(#44) The Clue in the Crossword Cipher (8 page)

For a long time Nancy sat mulling over various angles of the mysteries. But presently she became restless and decided to walk forward for a little exercise.

When she reached the passenger-loading door, located just behind the crews’ compartment, Nancy paused and stood gazing with interest at the pilot and copilot. She marveled at the huge bank of switches, lights, buttons, and dials that almost surrounded the men. The plane was flying high now and at cruising speed.

Suddenly, without warning, the door near Nancy began to open. The next instant it swung up and outward. She felt herself being sucked out of the plane!

Nancy made a wild grab for the luggage harness and clung tightly, but it seemed as if she did not have strength enough against the terrific wind to grasp it very long. She froze in terror.

Others in the plane had been reading, but in an instant they felt a rush of air and looked up. All were horrified when they saw Nancy’s predicament.

Señor Ponce and a companion jumped up and grabbed Nancy. But they in turn felt themselves being pulled toward the opening! Two men rushed forward and helped to pull all three to safety. Nancy dropped into an empty seat. She began to feel very dizzy.

Nancy felt herself being sucked out of the plane

By this time the crew had been alerted. The copilot leaped out of his seat and started back to see about closing the door. But at that moment it ripped off. Then a loud
thump
resounded from the rear of the fuselage. The plane shuddered violently.

“What is going on?” the captain shouted to his copilot.

“The door! It ripped off the fuselage!”

“It must have struck the stabilizer!” the captain concluded. “We have tail damage! But we still have some control left!”

The pilot ordered his passengers to don their oxygen masks and fasten their seat belts immediately. They quickly obeyed. After Nancy had taken several whiffs of oxygen, the dizziness left her and she was able to breathe normally.

Now a new worry took hold of the passengers. The plane began to yaw. Everyone sat tense and nervous.

In as steady a voice as he could muster, the pilot said, “I will try to make it to Lima.”

CHAPTER X

The Shuttered Balcony

GRIM-FACED, the passengers clutched their chair arms as the pilot dived to a lower altitude. Still the damaged plane rolled and tossed.

Nancy glanced at the open doorway and closed her eyes. She felt ill, still shocked from her narrow escape. She realized that everyone in the plane was in grave danger and never took her eyes from the pilot.

“He’s marvelous,” she thought as he managed to hold the swaying craft on course.

The passengers were swung from side to side, then forward and backward. But the sturdy plane kept on for miles and miles.

Finally it began a descending turn.

“You can take off your oxygen masks now!” the pilot announced. “We will be back on the ground in a few minutes. I have radioed the control tower to give us immediate clearance to land.”

The yawing became increasingly worse as the craft neared the runway. With great effort the pilot maneuvered into position and at last touched down. The plane bounced into the air, then settled again. A crash truck and an ambulance followed the plane as it taxied toward the parking ramp.

A sense of relief settled over Nancy. Everyone was safel Carla had told her how carefully the planes of Señor Ponce’s company were inspected, so Nancy was sure that the door had been tampered with. She felt personally responsible.

“I’m the one who’s trying to solve a mystery which several other persons definitely don’t want me to solve,” she thought ruefully. “If I hadn’t taken this case, the near accident probably would have been avoided.

“But I mustn’t think about this any more,” the young sleuth told herself. “We’re safe and I should be thankful for that.”

When the plane rolled to a stop Nancy noticed that a crowd of people were waiting for it. As the passengers unfastened their seat belts, they all praised the pilot. The young man brushed it off with a shy smile.

“Flights like that keep me from getting bored with my job,” the pilot said jokingly. Then he added soberly, “But now I want to find out why that door came off.”

When Nancy started to get up, she felt as if her legs were made of rubber. At the same moment Bess remarked that she felt wobbly, adding, “I never want to go through such a thing again! Oh, Nancy, to think we almost lost you!” Tears filled Bess’s eyes.

George and Carla hugged Nancy. They said little, but their expressions revealed what was in their hearts.

The stairway was rolled up to the door and the passengers descended to the field. All around them, men were talking excitedly in Spanish. Mechanics hurried to the top of the steps, and examined the ruined hinges and bolts on the doorframe.

Presently one of them spoke and Carla translated, “There is no question but that the lock and hinges were deliberately damaged so the door would come off while the plane was in flight.”

“How wicked!” Bess exclaimed.

Señor Ponce said they must get home as quickly as possible. He admitted feeling shaken himself. They drove off and it was not until they were halfway home that Nancy spoke.

“I’m sure it was my enemies who damaged the plane. They will go to any lengths to keep me from solving the mystery of the plaque.”

“But, Nancy,” Bess said, “how could they be sure that you would be standing by the door just when it came off?”

“They probably figured there was a chance the plane would be wrecked.” Nancy shuddered. “When I think what could have happened to everyone, just because of me—!”

After a moment Señor Ponce patted her hand. “Do not chide yourself, my dear,” he said. Nancy smiled at him.

When the girls reached the house, Señora Ponce had heard the story on a radio newscast and expressed her concern. “I immediately called the airport and was advised not to come there. All I could do was stay here and pray. You may be sure, my dears, I did plenty of that!”

Bess remarked, “This was the most exciting Sunday I’ve ever had,” and the other girls agreed.

Nancy, Bess, and George went to their rooms to rest until dinnertime. All of them fell asleep.

Later, as they were dressing, Bess remarked, “Nancy, I’m afraid you have not one or two enemies in this case, but many. We know of three. Two are in jail here in South America and that awful Harry Wallace was arrested by the police in our country. Somebody else tampered with our plane.”

George spoke up. “They aren’t Nancy’s private enemies,” she said. “They’re hostile to all of us.”

The remark made Bess shudder, and Nancy advised, “Oh, let’s not talk about this any more. If we don’t change the subject we won’t have any appetites for dinner.” Nothing more was said and they went downstairs.

When Nancy learned that dinner was not ready, she asked Carla if she had any modeling clay.

“I’d like to try some of it on the plaque.”

Carla was puzzled, but she went to get some. Nancy pressed lumps of it into the surface of the plaque over the crossword cipher. In a few moments she took it out and looked to see if the imprint would reveal any clue.

“Girls, come here!” she called excitedly. “I think I’ve figured out something!”

Carla was the first to reach her friend’s side. Nancy pointed out the imprint of the horizontal four-letter word at the base of the crossword cipher.

“I believe it’s
mesa.
If I’m right, that only leaves the one word near the top that we haven’t figured out.”

Everyone wondered where the mesa might be which the Ponces’ ancestor Aguilar had indicated.

“There are many tablelands in Peru,” said Señor Ponce. “But one thing comes to my mind. Part of the story about the Indian who brought the plaque to my family was that he spoke Quechua. This might mean that the tableland referred to here could be the one at Machu Picchu.”

“That is near Cuzco!” Carla said excitedly. “Father, we were advised to go to Cuzco and talk to an old Indian named Maponhni.”

Bess spoke up. “Would the trip to Cuzco and Machu Picchu cost very much?” she asked. “I’m running a little low on funds.”

Carla’s father smiled. “I would like all of you girls to be my guests on a sightseeing tour of those interesting places. I have a feeling you will uncover some valuable information and that would more than repay me for the trip.”

Nancy said at once, “Your offer is very generous, Señor Ponce, but we shouldn’t be such an expense to you.”

Señor Ponce grinned. “Do you know what the Quechua Indians say to me?
‘Canqui Japac.’
” His eyes still twinkling, he translated. “It means, ‘You are rich.’ ”

Everyone laughed and George said, “I’m glad to hear that. Since that is true, I accept your invitation, Señor Ponce.”

The other girls accepted too and it was decided that they would go the day after tomorrow.

“It’s going to be thrilling,” Bess cried out.

“I cannot wait,” said Carla. “I’ve never been to those places before.”

The following morning Senor Ponce suggested that Carla show her friends more of the interesting sights in Lima. “I think you would love the Torre Tagle Palace. It is a rather elaborate Moorish style of architecture. The place is now used by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so only part of it is open to visitors.”

Carla drove the girls to the ancient palace, now hemmed in by business buildings. Before going inside, her guests gazed at the elaborately carved wooden front of Torre Tagle. While they were admiring its lattice-windowed balcony on the second floor, Carla happened to glance across the street. A man stood there, his hat pulled low.

“He looks like Luis Llosa, that unpleasant assistant at Senor Velez’s handicraft shop,” she thought.

Quietly she alerted the other girls. As they turned to look, the man strolled away.

“I wonder what he was doing here,” Nancy thought uneasily as she followed the others into the palace.

“How grand it must have been to live in such magnificence?” exclaimed Bess. They had paused in a central courtyard surrounded by a high balcony.

“Oh, look!” George exclaimed, pointing to a far corner where an ancient coach stood.

“My, how elegant!” said Nancy.

Red tieback curtains adorned the windows, and at the front, some distance ahead of the closed compartment, was the coachman’s redplush seat.

“I’ll bet this was a four-horse coach,” said George as she hurried over. “Boy, I would love to drive it!” She put her hand on the seat.

“I’d rather be a passenger, thank you,” said Bess.

She stepped forward in a stately manner. “I am Isabella, Queen of Spain. Hasten to the party, coachman, with my king and me.”

Nancy laughed. “Wait a minute, Your Majesty. How about a photograph?”

Bess handed over her camera and said loftily, “I ought not to have my picture taken with a lowly coachman.” Then, as she giggled and George snorted, Nancy snapped the shutter.

Carla had been watching in amusement. “Come,” she said, leading the way up the stairs to the balcony. “I want to show you a special room.”

They followed her along the balcony and through a room onto a shadowy porch. It was screened from view by the great wooden shutters they had admired from the street.

Carla explained that in olden times the women of the aristocracy rarely appeared on the streets, but they liked to watch the people below. “From here they could see without being seen.”

Nancy walked to the window and peered through the shutters. She summoned the others and pointed across the street. There stood Luis Llosa!

“He has come back!” Carla whispered.

“To spy on us, I’ll bet!” Bess added worriedly.

The others agreed.

Carla shivered. “I hate to think that he was following us, but he must have been.”

Bess said a bit fearfully, “When we leave here, he’ll no doubt come after us!”

“So what? We can’t stay here all day,” George declared. “I’m going to scare him off!”

She opened one of the shutters and leaned out to look directly at Luis Llosa. He at once became ill at ease and quickly moved off.

“Let’s go” Bess urged.

“All right,” said Nancy. “But instead of going home, I’d like to stop at Señor Velez’s shop and check on Llosa.”

Carla drove directly there. When they walked into the shop, the owner greeted them affably. They told him about their trip to the arrayánes forest and their failure to find a clue there.

“That’s too bad,” the craftsman remarked.

Nancy inquired if his assistant were there.

“No. I do not know why. He did not telephone. It is very strange. Perhaps he is ill.”

Carla told him that the man was not ill and explained where the girls had seen him. Señor Velez said he could not understand it.

Nancy suspected that the man had taken the day off to shadow the girls. “But why?” she asked herself. “It has something to do with the plaque, I’m sure.” She recalled his attempt to copy the carving, and was more convinced than ever that he had not acted out of simple curiosity.

Senor Velez spoke again. “Luis is a good worker, but he is a very strange and secretive person.” The shop owner regarded the girls anxiously. “Why are you asking about him? Has he done something wrong?”