Prisoners

HOPING Tombar had not seen them, Nancy drove a few hundred yards up the road from the Blue Iris Inn. She parked in the shelter of a clump of willows and the two friends tramped back to the deserted building.

“You won’t go too close, promise, ” Bess begged.

“Just close enough to do some looking. We’ll find out what Tombar’s up to.”

The green sedan still stood on the weed-choked driveway, but Peter Tombar was not in sight.

“He must be inside, ” Nancy said.

“If he catches us prowling around here, we may run into that danger George predicted! ” Bess declared uneasily.

“Now don’t get jittery, ” Nancy begged. “We’ll stay out of sight.”

Using the pine shrubbery as a shield, the girls slipped to the side of the inn next to the driveway. Nancy made her way cautiously through the shrubbery to a boarded window.

“You keep watch, ” she told Bess, and peered through a tiny crack.

“What do you see? ” her friend demanded in an impatient whisper. “Is Tombar in there? ”

“Someone’s moving around with a flashlight. Yes, it’s Tombar all right! But all the crates and cartons are gone! ”

“You’ve seen everything you can, ” Bess whispered, tugging at her friend’s hand. “Come on! ”

Nancy held back. In fascination she watched as Peter Tombar lifted a trap door in the floor of the empty room and disappeared below.

“I can’t leave now, ” Nancy whispered. “I wonder what is in the cellar.”

“Come away, Nancy! ” Bess warned. “A truck is turning in here! ”

It was too late for the girls to retreat to the road without being seen. They flattened themselves against the boarded side window, hoping not to be observed.

Luck was with them, for instead of coming all the way up the drive, the covered truck halted near the road. As the girls anxiously waited, it backed up again and drove away.

“A Taylor company truck! ” Nancy exclaimed. “And the store’s closed today! ”

“The driver saw us! ” Bess insisted fearfully.

“Maybe not, ” Nancy replied. “Anyway, we’ll have time to see if Tombar brings up anything from the cellar.”

“Let’s go now, ” Bess urged nervously.

Nancy ignored her friend’s plea. Squinting through the crack again, she waited patiently.

Soon she saw Mr. Tombar emerge through the trap door. He carried something in his hands.

“Oh, that proves it! ” Bess whispered tensely. “Tombar is part of the gang! ”

“He’s probably one of the ringleaders, ” Nancy replied. “They’re going to use those masks tonight! ”

Bess put her eye to the crack, too. She became so absorbed in watching that she forgot her job as lookout. The girls were suddenly awakened to their danger when Tombar started toward the side door.

“Let’s leave, Nancy, ” Bess urged. “We may be too late to—”

The sentence was never finished. Nancy heard a crackle back of them. She whirled to face a man and a woman wearing black velvet masks. As Bess screamed, the two threw dark hoods over the girls’ heads. Strong arms seized them. Struggling frantically, Nancy almost broke away when crashing sounded in the brush and someone else grabbed her.

“What is it? Who are they? ” came Peter Tombar’s harsh voice.

“The Drew girl and her friend, ” the woman reported.

“So! ” Tombar exclaimed. “I know Nancy Drew has been spying on me for days. We’ll deal with her presently. Right now, get ‘em both out of the way. Harris is coming and I don’t want him to see ’em.”

Nancy and Bess were hustled into the inn and taken down into the dark, musty cellar. There the hoods were exchanged for blindfolds, and the girls were bound and gagged.

“You see what happens to people who don’t mind their own business? ” Tombar taunted as he ascended the stairs.

Though the captives could not speak, see, or move, they could hear plainly what went on in the rooms above. Presently the real-estate man arrived and was greeted cordially by Tombar.

“I’m glad you drove out today, Mr. Harris, ” he said courteously. “I’ve been thinking over your client’s offer to buy this place.”

“Then you’ll sell? ”

“If the price is right, and we can make a quick deal. My wife is tired of River Heights. We want to travel. It will have to be an immediate cash sale, though, or it’s all off.”

“Give me a couple of hours, ” Mr. Harris replied. “I think I can swing it.”

“Okay. I’ll meet you at your office.”

Lying on the dusty, damp cellar floor, Nancy unhappily considered her predicament. Mr. Tombar intended to sell the inn and leave River Heights with his cronies before the police caught up with them.

If only she and Bess could escape and bring state troopers there in time to thwart their plan! But the girls’ bonds were secure and there was no chance of loosening them.

“And maybe no one will find us, ” Nancy reflected despairingly as she heard Harris’s car leave.

Only George Fayne knew where she and Bess had gone. Formerly their failure to return to River Heights in a reasonable length of time would have signaled trouble. But now George was not herself. Could she possibly be depended upon to send help? Nancy wondered.

Twenty minutes elapsed, then the girls heard footsteps on the cellar stairs. Their ankles were unbound and they were pulled roughly to their feet.

“Come along, ” a man said gruffly. “You’re going to be moved.”

The girls’ hearts sank. Their one chance of rescue was vanishing!

“Unless, ” Nancy thought, “our rescuers could pick up our trail.”

As the girls were prodded up the stairway, Nancy pondered how she might leave a clue. She thought of the buttons on her dress. Could she possibly get one off?

Stumbling sideways against the wall, she deliberately tried to tear one off. Luck favored her. A protruding nail ripped her dress. She heard a button drop on the step I

“It’s a slight hope, ” she thought as her captor yanked her around again.

“Keep goin‘, ” he ordered. “No stallin’.” When they reached the main floor of the inn, he said, “Okay, Pete.”

“You two get those girls out of here, ” Tombar ordered. “And make it snappy.”

The girls’ ankles were bound again. Their arms still tied behind them, and with gags and blindfolds in place, they were lifted into a vehicle and put on the floor. The driver started the motor and pulled away at high speed. Nancy and Bess wondered if they were in the Taylor truck they had seen backing out of the driveway.

As they rode along, the girls could hear the couple in the front seat talking. Nancy was sure they were speaking in disguised voices.

“If I can catch them off guard, ” she thought, “maybe they’ll speak in natural tones.”

Nancy thumped her feet up and down.

“Florence, what’s that? ” the man cried.

“The detective’s up to her tricks again.”

Florence Snecker’s voice! Was the companion her husband? He did not sound like the man whose voice she had heard in the apartment.

“You girls keep quiet or you’ll be sorry, ” the woman warned. “We don’t want no trouble with you! ”

Nancy smiled inwardly. She had achieved her purpose, but as to making trouble, what chance did she have?

“But I mustn’t give up hope, ” Nancy chided herself.

She wondered about Bess who had made no move. Had she fainted?

The two girls were at opposite ends of the truck. Nancy tried to reach Bess but the effort was too painful. She longed for the journey to end.

Presently the truck slowed down. They must be in a town. After turning several corners, it finally stopped. The motor was switched off. Apparently the truck was in some back alley, for there were no street noises. Nancy heard the woman remark to her male companion:

“I’m glad our friend’s going to Harris instead of waiting for him at the inn. He used good sense to unload on Harris and pull out. This town’s getting too hot for all of us.”

Nancy felt certain that Mrs. Snecker was speaking of Peter Tombar. If so, it meant that he would flee the city as soon as he had collected the cash from the real-estate agent. The police would not find him, even if it occurred to George Fayne to send them to the inn to investigate.

The girls were hauled out of the truck, untied, and forced to walk into a building. There they were made to sit on the floor while their ankles were rebound.

“Good-by, snooper, ” Mrs. Snecker said, giving Nancy a vicious prod with her shoe. “Now let’s see you tell the police what you know! ”

“Now let’s see you tell the police what you know! ” the woman said

The man added, “We’ll soon take you away to a place where you’ll never squeal! ”

A heavy door was rolled shut and locked. The room became silent.

Nancy squirmed and twisted but she could not loosen the cords which held her prisoner. Seldom had she been in a more hopeless situation!

She was certain now that Peter Tombar and the Sneckers were working together in the Velvet Gang. They meant to pull one final robbery and flee.

But what good was this knowledge? She was unable to notify the police or even to free herself and Bess.

“Oh, why did I let myself get caught! ” Nancy scolded herself.