Dare to read: Нэнси Дрю и Братья Харди
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ПРИЯТНОГО ЧТЕНИЯ!
Carolyn Keene
Nancy Drew Mystery Stories: Volume Forty-Five
The Spider Sapphire Mystery
Copyright © 1996, 1968 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Published by Grosset & Dunlap, Inc.
THRILLING, dangerous adventures confront Nancy Drew while on a safari in East Africa with a group of American college students. Excitement runs high as the teen-age detective delves into the theft of a fabulous sapphire formed by nature millions of years ago.
The mystery starts in Nancy’s home town. Her lawyer father’s client, Floyd Ramsey, who fashions beautiful and unusual synthetic gems, is accused of stealing the magnificent spider sapphire and exhibiting it as his own creation. Mr. Ramsey’s enemies blackmail him and by their vicious acts try to deter Nancy from going on the safari.
How the daring young sleuth uncovers a nefarious scheme and also solves the strange disappearance of an injured jungle guide will keep the reader breathless with suspense from first page to last.
CHAPTER I
Stolen Gem
NANCY Drew drove her convertible into the public parking lot and chose a space facing the far fence. There were few cars at this hour, since the early-morning shoppers had left.
As the attractive, titian-haired girl turned off the motor and took the key from the ignition lock, a car pulled in on each side of her. In an instant Nancy realized that they were parked so close she could not open either of her doors. The two drivers immediately jumped out and hurried away.
Nancy called to them. “Wait a minute! You’ve parked so I can’t get out!”
The men paid no attention. She honked her horn loudly, but they did not turn their heads.
“How inconsiderate!” Nancy thought angrily. “And with the parking lot almost empty.”
She caught a glimpse of the two men. They were dark-complexioned and she guessed they were from India. One looked to be about twenty years old, the other forty.
“Well,” Nancy said to herself, “I’ll just have to back out of here and find another place.”
She put the key into the ignition lock and started the motor. At that instant a car came whizzing into the parking lot, turned sideways abruptly, and stopped directly behind her.
Nancy leaned out the window and called, “I want to get out of here!”
She could not see the driver, but she was sure he had heard her. Instead of moving his car, he jumped out and sped across the parking lot to the street. He was a large, well-built, dark-skinned man. She could not see his face.
With a sigh Nancy decided she would have to put down the top of her convertible and crawl over one of the cars. Then she remembered that before leaving home she had tried the mechanism and it had failed to work.
“I must stop at the garage on my way home,” she decided.
Suddenly Nancy realized she was a prisoner. It also occurred to her that the whole episode had been planned by the three men.
Nancy realized she was a prisoner
“But why?” she asked herself.
Nancy sat lost in thought for a full minute. Her father, Carson Drew, a prominent lawyer, had recently taken an interesting case. There was a unique mystery attached to it. Was she being ha rassed to make her father give up the case? Nancy wondered. She had become well known as an amateur sleuth. Perhaps the people connected with the mystery had found this out and intended to keep her from helping her father.
“Whatever the motive, I’m stuck here right now,” she told herself. “How am I to get out of this car?”
Nancy knew she would need help. She pressed the horn and let it blow continuously. Sooner or later someone would come to see about stopping the noise.
The person who arrived was a young policeman. Nancy did not know him, although she was acquainted with many of the men on the River Heights force. She had often worked directly with Chief McGinnis.
“What’s going on here?” the officer asked cheerfully. “Somebody playing a joke on you?”
“I think not,” Nancy replied. Quickly she told what had happened, and added, “I believe this was deliberate.”
“My name is Orton,” the policeman said, “I’ll get you out of here as fast as I can.”
He tried the doors of all three cars. Every one of them was locked.
Orton pulled a book from his pocket and began comparing numbers in it with the license plates on the three cars. Finally he said, “Just what I suspected. Each of these cars is listed as stolen.”
He said he would make a report to headquarters at once and a locksmith would be sent to open the doors. After he had gone Nancy fumed over the trick that had been played on her. In the future she must be more careful about traps.
About ten minutes later Orton returned with the locksmith and another policeman. While various keys were being tried, Orton asked Nancy for a description of the three men who had driven into the parking lot.
“I’m afraid it will be pretty sketchy,” she replied, but told him what little she knew,
“They could be foreigners, especially the Indians,” the officer stated. “Chief McGinnis will probably get in touch with the immigration authorities.”
The three cars were finally moved and Nancy, relieved, stepped to the pavement.
“Thanks a million,” she said to the three men. “I hope you catch those car thieves.”
Nancy was convinced that the strangers were more than mere car thieves. She would talk the matter over later with her father.
She continued on to her destination, the River Heights Museum. Her father had told her about an amazing gem on display there. It was a huge sapphire with a spider embedded in it.
“To think that this rare piece of work is only synthetic,” Nancy murmured. “Dad said it was made by Mr. Floyd Ramsey, who fashions beautiful and unusual synthetic jewelry, right here in River Heights.”
The mystery which her father had hinted at concerned Mr. Ramsey and a wealthy Indian in Africa who owned a genuine sapphire with a spider embedded in it.
“I can’t wait to hear the rest of the story,” Nancy thought as she walked along Maple Avenue toward the museum.
She heard someone across the street whistle. Thinking it might be her friend Ned Nickerson, Nancy turned to look. At that instant someone banged into her from the rear, snatched her purse, and tried to knock her down. As Nancy teetered to regain her balance, the thief dashed down the street.
“He’s the younger of the two Indians who penned me in!” she thought. Nancy started running after him, crying out, “Stop thief!”
A man, coming from the opposite direction, heard her. Seeing the purse clutched under one arm of the fleeing figure, he stopped the Indian and grabbed the bag, but it dropped to the pavement. He struggled to hold onto the thief, but with a neat judo shoulder throw, the purse snatcher tossed the man onto the sidewalk. Then the Indian fled around the corner.
Horrified onlookers were helping the man to his feet as Nancy ran up to him. “I’m dreadfully sorry,” she said. “Are you hurt?”
The man smiled. “Only my pride.” He picked up the handbag and handed it to Nancy.
A patrolman rushed to the scene and asked for the story. When Nancy stated that this was the second time within an hour that she had been annoyed by the same man, the officer took notes and he said he would telephone the information to headquarters at once. By this time the crowd had melted away.
The stranger who had come to her assistance refused to give his name. Smiling, he said, “I don’t want any publicity. It was my privilege to help a young lady.”
With a wave of his hand he strode off. As Nancy walked on, she reflected about people of good and bad intent who so often crossed her path.
Presently Nancy smiled to herself. “Hannah always says that things come in threes. I wonder what’s in store for me now.”
Hannah Gruen, the Drews’ housekeeper, had lived with Nancy and her father since the death of Mrs. Drew when Nancy was three years old. The warm-hearted woman was like a mother to Nancy and worried constantly about the strange situations which the young sleuth faced when solving mysteries.
“Poor Hannah!” Nancy thought. “She’ll be so upset when I tell her what happened this morning.”
By now Nancy had reached the museum. The curator, Mr. Sand, was standing in the entrance hall.
“Good morning, Nancy,” he said. “Have you come to see Mr. Ramsey’s gem?”
“Yes, I have,” Nancy replied. “I understand it’s exquisite.”
The curator nodded. “I defy anyone to tell the gem from an original. You’ll find it in the room to the right of the one where the prehistoric animals are.”
Nancy hurried through the big room and turned into the smaller one. A glass case stood in the center. On a mound of white velvet lay the unique gem.
Before Nancy had a chance to examine it carefully through the glass, a homemade printed sign tacked to one corner of the case caught her attention. She read it and frowned, puzzled. The sign said:
THIS GEM WAS STOLEN
CHAPTER II
Missing Student
THE curator had followed Nancy to the spider sapphire case.
“Well, what do you think of—” Mr. Sand began. He stopped speaking abruptly as Nancy pointed to the sign saying the gem had been stolen.
The man’s face turned red with anger. “That is not true!” he cried. “Someone put the sign there—someone who is trying to cause trouble!”
He called to a guard standing near the door and quizzed him about recent visitors. “Everybody looked all right to me,” the guard answered. He smiled. “Maybe some teen-ager put that up there for a joke.”
“Maybe,” the curator agreed, calming down.
Nancy was inclined to disagree, but did not voice this opinion to the others. She asked the guard to describe all the men who had been in the museum recently.
Her pulse quickened when he said, “One of the visitors looked to me like a native of India. He kept walking around and around the case and seemed mighty interested in the gem.”
This was all the proof Nancy needed. The Indian visitor fitted the description of the older of the two men who had imprisoned her in the car.
After the guard had gone back to the door, she said to Mr. Sand, “I don’t trust that Indian. If he ever returns, watch him carefully.”
The curator smiled. “You’re mixed up again in some mystery and this time it involves an Indian?” he asked.
Nancy did not reply. She merely gave the man a wink.
The young detective rarely discussed her cases with anyone except her father, closest friends, or police and detectives. Mr. Drew had given her this advice on her first case, The Secret of the Old Clock, and Nancy had followed his wise counsel in solving all her other cases, including the most recent one, The Clue in the Crossword Cipher.
Nancy now gave her full attention to the magnificent, almost round, inch-long gem in the case with the spider embedded in it. The sapphire, a shade darker than pale blue, sparkled brilliantly. The gem was transparent except where the spider lay. A card in the display case stated that Mr. Floyd Ramsey had produced this sapphire synthetically.
“The gem is absolutely beautiful,” she said to Mr. Sand. “What gave Mr. Ramsey the idea of embedding a spider in the sapphire?”
“He saw a picture of a similar gem—a real one —and decided to experiment to see if he could imitate it.”
After a pause Mr. Sand remarked, “You know, spiders are one of the oldest living creatures on earth. They appeared at least three hundred million years ago.”
“Really?” Nancy asked, amazed.
The curator said that the study of spiders was intriguing. “The whole earth is covered with them. They’re man’s best friend. If spiders weren’t around, we’d be overrun and eaten up with insects.”
Amused by Nancy’s frown, Mr. Sand went on, “I read recently that a man in England made a study of spiders to determine how many there were in a certain area. A census of one acre was two and a quarter million spiders!”
Nancy gasped. Then she laughed. “Mr. Sand, you make me feel positively crawly.”
The curator’s eyes twinkled. “Do you know how old the world’s sapphires are—I mean the kind that Mother Nature fashioned?”
Nancy shook her head. “How old?”
“So far as is known they first appeared in the Carboniferous Era. That’s roughly two hundred and fifty million years ago.”
“So spiders and sapphires are much older than man,” Nancy observed. “I believe human beings first appeared on the earth ten million years ago.”
“That’s right.”
Mr. Sand was summoned to the telephone and Nancy spent a few more minutes admiring the spider sapphire.
“I must go to Dad’s office and ask him all about the spider sapphire mystery,” she told herself, and left the museum.
She found tall, athletic Mr. Drew dictating a letter to one of his secretaries, Miss Hanson. Nancy offered to wait in the reception room, but he insisted that both she and Miss Hanson remain.
“You never come here unless you have something important on your mind,” he teased Nancy. “What is it this time?”
His daughter told about the “stolen” sign tacked onto the spider sapphire case.
“It may involve the ancient spider sapphire owned by the Indian, Shastri Tagore,” the lawyer said. “His agents are in this country. They revealed the theft of his gem. These agents, who are Indians, live in Mombasa, East Africa, where Mr. Tagore has a home. They had heard about the gem Mr. Ramsey claimed he made. The men don’t believe his story and insist that the gem is Mr. Tagore’s stolen property.”
“But you believe Mr. Ramsey, don’t you?” Nancy asked.
“Of course I do. I have known Floyd for a long time. There’s not a more honest man in the world.”
Nancy had not intended to tell her father about the purse-snatching incident, but he surprised her by saying, “I hear a man grabbed your handbag and almost knocked you down.”
Mr. Drew added that someone who had seen the incident had called him and related the story.
“I hope the person also told you about the nice man who retrieved my bag. And here’s a story I’m sure you haven’t heard.”
Nancy told him of her experience in the parking lot and her suspicion that the man who had grabbed her handbag was one of the drivers. It was the lawyer’s turn to look amazed, and Miss Hanson gasped.
“I’m sure the whole thing is bound up with the spider sapphire mystery,” Nancy told her father.
“Then I’m glad you’re going away so soon,” Mr. Drew said. “In the meantime I insist that you have someone with you whenever you leave the house.”
Miss Hanson spoke up. “Oh, you’re going away, Nancy?”
“Yes, on an African safari. Isn’t it marvelous?”
“Will you be with a group?” the secretary inquired.
Nancy nodded. “You know that my friend Ned Nickerson attends Emerson College. The safari has been organized by some of the professors. Boys who are majoring in botany, zoology, and geology are making the trip. They’re being allowed to ask friends to go at the students’ rate. Bess and George and I have signed up. Burt and Dave, their dates, will be along, too.”
“It sounds thrilling,” Miss Hanson remarked.
Nancy said that the leaders of the Emerson safari were Professor and Mrs. Wilmer Stanley. “He’s always called Prof and she’s affectionately known as Aunt Millie to the boys.”
“It certainly sounds like fun,” Miss Hanson remarked as she picked up the telephone which had started to ring.
Mr. Drew and Nancy stopped speaking. Miss Hanson said, “Mr. Drew’s office.... She’s here. Do you wish to speak to her?” Then the secretary became silent. Presently her brow furrowed. Finally she said, “Thank you. I’ll tell her.”
Miss Hanson put down the phone and looked directly at Nancy. “The call was from Professor Stanley. He said he was in a hurry and wouldn’t take time to speak to you. I’m terribly sorry to give you his message, Nancy. Ned Nickerson can’t go on the safari after all.”
Nancy’s heart sank. What had happened? She forced herself to say, “That is bad news,” She had talked to Ned only two days before and he was extremely eager to go on the safari. He had said, “Nothing in this world will keep me from going.”
Mr. Drew declared that it was strange Ned had not telephoned Nancy direct. Why should he have asked Professor Stanley to make the call?
Nancy’s suspicions were aroused at once. She asked Miss Hanson to put in a call to the college and ask for Professor Stanley. It took some time to locate him, but finally the secretary reached the professor at his home.
“Miss Drew wishes to speak to you,” Miss Hanson told him.
“Hello, Nancy,” he said genially. “How are you? All ready for the trip?”
“Yes, I’m ready. But what’s all this about Ned not going?”
“What do you mean?” the professor asked.
“Didn’t you phone my father’s office during the past few minutes?”
“Why no.”
When she told what had occurred, Professor Stanley said of course Ned was going. Someone was just playing a prank.
Nancy doubted this but made no comment. She said she would be seeing the professor soon and hung up. Next, Nancy asked Miss Hanson to call Ned at the Omega Chi Epsilon Fraternity House at Emerson.
When the connection was made, Nancy learned that Ned was not there, so she asked for Burt Eddleton.
When he came on the wire, she told him what had happened. Burt was amazed at the story and also disturbed.
“Ned left the dorm yesterday afternoon. Later he phoned and gave someone a message that he was going home. I don’t like this at all,” Burt added.
“I’ll call the Nickersons right away and see if he’s there,” Nancy said.
She spoke to Mrs. Nickerson, who said that her son had not come home and she had not heard from him. Because Nancy did not want to alarm his parents unnecessarily, she did not express the fear which was forming in her mind. Ned might have met with foul play!
CHAPTER III
The 4182 Code
ALTHOUGH Mrs. Nickerson tried to remain calm, Nancy could tell that she was disturbed by the news. “It’s unlike Ned not to be in touch with his father and me and his friends.”
“I’ll ask Bess and George to go with me to Emerson tomorrow morning and help search—if that’s necessary,” Nancy told her.
“I’m glad to know that,” Ned’s father said on their extension phone. “If you hear from him, please ask him to phone us.”
Nancy promised to do so, then hung up and turned to her father. “What do you think I should do now?” she inquired. “I have a strong hunch something is wrong.”
“Why don’t you telephone Burt and Dave? Ask them to make a thorough search of the campus to see if they can locate Ned.”
Miss Hanson was already reaching for the telephone and again dialed the number of the Omega Chi Epsilon house. She asked for Burt Eddleton and Dave Evans. Both came on the wire and Nancy told them that Ned had not come home.
“I’m afraid he may have met with foul play,” she said. “Would you make a thorough search of the campus and let me know what you find out?”
Neither of the boys answered at once and she could hear them whispering in the background. Finally Dave said, “That’s kind of a large order, Nancy. Perhaps we should get all our fraternity brothers to help in the search. And maybe we should report this to the police.”
Burt spoke up. “Personally I feel that Ned went off of his own accord to study. He’d be mighty embarrassed having a whole bunch of us burst in on him. You know we’re all cramming for exams. We have a tough one coming up tomorrow morning.”
There was another long pause, during which a plan was formulating in Nancy’s mind. At last she said, “Would it help if Bess and George and I come up to help search—that is, if you don’t find any trace of Ned this afternoon?”
Burt said this was exactly what the boys had hoped she might suggest. “We’ll get busy at once and let you know at suppertime what we find out.”
Nancy’s next call was to Bess, who was astounded at the news. She agreed at once to go to Emerson. Her cousin, George Fayne, an athletic-looking girl, was eager to help.
“Great,” said Nancy. “I’ll let you know as soon as I hear from Dave and Burt.”
The afternoon hours dragged by. Nancy took her convertible to be repaired so the top would raise and lower again. The mechanic said it had been tampered with-and Nancy was sure the sabotage had been committed in the Drews’ garage. “And by those men who imprisoned me in the parking lot!”
In her alarm over Ned, Nancy had forgotten about the African safari and the spider sapphire mystery. The whole thing came back to her as she packed a few clothes into a suitcase and talked to Hannah Gruen. The housekeeper was dismayed by the strange turn of events.
“No doubt about it,” she said. “There are villains in this picture somewhere. The extent to which some people will go to gain dishonest ends is frightening. Please, Nancy, promise me that you will be very careful.”
Nancy smiled and hugged the housekeeper, for whom she had a deep affection. “I promise.”
At seven o‘clock the telephone rang and Nancy ran to answer it. Burt was calling. There was a note of deep concern in his voice. Twenty-five boys had taken part in a thorough search of the campus. They had not found Ned.
“Nancy, do you think he has been kidnapped?” Burt asked.
She closed her eyes as if to shut out the dreadful thought and said, “It looks so. I’ll get in touch with the Nickersons immediately.”
With a heavy heart Nancy dialed the number of the Nickerson home. This time Ned’s father answered. Though he tried to keep his voice steady, it was evident he was apprehensive over his son’s safety when he heard the upsetting news.
“Bess and George and I are driving up to Emerson early tomorrow morning,” Nancy told him. “Will you be going too?”
After talking with his wife, Mr. Nickerson said he thought not. They had concluded that if Ned had been kidnapped, a demand for ransom would come to the house. They wanted to be home to receive any messages.
“And we figure it’s too soon to notify the police—at least before we get a ransom note.”
Nancy said the three girls would make an extensive search of the area around Emerson. “Burt and Dave will join us in the hunt as soon as their exams are over. I’ll let you know what we learn,” she promised.
“And I’ll call your father if we receive a ransom note,” Mr. Nickerson said.
No word came during the night and everyone in the Drew household arose early. Nancy did not feel like eating breakfast but her father and Hannah Gruen insisted.
“It’s a long drive to Emerson and you’ll need all your strength,” the housekeeper stated.
Just before six o‘clock Nancy stopped her convertible in front of Bess Marvin’s home. At once the front door opened and the pretty, blond-haired girl came out to the car, carrying a rather large suitcase.
“Hello, Nancy. Please forgive the big bag. No telling how long this mystery may last. Oh, isn’t it terrible? I think this is the worst mission you’ve ever asked me to go on with you.”
“I’m afraid it is.” Nancy was grim.
There was little conversation for the next few blocks as they rode to George Fayne’s house. The slender, dark-haired girl ran down the steps, swinging a small overnight bag which she tossed into the back of the convertible, then hopped in.
Once on the highway, Nancy kept to the speed limit and the miles flew past quickly. By noon the three girls had reached Emerson and checked in at the Longview Motel.
“Let’s start work right away,” Nancy urged, as soon as they had eaten lunch. “I think we should go to the railroad and the bus station to ask if anyone saw Ned go out of town day before yesterday.”
When nothing was learned from these sources, the girls went to two rent-a-car agencies and made inquiries. No one answering Ned’s description had rented a car the day he disappeared.
“I’m tired,” said Bess. “Let’s go back to the motel and rest, then start out again.”
When the girls reached the Longview, Nancy said she would call the Nickersons. “I hate to report failure, but they may have some word by this time.”
Ned’s parents had heard nothing. Mr. Nickerson said that if they did not hear from Ned by nighttime, they would notify the police. They were almost certain that Ned had been kidnapped. But by whom and why?
“It begins to look as if the kidnappers were not after money,” Mr. Nickerson stated. “Nancy, have you any theories about the reason?”
“Yes, I have,” she answered. It may be a far-fetched idea, but there’s a possibility that a mystery I might work on in Africa is the answer. The kidnappers may feel that by keeping Ned from going, I would stay home.“ In a moment she added, ”And I would, too.“
Presently Nancy said good-by. As she came from the phone booth, Burt and Dave walked into the motel lobby. “Any luck?” they asked.
Nancy shook her head. “If we only had one little tiny clue—”
“We have!” the two boys cried together.
Burt said that a short while ago, when they returned to the fraternity house after the exam, they had received a phone call. The caller’s voice was quick and muffled, but they were sure he had been Ned Nickerson.
“What did he say?” Nancy asked as Bess and George hurried up to the trio.
“The message sounded like ‘Swahili Joe pair 4182.’ ”
“What does that mean?” Bess spoke up. “If Ned could talk to you, why didn’t he tell you something you could understand?”
Nancy said that perhaps Ned was afraid the place where he was being held prisoner was bugged and he did not dare give the location except through this code.
“It’s not going to be an easy one to crack,” Dave remarked. “Who is Swahili Joe?”
“My guess,” said George, “is he’s the kidnapper.”
Burt offered to telephone the local police and ask if they had ever heard of such a person. He soon returned to say that no one at headquarters had ever heard of a Swahili Joe.
“They thought he might be a restaurant owner or barber, but there’s no record of anyone by that name.”
“It’s probably a nickname,” Dave suggested.
The five young people talked at great length about the strange name and finally Nancy said she would get in touch with her father. “I’ll ask him to contact the Immigration Department and find out if Swahili Joe is an African who entered the United States from some country where Swahili’s spoken.”
As she left to make the call, George came up with another theory. The numerals 4182 might be part of a phone number. “It will take us forever to go through the book but let’s try.”
When Nancy rejoined them she too started to look. The task seemed endless.
Bess sighed. “We’re getting no place fast,” she mumbled. “Nancy, what did your father say?”
“He’s going to get in touch with the FBI as well as the immigration authorities. He said he’d call me back, so I guess we’ll have to stay here for a while.”
It was three o‘clock when the call came. Mr. Drew told Nancy that no person nicknamed Swahili Joe was known to have entered the United States.
Nancy asked her father if there had been any more news about the case of the spider sapphire. When he answered No, she said:
“Dad, do you think there could be a fraud in connection with this whole thing?”
CHAPTER IV
New Interpretation
THERE was silence on the wire for several seconds before Mr. Drew spoke. Do you mean that perhaps the real spider sapphire wasn’t stolen?“ he asked his daughter.
Nancy said that it might be an insurance fraud. The owner of the gem, working either alone or with some other men, might have reported to the insurance company that the jewel had been stolen.
“Then he’d collect a large amount of money for it,” Nancy stated.
Later on the sapphire would be sold secretly to some unscrupulous person. The buyer might break up the huge gem into smaller stones and sell them.
“Your hunch is a very good one, Nancy,” the lawyer answered. “At this stage no one really knows. Suppose I tell you the whole story.”
“Please do,” Nancy requested.
Mr. Drew said that two men had come to call on Mr. Ramsey.
“They said they were emissaries of the owner of the spider sapphire, Mr. Tagore. Their names are Jahan and Dhan. They were born in India but live in Mombasa, Africa.
“Mr. Ramsey was amazed and angry when the two men accused him of stealing the owner’s gem and exhibiting it as a synthetic sapphire.”