The Sign of the Twisted Candles Read online

  They stood in silence close to a towering sycamore tree, their forms blending with the light, mottled background of the trunk. At last Nancy’s keen ears heard a sound that was different from the noises of the meadow insects. It had a metallic ring and was muffled and distant.

  Instantly she switched on her spotlight, and the beam cut through the blackness. The tumble-down tenant house sprang into view, and on the rickety front steps Frank and Emma Jemitt were etched sharply in the glare. He was carrying a long, narrow box over one shoulder. His wife held a pair of ornate silver candelabra.

  “Call to them that the house is guarded and that they must leave anything they have removed,” Nancy whispered to Mr. Hill. “Try to disguise your voice.”

  Raymond Hill chuckled, cleared his throat, and then in a resounding voice shouted the warning Nancy had requested.

  “Who are you, anyhow?” Jemitt yelled back. “I got a right to be here!”

  “Stand where you are!” Mr. Hill commanded.

  Jemitt gave an ugly laugh in response and moved a step lower.

  “If we could frighten them,” whispered Nancy, “with a loud noise, such as—”

  “Um—yes.”

  Nancy picked up a stone. “I wonder—”

  Mr. Hill quickly sensed her thought, grabbed the rock, then with a fling sent it toward the cottage at a swift pace. There was the crash of glass as a front window shattered into splinters.

  Jemitt picked up the box, leaped off the steps, and ran into the darkness. Mrs. Jemitt screamed and dashed after her husband. Nancy kept the spotlight on the panic-stricken pair as they charged through the brush and meadow grass toward the road.

  “We must stop them and see what’s in their car!” Nancy exclaimed.

  She led the others, but the chase proved hopeless. Halfway up the road they heard the roar of a motor and a car speed off.

  “I think,” said Mr. Hill as the three retraced their steps, “that as soon as dinner is over, I’d better come back to the tenant house and guard it. In fact, this would give me a chance to do some more searching.”

  Carol shyly offered an army cot and blankets from the inn.

  “I accept,” the banker said. “And I’ll take a flashlight too.”

  After finishing the delicious dinner Hannah had prepared, Mr. Hill left. Nancy could not get her mind off the Jemitts and finally phoned her friend Police Chief McGinnis in River Heights and told him the story.

  “We must stop them!” Nancy exclaimed

  “I’m glad you called me,” the officer said. “This is serious. My men will be alerted to watch for the Jemitts. If they’re located, the car will be searched. The sign of the twisted candles on anything they find will identify it as Asa Sidney’s property.”

  Mrs. Gruen had already insisted that the exhausted and weepy Carol go to bed. When Nancy went up to say good night to her, the girl was sound asleep.

  Nancy returned to the first floor just in time to answer the telephone. A male voice asked, “Is Miss Nancy Drew there?”

  The young detective’s face broke into a wide smile. “Hi, Ned!” she exclaimed.

  “For Pete’s sake, Nancy, I’ve been trying for days to get you. What’s the idea of hiding?”

  “Oh, Ned, I have so much to tell you. When can you leave your job and come down so I can talk to you?”

  “Camp closes tomorrow. I should be home the next day. By the way, what’s up between you and Bess? When I couldn’t get your house I called her to find out where you were. Boy, she was about as friendly as an ice cube!”

  “I’ll tell you when I see you,” Nancy answered. “You’d better call me again before you leave, Ned. I may go home.”

  “Okay. Be good. By now.”

  “By.”

  After the dinner dishes had been washed and put away, Nancy and Hannah Gruen sat down in the living room to talk. The conversation turned to possible treasures hidden in the house.

  “One place old-timers always hid things was in chimneys,” the Drews’ housekeeper remarked.

  “There are several in this house,” Nancy said. Jumping up, she added, “Let’s investigate the one in here first.”

  Nancy brought her flashlight and looked up inside the chimney. She could see nothing because the damper was closed. Noting a hook, Nancy gave it a yank. The next moment a shower of black soot and debris sprayed down over her.

  Hannah Gruen gasped. Then the next second she cried out, “Ugh! Bats!”

  CHAPTER XIV

  An Embarrassing Meeting

  AFRAID to open her eyes Nancy stepped from the fireplace and felt for a handkerchief from her pocket. Hannah kept crying, “Bats! Bats! Look out, Nancy! They may bite you!”

  Nancy could hardly see but realized that two bats were whizzing around the room. Apparently they were confused by their sudden exit into the lighted room from the dark chimney. Mrs. Gruen, who had flipped the back of her skirt over her head, was rushing to the front door, which she flung open.

  “Get out! Shoo!” she cried out.

  By now Nancy had wiped the soot from her eyes and joined Hannah in trying to force the bats from the house. Finally the housekeeper ran outside. Nancy followed and in a minute the flying mammals came too. Nancy and Hannah hurried back inside.

  “Thank goodness they’ve gone!” Hannah said. “And now, Nancy, you’d better go upstairs for a bath and a shampoo while I clean up that mess in the living room.”

  Nancy needed no urging. She shook off as much soot as possible, then went upstairs. At last, too weary for further treasure hunting, she went to bed.

  Carol was both alarmed and amused by Nancy’s story of the bats the next morning, and for the first time in days a smile came over her pale face. “I can just see you standing there, black from head to foot.”

  Nancy laughed. “I’ll confine my hunting to cleaner spots.”

  As the girls helped Mrs. Gruen prepare breakfast, they saw Mr. Hill striding toward the house.

  “Good morning!” the banker hailed them. “All quiet at the tenant house last night. Any excitement here?”

  “Plenty,” Nancy replied, and told him about the chimney episode. He laughed heartily.

  Soon the four were enjoying a hearty breakfast.

  “I’ll have to go to the bank,” Mr. Hill said presently. “My chauffeur will call for me, and then I’ll send him back to stand guard at the tenant house.”

  “We’ll stay here in the inn,” Nancy told him. “As soon as my father returns I’ll ask him to station two watchmen here, one to relieve your chauffeur. Then Mrs. Gruen and I will go home and take Carol with us.”

  “An excellent plan—the best possible under the circumstances,” Mr. Hill declared. “Nancy, you certainly won a major battle of wits against the Jemitts at the tenant house last night.”

  The banker’s car arrived shortly, and he rode off. In less than an hour the chauffeur was back with new tires for Nancy’s car. He deftly put them on before taking up guard duty at the old cottage.

  At noontime Nancy telephoned her father’s office and learned that he had just returned. Swiftly she outlined the events of the preceding day, and he promised that precautions such as Nancy suggested would be taken. At one o’clock an automobile drove up. In it with Mr. Drew were two muscular men.

  “Private detectives,” the lawyer said briefly to Nancy.

  He posted one man at the inn, the other at the tenant house. The guards were to be replaced by another duo at midnight.

  “Now, Carol, pack your things and we’ll take off,” Nancy said. “Our worries are over for the time being.”

  While Carol was packing, Mr. Drew told Nancy that the Sidney-Boonton families had engaged a lawyer to fight Carol’s inheritance from Asa Sidney.

  “That’s a contest where I can’t help you, can I?” Nancy asked. “I wish I were old enough to be a lawyer!”

  “You’ve already done a fine job,” her father said. “And I’m sure we’ll win the lawsuit. It would help very much, thoug
h, if we had some supportable testimony as to why Mr. Sidney favored this orphan girl above his entire family.”

  They stopped speaking as Carol came down the stairway wearing a shabby coat and carrying an old-fashioned suitcase. She apologized for both. “I never went anywhere, and wore uniforms most of the time, so I didn’t need any clothes.”

  This gave Nancy an idea. “Carol,” she said, “you deserve a good-looking wardrobe. Let’s go downtown on a shopping spree! I have charge accounts, and you can pay me back when you receive allowances from your inheritance. We’ll buy dresses and shoes, and a coat, and—”

  “Oh, I can’t believe it!” Carol exclaimed. “This could be the biggest thrill of my life!”

  “It’ll be a lot of fun for me, too,” Nancy declared as she locked the front door and gave the key to the watchman. “Let’s go now.”

  She took Hannah home first, then set off for the shopping center of River Heights. As Nancy led Carol into the elevator of a big department store, she discovered that the only other occupants were Bess and George!

  The two cousins smiled timidly at the other girls. Then, as if remembering that they were told not to be friendly, they turned aside.

  Impulsively Nancy put her hand on Bess’s arm. “Bess,” she said softly, “I’ve done nothing. Why must our friendship be broken because of a foolish quarrel that persons now dead had seventy years ago?”

  To Nancy’s surprise a big tear rolled down Bess’s cheek. George bit her lip nervously, glancing from Bess to Nancy.

  “We can’t help it, Nancy,” she said finally. “Your father is responsible for keeping our family from its rightful share in Asa Sidney’s estate.”

  “Oh no!” Nancy said. “Lets talk this over,” she suggested. “In the tearoom.”

  Hesitatingly the cousins agreed, and soon the four girls were seated in a quiet corner of the store’s restaurant.

  “Bess, you and George met Carol the same evening I did,” Nancy began. “It was the first time we three had seen Mr. Sidney.”

  Bess and George nodded, and Nancy continued, “I mentioned that my father was a lawyer and that night Carol phoned me and said Mr. Sidney wanted to make a new will and would Dad come to draw it the next morning. Mr. Sidney seemed perfectly competent to me. He didn’t appear to you to be unbalanced, did he?”

  Bess and George looked at each other uncomfortably, then shook their heads.

  “It’s my father’s duty to carry out his client’s wishes,” Nancy went on. “Well, that’s my story. Carol’s is just as simple. Mr. Sidney chose to make her one of his heirs. It hasn’t brought her happiness because of the way your family and the others are treating her.”

  “That’s true,” Carol said.

  “The family feud should not interfere with our friendship,” Nancy went on. “Why let the anger of great-uncles come between us?”

  “Nancy,” George declared, “you’re absolutely right. I’m sorry and ashamed of the way I’ve acted. Please forgive me. I want to be friends.”

  “Oh, Nancy,” Bess cried, “I’m so glad we’re talking to one another again. And, Carol, I’m not going to do anything to break the will.”

  “I’m not either,” George added quickly.

  Nancy laughed in relief and the others joined in.

  “What are you girls shopping for?” George asked. “We always have so much fun buying things with Nancy.”

  “Carol wants to get some new clothes,” Nancy explained. “Want to help?”

  “You bet!” Bess and George answered.

  When the store closed that evening, the four girls left it chatting merrily and laden with bundles. Carol had been outfitted from head to toe in attractive clothes. Her hair had been trimmed and modishly combed at the beauty salon. She looked very lovely and seemed to have gained self-confidence.

  But she was not yet entirely at ease. On the way home, she whispered to Nancy, “Please don’t go far from me. I’m so afraid the Jemitts may try to harm me. Nancy, do you mind if I don’t go back yet to the old mansion to hunt for the hidden treasures?”

  “Of course not, Carol. I think you’ll be happier at my house with Mrs. Gruen. Just take it easy, and don’t worry.”

  Mr. Drew reached home at six o’clock and soon everyone sat down to dinner. Conversation was general, but as soon as the meal was over, he asked his daughter to follow him into his study. He closed the door and they sat down.

  “Nancy,” he said, “I have a lot to tell you. There’s no use upsetting Carol. That’s why I wanted to talk to you alone. A theory has been forming in my mind.”

  “About Carol’s background?”

  “Yes.”

  “You suspect Asa Sidney knew who she was?”

  The lawyer nodded. “I made a trip to the Fernwood Orphanage and looked at all the old records. There was not a clue as to who Carol’s parents might have been. But I did pick up some other interesting facts.”

  Mr. Drew said that Asa Sidney had been a trustee of the orphanage for many years. He had taken a great fancy to a certain little girl who had been given the name Sadie Wipple and he insisted it be changed to Carol. The name of the child he had lost was Carol.

  “Then when the Jemitts, who owned a small restaurant, offered to become foster parents, Mr. Sidney would not give his consent unless the Jemitts agreed to come to his home and work. Frank and Emma did not want to be servants, so the arrangement about the tearoom and the promise of a share in Asa’s will was worked out.”

  Nancy was intrigued by this information. “Dad, do you think that if Mr. Sidney had lived he would have told you everything?”

  “I believe so. Now, unfortunately, we’ll have to unearth the secret ourselves. And if we don’t, I’m afraid those grasping relatives will take the case to court.”

  “Two of the heirs aren’t going to join in,” Nancy said with a chuckle, and told about being on friendly terms again with Bess and George.

  “Well, my congratulations,” her father said. “I wish your influence could extend to their parents and great-uncles. By the way, my main reason for going to the Fernwood Orphanage was to tell the directors of the request in Asa Sidney’s will that the Jemitts be investigated and probably new foster parents be obtained for Carol.”

  “But now the Jemitts have run away,” Nancy reminded her father.

  “That in itself will be enough to take Carol away from them,” the lawyer said. “I’ll phone the orphanage and ask permission to keep her here until they decide about new foster parents.”

  “I’m sure the Jemitts will be back,” Nancy remarked. “Either to get things they’ve cached away, or to hunt for others.”

  “By the way,” Mr. Drew said, “I was able to get a court order freezing the contents of those cartons Jemitt stored in the warehouse.”

  As he finished speaking, Nancy stiffened in her chair. She had just seen a menacing face at the partially opened window.

  CHAPTER XV

  Candles’ Secrets

  “WHAT’S the matter?” Mr. Drew asked, turning so he too could look out the window.

  “I saw Frank Jemitt looking in!” Nancy exclaimed.

  She and her father rushed outdoors to accost the man, but could not find him. Mr. Drew was worried that Jemitt had overheard the conversation between Nancy and himself and might use it to his own advantage.

  “How?” Nancy asked.

  “By conniving with the relatives and threatening Carol.”

  To avoid similar incidents in the future, Mr. Drew requested that all the windows in the house be closed and locked, and the air-conditioning system turned on.

  “I don’t think,” said Nancy, “we should worry Carol with all this.” Her father agreed.

  Their guest slept well. As soon as she came downstairs, Carol insisted upon being given some household chores. “I’m so used to work I wouldn’t know what to do with myself.”

  Mr. Drew smiled at her. “I suggest that you help Mrs. Gruen and in between jobs do a lot of reading. By the
way, Carol, you want to go back to school, don’t you?”

  “Oh yes.”

  “I think,” the lawyer went on, “that we should look for a good boarding school for you. Of course the orphanage and your new foster parents will have to decide which one.”

  Carol was silent for several seconds. Then she said, “I suppose so. But I’ll hate leaving the nice new friends I’ve made.” She looked wistfully at Nancy, who smiled encouragingly.

  “You can visit us.”

  The telephone rang. Nancy answered it. “Oh hi, Ned!”

  He asked if she would be free for lunch. “I’d like to take you out and maybe you could show me that mysterious old inn. How’s the case progressing?”

  “It’s a long story. I’ll tell you when I see you,” she replied.

  “See you at twelve.”

  Nancy explained to Carol that Ned was a student at Emerson College and they had been dating for some time. “Maybe I’ll ask Bess and George to come over and keep you company.”

  Carol shook her head. “Nancy, I’d just like to be quiet, and—and bake a surprise for your dinner tonight.”

  “That would be great,” Nancy said. “May I guess what it’ll be?”

  The other girl smiled. “I’ll tell you the name but you’ll never guess what it is. Ever hear of Butterfly Pie?”

  “No.” Nancy laughed. “Sounds alive. I’ll look forward to it.”

  Ned arrived promptly and drove Nancy to a country restaurant. Tables surrounded a pool.

  “How about a swim first?” he suggested. “We can rent some gear.”

  She agreed and they spent half an hour in the water. While they ate, Nancy brought Ned up to date on the mystery.

  “Let’s go to the inn and do some searching,” he proposed.

  “All right. Any place except the tower room. It has been sealed by the sheriff’s office. The watchman has keys to the house.”

  When they arrived at the mansion the guard greeted Nancy. She introduced Ned and said they would like to go in and look around.

  “I’ll let you in, but I sure had a bad time with those two other guys and that couple when I told ’em No.”

  “Who were they?” Nancy asked.