The Haunted Showboat (13 page)

Read The Haunted Showboat Online

Authors: Carolyn Keene

Tags: #Mardi Gras, #Women Detectives, #Detective and Mystery Stories, #Girls & Women, #Showboats, #Carnival, #Mystery & Detective, #Juvenile Fiction, #Adventure and Adventurers, #Detectives, #Mysteries & Detective Stories, #Fiction, #Haunted Places - Louisiana - New Orleans, #River Boats, #Women Sleuths, #Adventure Stories, #New Orleans (La.), #Drew; Nancy (Fictitious Character), #Haunted Places, #Mystery and Detective Stories

BOOK: The Haunted Showboat
8.14Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
Jack laughed. “And it’s his ghost we saw walking around? Let’s look for old Bonesy.”
But Bess insisted that the group leave at once. “We can come back another time. I’m worried about what the Havers will say.”
Charles smiled. “Don’t worry. Mother will take care of that.”
“I’m sure she will,” said Nancy. “And, George, if you feel all right, I’d like to stay here a little while and look around the boat myself. Let’s see if we can find out what the De la Vernes’ secret is.”
The young people spent another hour in an intensive search. Nancy even went down into the hold and flashed her light around. There were a few inches of water on the low side where the boat had listed. In the dry section they found no clue to anything hidden there. Nancy said she was ready to leave, so she and Charles joined the others.
“I inspected that old calliope very thoroughly,” Frank spoke up. “Couldn’t get a sound out of it. How do you all explain its being played?”
Nancy thought for a few moments, then replied, “I believe someone comes aboard with a record player and plays calliope music and hymns.”
“And the tom-tom, too?” George asked. “He’s got quite a record collection!”
The others laughed, then Jack asked Nancy if she thought the person who did these things had been hired by someone or was actually the saboteur.
“I don’t know,” the young detective replied. “But I’ve been wondering if there is some mechanism a distance from the showboat that triggers an alarm. That would account for all the sounds on the
River Princess
stopping just before the De la Vernes showed up.”
Charles suggested that the boys make a search in the waterways leading to the showboat. The girls waited on deck while they took the three canoes and scouted around. Twenty minutes later they returned and reported that nothing had been found.
“Then the men probably use the birdcalls or some other bayou sound as signals,” Nancy decided.
Jack looked at the girl intently. “If so, this means that there may be spies around all the time.”
“Probably it does,” Nancy agreed. “And it may also mean that there’s not much point in our being so secretive.”
Frank laughed. “Well, then, all we have to do is find the spies and the mystery will be solved!”
Nancy chuckled. “Right!” To herself she added, “And I’m going to enlist Uncle Rufus’s aid to do this.”
When the three couples reached Charles’s home, Mrs. Bartolome was greatly relieved to see them.
“I was mighty worried about you all,” she said. “But I didn’t want to upset Mrs. Haver, so I phoned and told her you girls were staying all night.”
Nancy and Charles related the entire story. Mrs. Bartolome was particularly interested in learning about Mrs. Farwell and her brother.
“I knew them fairly well years ago,” she said. “I thought that after Mr. Farwell died, his widow had moved away. I’m dreadfully sorry to learn that her mind is no longer completely sound.”
“Have you any idea what the family secret in connection with the showboat may be?” Nancy asked Charles’s mother.
Mrs. Bartolome shook her head. “Surely it can’t be anything disgraceful. The De la Vernes were very fine people. Henry is a graduate of Oxford in England.”
Charles’s mother went on to say that Henry had always been intensely interested in the university and its activities, although he had graduated many, many years ago.
Changing the subject, she said, “You all must be starving. We’ll have breakfast at once.”
Because of the early hour the servants were still asleep, so the group gathered in the kitchen and prepared orange juice, bacon and eggs, toast and cocoa themselves.
Mrs. Bartolome caught Bess stifling a yawn. “Wouldn’t you girls like to sleep for a while before you return to the Havers?” she asked solicitously.
They all confessed that they would. After Frank and Jack had said good-by, the three girls went to the guest rooms and slept soundly for four hours. Then they put on their dinner frocks and left for Sunnymead.
As Nancy parked her car there, Donna Mae rushed out to meet them. “My goodness!” she exclaimed. “You really made a visit! Tell me about everything!”
“To begin with,” Nancy said, “we had a perfectly delicious dinner and breakfast.”
“The Bartolomes’ gardens are absolutely heavenly,” Bess added. “I thoroughly enjoyed my walk in them.”
George grinned impishly. “Oh, don’t be so stingy with your information, girls. Donna Mae, two charming boys came to join us. Maybe you know them—Frank Morris and Jack Memory.”
“Oh, yes, I know them,” Donna Mae replied. “Did you spend the whole evening with them?”
“The whole evening,” Nancy replied.
“Well, for goodness sake, tell me about it!” Donna Mae begged. As they walked toward the house, Donna Mae suddenly noticed that George was limping. “Oh, dear! What happened to you?”
“Oh, just a little spill,” George answered noncommittally.
“Where?” Donna Mae asked pointedly.
“On a stairway,” George replied. “Clumsy of me, wasn’t it?”
Donna Mae was silent for a few seconds. She asked no more questions. Apparently she had decided that her friends were not going to tell any more about their evening at the Bartolomes’.
Suddenly Donna Mae smiled and said, “I have some great news for you girls. You won’t have to date Charles and his friends. I’ve phoned Ned Nickerson. He’s coming to the Mardi Gras and bringing Burt and Dave with him.”
“Hypers!” George exclaimed. “They’re really coming?”
“They sure are,” Donna Mae answered. “I told you they would,” she added smugly.
She insisted that the girls change their clothes at once, so that the whole group could go downtown to pick out costumes for Ned and his friends to wear to the ball.
“Everything must be perfect.” she said. “I don’t know your friends’ sizes. So you girls will have to pick out the costumes.”
Nancy was disappointed that she could not get in touch with Uncle Rufus immediately. “But,” she consoled herself, “on second thought, perhaps I can do a little detective work in New Orleans instead.”
Inside the house the girls found Alex starting to dismantle the living room. Pappy Cole was carrying out furniture and Mammy Matilda was taking down draperies.
Mrs. Haver seemed to be flustered and upset about the whole thing. Sighing, she said, “Oh dear, I do wish the showboat could be moved here and this room not disturbed.”
Nancy agreed. Suddenly an idea came to her. She saw Colonel Haver in the garden and went out to speak to him. She inquired whether every towboat captain in the area had been approached and asked if he could move the
River Princess.
“Well, I suppose so,” the Colonel replied. “Alex attended to that and I’m sure he would have exhausted every means.”
Nancy began to wonder whether Alex Upgrove
had
“exhausted every means.” She decided to make a few inquiries of her own while in the city. There would still be time for the
River Princess
to be moved before the Havers’ ball!
George begged off from the trip because her leg was sore and bruised.
Nancy and Bess changed into smart cotton knit suits. A short time later the girls drove off with Donna Mae in Nancy’s car. Within an hour they had selected three different clown suits for the boys from Emerson College.
“Before we start home,” Nancy said to Donna Mae, as they were leaving the costumer’s, “I’d like to drive down to the waterfront.”
Donna Mae agreed, so Nancy headed for the docks. As she drove past the many wharves, the young sleuth looked intently for any towboats that might be moored there. Presently she came to one and stopped.
“I want to run in here a minute,” she said. “Be right back. Wait in the car, will you?”
Fortunately, the towboat owner, a Captain Runcie, was on board. Nancy inquired if he had ever been asked to move the stranded
River Princess.
When he said no, she told him about the ball and the Havers’ plans.
“Captain Runcie, would you consider trying to tow the showboat out of the bayou?” Nancy asked.
“I’ll be glad to look her over and let you know.”
“Then could you come to the Haver home and talk to the Colonel?”
“I’ll be there early tomorrow morning,” Captain Runcie promised.
“Thank you very much,” said Nancy. “We’ll be looking for you.”
When she returned to the car, Nancy said nothing about her errand because she felt Donna Mae might be upset to learn that Alex had not explored every possibility in having the old boat moved. At once the girl complained about Nancy’s secrecy.
The young dectective merely laughed and said, “I’m full of secrets, all right. But I’ll let you in on one. My next stop will be the police station.”
“Oh!” Donna Mae cried out. “Why?”
“I still hope to track down my stolen car,” Nancy replied.
When they reached police headquarters, she went inside alone and introduced herself to the captain in charge. “Is there any news about my missing car or the man who stole it?” she asked.
“No, there isn’t, Miss Drew,” the captain replied. “But we do have a little news that may be a clue. My men made a thorough search of the room that fellow rented. In it they found a suitcase full of women’s clothes.”
“A suitcase?” Nancy exclaimed. “Maybe it’s my stolen bag!”
CHAPTER XVIII
The Simmering Caldron
 
 
THE POLICE captain looked at Nancy in surprise. “Your suitcase?”
Nancy explained that a suitcase of hers had been in the luggage compartment of her stolen car. “Were there any initials on the bag you found?” she asked.
“There had been,” the officer replied. “They’d been scratched off.”
Nancy asked to see the bag. Using his desk phone, the captain requested a sergeant to bring the suitcase to his office.
Upon seeing it, Nancy cried out, “It is mine! Oh, I hope my mother’s fan and shawl are still inside!”
Quickly she lifted the lid. Her clothes were intact. Rummaging among them she found that the heirlooms were there.
“Oh, I’m so relieved!” she said happily. “I’d rather lose my car than this shawl and fan!”
The captain smiled understandingly. “I’m glad that we could recover them for you,” he said. “But actually it was you, Miss Drew, who discovered the house where the suitcase was hid. den.”
At that moment the officer’s phone rang and he picked up the receiver. After listening a few moments, he put down the instrument and turned to Nancy.
“Well, this seems to be your day for recovering things. Your stolen car has been found in an out-of-town secondhand lot.”
“Oh, how wonderfull” Nancy exclaimed.
The captain went on to say that the man who had brought the car in had given the name Ralph Winter and said he came from New York City. “He had a bill of sale, so naturally the lot man did not suspect the car had been stolen.”
“If it is my car,” said Nancy, “then the bill of sale must have been forged.”
“You’re quite right,” the captain agreed. “The car is yours, all right. My man checked the serial numbers.”
“Was the thief caught?” Nancy asked.
“Not yet,” the officer answered. “But we’ll lend out an alarm. The man bought a gray sedan.”
“Did my description of the car thief fit this man?” Nancy inquired.
“Yes, it did—dark, slender, forty years old. Small, piercing black eyes. Low forehead, hair rather coarse and stiff.”
Nancy smiled. “He’s the one, all right.” She thanked the captain for all his help and left headquarters.
When Nancy appeared at the car carrying her suitcase, Bess’s eyes grew large. “Your stolen bag!” she said unbelievingly. “Is everything in it?”
“Everything,” Nancy answered. Turning to Donna Mae, she said, “Even my mother’s shawl and fan, which I can now use at the ball.”
“I know you will look simply adorable!” Donna Mae cried out ecstatically.
On the way home Nancy announced that she would like to stop at Uncle Rufus’s cabin. Donna Mae became a little impatient. She wanted to hurry home and talk with Alex.
“Oh, I shan’t be long,” Nancy promised her.
When they reached the tiny cabin in the bayou, no one was around. Nancy suggested that the other girls wait in the car while she looked to see if the old man was in the rear of his property. She had detected the smell of smoke and thought that Uncle Rufus might be burning brush.
As the young sleuth rounded the corner of the house, she stood still in amazement. In the center of the yard a large tripod had been erected over a log fire. Swinging from the tripod was a huge iron caldron. Back of it stood Uncle Rufus, waving his arms back and forth slowly and muttering to himself.
Nancy hesitated about interrupting the voodoo preacher-doctor. He probably was brewing a potion from herbs and uttering prayers for its success and efficacy whenever it might be used by his patients.
It was fully two minutes before Uncle Rufus looked up. Seeing Nancy, he left his work and walked toward her. “Good day,” he said affably. “I ’spects you wonder what’s in this here herb pot.” The elderly man chuckled. “It’s a secret, but effen you need a tonic, it’ll fix you up right quick.”
Nancy smiled. “I’ll let you know if I need one.”
She told Uncle Rufus she had stopped to ask him if he would do some detective work for her.
He grinned. “If you
con
-fine it to the bayou, I will,” he said.
“Oh, I will,” Nancy promised.
She went on to tell him about the weird scenes and sounds on the
River Princess
but did not mention the part that the De la Vernes had played. She watched the old man’s face intently to see if he showed any signs of guilt. He definitely did not. Instead, he scratched his head and looked perplexed.
“This here is a big puzzlement to me,” he said. “Once in a while I hear a tom-tom, but lots of our folks got
them.
I’se sure none of those people goes near that ole showboat.”

Other books

Zel: Markovic MMA by Roxie Rivera
Before Tomorrowland by Jeff Jensen
Solstice - Of The Heart by John Blenkush
The Wild Ways by Tanya Huff
Loving Time by Leslie Glass
The Fire in Fiction by Donald Maass
Deadrise by Gardner, Steven R.