Read The Crooked Banister Online
Authors: Carolyn Keene
The Crooked Banister (14 page)
He offered to be anchor man and lay down on the ground, his toes tucked firmly through the bumper of Ned’s car. Dave stretched out on the bridge with Burt holding his ankles. George crawled beyond the boys and Dave grabbed her ankles, but she could not quite reach Ned’s outstretched arms.
“Bess, you’ll have to help me,” she said.
The situation was so desperate that Bess had no chance to think of being afraid. She took her place, with her ankles tightly anchored by George. Ned could reach her easily. The human chain was ready.
“All set!” Burt called.
Slowly Nancy pulled herself up and crawled to safety across the bodies of her friends. Ned came next. Then Burt and Dave assisted George and Bess to their feet. The exhausted young people flopped onto the ground. It was several minutes before anyone spoke.
Finally Dave broke the silence. “Well, I guess it’s back to the saplings for us!”
Ned got up and examined the hinge of the bridge. “Now we know how this thing appears and disappears. Evidently some mechanism divides it in the middle, then the two halves part and drop below the water.”
Bess had not recovered from her fright. “I don’t want to cross that burning water on the saplings,” she stated firmly.
“Then I guess you’ll have to stay on this side alone,” George told her.
By the time the boys had the saplings in place, Bess had changed her mind and the group went across.
“I wonder where the guard is,” said Nancy, and called out loudly, “Anyone here?” There was no reply.
“That’s strange,” Ned remarked. He too called loudly but received no answer.
Nancy suspected that something might have happened to the man and suggested they start a search for him. They found the guard lying unconscious in back of the house.
“He’s been attacked!” George exclaimed.
Bess was afraid that the guard’s assailant might be inside the house. “Do you think we really should go in?” she asked.
Ned was already kneeling on the ground and giving the guard first-aid. A minute later the man opened his eyes and looked around blankly.
“You’re all right,” Ned told him. “Did someone knock you out?”
“Yes,” the guard said as Ned helped him to stand up. “A masked man rushed at me from around the corner of the house and hit me on the head. Before I blacked out, I saw him throw a lighted taper match into the moat. I think he would have dropped me in, but he heard a car coming and ran across the bridge. Then I lost consciousness.”
“What did he look like?” Nancy queried.
“Tall and slender. Dark hair.”
The young people concluded that the fugitive had tampered with the bridge before disappearing into the woods.
Bess dramatically told the guard what had happened and added, “He’s an evil man.”
Burt smiled. “That’s putting it mildly.”
As the young people entered the hall, George asked, “Where would one look for a silver armor mask?”
Dave replied, “On a silver knight.”
Nancy snapped her fingers and said excitedly, “I have it! The robot! He’s silver in color, and his face is like a mask.”
“Okay, so it is,” George remarked. “But what does that prove?”
Everyone waited tensely for Nancy’s answer. “Maybe,” she said, “if we insert a certain tape, we’ll learn some secret!”
“But which tape?” Bess questioned.“ You might put one in that would blow us all sky-high!”
Nancy said they would look over all of them and see if they could find an identifying mark indicating the right one. The group went to the kitchen and she opened the drawer which held the tapes. Carefully they examined them one by one.
Finally Ned held up a reel. “I think this might be it,” he said. “It’s marked Top
Secret.”
Secret.”
CHAPTER XIX
Poison!
NANCY rolled the robot from the closet and inserted the Top Secret tape. As the whirring sound began, she warned everyone to stand back.
She and her friends waited with pounding hearts to see what he would do. The whirring became louder. Then suddenly the mechanical man was propelled through the swinging door and out to the hallway. He stopped at the foot of the stairs, jerkily raised his right arm, and pointed upward.
Ned asked, “Does he mean there’s something on the second floor we should investigate?”
“I’ll bet you’re right,” George answered. “Let’s go up there and see what we can find!”
She climbed the stairs with Burt. Bess and Dave followed.
Nancy said to Ned, “Let’s stay down here and see what else the robot does.”
He nodded and the two stood at one side of the hall to watch him.
“Robby’s moving!” Nancy whispered.
The mechanical man turned abruptly, rolled across the hall, and went into the den. Nancy and Ned trailed him.
“That’s interesting,” he remarked, watching intently.
The robot had stopped in front of Rawley’s desk. Now he raised his right arm and pointed to a certain drawer.
“I think he wants someone to open it,” Nancy said.
Ned offered to and walked forward. He tried to pull out the drawer but found it locked.
“What am I supposed to do now?” Ned asked. “This creature is programmed to be as mysterious as his owner.”
A moment later the mechanical man began waving his right arm in a circle. Nancy and Ned looked at each other, puzzled. What did this gesture mean?
Nancy made a guess. “Maybe Robby is indicating that we are to rotate something.”
“Perhaps it’s the knob,” Ned said.
He turned the knob until it came off. “Now what?” he asked. “Even if this has unlocked the drawer, there’s still no way to pull it out. Any ideas, Nancy?”
“No.”
The couple stood looking at the desk for several seconds. Then both of them leaned down and began working on the edges of the drawer with their fingernails.
“It’s moving!” Nancy exclaimed.
Seconds later they were able to pull out the drawer. It contained a neat pile of papers. On the top was a folded document marked:
The Last Will and Testament of Rawley Banister.
The Last Will and Testament of Rawley Banister.
“I’m sure we’re not supposed to read this,” Nancy stated.
Ned closed the drawer and screwed the knob back on.
Nancy said, “I’ll tell Mrs. Carrier and Thomas about the will as soon as we see them.”
When the desk was locked, the robot turned and rolled away. They followed him back into the hall. The mechanical man stopped directly under the Oriental wall hanging and pointed upward.
“There certainly must be a secret in this picture,” Ned remarked.
Nancy nodded. “It may have something to do with the will.”
Suddenly the robot turned and began to move forward. They walked after him, but apparently the tape was almost finished. He went to the kitchen and the whirring sound stopped.
Nancy removed the tape and locked Robby in the closet. She and Ned returned to the front hall.
Bess called excitedly from upstairs, “Here comes Mr. Mead! Don’t let him in!”
George, Burt, and Dave appeared at the head of the stairs.
“Yes, it’s Clyde Mead,” George confirmed. “But I think we should let him in. If we don’t, how are we going to capture that swindler?”
“You’re right,” Ned called up. “The instant he comes to this door, we’ll tackle him!”
George said, “I’ll be right down to help you. But not by the stairs. Every time I’ve been in this house, I’ve wanted to ride on the crooked banister. Now I’m going to do it!”
“I’ll go too!” Burt said. “Let me get on first. You follow.”
“All right,” George agreed.
They climbed up. Burt had chosen the banister which had been sawed off at the wall. Nancy was about to suggest they switch to the other railing, but it was too late. George and Burt had started down. Their twisting descent was so swift they were almost swung off.
“It’s like riding a roller coaster!” George cried.
As they neared the bottom, both she and Burt grabbed the rail hard and tried to stop. But they were not able to. The next moment there was a loud crash. A gaping hole appeared in the plasterboard wall and George and Burt disappeared through it.
“Oh!” screamed Bess, who was halfway down the stairway.
Nancy and Ned rushed to the opening and looked inside. George and Burt were just picking themselves up from the floor.
“Are you hurt?” Nancy asked quickly.
Before George and Burt could answer, a solemn voice announced hollowly, “Now you cannot escape! You’re trapped among the poisons!”
The dire message was repeated.
CHAPTER XX
The Capture
DURING the excitement which followed George and Burt’s crash through the wall into the poison room, loud thumping could be heard on the front door. The other young people intent on trying to help the couple step out paid no attention.
“Are you all right?” Nancy asked, leaning through the opening.
“We’re fine as far as we can see,” George replied, “but I’d like to find out what’s here. Hand me a flashlight, will you?”
Ned produced one from his pocket and gave it to her. A strange sight met their eyes! There were rows of shelves, each filled with metal boxes alongside bottles marked POISON. Fortunately, none of the bottles had been overturned or broken, so their contents had not spilled onto George and Burt.
“I guess Rawley Banister had a mania for poisons,” George remarked. “On some of these bottles are the names of the poisons from the plants and reptiles that the serpents in the Oriental wall hanging are eating.”
Burt added, “Here’s the tape recorder that greeted us with that fiendish message.”
The thumping on the front door became more insistent. Bess turned to Nancy. “What shall we do? I’m sure that’s Mr. Mead.”
As Nancy hesitated to let him in, Ned suggested that Burt hand out one of the metal boxes so he could see what was inside. Ned set it on a step of the stairway and opened the lid. The box was filled with money!
Nancy was hardly paying attention. She was thinking, “If we let Mr. Mead go we may never have a chance to capture him. But if we open the door, he’ll see what’s here and I don’t think that’s a good idea. He might have a gun and help himself to this treasure.”
She turned to Ned and relayed her thoughts to him. “Suppose I ask Mead to come around to the back door? You and Dave can let him in.”
“And make him a prisoner!” Ned answered. “Come on, Dave!”
Nancy hurried to the front door and asked, “Who’s there?”
“Clyde Mead. You’re Nancy Drew, I guess. You told me about this interesting place and I thought I’d come to see it.”
“All right,” Nancy answered in as calm a voice as she could manage. “Please go around to the rear door.”
“Right away,” the man said affably.
For a second Nancy felt sorry for him, knowing what was going to happen, but she brushed the thought aside. The man was a swindler and should be handed over to the police.
Meanwhile Ned and Dave had hurried to the rear door in the kitchen. When the man opened it, the two husky football players tackled him.
“What’s the meaning of this?” Mead cried out angrily as the boys helped him up but held his arms tightly.
“You’ll find out in a few minutes,” Ned told him.
The prisoner struggled to free himself. “Let me go! I haven’t done anything!” he shouted. “If it’s my money you want, take it but get your hands off me!”
Mead was not a muscular man and Dave had no trouble holding him alone.
“Ned, get the others,” Dave directed. Mead looked at him questioningly but received no explanation.
When Ned reached the hall he was astounded to see the lower steps of the crooked stairway piled with small metal boxes. Each was open and every one contained money.
“There are thousands of dollars here,” Nancy told him. “Probably enough to pay all the people Rawley swindled, and lots left over.”
“Here’s a list of his victims,” George interposed.
“And we found the skeleton’s bracelet!” exclaimed Bess, holding it up. “It’s even more gorgeous than in the photograph we saw in Rawley’s book.”
The rubies in the serpents’ eyes gleamed brightly and Ned saw that the gold jewel piece was studded with turquoise.
“I wonder where Rawley got the bracelet?” he asked. “I’ll bet he bought it from the thief who stole it in Mexico.”
“Probably,” Nancy agreed. “Here’s a tag that says it came from the arm of an ancient Aztec woman’s skeleton.”
She led the way to the kitchen. When Mead saw the whole group, he paled.
Bess was the first to speak. “You are a faker, Mr. Clyde Mead. You took my money for a little Navaho boy but never gave it to him!”
“What do you mean?” the man asked. “Of course I did.”
Nancy told about the trip she and her father had made to Arizona and what they had learned. Mead suddenly lost all his bravado.
“Okay,” he said. “I was pressed for money and thought up that scheme of getting some. I’ll repay everybody whose cash I took.”
George spoke up. “We found a printing press in the basement. Did you use it to make your fake pamphlets about the Indians?”
“Yes.”
Nancy looked straight at the man and said, “You weren’t alone in that scheme and in a whole lot of others, too. You’re a pal of Rawley Banister’s and the two of you swindled a number of people.”
Mead’s jaw dropped. He stared at Nancy as if he could not believe his ears. Convinced that the young detective had concrete evidence to prove her charges, Mead made a complete confession.
“Where’s Rawley now?” Nancy asked him.
“You figure it out. He left here saying he was going on a long trip. Rawley owed me a great deal of money for helping him with his schemes.
“When I reminded him of this, he said half-jokingly, ‘I’ll give you two hints. If you can find the answers in my house to two riddles, you can have whatever you locate.’ ”
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