The Moonstone Castle Mystery (13 page)

The chief turned to Nancy. “Miss Detective, have you any idea who brought Mr. Wheeler to the castle?”

“I’m afraid not. But I’d certainly like to find them.”

“I’ll bet Nancy will find them!” George spoke up.

Nancy now said that she thought Suggs knew much more than he was telling. “For instance, before Mr. Wheeler was kidnaped, George and I went to the castle and were warned away when we were about to enter. Furthermore, we saw a car leaving there that same day. Also, through binoculars I used on the hill, I saw Suggs signaling from the tower. The day Suggs was captured my friend Ned Nickerson was in the cellar searching and didn’t see Mr. Wheeler.”

“That’s not surprising,” said the officer. “Mr. Wheeler was in a room with a well-camouflaged door.”

He went on to say that the police were still searching for the kidnapers, of course, but had to admit they did not have a single lead and Suggs refused to give names. “And I’m afraid we have no word on your car, Miss Drew.”

Nancy had a sudden idea. She knew the chief would think it farfetched, since he had no notion she connected the mystery of Mr. Wheeler’s abduction with the mystery about which he knew nothing—that of Joanie Horton’s kidnaping. Aloud she said, “If there’s a gang around here hiding things at the castle, maybe my convertible is there.”

Even Bess and George were surprised to hear this. George reminded Nancy that not only had the girls and boys searched the castle, but also that the police had.

“But they didn’t search the grounds,” Nancy countered.

“That’s true,” Chief Burke admitted.

Nancy asked him if he could spare any officers to go out to the castle with the girls and look around. He agreed and said he would send Sergeant Fosley and Detective Humfrey with them. The men were called in and introduced, then they led the girls outside to a police car.

The group set off for the castle. When they reached it, Nancy was glad to find the drawbridge still down. She had half expected that when Suggs’s friends failed to see him signaling, they would have come to find out why. The first thing they would do would be to remove the stones and wires holding down the drawbridge and hope to avoid a further search of their secret meeting place by the police. What had happened? Were they afraid to return?

The driver parked on the narrow roadway beside the wall, then the three girls and two police officers began a thorough and systematic search of the grounds. They had concluded there were plenty of places in which a person might hide a car. Tall grass and weeds grew everywhere. The searchers fanned out around the sides and rear of the castle.

Presently George called, “I see flattened grass —two narrow rows of it. They could be from automobile tires.”

Nancy and Bess ran to her side. There was no mistaking the tracks, although the weeds and grass were struggling to an upright position again.

Excited, the girls followed the trail. Presently they reached a slightly depressed area at the end of which was a huge mound of grass. Embedded into the hill was an enormous wooden door.

“Your car could be in there!” Bess called over her shoulder to Nancy.

Bess was in the lead. But suddenly she stopped and shrieked, “Ugh! A snake—a monstrous snake!”

Nancy and George looked at the ground. In front of the door, sunning itself on some rocks, was a five-foot snake. At the sound of the girls’ approach, the reptile raised its head. The forked tongue shot out from its mouth.

“Car or no car, I’m not staying!” said Bess, who started to retreat.

George, unafraid, looked around for a rock to throw near the snake and scare it away. “He’s just guarding the place,“ she said with a chuckle.

“Nancy!” Bess screamed. “We’ll be thrown off!”

“I can’t see what’s so funny about that,” her cousin retorted, but she stopped running.

By this time George had found a small rock and heaved it toward the reptile. It landed within a few inches of the smooth body. At once the snake slithered off through the grass.

The police, having heard the shouts, and Bess’s scream, had come from the other side of the castle on a run. By the time they caught up to the girls, Nancy was pulling at the old door. It proved to be too heavy for her to move.

At once Sergeant Fosley and Detective Humfrey stepped forward and gave it a yank. As the huge door opened, Nancy gave a cry of glee. “My car!” she cried.

The young sleuth ran inside the large opening, which she guessed had been a root cellar, and climbed behind the wheel of her convertible. There was no key in the ignition lock but she had hers in her purse. Quickly she inserted it into the lock and a second later had started the motor.

“It runs!” she exclaimed, smiling broadly.

The two officers looked on in amazement. Then Sergeant Fosley said, “You are a clever young sleuth! No one else thought of looking on this island for your car!”

There was a short discussion about the thieves who had taken it. Everyone doubted that they planned to use it or sell it. They reached the conclusion that the car had been taken to keep Nancy from sleuthing in the neighborhood!

“Apparently you have a reputation all the way up here in Deep River,” said Detective Humfrey. “Well, now that you have your car, I guess you don’t need us any longer. We’d better get back, Fosley.”

The two men hurried off to their own car. They waited, however, to see that Nancy’s convertible was still running all right. Then they crossed the drawbridge and sped off.

“Let’s look around here some more,” Nancy suggested. “With luck, maybe we’ll find some dues to the identity of Suggs’s pals!”

“Not on your life,” Bess retorted. “Nancy Drew, don’t forget your promise to Ned.”

Nancy gave a sigh of resignation. She had just driven onto the drawbridge when the girls heard creaking, groaning sounds in the wood beneath them. The next second the bridge began to lift!

Bess screamed. “Nancy! The bridge is opening! We’ll be thrown off!”

AS THE drawbridge rose creakingly, Nancy put her car engine into reverse, sped backward down the incline, and into the courtyard. She was just in time to keep the convertible from turning over or being crushed.

“Nancy, don’t give me a scare like that again!” Bess begged.

Her cousin looked at her disdainfully. “You’d think it was Nancy’s fault. We’re lucky to be alive, thanks to her.”

Bess apologized, saying she had not meant to imply Nancy was a poor driver. To forestall an argument, Nancy said, “What on earth made the bridge rise?”

The three girls climbed out of the car. They looked at the bridge, which was not tightly in place in the castle wall.

“The bridge certainly wouldn’t go up by itself,” said George, “unless the vibration of the policemen’s car loosened the wires and released the secret mechanism.”

“This means we’re prisoners here, unless we leave the car and swim across,” said Bess with a sigh.

“Not necessarily,” Nancy told her. “Maybe I can let the drawbridge down.”

“How about the police?” Bess asked suddenly. “Maybe if we honk the horn loudly enough, they’ll come back.”

She moved toward the car to do this. But though Bess kept her hand on the horn for half a minute, there was no response.

George and Nancy had moved to the drawbridge. Together, they tugged and yanked at the heavy iron chains which let the bridge up and down. One side worked, but the other refused to budge.

“I think the trouble’s up above where the chain goes through the wall,” Nancy stated. “I’ll go and find out.”

“But how?” George asked. “You can’t climb up a sheer wall.”

Nancy smiled. “But look at the steplike niches in the stonework,” she said. “They might be just the trick.”

“Okay,” said George, “but what are you going to hold onto?”

“There are some pretty heavy vines on this wall,” Nancy observed. The next moment she had grasped a stout stem of the ivy. She swung herself onto it to try its strength. “It’ll hold me all right,” she said.

Quickly Nancy inched her way up the wall, using the vines and niches. When she reached the top of the drawbridge, she began to examine the bulky chain and the cogwheel over which it ran. Nancy discovered that the chain was wound around two of the teeth in such a way that the wheel could not turn and release the bridge.

Holding onto the vine stem firmly with one hand, the young sleuth endeavored to lift the chain and unwind it. At first she could not budge the heavy iron links, and once she almost lost her balance.

“Be careful!” George warned. “Want me to come up and help?”

“Maybe you’d better,” said Nancy. “But whatever you do, pick out a different vine from mine!”

George chuckled and followed instructions. “I knew being a tomboy would come in handy someday!” she called, as she made her ascent. Soon she was beside her chum.

The two girls worked hard. But they did not dare tug too strenuously for fear that the force would unbalance them in their precarious positions. Finally they managed to get the links back into the cogs in a straight line.

“Thank goodness!” said George.

Nancy heaved a sigh. “I’m pretty relieved myself. Now all we have to do is see if it works.”

George grinned. “And I suppose you’d like me to climb down and test it.” She descended and released the two chains. At once the drawbridge was lowered.

“That’s simply marvelous!” cried Bess. “You girls are positive geniuses.”

“Anyway,” said George, “we’re not such bad mechanics.”

When Nancy reached the ground, she insisted that the cousins walk across the bridge. “I’ll come alone in the car. If anything goes wrong again, you can hurry off for help.”

Bess and George waited with bated breath, but Nancy made it safely. Her friends climbed into the convertible and she headed toward town.

“I’m starved,” said Bess. “Adventure always makes me hungry.”

George laughed. “Tension is supposed to take away your appetite,” she said, “not increase it!”

Nancy suggested that they head for the Brass Kettle. “Maybe Mrs. Hemstead will give us some more information about Mr. Seaman.”

When they entered the tearoom, the girls were delighted to see the old lady rocking in her chair. At once she motioned to them.

“I haven’t had a soul to talk to all morning,” she complained. “Tell me what you’ve been doing.”

“We’ve been out for a ride,” Nancy said nonchalantly. “You know, Mrs. Hemstead, I never have received the present from Mr. Seaman that he told you about. Has he been around lately?”

“No, he hasn’t,” Mrs. Hemstead replied. “But you know, I heard a funny thing about him.”

Instantly the girls were alert and asked her what it was.

The old lady rocked determinedly as if she were angry. “He fooled me—that’s what he did,” she said. “All this time I thought he was a traveling salesman, but I was told just last night that he’s working out at old Mrs. Wilson’s.”

The girls could hardly suppress smiles. Mrs. Hemstead felt that she had been duped, and did not like it! She went on to say that Mrs. Wilson was a wealthy widow who lived on the outskirts of Deep River.

“Up to a short time ago,” Mrs. Hemstead continued, “Mrs. Wilson kept four servants, but now she has only a couple. I suppose the woman is Mr. Seaman’s wife. Mrs. Wilson never comes to town any more. There are rumors around here she’s not well.”

“That’s too bad,” Nancy said sympathetically. “Do Mr. and Mrs. Seaman take care of her?”

“I suppose so,” Mrs. Hemstead said. “Folks don’t know what’s going on out there any more. The couple never come to town, either. They order all their food and supplies by telephone. Funny thing, too, the delivery boys never see anybody. The money is left outside in the milk box.”

Instantly Nancy’s mind flew back to the similar story about Grandmother Horton. Could the Seamans be the same couple she had had? Nancy told herself she was going to follow up this clue at once. As casually as possible she asked Mrs. Hemstead the location of Mrs. Wilson’s home.

“Well, when you get out on the main road, you take the road toward the old castle. After you pass the castle, take the next road to the left that you come to. Mrs. Wilson’s house is way down at the end near the water.”

The three girls explained that they wanted to have lunch and said good-by to Mrs. Hemstead. As soon as they were seated and had ordered their luncheon, Nancy told Bess and George that she wanted to go out to the Wilson home directly after the girls finished eating.

About an hour later Nancy drove within sight of the Wilson house. She decided to hide her car along the wooded roadside.

“Let’s walk up the Wilson driveway and try not to make ourselves conspicuous,” she cautioned. Fortunately, the drive was a curving one, bordered by trees and thick shrubbery.

Suddenly George exclaimed, “Look! Tire tracks that don’t match. They’re just like the ones we saw at the castle!”