The Ghost of Blackwood Hall

  Nancy Drew continued talking for a while with her friend in the tearoom, which was owned by Mary’s parents. She learned that gypsies originally came from India centuries ago and still speak a language called Romany, which is related to the ancient Indian tongue, Sanskrit.

  As these people wandered about the world, they supported themselves by their skills at metalworking, as well as in horse trading and animal doctoring. In the Middle Ages, most people thought they were from Egypt, so they became known as gypsies.

  Nowadays, Mary told Nancy, American gypsies are more apt to drive vans or station wagons than to ride about in horse-drawn caravans. Many have settled down to work at house painting or driveway paving or selling used cars. Some hold professional positions. But others still prefer to keep on the move.

  “What delicious tea!” Nancy said as she sipped the last fragrant cup from the pot.

  Mary smiled proudly. “My mother blends it with herbs and flavorings known only to gypsies.”

  Rising to go, Nancy promised to investigate Madame Zurga. “I’m not sure anyone can stop her from telling fortunes,” Nancy informed the gypsy girl. “But I’ll certainly try to find out how she frightens people so badly with her weird ’frog curse.’ She can’t be allowed to scare people out of their money.”

  Outside the tearoom, Nancy took the wheel of her blue sports car. Only four o’clock, she noted, glancing at her wristwatch. That should give me time enough to visit Madame Zurga before dinner.

  The fortune-telling parlor was located in what had once been a store, across the street from Riverview Park. A sign on the curtained window read: MADAME ZURGA, ORIENTAL PALMIST, CRYSTAL-GAZER & SPIRITUAL ADVISER.

  Below that, another sign advised passersby to CONSULT MADAME ZURGA ABOUT ALL YOUR PERSONAL PROBLEMS!

  She certainly has confidence in her own powers, Nancy thought, repressing a wry smile. That “all” could take in everything from how to pay your bills to overcoming shyness—or clearing up warts!

  A gong sounded in the back of the store as she entered. Nancy found herself in a small, bare room furnished only with a folding chair and a painting on the wall of a beautiful gypsy woman with a mysterious light shining all around her head.

  Nancy sat down to wait. As her gaze flickered about the room, she noticed the eyes of the gypsy woman in the picture moved slightly. Again the young detective tried not to smile. She realized that Madame Zurga was studying her latest client.

  Presently a voice spoke over a concealed intercom: “You may now enter the spiritual chamber!” It was a woman’s voice, but powerful and hypnotic and almost as deep as a man’s.

  Nancy got up and went through a curtained doorway into a back room. Its walls were hung with dark purple drapes which seemed to muffle sound. In the center of the room were two chairs and a small table bearing a crystal ball. A burning cone of incense by a wall stand filled the chamber with a strange scent.

  But what caught Nancy’s interest at once was a large green frog. It was perched on the table near the crystal ball. Its bulging eyes glared at her with a sinister intensity.

  This must be the frog Mary Lukash told me about, Nancy thought. At first the creature seemed so real she assumed it was alive. But when it remained motionless, Nancy realized the frog was only a stuffed one, prepared by a skilled taxidermist.

  Nevertheless, she pulled her chair safely away from the repulsive green creature before sitting down. Her head was beginning to ache, and the room seemed to waver before her eyes.

  The incense fumes must be making me woozy, Nancy reflected in annoyance.

  Oriental music began to play. Almost as if the gypsy fortune-teller had read the girl’s mind, the air gradually seemed to clear. But Nancy’s headache did not go away.

  The curtains parted, and Madame Zurga entered the chamber. The fortune-teller was a tall, imposing woman with a beak nose, glowing dark eyes, and heavy black brows. She was dressed in gypsy fashion with a colorful kerchief on her head, a long green-and-yellow gown, and golden bangles, necklace, and earrings.

  “Good afternoon, Miss Drew,” she intoned, seating herself across the table.

  Nancy blinked in amazement. How did Madame Zurga know her name? Was it possible that the fortune-teller really did have occult powers?

  “Hold the frog in your two hands,” the gypsy woman ordered.

  Nancy’s skin crawled at the thought of touching the slimy object. She tried to protest, yet somehow the right words failed to come to her lips.

  “Pick up the frog!” Madame Zurga insisted sharply. “Its magical vibrations help me peer into the future and foresee what life holds for you!”

  Nancy found herself meekly obeying. The swarthy gypsy woman began to chant eerily in a strange language which Nancy guessed must be Romany.

  Suddenly Nancy’s heart skipped a beat. The frog seemed to be coming alive in her hands! She could feel its throat throbbing in and out. It was actually croaking! Glup! … Glup! … Glup!

  Nancy wanted to drop the creature like a hot coal. But Madame Zurga’s dark eyes fixed her with a piercing glare. “Do not let go of the frog!” she hissed, “or its curse will strike you!”

  The gypsy’s gaze returned to her crystal ball. “I see grave trouble ahead … for both you and your father,” she droned. “He is an attorney, is he not?”

  Again her eyes drilled into those of the young detective. Nancy nodded.

  “Some unknown enemy is plotting against you—I can sense his evil power!” Madame Zurga declared. “The trouble has to do with your father’s law practice. What important cases is he handling?”

  “I—I c-c-can’t tell you,” Nancy mumbled. “L-lawyers aren’t allowed to d-discuss their clients’ af-f-fairs with outsiders!”

  “Wait!” the gypsy exclaimed. “I see the trouble now. Your enemy has placed a curse on something in your father’s office safe. It must be removed at once, or you both may die! Only I can save you from such a curse. Tell me! What is the combination to his safe?”

  Nancy’s brain was in a whirl. She could not seem to focus her thoughts. Nevertheless, she sensed that if she stayed in Madame Zurga’s fortune-telling parlor any longer, she might give up all sorts of private family information!

  But was she brave enough to defy the gypsy woman’s threatened curse?

  Nancy let go of the frog and stood up. Plucking some money from her purse, she dropped it on the table and hurried out of the purple-draped chamber.

  Behind her, she heard an angry outburst from Madame Zurga, ordering her to remain. The commands were followed by a sneering laugh when the gypsy saw that her teenage client had no intention of obeying.

  Outside, Nancy took a deep breath of fresh air. Then she walked across the street into Riverview Park. Stopping at a refreshment stand, she bought some orangeade. A few swallows of the ice-cold drink helped to clear her head. She was feeling much better now.

  Whatever came over me? Nancy wondered. When she fled from the fortune-telling parlor, she had found herself halfway believing that Madame Zurga really possessed occult powers or second sight.

  But now, bit by bit, it was all becoming clear …

  How had the gypsy known her name, or the fact that her father was a lawyer? Nothing very surprising about that. Nancy’s picture often appeared in the paper, in connection with the mysteries she solved. Madame Zurga had simply recognized her.

  No doubt the incense gave off some sort of anesthetic fumes. When customers inhaled the vapor, it left them too giddy and confused to hold back any secrets from the gypsy fortune-teller. No wonder Nancy had felt so woozy!

  The Oriental music probably covered the sound of an exhaust fan which drew off the fumes and cleared the air before Madame Zurga made her appearance.

  But what about the frog? In her imagination, Nancy could still feel the horrid creature breathing in and out, and hear its ominous croaking!

  “Oh, Nancy!” a voice called out.

  The young sleuth turned and saw a school friend named Nicole L
amar hurrying toward her. “Hi, Nikki! Where did you come from?”

  “Across the street.” Nicole seemed a bit breathless. “Didn’t I just see you coming out of Madame Zurga’s fortune-telling parlor?”

  Nancy nodded, smiling ruefully. “Mary Lukash suspects the woman is running a racket that may get all the local gypsies in trouble with the law. So she asked me to expose her, but I almost got victimized myself!”

  “Oh, Nancy, did you really? That’s exactly what I wanted to talk to you about!”

  Nicole was an orphan, who lived with her unmarried cousin, Yvette Lamar. She related that Ms. Lamar had long been a fan of fortune-tellers. So when Madame Zurga opened her parlor in River Heights, Yvette had immediately gone to consult her.

  “When my cousin got home that evening, I could see she was upset and frightened,” Nikki went on, “but she wouldn’t tell me what was wrong. Then, a few days later, she went to see Madame Zurga again, and came home looking even worse. Since then, she’s been going to Madame Zurga’s fortune-telling parlor two or three times a week and it’s turning her into a nervous wreck!”

  “Do you know what she consults Madame Zurga about?” asked Nancy.

  Nicole shook her head. “Not really. At first I think she went mostly in fun. Cousin Yvette just likes to hear fortune-tellers predict what will happen to her next week or next year, and whether she may take a long trip or meet a man she could fall in love with and marry. But Madame Zurga must had told her something that really scared her! Somehow I have a feeling it’s connected with the past.”

  Nancy knit her brows. “But you have no idea what it is she’s afraid of?”

  Nikki hesitated. “This is just a guess, but … would you laugh if I said Cousin Yvette seems to think she’s being haunted?”

  “Of course not. That doesn’t mean I believe in ghosts myself, Nikki, but a lot of people do.”

  “Well, here’s something else that may sound even sillier. She seems to have an absolute phobia about frogs! We were strolling along the riverbank yesterday evening about sunset, near the marshes, when a frog suddenly began croaking. Cousin Yvette was so scared, she almost jumped out of her skin!”

  Nancy smiled grimly. “That doesn’t surprise me.” She described the frog Madame Zurga uses to frighten her clients. Nikki shuddered upon hearing how the creature seemed to breathe and croak when held.

  “Oh, Nancy! Please do me a favor,” she begged. “Today’s Friday. Would you come and stay with me over the weekend, and see if you can find out what’s troubling Cousin Yvette?”

  Nancy felt sure that Ms. Lamar’s problem must be connected with Madame Zurga’s fortune-telling scam. Clearing up one mystery might help to solve the other as well.

  “All right,” she agreed. “Come home with me first while I pack some things and tell Hannah. Then I’ll drive us to your place.”

  Nikki and her cousin lived in a comfortable old stone house on the outskirts of River Heights. Nancy had already met Yvette Lamar. She was a kindly, attractive woman in her late forties, but now her face showed signs of strain and sleeplessness.

  Over dinner that evening, Nancy drew Ms. Lamar into conversation about her background. “Nikki says you come from the Island of Martinique in the West Indies,” she remarked.

  “Yes, I lived there with my uncle when I was a little girl,” Yvette replied. “He was a sailor and fisherman. He took me in and cared for me after my parents died. Then when I was seven or eight, we moved to the United States. He became a ship chandler and did well enough in business to build this house before he retired.”

  The Lamar family, she added, was originally from Alabama. But her great-grandfather, a Confederate colonel, had gone to the West Indies after the Civil War. Over the years, his descendants had moved back to the United States, one by one. “My Uncle Louis was the last one in the family to do so.”

  “Lucky for me he did!” said Nikki with a smile. Jumping up from her chair, she gave the middle-aged woman a fond hug before clearing off the main-course dishes to make way for dessert.

  Later, when dinner was over and the two girls had helped Cousin Yvette load the dishwasher, all three settled down in the oak-beamed living room to chat and watch television.

  “What a lovely fireplace!” Nancy exclaimed.

  “My uncle built it himself,” said Yvette. “He was a jack-of-all-trades and would have been a good stone mason. He even carved that ship design in some of the stones.”

  Soon after eleven o’clock, they retired for the night. Nancy’s room was directly across the hall from Nicole’s. After changing, the two girls talked a while longer as they brushed their hair before going to bed.

  Settling down in her own room, Nancy read for a few minutes. When she felt herself getting drowsy, she turned off the light.

  It seemed to Nancy as if she had hardly drifted off to sleep when she awoke with a start. A scream echoed throughout the house!

  Nancy sprang out of bed and pulled on a robe. Nikki was already poking her head out of her own doorway. She looked pale and frightened.

  “That was Cousin Yvette!” she gasped.

  “Where’s her room?” Nancy asked.

  “On the other side of the house.”

  Just then another faint scream was heard!

  “Come on! Let’s find out what’s wrong!” Nancy urged.

  Together the two girls ran to Ms. Lamar’s room, Nikki pointing the way. A muffled croak came from somewhere inside. Nancy knocked hastily, then flung open the door.

  Cousin Yvette was sitting upright in bed, big-eyed with fear. “L-l-look!” she quavered, and with a trembling hand pointed to the window.

  The ghostly, glowing apparition of a frog could be seen on the window curtain!

  Another croak reverberated, then another and another. Glup… . Glup… . Glup.

  It sounded exactly like the repulsive frog in Madame Zurga’s fortune-telling parlor!

  The two girls stood totally still, shocked by the vision. But Nancy quickly snapped out of her trance and ran to the window.

  As she did so, the ghostly frog faded from view. Nancy pulled aside the curtain and peered out into the darkness. Nothing seemed to be moving on the grounds or in the garden. All that was visible were the moonlit forms of trees and shrubbery.

  Nancy turned back from the window and saw that Cousin Yvette was still shaking with fright.

  “Let’s make some cocoa,” Nancy said to Nicole. “Then we can talk about what happened.”

  By the time all three were seated in the bright, cozy living room, sipping their hot drinks, the girls’ mood had become more cheerful. Even Cousin Yvette seemed to take heart from Nancy’s calm, matter-of-fact manner.

  “Were we all just imagining things?” Yvette asked.

  Nancy shook her head. “No, we did hear croaks, and that glowing frog did appear in your window. But I doubt that it was a ghost or anything else supernatural.”

  “Then what were we seeing?”

  “I’m not sure. I have a vague idea, but there’s no use discussing it until it can be checked out.” Nancy hesitated, then said, “Tell me, have you always been afraid of frogs?”

  Ms. Lamar frowned and passed a hand over her forehead. “I … I don’t really know. Perhaps something happened once that made them seem unpleasant. I guess I just never thought about it until … until I went to see a fortune-teller recently.”

  “Madame Zurga?”

  “Yes!” On learning that Nancy too had visited the gypsy woman and handled the weird frog, Cousin Yvette seemed relieved and willing to talk more freely. “It was right after I started going to Madame Zurga,” she related, “that I began having nightmares and seeing that horrible frog.”

  “Then tonight wasn’t the first time?” Nancy inquired.

  “Oh, no! I keep seeing the frog and hearing it croak night after night!”

  “Has Madame Zurga offered to help you?”

  “Yes, but mostly she just asks me questions … about my past life, and espec
ially about my Uncle Louis.”

  Ms. Lamar said that, although she was only a small child at the time, she remembered that when they had moved from the West Indies to the United States, her uncle had seemed worried and fearful, as if afraid some terrible misfortune might befall them.

  “But none ever did?” Nancy asked.

  “Far from it. His business prospered and our life was very happy. But during his final illness, he started worrying again.

  “Just before he died,” Cousin Yvette continued, “my uncle murmured, ’Seven stones tell the truth. But it is better that my secret remain bottled up forever!’ ”

  Nancy and Nikki exchanged puzzled looks.

  “Did you tell that to Madame Zurga?” Nancy asked.

  “Yes, and I also gave her a bottle of stones.” Ms. Lamar explained that after her uncle passed away, she had found the bottle on his closet shelf. It contained exactly seven stones.

  “They look like ordinary pebbles to me,” she went on. “But I kept them, anyhow. When I gave them to Madame Zurga, I didn’t think she could discover anything special about them. At any rate, she keeps telling me that if I want to save myself from the ’Curse of the Frog,’ I must find out my uncle’s secret and tell it to her.”

  There was a brief silence. Nikki had kindled a small fire behind the grate to ward off the night’s chill. Nancy gazed thoughtfully into the flickering flames while she tried to unravel the mystery. As she turned back to face her two companions, she gave a sudden start.

  “Your uncle mentioned seven stones?” she asked.

  “Yes. Why?”

  Nancy pointed to the fireplace. “There are exactly seven of those stones that your Uncle Louis carved a ship on!”

  Both Cousin Yvette and Nikki were startled by the odd coincidence. But neither they nor the girl detective could figure out what it might mean. The stones were arranged like an upside-down V enclosing the fireplace opening. When Nancy tested them, she found that all were firmly mortared in place and could not be moved.

  Next morning, directly after breakfast, the doorbell rang. Nikki went to answer. A few moments later she ushered a tall, craggy-faced man with brush-cut iron-gray hair into the room. He held his hat in one hand and had a camera slung around his neck.