"No good," George told her. "They left for Miami two hours ago because they were following up their hottest tip yet. They're closing in on what they believe is Stroessner's headquarters."
"I bet that tip is just another piece of misinformation that Stroessner leaked to them!" Nancy exclaimed. "Maybe he did it to distract everyone's attention from the Campbell place so he'll have time to move his stuff!"
"Why not just call the Fort Lauderdale police?" Bess spoke up.
''Right," Nancy said and rushed for the phone. But it was dead! Quickly, the staff checked all the extensions in the house and found that every one had been disconnected. Andre, the chauffeur, finally discovered that the outside line had been cut.
Worried, Nancy rushed to the patio and picked up the binoculars. She was angered to see Angus Campbell staring back at her, smiling and waving while he motioned two small cars in the driveway to move up behind the truck. Apparently, the crooks were about ready to take off!
''There's no time left!" Nancy cried. "If we can't get the police, we have to stop them ourselves!"
Just then, Albert appeared on the patio. "I'd like to help with this," he offered.
"Thank you. Can we get a car?"
"Of course."
Without hesitating, he led them to the light blue limousine and the six friends piled in. After saying something to Andre, he took the wheel and expertly drove out of the driveway, heading straight for the Campbell mansion.
"I hope we make it. I hope we don't make it. I hope we make it. No, I don't hope we make it—'' Bess was crouching on one of the jump seats, eyes closed and all fingers crossed, worrying about what would happen if they confronted the crooks!
20. The Sinking Earth
George had misgivings, too. ''What are we going to do when we get to the place, Nancy?" she asked.
"We can't just jump out and start a fight," Burt said. ''From what we've seen, we're sorely outnumbered. We really have to give this some thought."
"I'm thinking right now," Nancy told him. "But so far I have no solution. Let's play it by ear.
Bess got more worried by the minute. "Do you have any suggestions, Albert?" she asked anxiously.
"Maybe," the ex-stuntman said. "Andre is following us in the gray limo. I figured in this situation you can never have too many cars. I'm not sure what we're going to do with them yet, but whatever it is, we may lose one"
"How can you lose a car?" Bess asked. "They're so big, especially these limousines."
"Bess," Dave said, "you're scared. And when you get scared, you don't think straight. Just try to relax. I promise nobody will hurt you."
"Your hero," George whispered into Bess's ear, and the girl blushed.
"One more thing," Albert said. "We have a radio in the back. One of you should try to reach Señor Segovia. Well, here we are!" He braked slightly and they came to a halt about two hundred yards from the Campbell mansion.
"Do you see anything?" Nancy asked.
"They're about to leave," Albert replied tersely. "Would everybody please get into Andre's car behind me!"
The young people proceeded to do so. Nancy, who climbed out last, looked at him intently. "What are you going to do?" she asked.
"We'll have to buy time until we reach the police. I'll try to block their escape route. You see, they have only one driveway entrance, right there at the gate. The drive loops around the house."
"You're planning to block the entrance?"
"Right. It won't hold them for long, but it might give us five or ten minutes more time"
"Please be careful!''
The stuntman smiled. ''Don't worry, I always am. That's why I have managed to live so long and stay so ugly."
Nancy smiled at Albert's handsome face that was crisscrossed with scars and featured a nose that had been broken several times. ''You're not ugly," she said. "Right now, with what you're going to do, you're the most beautiful man in the world!"
Albert laughed and Nancy joined her friends in Andre's car. They all watched tensely as the stuntman revved up his engine. Then he shot forward.
The big limousine gathered speed until it was traveling about forty miles per hour. At precisely the right moment, Albert turned violently, got up on two wheels, and started to skid sideways. When he came down again, he crashed into the gate!
The young people gasped and waited anxiously. Finally, Albert extricated himself from the driver's side, grinned, and ran toward them.
They heard the strangled cries of surprise and rage as the crooks, who had just begun to move their convoy of two cars and the truck, found themselves halted by the large limousine that was wedged in between the gateposts.
When Albert reached the young people, he asked, "Have you been able to contact Señor Segovia yet?"
"No,'' Nancy replied. ''But we got the police."
"Are they coming?"
"Yes, even though they had a hard time believing this is happening."
"I don't blame them," Bess said. "I can hardly believe it myself, and I saw it with my own eyes!"
Just then, a message came crackling over the radio. The police had gotten in touch with Mr. Drew and Señor Segovia, and the two men were on their way with federal officers.
The six friends cheered, but Albert bit his lip. "They'd better get here soon. See what those crooks are using to get out of that driveway?"
Nancy peered through the foliage. A bright yellow bulldozer was charging toward the gate!
"Bye-bye limousine," Albert said softly. Luckily, he had done such an expert job of wedging the car in, that it took the bulldozer almost five minutes to smash it and push it out of the way. Then the gang came roaring out of the gate. Andre immediately took up the pursuit.
Nancy broadcasted constant position reports to her father and the police as they followed the gang. Where could the crooks be heading? she wondered. Not to a boat. That would be too slow and they'd be caught. They had to be planning to get away by air. But if that was the case, they wouldn't have time to load the machinery. The best Stroessner could hope for was to escape with the stamps, which would be a victory for him. The stamps were the most valuable part of the criminals' operation and would enable them simply to set business up elsewhere. They could always get new counterfeiting equipment.
Andre had to use all his driving skills to keep up with the mad gang as the truck and the two cars careened wildly over the highway.
"Maybe I'd better drive," Albert suggested.
"Good idea," Andre agreed. "I'm not up to the stunts that are required for this job!" He pulled over to the side and quickly let Albert take the wheel.
At times, the criminals veered into the lane of oncoming traffic. But Albert managed to keep up without endangering anyone.
Nancy was still in radio contact with the police. They were now convinced that Stroessner was headed for an airstrip to the northwest, toward the Everglades. By abandoning the machinery, the crooks could take off from there, provided they had managed to have a plane ready.
"With Stroessner's contacts,'' Ned said, "I'm sure he was able to radio some confederates to provide an aircraft, even though it was very short notice.''
The others agreed. Soon they found themselves on a two-lane road, which inspired the crooks to even worse driving. Unfortunately, there was no sign yet of the police.
Finally, because of the risks the gang was taking cutting in and out of traffic, Albert had been forced farther and farther back, with several cars between him and the criminals.
Yet, Nancy and her friends had not given up hope of catching up with the gang, until they saw the outline of a small, twin-engine aircraft in the distance.
"That's it!" George cried. 'T bet that's how they'll get away, and we won't be able to do anything about it!"
Albert's lips were pressed tightly together. If only he could diminish the gap between the limousine and the fleeing caravan! But he had no choice but to crawl along behind two slow-moving cars and watch the gang turn off the road. The car
avan sent up plumes of dust as it headed for the plane along a dirt lane.
"Oh" Bess moaned, "they're going to make it!"
It certainly appeared that way. The police cars were still a mile away, and the traffic in front of the pursuers continued to stutter and stall.
Then, just as things began to move again and Albert picked up speed, there was a loud explosion!
The limousine swerved violently and he could hardly control the wheel. "Blowout!" he muttered. ''Stay calm. It's all right."
He reduced the speed to five miles an hour. Ned and the boys could stand it no longer.
''We're pretty good runners," Ned said. "Let us out and we'll get there faster than you will."
Albert shook his head. "You may be good runners, but what will you do when you catch up to them? The three of you couldn't stop that whole gang, even if they're not armed. The best you could do would be to wave good-bye to them."
"Oh, this is maddening!" George clutched her head in her hands.
Nancy just nodded. As they bumped along, they could see the villains climbing from their vehicles and running toward the plane.
"Now I know why they took the truck, even though they're not planning to unload the equipment," Dave said. "They couldn't all fit into the cars!"
''Where are the police?'' Burt said impatiently.
As if in answer, they heard Señor Segovia's voice over the radio. ''We're coming, we're coming. We can see the plane in the distance. Let's hope it'll take the gang a few minutes before they fly off."
But the criminals were boarding the plane already, and the pilot revved up the engines. Nancy grew desperate. She took the radio microphone and called the police again. "Is there no way we can get a helicopter here to stop them?" she asked.
"Negative," came the answer. "All copters are on emergency missions and we anticipate it will be another hour before one is available."
"What about a chase plane?" Nancy urged.
"Negative again. Same situation. All police planes are involved in a rescue operation that involves human lives. We can't take any away from that mission."
"Thank you." Discouraged, Nancy put the microphone down. "Well," she said, "that's it.
Stroessner's going to get away by seconds."
Albert had now reached the dirt lane into the field and turned. Slowly, the limousine bumped toward the aircraft. "ril try to head them off" the ex-stuntman said, and aimed for the end of the runway.
Just then, the pilot started to taxi toward that spot. To the complete surprise of the group, the plane had only gone about fifty yards when its front end dipped and seemed to run into a hole. It dipped again, then the whole plane vanished!
The young people gaped. ''What—what happened?'' Nancy cried out.
Albert came to an abrupt stop. ''We'd better not go any further," he declared tersely. "There seems to be a sinkhole up ahead."
"A what?" Bess asked.
"A sinkhole. That's why you can't see the plane. It sunk." He jumped out of the car. "Any volunteers who want to come with me and see what happened to our friends?"
"Will we sink?" Bess asked warily.
"Not much."
Everyone got out and followed Albert. When they came closer to the area where the plane had disappeared, they realized that the ground had become depressed ten or twelve feet.
"How did this happen?" George inquired.
"These sinkholes are the result of a low water level under the earth" Albert explained. ''When the water recedes, it leaves empty space, and sometimes the earth collapses ten or fifteen feet in the center. It's enough to keep an airplane from taking off. But the sides of the hole are usually not steep, so it's not nearly as bad as it looks."
Nancy suddenly smiled. "The crooks, who thought they were so clever, provided for every emergency except an act of nature."
At this moment, a number of police cars came up and stopped near the limousine. Carson Drew, Señor Segovia, and several officers jumped out and ran up to the group.
Nancy hugged her father. "Look, Dad, there are your crooks!" she cried, pointing to the plane, now barely visible.
"Sitting in a sinkhole seems rather fitting for them, doesn't it?" Ned added.
With the police in the lead, the group went to the edge of the hole. They saw a big, bald man with a monocle, obviously Otto Stroessner, perspiring and cursing as he was trying to climb up the side. He clutched a briefcase that everyone was sure contained the rare stamps. Behind him was Angus Campbell and the two
French sailors; the restaurant owner whom Nancy had dubbed "Tuxedo'' and his helper; the two burglars that had destroyed Mrs. Pahner's living room; Errol Bigley; and the three men who had kidnapped Mr. Drew. There was also another man whom the young people had never seen before.
"Is that McConnell?'' Nancy asked Señor Segovia. He nodded.
Quickly, the police handcuffed the men and led them to the squad cars. As Stroessner went past Nancy, he gave her a furious look.
''I think the Brotherhood of the Vulture is going to lose some of its most valuable members," she said.
He turned red with anger and started to reply, but then restrained himself and walked on. Angus Campbell showed no emotion at all. When he saw Bess, he stopped for a moment. ''I'm really sorry we didn't have a chance to get to know each other better,'' he said with an ironic smile.
Dave kicked some stones. "Don't you ever give up?" he growled. ''Even when you're in handcuffs?"
Angus grinned but did not answer.
''Well," Ned said to Dave, "remember what I told you. He probably wouldn't be in this shape today if he had found a nice girl of his own."
"You're a very bad man!" Dave replied, struggling not to chuckle at the kidding.
Nancy stopped Angus. "Tell me" she asked, "why did you suddenly move out all your stuff and leave like this?"
Angus shrugged. "Panic. I realized I had asked too many questions. Also, Stroessner was kind of dumb the way he was flaunting his operation right under the nose of Ricardo Segovia, trying to make a fool of him."
"Shut up!" Tuxedo growled behind him. "Don't say nothing until you see your lawyer, you idiot!"
Angus grinned. "What lawyer? I'll represent myself. You see, I am a lawyer, duly admitted to the bar of the state of Florida!"
"I can't stand him," Dave moaned, burying his face in his hands. "Even after he goes to jail, I won't be able to stand him."
Angus shrugged. "Anyway," he said to Nancy, "the clincher was when you found that Spanish newspaper on my yacht. I knew you were suspicious and we were too vulnerable for our own good. If we had been able to relocate without your knowledge, things might have worked out. But—they didn't."
No, they didn't, Nancy thought. She felt satisfaction at having prevented the gang from succeeding, but at the same time, she wondered when she would have another mystery to solve. She had no idea that soon she would be searching for The Elusive Heiress.
Later, at police headquarters, Stroessner's briefcase was examined, and Nancy and her friends at last viewed the famous Penny Black stamp. They were disappointed. It was so dark that they could hardly see the outline of the design. It was also slightly dirty.
"That's it?" Bess asked. "And it's worth all that money?"
"That's because it's so rare," Señor Segovia told her. "We also found a number of very valuable stamps on those envelopes that belong to Mrs. Palmer. I already notified her and she said to put them up for auction. The proceeds are to go to her favorite charity."
"Well," Nancy said with a smile, "the sinister omen brought some good after all!"
Carolyn Keene, The Sinister Omen
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