Two Disappearances

“TOGO’S found something! ” Bess exclaimed, following George, who was parting the bushes that separated them from the dog.

George uttered a startled exclamation as she came upon Nancy stretched out on the ground only a few feet away. Togo was licking his mistress’s face as if begging her to regain consciousness.

Just as Hannah Gruen reached the spot, Nancy stirred and sat up. Seeing her dog, she reached over in a dazed sort of way to pat him.

“Hello, Togo, ” she mumbled. “Who—How did you get here? Where am I? ” Then, seeing her friends, she smiled wanly.

Observing that she had no serious injuries, they pressed her for an explanation.

“I don’t know what happened, ” Nancy admitted.

On the ground near the spot where the cabin road crossed another dirt road, she had found the familiar Three Branch insigne.

This time, a tiny arrow had been added. Without stopping to summon George, Nancy had hurried along the trail until she came upon another arrow.

A series of arrows had led her deeper into the woods. Finally she had come to a walnut tree nearly as large as the famous Humphrey Walnut.

The tree had a small hollow space in its trunk. It contained no message, however. She had been about to turn back when a piece of paper on the ground had caught her eye. Examination had revealed that it was a half sheet torn from a catalog.

“It matched that scrap of paper I found in the clearing near the Humphrey Walnut, ” Nancy said.

Obviously the sheet had been ripped from the catalog of a supply house for magicians’ equipment. One advertisement offered spirit smoke for sale.

While Nancy had been reading, she had heard footsteps and looked up. Through the woods, some distance up the path, she had seen a young woman approaching. Hastily Nancy stepped back, intending to hide behind the walnut tree.

At that moment something had struck her from behind.

“That’s the last I remember, ” she added ruefully.

“Who would do such a wicked thing? ” Mrs. Gruen demanded in horror.

“It’s easy to guess, ” Nancy replied. “The tree must be another place where the members of the gang collect money from their victims. I probably had the bad luck to arrive here at the moment a client was expected.

“You mean the same fellow who had the reaching rod hit you to get you out of the way? ” Bess asked. “Oh, ” she added nervously, “he still may be around! ”

“I doubt it, ” Nancy said. “He probably took the money that girl left, and ran.”

“I’m going to inform the police! ” Hannah Gruen announced in a determined voice.

Nancy tried to dissuade her, but for once her arguments had no effect. On the way home with the girls, Mrs. Gruen herself stopped at the office of the State Police. She revealed all she knew of the attack upon Nancy.

As a result, troopers searched the woods thoroughly; but, exactly as Nancy had foreseen, not a trace was found of her assailant. However, when they searched the interior of the cabin, they found evidence pointing to the fact that its recent residents were interested in magic.

When they reached home, Mrs. Gruen told Nancy about the telephone call from a clerk at the Claymore Hotel. She went to see him at once, and was given a letter addressed to Mrs. Egan. It was signed by Mrs. Putney!

The note merely said that the services of Mrs. Egan would no longer be required. The spirit of Mrs. Putney’s departed husband was again making visitations to his former home to advise her.

Taking the letter with her, Nancy mulled over the matter for some time.

The next morning, she decided to pay Mrs. Putney a visit, hoping she would be able to see her this time. But Mrs. Putney was not there, and a neighbor in the next house told Nancy she had been gone all morning.

“Doesn’t Mrs. Putney ever drive her car? ” Nancy asked, seeing it through a garage window.

“Not since her husband died.”

“Does she have someone else drive her? ”

“Oh, no! She won’t let a soul touch the car.”

Nancy was puzzled. Someone must have taken the car without Mrs. Putney’s permission.

“If that woman we saw in the back seat was Mrs. Putney, maybe she didn’t know where she was or what she was doing, any more than poor Lola did when she walked into the river! ” Nancy told herself.

Nancy thanked the woman and withdrew. She hurried back to the garage to look for evidence that the car had been used recently. Fortunately the door was not locked. She examined the car carefully. It was covered with a film of dust and the rear axle was mounted on jacks. It had obviously not been driven for some time.

Something else struck Nancy as peculiar. The license plate bore a number that was different from the one registered as Mrs. Putney’s.

“Hers must have been stolen and someone else’s plate put on her car! ” the young detective thought excitedly. “Maybe this number belongs to one of the racketeers and he used Mrs. Putney’s to keep people from tracing him! ”

Nancy dashed off in her convertible to the Motor Vehicle Bureau office. There she learned that the license on the widow’s car had been issued to a Jack Sampson in Winchester, fifty miles from River Heights. But this revelation was mild in comparison with what the clerk told her next.

“Jack Sampson died a few months ago. His car was kept in a public garage. The executor of the estate reported that the license plate had been stolen.”

As soon as Nancy recovered from her astonishment, she thanked the clerk for the information. Telephone calls to Winchester brought out the fact that the deceased man’s reputation had been above reproach. He could not have been one of the racketeers. Nancy decided that before telling the police where the stolen license plates could be found, she would give Mrs. Putney a chance to tell what she knew about it all.

Hurrying back, she was just in time to see the widow coming up the street with several packages. Nancy hastened to her side and offered to take them. Although Mrs. Putney allowed her to carry them, she did not invite Nancy into the house. Therefore, Nancy told her story of the license plate as they stood on the front porch.

“I wasn’t in that car you saw, and you must be mistaken about the license plate, ” Mrs. Putney told her flatly.

“Come, I’ll show you, ” Nancy urged, leading the way to the garage and opening the door. “Why—why—” she gasped in utter bewilderment.

The correct license number was back on the car!

“You see why I have come to doubt your ability to help me, ” Mrs. Putney said coldly. “I no longer need your assistance, Nancy. As a matter of fact, I have every expectation of getting my stolen jewelry back very soon. My husband’s spirit has been visiting me right here at home as he used to do, and he assures me that everything will turn out satisfactorily.”

Leaving Nancy distressed and more concerned than ever, Mrs. Putney walked into the house without even saying good-by. As Nancy started away, she decided that further protection for the widow would have to come from the police.

Next, she drove to police headquarters to see her old friend Captain McGinnis. Nancy explained that she knew someone had appropriated the Putney license plate, and probably would do so again.

“Mrs. Putney has told me some things that make me think someone prowls around there late at night or early in the morning, ” Nancy told him. “I’m afraid she may be in danger.”

Nancy kept to herself the idea that a member of the ring of fake mediums might be playing the role of Mr. Putney’s spirit. She had noticed that two windows of Mrs. Putney’s bedroom opened onto the roof of a porch. It would be very easy for an agile man to climb up there and perform as the late Mr. Putney.

The officer agreed to keep men on duty to watch the house night and day. Nancy was so hopeful of rapid developments, now, that every time the telephone rang, she was sure it was word that the police had caught one or more of the gang.

But when she had received no word for a whole day, she went to see Captain McGinnis. He told her that plainclothesmen had kept faithful watch of the Putney home, but reported that no one had been found trying to break in; in fact, Captain McGinnis said he was thinking of taking the detectives off the case because the house was now unoccupied.

“You mean Mrs. Putney has gone away? ” Nancy asked incredulously.

“Yes, just this morning, ” the officer replied. “Bag and baggage. Probably gone on a vacation.”

Nancy was amazed to hear this, and also chagrined. She had not expected such a turn of events!

“I’m certain Mrs. Putney isn’t on vacation, ” Nancy told herself grimly. “It’s more likely that she received a spirit message advising her to leave.

Recalling the widow’s mention of getting back the stolen jewelry, Nancy surmised that Mrs. Putney might have gone off on some ill-advised errand to recover it. Thoroughly discouraged, Nancy had yet another disappointment to face. Scarcely had she reached home, when an urgent telephone call came from Mrs. White.

“Oh, Nancy! The very worst has happened! ” the woman revealed tearfully. “Lola’s gone! ”

“Gone? Where, Mrs. White? ”

“I don’t know, ” Lola’s mother wailed. “She left a note saying she was leaving home. Oh, Nancy, you must help me find her! ”