll have an ugly dog to tackle in a minute,” Nancy warned the troopers as they went on toward the old smelter.

  “We’ll take care of him.”

  To Nancy’s surprise the mastiff was gone. Nancy was puzzled. What of Mr. Soong? She darted to the door of the smelter and yanked it open. The place was empty.

  “He’s been taken away!” she cried despairingly.

  The troopers looked at her. Had they come too late?

  Nancy had a sudden inspiration. “I believe I know where everybody is,” she said.

  She led the men to the large corridor vault where Eng Moy had said the valuable potteries were locked up. As Nancy expected, the door would not open, but she could detect a faint whine from within. She told the men she suspected the criminals and their mastiff were inside.