The Secret of the Wooden Lady Read online

  Ned picked it up. “A piece of checkered wool,” he said excitedly, dropping it to Nancy. “Just like Flip Fay was wearing!”

  “You’re right, Ned, and he’s been through this porthole recently. The cloth is so clean, it couldn’t have been here very long.”

  “So this is how the mysterious visitors have been getting on the ship,” Ned mused.

  “That’s pretty good proof that Flip Fay and Grizzle Face are working together,” Nancy replied.

  “We’ll make sure they don’t come through here again,” Ned said grimly, starting to fasten the bolts around the rim of the porthole.

  “Just a second, Ned,” said Nancy. “Will you please look out at that side of the ship under the porthole.”

  Ned said there were spikes, but that they were hardly noticeable, being painted black like the hull of the Bonny Scot. He closed and securely bolted the heavy iron porthole.

  He climbed down, and together Nancy and Ned examined every other porthole on the clipper. All were locked.

  As they made their way to the captain’s cabin, Nancy said she was convinced now that Captain Easterly was being detained somewhere while Grizzle Face and Flip Fay continued their search of the ship for some article of great value. It looked as if a third man, Fred Lane, might be mixed up in the affair.

  “Ned, we must find Captain Easterly,” Nancy said earnestly. “Something has happened to him—he needs our help!”

  “How are we going to find him?” Ned asked. “You’ve already inquired along the docks, with no luck.”

  “I haven’t given up,” Nancy said stoutly. “Somebody along the waterfront has certainly seen old Grizzle Face and must know where he lives. Are you game for a bit of sleuthing?”

  “Lead the way,” Ned ordered, smiling. Nancy said the only likely places where she and the girls had not inquired were the recreation centers for sailors.

  “There’s one in particular I’d like you to go into, if you don’t mind, Ned,” she added.

  The youth was quite willing and she led him to an amusement casino. A sign said, TATTOOING DONE CHEAP. Nancy waited outside for several minutes. When Ned came out she could see by his face that he had discovered something.

  “The tattoo artist knows your Grizzle Face,” he reported. “His name is Red Quint, and here’s the address of his boardinghouse.”

  Nancy was delighted. “Now we’re really getting somewhere!” she said enthusiastically.

  They found a cab and gave the driver the address.

  “You sure you want to go there?” the man asked, turning around to look at them. “It’s a tough neighborhood.”

  Nancy assured him that they wanted to go there, nevertheless. When she saw the house, she understood why the driver had shown some reluctance. It was dingy gray brick with rickety steps leading up to a porch which seemed about to collapse. The shades at the windows were tattered.

  “Not exactly homey,” Ned remarked, pressing the rusted bell.

  They stood there several minutes. There was no sound of approaching footsteps. Then suddenly a window above their heads was flung open.

  “What do you want?” a hostile female voice demanded.

  Nancy looked up, and met a pair of bleary eyes in a mottled face. “We’re looking for Mr. Red Quint,” she said politely.

  “Aw, go away.” The woman reached up to bang down the window.

  “Wait!” Ned pleaded. “We must find Mr. Quint. It’s very important.”

  “He ain’t here. He ain’t been here for two days.” She got the window halfway down.

  “May we talk to you a minute longer?” Nancy asked. “Please.”

  The woman looked doubtful. Finally she stuck out her lower lip and sighed. “Stay there.”

  She closed the window and presently they could hear her loose slippers flapping down the stairs. She undid a chain on the door and let the callers into a dark hall.

  The daylight from outside shone into the woman’s eyes and she squinted, trying to get a good look at Nancy and Ned. That moment gave them time to take in the surroundings: the dirty bare floor, the plaster falling from a jagged crack in the wall above a pay telephone. The whole place gave the impression of slovenly housekeeping.

  Presently the woman, satisfied that the couple were not bill collectors, rasped out, “Well, what is it you want?”

  “Do you know where Red Quint has gone?” Nancy asked.

  “How would I know?” the woman grunted. She looked suspiciously at Ned’s face bandage.

  “Have any friends of Red Quint come here lately?” Nancy went on.

  The woman’s frowzy gray eyebrows wiggled. “Yeah. Friend of his come here.”

  “What was his name?”

  “I dunno. Seems to me Quint called him Ted or Fred.”

  Could he have been Fred Lane? Nancy wondered excitedly.

  “Is he here?” she asked quickly.

  “Naw, he just come and rented a room for his uncle.”

  “His uncle?” Nancy repeated. “Is he an old man?”

  “Middlin’. He’s sick. Ain’t been out of bed since he come.”

  Nancy and Ned exchanged excited glances. “Has he had a doctor?” Nancy inquired, watching the woman carefully.

  “Naw. He just don’t feel good. Sleeps a lot. They told me to keep an eye on him.”

  “I must see him,” Nancy said, making for the stairs.

  “Hey, you can’t go up there!” the woman yelled.

  But Nancy and Ned were already running up the steps.

  CHAPTER VIII

  Fire!

  NANCY reached the second-floor hallway and knocked on the first door. An angry grunt from inside told her this was not the room.

  “Try the front, Ned,” she urged. “I’ll look in the middle room.”

  “Nobody in here,” Ned reported. “Find anything?”

  “No. Let’s go up to the next floor.”

  Nancy bounded up the steps. The woman who had let them in was slowly puffing her way up the first flight of stairs and shouting angrily. Nancy rapped on a door and listened impatiently for sounds within. She heard a groan.

  “Ned,” she called, “come here!”

  Nancy knocked again. There was a murmur inside, and the creak of an old bed.

  “There’s somebody in there, all right,” Ned whispered. He tried the door. It was locked.

  “Get away from that room!” screamed the woman, who was halfway up the second Bight of stairs. “He’s sick, I told you!”

  “Can you force the lock?” Nancy asked Ned.

  “I’ll give it a try.” Ned backed away, then came at the door with his shoulder. The lock was old and worn. With one more powerful shove he forced it, and they entered the room.

  On an old iron bed lay Captain Easterly. His blue eyes were clouded and dull.

  “Captain!” Nancy cried, kneeling beside the bed. “You’re ill! How long have you been here?”

  He tried to answer her but succeeded only in making an unintelligible murmur.

  “We’d better get him out of here right away,” Nancy said, turning to Ned. “You stay with him while I go downstairs and call the police.”

  “What do you think you’re doing, young lady?” demanded the woman, who had finally reached the top of the stairs and stood panting in the doorway. “You’d better mind your own business if you know what’s healthy for you!”

  Nancy said nothing as she hurried down the stairs. She got Lieutenant Hennessy and told him where she was.

  “A radio car will be there in three minutes, Miss Drew,” he said. “Be careful. You’re not among friends.”

  The police arrived in record time, secured what information they could from the boardinghouse keeper, and transferred Captain Easterly to a hospital. He seemed to improve rapidly, now that he knew he was safe.

  He told Nancy, Ned, and the police that while sitting quietly in a waterfront restaurant, sipping a cup of coffee, he had felt very ill. A stranger had offered to help him. They got into
a taxi and that was the last thing the captain remembered until Nancy’s arrival.

  He had been too dizzy to notice what the man looked like. The doctor told them that Easterly’s coffee must have been drugged when the captain was not looking. The police set a watch on the boardinghouse to catch the man who had pretended to be the captain’s nephew.

  It was long past the time Nancy and Ned had agreed to meet the others at the hotel, so after bidding the captain good night, they hurried away. Bess, George, and the boys were already halfway through dinner.

  “We couldn’t wait any longer,” Bess said. “What happened to you two?”

  “Plenty.” Ned grinned, pulling out a chair for Nancy. “We found Captain Easterly and took him to a hospital.”

  “What!” George looked amazed, but her eyes fairly popped when they told her where they had found him, and that he had been drugged. “I might have known we’d miss something exciting,” she sighed.

  Dave turned to Nancy. “If somebody went to all that trouble to get the captain out of the way,” he said, “there must be something mighty valuable on the ship.”

  She nodded. “I wish there were some way to get the clipper out of Boston,” she said thoughtfully. “If we could only move it!”

  Burt, who was an excellent sailor, reminded her that it was no small trick to sail a clipper ship. “You need some pretty sharp hands aboard.”

  George put down her fork. “There are six of us. Why couldn’t we sail the Bonny Scot, with directions from Captain Easterly? We’ve all practically grown up on sailboats.”

  “A little pleasure boat is a picnic to sail,” Burt spoke up, “compared to a craft like this one. I’ll bet, George, you don’t even know the names of the masts on the Bonny Scot.”

  “Yes, I do. Fore, main, and mizzen. And besides, you have the foresail, the staysail, the jibs, the skysails, the—”

  “Very salty.” Burt grinned. “I apologize.” Nancy said no more about moving the Bonny Scot, but she resolved to talk to Captain Easterly about it first thing in the morning. She awoke very early, slipped into her clothes, and left the room without rousing Bess and George. Nancy had a quick breakfast in the hotel coffee shop, and went to the hospital.

  Captain Easterly was himself again—his blue eyes had regained their accustomed glint, and his voice as he greeted her was deep and hearty.

  “Get me out of here, Nancy,” he begged. “Nothing wrong with me.”

  Nancy smiled. “We’ll see what your doctor says.” She sat down and faced him earnestly. “Captain, do you think we could move your ship out of reach of these criminals?” She told him about the boys and their knowledge of sailing gained on the river and the lakes at home.

  Captain Easterly looked skeptical. “Pretty big undertaking, Nancy,” he said. “But I see your point about getting the clipper out of Boston Harbor. If we could move her at once, before anyone had time to spread the word she was going ...”

  Nancy could see the idea growing in his mind. “I’ll send the boys here to talk to you,” she offered. “You could give them directions about preparing for the trip. The girls and I could buy the supplies.”

  The captain’s eyes twinkled. “You’re a good persuader. Nancy. If we pulled out about dusk, with no fuss and confusion, I’ll wager those sneaking rats would be mighty surprised.”

  The skipper said he would have to notify the Coast Guard, and get a tug to tow them out into the open water. When Nancy left him, he was calling for his clothes and a telephone.

  Nancy returned at once to the hotel and found Ned, Burt, and Dave having breakfast with the girls. She told them that Captain Easterly was willing to sail the clipper to a secluded Cape Cod port. Dave said they would have to work like beavers to make the ship ready.

  The three girls set out to purchase food and other supplies for the trip.

  When they returned to the hotel, Mr. Drew was waiting for them. After greeting the group, he said to Nancy:

  “Captain Easterly is going to be disappointed in my title search. I had no luck in New Bedford. Then I began to suspect that the original name of the clipper was not Bonny Scot—but whatever else it might have been, no one I’ve talked to seems to know. And no measurements matched those of the Bonny Scot.”

  “You’re not giving up, Dad!” Nancy exclaimed.

  “You know me better than that.” He smiled. “I’m flying down to New York, where, I’ve been told, there are a great many old records. But what have you been up to, Nancy?”

  She told him what had happened to Captain Easterly, and about their plans to move the Bonny Scot. She promised to let her father know when they arrived at their destination. Mr. Drew said he would meet them in a few days, and hurried away to catch his plane.

  Nancy telephoned Lieutenant Hennessy to ask if he had had any success in tracing Flip Fay, Grizzle Face Quint, or the man who had drugged Captain Easterly.

  “No luck so far,” the officer reported. “They’ve steered clear of that boardinghouse.”

  The girls packed, and sent their bags separately to the ship, because Nancy thought a lot of lug gage arriving at the clipper at the same time might arouse suspicion.

  When they reached the dock, the girls found Captain Easterly completely recovered and the boys hard at work. The captain gave Nancy and George the job of sewing up a rip in the main skysail. Bess, who planned to do the cooking, set off to fix up the galley.

  To Captain Easterly’s delight a heavy fog rolled in at five o’clock. When the tug came alongside, the Bonny Scot slipped quietly away from her berth under cover of the mist.

  “Wonderful luck!” the captain said to Nancy, who was beside him at the wheel.

  A short while later, when they were under full sail, the mist began to lift. Suddenly Nancy thought she saw smoke curling out of a hatch. Not wanting to alarm the captain, she hurried down the companionway, along the passage, and looked into the hold.

  The Bonny Scot was on fire!

  CHAPTER IX

  Stowaways

  NANCY dashed back to Captain Easterly and told him about the fire. Grimly he signaled for the fireboat, then dropped anchor.

  Nancy raced off to give the alarm to the boys. They gathered fire extinguishers and hurried below.

  Ned was first into the hold. “If we can keep the fire from spreading, we’ll be all right!” he shouted. “Dave, catch it over there near those oil drums!”

  Nancy dashed back to the deck to see if a fireboat was coming. Hearing its whistle, she started back to the hold. Nancy got as far as the lowest step of the main companionway when she saw the dark figure of a man disappear around a corner.

  “Ned!” Nancy screamed. He did not hear her in the excitement of fighting the fire.

  Her heart pounding, she ran after the mysterious, retreating figure. The man ran up a companionway, Nancy not far behind him. When she reached the deck, he had disappeared. As she looked around, Nancy heard a splash.

  He had jumped overboard!

  She sped across the deck and leaned over the rail. A man was swimming away from the ship’s side with long, swift strokes. In the fog Nancy could not see him well enough to identify him.

  Reluctantly she had to let the man escape to shore. Unhooking a fire extinguisher on the deck. house wall, she hurried to the hold. Red-eyed, with wet handkerchiefs tied over their noses, the three boys and George were playing streams of chemical on the smoldering timbers.

  Suddenly they heard the churning of water, then shouting voices and heavy-booted footsteps. In a few moments Captain Easterly appeared, followed by a crew of rubber-coated firemen. With their added equipment, the stubborn blaze was soon extinguished.

  “Never fought a fire aboard an old clipper before,” one of the men told Captain Easterly. “This will be something to tell my grandchildren.”

  “Your helpers had things pretty well under control when we got here,” the fire captain told the ship’s master.

  “They’re a good crew,” Easterly admitted.
/>   He and the fireman searched the entire clipper for other signs of fire but found none.

  “No serious damage,” the fire captain told Easterly. “It’ll be safe for you to proceed on your voyage. By the way, how’d the fire start?”

  As Captain Easterly shrugged, Nancy spoke up and told about the man who had jumped overboard.

  She was very puzzled about him. If he had set the fire on purpose, then he could not be one of the gang looking for a hidden treasure on board. Was he a new enemy?

  But if the man had been hiding aboard the Bonny Scot when it set sail, in order to continue his search, it was possible he had been smoking and caused the fire accidentally.

  “A stowaway, eh?” the fire captain said. “Well, he’s gone now. I guess there’s nothing more for us to do.”

  As the firemen were leaving, one of them looked at Nancy and her friends with a twinkle in his eye. “Pretty young crew here, Captain Easterly. But the way they tackled that fire, I’m sure they’ll make good seamen.”

  The men climbed over the side and the fireboat steamed off. The boys pulled up the anchor and set sail.

  “Where’s Bess?” Nancy asked suddenly. “I haven’t seen her since we came aboard.”

  “I haven’t either,” said George, beginning to worry about her cousin.

  The last they remembered about Bess was that she was headed for the galley. The two girls hurried there.

  Bess was not in sight, but her coat was lying over a low bench. On a hunch Nancy opened the large closet where provisions were kept. Bess lay in a faint on the floor!

  Fresh air soon brought her back to consciousness. Groggily Bess explained she had been inside the closet, putting away canned goods, when the door had swung shut.

  “I couldn’t open it,” she said. “It was locked. Then I fainted.” Suddenly Bess noticed there was a key in the door. “Why, someone shut me in there!” she cried out.

  “It wasn’t locked now,” Nancy said. “That’s odd.”

  She and George learned that Bess knew nothing about the fire. When it dawned on her that the ship might have been abandoned and she trapped in the fire, Bess nearly fainted again.