She suddenly burst out, “I’ve a hunch that the Driscolls moved their prisoner to a different hiding place. The thing for us to do is find it!”
“That may be very difficult,” said Dave. “Do you have an idea where it is?”
“Yes, I have. The beach house Simon Delaroy mentioned in his letter.”
“But there isn’t any beach house!” Bess pointed out.
Nancy reminded the others that Simon had said the beach house was easily concealed. “I’ve suspected for some time it’s actually a room connected with the cellar of the lodge and has an opening onto the beach.”
“And all we have to do is find it,” George said wryly. “Well, I’m with you, Nancy. Let’s not admit defeat yet.”
The kitchen was tidied, then once more the six set off. Cecily had decided to stay at the cottage. Suddenly Nancy mentioned the police chiefs warning against their trespassing.
“Maybe we’re okay,” George spoke up. “When I was hunting up the history of the lodge, I kept right on up to the present time. A large part of the original Wayne estate has been sold, including beach rights, to the village of Misty Lake.”
Nancy chuckled. “You mean that if anyone orders us off, we can counter by saying we know that the property has been sold?”
George grinned. “Work it anyway you like.”
As they walked along, Burt asked, “If the police searched the lodge from attic to cellar, why didn’t they find the beach house if it’s connected to the cellar?”
“Because the entrance is concealed,” Nancy replied. “When I was in that room in the cellar, I noticed a door behind a chest. I believe that it leads into what Simon called the beach house.”
They reached the edge of the woods. Ned was in the lead. “Hold it,” he said. “We’re not going to do any searching now. Vince Driscoll is sitting on the beach facing the bluff. I’ll bet he’s guarding the place.” The others agreed.
Although thwarted, they all were excited. Nancy’s belief about a hidden room must be true! The young people waited awhile, but Vince showed no signs of leaving.
Finally the girls and their escorts returned to the cottage. Frequently they took turns walking down to the lake front to look up at the Pudding Stone Lodge beach. Vince Driscoll was still there. At sundown they saw his brother Karl relieve him and take up the watch.
Nancy wondered if the phantom launch would appear, but it did not. As it grew darker, Karl produced a flashlight and kept moving it back and forth as he patrolled the beach.
“I’m convinced now that he’s guarding the beach to keep us away,” said Nancy. “I guess our only hope is to outwait him. I have an idea.”
She suggested that they all join in singing and laughing, and then the boys would say in loud voices, “Good night! See you in the morning!” Instead of leaving, they were to take up a watch among the trees near the beach. “Alert us as soon as Driscoll goes away,” Nancy requested.
The plan was carried out. The boys left and the girls turned out the cottage lights. They tried to remain awake but could not keep from dozing off.
About an hour later they were startled out of their sleep by loud pounding on the cottage door. Nancy was the first to reach it, and flung it open.
Dave stood there, out of breath and excited. “Hurry! The Driscoll brothers are loading a truck. We heard them say it’s for a big delivery! This is our chance to catch those crooks red-handed!”
CHAPTER XVIII
The Chase
“You mean,” Nancy said excitedly, “a delivery of illegal records?”
“I’m sure of it,” said Dave. “We got close enough to hear Karl Driscoll say there’s going to be a second delivery later—to Baltimore. After that, he said, the Driscolls, the children, and Susan would make their getaway.”
“Susan!” Nancy echoed.
The girl detective was once more puzzled. What had Karl meant by getaway? Was the red-haired girl not a prisoner, but mixed up in the Driscolls’ racket? Had Susan dropped the half locket? And what about the twins? Was Nancy’s secret theory true?
Now she quickly outlined a plan to the others. This time, Cecily insisted on taking part.
“I think you boys should follow the truck,” Nancy said. “We girls will watch the house.”
“That’s a good idea,” Dave agreed.
“We may all have to do some chasing sooner or later,” Nancy went on. “We’d better take both cars and hide them along the lane that leads to the main road.”
They locked the cottage and hurried up to the two cars. Ned and Burt were waiting for them behind trees at the intersection of the road leading to Pudding Stone Lodge.
A minute later a truck pulled away from the stone house and roared down the road. Nancy and the others strained their eyes to see who was in it. As it lumbered past, they saw that the driver was Vince. Nancy identified the man beside him as Webby.
“Let’s go, fellows!” Ned urged, and told Nancy that on the way the boys would telephone Detective Morton in Baltimore.
As soon as the youths’ car was out of sight, Nancy drove the girls nearer the lodge, hid the car once more, and the four proceeded on foot. Nancy signaled a halt beneath a lighted open window on the second floor. “Listen!”
The girls could hear the twins crying. The little girl was begging plaintively for a story.
Mrs. Driscoll’s annoyed voice floated down clearly, “Don’t bother me! Go to sleep!”
The little girl asked, “Why are we dressed? We never go to bed with all our clothes on!”
The girls grew tense. This corroborated Dave’s statement that the occupants were all leaving. “But how soon?” Nancy wondered. She must find Susan!
“Bess and George,” whispered Nancy, “you keep spying on the lodge. If Mrs. Driscoll drives away with the children, follow her. If Susan is with them, George, give the owl signal whistle we use sometimes. Meantime, Cecily and I will investigate the beach.”
Nancy did not dare use her flashlight. She and Cecily picked their way carefully down the wooded bluff to the bottom. She felt it was almost hopeless to hunt for a hidden door in the heavy growth of vines on the darkened hillside, but she was determined to try. Both girls carried on a long, tedious search.
Suddenly Nancy touched cold metal, then felt the outline of a door! Elated, she was just about to try pulling it open, when suddenly a voice nearby hissed, “Now I’ve got you right where I want you!”
Nancy and Cecily froze in fright. They expected to be grabbed, or be revealed in a flashlight’s glow. But nothing happened! No one appeared!
The girls stared at the door, and now noticed dim light coming through a rounded opening at the top. They could not see in. The same voice went on, “Your brother ain’t here to back you up, Karl, so you’re goin’ to account to me!”
Nancy and Cecily stood close together, holding hands. Their hearts were thumping. The voice was coming from just inside the secret door!
“Okay, Raskin. What’s your beef?” Karl asked.
Neal Raskin! So he was mixed up in the Driscolls’ racket!
“Why didn’t you keep that snoopin’, pryin’ Nancy Drew from ruinin’ our record game?”
In a whining voice Karl tried to defend himself. “I found this place for us, didn’t I? When we discovered it was empty and we couldn’t collect any reward for those kids, I rented it for our record factory.”
Reward for the children! Nancy and Cecily stared at each other in bewilderment.
Karl went on, “Wasn’t I the one that set up that sound movie of the phantom launch to scare off the summer residents and that Winch fellow?”
There was no answer, and Driscoll added, “I was watching from the attic the night Nancy Drew and the other girls came to that cottage. And later when I spotted her near here, I signaled to Vince over the intercom to stop the machinery in the beach house.
“That was a busy night for me. Susan Wayne had escaped. Vince and I caught her in the woods, tied her up, gagged her, and dra
gged her back to the lodge. On the way I heard footsteps and saw some girl climbing the slope. I pushed her from behind and she fell down. I guess she was knocked out because she didn’t move. When I went back later to take a look, Nancy Drew was with her. So I rolled a big log down on the two of them.”
“All right,” said Raskin. “So you captured Susan Wayne because she found out too much about you three and the racket. But you still didn’t stop that Drew dame.”
“You messed up things yourself!” Karl retorted. “You try to kidnap her and Niko Van Dyke and they get out of the car and walk away!”
Raskin snorted indignantly. “How did I know she suspected they were being kidnapped?”
“I worked hard on this business,” Karl insisted. “I even apologized when Vince ordered those girls away so they wouldn’t get suspicious, and then bought that iron bird to fool them. When you told me the Drew girl’s friends came to your office I tried to scare her away from Misty Lake. I locked her out on the roof and sent Vince flying over to wreck the cottage so they’d all go home. And just in case that didn’t work, I had him put a hole in the canoe.”
“But that didn’t frighten off Miss Nancy Drew, either!” Raskin said angrily.
“Is it my fault she don’t scare easy?” Karl asked. “Even when Vince and I sneaked down to the cottage and threw a rock inside, she and her pals didn’t leave.”
“Yes, but what good did that do?” Raskin sneered. “That girl detective sure can put it all over you. She tricked you by makin’ you think a red-haired girl on the beach was Susan and that she had escaped.”
Karl admitted this, saying he had panicked and had not stopped to think. But his wife had, and found Susan still locked in the attic room. “So I moved her down here to the beach house and whistled for Vince to come back. I had a feeling Nancy Drew would get the police. But I fooled them plenty, so you can’t say I haven’t done anything.”
Raskin complained, “We had a swell racket goin’. Now, thanks to those nosy girls, we got to stop it. After we get the load of records out tonight, we’ll be out of business.”
There was no conversation for a few minutes. Nancy and Cecily could hear boxes being shoved around. Finally Karl said, “This is the last box. We’ll carry this up, load the truck—it’ll be full—and take care of Susan later.”
The two girls heard footsteps receding. When she was sure they had left the room, Nancy tried the door. It would not budge. She called Susan’s name but there was no answer.
“Oh, we must get in there and save Susan!” Cecily said, as she and Nancy kept pushing and pulling on the door.
It had started to drizzle and instantly Nancy thought of slippery roads. She wondered how the boys were making out.
At that very moment Ned, Burt, and Dave had pulled into an all-night gas station. While the attendant filled up the tank, Ned rushed to a phone booth and called police headquarters in Baltimore, asking that Detective Morton be alerted about the Driscoll truck headed for the city.
Ned dashed outside, climbed behind the wheel, and resumed the pursuit. Vince’s truck was not going very fast in the misty drizzle, so it was easy for the boys to catch up. Suddenly the truck turned into a bumpy side road, only one lane wide.
“Where do you suppose they’re making this delivery?” Dave asked.
Burt replied, “I can’t imagine.”
It had begun to rain hard now and the poorly paved road was very slippery. On the left side was a deep ditch. Ned kept as far from it as possible.
Presently he slowed down at a sharp curve where a large sign warned:
SOUND HORN
Go SLOW
“Vince Driscoll didn’t sound his horn,” Dave pointed out.
“You can bet I’m not going to sound mine,” Ned answered.
He had driven only a short distance beyond the curve when the trio saw the truck turning around in a widened place in the road. It started forward —straight for the boys!
“That guy’s not going to stop!” Ned exclaimed, and began to back up. He negotiated the curve successfully, but had to go so slowly that the truck overtook them. It hugged the inside of the road and squeezed the boys’ car toward the deep ditch.
Ned’s car skidded, and swerved to the edge. He applied the brake, but it was hopeless. The next moment the car dropped backward and crashed into the ditch.
CHAPTER XIX
Captured!
THE truck roared away down the narrow road. Ned, Burt, and Dave had instinctively let their bodies go limp and were only badly shaken up when the car had plunged into the ditch.
They scrambled out and surveyed the situation. At first glance the boys were sure a wrecker would be needed to pull out Ned’s car.
“It’s going to be a long walk in the rain,” Dave complained. “I’d like to get hold of that Vince Driscoll and let him have it!”
“I would too, but right now we’re stuck,” said Ned. “Let’s try to get this bus out of here. First, I’ll see if it still runs.”
To his relief, the engine started at once. Ned climbed out and together the three athletes tried to shove the car onto the road. They found it was impossible to move it up the steep side of the ditch, but in the glare of the headlights, Ned saw that the ditch grew shallower a short distance ahead. Together, the boys pushed the car through the mud and weeds until they reached this spot. Then, with a mighty heave, they managed to get one front wheel onto the pavement. A few minutes later the car was back on the road.
The boys grunted in satisfaction. Burt remarked, “I never thought we’d do it. Well, let’s get those pirates!”
“I don’t think there’s much chance of that now,” Ned said. “I’ll stop back at the service station and phone the Baltimore police.”
When Ned pulled in, the attendant looked at the boys in surprise, then at the mud-covered car.
“We were forced off the road,” Ned explained. “I’d like to use your phone again.”
“Help yourself.”
When Ned talked to a sergeant on duty, the officer surprised him with some good news. “The State Police nabbed those men in the truck. They’re being held at Sayreville.”
“That’s great!” Ned said. “Have they confessed?”
“They won’t say a word. But we’ve got that load of records.”
Ned started to ask if anyone from the State Police had gone to Pudding Stone Lodge. Then the line went dead. He hurried outside and reported to the other boys.
“We’d better get back there pronto ourselves,” Ned urged.
He jumped behind the wheel and drove off. Despite the heavy rain, they made good time to the cottage. No one was there and the boys were concerned about Nancy and her three friends.
“They must still be staking out the lodge,” Burt suggested. “Let’s go there and see if the second truck has gone yet.”
When they reached the garage, it was empty. “The truck may be at the house getting loaded,” Burt ventured.
Ned suggested that Dave go to town and notify Chief Stovall of what had happened and bring back help.
“To tell the truth,” he added, “I’m worried about Nancy and the other girls. Burt and I will sneak up to the lodge and see if they’re around.”
Some time before this, Nancy, desperate to get into the beach house, had beamed her light around the hidden door. Finally she had found an old-fashioned key hanging under some vines. In a jiffy she unlocked the door, put the key back in place, and then quietly opened the door.
By the dim light inside, Nancy and Cecily saw a medium-sized room cluttered with machines, including a movie projector. Against one wall was a cot. On this a young woman with red hair lay bound and gagged.
“Susan!” Nancy and Cecily cried together, rushing to the girl’s side.
Quickly they untied her. As she sat up, Susan stared at Nancy and Cecily. “I thought you were working for the Driscolls in some way!” she said in amazement. “That’s why I ran each time I saw you.”
“It’s j
ust the opposite,” Nancy replied. “We’re trying to capture them.”
“You know about their racket?” Susan asked incredulously.
“Yes. Some friends of ours are trailing them right now. Susan, are you the daughter of Kenneth Wayne?”
“Yes!” was the amazed answer.
Cecily spoke up. “You look so much like me, Susan. I am sure you’re a relative. Did you drop a bracelet with half a locket in an old abandoned rowboat?”
“Oh, is that where I lost it? I had been carrying the bracelet in my purse, but I was afraid the Driscolls would take that away from me, which they did later. I took out the locket—which I’ve had since I was a child—and kept it in my pocket.”
Cecily now excitedly told the story behind her half locket. “I put yours and mine together, and they’re a perfect fit,” she concluded. “That’s another reason I think we’re related.”
Susan cried out, “Oh, I’m so happy to have a cousin like you. If we can only find your share of our family treasure!”
The girls begged Susan to continue her own story.
“The second time I escaped from the Driscolls I got as far as that old boat and thought maybe I could get away in it. The locket must have dropped out then. But that awful man, Vince Driscoll, and somebody they call Jake grabbed me and locked me up again.”
“You poor girl!” Cecily said sympathetically. “But why are the Driscolls holding you prisoner?”
“It’s a long story, but I’ll try to explain.”
“I think we’re safe for a while,” Nancy declared, “and we’re dying to hear your story!”
Susan explained that she had been married four years earlier. Her name was now Talbot. “Pudding Stone Lodge belongs to my family. No one is left but me and my two brothers and they’re in the Navy.”
Nancy nodded, telling of their inquiries in Baltimore. “You had a special reason for coming here, didn’t you?” Nancy asked gently.