Mystery of the Glowing Eye Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  CHAPTER I - Runaway Helicopter

  CHAPTER II - A Suspected Forgery

  CHAPTER III - A Glowing Eye

  CHAPTER IV - Fiery Red Hair

  CHAPTER V - A Strange Prison

  CHAPTER VI - Mysterious Burglary

  CHAPTER VII - The Explosion

  CHAPTER VIII - Puzzling Package

  CHAPTER IX - The Spy

  CHAPTER X - Treacherous Swamp

  CHAPTER XI - Wilderness Cabin

  CHAPTER XII - Hidden Notes

  CHAPTER XIII - The Escape

  CHAPTER XIV - Chilly Conference

  CHAPTER XV - Abrupt Resignation

  CHAPTER XVI - Astonishing Discovery

  CHAPTER XVII - Paralyzing Light

  CHAPTER XVIII - Weird Heel Mark

  CHAPTER XIX - The Captive

  CHAPTER XX - Surprising Story

  MYSTERY OF THE GLOWING EYE

  When Nancy Drew eagerly agrees to help her lawyer father solve the mystery of the glowing eye, she has no way of knowing that it will involve the kidnapping of her close friend Ned Nickerson.

  A puzzling note in Ned’s handwriting sets Nancy and her friends Bess and George on a hazardous search for a bizarre criminal. From their base of operations, the Emerson College campus, the three girl detectives and Ned’s college pals follow a maze of clues to locate the kidnapper’s hideout and rescue Ned. Not only is Nancy greatly worried about Ned, but also she is alarmed by the high-handed methods of a woman lawyer who tries to take the case away from her.

  Every reader will thrill to Nancy’s exciting adventures as she unravels this dangerous web of mystery.

  The force knocked Nancy against the wall.

  Copyright @ 1974 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

  Published by Grosset & Dunlap, Inc., a member of The Putnam &

  Grosset Group, New York. Published simultaneously in Canada. S.A.

  NANCY DREW MYSTERY STORIES® is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster.

  Inc. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Grosset & Dunlap, Inc.

  eISBN : 978-1-101-07752-8

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  CHAPTER I

  Runaway Helicopter

  THE hall telephone rang persistently. Nancy Drew, however, sat in the living room, lost in thought.

  “What did Marty King mean by her remark?” the young detective mused.

  Absentmindedly Nancy arose and went to the phone. It had stopped ringing and now no one was on the line.

  “Oh dear! The call may have been important!” Nancy chided herself. Then, hoping the caller would try again, she sat down on the chair near the telephone table.

  At once her mind reverted to Marty King. The twenty-four-year-old platinum blond was a recent graduate of nearby Bushwick Law School. She was working in Mr. Drew’s office as a researcher.

  “And not as a detective!” Nancy fumed. “She can’t take the Anderson case away from me!”

  The telephone rang again. Nancy’s close friend Bess Marvin was calling.

  “Hi!” said Nancy. “Have you been trying to get me?”

  “No. Why?”

  Nancy replied, “How about you and George coming over? I’ll tell you why. I can’t leave the house because Dad is expecting a new letter file to be delivered for his den, and I’m alone here.”

  The two girls arrived shortly. They were cousins and often assisted Nancy in her detective work. The three girls were a striking trio—Nancy, an attractive, slender, strawberry blond; Bess, a dimpled, blue-eyed blond, slightly overweight; and George Fayne, who enjoyed her boyish name and had short dark hair and a slim, straight figure.

  “What’s worrying you, Nancy?” Bess asked. “On the phone you sounded as if something horrible had happened.”

  “It’s not that bad,” Nancy replied, forcing a smile. “I guess it’s a case of just plain jealousy.”

  “You jealous?” George scoffed. “That’s one trait you don’t have. Well, out with it!”

  “It’s about a young woman named Marty King who has recently come to work for Dad. She’s a lawyer.”

  “Uh-uh!” Bess said with a little giggle. “You think she has a romantic interest in your dad, and/or vice versa.”

  Nancy was startled by the suggestion and hastened to assure her friends this was not the situation. “Marty King is trying to be an amateur detective—”

  “And,” George finished, “take your place.” Nancy nodded. “Dad mentioned he has a case he thought I’d like to work on with you girls. It’s about a glowing eye.”

  “Glowing eye!” George echoed. “Sounds intriguing.”

  “Yes,” Nancy agreed. “But this morning Marty called me and said I wouldn’t need to help—that she already had partly solved the case.”

  “The nerve of her!” George burst out. “What did your father say?”

  “I haven’t told him,” Nancy replied. “And what’s more, I’m not going to. Maybe he asked Marty to take over and—”

  “Don’t be silly,” Bess cut in. “I’m sure your dad would never do such a thing.”

  Nancy wanted to believe this was true. But as Bess tried to console her friend, the young detective’s thoughts drifted off. Would her father ever again discuss with her the cases that troubled him? What would it be like without a mystery for her to solve?

  Tears formed in Nancy’s eyes, but she smiled and said, “Thank you, Bess. Maybe I’m just making a mountain out of a molehill.”

  George put an arm about Nancy’s shoulder. “Or maybe Miss King thinks she’s a queen!” With a broad grin, George added, “Which mystery does my lady wish to solve today? Or shall we slay the wicked dragon—?”

  “Enough, enough,” Nancy interrupted, though she could not refrain from laughing at the pompous expression on George’s face.

  Paying no attention to her friend’s remark, George bowed deeply. “Your Highness,” she said, brandishing an imaginary sword at her cousin.

  “Your Low-ness,” Bess replied. “How low will you go?”

  George bent over so far that she lost her balance and fell forward. “Is that low enough?” she said, resting on her elbows and looking up into Bess’s dimpled smile.

  At that instant the three girls became aware of a loud whirring noise. It grew louder.

  “That sounds like a copter!” Nancy exclaimed. “And it’s right overhead!”

  She dashed out the front door with her friends and looked up. A small twin-motor helicopter was descending.

  “Nancy, it’s going to land on your front lawn!” George cried out, and Bess ran back inside the house.

  Nancy and George watched in fascination. The rotors suddenly stopped and the helicopter plummeted the last fifty feet. It hit the grass with a thud and the door flew open.

  “Nancy, it’s going to land on your lawn!” George cried out.

  “The pilot!” Nancy exclaimed. “He must have been injured!”

  She and George hurried to the helicopter. They could not see the pilot, so the two girls climbed up and peered inside.

  No one was there!

  By this time Bess had run out and joined the others. “I called the police. Was anyone hurt?” When she heard that the craft was a pilotless helicopter, she stared in amazement. “Are you sure?” she asked.

  “Not a soul here,” Nancy reported with a bewildered shrug.

  The young detective, hoping to find a clue to the missing pilot, hopped aboard.

  Nancy picked up an envelope which lay on the floor, face down. She turned it over. Her eyes opened wide in disbelief. The name on it was her own! There was no address.
r />   “Did you find something?” George called up.

  Nancy jumped down and showed her friends the sealed envelope. The handwriting, which they all recognized immediately, was that of her special friend Ned Nickerson. For a moment she could not speak.

  But finally she said, “Perhaps Ned was in the copter and had to bail out!”

  Bess and George were alarmed too. All of them were extremely fond of the good-looking Emerson College student. Arm in arm the three girls walked back into the house.

  “Open the envelope,” Bess urged. “Maybe it contains a message for you.”

  Nancy, who had been clutching the envelope tightly, slid her thumb under the flap. Inside was a small piece of paper. On it was a handwritten warning:

  Beware of Cyclops.

  Ned

  CHAPTER II

  A Suspected Forgery

  NANCY sat dazed and bewildered. Bess, overcome by the thought of a tragedy, was wiping tears from her eyes.

  George was the first to speak. “We mustn’t think the worst. Maybe Ned wasn’t in the copter. The note might have been planted by someone else.”

  Before the others could comment, the girls became aware that the police as well as neighbors had arrived. They were swarming over the large front lawn of the Drews’ colonial brick house. A photographer was snapping pictures and several officers were taking turns climbing into the helicopter to examine it.

  As Nancy and Bess emerged from the house, there were shouts from the crowd. “What happened?” “Was anybody hurt?” “Nancy, is this a publicity stunt?”

  Many times since she had solved her first case, The Secret of the Old Clock, until her most recent one, The Double Jinx Mystery, the young detective had been in the public eye. But she herself tried to avoid publicity.

  A police officer began to question her about the helicopter. Nancy answered that she had no idea who the owner was. She did not mention the note she had found because she wanted to discuss it with her friend Chief McGinnis and also her father before revealing its contents.

  Another officer came up and reported there was no clue to the owner in the helicopter. The only identification was the registration number under the tail rotor. He said he would have headquarters find out from the FAA the name of the person to whom the number had been assigned.

  As he went off to use his car radio, George emerged from the house. She took Nancy aside and said, “I did some checking by phone at Emerson. Ned wasn’t at any of the usual places he goes, and an Omega Chi Epsilon brother at his fraternity house said there was a rumor that Ned had been kidnapped the day before!”

  “Kidnapped!” Bess shrieked. At once all eyes turned on her.

  “Sh!” Nancy cautioned. “What exactly did you find out, George?”

  “I asked to speak to Burt.” Burt Eddleton was a special friend of George’s. “Ned told the boy on duty at the house he was taking a drive. When he didn’t return, Dave and Burt went looking for him.” Dave Evans was a boy Bess dated. “They found Ned’s car abandoned on a road near Emerson. Thinking that possibly something had gone wrong with the car and Ned had left to get help, the boys had looked it over. The car seemed to be in perfect condition.”

  Nancy went into the house and sat down in the living room. She felt weak. Ned kidnapped! But why?

  Suddenly a thought came to her and she pulled his note from her pocket. “This may be a forgery!”

  Nancy examined the writing carefully. If it was forged, the writing was a clever imitation. The words had been hastily penciled. Another thought came to her. Had Ned written “Beware of Cyclops” of his own volition or had he been forced to do so?

  Many fantastic ideas ran through Nancy’s mind. Was Ned warning her about a possible gang called Cyclops, or was someone trying to scare her?

  “The message could have been telegraphed,” Nancy said to herself. “If Ned wanted to reach me in a hurry, a telegram or phone call would have been faster—unless he was confined in some way.

  “It’s even possible,” Nancy thought, “that if Ned is being held somewhere, this is a clue to his whereabouts.”

  Just then Mr. Drew walked in with Police Chief McGinnis. The tall, handsome lawyer and the rugged, ruddy-faced officer looked concerned.

  “Nancy, what’s happened?” her father exclaimed.

  Before answering, Nancy turned to Bess and George. “Will you girls keep everyone away from here while I talk to Dad and the chief?”

  The cousins hurried outside. The police were already ordering curious men, women, and children from the front lawn of the house. There was a short confrontation with a photographer who insisted upon entering to take Nancy’s picture, but the girls were firm.

  “No pictures, please,” George told him and finally the young man agreed. He turned and followed the crowd to the street.

  Meanwhile, Nancy had started to tell the story of the helicopter, the strange note, and Ned’s disappearance to the chief and her father. She showed them the envelope and its contents, and said she was sure the handwriting was Ned’s.

  “Chief McGinnis,” she asked, “have you ever heard of a person or an organization called Cyclops?”

  The officer shook his head. “Never. But I’ll call headquarters and check on it.” He went to the phone and came back in a few minutes to report there was no such name on record.

  “Nancy,” said her father, “what’s your theory about the whole thing?”

  “Frankly, I have none yet,” she replied. “I’m too worried about Ned. Was he held up? Drugged? Or enticed away by a phony message?”

  Chief McGinnis looked grave. “If no one gets word of him soon, I’ll report this to the FBI, unless the Emerson police have already done so. I’ll find out.”

  Nancy spoke up. “May I keep the note?”

  The officer smiled. “Since it is a personal message addressed to you and found on the premises of your home, which is private property, I guess the note belongs to you. But I’d like to have it for a while, at least.”

  Mr. Drew put in, “Suppose I make a photostat in my office, then give you the original.”

  “Oh, let me do it!” Nancy said quickly. She had a mental picture of Marty King seeing the note and asking Mr. Drew about it. If he told her of the strange events connected with it, she might try to involve herself in the case. Nancy’s father looked surprised, but she added hastily, “I want to keep this a secret, Dad.”

  “All right. You drive down to the office and make the copy yourself.”

  One of the policemen came in to say a message for the chief had been received over his car radio. “A report just came in that no parachutists have been found in the area.”

  After he went outside, Chief McGinnis said, “What puzzles me is how the copter was flown here.”

  Nancy made a guess. “Maybe it’s a robot copter. And someone deliberately sent it here to deliver the message. Of course that’s quite an elaborate way to do so.”

  “And how is the owner going to get back his copter?” the chief asked. “We don’t know where it came from.”

  “Wherever the place is, I’ll bet that’s where Ned is being held,” Nancy answered. She looked grim. “Let’s go out and see if we can get a soil clue from the tires.”

  By this time the crowd in the street had dispersed and only the police were left. Nancy had brought her magnifying glass. An examination of the dried mud on the tires indicated that the take-off spot was probably near a swamp of black muck. She found tiny shreds of wood in it. “A lumber camp, or some other kind of forest area,” the young detective murmured to herself.

  Without warning the engine burst into life and the rotors began to whir.

  “The copter’s getting ready to leave!” Nancy cried out. “I must go with it. Maybe it will take me to Ned.” She began to climb aboard.

  Mr. Drew jumped forward and made a grab for his daughter. “No!” he shouted. “It’s too dangerous! If the copter is controlled by an enemy, the operator could kidnap you and even kill yo
u!”

  Chief McGinnis agreed with Mr. Drew and added his caution. Before Nancy could step down, the rotors suddenly stopped whirring and the engine became silent.

  “Something went wrong!” George exclaimed.

  “Thank goodness,” said Bess. “Otherwise Nancy might be up in the air and off on a dangerous mission!”

  Nancy nodded, but was more interested in the helicopter. “It must be remote-controlled,” she commented, “and can take off and land at any time.”

  “But why did its engine stop?” Bess asked.

  Nancy assumed that the operator had used a sensitized gadget which let him know whenever there was added weight in the helicopter, indicating that someone was aboard uninvited.

  “We’ll prevent it from flying away,” said the chief. “Tomorrow the police will take it. Girls, would you find some heavy pieces for my men to pile inside? I want to keep the copter here if possible until we can check on its ownership and move it.”

  While the husky police chief and a few of his officers clung to the craft, Nancy and her father hurried into the garage and brought out a heavy tire rim, an iron bucket left by a painter, and part of an unused steel fence as ballast.

  “That should help,” the chief said.

  George had a suggestion. “Why don’t we tie the copter down? I saw a lot of strong, thick rope in the garage.”

  The others agreed and the craft was securely anchored to a tall, sturdy-looking tree. Bess and George said they must leave but would be back in the morning to help Nancy on the case. Chief McGinnis ordered one man to stay on duty. He and the rest drove off.

  As Nancy and her father started for the front door, their housekeeper, Mrs. Hannah Gruen, arrived in a taxi. She alighted and stared in astonishment at the helicopter, then at the Drews. Mrs. Gruen, middle-aged, and adored by Nancy, had lived with the Drews since the death of Nancy’s mother when the girl was only three years old.

  Mr. Drew smiled. “We had a robot visitor,” he told the housekeeper. “Nancy will tell you the whole story. I must run back to the office, but I’ll be home by ten tonight. Please call Miss King and tell her I’m returning.”