The Secret of the Wooden Lady (15 page)

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Authors: Carolyn Keene

Tags: #Women Detectives, #Detective and Mystery Stories, #Girls & Women, #Mystery & Detective, #Boats and Boating, #Juvenile Fiction, #Adventure and Adventurers, #Girl Detectives, #Mysteries & Detective Stories, #Fiction, #Ghost Stories, #Mystery Fiction, #Mystery Stories, #Mystery and Detective Storeis, #Boston Harbor (Mass.), #Drew; Nancy (Fictitious Character), #Ghosts, #Clipper Ships, #Figureheads of Ships, #Mystery and Detective Stories

BOOK: The Secret of the Wooden Lady
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Nancy ran to the stern of the ship where she had seen a locker with tools. In a moment she came back with a chisel. With it, the girls quickly removed the odd block of wood.
“Goodness!” Bess cried, gaping at the hole below it.
In the hole lay a tiny metal box, rusted almost to paper thinness. Inside on a velvet lining was the precious ruby! The fabulous gem of the Orient glinted in the sunlight.
The girls were so excited that they did not hear stealthy footsteps behind them. Suddenly they were startled by a harsh, masculine voice.
“Thanks for all your footwork!”
Nancy and Bess whirled around to see Flip Fay smiling triumphantly!
“I’ll take the ruby,” he said, reaching for it. Nancy held on tightly to the ruby, and ran for the rail, while Bess screamed and clutched at the thief.
Simultaneously Mr. Ogden appeared. Instead of assisting the girls, he suddenly laughed raucously. Pushing Bess to the deck, he helped The Crow overpower Nancy and took the ruby from her. “Fell right into our trap, didn’t you?” Ogden gloated. “The smart Nancy Drew!”
“Stop the gab and get to work!” Fay ordered.
Nancy glared at Fay’s companion. “I see now. You’re not Josiah Ogden at all. You’re Lane, the man who kidnapped Captain Easterly!”
The man smirked. “Anything else you want to know?” he asked impudently as Fay produced some heavy rope.
In spite of the struggle they put up, the two girls were tied securely to the foremast. Then George, who had been locked in a closet, was brought up and bound also.
“You should have paid attention when you got my warning,” Flip sneered, tying a final knot. “Easterly must have known what the lizard meant.”
Lane spoke up. “If Farnsworth had let me buy the ship, you wouldn’t be seein’ land for the last time.”
“What have you done with Captain Easterly?” Nancy asked her captors. She was sure now he, too, had been tricked.
The men looked at each other. Then Fay said enigmatically, “You might have a chance to say good-by to him yet.”
With that, he and Lane walked quickly to the anchor windlass. With a sinking heart Nancy watched them haul up the anchor. Then they climbed over the rail.
“Have a nice trip,” Flip Fay called as he disappeared from view. “The tide’s going out, and there’s a stiff breeze to take you to sea tonight.”
“They’ve set us adrift!” Bess wailed as the girls struggled desperately to free themselves.
CHAPTER XX
Dreams Come True
NANCY wriggled and twisted to loosen the tight ropes which held her to the mast.
“Can you move your left hand, George?” Nancy asked.
“I can’t move anything,” George answered.
“We’re drifting out of the cove!” Bess cried frantically. “We’ll be lost at sea!”
They were indeed passing through the inlet, and the ship began to pitch and toss in the cross-currents. There was not another craft in sight to rescue the girls and darkness was fast closing in.
Something on the deck suddenly rolled toward them. Nancy saw that it was the chisel with which they had been working on the figurehead. If only she could reach it!
She yanked against the chafing ropes and worked her right foot loose. She had to wait for another roll of the ship to bring the chisel nearer. Finally she reached out, dragged the tool toward her, and held it with the toe of her shoe.
“How can you get it into your hand?” Bess asked, watching anxiously.
By this time Nancy had managed to free the lower part of her right arm. She wriggled and pulled, but she could not get close enough to the deck to pick up the chisel.
“If we could only manage to slide our ropes down on the mast,” Nancy said.
“Let’s all try,” George urged. “We’re tied together, so if one slides down, we’ve all got to.”
Inch by inch the girls worked themselves down toward the deck, until at last Nancy grasped the chisel with her fingers. She began feverishly to work on the rope holding George’s left arm, grinding the hemp against the mast with the cutting edge of the chisel.
“Hurry, Nancy!” Bess pleaded. “We’re getting farther from shore every minute and soon it will be pitch black!”
George said encouragingly, “When we get loose, Nancy, do you suppose the three of us could hoist the foresail?”
Bess and Nancy looked at the great heavy loops of canvas. “It’s our only chance to save ourselves,” Nancy said. “And the wind’s shifted, thank goodness.”
Free at last, the three girls turned to the problem of raising the great sail to catch the night wind. With their combined strength they finally hoisted it, made the halyard fast, and rushed to the wheel. The canvas flapped furiously, the ship careened; and then, to their great relief, righted itself as the wind filled the great white sheet.
“We’ve done it!” Bess cried excitedly. “We’re heading back toward the cove!”
“Can you girls manage without me?” Nancy asked.
“You aren’t going to leave us?” Bess quavered.
Nancy said she had been mulling over Fay’s remark about Captain Easterly. She was afraid it meant he was a prisoner on board.
“I want to look for him,” she said.
“Go ahead,” George told her. “We’ll manage. Besides, there’s a bit of a moon coming out, so at least we can see where we’re going.”
Nancy hurried below and started calling. No answer. Grabbing a flashlight from the captain’s quarters, she raced from one spot to another. At last, in the stuffy forecastle, she saw a man lying on a bunk, his back to her. His hards and feet were bound.
“Captain Easterly!” she cried, turning him over.
Nancy loosened his bonds, then half dragged, half carried him to the foot of the companionway. She yelled for Bess and together they got him to the top deck. George was astounded to see him.
With a whiff of the fresh air, the captain finally regained consciousness from a hard blow he had received at the hands of Fred Lane. The scoundrel had tricked him aboard with the same kind of story which Fay had telephoned to the girls at the guesthouse.
“See here, what’s going on?” the captain asked suddenly, realizing they were under sail.
Nancy told him what had happened. He tried to get up and help the girls, but he was too weak. It seemed no time at all before they were back in the safe waters of the little cove. Captain Easterly told the girls when to take in the sail and how to drop the anchor.
“We’ll have to swim to shore,” Nancy announced. “There’s no boat.”
The captain told them to be careful, and said he would be all right alone. George decided to stay with him, however.
Nancy and Bess quickly donned swimsuits and started off through the dark water. They were good swimmers and soon reached the beach.
Gasping and dripping, they rested a moment on the sand, then headed for the nearest house. Nancy asked the woman who answered her knock to telephone the police and ask someone to come there at once.
While waiting, the girls told the flabbergasted woman a little of the story. She lent them towels and gave each girl a beach robe to put on.
“Thank heaven you’re safe,” she said. “To think of such goings on in this quiet little cove!”
Nancy repeated her story to two troopers who arrived in a few minutes. They radioed an alert throughout the area, then set off in their patrol car in pursuit of the criminals.
Nancy borrowed a boat and returned to the clipper with Bess. They changed to street clothes, then with George and Captain Easterly came back to town. At headquarters they learned that Flip Fay and Fred Lane had been captured on the road to Boston. Fay had the ruby in his pocket and it was now in the possession of the police.
“The ruby won’t cause any more trouble,” said the real Mr. Ogden of the Eastern Shore Shipping Company, when he arrived the next day and met the group at State Police headquarters. “My company believes the ruby rightfully belongs to the descendant of Mathilda Witherspoon—Mrs. Smythe of Provincetown. What do you think, Mr. Farnsworth?” he asked the man who had inherited the clipper.
“I agree with you.”
Nancy was delighted to hear this, knowing the woman needed money. “Oh, may I tell her?” she asked eagerly.
When Mr. Ogden nodded, Nancy sped to a telephone. The astounded Mrs. Smythe gasped. When she got her breath, the woman asked Nancy to thank everyone, then added:
“When I told my neighbor about your coming the other day, she went to her attic and brought down a drawing of the
Dream of Melissa.
Maybe you’d like to have it.”
Nancy was thrilled. “Is the figurehead on it?” she asked.
“Yes, indeed. She looks like she must have the day she first set sail.”
“Thank you very much,” Nancy said. “I’ll get it tomorrow when I bring the ruby.”
Red Quint, who was standing nearby, said he, too, had a present for Nancy. “I want you to have the snuffbox. You earned it, Miss Drew, catchin’ up with a couple of pirates like Fay and Lane. You taught me a good lesson.”
Nancy accepted the little carved box. She was relieved to learn that Red would probably be released on probation. Captain Easterly offered to take him on the clipper as a handyman and cook.
“That is,” the captain added, “if I am going to have a chance to buy the clipper.”
Mr. Ogden said he and Mr. Farnsworth had come to a gentlemen’s agreement in the matter. The
Dream of Melissa
was to be deeded to Captain Easterly with a clear title! Mr. Farnsworth would receive a portion of the sale price.
“Then everything’s settled,” Bess sighed.
Nancy telephoned her father in River Heights and related the whole story. Carson Drew was overwhelmed to hear that so much had been accomplished in such a short time. Mr. Marvin’s ring, Mrs. Marvin’s jewelry, and the coins were found in The Crow’s possession, and he had confessed to having overheard Nancy’s plans by chance on the telephone during the robbery. Then he had gone to Boston to investigate the story of the
Bonny Scot,
in league with his buddy Lane.
After Nancy had discovered Fay on deck, and Captain Easterly had been sure he would not return, the thief had made two visits to the clipper and had hidden in the secret compartment below the wardrobe. From various vantage points, he had listened to Nancy tell Mrs. Smythe’s story and had heard that a Mr. Ogden was coming from Baltimore. Fay had induced Lane to impersonate Ogden and take over the ship.
Fay himself had remained in town to spy on the girls. When he found out they had found Melissa, the thief changed his plans and tricked them into coming back on board. Had they left the figurehead behind, Fay would have stolen it from the guesthouse.
“Whew!” Bess sighed as she tucked herself into bed that night at the guesthouse. “I hope I never have such a day as yesterday in my life again!”
“Don’t count on it,” George yawned. “As long as you’re a friend of Nancy Drew, you’ll run into exciting mysteries.”
Very soon the cousins were to become involved with Nancy in
The Clue of the Black Keys.
It was just two weeks after the girls had delivered the precious ruby to Mrs. Smythe that Captain Easterly gave a party on board his clipper. How different it looked! The ship had been painted a glistening gray. And set under the long prow was the figurehead, Melissa, restored and painted by Mr. Frisbie.
“Doesn’t she look proud?” Nancy asked. “And look at the name on the ship!”
Painted in neat black letters across the stern was
Dream of Melissa.
“The old pirate ship is gone forever,” George said.
“And a good thing,” Captain Easterly remarked. “I’ve even nailed up the secret passageway where that pirate Fay did his eavesdropping. What’s more, this ship is going to be rechristened. And you know who’s goin’ to do the christening?”
Captain Easterly’s blue eyes twinkled as he turned to Carson Drew and his daughter.
“Nobody but Nancy Drew!”

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