Carolyn Keene_Nancy Drew Mysteries 050

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A bird of ill omen is mysteriously left on the Drews’ front lawn. Did the person who put it there do so with the intent of jinxing Nancy and her father?

Tnis strange incident involves Nancy in her famous lawyer-father’s case concerning a rare bird farm threatened with destruction to make room for a high-rise apartment house complex. Persons opposed to the ruthless take-over of the farm are being made the frightened victims on jinxing by bad luck symbols and other threats to their safety. Even Nancy and her friend Ned Nickerson become targets!

Nancy soon realizes that helping honest people to overcome their superstitions and fears can be as challenging as tracking down criminals. The young detective’s thrilling adventures will keep the reader in breathless suspense from the first page to the last.

Copyright © 1973 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published by Grosset & Dunlap, Inc., a member of The Putnam & Grosset Group, New York. Published simultaneously in Canada. S.A. NANCY DREW MYSTERYSTORIES® is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Grosset & Dunlap, Inc.

eISBN : 978-1-101-07751-1

 

 

 

NANCY Drew sat crosslegged on her bed. George Fayne sprawled on the floor. Bess Marvin had draped herself in a flowered chair and dangled her legs over one arm.

“Let’s review this mystery,” suggested Nancy, an attractive girl of eighteen with blue eyes and reddish-blond hair.

“Great idea,” George replied. She had a boyish figure and short dark hair. “You haven’t told us one word about it except that your father has been engaged to unjinx a man.”

“How can a lawyer or anyone else do that?” asked Bess, plump, pretty, and blond. “I’ve heard that if a person is jinxed, he’ll have bad luck the rest of his life.” Bess shifted her position and swung her legs over the other arm of the chair. “I sure hope no one ever jinxes mel”

Nancy smiled. “Nix to jinx. But seriously, Dad was warned by phone that if he took this case, the caller would put a curse on him.”

“That’s ridiculousl” George burst out. “Of course your father doesn’t believe that anyone could do such a thing.”

“He’s not superstitious, but he can’t shrug off a threat of injury,” Nancy replied.

She told her friends that her father’s client, a man named Oscar Thurston, lived outside Harper, a few miles away. He had been threatened several times by unknown persons.

“Dad thinks it’s because Mr. Thurston won’t sell his farm,” Nancy explained. “It’s not an ordinary farm. He has a small zoo and several huge cages of birds. Many of the birds are rare and very beautiful, Dad says.”

George frowned. “If Mr. Thurston doesn’t want to sell, okay. He doesn’t have to. What’s this about his being jinxed?”

Nancy’s reply made George frown deeper. “A firm, called the High Rise Construction Company, is determined to get his land and build apartment buildings on it as part of a large complex. The owner has asked the town council to have the Thurston place condemned.”

Bess looked indignant. “Sounds pretty unfair. Can’t Mr. Thurston stop them?”

“Dad is trying to,” Nancy said, “but he has been so busy with other cases, he hasn’t been able to do much investigating yet.”

George grinned. “You called Bess and me to be on standby in case your dad asks you to help solve the mystery of the jinx.”

“Right,” said Nancy.

At that moment the front doorbell rang. Nancy hurried down the stairs to answer it. When she opened the door, no one was there. “Maybe Dad ordered something delivered from a store,” she said to herself. Stepping outside, she looked for a package but none was in sight.

“Who could have rung the bell?” she wondered.

As she glanced up and down the block, Nancy caught sight of a strange-looking bird. It was standing motionless on the lawn across from the circular driveway which led from the house to the street. The bird was about seven inches long. It had a speckled breast, variegated shades of white, brown and gray on its back, and a soft tail. Most noticeable was the peculiar way its neck was twisted and its drooping head turned backwards.

Curious to know what had detained Nancy, Bess and George and Hannah Gruen, the Drews’ housekeeper, had come outside. Motherly, middle-aged Mrs. Gruen had lived with Nancy and her father Carson Drew, a River Heights attorney, since the death of Mrs. Drew when Nancy was three years old.

“Who rang the bell?” Hannah asked.

“I don’t know,” Nancy replied, “but I guess he or she left that bird.” She walked over to it. As Nancy stooped to pick up the bird, she burst out laughing. “It’s a stuffed or mounted one!”

“Stuffed?” Bess repeated. “Why would anyone leave you this—this—What is it?”

Hannah knew the answer because the study of birds was her hobby. “The bird is a breed of woodpecker rarely seen in our country. It’s a wryneck and comes from the Eurasian area of Europe.”

George looked at the bird closely. “It certainly doesn’t resemble our downy woodpeckers. Say, why would the person who left this run away?”

“Yes, why?” Bess put in. “Must be something weird about it.”

“Wrynecks,” said Hannah, “were used in witchcraft to put jinxes on people.”

“Jinxes?” Nancy repeated, startled. Instantly she set the bird down and motioned everyone away from the wryneck. She rushed into the house, exclaiming, “There may be a bomb in the bird! I’ll phone the police!”

Within minutes after her call a squad car arrived. Two of the four men were bomb experts who identified themselves as Mercer and Zender. They immediately tested the wryneck. The others stood at a safe distance waiting for the answer.

“There’s nothing suspicious about this bird,” one of them said. “Have you any idea who left it here?”

Nancy shook her head but mentioned the mysterious ringing of the Drews’ front doorbell. Then she added, “I understand this is a wryneck. These birds were used to put jinxes on superstitious people.”

“That’s right,” the man replied. “The question is, was the bird left here as a warning and is it intended for you three girls or for the Drew family?” He looked directly at Nancy. “Has your father acquired any enemies lately?”

Nancy felt that she should not mention her father’s newest case nor the warning telephone call. She merely said, “You know how persistent and thorough my father is. When he begins hunting for the truth, he usually makes an enemy of someone on the opposing side of the case he’s handling.”

Mercer asked if she knew anybody who might be playing a joke on her. Again Nancy’s answer was no.

The officers declared there was nothing more they could do and the men said good-by. After they had driven off, Nancy and the others examined the wryneck. There were no identification marks on the bird, the young detective observed.

Hannah asked, “Nancy, what do you want to do with this bird?”

“I think I’ll call Dad and ask him. It’s just possible he’ll know something about it.”

She phoned Mr. Drew but he too was puzzled why the wryneck had been left on their lawn.

“Take the bird inside and keep it,” he said. “Nancy, you ought to be able to track down the owner. But in the meantime I have another job for you. Could you get hold of Bess and George and drive out to Mr. Thurston’s farm?”

Nancy laughed. “They’re here now, so we can start right off. I’d like to meet Mr. and Mrs. Thurston. Any instructions?”

Her father said the assignment was to check the farm carefully for anything that seemed suspicious or underhanded on the part of the High Rise Construction Company.