Nancy Investigates

INSTINCTIVELY Nancy darted after the terrified child. She seized her by the hand and jerked the little girl from the roadway just as the automobile whizzed by.

“Let me go! ” Trixie cried, trying to pull away. Then, seeing who her rescuer was, she relaxed slightly. “Oh, it’s you, ” she said.

“What’s the matter, Trixie? ” Nancy asked gently. “You were almost run down by that car.”

The little girl began to sob, her thin body shaking. While Nancy was trying to comfort her, another car approached and drew up alongside the road. George was driving; Bess sat beside her.

“What’s wrong? ” Bess asked, stepping from the car. “Has Trixie been hurt? ”

“No, she’s all right, ” Nancy answered, “but she had a narrow escape. Something frightened her and she ran into the path of a car.”

“What was it that scared you, Trixie? ” George asked.

Trixie moved nearer Nancy, away from the other two girls.

“It—it was a ghost, ” she answered, her voice trembling. “A great big one with horrible eyes! It glared at me from the window of the Ship Cottage! ”

“Oh, Trixie, you don’t really believe that! ” George laughed. “There are no ghosts.”

“Then what was it I saw? ” the child demanded. “There’s something big with horrible eyes hiding in there! ”

Nancy spoke up quietly. “I’ll tell you what we’ll do, Trixie. You run along to the house with Bess. George and I will go to the music studio and take a look around.”

“Maybe that thing will hurt you, ” the little girl said anxiously.

“We’ll be careful. You go with Bess.”

Somewhat reluctantly Trixie allowed herself to be led up the path. George and Nancy turned in the opposite direction, walking swiftly to the studio.

“Trixie didn’t imagine that she saw glaring eyes watching her, ” Nancy declared, lowering her voice. “The first day I came here some very strange things happened while I was inside the building. That’s why Dad doesn’t like me to come here alone.”

“You think someone may be hiding there? ”

“It’s possible. Before Ellen accepts work with Mrs. Chatham we must investigate this place thoroughly.”

Cautiously the girls circled the quaint small building. They saw no one and heard no unusual sounds.

Nancy tried the door, expecting to walk right in as she had done the first time, but to her surprise it would not open.

“That’s odd, ” she remarked in a puzzled tone. “The studio was unlocked when I was here before.”

“Perhaps we can get in through a window, ” George suggested, testing one on the front of the house.

She could not raise it nor any of the others.

“I wonder if I should ask Mrs. Chatham for the key, ” Nancy mused. Then, answering herself, she said, “Why not? She can always refuse.”

The two girls hurried to the main house, where they found Bess seated on the porch with Mrs. Chatham. Trixie was playing on the steps with a white cat and laughing shrilly at its antics.

“Can’t you please be quiet? ” her mother asked irritably.

“You always say that. ‘Be quiet; don’t do that! ’ If Daddy were alive, I’d have fun.”

“Trixie! ” Mrs. Chatham shouted. “Not another word or you’ll go to your room.” The child subsided into silence.

Nancy felt sorry for Trixie, knowing how upset the child had been. She was certain that Mrs. Chatham did not know about the unusual happenings at Ship Cottage. To confirm this theory, Nancy casually asked the woman who used the small house.

“Why, no one, ” Mrs. Chatham replied, surprised at the question.

“You never go there yourself? ”

“Almost never. I’ve been reluctant to stir up old memories.”

“You keep the studio locked, I suppose? ” Nancy inquired.

“Usually I do, ” Mrs. Chatham replied. “For a while I left it unlocked thinking Trixie might like to play there. But she refused to step inside! ”

“Did you ever ask her why she dislikes the place so much? ”

“It would do no good, ” Mrs. Chatham said. “She has a very vivid imagination and tells outlandish stories.”

Nancy was inclined to believe the woman had no idea that Trixie’s misbehavior might result from a feeling of loneliness. If her mother did not believe her and the servants were not kind to her, the child did indeed need a friend. Ellen Smith could be just the person!

“You mentioned the other day that your first husband collected ship models, ” Nancy remarked after a moment.

“Would you like to see the collection? ” Mrs. Chatham inquired politely.

“Yes, I would.”

“I’ll get the key, ” Mrs. Chatham said, rising.

Trixie remained at the house while her mother and the three girls went to the studio. The widow unlocked the front door, pushed it open, and stepped inside. The girls followed.

Nancy’s eyes roved about the dusty room. Nothing appeared to have been disturbed since her last visit. There was no sign of either an intruder or an open panel in the wall.

“What charming little ships! ” Bess exclaimed as she examined the model of a sailing clipper on the mantelpiece.

While her friends were talking to Mrs. Chat ham, Nancy seated herself at the piano. Hesitatingly she touched the keys. The notes sounded clear and loud, echoing in the room.

“That’s certainly strange, ” she mused.

Turning around, she asked Mrs. Chatham if the piano had a secret spring which at times prevented it from being played.

“Goodness, no! Why do you ask? ” The woman laughed. But a moment later she said, “It’s possible your question may be far more to the point than I first thought. The inventor who lived here might have installed some kind of gadget.”

“Then the piano was here when you took over the place? ”

“Yes, it was. Nothing has been changed. In fact, this building never has been used.”

“You haven’t found any secret panels? ” Nancy inquired eagerly.

“Not here, but there is one in my bedroom. It serves no real purpose. Once Trixie got behind it by accident, and has never wanted to come into my room since.”

Nancy decided to tell Mrs. Chatham about her strange experience in the studio. The woman was upset about the man behind the sliding panel. She was greatly relieved when the girls offered to search the room for hidden springs, secret doors, or mechanical gadgets. The trio industriously began looking for a movable section in the walls.

“I’ll go outside and see how the exterior of the building compares in size with this room, ” George said.

Bess and Mrs. Chatham followed. Nancy resumed her investigating. First she turned up the corner of a rug which lay under the piano. To her surprise she found several wires which evidently ran down one leg of the instrument through the rug and the floor.

“There must be a switch to turn the piano off and on, ” Nancy mused. “I wonder where it is.”

Another search of the walls revealed nothing.

“The switch must be controlled from a spot back of a secret panel! ”

Nancy decided to go over each section of the wall reflected in the mirror, moving her hands along the wall an inch at a time. A wooden peg which seemed to secure the wide panel to the sheathing drew her attention. As she fingered it, Nancy felt a slight movement. Between the boards she could see a tiny crack of space.

“I’ve found the opening! ” she thought jubilantly.

Nancy pushed and pulled, increasing the gap only a little at a time. Then suddenly the woodwork gave, sliding back easily. As Nancy turned to shout her discovery, she heard a shrill scream.

“Help! Help! Nancy! ”

The cry had come from outside the building. Nancy had recognized the voice as George’s!