Unmasked

IN a flash Nancy and Bess seized the man’s arms and legs and held him down. As he struggled, they quickly stuffed the gag in his mouth.

“Now we’ll tie him up, ” said Nancy.

The girls bound the man’s hands and ankles. Then Nancy switched on the light for a moment to look at the captive.

“I’m sure he was one of George’s kidnappers! ” she exclaimed. “Are you Ralph Snecker? ” she asked him. “Nod yes or no! ” He remained motionless, glaring at her.

She must find out! Nancy slipped one hand into his coat pocket and pulled out a wallet. Opening it, Nancy found a driver’s license issued to Ralph Snecker.

The clerk’s keys were handy. Nancy grabbed them.

“We must prevent the robbery if we can, Bess, ” she said. “Come on! ”

The girls closed the heavy metal door behind them and tiptoed through an adjoining darkened room. Crossing the alley between the buildings, Nancy tried one key after another in the first door she came to. At last she found one that fit. She turned it and quietly let herself and Bess in.

“Do be careful, ” her friend urged. “There ought to be a night watchman around. Where is he? ”

“I wish I knew.”

The girls ascended a short flight of stairs and pushed a swinging door which opened into the first floor of the store.

Nancy and Bess moved forward in the dimly lighted building until the jewelry counter came to view. Two women and a man wearing velvet masks were looting the display cases of their valuable pieces!

“How dreadful! ” Bess murmured. “What’ll we do? We can’t capture all three.”

“With luck, we can, ” Nancy whispered. “We’ll find a phone and call the police.”

Quietly retreating, the girls located a telephone booth in the rear. Nancy called headquarters. She had hardly spoken her name when Chief McGinnis said:

“Where are you? There’s a three-state alarm out for you! ”

“In Taylor’s. A robbery’s going on. Come quickly! I’ll meet you at the employees’ entrance in the alley.”

“We’ll be right there! ”

The girls crept back to see what was happening in the jewelry department. Time seemed to drag.

“I wish the police would hurry, ” Bess whispered uneasily. “If they don’t get here soon—”

Just then the girls heard the wail of a police siren. The sound also reached the ears of the masked thieves.

“The cops! ” exclaimed one of the women shrilly. “We’ve got to get out o’ here! ”

In a panic the three rushed for the employees’ entrance. But Nancy and Bess had hurried to it ahead of them and blocked their way.

Seeing that escape was cut off, the man wheeled and ran in the opposite direction. The women made the mistake of trying to overpower Nancy and Bess.

They were still engaged in a fierce struggle when the police, led by Detective Ambrose, rushed up. Handcuffs were placed on both women.

“The man with them got away! ” Nancy gasped. “But another—Ralph Snecker—is tied up in the shipping room.”

Two officers started a search while a third removed the masks from the two women.

“Florence Snecker! ” Nancy cried, recognizing one of them.

The other was the woman who had costumed herself as a Javanese beauty, and otherwise disguised her appearance. Both scowled at Nancy.

Though the police searched the store from roof to cellar, the only person they found was the night watchman, bound and gagged in the freight elevator. Snecker was brought from the shipping room, and the three prisoners were taken to the office of Mr. Taylor, who had been summoned by Ambrose.

The missing thief had stolen a quantity of jewelry, but Mr. Taylor estimated that Nancy and Bess had saved the store a huge loss.

“I can’t thank you enough, Miss Drew. How did you ever trail these people? ”

Nancy gave a brief account of the case, ending with, “I began to suspect Snecker when I found out he was a friend of Tombar. I wonder if the man who escaped could be Tombar.”

Ambrose turned to his prisoners. “Is he? ”

Silence.

Assisted by Nancy, who supplied much of the evidence, he questioned the three. At first they refused to talk, but Mrs. Snecker finally broke down. She gave a whining account of her part in the scheme which was mostly writing letters to a pawnshop dealer and another fence. This was her first burglary job, she insisted.

“If we’re going to jail, so are the others! ” Snecker burst out bitterly. “There are two men in this who are more guilty than we are.”

“Tell your story, ” Detective Ambrose said. “First of all, what’s the right name of that woman we’re holding in jail? ”

“Mrs. Ridley. She’s Mrs. Snecker’s half sister, ” the man answered sullenly. “She didn’t join the gang until lately.”

“And your name? ” the detective questioned the second woman. She remained stubbornly silent.

“That’s Ermintrude Schiff an actress, ” Snecker informed him.

Snecker went on to place most of the blame on Peter Tombar, who, he said, had worked closely with Mrs. Snecker’s brother, the man who had escaped from the store.

“What’s his name? ” Ambrose asked, jotting down the information Snecker had provided.

“Jerry Goff. He’s well-educated, Jerry is. He uses an English accent sometimes to impress people.”

“And also to disguise his voice, ” Nancy thought, recalling her adventure of being almost suffocated at one of the parties. Aloud she said, “Was he the man who wore the black cloak at the Hendricks’ masquerade? ”

“Yes, Tombar lent it to him. When you found a hole in it, Tombar took the cloak away in a hurry.”

“This Jerry Goff was one of the men who helped with George Fayne’s abduction, wasn’t he? ” Nancy asked.

“Yes. He sat in front of you.”

“You were in on it, too, weren’t you? ” Nancy prodded.

“Yes, ” Snecker admitted. “I helped Mrs. Schiff. We muffed the job, getting the wrong girl.” He said that Tombar’s wife was not involved in any way.

“You also slipped up when you dropped your department-store charge plate from the car window.”

“It flew from my breast pocket accidentally when I yanked out a handkerchief. It wouldn’t have mattered except that you found it.”

“Then you must have been the one who advised the store employees not to turn in their plates after the credit manager gave the order, ” Nancy remarked.

“Sure, ” Snecker said with a shrug. “I sent around a fake order. I knew I’d be caught if all the plates came in except mine.”

Questioned further, Snecker identified Jerry Goff as the member of the gang who made friends with the servants and kitchen help at various parties. In this way he could slip unchallenged to the basement and switch off the lights.

“Jerry thought up the scheme in the first place and sold Tombar the idea, ” Snecker disclosed, “and Tombar pulled the rest of us into this mess.”

“He planned all the robberies? ” Nancy questioned.

“Every one. He gave us a list of the places we were to knock off, supplied masks and costumes, and room plans of the houses.”

“And cards to admit you? ”

“Oh, sure. Tombar thought of everything. He was pretty cool until you made the going tough for him, Miss Drew. Then he began to get nervous.”

“Tell me how the stolen Marie Antoinette miniature got to the store’s gift department, ” Nancy asked.

“It was a slip-up. The miniatures were at Tombar’s hideout in the country. By mistake I put that one in my pocket and my helper saw it. I had to send it to the gift department then, and didn’t dare recall it. I got flustered and marked it at a ridiculously low price.”

Nancy next asked Snecker if he had any idea how Peter Tombar might be captured.

“He’ll get out of town as quickly as he can, ” the clerk replied. “His job was to have the getaway car waiting for us around the corner. I guess he took off, though, when he heard the siren. But he may head back to the country to get some things he had stored in the inn.”

With this full confession, the three prisoners were escorted to headquarters to be booked on robbery and kidnapping charges. Bess and Nancy accompanied the officers to make a report on their part in the capture. While they were talking to Chief McGinnis, Mr. Drew hurried in with George, her father, and Mr. Marvin.

“Nancy! Bess! ” George cried wildly. “You’re safe! ”

Information was exchanged hurriedly. When Nancy learned that Ned had remained at the Blue Iris Inn as guard in case one of the abductors should return, she became alarmed.

“We think Peter Tombar may go back there, especially if Goff gets word to him what happened in the store, ” Nancy told her father. “If Ned should be taken by surprise—”

“We’ll return there right now, ” Mr. Drew broke in.

McGinnis added, “I’ll notify the State Police to meet you there.”

“I hope we’re not too late, ” Nancy said as they left headquarters.

George insisted upon going, despite protests from Bess and Mr. Fayne.

“I feel fine, ” she insisted stubbornly. “Now that I know the Velvet Gang is nearly rounded up and Nancy safe, my worries are ended. This excitement tonight has cured me! ”

“That’s our old George! ” Nancy declared happily, hugging her. “It sounds more natural to hear you talk that way.”

At the Blue Iris Inn two troopers were waiting for them. Neither Ned nor the escaped leader of the party thieves was in evidence. Finding the rear door unlocked, they rushed in. A muffled shout reached them from the kitchen area.

“Come here! ” Ned called. “I need help! ”

Everyone rushed to the kitchen. The troopers’ flashlights disclosed Peter Tombar pinned to the floor, with Ned sitting on his midriff.

“I’m sure glad you got here, ” the youth said in obvious relief. “I’ve been trying to figure out a way to get this guy to headquarters.”

Relieved of his prisoner, Ned related how he had hidden in the old inn and watched through a crack between the boards on a front window. His wait had not been in vain. Tombar arrived in a black sedan which he parked up the road behind the willows.

“He sneaked in and went straight to the kitchen, ” Ned disclosed. “He had a lot of money in the cupboard under the sink. He was just reaching for the roll when I tackled him.”

Tombar’s clothing had been torn in the fight and one eye was blackened. Glaring at Nancy, he savagely berated her for the capture of the Velvet Gang. Still fuming, he was taken off by the troopers.

Later that night Goff was caught as he attempted to board a plane at the River Heights airport. Several days elapsed before Nancy and her friends were assured that the entire gang had been rounded up with the arrest of a pawnbroker in one city and a fence in another.

Dozens of cartons of silver and other valuables stolen from River Heights’ homes were recovered and returned to their owners. In a few instances treasures already sold were traced.

One evening Mr. Lightner came to call personally to thank Nancy. “I value my reputation as much as I do my business, ” he told the young detective and her father. “And you saved both for me.”

“Of course you will have no damage suits to defend, ” Carson Drew interposed with a smile, “so your troubles are really at an end.”

Mr. Lightner beamed. “Again I say, I owe everything to Nancy.”

At that moment Bess, George, and Ned arrived. After Mr. Lightner had been introduced, he told the trio why he was there at the Drews’.

“There’s so little I can do to show my appreciation, ” he added. “But I’m giving Nancy a mask as a small token of my gratitude.”

“Not a velvet hooded mask? ” Nancy joked.

“No, indeed. We’re through with those forever. I’m giving you an ancient mask of a beautiful Egyptian queen.”

Mr. Lightner smiled and from a box took two identical masks. It was evident that one was very old, the other a new copy.

“How lovely! ” Nancy exclaimed. “Thank you very much, Mr. Lightner. But why two of them? ”

“One to treasure, one to wear at a masquerade.”

“And that may be sooner than you think, ” Ned spoke up, grinning. “The fellows decided on another summer party—this time a masquerade. You’ll go as an Egyptian queen.”

“What fun! ”

“Nancy ought to go as the Queen of Mystery, ” Bess remarked. “I’ll bet it won’t be long before she’s in the midst of another case.”

Bess’s prophecy was to come true when Nancy set out to solve one of the most puzzling cases of her career, The Ringmaster’s Secret.

“What are you girls going to wear to the masquerade? ” she questioned Bess and George.

“You know me—always Bopeep.” Bess giggled.

“I’ll have to think it over, ” George replied. “But there’s one person I know I’ll never try to imitate.”

“Who’s that? ” Bess asked.

“The well-known detective, Nancy Drew.” George pretended to shiver. “I tried it once and found it too dangerous! ”

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