Island Peril

“That’s impossible, sir – it must have been your imagination! ” Sandor tried to calm his master. “There’s nowhere else on the island a boat could land, except in the cove. And I assure you there was none in sight. Your guests will confirm that.” Nancy and Ned both nodded.

“At all other points around the island, anyone who tried to land would find only sheer rock cliffs, ” Sandor added logically.

“Don’t try to tell me what I saw or didn’t see! ” Horvath’s voice cracked from nervous tension as his temper rose. “Last time he came by submarine.”

“But I planted sonobuoys in the cove this morning, sir, ” Sandor stated patiently. “Any boat that enters is immediately detected by sonar and sets off an alarm in the house. Did you not hear the alarm buzzer when our cruiser arrived? ”

“Yes, yes. No doubt your alarm system is very ingenious! ” As Horvath paced back and forth, he snatched a cigar from a humidor on his desk. “Nevertheless, no system is foolproof. What if an intruder swam out to the island using scuba gear? ”

The stony-faced chauffeur shrugged. “Whatever you say, Mr. Horvath. If you think an enemy’s lurking outside, I’ll go and look for him. Perhaps Mr. Nickerson will help me search? ”

“Glad to, ” said Ned.

When they were gone, Eugene Horvath briefly resumed his frantic attempts to call for help.

“Ned told me you’ve received more threats, Mr. Horvath, ” put in Nancy.

“Yes – more phone calls from that maniac, Sweeney Flint! ” Horvath has lit his cigar while Sandor went to get flashlights; it was clamped between his teeth now as he looked up at Nancy. “I received one call last evening, one around midnight, and another this morning. The scoundrel’s obviously trying to frightened me.”

“And yo want my help in trapping him. What sort of plan do you have in mind? ”

Horvath removed his cigar from his mouth and regarded its glowing tip for a moment. A cunning look came into his eyes. “First, tell me – has your sleuthing turned up any further clues? ”

Nancy nodded. “Sweeney Flint was behind the theft of your wife’s jeweled spider. Oddly enough, ” Nancy went on, “your wife had sold her ruby brooch to a millionaire collector named Oscar Larue before the robbery occurred.”

There was a moment of startled silence. Then Horvath said, “In that case, what was stolen? ”

“A cheap glass imitation. Her dresser, Maggie Farr, says she had a fake ruby spider made to keep people from finding out she’d been forced to sell the real brooch.”

“I’m told Madame Arachne was very extravagant and spendthrift, ” Nancy explained. “She sold the brooch to raise cash at a time when she was broke and badly needed money.”

Horvath’s eyes narrowed. “Really? ”

Nancy nodded again. “Among Mr. Larue’s papers was a bill of sale from your wife. The strange thing is, he also had Sweeney Flint’s name and phone number in his desk book.

“I happen to know Sweeney Flint masterminded the theft of the imitation brooch, ” nancy added. “And the fact that Larue knew him suggests he was also involved in the sale of the real brooch. My guess is, Sweeney Flint acted as go-between when Madame Arachne sold her jeweled spider to Oscar Larue... and then talked her into staging a fake robbery so she could collect from the insurance company.”

Horvath stared at the young detective through a wreath of cigar smoke. “My dear Miss Drew, ” he said, “ you make it sound as though Sweeney Flint was a close friend and advisor of my wife! ”

“More than a close friend and advisor.” Nancy gazed at her host calmly. “ I think she married him. In fact I’m now convinced ‘Sweeney Flint’ is just an alias of Eugene Horvath! ”

There was a long moment of silence, broken at last by Horvath’s low chuckle. “Well, well! Quite a sensational accusation. Can you prove it? "

“I’m sure I can, ” Nancy said coolly. “You see Mr. Horvath, you made a slight mistake.”

“When I first mentioned her jeweled spider, you pretended to know nothing about it. Yet that color photo, which you look at every day, shows her ruby brooch in the shape of a spider very clearly! ”

“Dear me, so it does! ” Eugene Horvath chuckled unpleasantly. “Well Miss Drew, I’ve realized for some time that you were becoming a nuisance. That’s why I’m going to get rid of you! ”

“Just one thing I don’t understand, ” said Nancy. “Why have you gone on tormenting Kim Vernon? ”

“Tormenting? What a nasty word, my dear! Miss Vernon’s golfing prowess is highly valuable to me.”

Horvath explained that when he had first tricked Jack Vernon into committing the phony theft, he suddenly realized he could use the evidence against Jack to blackmail his sister.

“It was already clear that Kim was heading for golf stardom, ” he went on. “But I waited patiently until she became the top U.S. woman golfer. Now, by controlling whether she wins or loses, I can fix the outcome of major tournaments – just as I did in the Charleston match – and clean up on bets! ”

To keep Kim frightened enough to obey orders, Horvath would send her mocking reminders of the crime for which her brother could be sent to prison. “Actually, Sandor and I have been partners in crime for many years. Both of us, at different times, have used a putty nose and taped-down eyelid to pose as Sweeney Flint.”

It was Sandor in disguise, Horvath said, who had tried to plant a red plastic spider in Kim’s golf bag as a warning not to talk too freely to reporters. Later he had delivered the cobwebbed tennis racket.

It was also the chauffeur who had planted the bomb in Brett’s car and assaulted Jack Vernon in the park. The purpose was to confuse Nancy and convince her that “Sweeney Flint really existed – but that he did not have the spider.

Horvath opened his desk drawer and took out the missing brooch. Nancy gasped in sheer awe and admiration at the beautifully crafted ornament. The spider’s ruby body glowed with a fiery radiance. Its diamond-crusted legs sparkled like a myriad of ice crystals in ablaze of mountain sunlight.

“Breathtaking, isn’t it? Horvath murmured. “How could anyone who once saw such a lovely work of art ever forget it! Now you can understand how I felt when I heard that Simon Shand had bought the spider from Oscar Larue and was planning to let his fiancé e wear it in public. The brooch was bound to be recognized. And once that news got back to the insurance company, an investigation was sure to follow. They’ve have found out Arachne bilked them out of half a million dollars for the theft of a glass counterfeit. I’d have faced a choice between paying back the money or even going to prison myself as an accomplice in the fraud! ”

Nancy nodded. “I see. So what did you do? ”

Horvath’s lips shaped a cynical smile. “Luckily Sandor is an expert safecracker. So I had him remove the brooch from Shand’s possession.”

“And then I came along and upset the applecart.” Nancy said coolly. “And just how do you expect to get rid of my boyfriend and me without getting caught? ”

Horvath explained that his chauffeur would slip away from Ned Nickerson in the darkness, the put on his “Sweeney Flint” disguise and let himself be glimpsed by Ned. Nothing more would be seen of Sandor, however, thus causing Ned to assume the chauffeur had fallen victim to the crook. “And when your boyfriend returns to the house, he’ll find me lying on the floor, apparently stunned from a blow on the head.”

“No doubt you’ll tell him I was seized and carried off by Sweeney Flint, ” guessed Nancy.

“Exactly, my dear! There happens to be a cave on this island with an underground lake that connects with the sea outside. Evidence will be found indicating that you and Sandor were taken there, and your bodies dumped into that lake.”

“How clever! Sandor will come back to life someday - suitably disguised, of course – when you finally come to hire a new chauffeur.”

“Correct! ” Horvath beamed maliciously. But a sudden noise at the window distracted him. “What’s going on out there? ” he muttered.

“I suspect Sandor just discovered Ned eavesdropping at the window, ” Nancy said calmly, “so now Ned’s fighting him off.”

“Surely you didn’t expect me to come out to Moonlight Island and walk into your spiderweb without taking precautions, once I been to suspect you were the real criminal? ” said Nancy. “ I warned Ned we’d better stay in close touch and not get separated, so he probably came straight back to the house as soon as he and Sandor separated to begin searching.”

With an angry exclamation, Horvath pressed a switch. The grounds were at once bathed in floodlights. As Horvath flung back the curtains, Ned could be seen struggling fiercely with Sandor!

Horvath opened the window and grabbed a brass candlestick to attack the husky young man. It was an unwise move. Nancy snatched at the small Oriental carpet under Horvath’s feet and pulled it, causing him to fall. He hit his head, and with a faint mutter, sank into unconsciousness.

Just then Ned landed a hard punch to the jaw that sent Sandor crashing among the shrubbery!

“Oh, Ne-e-ed! ” gasped Nancy in a trembling voice as he gathered her in his arms.

Within an hour, the state police had arrived on the island, and the two were safely on their way back to the mainland. Although Nancy found herself wondering about her next adventure, one that would lead to The Haunted Carousel, she was happy for the moment just to feel Ned’s kiss on her cheek and hear his whispering voice call her “my sweet little mystery-solver! ”

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