(#25) The Ghost of Blackwood Hall (9 page)

At the far end of the hall, a wraithlike figure was just emerging from the far wall of the hallway!

CHAPTER XI

The Tunnel Room

NANCY uttered no sound. As she watched in the dim light, the ghost flitted noiselessly up a flight of stairs at the end of the hall which evidently led to the top floor.

Without thinking, Nancy started after it on tiptoe. Despite the heavy carpet, a floorboard groaned beneath her weight. Did she fancy that the filmy figure ahead hesitated a moment, then went on?

As she mounted the steps to the third floor Nancy heard another creaking sound. At the top she was just in time to see the white-draped figure again vanish into the wall!

The wall was solidly paneled with black walnut. Though Nancy searched carefully, running her fingers over every inch of the smooth wood panels, she could find no secret door or spring that might release a sliding partition. Returning to the second floor, she examined the panels there also, but without success.

Of one thing Nancy was convinced. The old house harbored more than one sinister character, how many she did not know. There was the figure at the organ, the one who had knocked her flashlight from her hand, the man who had scared Bess almost out of her wits, and now, the apparition she had followed up the stairs. Surely these could not all be one and the same “ghost.”

“The one that went up the stairs was a live man or woman, I’m sure of that! But what was he up to?”

Knowing that a further investigation at this time would be worthless, Nancy started once more to look for her father and Ned.

After a futile search of the house and grounds, she decided:

“There’s just a chance that they went back to the car and are waiting for me.” She hurried down the road.

As she reached the place where the car had been parked, she halted in astonishment.

The automobile was gone!

Before she could examine the rutty road for tire prints, she heard the sound of hurrying footsteps. Whirling, she saw her father and Ned coming out of the woods.

“Nancy, thank heaven you’re safe!” Ned exclaimed, hurrying to her side.

“But where’s the car?” Nancy demanded.

“The car’s been stolen!” Mr. Drew said grimly. “Ned and I heard voices outside and ran to investigate.”

“Did you find out who it was?”

“No. But we caught a glimpse of a man streaking through the woods,” Ned replied. “He was too far away for us to get a good look at him, and he gave us the slip.”

“By the way, here’s something I picked up near those wheelbarrow tracks that lead back through the woods,” Mr. Drew remarked.

The lawyer handed Nancy a tubular piece of metal which appeared to have been taken from a collapsible rod such as magicians and fake mediums might use.

“Why, this piece is similar to the one I saw in the clearing the other day!” Nancy exclaimed.

“And look what I found on the kitchen stairway!” Ned exclaimed.

From his pocket he drew forth a miniature short-wave radio sending set.

“Does it work?” Mr. Drew asked eagerly.

“I’ll see. Messages couldn’t be sent very far with it, though.”

“Could you tune it to send a message to the River Heights police station or a prowl car?”

Ned made some adjustments on the set, and began sending a request to the police asking that men be dispatched at once to Blackwood Hall. He gave the license number of the missing car and asked that it be rebroadcast over the police radio.

While they waited hopefully for action in response to Ned’s call, Nancy related her adventures. She described the underground passageway, the strange appearance and disappearance of the “ghost,” and the peculiar scraping sounds she had heard.

“If the police don’t show up soon, we’ll investigate the ghost room with my flashlight,” Mr. Drew declared.

“Look!” Nancy cried out. “There’s a car coming up the road.”

The three quickly stepped behind some bushes and waited to see if they could identify the occupants of the approaching automobile before revealing their presence. To their relief, it was a State Police car.

“My message must have been relayed to them!” Ned exclaimed. “Swell!”

Two officers alighted, and the trio moved out of hiding to introduce themselves. Upon hearing the full details of what had happened, the troopers offered to make a thorough inspection of Blackwood Hall.

Nancy, Mr. Drew, and Ned accompanied them back to the mansion.

The police looked in every room but found no trace of its recent tenants. When they tackled the secret tunnel, Nancy stayed close behind, eager for a glimpse beyond the walnut door. It proved to be a tiny, empty room with no sign of a mysterious green light, a ghost or a human being. Furthermore, the room had no other exit.

“Is this little room under the house? Or is it located somewhere under the grounds?” Nancy asked one of the officers.

After making various measurements the men announced that it was located under the house, almost beneath the stairwell. It was not connected with the cellar, and no one could hazard a guess as to its original purpose.

“You may have thought you saw a ghost, but don’t tell me anyone can get through a locked door,” one officer chided the girl.

“I actually did see a figure in white,” Nancy insisted quietly. “Something or someone knocked the flashlight from my hand. See, it’s over there by the door.”

In all fairness, Nancy could not blame the troopers for being a trifle skeptical. She almost began to doubt that she had ever had a frightening adventure in this spot.

Observing Nancy’s crestfallen air, Mr. Drew said to the troopers, “Obviously this old house has been used by an unscrupulous gang. When they discovered we were here to check up on them, they moved out their belongings—my car as well.”

“Stealing a car is a serious business,” one officer commented. “We’ll catch the thief, and when we do, we’ll find out what has been going on in the old Humphrey house. Meanwhile, we’ll have one of our men keep a close watch on this neck of the woods.”

“No use sticking around here now,” the other trooper added. “Whoever pulled the job has skipped.”

“I’m going to keep working on this case until all the pieces in the puzzle can be made to fit together—even the ghosts!” Nancy told her father.

“Here’s a bit of evidence,” said the lawyer, taking the piece of telescopic rod from his pocket.

One trooper recognized it at once as magicians’ or fake mediums’ equipment, and asked for it to hand in with his report. Ned turned over the pocket radio sending set which had proved so valuable in bringing the police.

Though the license number of Mr. Drew’s car had been broadcast over the police radio, there was no trace of it that night. The following afternoon Mr. Drew was notified that the car had been found abandoned in an adjacent state.

Accompanied by Nancy in her convertible, the lawyer traveled to Lake Jasper just across the state line. His automobile, found on a deserted road, had been towed to a local garage. Nothing had been damaged.

“Some people have no regard for other folks’ property,” the attendant remarked. “Probably a bunch o’ kids helped themselves to your car to go joy riding.”

But Nancy and her father were convinced that the car had not been “borrowed” by any joy riders. It had been used by a gangster to transport some unknown objects from Blackwood Hall!

What were the objects, and where had they been taken? Here was one more question to which Nancy must find the answer.

Nancy and her father had just returned home when Bess Marvin came bursting in. “Lola White has been talking wildly about you in her sleep!” Bess said ominously.

“What’s so serious about that?” Nancy inquired.

“Lola’s mother says she raves about a spirit warning her to have nothing more to do with Nancy Drew! If Lola does, the spirit will bring serious trouble to both of you!”

CHAPTER XII

Nancy’s Plan

“LOLA believes that a spirit has warned her to have nothing more to do with me, or we’ll both be harmed!” Nancy exclaimed.

“That’s what she said,” Bess answered. “I knew it would worry you.”

Her face serious, Nancy started for the telephone. Bess ran after her.

“Are you going to call Mrs. White or Lola,” she asked.

“No, I’ll go to see them. But first I’m going to call Mrs. Putney.” As Nancy looked for the telephone number in the directory, she added, “Members of a sinister ring of racketeers, posing as mediums are convinced that I’m on their trail. To protect themselves, they’re having the so-called spirits warn their clients against me!”

“Do you think Mrs. Putney has been warned against you too?” Bess asked.

“We’ll soon know.” Nancy dialed the widow’s number.

“Oh, Mrs. Putney, this is Nancy,” the girl began. “I—”

A sharp click told her that Mrs. Putney had hung up. Nancy dialed again. Though the bell rang repeatedly at the other end of the line, there was no response.

“It’s no use,” she said at last, turning to Bess. “She refuses to talk to me. She must have been warned and is taking the warning seriously.”

“What’ll you do?”

“Let’s go to her home,” Nancy proposed. “This matter must be cleared up right away.”

As the two girls arrived at the widow’s home, they saw her picking flowers in the garden. But when she caught sight of the car, she turned and walked hastily indoors.

The girls went up the porch steps. They knocked and rang the doorbell. Finally they were forced to acknowledge that the woman had no intention of seeing them. Nancy was rather disturbed as she and Bess returned to the car.

“I’m afraid those swindlers have outsmarted us,” she commented. “But not for long, I hope!”

She drove at once to the White home. Lola herself opened the door, but upon seeing Nancy, she backed away fearfully.

“You can’t come in!” she said in a hoarse voice. “I never want to see you again.”

“Lola, someone has poisoned you against me.”

“The spirits have told me the truth about you, that’s all. You’re—you’re an enemy of all of us.”

Mrs. White, hearing the wild accusation, came to the door.

“Lola, what are you saying?” she said sternly. “Why haven’t you invited our friends in?”

“Your friends—not mine!” the girl cried hysterically. “If you insist upon having them here, I’ll leave!”

“Lola! How can you be so rude?”

Nancy was sorry to see Mrs. White berate her daughter for an attitude she felt was not entirely the girl’s fault.

“I’ll leave at once,” Nancy said. “It’s better that way.”

“Indeed you must not,” Mrs. White insisted.

“I think perhaps Lola has reached the point where she can work out her own affairs,” Nancy said, but with a meaningful glance at Mrs. White, which the latter understood at once.

Nancy and Bess drove away, but pulled up just around the corner.

“I intend to keep watch on Lola,” Nancy explained. “She may decide to act upon the suggestion that she straighten out her affairs herself.”

“What do you think she’ll do?” Bess asked.

“I’m not sure. But if she leaves the house, I’ll trail her.”

It became unpleasantly warm in the car, and Bess soon grew tired of waiting. Recalling that she had some errands to do, she presently decided to leave her friend.

Time dragged slowly for Nancy, who began to grow weary of the long vigil. Just as she was about to give up, she saw Lola come out of the house and hurry down the street.

Nancy waited until the girl was nearly out of sight before following slowly in the automobile. At the post office Nancy parked her car and followed Lola into the building where she watched her mail a letter.

“I’ll bet she’s written to those racketeers!” Nancy speculated.

Cruising along at a safe distance behind Lola, Nancy saw her board a bus, and followed it to the end of the line. There Lola waited a few minutes, then hopped an inbound bus, and returned home without having met anyone.

“Either she had an appointment with someone who didn’t show up, or else she simply took the ride to think out her problems,” Nancy decided.

Of one thing she was fairly certain. The old tree in the woods was no longer being used as a post office. Instead, the racketeers were instructing their clients to use the regular mails.

On a sudden impulse Nancy drove her car back to the post office to make a few inquiries. The clerk might remember a striking blonde like Lola. As she was approaching the General Delivery window, she saw a familiar figure speaking to the clerk. It was the woman that she and the girls had seen on the plane and who had followed them in New Orleans !

Darting behind a convenient pillar, Nancy heard the woman asking whether there were any letters for Mrs. Frank Immer.

The clerk left the window and soon returned shaking his head. The woman thanked him, then left the building. When Nancy was sure the coast was clear she followed. Starting her car, Nancy kept a safe distance behind the woman. A few minutes later she saw her quarry disappear into the Claymore Hotel.

Nancy drove around the hotel once or twice, looking for a place to park. It was some time later that she approached the hotel clerk’s desk. Examination of the register revealed no guest by the name of Mrs. Frank Immer, nor had anyone signed in from Louisiana.

“But I saw Mrs. Immer enter here,” insisted Nancy. “She wore a large black hat and a blue dress.”

The clerk turned to the cashier and asked if he had seen anyone answering the description.

“Maybe you mean Mrs. Frank Egan,” the cashier volunteered. “She just checked out.”

“How long ago?”

“About ten minutes.”

The cashier could not tell Nancy where the woman had gone, for she had left no forwarding address. From a bellhop she learned that Mrs. Egan had directed a taxi to take her to the airport.

“She said something about going to Chicago,” the boy recalled.

“Thanks.” Nancy smiled.

Determined that Mrs. Egan should not leave the city without at least answering a few questions, Nancy sped to the airport. To her bitter disappointment, as Nancy pulled up, a big airliner took off gracefully from the runway.