"How wonderful!" Nancy exclaimed, feeling particularly proud of her friend.
George agreed, also Burt and Dave.
Bess made no comment for several seconds, then she said, "Ned, your invention sounds marvelous but it"s about as clear as mud to me!"
The others laughed and it was agreed that Ned would have to go into a far deeper explanation in order to make them fully understand his invention.
Before the group broke up, they learned from Ned that Crosson controlled the glowing eye in the museum from his lab there. "His pals, who pretended to be Emerson students, had helped him take it down but left all the active wires," Ned explained. "By the way, I have the names of all Crosson"s pals. I"ll turn them over to the police. Crosson himself by accident left a paper with the word Cyclops written in Greek among my drawings. He told me this a few days ago, thinking it was a good joke, but he never had a chance to steal the material because I came into the lab just then and he had to put everything back in my file in a hurry. That very day I mailed all my work home, also the papers I kept in my room here."
As Nancy walked to her room, she felt a combination of happiness at Ned"s return and a kind of sinking feeling which always came over her when a mystery was solved.
But she did not have long to wait for The Secret of the Forgotten City to come along and involve her in another exciting adventure.
Now, with Crosson in jail and Ned back, Nancy decided to call her father and tell him the good news. She went at once to the phone and called his office.
When the lawyer heard the astonishing report, he said, "Congratulations, Nancy! I had a feeling all along you could solve the mystery of the Anderson Museum, which, of course, turned out to be much more than that. By the way, I never did tell you how the case came to me. A large donor to the museum saw the glowing eye and wondered if his money was being spent unwisely. He asked me to find out. I"ll phone him that Nancy Drew found the answer!"
After a little more conversation with her father, Nancy felt she should tell Marty King that Crosson was in jail and Ned was home. She said to her father, "I"d like to speak to Marty."
There was a pause, then Mr. Drew said, "She"s no longer working here."
"Oh!" Nancy exclaimed. "She left?" "Well, yes, but to be truthful, Nancy, I asked her to resign. Her legal work was excellent, but I began to realize that she was always arranging my business affairs so that she and I would have to eat luncheon or dinner together. Then I learned how jealous she was of you and your accomplishments."
Nancy was smiling to herself and delighted that Marty King had left her father"s employ.
"Nancy dear, I may as well tell you the whole story," her father went on. "I"m embarra.s.sed about it, but what brought on my asking Marty to leave was"-there was a long pause-"when Marty asked me to marry her!"
Nancy took a deep breath. For a couple of seconds she was not sure what to say to her father. This was a situation which she had never encountered before. Finally she decided to make light of the whole matter.
"Dad," she said, "if you ever want to find me a new mother, please promise me she won"t be someone who tries to solve my mysteries!"
Her father laughed heartily. "I promise," he said.
end.