Suddenly lights sprang up behind some distant trees and spread a low white glow over the area. A moment later a red glare flared up briefly and Nancy could hear indistinct voices.
Presently there was a clink of metal, the rattle of a chain. Then an engine sputtered, coughed, and finally settled down to a steady chug-chug-chug.
“What’s that for?” Nancy wondered. “It might be a water pump, but why all the lights?”
Starting forward, she suddenly found her path blocked. Two Lavender Sisters came out of the shadows. One stood as if guarding the unseen operation. The other walked briskly toward the mastiff. Nancy recognized her as the woman she had encountered earlier.
The dog rose at her approach, and the woman placed a large tin pan heaped with raw meat in front of him. As the dog’s jaws crunched into the meat, the Lavender Sister turned to go back. At that moment in a low but clearly audible voice from outside the high board fence came a call.
“Nancy!”
It was Bess’s voice!
She called again, even more anxiously. “Nancy! Where are you?”
Nancy longed to reply, but more fervently than that she wished Bess would stop calling, because the woman was staring in the direction of the voice.
Hastily Nancy tiptoed nearer the fence. Taking a notebook from her bag, she quickly scribbled a warning:
“Hide!”
She tore off the page and wrapped it around a stone, which she tossed over the fence. She hoped Bess or George would see it. Then she looked again toward the woman.
The Lavender Sister seemed to be hesitating, not certain whether to investigate or not. Then, with sudden decision, she walked to the gate and pushed up the latch.
“The ladder!” Nancy remembered wildly.
What if the girls had left it propped against the fence and the woman instigated a search of the grounds to see who had climbed over!
As the long-robed figure slipped outside the wooden enclosure, Nancy waited with bated breath for the outcome of the woman’s search. Seconds dragged into minutes, but there was no sound. Finally the Lavender Sister reappeared inside the grounds and shut the gate behind her.
Nancy gave a sigh of relief. Taking the ladder with them, the girls had apparently hidden in the nearby woods.
Nancy’s hope of seeing more of the grounds to learn if there were a China clay pit, or to locate Manning-Carr or his brother, faded as time went on. The two Lavender Sisters stood in stony silence, barring all chance to do this. Finally Nancy concluded she would have to give up and try to get out of the place.
“But that awful beast!” she told herself.
The mastiff uttered a low, throaty growl as if he sensed an alien presence. Nancy scribbled a second note to Bess and George, briefly describing her plight. After folding the paper around a stone, she tossed the note over the fence.
But neither a note nor the sound of a voice came over the top of the wooden partition in reply.
Nancy was worried. “I hope they didn’t run into any trouble.”
This thought spurred her on to seek an escape from the enclosure and find out what had happened to them.
The dog stretched himself on the ground beside the gate, his massive head resting quietly but watchfully between his paws. Nancy looked at him and bit her lip in vexation.
“Guess there’s only one thing to do,” she reflected. “That’s to wait until somebody comes and takes the brute away.”
An hour passed, Nancy hoping against hope. Apparently the dog had been stationed beside the gate for the night.
A bold plan half formed in her mind, and she searched the ground along the fence until she found a rock beneath a shrub.
“It’s dark enough now,” she decided.
She stole stealthily among the trees and bushes in the direction of the dog. When about fifty feet from him, she stopped and took stock of her position. The ground that separated her from the dog was bare.
She weighed the small rock in her hand. Then she carefully approximated the length of the dog’s leash.
“Here’s hoping!” she murmured. Aiming at a spot on the fence, Nancy let the rock fly with unerring accuracy. The mastiff bounded to his feet as the rock struck the boards with a loud noise and ricocheted into some bushes. He stared at the spot and bared his teeth in a low growl. Then he trotted alertly toward the fence and nosed among the foliage.
Nancy stood poised on the balls of her feet, waiting until the dog had gone as far from the gate as his leash would permit. Then she darted forward, lifted the latch, and tugged at the gate.
The mastiff heard her and raced back with a fierce snarl. For a frightening instant, Nancy thought the gate would never open. Then it swung in, and she ran outside the enclosure a split second ahead of the dog!
Glancing over her shoulder, Nancy saw the dog lunge and paw the air as he came to the end of his leash. Angry barks filled the night. As Nancy dashed among the trees, she heard excited women’s voices from the enclosure.
“Oh, I hope they don’t let that beast loose!” Nancy said fervently.
In the darkness she could not at once determine the direction she should take but dared not pause.
“I must get away!” she told herself.
Running as rapidly as she could in the darkness, ducking under low-hanging branches, dodging around bushes, she suddenly stumbled onto a narrow dirt lane. It appeared to be the same one Nancy and the two cousins had found earlier. Assuming it must lead to the gravel road, Nancy followed the path thankfully.
But her relief was short-lived! Bright white beams of light began to flash among the trees a distance behind her.
Her pursuers had picked up her trail! With the advantage of light, they began to gain on her. Her breath coming fast, Nancy went on around a bend in the lane. She stopped short.
Coming toward her along the winding path was a car. Its high beam lights blinded her temporarily. The driver surely had seen her. Now there certainly was no chance of escape!
Suddenly a wild thought came to Nancy. Maybe this was unexpected aid! Perhaps the girls had fled from the mysterious woods to summon help.
Nancy stared at the car tensely. With a gentle squeal of brakes, it rolled to a stop. Its lights dimmed.
Was she to be rescued or captured?
CHAPTER XV
Hot on the Trail
NANCY stood frozen to the spot. Not a sound permeated the woods from the direction of the car.
Then from somewhere behind her came a woman’s voice: “That dog must have opened the gate! You know he did it once before. We may as well go back.”
Nancy was jubilant. The Lavender Sisters did not know she had been inside the enclosure! But there was still uncertainty ahead. Courageously she stood her ground to see what would happen down the lane. A moment later a small figure bounded out of the darkness.
“Togo!” Nancy exclaimed joyously, and she hurried forward. In a few moments she was joined by Bess, George, Dick Milton, and Hannah Gruen.
“Nancy! Nancy, are you all right?” Hannah whispered hoarsely.
She stopped breathlessly in front of Nancy and hugged her.
“Yes, I’m all right. But I’m certainly glad to see you.”
“Hypers!” said George. “You sure scared us!”
“What happened?” Bess demanded.
Nancy told her story. She ended by telling Dick that despite her efforts, she had learned nothing new about the China clay pit.
“The important thing is that you’re safe!” Hannah Gruen declared. “Now let’s get out of here. I’m sure your father will be terribly upset when he hears about this!”
“Where is Dad?” Nancy asked.
“He received an urgent telephone call from Washington,” Mrs. Gruen explained, “and caught the afternoon plane. He doesn’t know how long he’ll be gone.”
Nancy nodded. She wondered if the lawyer’s trip to Washington concerned the Engs. Her thoughts were interrupted by Bess.
“George and I couldn’
t imagine what in the world had happened to you in that enclosure,” Bess said as they walked toward her car. “We waited and waited. When you didn’t answer after I called, George was all for going inside to find you! Then your note came over the fence, and we didn’t know what to think!”
“But we hid in the woods,” George said, “just as you warned us to do.”
“And not a second too soon, I can tell you!” Bess went on. “We’d hardly jumped behind a tree when that Lavender Sister came outside.”
“What about the ladder?” Nancy queried, still curious. “Couldn’t she see it?”
“We took the ladder away and hid it right after you let yourself down inside, since you said you were coming out the gate,” George replied.
“When the woman opened the gate,” Bess took up the story, “we saw that awful mastiff chained right inside the gate.” She gave a slight shudder. “So we knew you couldn’t get out!”
After the Lavender Sister had re-entered the enclosure, the cousins explained, they had hurried through the woods to Bess’s car and driven to Nancy’s home to get her father. Upon learning that the lawyer had left for Washington, Bess had telephoned Dick Milton and asked him to return with them. Hannah Gruen, upset and anxious, had announced that she and Togo would go along too.
“It’s a good thing we found the lane earlier,” George declared, “or we couldn’t have got here so fast.”
“And a good thing I took it,” Nancy said ruefully, “or you’d have missed me!”
They got into Bess’s car, turned on the narrow lane, and drove off. The headlights focused on Nancy’s convertible, still parked in the small clearing. Mrs. Gruen had brought the spare ignition key.
Easing into the driver’s seat, Nancy turned on the motor and listened to its sound with evident satisfaction. Mrs. Gruen climbed in beside her. Whistling to Togo to join them, Nancy put the car in gear and followed Bess toward home.
Both cars pulled up at a corner a few blocks from Bess’s home. “Thanks a million!” Nancy called to her friends.
She waved, then drove straight on while Bess turned off toward Dick’s house. A few minutes later Nancy swung the car into her driveway.
“That’s strange!” Mrs. Gruen spoke in amazement. “I left the lights on in the living room and hall when I went out.”
The windows were completely dark. Suddenly the terrier began to bark excitedly.
“What is it, Togo?” Nancy asked quickly.
She opened the door of the car and the dog jumped out. He dashed up the front steps and scratched at the door.
“He acts as if someone were in the housel” Hannah Gruen exclaimed.
Nancy nodded. “Go around to the back of the house. I’ll take the front. If there is a burglar inside, maybe we can trap him.”
“All right. But be careful, Nancy.”
“I will. And you, too.”
She waited until the housekeeper got to the rear yard, then she went up the front steps.
Togo barked as she set foot on the porch. Turning her key in the lock, Nancy opened the door, snapped on the hall light, and looked inside. Togo sniffed the floor, racing from one room to another. Nancy followed him. No one was around, and apparently nothing had been disturbed.
In the front hall Nancy was joined by Mrs. Gruen. “I didn’t see a soul—” she began, then broke off as Nancy’s fingers tightened on her arm.
From the second floor of the house came soft distinct sounds!
“Come on!” Nancy whispered.
She flicked a switch to turn on the upper hall lights, then cautiously ascended the stairs, followed by Mrs. Gruen. Togo went ahead of them.
Nancy had just snapped on a light in her own bedroom when the dog began to bark wildly down the hall. As she turned to go after him, she glanced at her dressing table. The drawer had been lifted out and its contents strewn on the floor! One look told Nancy that Mr. Soong’s jade elephant was gone!
As she turned to search the other rooms for the intruder, a scream came from a rear bedroom.
Recognizing the distressed voice as Hannah Gruen’s, Nancy ran to the back room. She found the housekeeper unhurt but staring wildly out the window.
“He went that way!” she cried, pointing toward the garden. “He jumped off the back-porch roof and disappeared over the hedge!”
Nancy ran downstairs with Togo in pursuit of the burglar. But her chase was fruitless. He had too much of a head start. Upon her return she asked the housekeeper what the man looked like.
“I’m afraid I didn’t get a good look, Nancy,” Mrs. Gruen confessed.
They searched the house. Nothing but the jade elephant was missing.
Nancy stood lost in thought. The man was no ordinary burglar or he would have stolen other things.
Who could the thief be? Manning-Carr?
Accompanied by Mrs. Gruen and Togo, Nancy went outside with a flashlight and examined the soft earth at the back porch.
She soon found the footprints she was seeking, deeply embedded in the ground from the force of the thief’s jump. They looked like the same short, wide prints she had seen in the Townsends’ flower bed after their vase had been stolen!
“I feel kind of fidgety,” Mrs. Gruen remarked when they had returned to the house and made sure all the doors and windows were locked for the night.
Nancy called the police. She reported that she had recovered her car, then told of the theft of the jade elephant. As a routine matter they came and made an investigation. Then the young detective had a snack and wearily tumbled into bed.
Her waking thought was of Mr. Soong and she determined to go to his home at once to talk to him. Not only did she have the unpleasant task of telling him about the jade elephant, but she was eager to learn from him the meaning of the strange Oriental symbol she had copied from the leaning chimney.
As on previous visits, the door to Mr. Soong’s house was opened by the servant Ching. His expressionless face spread into a smile when he saw Nancy and he made a deep bow.
“Is Mr. Soong at home?” Nancy asked.
The man shook his head.
Nancy deliberated a moment, then took a notebook from her purse and scribbled a short message asking Mr. Soong to call her at the house or after twelve-thirty at Dick Milton’s home. This was the nineteenth, and she had promised to take care of Baby Sue.
She gave the message to Ching and he gesticulatingly promised to deliver it. Then he bowed smilingly and closed the door.
Nancy went back home to await Mr. Soong’s call.
“I hope he hasn’t gone out of town,” she sighed. Just then the phone rang.
“Nancy Drew?” a voice boomed. “Come right over here!”
“Is this Mr. Monroe?” she asked.
“Sure is. And I believe I have a clue to the China clay pit to show you.”
“What is it?”
The geologist refused to impart any further information over the telephone. Grabbing her handbag, Nancy explained her errand to Hannah Gruen, then drove off.
The tall, sharp-featured professor led Nancy into the living room in silence. Taking a package from his desk, he thrust it into her hands.
“What do you make of this?” he barked.
Nancy looked at the parcel. It had been sent from San Francisco and had obviously been unwrapped.
She studied the address. Painted in bold, black letters on gray paper were the words:
M. MONROE
GENERAL DELIVERY
RIVER HEIGHTS
Nancy looked questioningly at the geologist.
“Open it!” he commanded.
She opened a white cardboard box inside the paper. Neatly packed in rows were several tubes of paint with Chinese markings.
“This is the kind of paint that potters use!” Nancy exclaimed in surprise as she recalled similar tubes of paint at Dick Milton’s workshop.
“It is!” Professor Monroe snorted. “And these tubes must have been shipped from China. Their colors are among the fi
nest and purest I’ve seen! Only thing is,” he added dramatically, “I didn’t order them!”
“Who did then?” Nancy asked.
“I’ll let you guess,” the geologist answered.
“This package must have been meant for the other Miles Monroe!” she exclaimed. “The man who owns the tract of land near Hunter’s Creek!”
“Precisely!” the professor boomed, and his eyes sparkled. “And why would our mysterious friend have the paints sent to him unless he intended to use them on porcelain?”
Nancy tingled with rising excitement. She was convinced that the strange, fenced-in enclosure was near a pit of China clay. And someone was making pottery there!
“I’ll take the package back to the post office,” she told the geologist, “and stand watch until M. Monroe calls for it!”
“Good idea!” he barked. “Go to it!”
To herself Nancy said, “And I’ll bet this other M. Monroe is Manning-Carr. Oh dear! I wish I hadn’t promised I’d take care of Baby Sue today. There’s no time to lose on this mystery.”
But Nancy was a person of her word, and she would not disappoint Connie Milton. She did decide, however, to call first Bess, then George, to ask them to help her out if something vital should develop. Using the geologist’s telephone, she was told that both girls would be away until late afternoon.
“So I’m on my own this time,” Nancy reflected, leaving the geologist’s apartment.
When she arrived at the General Delivery window of the post office, she met with both disappointment and a surprise.
“M. Monroe was here only fifteen minutes ago!” the clerk informed Nancy as she handed him the parcel and explained the error. “He was plenty angry when I told him I had sent it to the professor!”
“Is Mr. Monroe an olive-skinned man with black hair and piercing black eyes?” she asked, giving the clerk a description of Manning-Carr.
The clerk shook his head decisively. “The man I talked to,” he said, “was Chinese.”
“Chinese!” she exclaimed. “What did he look like?”
The clerk stared at her helplessly. “Why, uh—like a Chinaman!” he replied.