“That’s Mrs. Allison!” Nancy’s body tensed at the thought. “Is she going to jump in?”
The girl detective stole forward, being careful not to make a sound. The woman, unaware that anyone was approaching, stood motionless, still gazing moodily into the stream.
“What shall I do?” Nancy wondered.
She was tempted to run to Mrs. Allison, but reflected that Rai might be in the vicinity. She would be no physical match for the two, and they would certainly capture her!
“I must phone the police,” Nancy reasoned.
Stealing away quietly, she ran to the nearest street telephone booth and asked for Chief McGinnis. Nancy tersely revealed her information to him and was assured that men would be dispatched at once to the bridge.
“Maybe you’d better approach the place quietly,” she warned. “Otherwise, Mrs. Allison may be alarmed and try to escape.”
After completing the call, Nancy quickly returned to the bridge. Mrs. Allison had not moved. Greatly relieved, Nancy secreted herself in a clump of bushes nearby.
“I’ll wait here for the police,” she decided.
The minutes dragged by slowly. Nancy grew worried and impatient. Then she heard the muffled sound of an engine. A car stopped some distance from the bridge.
Apparently Mrs. Allison had caught the faint hum. She glanced about alertly.
Officers were moving stealthily along the footpath now. The woman turned as if to flee in the opposite direction. Nancy emerged from her hiding place to block the way.
Mrs. Allison knew she was trapped.
“No, no!” she cried out.
The suspect wheeled, and before anyone guessed her intention, climbed the high rail of the bridge.
“Stop! Stop!” Nancy screamed, sure Mrs. Allison intended to make a dangerous jump.
The woman poised on the rail for an instant. Then she plunged into the water.
CHAPTER XIX
Dangerous Dive
NANCY darted to the railing. She could see Mrs. Allison struggling in the current, which was carrying her swiftly downstream.
“She can’t swim!” Nancy thought frantically. “Or else she hit her head.”
Nancy mounted the rail and carefully made a shallow dive. Shaking the water from her eyes, she looked around. Mrs. Allison was still struggling, but the thrashing of her arms was rapidly growing weaker.
A dozen powerful strokes brought Nancy to the woman. Approaching from the rear, she tried to grip her in a safe cross-chest carry. Mrs. Allison fought feebly to elude her rescuer.
“Let me drown! Let me drown!” the woman pleaded.
Nancy’s only reaction was to tighten her hold under the woman’s armpit.
The swift current had carried the two far downstream. For a minute Nancy allowed herself to drift with it as she caught her breath. Then, with her free right arm, she struck out again and reached shallow water just as two policemen rowed up in a boat. They relieved Nancy of the woman and took them both to shore. Mrs. Allison was escorted to the police car.
“Miss Drew, we’ll need you along to offer evidence,” one of the men said. “You can get some dry clothes from the matron at headquarters.”
Half an hour later, Nancy met Mrs. Allison in the chief’s office. The woman’s attitude seemed to have changed entirely. As the girl detective began to question her, this became more apparent. Mrs. Allison had lost some of her former arrogance and answered certain questions readily.
The burned house had been headquarters for a circus troupe long before her husband had bought the property. Mrs. Allison’s visit to see Mr. Drew had been coincidental. Someone had told her he was unusually good at divining strange cases, and she had had a frightening dream.
“I don’t have to confess any more until I get a lawyer,” she said. “But I’m sorry about Rishi,” she mumbled. “I don’t know what made me do what I did.”
“Tell us where Rishi and Rai are now,” Nancy said.
“Rishi has been hidden at the burned house,” Mrs. Allison admitted. “Rai and Jasper Batt are guarding him.”
Nancy did not wait to learn more. She was afraid that Rishi might have been harmed. Accompanied by a few policemen she drove directly to the place. The officers searched the premises thoroughly.
“No one is here,” they reported to Nancy, who had waited in the car.
“You searched the tunnel?”
“Yes, it is empty. Mrs. Allison evidently lied.”
Sick with disappointment, Nancy was forced to return home while the policemen went back to headquarters to report their failure. Carson Drew met his daughter at the door and heard her vivid account of the evening’s adventure.
“Great work, Nancy, capturing that woman,” he said. “But I shudder when I think that she might have drowned you.”
“My life-saving course took care of me, Dad,” Nancy replied with a half smile. “It was disappointing not to find Rishi. I was so certain Mrs. Allison was telling the truth.”
“Perhaps Rai moved the boy to another hiding place without informing Mrs. Allison,” Carson Drew suggested.
“That’s possible,” Nancy agreed. She decided to go back to the burned house early the next morning. Bess could not go with her, but George was free to drive out to the Allison property.
By nine o’clock the two girls were on their way. En route Nancy explained everything that had happened the night before.
“I’ve been thinking it over and can’t help but believe that Mrs. Allison told the truth last night,” Nancy said. “Or at least she feels sure that Rishi is hidden at the burned house.
“It occurred to me that the police may have missed the branch-off of the tunnel. That’s why I’m going back there.”
When the girls reached the Allison property, Nancy hid the car in a clump of trees and, as before, the girls walked the remaining distance. They were moving along the path when George caught her friend’s hand.
“Someone is coming!” she whispered.
The girls dodged back among the bushes just as Jasper Batt strode into view. He carried a small package in his hand and a Thermos protruded from a coat pocket. Nancy and George waited until he had disappeared before they emerged from their hiding place.
“I have a hunch that Mr. Batt is taking breakfast to someone,” Nancy said. “Let’s follow. He may lead us to Rishi and Rai!”
As the girls cautiously trailed the man, who finally went uphill, it became evident he was heading for the rock door. They saw him pause by the secret entrance.
“How does he intend to enter?” Nancy whispered. “Watch closely.”
The man picked up a heavy stick from the ground and rapped six times in succession on the rock door. He waited several minutes, then repeated the raps.
The girls heard a faint click. Jasper Batt stepped back a pace, waiting expectantly. The massive door slowly swung outward. Batt thrust the package of food and the Thermos into the tunnel.
Nancy and George heard him speak a few words to someone inside, but the girls were too far away to distinguish what they were. After a moment Batt firmly closed the rock door, then walked off swiftly into the woods.
“He probably brought food to a prisoner in the tunnel,” George whispered.
“Rishi!” Nancy added. “I’ll find out! I’ll try Jasper Batt’s trick of opening the door.”
“But maybe Rai’s inside, too. He might harm you!” George warned.
But the girl detective, who was less concerned about her own safety than Rishi’s, moved forward. Using the same heavy stick that Batt had dropped nearby, Nancy rapped sharply six times. She waited expectantly, but nothing happened.
“Batt repeated the signals,” George reminded her.
Again Nancy knocked on the door. This time the girls heard the familiar click of the latch. They moved back, making room for the heavy barrier to swing outward. Nancy and George peered into the dark interior of the tunnel.
“I can’t see a thing,” George whispered.
“Rishi! Rishi!” Nancy cried out.
“Help! Help!” came a feeble voice.
Nancy and George knew that it was not Rishi who had answered. The voice sounded familiar, but they could not place it.
“Who are you and where are you?” Nancy shouted.
“Putnam—Peter Putnam! Batt has me chained to a post! Come over and free me!”
“It may be a trap,” George warned Nancy.
The young detective shook her head. By this time her eyes had grown accustomed to the dark cavern and she could dimly make out a figure chained to a post a few feet from the entrance. The heavy metal was locked to his wrists and ankles; the chains were long enough for him to reach the door but not to escape. Nancy entered the tunnel with George following.
“Thank goodness you’ve come in time!” Putnam murmured brokenly. “Those men wanted me to die in this dark, filthy hole.”
“Why?” Nancy asked him.
Peter Putnam rattled his chains angrily. “Get me out of here!”
“I’ll be glad to after you tell me where Rishi is.”
“Why should I tell you anything?” the prisoner growled. “You stole the papers from my coffeepot!”
“The documents weren’t yours,” Nancy said. “Right now it’s in your interest to tell me everything you know about Rai and Rishi. Unless you do, I may be compelled to leave you here.”
Although she had no intention of abandoning the man, Nancy turned as if to depart. Her move brought a quick response.
“All right, I’ll tell you everything I know,” Putnam replied. “But first, unfasten these chains!”
“I prefer to hear your story first,” Nancy insisted. “Where has Rishi been hidden?”
“Rai has him at my place—a prisoner in the loft. I was to get a nice sum for keeping my mouth shut about it. But this is the pay I get! Chained to a post! If you don’t believe me I’ll take you there and prove it!”
“That’s exactly what I want you to do!” Nancy said.
Nancy and George set to work with a huge rock to break the lock of the chain. Together they finally succeeded. Putnam crept to the tunnel entrance, whimpering from pain as circulation returned to his cramped limbs.
“You’ll be all right in a few minutes,” Nancy encouraged him. “Lean on my shoulder and I’ll help you to the car.”
“What will you do when you get to my place?” Putnam asked. “That fellow Rai is a cunning fox. You’ll be no match for him.”
“You must help us, Mr. Putnam.”
The man said nothing and Nancy, casting a quick glance in his direction, guessed he had no intention of aiding anyone but himself.
Presently Nancy pulled up a little distance from Putnam’s barnlike home and stopped the car. She did not want the running of the engine to warn Rai that someone was approaching the house.
“You can sneak up to the house the back way,” Putnam suggested, indicating a path that led through the underbrush. “I’ll wait there,” he added, as the three got out of the car.
Nancy and George looked at the man with ill-concealed contempt but said nothing. They crept alone toward the house.
After circling it, Nancy quietly twisted the knob and pushed the door open a tiny crack.
“The coast is clear, I think,” she whispered. “I can’t hear a sound.”
Nancy opened the door wider and the two girls entered on tiptoe. A harsh laugh caused them to wheel about. Rail He slammed the door shut and faced them, gloating.
“So! I now have two fair prisoners to enclose in my little cage!”
Instantly Nancy and George sprang at the man, hoping to overpower him and regain their freedom before he could grab them. Although they fought with all their strength, and George used her knowledge of Judo, Rai merely laughed at their efforts. He held them off as if they were puppets. Then he caught up a piece of rope from the kitchen table and trussed the girls securely.
They eyed Rai silently, wondering what punishment he might inflict on them. In all their experience with criminals they had never encountered a man with such strength.
“What have you done with Rishi!” Nancy gasped, recovering her poise.
“Ah! So that is why you come? Rishi is dead.”
“I do not believe you,” Nancy cried out. “You have him hidden in the loft.”
As if to confirm her words, the girls heard a slight noise overhead. Rai smiled blandly.
“You are correct. Rishi lives, but his hours are numbered. He knows too much. He must die that lama Togara may live in peace. Next we will find his father and put him to sleep.”
“You don’t realize what you’re saying, Rai,” Nancy said pleadingly. “The boy has never done you any harm. Let him go free.”
“No, it is decreed that Rishi must die by my hand. He shall die slowly and in a manner befitting a maharaja.”
Turning his back upon the two girls, Rai moved toward the ladder leading to the loft.
CHAPTER XX
The Secret of the Charm
“WAIT!” Nancy cried frantically. “Rai, you must be out of your mind even to think of such horrible deeds. Don’t you realize that if you harm Rishi the authorities will punish you, maybe even by death.”
The man paused, his foot on the lowest rung of the ladder.
“Rai is safe from all harm,” he said. “The ivory charm bestows absolute protection. It is now in my possession.”
“So it was you who stole the lucky piece from me at the fraternity house,” said Nancy. “I suspected it was you.”
Rai laughed gloatingly as he significantly tapped his chest to indicate that he wore the charm hidden beneath his shirt.
“Not only does my charm bring good luck to the wearer but it has the power of life and death!” he added dramatically.
“What do you mean by that?” Nancy asked anxiously.
Again the man laughed softly, and said, “There are many mysteries that may never be revealed.”
“You are hopelessly superstitious if you believe the charm will protect you from the police,” George spoke up, sparring for time. “Mrs. Allison already has been arrested.”