The Secret of the Golden Pavilion Page 12

  Ned grimaced and tried it again. Thump! This time a tiny line of moonlight shone through.

  “You’ve done it!” Nancy exclaimed with relief.

  Ned made several more assaults on the stubborn piece of masonry, and finally the secret door gave way and swung outward.

  “We’d better get away from here as fast as possible,” Ned whispered.

  “Oh, no!” Nancy objected. “Since our captors didn’t return, they must think we’re still neatly tied up. This is our chance to do a little sleuthing. I believe we may even be able to find out where the cape is and perhaps learn some other secrets. In fact, O’Keefe may be in the house.”

  Reluctantly, Ned agreed to do some more detective work with Nancy. First of all, she hunted for her shoes and stockings. Finding them, she put them on quickly, then the couple started off.

  Keeping in the shadows as much as possible, they crept toward the house. Several rooms were lighted.

  “You keep guard,” Nancy suggested to Ned. “I’ll tiptoe up the back porch and look into the kitchen.”

  He nodded and she ascended the steps. As she peered inside the kitchen, Nancy gave a gasp of horror. Kiyabu and Emma, gagged and bound, were tied to chairs!

  Nancy came quickly down the steps and whispered to Ned what she had seen. “Let’s look in some of the other windows,” she urged.

  In the living room they saw signs of great activity. Seated in chairs were O’Keefe, the Ponds, Janet Lee, Roy Chatley, a reddish-blond man Nancy was sure must be Ralph Emler, a strange man, and three other women, one with a bandage on her arm.

  “Well, Milly,” Janet was saying to the woman with the bandage, “somebody ought to pin a medal on you.”

  “How about me?” the strange man spoke up. “I came along with her, didn’t I? She’s my wife. I deserve as much credit as she does.”

  More talk revealed to Nancy and Ned that Milly, the dancer, had been late in her appointment that evening. Instead of going to the Golden Pavilion to perform, she and her husband had driven directly to the house. That was how Nancy’s subterfuge had been discovered! it was then that Milly told the others about the secret door that she had found.

  “Oh, cut out this talk about medals,” O’Keefe ordered. “We got to lay our plans for tomorrow morning.”

  In the meantime, Milly’s husband had arisen and put on the feather cape. He began to parade around the room, speaking in nonsensical gibberish, as if imitating an ancient Hawaiian king.

  “Take that off!” Roy Chatley ordered. “If anybody’s going to wear it, O’Brien’s the one. He’s the king of us Double Scorps.”

  The man known as O‘Keefe and O’Malley now got up from his chair and took the cape. “Yes,” he said haughtily, “Mike O’Brien is head of this outfit and don’t anybody forget it!”

  Nancy’s pulse was racing. Many questions relating to the mystery were being answered. But one angle of it still puzzled her. How did Roy Chatley and his sister fit into the picture? If they were going to inherit two-thirds of the estate, why were the Double Scorps going to get part of it?

  “The only answer,” the young sleuth told herself, “is that Janet and Roy really are impostors. Maybe Dad and Professor Nils Anderson will prove this. But we can’t wait for them to get here. We must have this gang apprehended!”

  Nancy wondered where Mr. Jerral was. As if in answer to her thought, Mike O’Brien asked a man who had just entered the room:

  “Well, Dr. Scribner, how’s your patient?”

  The physician laughed scornfully. “Oh, I just gave him another dose of medicine. It’ll keep him on the sick list a while, then I’ll give him some morel”

  Nancy and Ned looked at each other in concern. So John Jerral had been deliberately made ill by the Double Scorps! The couple doubted that the man they called Dr. Scribner was a licensed physician at all. He, too, must be one of the gang!

  Silently Nancy and Ned moved away from the window, drawing off to a little distance. They began to whisper and make plans for the capture of the Double Scorps.

  “Let’s go to Kiyabu’s cottage and phone for the police,” Nancy urged.

  When Ned called headquarters, the astounded officer on duty said he would send a squad of men out at once. While waiting for them, Nancy called the Armstrongs and quickly related the night’s adventure.

  They in turn had some news for Nancy which delighted her. Mr. Drew, Mr. Sakamaki, and Professor Nils Anderson had just arrived at the Armstrong house. They would all drive out immediately.

  Nancy relayed the information to Ned. “Soon we’ll know all the answers regarding the mystery of Kaluakua,” she added.

  Suddenly a worried expression crossed Ned’s face. He quickly put a hand into his shirt pocket. As he pulled out a piece of paper, he looked relieved.

  “I was afraid I had lost this,” Ned explained. “I found it with the feather cape. I couldn’t read very well in the moonlight, but I think it’s important and must have something to do with the secret.”

  He opened it and together he and Nancy read the contents. It had been written by Grandfather Sakamaki and explained that the garment was a duplicate of a king’s feather cape which had been given to one of his wife’s ancestors as a special mark of favor. Since a king’s cape was always buried with him, this duplicate was very valuable and had been hidden by the family, so that neither thieves nor conquerors from foreign lands would take it.

  “My wife made me promise,” Nikkio Sakamaki had written, “that I would never part with the cape. It became increasingly difficult to find a hiding place for it. Finally I thought of the idea of putting it under the center of the golden plumiera which would form the roof of a pavilion I was building.”

  The letter went on to say that he had decided to make it difficult for his grandson to find the precious article, so he would always remember his Polynesian background, and the legends and symbols of ancient Hawaii. First, he had given the symbols of water and death to indicate that the Golden Pavilion near the water was the place to find the treasure. The symbol of death had indicated that the cape belonged to someone who had died.

  The flower bed in the shape of a plumiera blossom, with one extra-long petal pointing to the secret door under the pavilion, was another clue. If his grandson managed to locate it, he would find the next clue, which in turn would lead him to the Anderson brothers, who knew the secret, then to the angel birds.

  “But you, Nancy,” said Ned proudly, “solved the mystery, not Nikkio Sakamaki’s grandson.”

  Nancy laughed softly, then exclaimed, “Listen!”

  There were sounds of footsteps outside. For a few brief moments, the couple feared that some of the Double Scorps were coming. But a moment later Nancy was in her father’s arms, and Ned was shaking hands with Professor Nils Anderson, as Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong looked on, smiling broadly.

  “The police are already here,” Mr. Drew announced. “They were surrounding the house as we arrived, and I dare say that by this time they have captured the whole gang. Let’s go and hear the confessions.”

  On the way to the big house, the lawyer gave a quick explanation of his work in Los Angeles.

  “There were two Nikkio Sakamakis,” he said. “Both came from Japan. The one with the San Francisco wife and daughter, who in turn had two children, Janet and Roy, was not our Mr. Sakamaki. These children, I learned, are not living, although this is not recorded in San Francisco. However, the couple who call themselves Janet and Roy had found out about this family and procured credentials to pose as grandchildren of Mr. Sakamaki of Kaluakua. They are not brother and sister, by the way, but husband and wife.”

  “Pretty slick team,” Ned remarked.

  “It was a plot of the whole Double Scorp gang,” the lawyer said, and added that he might have had a difficult time proving his case, if it had not been for Professor Nils Anderson. The letters which he had taken from his safe-deposit box in Honolulu proved that Mr. Sakamaki of Kaluakua lived in Japan and was a single man at th
e time the im postors claimed he was in San Francisco and married.

  When the group entered the house, members of the Double Scorps, surrounded by police, were all protesting their innocence. The captives stared in stupefaction and disbelief at Nancy and Ned.

  “Yes, we escaped,” said Nancy icily.

  The sight of the couple and the fact that he had been outwitted by a girl unnerved Mike O’Brien completely. He readily confessed to his part in the scheme to get part or all of old Mr. Sakamaki’s fortune.

  He had shadowed the younger Mr. Sakamaki. Upon learning that he had engaged Mr. Drew, O’Brien had followed the lawyer and overheard the long luncheon conversation at which matters concerning the estate had been discussed.

  “When I heard that all but the third-floor windows of the Drew home had burglar alarms, I decided to get hold of a ladder I could carry easy and one nobody would notice. By accident I saw a window washer using just the kind I wanted, so I rented it.”

  The king of the Double Scorps confessed taking the unusual jade ring from Homer Milbank. While he would not divulge the name and address of a friend who bought rare or old jewelry, he admitted that it was through him that he disposed of stolen pieces. There was time to take only the jade ring. He was astounded to learn, however, that the symbols on it were Polynesian.

  “I’ll bet that jewelry-buyer pal of yours is the one who came here the other day trying to get things cheap,” Ned spoke up. “And Emler sold him the statuettes he stole from Grandpa Sakamaki.”

  O’Brien gave such a start that the others were sure Ned had hit upon the truth. He did not admit this, however. Instead he went on to say that after he learned Nancy had entered the case and was going to Honolulu, he had done everything to keep her from making the trip. He had stolen Togo, but the little dog had managed to get away.

  “I had you followed from the Los Angeles airport,” the Scorp said, “but the dumb guy I hired told me you shook him. And you did the same thing coming from the Honolulu airport.”

  Nancy asked O’Brien why he had bothered to follow the girls, but he would not answer. The young sleuth guessed that he probably intended to cause an accident to injure them and in this way keep her from reaching Kaluakua.

  Another point which came up when the police gave Nancy, Ned, and their companions a chance to question the prisoners was that Emler often whistled to attract Kiyabu and Emma to the beach. While they were away from either the house or cottage, another member of the Double Scorps would start a search.

  The gang had learned that there was some secret in connection with the estate and assumed it to be a treasure. Although they doubted that it would be at Kiyabu’s cottage, they had thought they might find a letter or a clue of some kind to guide them to it.

  “Did you find the secret entrance under the pavilion?” Nancy asked Milly, the dancer.

  “Yes, I did,” she answered. “Quite by chance, but I wasn’t going to tell the others about it. I crawled under there hunting for the treasure. I didn’t find anything, so I gave up searching.” She gave the king of the Double Scorps a scorching look. “You’ve sure been mean to me, holding out on my share of money that was due me. If I’d found any fortune, I was going to run off with it.”

  “Okay, okay,” interrupted one of the policemen. “Any more questions for the prisoners?” he asked.

  Nancy said that she had some. “Who sent me the black lei with the poisoned tacks in it?”

  O‘Brien confessed that this had been his idea, although he had given the job to Ralph Emler. It was O’Brien himself who had thrown the fire tongs, in a desperate maneuver to keep Nancy from interfering further in the case.

  All this time Kiyabu and Emma, who had been released, had been standing in a doorway, staring in amazement at the prisoners and listening to the story. Now the caretaker came forward to identify Milly’s husband as the man who had come to him before Nancy’s arrival to buy some of the valuable pieces at Kaluakua.

  “But, Mr. Policeman,” said Kiyabu, “I would not even show them. I had no right to sell them.” He looked disgustedly at the Scorp. “When I wouldn’t, he tried to bribe me.”

  Ned whispered to Nancy, “It’s not hard to believe that.”

  She nodded as Kiyabu went on angrily, “I want to know why you broke down flowers and bushes and ruined part of the lawn.”

  O’Brien answered for the group. “We thought this might be a way of getting rid of you. Your boss would think you were a pretty poor caretaker and discharge you.”

  Mr. Sakamaki from River Heights gave the leader of the Double Scorps a withering look. “O’Brien, you guessed wrong on every count. And that includes Kiyabu and Emma. They are the most loyal and faithful people who could ever work for anyone. You might have learned many lessons of honesty and good manners from them.”

  The officer in charge of the police squad said that if there were no further questions the prisoners would be taken to jail. At that moment another officer came down the front stairs. He was introduced as a police surgeon.

  “Mr. Jerral will suffer no permanent ill health from the drugs he was given by the gang,” the surgeon reported. “He’ll be up and around in a couple of days.”

  “Thank goodness for that,” Nancy said quietly.

  By this time the police had hustled the Double Scorps out of the house and herded them into several cars. Nancy and the others walked out to the porch to watch them drive off. As they were about to return inside, they heard voices coming from one side of the house. A moment later Bess, George, Burt, Dave, and Hannah Gruen hurried up the steps.

  “We heard everything!” Bess exclaimed, hug ging Nancy. “Oh, you wonderful, wonderful creature to solve this mystery!”

  “That goes for all of you,” Nancy declared. George, paying no attention, cried out, “Three cheers for Nancy Drew!”

  The young people gave three rousing cheers, then Nancy proposed three for Ned. “Wait until you hear all he did!” she said generously.

  Hannah was a little more sedate in her kiss and hug for Nancy, but it was just as sincere. “Now at last I can stop worrying,” she said. “That is, until the next mystery comes along.”

  Nancy herself knew this to be true. She would have adventures and Hannah would worry. Sooner than either of them expected, the young sleuth would be matching wits with the wiliest adversaries of her experience in The Clue in the Old Stagecoach.

  The newcomers shook hands with Mr. Drew and were introduced to Professor Nils Anderson and Mr. Sakamaki. Bess then explained why they had come back early from Hawaii. “I had a hunch there would be excitement at Kaluakua and that we should return to take part in it.”

  She explained that they had caught a late plane and then called the Armstrongs. Getting no answer there, they had come directly to the estate. When they found the police in charge, they had decided to listen to the proceedings rather than interrupt.

  Kiyabu had thrown the feather cape around Mr. Sakamaki who was loud in his praise of the Drews and their friends for recovering it and trapping the Double Scorps. “You went way beyond the line of duty—even risked your lives—to solve the secret of the Golden Pavilion.

  “And my thanks to all of you also”—he beamed at the group—“that Kaluakua can be given to Honolulu as an outdoor theater. Tomorrow we shall celebrate with a great luau,” the Hawaiian went on. “Perhaps we should arrange for some entertainment.”

  At once George spoke up. “Let’s have our own entertainment,” she suggested. “Ane Drew will dance the hula for us and Eluwene Nickerson will be crowned king and wear the feather cape!”

  Nancy and Ned laughed and agreed.

 

 

 
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