“What a relief!” she gasped.
The unlighted prison was apparently window-less. Nancy was conscious of crates and boxes piled about her. Where was she?
Not knowing whether there was a guard nearby, Nancy did not dare call out Bess’s name. She would have to find Bess by feeling her way around.
As she started her search, Nancy’s forehead touched a string from an overhead, swinging light bulb. She switched it on.
The brightness revealed that she had been left captive in the shipping room of Taylor’s Department Store. After a hunt in the aisles between the crates, she found Bess.
Quickly Nancy freed her friend and helped her to stand up. Bess found it difficult to walk because her legs had become numb.
“Where are we?” she asked in a whisper, her voice quavering with fright.
“In the receiving-and-marking room of Taylor’s store.”
“Let’s get out!” Bess urged.
She hobbled to a heavy metal door at the far end of the room. It was locked!
“I was afraid of that,” Nancy muttered. “Now—”
She quickly switched off the light, aware of voices on the other side of the heavy door.
Nancy tiptoed over and the girls pressed their ears against it and listened.
A man was talking, bragging about the ease with which the two girls had been captured. He reported that they were neatly tied up and ready for their second ride in another half hour.
“If we hadn’t caught that Drew girl she might have interfered with us tonight. And nobody’s goin’ to stop me from takin’ a big haul out of old man Taylor’s store! Once we get the silver and the furs, we’ll pick up those girls and beat it. And you are to come back here in ten minutes to be sure everything’s okay.”
Nancy’s pulse began to pound. So the Velvet Gang was going to rob Taylor’s Department Store! She must stop them! But how?
“Let’s scream for help,” Bess whispered.
“No, Bess! That would only bring them in here to tie us up again. Maybe there’s a telephone in this place.”
The girls waited until they thought their captors had left, then turned on the light. Though they found a desk, there was no telephone on it.
“Now what’ll we do?” Bess asked.
“Let’s examine the walls for some sort of exit,” Nancy suggested. “There may be a chute to shove boxes through. I want to find out what these cartons contain. This big carton looks exactly like one I saw at the Blue Iris Inn!”
“How would it get here?”
“Snecker uses a Taylor truck, don’t forget. Furthermore, he’s in charge of this room.”
“But why would he bring the cartons here, Nancy? It doesn’t make sense.”
Nancy tore open the top of the box. The first item she lifted out was another miniature which had been stolen from the Hendricks.
As Bess examined the walls for a means of escape, Nancy went on with her task. Underneath some shredded tissue she found other things which she knew had been taken from her friend’s home.
“I’ve found the loot!” Nancy excitedly told Bess, who had now reached the third wall without locating a door or chute.
“Wonderful! But that doesn’t get us out of here.”
Bess examined the fourth wall. No better luck. Nancy had opened two more cartons. Both contained stolen goods.
“But these boxes are all marked with the Taylor store name!” Bess said.
“To fool anyone who became curious. The thieves packed the stolen goods at the inn. Then Snecker or some of his helpers would bring them here. Snecker marked the cartons as damaged merchandise to be returned to the original shipper.”
“The shippers are in the gang?”
“No. They’re innocent. The boxes never reached them. You’ll notice they are addressed to only two factories, both in distant cities. One of the gang must work in each factory. He takes the loot out and sells it to a pawnbroker or some other fence.”
“All of these boxes and crates are being shipped by the thieves?” Bess gasped.
“Oh no. They couldn’t get by with that. I think most of the boxes are incoming merchandise. See, here’s one marked Sweaters.”
“And here’s another stamped Porcelain,” Bess added. “That big one is marked Toys.”
Curious to learn if the box actually contained toys, Nancy ripped open the top.
“Toys all right,” she conceded. “Games, an atom bomb set, a chemical set and—say! This gives me an idea!”
“What?” Bess demanded eagerly.
“Maybe we’ll get out pf here yet!”
“Oh, I hope so. But how, Nancy?”
“This chemical set! See, one package is marked Smoke! By mixing the chemicals, we can make it appear that there’s a fire here when one of the men returns.”
“And maybe start a real one!” Bess worried.
“No danger of that, Bess. Listen at the door while I whip up a ‘fire.’ Maybe someone’s out there now.”
Bess pressed her ear against the steel door. She could hear a hum of voices. Then a man said, “It won’t be long now. I’ll be back in twenty minutes.”
Now Bess could hear only one person moving around in the next room. She told Nancy.
“Good! My smoke preparation is ready. We’ll see if it works. Get some rope and turn out the light.”
Bess snatched up the cords, gag, and blindfold which had been used on her and then turned off the overhead light.
Crouching down on the floor by the locked door, Nancy began to blow smoke from the chemical set beneath the crack.
“We might yell ‘Fire,’ ” Bess whispered, hopeful of quick action.
“Then he’d know we’ve taken off our gags, Bess. I want to surprise the guard.”
Patiently Nancy kept blowing smoke under the door crack. Suddenly she was rewarded. From the other side of the door, the girls heard a startled exclamation.
“He’s noticed the smoke!” Nancy murmured to Bess. “Stand back!”
Scarcely had the two girls flattened themselves against the wall when the metal door was unbolted and pushed back.
As the guard rushed in, looking about in bewilderment and sniffing the smoke-laden air, Nancy extended her foot directly in his path.
Down he went, sprawling full length on the floor!
CHAPTER XX
Unmasked
IN a flash Nancy and Bess seized the man’s arms and legs and held him down. As he struggled, they quickly stuffed the gag in his mouth.
“Now we’ll tie him up,” said Nancy.
The girls bound the man’s hands and ankles. Then Nancy switched on the light for a moment to look at the captive.
“I’m sure he was one of George’s kidnappers!” she exclaimed. “Are you Ralph Snecker?” she asked him. “Nod yes or no!” He remained motionless, glaring at her.
She must find out! Nancy slipped one hand into his coat pocket and pulled out a wallet. Opening it, Nancy found a driver’s license issued to Ralph Snecker.
The clerk’s keys were handy. Nancy grabbed them.
“We must prevent the robbery if we can, Bess,” she said. “Come on!”
The girls closed the heavy metal door behind them and tiptoed through an adjoining darkened room. Crossing the alley between the buildings, Nancy tried one key after another in the first door she came to. At last she found one that fit. She turned it and quietly let herself and Bess in.
“Do be careful,” her friend urged. “There ought to be a night watchman around. Where is he?”
“I wish I knew.”
The girls ascended a short flight of stairs and pushed a swinging door which opened into the first floor of the store.
Nancy and Bess moved forward in the dimly lighted building until the jewelry counter came to view. Two women and a man wearing velvet masks were looting the display cases of their valuable pieces!
“How dreadful!” Bess murmured. “What’ll we do? We can’t capture all three.”
“With luck, we can,” Nancy whispered. “We’ll find a phone and call the police.”
Quietly retreating, the girls located a telephone booth in the rear. Nancy called headquarters. She had hardly spoken her name when Chief McGinnis said:
“Where are you? There’s a three-state alarm out for you!”
“In Taylor’s. A robbery’s going on. Come quickly! I’ll meet you at the employees’ entrance in the alley.”
“We’ll be right there!”
The girls crept back to see what was happening in the jewelry department. Time seemed to drag.
“I wish the police would hurry,” Bess whispered uneasily. “If they don’t get here soon—”
Just then the girls heard the wail of a police siren. The sound also reached the ears of the masked thieves.
“The cops!” exclaimed one of the women shrilly. “We’ve got to get out o’ here!”
In a panic the three rushed for the employees’ entrance. But Nancy and Bess had hurried to it ahead of them and blocked their way.
Seeing that escape was cut off, the man wheeled and ran in the opposite direction. The women made the mistake of trying to overpower Nancy and Bess.
They were still engaged in a fierce struggle when the police, led by Detective Ambrose, rushed up. Handcuffs were placed on both women.
“The man with them got away!” Nancy gasped. “But another—Ralph Snecker—is tied up in the shipping room.”
Two officers started a search while a third removed the masks from the two women.
“Florence Snecker!” Nancy cried, recognizing one of them.
The other was the woman who had costumed herself as a Javanese beauty, and otherwise disguised her appearance. Both scowled at Nancy.
Though the police searched the store from roof to cellar, the only person they found was the night watchman, bound and gagged in the freight elevator. Snecker was brought from the shipping room, and the three prisoners were taken to the office of Mr. Taylor, who had been summoned by Ambrose.
The missing thief had stolen a quantity of jewelry, but Mr. Taylor estimated that Nancy and Bess had saved the store a huge loss.
“I can’t thank you enough, Miss Drew. How did you ever trail these people?”
Nancy gave a brief account of the case, ending with, “I began to suspect Snecker when I found out he was a friend of Tombar. I wonder if the man who escaped could be Tombar.”
Ambrose turned to his prisoners. “Is he?”
Silence.
Assisted by Nancy, who supplied much of the evidence, he questioned the three. At first they refused to talk, but Mrs. Snecker finally broke down. She gave a whining account of her part in the scheme which was mostly writing letters to a pawnshop dealer and another fence. This was her first burglary job, she insisted.
“If we’re going to jail, so are the others!” Snecker burst out bitterly. “There are two men in this who are more guilty than we are.”
“Tell your story,” Detective Ambrose said. “First of all, what’s the right name of that woman we’re holding in jail?”
“Mrs. Ridley. She’s Mrs. Snecker’s half sister,” the man answered sullenly. “She didn’t join the gang until lately.”
“And your name?” the detective questioned the second woman. She remained stubbornly silent.
“That’s Ermintrude Schiff an actress,” Snecker informed him.
Snecker went on to place most of the blame on Peter Tombar, who, he said, had worked closely with Mrs. Snecker’s brother, the man who had escaped from the store.
“What’s his name?” Ambrose asked, jotting down the information Snecker had provided.
“Jerry Goff. He’s well-educated, Jerry is. He uses an English accent sometimes to impress people.”
“And also to disguise his voice,” Nancy thought, recalling her adventure of being almost suffocated at one of the parties. Aloud she said, “Was he the man who wore the black cloak at the Hendricks’ masquerade?”
“Yes, Tombar lent it to him. When you found a hole in it, Tombar took the cloak away in a hurry.”
“This Jerry Goff was one of the men who helped with George Fayne’s abduction, wasn’t he?” Nancy asked.
“Yes. He sat in front of you.”
“You were in on it, too, weren’t you?” Nancy prodded.
“Yes,” Snecker admitted. “I helped Mrs. Schiff. We muffed the job, getting the wrong girl.” He said that Tombar’s wife was not involved in any way.
“You also slipped up when you dropped your department-store charge plate from the car window.”
“It flew from my breast pocket accidentally when I yanked out a handkerchief. It wouldn’t have mattered except that you found it.”
“Then you must have been the one who advised the store employees not to turn in their plates after the credit manager gave the order,” Nancy remarked.
“Sure,” Snecker said with a shrug. “I sent around a fake order. I knew I’d be caught if all the plates came in except mine.”
Questioned further, Snecker identified Jerry Goff as the member of the gang who made friends with the servants and kitchen help at various parties. In this way he could slip unchallenged to the basement and switch off the lights.
“Jerry thought up the scheme in the first place and sold Tombar the idea,” Snecker disclosed, “and Tombar pulled the rest of us into this mess.”
“He planned all the robberies?” Nancy questioned.
“Every one. He gave us a list of the places we were to knock off, supplied masks and costumes, and room plans of the houses.”
“And cards to admit you?”
“Oh, sure. Tombar thought of everything. He was pretty cool until you made the going tough for him, Miss Drew. Then he began to get nervous.”
“Tell me how the stolen Marie Antoinette miniature got to the store’s gift department,” Nancy asked.
“It was a slip-up. The miniatures were at Tombar’s hideout in the country. By mistake I put that one in my pocket and my helper saw it. I had to send it to the gift department then, and didn’t dare recall it. I got flustered and marked it at a ridiculously low price.”
Nancy next asked Snecker if he had any idea how Peter Tombar might be captured.
“He’ll get out of town as quickly as he can,” the clerk replied. “His job was to have the getaway car waiting for us around the corner. I guess he took off, though, when he heard the siren. But he may head back to the country to get some things he had stored in the inn.”
With this full confession, the three prisoners were escorted to headquarters to be booked on robbery and kidnapping charges. Bess and Nancy accompanied the officers to make a report on their part in the capture. While they were talking to Chief McGinnis, Mr. Drew hurried in with George, her father, and Mr. Marvin.
“Nancy! Bess!” George cried wildly. “You’re safe!”
Information was exchanged hurriedly. When Nancy learned that Ned had remained at the Blue Iris Inn as guard in case one of the abductors should return, she became alarmed.
“We think Peter Tombar may go back there, especially if Goff gets word to him what happened in the store,” Nancy told her father. “If Ned should be taken by surprise—”
“We’ll return there right now,” Mr. Drew broke in.
McGinnis added, “I’ll notify the State Police to meet you there.”
“I hope we’re not too late,” Nancy said as they left headquarters.
George insisted upon going, despite protests from Bess and Mr. Fayne.
“I feel fine,” she insisted stubbornly. “Now that I know the Velvet Gang is nearly rounded up and Nancy safe, my worries are ended. This excitement tonight has cured me!”
“That’s our old George!” Nancy declared happily, hugging her. “It sounds more natural to hear you talk that way.”
At the Blue Iris Inn two troopers were waiting for them. Neither Ned nor the escaped leader of the party thieves was in evidence. Finding the rear door unlocked, they rushed in. A muffl
ed shout reached them from the kitchen area.
“Come here!” Ned called. “I need help!”
Everyone rushed to the kitchen. The troopers’ flashlights disclosed Peter Tombar pinned to the floor, with Ned sitting on his midriff.
“I’m sure glad you got here,” the youth said in obvious relief. “I’ve been trying to figure out a way to get this guy to headquarters.”
Relieved of his prisoner, Ned related how he had hidden in the old inn and watched through a crack between the boards on a front window. His wait had not been in vain. Tombar arrived in a black sedan which he parked up the road behind the willows.
“He sneaked in and went straight to the kitchen,” Ned disclosed. “He had a lot of money in the cupboard under the sink. He was just reaching for the roll when I tackled him.”
Tombar’s clothing had been torn in the fight and one eye was blackened. Glaring at Nancy, he savagely berated her for the capture of the Velvet Gang. Still fuming, he was taken off by the troopers.
Later that night Goff was caught as he attempted to board a plane at the River Heights airport. Several days elapsed before Nancy and her friends were assured that the entire gang had been rounded up with the arrest of a pawnbroker in one city and a fence in another.
Dozens of cartons of silver and other valuables stolen from River Heights’ homes were recovered and returned to their owners. In a few instances treasures already sold were traced.
One evening Mr. Lightner came to call personally to thank Nancy. “I value my reputation as much as I do my business,” he told the young detective and her father. “And you saved both for me.”
“Of course you will have no damage suits to defend,” Carson Drew interposed with a smile, “so your troubles are really at an end.”
Mr. Lightner beamed. “Again I say, I owe everything to Nancy.”
At that moment Bess, George, and Ned arrived. After Mr. Lightner had been introduced, he told the trio why he was there at the Drews’.
“There’s so little I can do to show my appreciation,” he added. “But I’m giving Nancy a mask as a small token of my gratitude.”