The Hidden Staircase Page 9

  “You bet I am,” Helen responded. “Shall we start now or wait until after supper?”

  Although Nancy was eager to begin at once, she thought that first she should go upstairs and extend her sympathy to Miss Flora. She also felt that a delay in serving her supper while the search went on might upset the ill woman. Helen offered to go into the kitchen at once and start preparing the meal. Nancy nodded and went up the steps.

  Miss Flora had been put to bed in her daughter’s room to avoid any further scares from the ghost, who seemed to operate in the elderly woman’s own room.

  “Miss Flora, I’m so sorry you have to stay in bed,” said Nancy, walking up and smiling at the patient.

  “Well, I am too,” Mrs. Turnbull replied. “And I think it’s a lot of nonsense. Everybody faints once in a while. If you’d ever seen what I did—that horrible face!”

  “Mother!” pleaded Aunt Rosemary, who was seated in a chair on the other side of the bed. “You know what the doctor said.”

  “Oh, these doctors!” her mother said pettishly. “Anyway, Nancy, I’m sure I saw the ghost. Now you just look for a man who hasn’t shaved in goodness knows how long and has an ugly face and kind of longish hair.”

  It was on the tip of Nancy’s tongue to ask for information on the man’s height and size, but recalling the doctor’s warning, she said nothing about this. Instead, she smiled and taking one of Miss Flora’s hands in her own, said:

  “Let’s not talk any more about this until you’re up and well. Then I’ll put you on the Drew and Company detective squad!”

  The amusing remark made the elderly woman smile and she promised to try getting some rest.

  “But first I want something to eat,” she demanded. “Do you think you girls can manage alone? I’d like Rosemary to stay here with me.”

  “Of course we can manage, and we’ll bring you exactly what you should have to eat.”

  Nancy went downstairs and set up a tray for Miss Flora. On it was a cup of steaming chicken bouillon, a thin slice of well-toasted bread, and a saucer of plain gelatin.

  A few minutes later Helen took another tray upstairs with a more substantial meal on it for Aunt Rosemary. Then the two girls sat down in the dining room to have their own supper. After finishing it, they quickly washed and dried all the dishes, then started for the parlor.

  “Where do you think we should look?” Helen whispered.

  During the past half hour Nancy had been going over in her mind what spot in the parlor they might have overlooked—one which could possibly have an opening behind it. She had decided on a large cabinet built into the wall. It contained a beautiful collection of figurines, souvenirs from many places, and knickknacks of various kinds.

  “I’m going to look for a hidden spring that may move the cabinet away from the wall,” Nancy told Helen in a low voice.

  For the first time she noticed that each of the figurines and knickknacks were set in small depressions on the shelves. Nancy wondered excitedly if this had been done so that the figurines would not fall over in case the cabinet were moved.

  Eagerly she began to look on the back wall of the interior of the cabinet for a spring. She and Helen together searched every inch of the upper part but found no spring to move the great built-in piece of furniture.

  On the lower part of the cabinet were two doors which Nancy had already opened many times. But then she had been looking for a large opening. Now she was hoping to locate a tiny spring or movable panel.

  Helen searched the left side, while Nancy took the right. Suddenly her pulse quickened in anticipation. She had felt a spot slightly higher than the rest.

  Nancy ran her fingers back and forth across the area which was about half an inch high and three inches long.

  “It may conceal something,” she thought, and pushed gently against the wood.

  Nancy felt a vibration in the whole cabinet.

  “Helen! I’ve found something!” she whispered hoarsely. “Better stand back!”

  Nancy pressed harder. This time the right side of the cabinet began to move forward. Nancy jumped up from her knees and stood back with Helen. Slowly, very slowly, one end of the cabinet began to move into the parlor, the other into an open space behind it.

  Helen grabbed Nancy’s hand in fright. What were they going to find in the secret passageway?

  CHAPTER XV

  A New Suspect

  THE GREAT crystal chandelier illuminated the narrow passageway behind the cabinet. It was not very long. No one was in it and the place was dusty and filled with cobwebs.

  “There’s probably an exit at the other end of this,” said Nancy. “Let’s see where it goes.”

  “I think I’d better wait here, Nancy,” Helen suggested. “This old cabinet might suddenly start to close itself. If it does, I’ll yell so you can get out in time.”

  Nancy laughed. “You’re a real pal, Helen.”

  As Nancy walked along the passageway, she looked carefully at the two walls which lined it. There was no visible exit from either of the solid, plastered walls. The far end, too, was solid, but this wall had been built of wood.

  Nancy felt it might have some significance. At the moment she could not figure it out and started to return to the parlor. Halfway along the narrow corridor, she saw a folded piece of paper lying on the floor.

  “This may prove something,” she told herself eagerly, picking it up.

  Just as Nancy stepped back into the parlor, Aunt Rosemary appeared. She stared in astonishment at the opening in the wall and at the cabinet which now stood at right angles to it.

  “You found something?” she asked.

  “Only this,” Nancy replied, and handed Aunt Rosemary the folded paper.

  As the girls looked over her shoulder, Mrs. Hayes opened it. “This is an unfinished letter,” she commented, then started to decipher the old-fashioned handwriting. “Why, this was written way back in 1785—not long after the house was built.”

  The note read:

  My honorable friend Benjamin:

  The disloyalty of two of my servants has just come to my attention. I am afraid they plan to harm the cause of the Colonies. I will have them properly punished. My good fortune in learning about this disloyalty came while I was at my listening post. Every word spoken in the servants’ sitting room can be overheard by me.

  I will watch for further—

  The letter ended at this point. Instantly Helen said, “Listening post?”

  “It must be at the end of this passageway,” Nancy guessed. “Aunt Rosemary, what room would connect with it?”

  “I presume the kitchen,” Mrs. Hayes replied. “And it seems to me that I once heard that the present kitchen was a sitting room for the servants long ago. You recall that back in Colonial days food was never cooked in a mansion. It was always prepared in another building and brought in on great trays.”

  Helen smiled. “With a listening post the poor servants here didn’t have a chance for a good chitchat together. Their conversations were never a secret from their master!”

  Nancy and Aunt Rosemary smiled too and nodded, then the young sleuth said, “Let’s see if this listening post still works.”

  It was arranged that Helen would go into the kitchen and start talking. Nancy would stand at the end of the corridor to listen. Aunt Rosemary, who was shown how to work the hidden spring on the cabinet, would act as guard if the great piece of furniture suddenly started to move and close the opening.

  “All ready?” Helen asked. She moved out of the room.

  When she thought Nancy was at her post, she began to talk about her forthcoming wedding and asked Nancy to be in the bridal party.

  “I can hear Helen very plainly!” Nancy called excitedly to Aunt Rosemary. “The listening post is as good as ever!”

  When the test was over, and the cabinet manually closed by Nancy, she and Helen and Aunt Rosemary held a whispered conversation. They all decided that the ghost knew about the passageway and had overh
eard plans which those in the house were making. Probably this was where the ghost disappeared after Miss Flora spotted him.

  “Funny that we seem to do more planning while we’re in the kitchen than in any other room,” Aunt Rosemary remarked.

  Helen said she wondered if this listening post was unique with the owner and architect of Twin Elms mansion.

  “No, indeed,” Aunt Rosemary told her. “Many old homes where there were servants had such places. Don’t forget that our country has been involved in several wars, during which traitors and spies found it easy to get information while posing as servants.”

  “Very clever,” Helen remarked. “And I suppose a lot of the people who were caught never knew how they had been found out.”

  “No doubt,” said Aunt Rosemary.

  At that moment they heard Miss Flora’s feeble voice calling from the bedroom and hurried up the steps to be sure that she was all right. They found her smiling, but she complained that she did not like to stay alone so long.

  “I won’t leave you again tonight, Mother,” Aunt Rosemary promised. “I’m going to sleep on the couch in this room so as not to disturb you. Now try to get a little sleep.”

  The following morning Nancy had a phone call from Hannah Gruen, whose voice sounded very irate. “I’ve just heard from Mr. Barradale, the railroad lawyer, Nancy. He lost your address and phone number, so he called here. I’m furious at what he had to say. He hinted that your father might be staying away on purpose because he wasn’t able to produce Willie Wharton!”

  Nancy was angry too. “Why, that’s absolutely unfair and untrue,” she cried.

  “Well, I just wouldn’t stand for it if I were you,” Hannah Gruen stated flatly. “And that’s only half of it.”

  “You mean he had more to say about Dad?” Nancy questioned quickly.

  “No, not that,” the housekeeper answered. “He was calling to say that the railroad can’t hold up the bridge project any longer. If some new evidence isn’t produced by Monday, the railroad will be forced to accede to the demands of Willie Wharton and all those other property owners!”

  “Oh, that would be a great blow to Dad!” said Nancy. “He wouldn’t want this to happen. He’s sure that the signature on that contract of sale is Willie Wharton’s. All he has to do is find him and prove it.”

  “Everything is such a mess,” said Mrs. Gruen. “I was talking to the police just before I called you and they have no leads at all to where your father might be.”

  “Hannah, this is dreadful!” said Nancy. “I don’t know how, but I intend to find Dad—and quickly, too!”

  After the conversation between herself and the housekeeper was over, Nancy walked up and down the hall, as she tried to formulate a plan. Something must be done!

  Suddenly Nancy went to the front door, opened it, and walked outside. She breathed deeply of the lovely morning air and headed for the rose garden. She let the full beauty of the estate sink into her consciousness, before permitting herself to think further about the knotty problem before her.

  Long ago Mr. Drew had taught Nancy that the best way to clear one’s brain is to commune with Nature for a time. Nancy went up one walk and down another, listening to the twittering of the birds and now and then the song of the meadow lark. Again she smelled deeply of the roses and the sweet wisteria which hung over a sagging arbor.

  Ten minutes later she returned to the house and sat down on the porch steps. Almost at once a mental image of Nathan Gomber came to her as clearly as if the man had been standing in front of her. The young sleuth’s mind began to put together the various pieces of the puzzle regarding him and the railroad property.

  “Maybe Nathan Gomber is keeping Willie Wharton away!” she said to herself. “Willie may even be a prisoner! And if Gomber is that kind of a person, maybe he engineered the abduction of my father!”

  The very thought frightened Nancy. Leaping up, she decided to ask the police to have Nathan Gomber shadowed.

  “I’ll go down to headquarters and talk to Captain Rossland,” she decided. “And I’ll ask Helen to go along. The cleaning woman is here, so she can help Aunt Rosemary in case of an emergency.”

  Without explaining her real purpose in wanting to go downtown, Nancy merely asked Helen to accompany her there for some necessary marketing. The two girls drove off, and on the way to town Nancy gave Helen full details of her latest theories about Nathan Gomber.

  Helen was amazed. “And here he was acting so worried about your father’s safety!”

  When the girls reached police headquarters, they had to wait a few minutes to see Captain Rossland. Nancy fidgeted under the delay. Evcry moment seemed doubly precious now. But finally the girls were ushered inside and the officer greeted them warmly.

  “Another clue, Miss Drew?” he asked with a smile.

  Nancy told her story quickly.

  “I think you’re on the right track,” the officer stated. “I’ll be very glad to get in touch with your Captain McGinnis in River Heights and relay your message. And I’ll notify all the men on my force to be on the lookout for this Nathan Gomber.”

  “Thank you,” said Nancy gratefully. “Every hour that goes by I become more and more worried about my father.”

  “A break should come soon,” the officer told her kindly. “The minute I hear anything I’ll let you know.”

  Nancy thanked him and the girls went on their way. It took every bit of Nancy’s stamina not to show her inmost feelings. She rolled the cart through the supermarket almost automatically, picking out needed food items. Her mind would say, “We need more canned peas because the ghost took what we had,” and at the meat counter she reflected, “Dad loves thick, juicy steaks.”

  Finally the marketing was finished and the packages stowed in the rear of the convertible. On the way home, Helen asked Nancy what plans she had for pursuing the mystery.

  “To tell the truth, I’ve been thinking about it continuously, but so far I haven’t come up with any new ideas,” Nancy answered. “I’m sure, though, that something will pop up.”

  When the girls were a little distance from the entrance to the Twin Elms estate, they saw a car suddenly pull out of the driveway and make a right turn. The driver leaned out his window and looked back. He wore a smug grin.

  “Why, it’s Nathan Gomber!” Nancy cried out.

  “And did you see that smirk on his face?” Helen asked. “Oh, Nancy, maybe that means he’s finally persuaded Miss Flora to sell the property to him!”

  “Yes,” Nancy replied grimly. “And also, here I’ve just asked the police to shadow him and I’m the first person to see him!”

  With that Nancy put on speed and shot ahead. As she passed the driveway to the estate, Helen asked, “Where are you going?”

  “I’m following Nathan Gomber until I catch him!”

  CHAPTER XVI

  Sold!

  “OH, NANCY, I hope we meet a police officer!” said Helen Corning. “If Gomber is a kidnaper, he may try to harm us if we do catch up to him!”

  “We’ll have to be cautious,” Nancy admitted. “But I’m afraid we’re not going to meet any policeman. I haven’t seen one on these roads in all the time I’ve been here.”

  Both girls watched the car ahead of them intently. It was near enough for Nancy to be able to read the license number. She wondered if the car was registered under Gomber’s name or someone else’s. If it belonged to a friend of his, this fact might lead the police to another suspect.

  “Where do you think Gomber’s going?” Helen asked presently. “To meet somebody?”

  “Perhaps. And he may be on his way back to River Heights.”

  “Not yet,” Helen said, for at that moment Gomber had reached a crossroads and turned sharp right. “That road leads away from River Heights.”

  “But it does lead past Riverview Manor,” Nancy replied tensely as she neared the crossroads.

  Turning right, the girls saw Gomber ahead, tearing along at a terrific speed. He
passed the vacant mansion. A short distance beyond it he began to turn his car lights off and on.

  “What’s he doing that for?” Helen queried. “Is he just testing his lights?”

  Nancy was not inclined to think so. “I believe he’s signaling to someone. Look all around, Helen, and see if you can spot anybody.” She herself was driving so fast that she did not dare take her eyes from the road.

  Helen gazed right and left, and then turned to gaze through the back window. “I don’t see a soul,” she reported.

  Nancy began to feel uneasy. It was possible that Gomber might have been signaling to someone to follow the girls. “Helen, keep looking out the rear window and see if a car appears and starts to follow us.”

  “Maybe we ought to give up the chase and just tell the police about Gomber,” Helen said a bit fearfully.

  But Nancy did not want to do this. “I think it will help us a lot to know where he’s heading.”

  She continued the pursuit and several miles farther on came to the town of Hancock.

  “Isn’t this where that crinkly-eared fellow lives?” Helen inquired.

  “Yes.”

  “Then it’s my guess Gomber is going to see him.”

  Nancy reminded her friend that the man was reported to be out of town, presumably because he was wanted by the police on a couple of robbery charges.

  Though Hancock was small, there was a great deal of traffic on the main street. In the center of town at an intersection, there was a signal light. Gomber shot through the green, but by the time Nancy reached the spot, the light had turned red.

  “Oh dear!” she fumed. “Now I’ll probably lose him!”

  In a few seconds the light changed to green and Nancy again took up her pursuit. But she felt that at this point it was futile. Gomber could have turned down any of a number of side streets, or if he had gone straight through the town he would now be so far ahead of her that it was doubtful she could catch him. Nancy went on, nevertheless, for another three miles. Then, catching no sight of her quarry, she decided to give up the chase.