New Challenge

WHEN Nancy regained consciousness a few minutes later, Terry Scott was bending over her.

“Nancy! ” he whispered anxiously.

“I’m all right, ” she managed to say, but her head ached badly. “You’re not hurt? ”

“A few bruises. But we’re lucky.”

The couple got out and surveyed the car. It was tilted precariously on its front end.

“There should have been a warning sign, ” Nancy said grimly.

Terry pointed. “There was a sign—but not where it should have been.”

Lying at the side of the ditch was a long board. “‘Danger. Road Repairs. Drive Slowly, ’ ” he read aloud. “A lot of good that does us now! The road gang shouldn’t have been so careless.”

“Don’t blame the road gang, ” Nancy said. “I believe that sign was deliberately removed just before we got here.”

“Nancy, that would be murder! ”

“It very nearly was murder, ” she answered. “And by those two men who were watching us at the restaurant, I’ll bet.”

Terry dragged the sign around the bend to warn other motorists. He had just returned to Nancy when they heard the squeal of brakes.

Nancy and Terry relaxed as they saw a kindly-looking, middle-aged couple in the car that came around the bend.

“Oh, my dears! ” the woman cried, getting out of the car. “Is anyone—”

Terry said no one else was involved in the accident. Nancy added that they were all right except she had a headache.

The man offered the young people a ride, but Nancy preferred waiting until a wrecker could come. The friendly strangers promised to stop at the next town and send back mechanics, as well as a state trooper.

A few minutes later a tow truck arrived and two men in overalls stepped out. In a short time they had Nancy’s car on the road and were checking it for damage.

Both mechanics grinned. “Some car! ” one commented. “She’s got a few dents and scratches. But no real harm done by her tumble. No reason why you two can’t keep goin’ under your own power. ‘Course, you’d better check again when you get where you’re goin’.”

As the men were leaving, a state trooper rode up on a motorcycle. Nancy and Terry told him their story. He said that a watch would be set for the two men whom the young people thought were responsible for the removal of the road sign.

Then Nancy and Terry started off once more for Emerson. Terry took the wheel.

“You relax and pamper that head of yours, ” he told Nancy, “or you won’t be able to show up at the dance tomorrow. I’m counting on at least one dance with you, young lady.”

“Are you going? ” Nancy asked in surprise.

“Well, that depends on whether or not I get an invitation.”

“I’ll be looking for you, ” Nancy said.

When they reached Emerson College, Terry got off at the president’s home, where he had been invited to stay. Nancy drove on to meet Ned Nickerson at the Chi Omega Epsilon fraternity house.

Tall, athletic Ned saw Nancy drive up and ran out to greet her. When he noticed the dents in the car, he gasped, “What happened? Were you in an accident? ”

When she told what had occurred, Ned’s tanned face took on a look of deep concern. He insisted she call Hannah to say she had arrived at Emerson. Then he drove Nancy to the college infirmary for a checkup. To his relief she was pronounced all right.

On the way back to the fraternity house, Ned asked, “How did you and the prof hit it off? Was he much bother? ”

Nancy smiled demurely. “He was a lamb. He even insisted on driving part of the way himself. And you know what I think you should do, Ned? Invite him to the fraternity dance. As your fraternity brother, he’d be immensely flattered.”

“All right, ” Ned agreed reluctantly. “I’ll see that he gets an invitation.”

At dinner she mentioned that her father wished her to call on Dr. Anderson, a professor of geology at Clifton Institute nearby.

“It would be nice if you could drive me over, ” she said. “How about Sunday? ”

“Look here, Nancy. Is this some more of your detective work? ”

Nancy admitted that she had become interested in a fascinating mystery and would tell him more about it on the drive over. For the time being, she was just going to enjoy the house party.

Next afternoon there was a football game. It was a close contest with Harper. Emerson pulled ahead only in the last quarter to win by a score of 14 to 7.

Ned played a spectacular game as quarterback. He scored the first touchdown on a brilliant dash around the Harper end, and threw a pass to the left halfback for the winning touchdown. Nancy cheered until her voice was hoarse.

Later, when they were dancing at the fraternity house, Ned remarked that he had not seen any elderly men. “I guess Professor Scott decided not to come.”

Nancy suppressed a smile. A few minutes later she saw a tall young man on the fringe of the crowd. As she and Ned reached him, Nancy stopped and said:

“Hello! I’m glad you got here. Ned, I’d like you to meet Professor Terence Scott. Terry, this is your fraternity brother Ned Nickerson.”

Terry put out his hand. Ned’s jaw dropped and he gave Nancy a sidewise glance. The name Scott had hit him like a delayed-action bomb.

“You’re Professor Scott who’s giving a lecture here tomorrow? ” he exclaimed.

Terry grinned. “I guess I am, Brother Nickerson! ”

Ned shot Nancy an “I’ll-get-even” look, then burst out laughing. “Well, you two kept your secret well, ” he said.

He immediately introduced Terry to his fraternity brothers and the girls with them. Terry became popular at once.

When the dance ended, he told Nancy and Ned, “I haven’t had so much fun since my own college days.”

The next day, directly after lunch, Nancy and Ned set out for Clifton Institute. Nancy kept her promise to tell Ned about the mystery of the black key, and the strange events that had taken place in connection with it.

“That’s why I want to talk to Dr. Anderson, ” she concluded. “He may give us a clue.”

They located the robust, forty-five-year-old professor seated in a garden behind one of the faculty houses. He wore comfortable tweeds and was puffing on a briar pipe.

“Never find me indoors, weather like this, ” he told his callers after Nancy had introduced herself and Ned.

Dr. Anderson went on to say that he felt he could teach his students more on field trips than they could possibly get out of books. “On the ninth of this coming month I’m taking a group of special students from various colleges on a field trip to Florida.”

“How exciting! ” exclaimed Nancy.

“Great country, Florida, ” the professor said. “Fascinating history.”

Nancy maneuvered the conversation to Mexico, and explained that her father knew Dr. Joshua Pitt. “Dr. Anderson, do you have any theories about where Pitt might be? ”

The question seemed to annoy the professor. With a frown he replied, “I’m interested in facts, not theories, Miss Drew.”

He further astounded her by saying that Juarez Tino had called on him a few weeks before. He had offered to tell where Pitt and the missing cipher tablet were if Anderson would pay him for the information.

“You didn’t do it? ” Nancy asked excitedly.

“That rascally scoundrel? ” the professor exploded. “I should say not. I threatened to call the police, and then threw him out of my office! ”

Nancy asked a few more questions, but Dr. Anderson became evasive. Realizing she could get no more information from him, she thanked him for the interview and left with Ned.

As they drove back to Emerson, Nancy remarked, “If I had been in Dr. Anderson’s place, I would have tried to find out where Juarez Tino went.”

Ned agreed. “Do you think he might be holding Dr. Pitt for ransom? ”

“If so, there’s no telling what might happen to the poor man, ” Nancy said. “I must find Juarez Tino just as soon as I can! ”

“Sounds too dangerous, ” Ned retorted. “Remember, I like you all in one piece! ”

“Don’t worry, ” Nancy replied laughingly. “So do I! ”

That afternoon she and Ned attended Terry Scott’s lecture at the college auditorium. The young scientist thrilled his audience with a story about a Mexican jungle, where there had once lived an ancient race of people quite unlike any of their neighbors. From statues that had been found, it was thought they might have been pygmies.

“But they were people of a high culture, ” Terry said, “who made many beautiful objects. These are just beginning to be uncovered. I had some color pictures of them, but unfortunately all of my slides, as well as my notes, mysteriously disappeared a short time ago.”

Nancy whispered to Ned that this was when Terry was assaulted at his hotel. Toward the end of the lecture, the young professor mentioned his own work in Mexico and the cipher stone.

“Someday I hope to come back here and tell you that the cipher stone has solved a great mystery, ” he remarked, looking straight at Nancy.

When the lecture was over, his listeners applauded loudly.

“Never heard people so enthusiastic over this kind of lecture, ” Ned declared as he and Nancy left the auditorium.

“Terry’s really good, isn’t he? ” Nancy said.

The couple had dinner that evening at a popular steak house, and discussed plans for Ned’s Thanksgiving vacation.

They said good night at ten, since Ned had classes the next morning and Nancy planned to start early on the drive home.

Terry drove most of the way back to River Heights on Monday. “I’m glad this trip was uneventful, ” he declared laughingly as he said good-by at his hotel.

“I’ll be in touch soon about the mystery, ” Nancy promised as she waved, and headed home.

“Well, I’m glad you’re back, and safe and sound, ” said Hannah Gruen as she met Nancy at the door.

“Any news here? ” Nancy asked.

“Yes. Your father left town. Didn’t say when he’d be back. And call Bess or George right away.”

“Important? ”

“If you could hear them, you’d think so! ”

Nancy hurried to the telephone and called the Marvin house.

“At last! ” Bess gasped. “Wait there. George and I will be right over.”

A few minutes later the cousins arrived in the Marvin car. They joined Nancy in her bedroom where she was unpacking.

“Did you have fun? ” Bess began.

George cut her short. “Let’s tell Nancy our news first. She might want to report it to the police.”

“Yes, please do, ” Nancy begged.

The girls said they might have a clue to the person or persons who had caused the car accident, about which they had already heard from Hannah.

“It all started in Cliffwood, ” said Bess. “Remember that terrible man who said all those awful things to you at the airport? ”

“You mean Wilfred Porterly? ”

“He’s the one.” George took up the story. “Bess and I were shopping Friday in Cliffwood when we spotted him.”

The cousins were so sure he had not been telling the truth about himself at the airport that they had decided to follow him and see what they could find out.

“We trailed him to a hotel, where he went into a phone booth, ” George reported. “He dialed a number and talked to somebody named King.”

“Conway King? ” Nancy asked excitedly.

“I don’t know. He just said King. But he was talking about you, Nancy. We heard him say, ‘That Drew girl and Scott are acting too smart. You know what to do.’ ”

“Then what happened? ”

“King must have answered quickly and to the point, because Porterly said, ‘That sounds all right.’ Then he hung up.”

Bess said the girls had expected Porterly to go upstairs, and were planning what to do next, when he suddenly went out a rear exit.

“We followed him, ” said George, “but he disappeared. I think he caught a glimpse of us.”

“The hotel clerk said nobody was registered there under the name of Porterly, ” Bess added.

“Was there a Mr. King listed? ” Nancy asked.

“No, ” George replied.

“What time did Porterly make the phone call? ”

“A little after ten, ” George declared. “It must have been, because we left home at nine.”

Nancy was thoughtful. It was unfortunate that she had caught only a brief glimpse of the men’s backs when they had jumped into their parked sedan near the restaurant. Had the shorter one been King—alias Juarez Tino—back from Florida? Had the taller man been Porterly?

Nancy told the girls about the two strangers who had been watching the restaurant.

“Nancy, you might have been killed! ” Bess said with a shiver.

George agreed. “Those villains are plotting trouble for you as well as for Terry. Since one plan didn’t work, they’ll try another.”

All the time Nancy was relating details about the house party, her mind dwelled on George’s remark.

“I ought to warn Terry! ” Nancy decided after the cousins left to return home.

She hurried into her father’s study and telephoned. Nancy quickly related the story and her suspicions.

Terry whistled in surprise. “Well, that clears up the mystery of the road sign, ” he remarked.

“When they find their scheme didn’t work, ” Nancy said, “they’ll try something else. Terry, you’re the one they’re really after. I think you should leave town for a few days.”

“Oh, I’ll be all right, ” the young professor replied reassuringly. “But how about you? Does your father know what happened? ”

Nancy told him her father was away for an indefinite stay.

“That settles it, ” Terry said. “You and Mrs. Gruen should not be in that house tonight. Stay at some hotel.”

“Nonsense, ” Nancy told him. “We’ll be perfectly safe, especially if Juarez Tino thinks I’m scared off the case. But why do you have to stay in River Heights? ”

“I have no choice. You know I’m a bit of a linguist. A woman here engaged me just this afternoon to translate an old diary for her, and I’ve accepted. It belonged to her grandfather, a sea captain. It’s sort of a puzzle and she has persuaded me to decipher it for her.”

“Can’t you do your translating somewhere else, while you’re in hiding? ” Nancy asked.

Terry said the woman considered the diary a priceless relic and would not permit it out of her sight. That meant he would have to work on it at her home in River Heights.

“But here’s an idea, ” he said. “She and her husband have invited me to stay with them while I’m doing the work.”

“Well, that might be safer than staying at the hotel, ” Nancy said. “I’d suggest you go there immediately. But please do it quietly. Don’t let Juarez Tino or Porterly know where you are! ”

“All right, ” Terry agreed. “If you want to get in touch with me, I’ll be at the Earl Wangells’. They’re in the phone book.”

A sudden look of alarm came into Nancy’s eyes. “Terry, did you say the Wangells? On Fairview Avenue? ”

“Yes. Do you know them? ”

Nancy’s voice was excited now. “Terry, listen to me. I beg you, don’t go there and stay. Don’t even take the job! ”

Terry was astounded. “Why not? ” he asked.

“I can’t tell you over the phone. But Dad would say the same thing if he were here. Please don’t go there, Terry.”

For a minute he did not reply. When he did speak, the young man’s voice was kindly but determined.

“Thanks for warning me. But I’ve just got to run the risk. I must see that diary again, ” he said. “I believe it will help solve the mystery of the black keys.”