The Spider Sapphire Mystery (4 page)

When Nancy pulled around a turn in the road past a little hill, Bess exclaimed, “A pear orchard!”

The trees were filled with white blossoms. On the other side of the road, a few feet below the edge, a brook gurgled along.

Everyone was tense. Which way should they go to search for Ned? Along the brook or through the pear orchard?

Before anyone had a chance to get out of the car, a sedan suddenly roared up behind them. Two revolvers poked from the windows and shots were fired at the tires of Nancy’s convertible. The next moment four masked men leaped from the sedan and surrounded her car.

One of the men ordered in a gruff voice, “Get out and follow us!”

KNOWING that it would be foolhardy to resist the armed men, Nancy and her friends started walking down the road. Two of the holdup men were in front, the two with the revolvers in the rear, Burt and Dave exchanged glances, then looked at the girls.

All the young people understood the message: If there was any opportunity for them to attack their captors, they were to do it at a signal from Burt.

In a few moments the men with the revolvers put the weapons into their pockets and seemed to relax. Apparently they did not expect any trouble from their prisoners.

Suddenly Burt’s hand went up in the air. Quick as a flash, he tackled the largest of the men. Dave took a tall man, while George in a surprise move toward one of the two shorter men used a judo twist on him. The mask fell from his face.

Nancy and Bess together had pinned the arms of the fourth man behind him. As they grabbed the mask from his face, Nancy gasped.

He was one of the men who had hemmed in her car! Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that the man George had swung to the ground was the other Indian!

In lightning moves the two suspects pulled away from the girls and ran as fast as they could through the pear orchard.

“Let’s chase them!” George urged.

“Better not,” Burt mumbled between punches. “Don’t forget—they’re armed.”

“Not now they aren‘t!” Bess exclaimed.

She pointed to the ground where two revolvers had fallen from the men’s pockets. Nancy and George picked up the weapons and flung them down into the brook.

Although the boys had won the first round, they were having a struggle to keep from being beaten in the fight. At once George went to help Burt subdue his man. Then she ripped off his mask. He was about thirty years old, fair-skinned, and had blond hair.

Nancy and Bess helped Dave. His assailant proved to be white also. “Who are you?” Nancy asked.

“There was no answer. She put the same question to the other attacker, but he too remained silent.

“Nancy, have you any rope in your car?” Burt asked.

She nodded. “There’s some in the trunk.”

“Will you please get it. I think we should tie these men up until we can get the police.”

The hands of the attackers were tied behind their backs. Then the men’s ankles were firmly bound together with rope.

Burt asked Nancy to drive to the nearest roadside phone and summon the police. She drove several miles along the country road but there was no place to make a telephone call. Finally she came to a farmhouse and asked the woman there if she might use the telephone.

“Yes. Come right in.”

Upon hearing Nancy’s report to the police, the woman was full of questions. Nancy answered as much as she thought advisable, then excused herself and hurried back to the group.

George told her, “We tried to catch these men off guard and asked them who Swahili Joe is. But they only looked blank. I guess they don’t know him.”

A few minutes later two State Police cars arrived with four officers. One of them, who said his name was Riggi, recognized the two prisoners as town thugs from nearby Landsdowne.

Nancy took Officer Riggi aside and told him about the two Indians who had escaped. “They may lead us to a friend of ours who was kidnapped,” she added.

Riggi was amazed and said he and Officer White would join Nancy’s group in their search. The other two officers would take the prisoners to Landsdowne.

The car which they had used belonged to one of the thugs. Riggi ordered that the gas be drained from it, the air let out of the tires, and the key taken so that if the two Indians came back to use it, they would find this impossible.

“What about your car?” Officer Riggi asked Nancy. “The men might steal it.”

“I’ll fix that,” Nancy replied. “There’s a secret switch under the dash that locks the wheels.” She turned it, then locked all the doors.

“And now let’s go,” said Riggi.

He and Officer White looked for footprints of the two escapees. Presently they picked them up and the group quickly went through the pear orchard. At the far end of it stood a cabin which appeared to be abandoned. The police tried the doors and windows. All were locked.

At the top of his voice, Riggi ordered anyone inside to come out at once. No one appeared and there was utter silence.

“I guess we’ll have to force open a window,” Officer White said. He did this and reported that there was no one inside the building.

Meanwhile, Nancy hurried down the stepping stones which led from the rear door of the cabin. At the end of the path, Nancy found what she suspected might be there—four sets of footprints in the dirt beyond.

“Come here, everybody!” she called.

The others hurried to where she was pointing and Officer Riggi said, “Hm! You’re quite a detective.”

Nancy smiled her thanks. “If my friend Ned Nickerson was being held here, I believe those two Indians took him away. Let’s hurry!”

The prints were easy to follow. Everyone was excited. Were they near the end of the search? Dave had just expressed this thought when the footprints ended abruptly at a wide brook.

“Oh dear!” Bess exclaimed. “Now what do we do?”

“I believe,” said Nancy, “that if it was Ned who was here, he would have tried in some way to leave a sign to tell us which direction to take.”

“But how could he if he was a prisoner?” George asked.

Nancy did not answer. She was examining the ground and the trees in the area. Suddenly she cried out, “Here’s a clue on the trunk of this tree.”

Crudely marked but plain enough were the initials SJ. Underneath was an arrow pointing to the left.

“Those aren’t Ned’s initials,” said Dave. “Whose are they?”

The three girls chorused, “Swahili Joe’s.”

Dave shook his head in bewilderment. “I’m more confused than ever. If Ned did this, why would he put Swahili Joe’s initials here instead of his own? And how would he know which way they would head?”

“You’re really asking me a hard one,” said Nancy. “All I can do is guess. When the three men got here, the two Indians tied Ned to this tree while they refreshed themselves in the brook and talked over their plans. Ned felt that it would not be safe to scratch his own initials, but we’d recognize SJ if we were able to follow his clues.”

The two police officers looked at her admiringly. “You know, Miss Drew,” said Riggi, “you ought to be a secret agent.”

“I’d love that,” Nancy said quickly.

“But we wouldn‘t,” Bess spoke up. “You get into enough trouble just being a girl detective.”

The group wasted no more time. Following Nancy’s hunch, they turned in the direction of the arrow and hurried along the brook. The kidnappers they were trying to overtake had apparently walked in the water with Ned because there were no more footprints. The searchers had covered nearly two miles and still had found nothing to indicate where Ned might be now.

Bess said her feet hurt. She had not worn suit able shoes for tramping in the woods and had turned her ankle several times.

“Take off your shoes and walk in your stocking feet,” George suggested. But Bess paid no attention.

Suddenly, just ahead, a stone hunting lodge loomed up. Riggi suggested that Officer White and the two boys surround the building while the girls knocked on the door. No one came to answer,

A feeling of panic overtook Nancy. Ned just had to be in here. She cried out loudly, “Ned! Ned Nickerson! Are you in there?”

She listened intently. No sound came from inside. Finally she shouted again. Then she listened, Her pulse quickened. Had she heard a noise, or were her ears playing tricks on her?

“No, I’m right!” she said aloud. “Listen, everybody!”

There was a muffled cry from inside the building.
“Help!”

“IT’s Ned!” Nancy cried. “We must get in at once!”

Officer Riggi ran to her side. “Just a minute. This may be a ruse,” he told her. “We don’t want any more captures. I suggest that you girls stay here. We men will break in and see what’s going on.”

“All right,” Nancy conceded, although she chafed under the restraint.

Bess and George hurried over to her and Bess said, “Oh, I hope it’s Ned and he’s all right!”

The others did not comment. They waited breathlessly as the two policemen forced open a window and climbed into the hunting lodge. In a few seconds the front door opened and Riggi called out, “Come in!”

“You go first,” Burt suggested to Nancy.

She fairly leaped inside. The two officers had just whipped a pillowcase from the head of a bound-up young man lying on the floor, his face pale, his dark, wavy hair disheveled.

“Ned!” Nancy cried and ran to his side.

“Boy, am I glad to see you all,” he murmured weakly. Then he grinned. “I sure could use something to eat. Anybody bring along lunch?” This broke the long tension over Ned’s absence.

The others burst into laughter and helped him to his feet. In a moment Ned’s hands, which had been tied behind his back, were freed and his ankles unbound. He wavered a little as he tried to walk but Nancy supported him until he regained his equilibrium.

Bess opened her large handbag and brought out a box of crackers and a candy bar. She gave them to Ned, saying, “I always carry a little snack for emergency. I guess this is an emergency.” She looked sideways at George as if expecting to be either teased or chided about her penchant for snacks, but her cousin said nothing.

“As soon as you feel like talking, Ned,” said Officer White, “tell us what happened.”

“But please make it snappy,” Riggi added. “Your kidnappers will probably be back. It would be best if all you young people are away from here before their return.”

It did not take Ned long to tell his story. He had been walking across the Emerson campus toward the library when a car with two men in it had stopped and the dark-complexioned driver had asked directions to the main gate.

“I walked over to tell them and a moment later a handkerchief with something sweet-smelling was put under my nose. The next thing I knew I woke up in a cabin.”

Ned said that when he awakened, a tall well-built African black was standing over him. “He spoke very little English and said that his language was Swahili. He told me to call him Joe.”

“Swahili Joe!” Nancy murmured excitedly to herself.

Ned quickly continued. “Joe was my guard and evidently felt he could manage me without my being bound up, so I wasn’t tied and could walk around.”

Ned grinned. “I didn’t test his strength, but I did keep alert for some chance to escape. I discovered that there was a telephone in the cabin and once when Joe turned his back, I lifted the receiver to see if it was connected. There was a dial tone and this gave me the idea of trying to get in touch with you people.”

Ned went on to say that while waiting for a chance to call, he figured out the latitude and longitude of the cabin’s location by a mountain he could see in the distance. “It’s where we go skiing sometimes.”

“Nancy broke the 4182 code,” Bess spoke up proudly.

Smiling his thanks, Ned continued his story. Joe had told him he was going outside for a minute, but that if Ned tried to escape he would get a good beating.

“So I didn’t try it. Instead I dialed the number of our fraternity house. By the time you fellows came on the wire, I could hear Joe coming back, so I talked as fast as I could and hung up. Joe never suspected what I had done, because I was across the room by the time he came inside.”

“Very clever,” Officer Riggi put in. “And now I think you young folks should leave. White and I will stay here. Just two more questions before you go, though. Ned, do you know who your abductors were and what was the reason for the kidnapping?”

“I can answer your first question in the affirmative. My two abductors were a father and son from Mombasa, Africa. They are Indians. The father is Dhan, the son is named Jahan. They never talked so I have no idea why they kidnapped me. What little information I picked up about them came from Joe. I’m sure Nancy’s involved, though, because Jahan and Dhan raced in and said you were coming. So the men moved me here.”