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The Tunnel Room






 

NANCY uttered no sound. As she watched in the dim light, the ghost flitted noiselessly up a flight of stairs at the end of the hall which evidently led to the top floor.

Without thinking, Nancy started after it on tiptoe. Despite the heavy carpet, a floorboard groaned beneath her weight. Did she fancy that the filmy figure ahead hesitated a moment, then went on?

As she mounted the steps to the third floor Nancy heard another creaking sound. At the top she was just in time to see the white-draped figure again vanish into the wall!

The wall was solidly paneled with black walnut. Though Nancy searched carefully, running her fingers over every inch of the smooth wood panels, she could find no secret door or spring that might release a sliding partition. Returning to the second floor, she examined the panels there also, but without success.

Of one thing Nancy was convinced. The old house harbored more than one sinister character, how many she did not know. There was the figure at the organ, the one who had knocked her flashlight from her hand, the man who had scared Bess almost out of her wits, and now, the apparition she had followed up the stairs. Surely these could not all be one and the same “ghost.”

“The one that went up the stairs was a live man or woman, I’m sure of that! But what was he up to? ”

Knowing that a further investigation at this time would be worthless, Nancy started once more to look for her father and Ned.

After a futile search of the house and grounds, she decided:

“There’s just a chance that they went back to the car and are waiting for me.” She hurried down the road.

As she reached the place where the car had been parked, she halted in astonishment.

The automobile was gone!

Before she could examine the rutty road for tire prints, she heard the sound of hurrying footsteps. Whirling, she saw her father and Ned coming out of the woods.

“Nancy, thank heaven you’re safe! ” Ned exclaimed, hurrying to her side.

“But where’s the car? ” Nancy demanded.

“The car’s been stolen! ” Mr. Drew said grimly. “Ned and I heard voices outside and ran to investigate.”

“Did you find out who it was? ”

“No. But we caught a glimpse of a man streaking through the woods, ” Ned replied. “He was too far away for us to get a good look at him, and he gave us the slip.”

“By the way, here’s something I picked up near those wheelbarrow tracks that lead back through the woods, ” Mr. Drew remarked.

The lawyer handed Nancy a tubular piece of metal which appeared to have been taken from a collapsible rod such as magicians and fake mediums might use.

“Why, this piece is similar to the one I saw in the clearing the other day! ” Nancy exclaimed.

“And look what I found on the kitchen stairway! ” Ned exclaimed.

From his pocket he drew forth a miniature short-wave radio sending set.

“Does it work? ” Mr. Drew asked eagerly.

“I’ll see. Messages couldn’t be sent very far with it, though.”

“Could you tune it to send a message to the River Heights police station or a prowl car? ”

Ned made some adjustments on the set, and began sending a request to the police asking that men be dispatched at once to Blackwood Hall. He gave the license number of the missing car and asked that it be rebroadcast over the police radio.

While they waited hopefully for action in response to Ned’s call, Nancy related her adventures. She described the underground passageway, the strange appearance and disappearance of the “ghost, ” and the peculiar scraping sounds she had heard.

“If the police don’t show up soon, we’ll investigate the ghost room with my flashlight, ” Mr. Drew declared.

“Look! ” Nancy cried out. “There’s a car coming up the road.”

The three quickly stepped behind some bushes and waited to see if they could identify the occupants of the approaching automobile before revealing their presence. To their relief, it was a State Police car.

“My message must have been relayed to them! ” Ned exclaimed. “Swell! ”

Two officers alighted, and the trio moved out of hiding to introduce themselves. Upon hearing the full details of what had happened, the troopers offered to make a thorough inspection of Blackwood Hall.

Nancy, Mr. Drew, and Ned accompanied them back to the mansion.

The police looked in every room but found no trace of its recent tenants. When they tackled the secret tunnel, Nancy stayed close behind, eager for a glimpse beyond the walnut door. It proved to be a tiny, empty room with no sign of a mysterious green light, a ghost or a human being. Furthermore, the room had no other exit.

“Is this little room under the house? Or is it located somewhere under the grounds? ” Nancy asked one of the officers.

After making various measurements the men announced that it was located under the house, almost beneath the stairwell. It was not connected with the cellar, and no one could hazard a guess as to its original purpose.

“You may have thought you saw a ghost, but don’t tell me anyone can get through a locked door, ” one officer chided the girl.

“I actually did see a figure in white, ” Nancy insisted quietly. “Something or someone knocked the flashlight from my hand. See, it’s over there by the door.”

In all fairness, Nancy could not blame the troopers for being a trifle skeptical. She almost began to doubt that she had ever had a frightening adventure in this spot.

Observing Nancy’s crestfallen air, Mr. Drew said to the troopers, “Obviously this old house has been used by an unscrupulous gang. When they discovered we were here to check up on them, they moved out their belongings—my car as well.”

“Stealing a car is a serious business, ” one officer commented. “We’ll catch the thief, and when we do, we’ll find out what has been going on in the old Humphrey house. Meanwhile, we’ll have one of our men keep a close watch on this neck of the woods.”

“No use sticking around here now, ” the other trooper added. “Whoever pulled the job has skipped.”

“I’m going to keep working on this case until all the pieces in the puzzle can be made to fit together—even the ghosts! ” Nancy told her father.

“Here’s a bit of evidence, ” said the lawyer, taking the piece of telescopic rod from his pocket.

One trooper recognized it at once as magicians’ or fake mediums’ equipment, and asked for it to hand in with his report. Ned turned over the pocket radio sending set which had proved so valuable in bringing the police.

Though the license number of Mr. Drew’s car had been broadcast over the police radio, there was no trace of it that night. The following afternoon Mr. Drew was notified that the car had been found abandoned in an adjacent state.

Accompanied by Nancy in her convertible, the lawyer traveled to Lake Jasper just across the state line. His automobile, found on a deserted road, had been towed to a local garage. Nothing had been damaged.

“Some people have no regard for other folks’ property, ” the attendant remarked. “Probably a bunch o’ kids helped themselves to your car to go joy riding.”

But Nancy and her father were convinced that the car had not been “borrowed” by any joy riders. It had been used by a gangster to transport some unknown objects from Blackwood Hall!

What were the objects, and where had they been taken? Here was one more question to which Nancy must find the answer.

Nancy and her father had just returned home when Bess Marvin came bursting in. “Lola White has been talking wildly about you in her sleep! ” Bess said ominously.

“What’s so serious about that? ” Nancy inquired.

“Lola’s mother says she raves about a spirit warning her to have nothing more to do with Nancy Drew! If Lola does, the spirit will bring serious trouble to both of you! ”


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