The Hunt Narrows

MRS. AYRES started to close the door of her nursing home.

«Oh, please!» Nancy said hurriedly. «I must talk to you.»

The woman rather grudgingly invited Nancy to step inside and ushered her into a dark living room whose furnishings were threadbare and dilapidated.

«Would you mind telling me something about Mrs. Flanders?» Nancy asked, smiling disarmingly. «If she is the person I'm looking for, I know her daughter well. She would like very much to get in touch with her mother.»

Mrs. Ayres hesitated a few moments, apparently wanting to be sure that it was safe to talk freely to the stranger. Finally she said:

«Lola Flanders is an American. She worked in a circus. But she had a bad fall. I don't know much about that part of it. First I knew, a man named Jones came here and asked me if I could board Lola. After a while he brought her. That's all there is to the story.»

Nancy did not think so. Several questions popped into her mind.

«How long ago was that?»

«Let me see,» Mrs. Ayres said. «It was nearly ten years ago.»

The date exactly fitted the time when Lolita had been brought to America from Europe by the Kroons!

«Would you mind describing this Mr. Jones to me?» Nancy asked.

Mrs. Ayres's description fitted Reinhold Kroon. The pieces of the puzzle were falling together fast!

«Did Lola Flanders bring any jewelry with her?» Nancy wanted to know.

Mrs. Ayres looked startled at the question. It was fully a minute before she replied. During the interim, Nancy wondered what was going through the woman's mind. Had she been intimidated by Kroon, or was she, too, a partner in the mystery?

«Mr. Jones,» the woman began haltingly, «he's kind of slow paying. He never sends checks but shows up here about once a year with the money. But three years ago he didn't show up until very late. I couldn't keep Lola here for nothing—you know how it is,» she said apologetically.

Nancy nodded and urged the woman to go on with her story. Mrs. Ayres said that when she had talked to Lola about what they could do, her patient had finally produced a very beautiful bracelet which she had secreted in her luggage.

«Lola and I took a little trip to London to pawn it,» she said. «I told her she'd better not use her right name, because the police sometimes get after these pawnshop dealers and she might get in trouble.»

«So she used the name of Laura Flynn, didn't she?» Nancy asked.

Mrs. Ayres almost toppled from her chair in surprise. Nancy told her not to be worried—that she had received that very bracelet as a gift and had been trying ever since to find out who the original owner was.

«How long has Mrs. Flanders been an amnesia victim?» she asked.

Mrs. Ayres replied that it was ever since Lola had come to live with her. She was not a victim of complete amnesia—it was more a case of forgetfulness and absent-mindedness than not knowing who she was.

«Every so often she seems to remember things very well,» said Mrs. Ayres. «But then her memory fades and for a long period she'll be almost like a child.» Mrs. Ayres leaned toward Nancy. «It's almost as though she were afraid the walls would pick up her words. To tell you the truth, Miss Drew, I think maybe the medicine Lola gets has something to do with it.»

«She's under a doctor's care?» Nancy questioned.

Mrs. Ayres nodded and said that the physician was not a local man. He came out a couple of times a year from London to see the ex-circus performer. He left a large supply of some white powder which Lola was to take every third day.

Nancy said the woman was no doubt right in her supposition about the medicine.

«It's all right for me to see Mrs. Flanders, isn't it?»

Once more, Mrs. Ayres seemed undecided as to what she should do. But finally she made up her mind.

«I'm ready to wash my hands of the whole thing. I find it hard enough keeping Lola Flanders here on the small amount of money Mr. Jones gives me. Come on, I'll take you to her.»

Nancy's pulse quickened as she followed the woman up a narrow, winding stairway. Mrs. Ayres opened one of the bedroom doors and called out:

«Lola, you have a visitor from the United States.»

As Nancy walked in, she saw a sweet gray-haired woman seated in an old-fashioned rocker. At once there was no doubt in Nancy's mind that she was looking at Lolita Flanders' mother!

«How do you do, Mrs. Flanders,» she said, going forward and shaking hands with the woman. «I've come a long way to see you. How are you feeling?»

«It is very nice to meet you, my dear,» Mrs. Flanders said. «I never have any visitors.»

Nancy told her that one of her former friends lived not far away. He had seen her at a circus not long before and had tried to speak to her. «But you left rather quickly,» said Nancy.

Mrs. Flanders turned searching eyes on Mrs. Ayres. Apparently she did not remember the incident.

«Oh, yes, we went to the circus when it came here,» said Mrs. Ayres. «Who is this person you speak of?»

«His name is Pietro,» said Nancy, watching Lolita's mother closely.

Mrs. Flanders jumped from her chair. For a few seconds the cloudiness in her eyes seemed to disappear completely.

«Pietro!» she cried excitedly. «How well I remember him! One of the best clowns the circus ever had.»

Nancy was thrilled to hear Mrs. Flanders reminisce. But suddenly the woman's face seemed to cloud over.

«What was it you were asking me, my dear?» she said sweetly.

Mrs. Ayres shrugged as if to say, «You see how it is?»

But Nancy was not discouraged. She felt sure that with the right kind of care Lola Flanders' memory might be restored completely.

«I haven't told you,» said Nancy, «but I'm a friend of your daughter Lolita.»

«Lolita?» Mrs. Flanders frowned, as if she were trying very hard to recall the name.

«Lolita is with Sims' Circus now,» Nancy went on. «She's one of the most brilliant aerialists in the United States.»

«Little Lolita,» Mrs. Flanders said, hardly audibly. «My little Lolita. She died when she was very young.»

Nancy was shocked. Apparently Mrs. Flanders had been told that her child was no longer living. Another one of Kroon's tricks!

Nancy decided not to pursue this subject. It might bring painful memories to the girl's mother.

Instead she said, «Mrs. Flanders, a queen once gave you a beautiful bracelet with horse charms, didn't she?»

Again Lola Flanders rose from her chair, and her eyes flashed.

«Yes,» she said excitedly. «Mrs. Ayres, where Is my bracelet?»

Nancy motioned the woman not to reply. Pulling up her coat sleeve, Nancy said:

«Mrs. Flanders, is this your bracelet?»

Mrs. Flanders stared at the piece of jewelry as if she were seeing a ghost. Nancy removed the bracelet and put it on Lola Flanders' thin wrist.

As the woman stared at it, all the unnaturalness about her seemed to disappear. She straightened up, lifted her chin, and smiled at Nancy and Mrs. Ayres.

«Please tell me more about this bracelet. You say it is yours, Miss Drew. How did you get it?»

Nancy decided to make the story brief.

«It came from a shop in the States,» she said. «An aunt of mine saw it and bought it for me.»

Lola Flanders nodded, and Nancy hurried on with her task of awakening the woman's mind completely. Putting an arm about her, she said:

«You have thought so many years that your lovely little girl was no longer living. This isn't true. Lolita is alive and well. She lives in the United States. She's one of the most beautiful girls I've ever seen.»

On the spur of the moment, Nancy decided not to mention again that she was an aerialist. It might recall Lola's accident to her and have a disastrous effect on her mind.

«My little girl is alive?» Lola Flanders exclaimed happily.

Nancy nodded. «How would you like to see her?» she asked.

This question almost overpowered Lola Flanders. She looked at Mrs. Ayres as if it were necessary to obtain her permission.

The woman smiled and came forward. Taking hold of Lola Flanders' hand, she said:

«This is wonderful news, isn't it? I think you should go and see your daughter.»

Nancy now told the women that her father, who was a lawyer, was outside waiting for her. He could arrange the legal steps so that Lola Flanders might accompany them back to the States very soon. Nancy also went on to say that Pietro and his son were waiting with her father.

«Oh, I want to see them!» Lola Flanders said.

Suddenly she looked at her shabby clothes. Then she shook her head. Speaking like an old trouper, she told the others that she could not possibly appear in public until she had something done with her hair and she had a pretty new gown. Nancy and Mrs. Ayres laughed. For the next few moments they helped Lola Flanders array herself as she wished. Nancy helped comb her hair in a more modern and becoming style. From a closet Mrs. Ayres brought out her own best dress. She wore it only to church, she said.

«Put this on,» Mrs. Ayres insisted.

Lola Flanders slipped it over her head, and giggling as happily as a girl, she surveyed herself in the mirror.

When she was ready, the former circus performer went downstairs. Nancy hurried outside and brought the men in.

«Lola! Lola! This is wonderful!» the elder Pietro cried, kissing her.

Mrs. Flanders blushed. Then Nancy introduced her father and the younger Pietro.

«How soon could Mrs. Flanders be ready to leave?» Nancy asked Mrs. Ayres.

«Any time,» the owner of the nursing home said. «She has very little in the way of baggage. It wouldn't take ten minutes to pack it.»

Before Lola Flanders knew what was happening, she and her suitcase were in the big automobile, and she was saying good-by to Mrs. Ayres, promising to write to her often and tell her what was happening.

The trip back to London did not take long. By the following morning, Mr. Drew had made arrangements for taking Lola Flanders back to the States. He and Nancy had decided not to cable Lolita. While they hoped Mrs. Flanders would not have a relapse, they agreed that it would be better to wait until they arrived home before telling Lolita the wonderful news.

At the airport the Pietros said good-by. The younger clown took Nancy aside and asked if she would let him know when it might be feasible for him to return to the States.

«Do you think I should tell Mrs. Flanders that Lolita and I are going to be married?»

«Not yet,» Nancy replied. «There are a lot of things to be done before the mystery is completely solved.»

As the travelers boarded the plane, Lola Flanders clung to Nancy. It had been a long time since she had made a trip across the ocean and never by plane. But the journey was a smooth and happy one.

When they landed in New York, a messenger delivered several telegrams to the plane. The stewardess handed one of them to Nancy.

Quickly she tore it open, then stared at the sheet in horror. The message had been sent by Bess from River Heights and read:

LOLITA BADLY INJURED. WILL MEET YOU HOTEL COLES NEW YORK WITH DETAILS.