A Mysterious Malady

NANCY tiptoed across the room and quickly jerked open the door to the hall. No one was there, but she was positive someone had been eavesdropping.

When Nancy returned to her father’s bedside, he insisted that he felt strong enough to ride to Mrs. Chantrey’s home.

“I’m glad you’re feeling better, but I doubt that the doctor would want you to get up so soon, ” Nancy said dubiously. “Why, you were practically unconscious when I arrived! ”

“Just seeing you has helped me a lot, Nancy.”

“Suppose I telephone Dr. Warren and ask his opinion? ” Nancy suggested.

“All right, but do hurry. I’ve had enough of this place.”

“I’ll be back as fast as I can. Don’t stir from your bed until I return.”

“Just as you say.” Her father grinned weakly. Nancy hurried to the lobby. She was alarmed to see that Ned was no longer there. Quickly she called the doctor’s office but there was no answer. As she left the booth, the hotel clerk motioned for her to come to the desk.

“You were asking about a Mr. Drew awhile ago? ” he inquired.

“Yes. I found him in Room 301.”

“But we have no one here by that name, ” said the clerk, looking at a registration card. “Room 301 is assigned to Mr. John Blake.”

“May I see the card, please? ”

Reluctantly the clerk handed it over. A John Blake had registered for Room 301. The handwriting was unfamiliar to Nancy.

“This isn’t my father’s signature! ” she exclaimed. “Who brought him here? ”

The clerk shrugged. “That I can’t say. I wasn’t on duty.”

Nancy was convinced the man could not be trusted. Although certain that he must have seen Ned leave the lobby, she did not wish to endanger the young man and refrained from questioning the clerk further. Instead she paid the bill, which was far in excess of what it should have been but made no protest. Once more she tried without success to reach Dr. Warren by telephone. Failing, she went upstairs and tapped on the door of Room 301.

“It’s Nancy, ” she called when Mr. Drew did not answer.

She rapped again and spoke her father’s name in a louder voice. Alarmed because there was no reply she pushed open the door.

“Oh! ” she cried in dismay.

Mr. Drew was not there! The bed was empty and had been remade.

Nancy rushed to the closet and jerked open the door. Only a row of empty hangers greeted her gaze. Her father’s clothing and overnight bag had disappeared!

As Nancy glanced about the deserted room she felt weak. Where was her ill father?

“I shouldn’t have left him alone—not even for a moment, ” she blamed herself.

Greatly frightened, and trying to decide what to do next, Nancy moved over to a window. Looking down into the street, she was astonished to see Ned pacing slowly back and forth.

Her first impulse was to call out, but she thought better of this, and merely tapped on the windowpane. Hearing the sound, Ned glanced upward. Nancy put her fingers to her lips and motioned for him to come up.

She waited anxiously at the door for Ned. Several minutes elapsed. Then she heard footsteps in the hallway and angry voices.

“Now listen! ” argued a man who Nancy guessed was the hotel clerk. “If you don’t stop pounding on doors I’ll have you thrown out! Understand? ”

“Someone I’m looking for is in this hotel. I intend to find her.”

At that moment Nancy opened the door and Ned rushed forward.

“Where is your father, Nancy? Is he all right? ”

Nearly in tears, Nancy told him what had happened. The callous Mr. Slocum listened coldly, and openly displayed annoyance as she suggested that Mr. Drew might have wandered into an unoccupied room.

“Very unlikely, ” he said, trying to dismiss the matter. “In any case it’s not our responsibility.”

“You have a responsibility in helping me find my father, who is ill! ” Nancy corrected him, her eyes flashing. “How many vacant rooms are on this floor? ”

“I don’t know without looking at my chart.”

“Are vacant rooms always kept locked? ”

“They should be.”

“But are they? ” Nancy persisted.

“Not always.”

“Then my father easily could have wandered into one of them. We must search for him.”

“There’s no sense in it, ” Slocum argued angrily.

“Perhaps you prefer to have the police do the investigating? ” Ned put in coldly.

The reference to police brought speedy results. The hotel clerk quickly produced his keys.

Beginning with the room directly across the hall, he tapped on doors and opened one after another.

“You see, it’s a waste of time, ” Slocum grumbled. “Nobody here.”

Nancy paid no attention. She had been examining faint footprints on the dusty floor of the hall and now paused before a door at the end of the corridor. “Is this room occupied? ” she asked.

The clerk could not remember. Without waiting, Nancy tried the door and found it unlocked. The room was dark, with curtains drawn at the windows. On the bed lay a man fully dressed, and sound asleep.

With a cry of relief Nancy darted to her father’s side. Her first attempts to awaken Mr. Drew brought no results.

Ned turned on a light while Nancy shook her father vigorously. His eyes opened, and he yawned as if awakening from a pleasant sleep.

“Dad, you must try to stay awake! How did you get into this room? ”

With an effort the lawyer roused himself. “Are we ready to leave? ” Then he turned over and went to sleep again.

Only after Nancy and Ned had tried for several minutes were they able to awaken Mr. Drew. He drank a glass of cold water, which seemed to revive him.

“Now tell me how you got in here, ” Nancy urged again. “Did you dress yourself after I left? ”

“Why, yes, I think so, ” he answered, trying hard to remember. “Then the girl came.”

“What girl? You don’t mean me? ”

“No, the maid. She wanted to make the bed and clean the room. I sat down to wait, and that’s all I remember until you woke me up.”

“You don’t know whether you walked in here by yourself or were carried? ”

“Now who would move him? ” cut in the hotel clerk.

“He was in 301, ” said Nancy.

“John Blake was in there. You said yourself you didn’t recognize the signature on the registration card. Furthermore, ” Slocum added, turning to Mr. Drew, “you’re all mixed up about the maid. The girls on this floor don’t start work until just about now.”

Mr. Drew gazed at the man with sudden dislike. “A dark-haired maid entered my room to change the bed. That happens to be a point about which I am very clear, ” he said in a cold voice.

“You can identify her, I suppose? ” the clerk asked insolently.

“I can if I see her again. How many girls work here as maids? ”

“Four come on duty at this hour. Three others work the night shift, but they’re not here yet.”

“Send the girls to me, please.”

Slocum looked annoyed for a moment, then a slightly sardonic grin played around the corners of his mouth. “Okay, ” he muttered.

A short time later four maids, who could not understand why they were being summoned, came into the bedroom. Mr. Drew asked each girl a few questions, then permitted her to leave. He had to admit he had never seen any of them before.

“Perhaps the woman who came to your room only posed as a maid, ” Nancy suggested after the last girl had gone.

Mr. Drew nodded. “Let’s get away from here, ” he urged. “The sooner the better.”

Nancy suggested that he should go to a hospital, but her father assured her he was feeling much better.

“I want to go on to Candleton, ” he said stubbornly. “If I can walk to the car, a few days on the beach will revive me completely.”

Nancy and Ned finally agreed to take him to Mrs. Chantrey’s house. Nancy said she would telephone Dr. Warren of the change in their plans and bring the car to the rear entrance of the hotel.

“Your bill is paid so we can slip away quietly, ” she declared. “Ned, will you stay with Dad? ”

“I won’t leave him a second, ” he promised. “Signal with two toots of the horn when you’re ready with the car.”

Nancy told Dr. Warren of her father’s improved condition and their decision to leave. Within five minutes Nancy had her convertible waiting at the front of the hotel. Not until her father was safely seated in the car did she relax.

“I’ll follow you closely in my car all the way to Candleton, ” Ned assured her, “and stay around till your dad’s well again.”

Mr. Drew actually seemed to improve during the ride. And after he was comfortably settled in a downstairs bedroom of Mrs. Chantrey’s home, he insisted he felt as well as ever.

Nancy, fearful that he might have another unnatural sleeping spell, watched him closely throughout the night and the next day. She read to him, turned on the radio, and her friends brought him delicacies from Mrs. Chantrey’s tearoom.

“You’re making an invalid of me, ” the lawyer complained that evening. “I feel fine! ”

The next morning, before anyone was out of bed, Mr. Drew dressed, slipped out of the house, and went for a long walk on the beach.

“Outwitted my keepers, didn’t I? ” he said with a chuckle upon his return. “Now I’ve had enough of this invalid nonsense. Haven’t you young folks anything to do? ”

“Why, Dad! ” Nancy laughed in delight.

“Go swimming! ” he commanded. “Take a motorboat ride. Just leave me alone to read a book. I’m entirely well, I assure you.”

Satisfied that her father was his former self once more, Nancy joined her friends for a late-morning swim. The young people enjoyed an hour in White Cap Bay, then went back to the house to change clothes.

Mr. Drew was sipping a lemonade, deeply engrossed in a book. Nancy and Ned decided to take their lunch to a picnic area outside of Candleton. When they finally returned to town, Ned parked his car on the main street and the two young people walked along looking at the shops. They paused before the window of a novelty jewelry store.

Suddenly Nancy heard the familiar tinkle of a little bell. She turned her head quickly. Madame and her attractive cosmetic cart were coming up the street!

Looking in the direction of the cart, Ned observed Madame with interest. Her dark-skinned face was shaded by an elaborate flowered hat.

“Say, who is she? ” he asked. “I’ve seen her before somewhere, but I don’t recall her pushing a fancy cart! ”

Madame, who was now opposite them, did not seem to recognize either of the young people. She quickly pushed her cart past them and hurried down the street. Or was she only pretending not to know them?

“Maybe you’re acquainted with her friend? ” Ned questioned Nancy suddenly, his eyes twinkling.

He gazed toward a stocky red-faced man who had emerged from the shadow of a nearby doorway, and joined the woman at the next corner. Both glanced back toward the young people.

“No, I never saw him before, ” Nancy replied, but she knew she would not forget his face. It was cruel and calculating.

The stranger made no attempt to buy any of the French woman’s cosmetics or perfumes. Apparently he was well acquainted with her, for they conversed freely. The man gestured angrily, and Ned and Nancy guessed he was trying to force the woman to agree to something against her will. Once Madame pointed toward the young people. Wrathfully the man pulled down her arm.

“What do you make of it? ” Ned asked curiously.

Nancy had no answer. She continued to stare as Madame and her companion hurriedly walked away together and disappeared in the direction of the beach.