He waved aside the remark and continued, "When I delivered your prisoner to State Police Headquarters, I asked one of the troopers to return here with me. We couldn"t find anyone inside the cottage. Then we shouted your names, and heard George pounding on the door hidden by the fishnets.
"George was convinced you were lying unconscious in the fume-filled room. Fortunately the trooper had a gas mask, a flashlight, and other equipment in his car. That"s about all there is to tell, except that when I couldn"t find you in the laboratory I became desperate. Just as I started away again I heard you pound on the bench door."
Nancy was too shaken to say much. At that moment George rushed into the cottage wild-eyed. Seeing Nancy, she flung her arms about her friend.
"Oh, you"re safe!" she cried. "And I thought-"
Ned turned Grumper over to the state trooper. "Anyone else downstairs?" he asked.
"No," Nancy spoke up, "but did you catch his partner on the cliff?"
To a negative reply, Nancy said, "The worst criminal of all has escaped-Harry Tyrox, who also calls himself Monsieur Pappier and Mr. James. He must have seen you coming and decided his freedom meant more to him than Hendrick"s money."
"Just give me a description of him and we"ll pick him up," the police officer said confidently. "I"ll notify headquarters over my car radio."
Nancy and her friends returned to Mrs. Chantrey"s house. Within an hour they were informed that Harry Tyrox had been captured on the road while attempting to flee. Immediately Nancy telephoned her father to tell of the arrests.
"Good work, Nancy," he said proudly. "I knew you wouldn"t need me to clear up the case."
The next morning Nancy and the others were given permission to talk to Grumper and Harry Tyrox. Soon the whole swindling operation was revealed. Based on information given by the two prisoners, New York police were alerted to pick up the man whom Mr. Drew had met when he went to see Tyrox.
Ferdinand Sloc.u.m, the hotel clerk in Fisher"s Cove, had been brought in for questioning. Frightened, the man admitted his part in the swindle.
"Harry Tyrox and I were friends. He offered me a cut in the cosmetic and perfume business if I would let him use the hotel for some of his shady deals," he confessed. "After Harry saw Mr. Drew in New York, he phoned me that the lawyer was coming to Candleton and something had to be done to keep him at Fisher"s Cove. So I told Amy we had to get busy."
"Your wife?" Nancy asked.
"Yes."
"Go on with your story."
"I might as well tell it from the beginning. Soon after we were married, Amy mentioned the hidden door and the pa.s.sageway to the cave. Her foster father had a workshop down there."
"Surely he didn"t build the tunnel himself."
"No, it was there when the Maguires bought the cottage. Old Grandpa Maguire discovered the closed-up entranceway one day when he was repairing the wall, and the secret was always kept in the family. The cave originally was used as a hideout by pirates."
"Tell me about the cosmetic factory," Nancy urged. "Whose idea was that?"
"Harry"s. I foolishly told him about the workshop above the cave, and right away he thought he saw a chance for big money. The plan was to make cheap imitations of very expensive products and sell them under the Mon Coeur name. First, he got the Maguires out by telling them Amy was in trouble with the police and they would be disgraced when the townspeople heard about it. They packed up and moved away immediately."
"How did Grumper figure in the scheme?"
"Harry knew about him and some crimes he"d committed. He promised Grumper a lot of money if he"d come in with us and work as our chemist. Grumper thought he could use the money to go away some place where no one knew him, so he agreed. But he didn"t figure on Amos Hendrick."
"He upset Grumper"s plans?" Nancy inquired with a smile.
"He turned them upside down. Grumper was in a panic that Hendrick would find him and reclaim the stolen jeweled bell."
"How did he learn Mr. Hendrick was in Candleton?"
"Through his cousin Franz, who served as a lookout at the cliff. Whenever people came near the cave, he sounded the gong and Grumper, hearing it in the laboratory, hurried down and tried to scare them away with his ghost act."
"Then the rush of water and the tolling bell had nothing to do with his appearances," said Nancy.
"No, but they sometimes happened close together," Sloc.u.m replied. "Whenever Franz spied someone on the cliff, he would run down to the laboratory and have Grumper send up sleeping-gas fumes through crevices in the rocks."
"I know now that Franz was the second little elf I thought I saw in my dream!" Nancy exclaimed. "He frequently came to the Salsandee Shop and carried away food."
"Yes, he had a little car hidden in some bushes at the foot of the cliff."
"I suppose he also stole the note A. H. lost at the shop," Nancy said.
"That"s right. Franz knew A. H. by sight and happened to see him drop the note in the tearoom. Later he stole it from the drawer. Before Franz could show it to Grumper, Harry Tyrox got hold of it and then the cat was out of the bag. He tried to get the bell, but Grumper wouldn"t let him have it. Harry was afraid of him because he could put people to sleep with his drugs."
"Tell me," said Nancy, "were you the person who pa.s.sed my friend George in the pa.s.sageway yesterday morning?"
Sloc.u.m started. "I was there but I didn"t know anybody else was. We have a secret closet with a stone door, where we keep Mon Coeur products. I was in the closet. When I came out the pa.s.sage was dark. My flashlight didn"t show up anybody."
"Did you lock the door at the top of the stairs?"
"Yes."
Nancy went on, "You haven"t told me how my father was drugged."
"When your father told Harry and his pal he intended to prosecute, Harry knew we had to do something quick. Harry followed Mr. Drew to the New York airport, then telephoned Madame to intercept him. We were ordered to see that he conveniently disappeared for a few weeks. Grumper made up a vial of liquid which would turn into sleeping fumes, and gave it to Madame. She arranged to get into a taxi with Mr. Drew, and just before leaving it, opened the bottle and dropped a small amount of the liquid on his coat. It was just enough to affect him but not the driver."
"How did my father reach Fisher"s Cove Hotel?"
"The driver of the cab had been paid by our men and knew what to do. He took your father there. I registered him under another name, and then kept an eye on him."
"It was Madame, I suppose, disguised as a maid, who had my father moved from his room."
"Right. Whenever he was getting better, she gave him another dose and put him to sleep.
"By accident the hotel manager discovered your father"s condition and called Dr. Warren. When Harry overheard the manager tell me to call you, he decided that you were to be drugged too and removed with your father to some other hideout. But Amy, my wife, was afraid I was getting in too deep with the gang and wanted to spike that part of the plan. That"s why she warned you by telephone to keep away. At the last minute Harry concluded the double kidnapping was too risky and called it off."
"Your wife was far wiser than you, Mr. Sloc.u.m."
"I wish now I had listened to her," the hotel clerk said miserably. "My wife works in a beauty salon. The day you came for your father she borrowed a wig from there, dressed as an old lady, and looked for you in the lobby."
"Then she was the one who dropped the note into my lap!"
"That"s right."
Nancy and her friends were happy when they learned that Harry Tyrox, alias Monsieur Pappier and Mr. James, together with his New York accomplice, still possessed most of the money he had fleeced from innocent victims. Mrs. Chantrey, Mother Mathilda, and the others who had bought the worthless stock would recover a sizable amount of the cash they had put into it.
"What will become of Amy?" George asked, as the girls sat on the Chantrey porch after lunch discussing the case. "Her husband will be sentenced to prison, and she"ll be left alone."