Jemitt opened his mouth as if to retort, but instead turned and walked down the dark stairs.
"We must find out where he"s going!" Nancy said, stooping to pick up the box Jemitt had hurled at Mr. Hill. "And I"ll call my Dad and report to him."
Mr. Hill took the box from Nancy, and suggested they should also remove the other boxes from under the floorboards. They lifted them out and started for the house.
"I"ll give you a receipt for these and put them in the bank vault," he said to Nancy. "They certainly aren"t safe here."
"But the bank isn"t open," Nancy told him.
"It will be until seven this evening."
Mr. Hill and the girls trailed Jemitt across the meadow to the Sidney mansion. When they arrived, Hannah said he and his wife had gone to their room.
Nancy nodded. "I"ll phone Dad and tell him what happened."
"Then I"ll call my chauffeur," Mr. Hill told her.
She ran to the telephone booth and called her home. No one answered, so Nancy tried her father"s office. His secretary was still there and explained she was working late.
"Mr. Drew went out of town in connection with the Sidney case, and won"t be back until tomorrow afternoon," she said. "That"s why he sent Mr. Hill out to see if you were all right."
"Thank you," said Nancy. "We"re having an exciting time but we"re all okay."
Mr. Hill made his call and in a short time was ready to leave. "I think," he said, "that I"d better come back here tonight and keep an eye on things."
Nancy smiled. "Oh, would you? We"ll have dinner ready by that time."
Carol insisted upon helping. Mrs. Gruen remarked that the Jemitts also should be offering to do their share.
"They"ll get hungry some time," the Drews" housekeeper said. "Then we"ll see them."
Nancy had chosen to set the table in the dining room so she could watch the couple come downstairs. But half an hour went by and they did not appear. Uneasy, Nancy decided to go upstairs and speak to them. She found their door wide open and the closet stripped of clothes. On a hunch Nancy pulled out several bureau drawers. There was nothing in them!
"They"ve gone!" she thought in dismay. "No telling what they took with them!"
Nancy fairly flew to the first floor and burst into the kitchen. "The Jemitts have moved out!" she exclaimed.
"What!" said Hannah Gruen. "But how could they without our seeing them?"
Carol sank into a chair. "It"s all my fault. I"ve made such a mess of everything!" she wailed. "Th-the Jemitts must have used the back stairway."
She explained that since several steps on it needed repairing, the stairway was never used. At the top and bottom, planks had been laid across and curtains hung at the back. The s.p.a.ces were used as closets.
"Please show me," Nancy requested.
She and Hannah followed the girl to a rear hall which opened onto a porch. Carol grasped the handle of an inside door and turned it. A curtain three feet beyond had been shoved aside, revealing a stairway. There was no doubt but that the Jemitts had used it in their secret getaway.
"I wonder how much of Asa Sidney"s property they took," Mrs. Gruen remarked grimly.
Carol shuddered at the remark. "You really think they have stolen more of Mr. Sidney"s possessions?"
Nancy nodded. "It"s a good possibility." A determined look spread over her face. "I"m going to find those people!"
Hannah smiled. "I"m sure n.o.body wants them back, but as foster parents they did abandon a minor, and are liable."
"Carol, is there a big flashlight around?" Nancy asked.
"Yes, in the kitchen."
"We"ll need it. Carol, you help me. Hannah, please guard the house," Nancy directed.
The two girls rushed outside just in time to meet Mr. Hill walking in. His chauffeur was driving off. Quickly Nancy explained what had happened and the three rushed to the garage. As they had expected, the Jemitts" car was gone.
"We didn"t hear the motor," Nancy said, "so it"s my guess the Jemitts pushed the car out to the road before starting it. Let"s take mine and try to catch them!"
She had parked her convertible in the driveway, near the far corner of the inn. When they reached the car, all of them gasped in dismay. Both rear tires had been slashed.
"How awful!" Carol exclaimed.
"And I have only one spare tire," Nancy said, vexed with herself because the Jemitts had outwitted her. An idea came to her. "The tire-cutting was probably done to prevent pursuit," she said. "Or maybe the Jemitts wanted to make us believe pursuit is necessary, but actually they"re not far away!"
She turned to Mr. Hill. "What was in the boxes you took to the bank besides the securities?"
"A large collection of sterling silver," he replied. "I"m sure that old tenant house is filled with loot."
"Then that"s where the Jemitts would go first," Nancy said with conviction. She took a large portable spotlight from her car trunk. "Let"s hurry to the tenant house," she urged.
The three strode off through the meadows to the old cottage. Nancy was somewhat disappointed to find it in darkness.
"They got here ahead of us," Mr. Hill commented. "That is, if they came here at all."
"Let"s wait a few minutes," Nancy said, putting out the light.
They stood in silence close to a towering sycamore tree, their forms blending with the light, mottled background of the trunk. At last Nancy"s keen ears heard a sound that was different from the noises of the meadow insects. It had a metallic ring and was m.u.f.fled and distant.
Instantly she switched on her spotlight, and the beam cut through the blackness. The tumble-down tenant house sprang into view, and on the rickety front steps Frank and Emma Jemitt were etched sharply in the glare. He was carrying a long, narrow box over one shoulder. His wife held a pair of ornate silver candelabra.
"Call to them that the house is guarded and that they must leave anything they have removed," Nancy whispered to Mr. Hill. "Try to disguise your voice."
Raymond Hill chuckled, cleared his throat, and then in a resounding voice shouted the warning Nancy had requested.
"Who are you, anyhow?" Jemitt yelled back. "I got a right to be here!"
"Stand where you are!" Mr. Hill commanded.
Jemitt gave an ugly laugh in response and moved a step lower.
"If we could frighten them," whispered Nancy, "with a loud noise, such as-"
"Um-yes."
Nancy picked up a stone. "I wonder-"
Mr. Hill quickly sensed her thought, grabbed the rock, then with a fling sent it toward the cottage at a swift pace. There was the crash of gla.s.s as a front window shattered into splinters.
Jemitt picked up the box, leaped off the steps, and ran into the darkness. Mrs. Jemitt screamed and dashed after her husband. Nancy kept the spotlight on the panic-stricken pair as they charged through the brush and meadow gra.s.s toward the road.
"We must stop them and see what"s in their car!" Nancy exclaimed.
She led the others, but the chase proved hopeless. Halfway up the road they heard the roar of a motor and a car speed off.
"I think," said Mr. Hill as the three retraced their steps, "that as soon as dinner is over, I"d better come back to the tenant house and guard it. In fact, this would give me a chance to do some more searching."
Carol shyly offered an army cot and blankets from the inn.
"I accept," the banker said. "And I"ll take a flashlight too."
After finishing the delicious dinner Hannah had prepared, Mr. Hill left. Nancy could not get her mind off the Jemitts and finally phoned her friend Police Chief McGinnis in River Heights and told him the story.
"We must stop them!" Nancy exclaimed "I"m glad you called me," the officer said. "This is serious. My men will be alerted to watch for the Jemitts. If they"re located, the car will be searched. The sign of the twisted candles on anything they find will identify it as Asa Sidney"s property."
Mrs. Gruen had already insisted that the exhausted and weepy Carol go to bed. When Nancy went up to say good night to her, the girl was sound asleep.
Nancy returned to the first floor just in time to answer the telephone. A male voice asked, "Is Miss Nancy Drew there?"
The young detective"s face broke into a wide smile. "Hi, Ned!" she exclaimed.
"For Pete"s sake, Nancy, I"ve been trying for days to get you. What"s the idea of hiding?"
"Oh, Ned, I have so much to tell you. When can you leave your job and come down so I can talk to you?"
"Camp closes tomorrow. I should be home the next day. By the way, what"s up between you and Bess? When I couldn"t get your house I called her to find out where you were. Boy, she was about as friendly as an ice cube!"
"I"ll tell you when I see you," Nancy answered. "You"d better call me again before you leave, Ned. I may go home."
"Okay. Be good. By now."
"By."
After the dinner dishes had been washed and put away, Nancy and Hannah Gruen sat down in the living room to talk. The conversation turned to possible treasures hidden in the house.
"One place old-timers always hid things was in chimneys," the Drews" housekeeper remarked.
"There are several in this house," Nancy said. Jumping up, she added, "Let"s investigate the one in here first."
Nancy brought her flashlight and looked up inside the chimney. She could see nothing because the damper was closed. Noting a hook, Nancy gave it a yank. The next moment a shower of black soot and debris sprayed down over her.
Hannah Gruen gasped. Then the next second she cried out, "Ugh! Bats!"
CHAPTER XIV.
An Embarra.s.sing Meeting AFRAID to open her eyes Nancy stepped from the fireplace and felt for a handkerchief from her pocket. Hannah kept crying, "Bats! Bats! Look out, Nancy! They may bite you!"
Nancy could hardly see but realized that two bats were whizzing around the room. Apparently they were confused by their sudden exit into the lighted room from the dark chimney. Mrs. Gruen, who had flipped the back of her skirt over her head, was rushing to the front door, which she flung open.
"Get out! Shoo!" she cried out.
By now Nancy had wiped the soot from her eyes and joined Hannah in trying to force the bats from the house. Finally the housekeeper ran outside. Nancy followed and in a minute the flying mammals came too. Nancy and Hannah hurried back inside.
"Thank goodness they"ve gone!" Hannah said. "And now, Nancy, you"d better go upstairs for a bath and a shampoo while I clean up that mess in the living room."
Nancy needed no urging. She shook off as much soot as possible, then went upstairs. At last, too weary for further treasure hunting, she went to bed.
Carol was both alarmed and amused by Nancy"s story of the bats the next morning, and for the first time in days a smile came over her pale face. "I can just see you standing there, black from head to foot."
Nancy laughed. "I"ll confine my hunting to cleaner spots."
As the girls helped Mrs. Gruen prepare breakfast, they saw Mr. Hill striding toward the house.
"Good morning!" the banker hailed them. "All quiet at the tenant house last night. Any excitement here?"
"Plenty," Nancy replied, and told him about the chimney episode. He laughed heartily.
Soon the four were enjoying a hearty breakfast.
"I"ll have to go to the bank," Mr. Hill said presently. "My chauffeur will call for me, and then I"ll send him back to stand guard at the tenant house."
"We"ll stay here in the inn," Nancy told him. "As soon as my father returns I"ll ask him to station two watchmen here, one to relieve your chauffeur. Then Mrs. Gruen and I will go home and take Carol with us."
"An excellent plan-the best possible under the circ.u.mstances," Mr. Hill declared. "Nancy, you certainly won a major battle of wits against the Jemitts at the tenant house last night."
The banker"s car arrived shortly, and he rode off. In less than an hour the chauffeur was back with new tires for Nancy"s car. He deftly put them on before taking up guard duty at the old cottage.
At noontime Nancy telephoned her father"s office and learned that he had just returned. Swiftly she outlined the events of the preceding day, and he promised that precautions such as Nancy suggested would be taken. At one o"clock an automobile drove up. In it with Mr. Drew were two muscular men.
"Private detectives," the lawyer said briefly to Nancy.
He posted one man at the inn, the other at the tenant house. The guards were to be replaced by another duo at midnight.
"Now, Carol, pack your things and we"ll take off," Nancy said. "Our worries are over for the time being."
While Carol was packing, Mr. Drew told Nancy that the Sidney-Boonton families had engaged a lawyer to fight Carol"s inheritance from Asa Sidney.