There was no card by the sting ray, but the ghost hunters knew it was called the rattlesnake of the sea and that its spinelike tail can inflict a deep, jagged wound, hard to heal.
“This is a small one,” Ned remarked. “I understand they grow as long as twelve feet.”
At that moment Jeffers, who had left the callers in the room, returned.
“I’m sorry to have been gone so long,” he apologized. “Mr. Cranshaw needed a little attention. The old gentleman told me to show you around the house, particularly the basement. He used to be a big-game hunter and has some interesting specimens down there.”
As they proceeded from room to room, each one cluttered with skulls, Nancy thought how glad she was Bess had not come along. “The poor girl would have had one continuous shiver.”
Nancy said to Jeffers, “With all these skulls around, it makes one think of ghosts. Have you ever seen any here?”
The butler gave a hollow laugh. “To me all these skulls are ghosts. Now I’ll take you to the basement. That’s where the zoo is.”
On the way down the stairs the visitors passed skeleton after skeleton. Most of them hung loose from brackets on the wall, but at the foot of the stairs there were several in glass cases.
“We keep the real prizes locked up,” Jeffers remarked. “You’ll see a dinosaur and other prehistoric specimens. They’re in cages, but I’ll let you in to get a close look at a fossil.”
The visitors glanced at one another. What was the purpose of keeping the dinosaur fossil in a cage?
“I should think it would be pretty hard to steal,” Nancy thought, “but, as Jeffers said, it’s probably one of Mr. Cranshaw’s prizes so he doesn’t want to take any chances.”
Along the walls of the dimly lighted corridor were several enormous cages and in each was a monster skeleton. They passed the dinosaur and went on to another cage in which there was a diplodocus. Jeffers unlocked the door and urged his callers to go in and inspect the restored skeleton.
Helen and Jim walked in, followed by Ned. Instinct warned Nancy not to go, and to get the others out as quickly as possible.
She grabbed Ned’s coat. “Don’t go in there!” she whispered.
But her warning came too late. With a violent push Jeffers sent her reeling into the cage, nearly knocking Ned over. The butler slammed the cage door and quickly locked it.
He stood staring at the four visitors, then burst into maniacal laughter. The next moment the butler started to walk up the corridor toward the stairway, leaving his prisoners helpless.
CHAPTER XX
The Invisible Intruder
As Jeffers’ prisoners berated themselves for being caught in the diplodocus cage, the man suddenly turned and came back. Once more he gave a chilling, sardonic laugh.
“My real prizes! Pretty soon Nancy Drew and her friends will be only skeletons!”
“But why?” Ned demanded, holding onto the bars and shaking them.
Jeffers stared at him. “Because all of you have interfered too much with our plans.”
Nancy spoke up. “Who are all of you?”
The butler ignored the question. Instead he said, “Don’t waste your strength trying to get out of there. It would be impossible.”
He walked up the corridor again and soon was out of sight.
“This is terrible,” Helen said. “What are we going to do?”
“Yes,” Jim added. “I wouldn’t put it past that idiot to carry out his threat. And I don’t relish being a skeleton just yet.”
Nancy was thoughtful. Presently she said, “I wonder if Mr. Cranshaw is part of the gang or if he’s a victim of them.”
Ned began looking around the cage to see if there was any possible means of escape. At first glance he saw none. The other prisoners joined him, tapping the walls, ceiling, and floor. The rear wall was made of stone and the ceiling of cement.
The two side walls were constructed of heavy oak paneling. While the two boys tested the panels on one side, Nancy and Helen worked on the other. Presently Nancy said excitedly, “I think I’ve found one that moves!”
The two boys dashed over and in a moment had lifted out the board.
“Let’s go!” Ned whispered.
Just as he was about to step through the opening, the four prisoners heard footsteps.
“We’d better not go yet,” Helen advised.
“Suppose I go alone and scout,” Ned suggested.
The others nodded. He stepped out and they inserted the panel.
“It’s probably Jeffers coming,” Nancy said. “He’ll undoubtedly miss Ned and there’ll be trouble. I suggest we play a game with him. We’ll hide behind this skeleton and keep appearing and disappearing. Jim, you’ll have to play Ned’s part.”
All of them hoped that in the dim light the subterfuge would not be detected. When Jeffers appeared, Nancy stood staring up at the diplodocus.
“Where are the others?” the butler thundered.
Nancy called, “Helen, where are you?” Helen appeared from behind the skeleton.
“And those young men?” Jeffers demanded.
Seemingly unruffled, Nancy said, “Jim, somebody is asking for you.” Jim appeared from around the corner of the huge fossil.
“There’s one more,” Jeffers said angrily. “Young man, you’d better show me you’re still here or there’ll be trouble!”
Jim had dodged behind the animal. He whipped off his coat, pulled his hair down across his forehead, and sauntered from behind the tail of the diplodocus. He stood there only a moment —just long enough to satisfy Jeffers—then hurried behind the skeleton.
“All right,” the butler said, “but I warn you, don’t try any funny business.”
He had barely disappeared up the corridor when Jim took out the panel again and the three of them climbed through. Ned was not in sight.
The prisoners were in a small space between two cages. Cautiously they moved forward and peered up and down the corridor. It was empty.
Helen and Jim started toward the stairway. But Nancy went the other way, curious to see what else the basement housed. In a moment she came to a door and stopped. She had heard a faint voice behind it. Someone was crying for help!
Nancy turned the handle of the door but could not open it. Apparently the door was locked.
In a loud whisper she called through the crack, “Who’s there?”
“Steve Rover. Let me out!”
“Steve!” Nancy thought, astounded. Aloud she said, “This is the girl who found the shell in the woods. I’ll rescue you as soon as I can. Tell me all you know. How did you get in and who brought you?”
“I don’t know anything,” said Steve. “But please get me out of here.”
“I’ll try to find the key to this door,” Nancy promised.
She turned and went up the corridor. Ned, Helen, and Jim were coming back.
Ned said, “There’s no exit from the basement except up the stairway we came down.”
“That’s too bad,” said Nancy. Then she told about having found Steve. “We must get him out of here.”
Nancy said she would like to talk to Steve again and find out if the boy had overheard anything which might help them round up the gang. They all walked back to his prison.
“Jim,” said Ned, “if Jeffers comes we’ll jump him.”
Nancy smiled. “And how about locking him in with the diplodocus?”
Ned grinned. “Will do, and we’ll tie him up.”
As they passed the cage, Ned and Jim picked up some rope they had seen hanging on a nail. Ned hid it under his coat.
Nancy and Helen had gone on to speak to Steve. They learned that food had been brought regularly but that all his pleas for release had been ignored.
“Did you ever hear your kidnappers or Jeffers say anything unusual?” Nancy called through the crack.
Steve replied, “Once when Jeffers came in here with a tray, I heard him mutter ‘invisible intruder.’ ”
“That may help us,” said Nancy. “My friends and I were prisoners here but got loose. Now we’re trying to get out of the house. We’ll bring the police.”
As they neared the diplodocus cage, they heard Jeffers approaching. All four hid around the corner. As the butler appeared, Ned and Jim jumped him.
The struggle was brief. The man was overpowered and a bunch of keys taken from his pocket.
“Nancy,” said Ned, “try these on the cage door. When it’s open, we’ll give Jeffers a chance to be a ‘roommate of the diplodocus.’ ”
She found the right one and the butler was bound and shoved inside. He glared and ranted but no one paid any attention.
“Maybe one of these keys fits the door to Steve’s prison,” Nancy suggested, and hurried down the hall.
In seconds the kidnapped boy was released. When told that Jeffers had been locked up, Steve relaxed, but insisted he knew nothing about what was going on in the house.
“All Jeffers or those other two men told me was that they had to keep me a prisoner for a while so I couldn’t tell anyone what happened. I think they were going to pull some big job like a robbery and then go away.”
Nancy wondered if the “job” might be stealing Mr. Cranshaw’s entire collection.
“Steve, did you tell them we had the shell?”
“I told ’em nothing!” the boy exclaimed.
When the ghost hunters reached the first floor, Helen and Jim offered to go upstairs and talk to Mr. Cranshaw. They found him sitting up in bed reading. He proved to be quite deaf and was not wearing a hearing aid.
In a brusque manner he asked, “Where’s Jeffers? And who are you and why are you here?”
Jim replied, “Jeffers let us in and told us you said it was all right for us to look at your collection of skulls and shells.”
“I never told him any such thing,” Mr. Cranshaw replied. “Where is Jeffers? Send him to me at once!”
“We locked him up in the basement,” Jim said. “He imprisoned us first but we escaped. We think he’s a criminal.”
“What!” the elderly man exclaimed. “Jeffers was a good houseman.”
“Did you ever miss any of your priceless shells?” Helen asked.
The elderly man said Yes he had, but that it was hard out in this isolated place to keep burglars away.
“Besides, I probably shouldn’t admit it, but I have always believed in ghosts. Often before a theft, I would be awakened during the night and see a phantom figure floating around my room. Then it would seem to disintegrate and vanish.”
Jim said, “It sounds like the trick used by a man we’re trying to find. He’s wanted by the police.”
Meanwhile, Nancy and Ned had taken Steve to the room where the lighted skulls and blinking sting ray were. The boy grabbed Nancy’s arm. “Those things are horrible! Why are the eyes of that thing with the tail blinking?”
“They’re not really eyes, and they don’t always blink,” Nancy answered.
“Listen!” Ned said suddenly.
A man’s voice was issuing from the sting ray!
Nancy and Ned walked over. There must be a miniature two-way radio concealed inside!
“Answer me!” the unseen caller was saying.
Nancy whispered, “Ned, you try it.”
He looked carefully at the sting ray and found a tiny button which he pressed, feeling sure this must be the sending position. He said into the mike, “Jeffers,” then switched to the receiving position.
The voice said, “Give the password!”
Ned shrugged helplessly. Nancy whispered, “Try ‘invisible intruder.’ ”
He did and the person then said, “We will arrive at twelve o’clock. Have supper ready and the prizes.” The speaker signed off.
Nancy and Ned looked at each other with the same thought in mind. No doubt the caller had been told earlier that Jeffers had captured them. Were they the prizes? Or did the message mean loot?
Nancy felt that the voice had sounded familiar. Could it have been Wilbur Prizer or his father?
“We must notify the police at once,” she told Ned.
They called headquarters and were told that several officers would be dispatched to the mansion at once.
At that moment Mr. Cranshaw came downstairs with Helen and Jim. He was amazed at the turn of events. “I’ll be glad to help in any way I can.”
When the police arrived, the young people quickly told their story. It was decided that everyone would stay out of sight until after the visitors had arrived.
About eleven-thirty everyone, including Steve Rover, found places in which to hide. Since it seemed likely that the visitors would probably go to the room where the sting ray was, Nancy and Ned secreted themselves there behind draperies. Two officers were out of sight in a small adjoining room.
The front door had been left unlocked so that the arrivals would not wonder why Jeffers had not admitted them. Ned had clicked a switch which turned off the blinking eyes of the sting ray.
About ten minutes to twelve the unseen watchers heard a car drive up. Presently Nancy saw the elderly Mr. Prizer come into the room. He was followed by his son and wife, and then Madame Tarantella. Behind them were four other men.
“I wonder where Jeffers is,” said Wilbur Prizer.
“Probably keeping the old man upstairs,” his wife replied.
Madame Tarantella spoke up. “We can go ahead with the meeting anyway.”
“Yes, cousin,” said Wilbur. “You go first.”
The medium began to laugh and told of her fake séances, mentioning how she had even fooled the clever Nancy Drew. “A friend of mine was spying on Carson Drew in connection with one of his cases, and he heard about the ghost-hunting trip. After that I hired a detective from that shady agency to obtain her history and to follow her around after we learned she was to join the ghost-hunting group.”
“How much did you bring?” the elder Prizer interrupted.
Madame Tarantella opened a bag and dumped a large heap of bills on a table. “Several thousand dollars,” she replied. “Part of it is from the sale of shells my darling cousin Wilbur managed to steal from collectors.”
Presently it was Wilbur’s turn to report to the gang. He told of having swindled several people out of their property and reselling it at a tremendous profit. He bragged, “I frighten people with my ghostly inventions which never fail—a canoe, a horse, a phantom soldier, an octopus, a ghostly woman and vapor man. My miniature radio sets which are hidden in shells are groovy too. They’re my invisible intruders to talk to inside members of the gang.”
One of the men spoke up. “But you couldn’t do everything alone. You needed me and Mike here to handle some of your dirty work like kidnapping that kid and bringing him here. And we had to snatch the Drew girl’s boy friend.”
“But you let him get away,” Wilbur said sarcastically.
“Never mind,” Madame Tarantella interrupted. “I sent Nancy Drew a message tonight telling her to stay off the highway but she didn’t do it and now she’s a prisoner of ours.”
At that moment several policemen rushed into the room. The gang was taken by surprise, and though they tried to escape, each of them was caught and held.
“You have nothing on us!” Wilbur Prizer cried out.
“We have everything on tape,” one of the officers told him. “Besides, we have several witnesses here to testify against you.”
This was a signal for Nancy, Ned, Helen, Jim, Steve, and Mr. Cranshaw to come from hiding. The criminals stared in fright and utter astonishment.
Madame Tarantella pointed a finger at Nancy. “You!” she screamed. “You did this! May your grandfather’s spirit come down and strike you dead!”
Despite the excitement Nancy had to laugh. “You’re good at disguising your voice on the telephone. But your fake predictions aren’t going to fool people any longer.” Then Nancy turned to Ned and said, “I wonder where Mr. Warfield is.”
“Right here,” said a voice from the doorway. “This man”—he pointed to one of the younger prisoners—“threatened me and made me drive off with him so I couldn’t come back in two hours to help you. But I guess he had this meeting in mind and finally he left me on a country road. He let the gas out and figured I couldn’t get back here before the meeting was over and this collection of shells stolen.”
The gang members put up no further resistance and admitted there was no use denying what was recorded on tape.
As they were led away, Madame Tarantella turned to Nancy. “I hate you, but I must admit you’re clever at solving mysteries. Where are my papers?”
“Safe. Why did you give them to me?”
“Because I don’t trust my cousins. They double-crossed me and stole my money, but I couldn’t report them because of my own work. Wilbur even burned my hut and made a ghost go up with the smoke. I was too much in his power to resist his orders, because I did help steal a lot of valuable shells. The ones with my initials on them held his invisible intruder at one time or another.
“You, Nancy Drew, you can be trusted. Keep my papers for me until I get out of prison.” To Nancy’s surprise, there were tears in the woman’s eyes as she was led away by the police.
Suddenly Nancy realized that the case of the invisible intruder had come to an end. Would another mystery come along soon? Much to her delight, she found herself involved in an unusual case surrounding The Mysterious Mannequin.
The police had gone downstairs to get Jeffers, who was also taken away. As he passed Mr. Cranshaw in the hall, the butler hung his head. “I’m glad they didn’t get your collection,” he said.
Mr. Cranshaw looked after him. “Despite everything, I’m going to miss Jeffers,” he said. Then as a thought struck him, he added, “Until I can find a butler, would you ghost hunters do me the honor of being my house guests?”
Nancy and her friends looked at one another, then Nancy said, “You mean all fourteen of us?”
The elderly man smiled. “Yes, all of you.”
Nancy telephoned the inn to tell the good news of the gang’s capture and extend the invitation. The ghost hunters were excited and happy to hear that the mystery had been solved. All agreed to accept the invitation and stay with Mr. Cranshaw for a few days.
It was decided that Ned and Jim would stay with the elderly man that night. Nancy and Helen would go back with Mr. Warfield to the inn in the truck.
As they went out the door, Nancy chuckled. “But this time we’ll ride on the front seat!”
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