An Ancient Clue

For several minutes neither of them spoke, then Nancy shook off the sudden chill her words had brought. “Should we tell Sheriff Boyd? ” she asked. “About the contest and the island, I mean.”

“Of course, ” her father answered, “but I’m afraid it will have to wait. He got a radio call while we were talking and had to leave. He said if we found anything we should stop by his office on our way back to Miami. We can tell him then, I suppose.”

“But what about Bess and George? ” Nancy asked, terribly worried about her two friends.

“There’s nothing we can do till they reach the resort, ” her father answered. “They’ve already landed in Nassau, and they should be on their way to the resort by now. Let’s finish searching the boat. If there is a connection between it and that mysterious contest you didn’t enter.. He didn’t have to finish.

Nancy took a deep breath and nodded. “You think the DeFoes sent that intriguing prize to me? ” she asked.

“If they did compile that file of clippings, they would know that you’d be likely to accept such an invitation, ” her father reminded her.

“But they could have simply called. Why do you suppose they want me to go to Anchor Island? ”

Her father could only shrug. “Perhaps we’ll get some real answers when Bess and George call tonight, ” he suggested.

“And till then we’ll just go ahead with our search of the boat, ” Nancy said.

“Did you finish in here? ” her father asked.

She nodded.

" Well, I’ll go up and look around the bridge while you tackle the cabins below, ” he told her.

Nancy stepped through the doorway and down the few stairs to the lower level of the boat. Three doors opened off the small landing. One led into a little bathroom, the other two gave access to small, neat cabins that appeared to be exactly alike.

Nancy stepped into the cabin on her right first. Twin bunks were freshly made up. There were a few clothes hanging in the tidy closet, but the pockets of both shirts and slacks were disappointingly empty. The built-in dressing table yielded little more in the way of clues.

A hairbrush with a few light hairs in it, an old pink lipstick, several battered knit tops, and a stained old fisherman-knit sweater were all she could find. Even taking out each drawer to inspect the bottom and the space it had filled yielded nothing. Just to be on the safe side, Nancy stripped, then remade each bunk.

Her inspection of the other cabin proved un- enlightening, for it held nothing personal. Nancy searched it as carefully as she had the first cabin but with even less success.

Frustrated, she searched the small bath, finding further traces of the DeFoes, but nothing else. She hesitated at the foot of the steps, sure that there was nowhere else to search, yet feeling that she shouldn’t give up so easily.

“What happened to you folks? ” she asked the warm silence of the cabin. “Why did you send me an invitation you knew I couldn’t resist, then come all the way to Florida to disappear? ” The boat creaked and moved slightly on the lazy swelling of the inlet. Nancy crossed to one of the bunks and started to bend down to reach across it to run her fingers along the shadowy area where the bunk rested against the wall, seeking a break or crevice. As she did so, the boat shifted again and she stumbled slightly, bumping the side of her face against the wall.

The silence was broken by a click and a rolling sound. Nancy lifted her hand to her ear, realizing at once that she’d lost her earring. She looked down just in time to see her earring disappear into a dark comer.

“Oh, dear” she muttered, dropping to her knees to pursue it. “Come back here.”

Her fingers grated on wood without finding the familiar shape of her earring. Frowning, she probed the area and then gasped as her finger slipped into a small hole. It went in easily, not encountering anything below. When she tried to pull it back out, the whole section of wood in the comer caught on her knuckle and lifted out.

“Well, well, well, ” Nancy murmured, looking at the square of wood in her hand.

The area it opened was not large, but her earring lay on top of an old leather pouch. Nancy lifted them both out carefully, then peered into the small recess to make sure there was nothing else hidden there. Convinced that it was empty, she replaced the wooden tile and put her earring on before opening the pouch.

“Find something? ” Her father’s voice made her start and she nearly dropped the heavy— medallion that slid out of the pouch when she released the thong that held it shut.

I think so, ” Nancy answered, explaining quickly what had happened to her earring.

Her father whistled as he held up the medallion. “This looks like pure gold, Nancy, ” he said.

Nancy got to her feet and followed him to the small porthole which gave the cabin daylight. The three-inch disk fit into her palm, but its surface was so dirty and scarred she couldn’t make out the design in the metal.

“It looks very old, Dad, ” she observed, rubbing at the surface.

Carson Drew nodded. “The workmanship on the chain is definitely ancient, and the disk itself is beautifully shaped. Too bad it’s so battered.”

“It looks like some kind of hook or something, ” Nancy said. Perhaps someone familiar with antique jewelry could tell us what it’s supposed to be.”

Her father’s eyes lit up. “I know just the man, ” he said. “Do you re member Avery Yates? ” Nancy thought for a moment. “The jeweler who specializes in restoring antique jewelry? ” “That’s the one. He retired to this area a couple of years ago. I think I have his phone number in my things at the hotel.”

“Could we take it to him tonight? ” Nancy asked, intrigued by the unusual necklace. “It might be a clue.”

Mr. Drew’s smile faded. “I’m not sure Sheriff Boyd will be happy about that, ” he observed.

Nancy’s eyes met her father’s. “Sheriff Boyd didn’t find it, ” she reminded him.

Her father looked disapproving for a moment, then shrugged. “We’ll tell him as soon as Avery finishes with it, ” he decided. “After all, if we give it to the sheriff now, he probably wouldn’t have it restored, so we wouldn’t be able to find out what it means.”

Nancy hugged him. “Let’s hurry back to the hotel, ” she suggested. “I want to see if Bess and George have called yet.”

“We should tell the sheriff about the resort, " her father murmured.

“We’ll probably know a great deal more after we talk to the girls, ” Nancy said.

He nodded. “You didn’t find anything else? ”

Nancy shook her head. “How about you? ” The sheriff was right about the boat being tripped of identification. The log is gone, the various identification names and numbers have been sanded off or removed. The best I can tell you is that someone, probably Mr. DeFoe, smokes a pipe.”

Nancy sighed, then took the medallion and studied it once again. “This must mean something, ” she told him. “That’s why someone had to hide it down there.”

“Ready to go? ”

“I guess we might as well, ” Nancy agreed. “There really isn’t any place else to search, is there? ”

‘I’ll lock up, ” her father said, “though I can’t imagine many people come out this way.” Nancy went out on the deck and looked around, realizing again just how deserted this area was. The water lapped lazily at the dock pilings, and a breeze stirred the palms and the other trees that shaded the inlet.

“Where could they have gone? ” she asked her father, not really expecting an answer.

“Someone must have met them, ” her father answered, following her line of thinking. “That was one of the things the sheriff kept saying. That inlet is really a strange place to abandon a

boat because you can’t just walk away from it.” The drive back to the hotel seemed endless to Nancy as she alternately stared at the medallion and worried about her friends. They hurried to the desk to ask for messages.

“Nothing Mr. Drew, Miss Drew, ” the desk clerk informed them.

“We’ll call the resort, ” her father told her. “Let’s go up to our rooms.”

Placing the call to Anchor Island proved to be a long, frustrating process, though the hotel switchboard operator was both competent and experienced. It was almost an hour before the phone rang. Nancy hurried to answer it.

“Miss Drew? ” Her heart dropped as she recognized the operator’s voice once again.

“Did you reach them, Operator? ” she asked. “I’m afraid not. The connection has gone through twice, but there is simply no answer at the resort. Would you like me to keep trying? ” Nancy relayed the information to her father, then handed him the receiver, listening as he cancelled the call, saying they would place it again later. His face was serious when he replaced the receiver.

“Where are Bess and George? ” she asked him.

He shook his head. “I wish I knew.”