Drew 17 - The Mystery of the Brass-Bound Trunk (11 page)

In a low voice Nancy told Rod about their assumption that Otto August and his friend or other gang members who might be on board had been the intruders.

“That would be very hard to prove,” the young man said. “You say there is no evidence?”

Nancy now told him what she had figured out from the finger language Otto August and his confederate were using. “But neither man is deaf,” she stated. “I think they are part of a ring of jewel thieves who use the finger alphabet as a cover-up to communicate with one another for their operations.”

Rod Havelock whistled. “Nancy, you may not have any real evidence, but you’re collecting a number of damaging clues.”

“I hope they’ll lead to something in the end,” Nancy said.

“I think we found something concrete in the trunk,” George said, and revealed that Nancy and her friends had already started to examine the mysterious piece of luggage again.

“The inside of the lid has a number of lumps in it,” Nancy added. “Would you like to help us uncover whatever is there?”

The assistant purser smiled. “I’d like nothing better. Let’s go to work!”

Bess spoke up and said she could not live in their room the way it looked. “Suppose George, Nelda, and I clean it up while you two go into cabin one thirty and see what you can find?”

Before entering the adjoining room, Rod suggested that the whole matter be kept secret. Bess revealed that Heinrich already knew about the break-in, but had denied knowing about any intruders and what they were doing. He declared he had not seen anyone come in or leave one twenty-eight after he had tidied the cabin.

Rod said, “He probably has a bit of a guilty feeling, so I doubt that he’d talk. As for the rest of us, shall we say nothing about it to anyone else?”

The others agreed, thinking it a wise idea. Bess grinned, “Mum’s the word.”

Nancy and Havelock entered the adjoining cabin, took out the brass-bound trunk, and once more Nancy opened it. She showed her companion the uneven places she had discovered on the inside of the lid.

“It seems suspicious,” the assistant purser remarked. “I wonder if there are more jewels under this flowered paper.”

Nancy said, “I’ll get a steaming towel and a little chisel from the tool kit the captain lent me. The towel worked before, so I hope it will this time, too.”

“Let’s try it,” Rod said, and Nancy went to get her equipment.

Very carefully the girl detective began to peel off the paper at one end. The work was slow, so Rod got another towel. Using this and a penknife, he began to loosen the paper on the other end of the lid. Between the two of them, they made quick headway.

Long before they finished, however, Bess, George, and Nelda had straightened out cabin one twenty-eight. They came in to watch.

“You’re making progress,” Nelda remarked.

Finally the paper was removed in sections. Underneath lay a thin sheet of plywood.

Nancy now chose an awl from the captain’s kit and was able to pull up the plywood. Papers and documents tumbled from the lid into the trunk!

“What do you suppose these are?” Bess asked. “Something important?”

Rod picked up one of the papers, spread it out, and looked at the words intently.

“It’s in Dutch,” he said. “I can read only a little of that language. Part of it is handwritten and I can’t figure it out. Nelda, how about your trying to translate it?”

The girl from Johannesburg picked up paper after paper and read the contents. Several times she frowned as she finished one and put it down.

“What do they say?” Bess asked impatiently.

Nelda did not reply at once. She kept going from one document to another. Some seemed to be letters; others looked like business contracts.

There was complete silence in the cabin for some time. Finally Nelda turned around and faced the others.

Her voice was tense as she said, “These are secret papers that tell of a newly discovered diamond mine in South Africa. I judge that they have been stolen from the government offices in Johannesburg. They should not be in the hands of outsiders, especially jewel thieves!”

Everyone in the room was astonished. Each had the same question. Had these letters and documents been stolen by the same people who put the jewels in the mystery trunk, or did the girls now have another mystery to solve?

CHAPTER XV

Helpful Ad

As Nelda paused, Nancy asked, “How do you know the papers are secret?”

The girl pointed. “See the small stamp in the left-hand corner of each one? It says so.”

Rod Havelock whistled. “How in the world did they get into this trunk? Obviously they’re not being carried legitimately. But how does a jewel thief become involved with espionage?”

No one answered the question, but Nancy said, “I think the papers should be put into the captain’s safe at once.”

Everyone agreed. Rod looked at his watch. “I must go back on duty in a short time. Nancy, suppose you put the papers in a bag and we’ll carry them up to Captain Detweiler’s quarters.”

Nancy smiled. “Good idea. And I’m glad of your protection. It’s possible that spies are watching us every time we leave our cabin. If I should go alone, one of the men might pounce on me and take the papers away.”

The assistant purser nodded. He waited while she found a large beach bag into which she placed the letters and agreements. Then she zipped the bag shut.

“If anyone is looking, I hope he thinks I’m going swimming,” Nancy said.

Turning to the other girls, she asked them if they would put the trunk back in the wardrobe. “And lock all the doors and hide the keys,” she urged.

“We’ll be glad to,” Nelda replied.

As soon as Nancy and Rod were gone, George locked the door of cabin one twenty-eight on the inside. Then she went back to one thirty to help the other girls.

Bess said, “What are we going to do with this soaking-wet flowered paper that Nancy and Rod took off the lid? We can’t put it back yet. It won’t stick.”

“It certainly won’t,” Nelda agreed.

“Let’s see if there is any room left under the bed,” George suggested. “That’s where we put it last time. When it’s all dry, we can come back and paste it into the trunk again.”

“What if it shrinks?” Bess asked.

The other girls had to admit that they had not thought of this.

Nelda said, “I have a pressing iron with me.

Do you think we dare attempt to iron the paper dry? Then it won’t shrink.”

George and Bess were against attempting this. Bess added, “We don’t know how old it is, or what’s in it. The paper might burn.”

The girls decided to hide the wet paper under the bed; then they locked everything and went back to cabin one twenty-eight.

In the meantime, Nancy and Rod Havelock had been walking along the deck. In order to fully protect her, the assistant purser took her arm and kept a sharp eye out for a possible attacker. Presently they saw little Bobby run out of the lounge near them.

He stopped short, looked at the couple, then burst out, “Have-a-lock! Arm-lock! Have-a-lock! Arm-lock!”

Rod Havelock let go of Nancy’s arm and dived for the little fellow, but Bobby was too quick and he ran off laughing.

Nancy knew the youngster was only teasing, but she blushed a deep red. Rod’s face, too, had turned crimson. His composure was soon restored, however, and he said with a grin, “Miss Nancy Drew, may I put an armlock on you?”

The two laughed and went on to Captain Detweiler’s quarters. Fortunately the officer was there. He admitted the couple at once. Then Nancy asked him to lock the door.

He smiled. “More surprises?” he asked.

She grinned back. “A big one and I think a very important one.”

She unzipped the beach bag and let the papers tumble onto the captain’s desk.

“I found these hidden in the lid of the mystery trunk,” she said. “Nelda translated some of the documents and said they no doubt had come from the government offices in Johannesburg. I couldn’t figure out why anyone stealing jewels should be involved in the espionage business at the same time.”

“Perhaps he’s just a contact hired to smuggle the papers into another country,” the captain suggested. He picked up one document after another and quickly scanned them.

Finally he said, “These are important, indeed. Nelda and I have a relative who works for the government. He told me that some time ago a number of very important secret papers had been stolen from the office files, and there has been no trace of them. I feel sure these are the ones and will contact Johannesburg at once.”

He paused for several seconds, then said, “Nancy, you have done a wonderful job of sleuthing since you’ve been on board, and this, perhaps, is the most important find. I think the government in Johannesburg owes you a deep debt of gratitude.”

Nancy was embarrassed. She merely said, “Oh, that’s high praise, but thank you. I think now I’d better leave. Please put the papers in your safe.”

“Indeed, I will,” the captain replied.

Nancy and Rod went outside. He said to her, “I’m due down at the purser’s desk and must hurry. You don’t mind if I leave you here?”

“Not at all,” she responded. “And thanks a million for your help.”

After breakfast the next morning Nancy wandered to the secluded area of the sports deck where she had seen Otto August twice, once alone and once with his companion.

“Maybe the two of them will be there now, talking in their finger language, and I can pick up another clue,” she thought.

The girl sleuth strolled over to the spot, but no one was there. For a moment she felt a sense of disappointment, then she chided herself. “How could I expect them to be there every time I come?” Nevertheless, she walked to the men’s chairs. A natural instinct for sleuthing told her to look around.

Nancy noticed a crewman picking up bits of paper and other trash that had been left near Otto August’s chair. She detected a small piece of paper sticking up between two floorboards. Quickly she reached down and carefully pulled it out. To her surprise, there were three drawings on it.

They were hands showing finger language. She read: DAN.

The girl detective stared at the name for several seconds, then decided to look at the passenger list for someone named Dan or Daniel.

She hurried back to cabin one twenty-eight. The other girls were not there. Nancy scanned the passenger list, but found no one with that name. “Now what’ll I do?” she asked herself. “I wonder where the girls are.”

Something told her to return to the sports deck. “Perhaps I overlooked something else that was dropped,” she thought.

The two suspects had not yet come to occupy their favorite chairs. Nancy went over to them and glanced around. The crewman whom she had seen cleaning up came in her direction. He was holding out a copy of
The New York Times.

“Is this what you’re looking for?” he asked. “I found it on that chair.” He pointed to the one Otto August had used.

Nancy was about to turn down the offer, when her eyes focused on the date of the paper. It was one week old!

“Maybe Mr. August was reading this for a specific purpose,” she told herself. “Who knows, there may even be a clue in
The New York Times!”

She reached out to take the paper. “Thank you so much,” she said, smiling at the crewman, then once more she hurried to cabin one twenty-eight. She laid the newspaper on her bed and began to look at the headlines. Most of the articles were familiar to her because she had seen them in European newspapers.

After she had turned several pages, Nancy suddenly stopped and gazed at a sheet. Something had been neatly cut out of one column!

“Mr. August must have done this!” the girl reflected. “I’ll have to find out what the missing clipping said.”

She decided to go to the ship’s library and see if a duplicate of the newspaper was available.

The woman in charge told her, “I’m sorry, hut we don’t have it.”

As Nancy turned away, disappointed, a passenger who had been reading nearby glanced up. “I have a copy of the
Times
of that date in my cabin,” he said. “You’re welcome to it. I’ll get it for you.”

Nancy thanked him. While he was picking it up, she looked among the books that were available to passengers. “This looks interesting,” she thought.
“Life of a Waterfront Detective.”

In a few minutes the man returned with the newspaper Nancy wanted. “Here it is,” he said. “I don’t need it any more, so you can keep it.”

“Thank you very much,” Nancy replied, putting the book back. “You’ve been very kind.”

She spread the paper on the library table and turned to the page she wanted to see. In the spot that Otto August had cut out was an advertisement. As Nancy read it, her heart began to beat faster. “What a clue!” she thought, studying the ad. A New York company desired to acquire precious flawless stones in or out of settings! “Mr. August may be already trying to find buyers for the stolen gems!” Nancy reasoned. “I wonder if that company is legitimate?”

She decided to go and tell her friends about this latest find. On her way she stopped at the purser’s desk.

“What’s new?” Rod asked her with a smile.

“I believe Otto August cut out an ad from The
New York Times
that was placed by a company wanting to buy precious stones,” she whispered. “Here, look at this!”

The young man read the advertisement. “That figures,” he said. “August is planning ahead!”

“He sure is! By the way, can you do me a favor and see if there is a crew member or an officer named Dan or Daniel? I couldn’t find anyone by that name on the passenger list.”

Rod thought for several seconds, then said, “I know of just one. I’ll find out what I can about him.”

As Nancy went off, she recalled the finger alphabet message: CREW CAN HELP FIND NECKLACE. Was Dan the crewman referred to?

She went down the stairs and walked around a corner toward her cabin. As she turned, she noticed a man in the distance standing in front of a cabin door. He seemed to either lock or unlock it. Nancy tensed. Was it cabin one twenty-eight or one thirty?