The Double Jinx Mystery Read online

  “She is heartbroken,” Rausch went on, “and more than that she’s fearful. You know Kammy thinks of that wryneck as if it were a Eurasian pal of hers. Now she’s convinced she’ll be jinxed. In fact,” Rausch went on, “she told Oscar that she has already had some bad luck.”

  “What kind?” Nancy queried.

  Rausch said that Kammy would not divulge what it was. Then he gazed steadfastly at Nancy and declared, “Maybe you can find out.”

  CHAPTER XII

  The Double Jinx

  As soon as Nancy heard of Kammy’s problem, she wanted to rush out to Harper University and find her.

  “She seems to trust me,” the young detective thought. “Maybe she’ll tell me what the bad luck is that has come to her.

  As Nancy walked to her car with every intention of going to Harper University she suddenly became extremely weary. She felt light-headed and realized that she had to force herself either to walk or to think fast.

  “I’d better not drive very long feeling this way,” she concluded. “What in the world is the matter with me?”

  Deciding that she should go home and rest, Nancy turned her car toward the highway that led to River Heights. By the time she reached her own house, Nancy was better and told herself she was probably imagining the weariness.

  “But I’m hot.”

  Hannah Gruen was just coming from the second floor. “How’s Ned?” Nancy asked her.

  The housekeeper replied that she was glad to report Ned was feeling much better. “I guess the fever is going away.” She smiled. “Nancy, I’m sure it will be all right for you to spend a little time with Ned. Your father won’t be home to dinner. Suppose I fix the meal on two trays and you and Ned can eat together.”

  “That will be great,” Nancy said. “I have so much to tell him about the mystery.”

  Still feeling warm, she took a shower and changed her clothes. Then she went into Ned’s room.

  “Hi!” she said. “I’m certainly glad you’re more like your old self. You know you gave all of us quite a scare.”

  Ned grinned, then said, “I’m sorry I frightened you, but I sure felt terrible for a while. It was kind of fun, though, being waited on and mothered by Hannah. That may never happen again!”

  Nancy laughed. “Don’t become ill just to try us out!”

  She now turned serious and told what she had found out that day. Ned was astounded at the amount of sleuthing she had done, and said he was sorry he had not been able to help.

  “But I’ll make up for it,” he promised. “Tell me more about Kammy.”

  Nancy told him all she knew. “I want to visit the university and talk to her. And also, if Petra, her wryneck, isn’t found soon, I want to hunt for it.”

  Nancy did not add that the reason she had not gone to the university was because she had been extremely weary. The same feeling began to return and she told herself it must be because she was hungry.

  Hannah appeared with two individual portable tables on which were piping hot chicken broth and delicious fruit salad arranged artistically on beds of lettuce leaves.

  The food looked delicious, but suddenly Nancy had no appetite. She forced herself to eat something but was so sleepy she could not finish. Finally she confessed her tiredness to Ned.

  “I guess I’ve just been running around too much,” she said. “I’m sorry, but I can hardly keep my eyes open. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll rest for a little while.”

  Ned looked disappointed. “Hannah promised a surprise. I think it’s some kind of croquette with a spicy cream sauce.”

  Nancy did not know what to say. Her eyes now were half closed and they burned. Again she murmured, “I’m sorry,” and went to her room.

  Hannah came to her doorway a few minutes later and asked Nancy if she was ill.

  “Oh no,” Nancy assured the housekeeper. “Just dreadfully sleepy.”

  “Then you take a nice nap,” Hannah Gruen told her. She went out into the hall and closed the door.

  The housekeeper expressed her concern to Ned. But when he told her Nancy’s remark about overdoing, the woman conceded the girl’s conclusion was probably true. Nevertheless, Hannah was concerned about Nancy’s symptoms but tried to dismiss her anxious thoughts.

  “She never lets up.”

  Nancy undressed and went to bed. She fell into a deep sleep but awakened about midnight, her face burning. She felt very sick. Finally she decided to go tell Hannah Gruen.

  Nancy slowly made her way down the hall and opened the door to the housekeeper’s room. To her surprise Hannah was not asleep. She was propped up in bed reading.

  “Oh, Hannah,” said Nancy, “would you mind coming to my room? I feel so ill.”

  The kindly woman jumped up, put on her robe and slippers, and followed Nancy back to her bedroom.

  She turned on the bright light and peered at the girl. “Nancy, I believe you have picked up the same thing Ned has!” she exclaimed. “I’m sure you are having an attack of ornithosis. You might say that now there’s a double jinx on this house!”

  Mr. Drew had heard the talking and had come to Nancy’s room. When he was told her symptoms, he agreed with Hannah.

  “It’s a good thing none of us is superstitious,” he said. “If we were, it would be easy to believe that a devil is working against some of us.”

  “I’m not so sure one isn’t,” Nancy spoke up feebly. “But who is he?”

  Seconds later she fell asleep. Her father and Hannah conferred as to whether they should give her some of Ned’s medicine or telephone the doctor. Mr. Drew decided they ought to call the physician first.

  When Dr. Black heard of Nancy’s condition, he said, “I’ll drop over early in the morning. If Nancy is asleep now, don’t awaken her, but later give her one dose of Ned’s medicine.”

  At seven o‘clock the next morning he came to the house and said indeed Nancy did have ornithosis. “Fortunately her case is lighter than Ned’s, so she’ll be up and around just about when he is.”

  After the doctor had gone, Mr. Drew talked with Hannah in the kitchen. “If whoever is behind this so-called jinxing hears about Nancy and Ned being ill, he’ll be laughing at us. I was engaged by Oscar Thurston to straighten out the problems of the land deal, and now my own daughter has come down with a disease that I’m sure a troublemaker gave to the birds in their food and water.”

  Hannah said, “Don’t forget that Clyde O’Mayley has ornithosis too.” The lawyer nodded.

  By noontime Nancy felt well enough to talk on her bedside telephone. She called Bess and George to tell them what had happened.

  “I certainly hope you girls don’t catch this virus,” she said. “And, by the way, the fingerprints on the chloroform can were Slick Fingers’.”

  “Hypers!” exclaimed George. “Now we’re getting some place. Bess and I feel fine. We’re all ready to work. What can we do?”

  Nancy replied, “The next councilman I was going to interview is Thomas Winnery. Suppose you do it. You know what to say to him.”

  The two girls promised to set off at once on their assignment. Mr. Winnery was the owner of the Harper Times, an excellent newspaper with a wide circulation.

  Bess and George found the tall, ginger-haired man seated behind a large, cluttered desk in a wood-paneled office. He was very pleasant and easy to talk to. After introducing themselves, George said they had come to him at the request of Nancy Drew.

  “The three of us,” she went on, “are very interested in Mr. Thurston’s zoo and aviary. We hear that there’s a possibility it may all be destroyed and apartment houses built on the site.”

  “That’s right,” Mr. Winnery replied. “New industry is moving into the area and soon we’ll need a lot of extra housing.”

  Bess spoke up. “Don’t you think the development would be more attractive if the high-rise buildings faced on a man-made lake and if there were also a swimming pool, a park, and a playground ?”

  Mr. Winnery said he had not thought
about this idea but he supposed it had merit. “Is this what you’re proposing that the High Rise company do?”

  Bess nodded. “We would like to see even more than that. If Mr. Thurston’s buildings were on the other side of the lake and all the birds and animals were left there, don’t you think it would be a marvelous attraction for children and guests?”

  Mr. Winnery sat back in his swivel chair, folded his fingers in front of his face and then put his hands down again. “I admit I can envision great possibilities,” he replied. “Who’s idea is this?”

  Together Bess and George answered, “Nancy Drew’s.”

  Mr. Winnery remarked that the young lady must be very artistic. “Tell her to draw a sketch of her plan for me. If she can include as many apartment buildings as the present plans call for, I will speak to the other councilmen about the suggestion.”

  George was exuberant. “And maybe—maybe you could run some editorials in your paper approving the change?”

  The newspaper owner laughed. “Not so fast, young lady. This is a lot for me to digest. But you can tell Nancy Drew for me that I will give the idea favorable consideration.” Bess and George came away from Mr. Winnery’s office delighted.

  While they had been talking to him, George had noticed that the door had twice been silently opened a couple of inches and a pair of eyes had peered in.

  “Was an office boy or clerk waiting to find out when his boss would be free?” George asked herself. “Or was he listening to all the conversation with an ulterior motive in mind?”

  By the time the girls reached the hall, the listener was far down the corridor. He quickly turned the corner out of sight.

  “He certainly acts as if he’s trying to avoid us,” Bess commented.

  As she and George neared the front office, a young man stepped from behind the reception counter. He smiled and said, “I’m Gus. Mr. Winnery phoned and asked me to show you around if you were interested.”

  George said at once, “I am.” Bess had no particular desire to see the plant, but offered to go along.

  Gus opened a door and led them into a big room with several small, hand-operated printing presses on one side. In the middle of the room were great open shelves stacked with pastel-colored paper and cardboard.

  “This is the room where jobbing is done,” the guide explained. “We make posters, flyers, and signs. These are platen presses. They are named for the flat metal plates on them which press the paper against the inked type.”

  Bess remarked, “I see lots of big cans of ink, and some are open.”

  “This ink,” Gus said, “is more like paste than liquid and there are various colors. Over on those shelves are large pots of glue. And now I’ll show you our big roll presses.”

  The two girls followed the young man out a side door that led to the parking lot. They walked across it and entered another long, low building.

  “What an enormous press!” George exclaimed when they were inside. “Is this where you print the local paper?”

  “Yes. The press operates by electricity. This particular one,” Gus continued, as the girls looked at the long green machine, “can run six huge rolls of paper.”

  He pointed to a corner of the room where bolts of white paper, six feet long, were piled up, ready for use.

  “That giant tank to one side is called Big Bertha,” Gus said. “It holds the black ink used in the printing.”

  The girls gazed at the enormous upside-down cylinder with a funnel-like bottom. Bess declared she had never seen so much ink in her life.

  “Sometime,” said George, “I’d like to come back while the presses are working.”

  “It is quite a sight,” Gus told her. “But there’s a great deal of noise too. You wouldn’t like that.”

  Just then a bell rang twice. Gus said this was a call for him and he would have to leave. “Look around some more if you like. You know the way out.”

  After he had gone, Bess remarked, “I’ve seen enough. Let’s go!”

  At that moment something flew through the air and landed on top of her head. Quickly she put up her hand.

  “Ugh!” she cried out. “It’s some of that horrible glue!”

  George went to help her cousin. Before she could reach her, a second glob of goo shot at lightning speed toward her. It landed with a squishy sound on the side of her face. It was red ink!

  CHAPTER XIII

  A Near Capture

  FOR a few moments Bess and George were stunned. As they eyed the mess on each other’s faces and clothes, they could only stare perplexed. Why should anyone have attacked them in this mean fashion?

  Gus had heard them cry out and now ran back to the girls.

  George burst out, “Who did this? Whoever it was, I’d like to tell him off!”

  “I don’t know,” Gus said. “Come with me and we’ll try to clean off this ink and glue.”

  “I think,” said George, “that the person I saw outside Mr. Winnery’s office was listening to our conversation. And I’ll bet he’s responsible for this, because he doesn’t want High Rise’s project stopped.”

  Bess agreed and asked Gus if he knew who the eavesdropper might have been.

  “No, I don’t,” he replied. “What did he look like?”

  George described him as a tall slender youth of about seventeen with a shock of blond hair. “He was wearing a red sweater and dark pants.”

  Gus said there was no employee at the newspaper office who fitted that description. “I suppose he slipped in here.”

  The young man stopped at a telephone and called a secretary named Claudia to come at once. When she saw the girls she gasped in amazement at their appearance, then asked them to follow her to the women’s lounge.

  Removing the ink and the glue from the sweaters was an impossible task. “Anyway,” Claudia said, “you can at least wash your faces and hands.”

  This proved to be a hard job. The girls found it necessary to use cream, then pumice soap to remove the spots. When the three came outside, Mr. Winnery was waiting for them.

  “I just heard what happened to you,” he said to Bess and George. “It’s a shame. I’ll buy you girls new sweaters. Would you like to wait here while my secretary goes to a shop and gets them, or would you rather go home and pick them out later?”

  Bess and George told Mr. Winnery this was not necessary. “You’re not responsible, so why should you buy new sweaters?” He was so insistent, though, that they finally consented.

  “I’d rather go home now and get mine later,” George told him, then gave the newspaper owner a description of the suspicious youth.

  Mr. Winnery frowned. “I think I know whom you’re referring to. He doesn’t work here, but came to the office on an errand.”

  “Who is he?” George asked.

  Mr. Winnery hesitated before replying. Finally he said, “I don’t want to get this person into trouble, but I’m sure the boy is Spike Hinchcliff. He’s the son of one of the councilmen. He tries to be a detective but always fouls things up and makes people mad.”

  George asked, “Are you implying that his father made him come here to spy on Bess and me? But how would Mr. Hinchcliff have known about our plans?”

  “I wouldn’t go that far in my guessing,” Mr. Winnery answered. “More likely Spike spotted you and decided to follow. I’m sure his father wouldn’t approve.”

  Bess and George said good-by and went to their homes at once, but they planned to visit Nancy and report their adventure as soon as callers were allowed.

  Fortunately her case of ornithosis was such a light one that two days later the cousins were able to tell her and Ned directly about their adventure at the newspaper office. Nancy was shocked at the brashness of the youth who had thrown the ink and the glue.

  Ned was incensed. “That boy must be nuts!” he remarked. “It was such a senseless thing to do. And what did it accomplish?”

  Nancy said that Spike’s behavior might boomerang and help turn the tide for her fa
ther’s side. “Spike is bound to tell his dad what he had overheard Bess and George talking about and how they were winning the newspaper owner to their side. Then when Mr. Hinchcliff finds out about the mean trick, he may feel sorry and accept our way of thinking about High Rise’s project.”

  Ned and the other girls smiled and Ned remarked, “Nancy, you’re always an optimist, aren’t you? But I like your reasoning. How will we know what’s happening between Spike and his father?”

  Nancy grinned. “I’ll give Dad that job.”

  She called him at once and within half an hour the young detective had an answer. Mr. Drew said he had been in touch with various councilmen and had interesting news for his daughter.

  “That ink- and glue-throwing fellow definitely was Spike Hinchcliff. I understand his father is very embarrassed by the episode and has reprimanded his son. Here’s even bigger news! Bess and George have won Mr. Winnery over to our side completely. When the council meets to vote on High Rise’s project, he’s going to propose your plan, Nancy. And he still wants a sketch of it.”

  “That’s great!” she exclaimed. “I’ll send one right away.”

  Bess and George were thrilled to learn that their trip to the newspaper office had brought positive results.

  George grinned. “It was worth having ink thrown at me!”

  “I’ll never forget that goo in my hair!” Bess declared. “But, Nancy, I’m happy we were able to help you and your dad on the case.”

  After the cousins left, Ned asked Nancy if any word had come from the police about Slick Fingers.

  “No. I guess he didn’t show up at the doctor’s office,” Nancy replied.

  Ned said he must return to college for a couple of days to attend to some fraternity business. “But I’ll be back,” he added. “Maybe I’ll bring Burt and Dave with me.”

  Nancy said this would thrill Bess and George and together the six of them should be able to solve the mystery in a short time. Ned thanked Hannah Gruen profusely for all her nursing care and for taking a chance on becoming ill herself.

  “Oh, I wasn’t worried,” the housekeeper remarked, smiling. “It was a pleasure to wait on you, Ned. You’re a very good patient—no trouble at all.”