The Moonstone Castle Mystery (16 page)

Nancy smiled and thanked the chief for all his help. She did not tell him that there was still one matter to clear up—that of Jody Armstrong’s reunion with her grandparents.

When Nancy and her friends reached the motel, they found Mr. Drew, Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong, and the Bowens there. All looked very pleased.

Nancy’s father, smiling, said, “The Armstrongs want Jody to meet Mr. and Mrs. Bowen tomorrow. They have invited the rest of us to come to their home after they’ve all spent an hour together.”

The following day, when the Drews, Bess, and George arrived at the Armstrong home, they found an excited and happy group. Jody rushed up to the girls and hugged them.

“Oh, I have so many wonderful things to thank you for,” she said. “And don’t you think I’m about the luckiest girl in the whole world to have such wonderful adoptive parents and to have found these marvelous grandparents? They’ve told me a number of things about my mother and father who passed away when I was very young—how they loved me and how happy they would be to know I have such fine adoptive parents.”

“You certainly are fortunate,” said Nancy, smiling. “We’re all so happy for you.”

Mr. Drew announced that about half of Grandma Horton’s stolen securities had been found intact in the brass box at police headquarters and that in due course Jody would receive it. The lawyer explained:

“What started the Omans on their kidnaping idea, and having their own daughter pose as the Horton beneficiary, was the fact that Ben Oman had seen a copy of the will. The age of the granddaughter was not mentioned, nor any guardian. It was then that he began formulating the fraud. He kept little Joanie out of sight. Poor Grandma Horton was underfed and kept under sedation until her death.”

“How perfectly dreadful!” Bess said softly.

“Before a physician was called to administer to her,” Mr. Drew went on, “Mrs. Oman took little Joanie to the adoption society and left her so no one coming to the house ever saw her.”

“How can people be so wicked!” George burst out.

Jody said that of course it would be very nice to receive the money. “But I’m going to give a lot of it to my grandparents to use in their work,” she said. “Part of what I have left will be for beautiful presents for Nancy Drew, Bess Marvin, and George Fayne,” she declared. “They deserve the best rewards in the whole world!”

Nancy laughed. “That is sweet of you, Jody. But the only reward I want is to know what those strange code words ‘Wolf’s Eye’ mean.”

Jody went to the bookcase and began looking in dictionaries and encyclopedias and other reference books. Nancy, meanwhile, could not help but wonder when she might encounter as strange a mystery as the recent one. Such a case was to confront her soon, The Clue of the Whistling Bag-pipes.

Jody had been consulting one of the reference volumes which contained interesting information about all sorts of unusual subjects. Excitedly she cried out:

“I’ve found It!” Jody giggled. “Nancy, believe it or not, wolf’s eye is a nickname for moonstone!”