Nancy changed the subject. “Mr. Hinchcliff, yesterday when I was out here there was an explosion. Was the High Rise Construction Company testing the ground for rocks, perhaps?”
The councilman looked puzzled. “Explosion? What kind of explosion?”
“A land mine.”
“Show me where it was,” the man commanded. Nancy led the way to the spot. Mr. Hinchcliff and Ned gazed in amazement at the hole in the earth.
With a frown the councilman said, “I’ll find out from Mr. Wright about this.”
He walked off with a worried look on his face. After stepping into his car, he put it in gear and roared away.
Ned grinned. “Friendly soul. Say, Nancy, you may have set up a little war in the council!”
Nancy laughed. “I hope it accomplishes some good,” she said. “At least it may make the men suspicious of the High Rise people.”
Ned asked what else she had seen at the time of the explosion. She told him about Slick Fingers O’Mayley. When she got to the part about looking through the pictures at police headquarters, he grinned and said, “You’re really something, Nancy!”
“I made a drawing of a thin version of the stout parolee. Chief Pepper is sure he’s the man we want, but so far none of us can figure out any motive for his planting a land mine here.”
Nancy added there was no proof of any connection between Slick Fingers and men in the High Rise company.
Ned suggested that he and Nancy have lunch in Harper, then visit the Thurstons. She agreed and they drove into town. About two o’clock they set off for the zoo and aviary.
Nancy rang the front doorbell of the Thurston farmhouse. In a few moments a voice inside said, “Who’s there?”
“It’s Nancy Drew and a friend.”
“Then come in.”
Ned opened the door, and the couple crossed the hall. They found Mrs. Thurston in her wheelchair in the living room. Nancy introduced Ned, then asked how the woman was feeling.
“I’m very nervous,” Mrs. Thurston replied. “Very upset, very upset indeed.”
“May I ask why?” Nancy questioned.
Mrs. Thurston threw her arms up dramatically. “More bad luck has fallen on us! We’ve been double jinxed!”
“More trouble?” Nancy exclaimed, incredulous. “Can you tell us what happened?”
The woman began to twist a handkerchief nervously in her hands. “Poor Oscar! Oh, why do these things happen to us?”
Nancy and Ned waited patiently for her to explain. Finally she said, “Nearly all the birds in one of the cages are ill. Oscar and Rausch are busy treating them with antibiotics but a few have already died.”
“What’s the matter with them?” Ned asked.
“Is Petra all right?” Nancy queried. She turned to Ned and said, “That’s the name of Kammy’s wryneck.”
Mrs. Thurston ground her teeth. “That girl! She’s been getting free board here in return for helping Oscar. Now she walks off and takes Petra with her!”
Nancy felt that she must come to Kammy’s defense. “I suppose she was afraid Petra would become ill too. She not only loves that bird, Mrs. Thurston, but she considers it as her link to her native land. She declares it brings her good, not bad, luck.”
Ned spoke up. “If Kammy isn’t here, then your husband is short-handed for helpers.”
“Yes, he is. Of course Rausch works hard, but he mostly takes care of the animals while Oscar watches all the birds.”
Nancy and Ned looked at each other, then she said, “Let’s go pitch in.”
They excused themselves and went out the kitchen door. Mr. Thurston was just coming to the house. Nancy introduced Ned.
“We came to help you,” she said.
“That’s very kind,” he said. “All the sick birds are in the last cage. Don’t go in there. They probably have ornithosis and humans can catch it. I’ll continue with my treatment.
“If you want to help, open the door of that shed over there and bring back pails of bird food. All the different bags are marked. Breeds of birds eat certain food that others don’t. You’ll see the feeding troughs. When you get through with that work, fill the large watering cans and pour the water into the various containers inside the cages.”
Nancy said to Oscar, “It’s too bad Kammy left you. Where did she go?”
Oscar explained that she had taken a room at the university until the birds were well again. The man heaved a great sigh.
“I believe Kammy is on the level, but my wife is suspicious of her. She thinks that Kammy and Petra together have jinxed us. Of course I don’t put any stock in such nonsense, but I can’t talk Martha out of her beliefs.”
He went off to attend to his sick birds. Nancy and Ned hurried to get the feed, then they unlocked and entered one cage after another. Ned remarked again and again how beautiful the birds were and tried to learn the names of some of the more exotic species from signs attached to the doors.
Presently the couple finished their work but Oscar was still busy.
“Oscar didn’t say anything about our cleaning the cages but I think they need it,” Ned remarked. “Let’s do what we can.” Nancy agreed with the young man’s suggestion.
He got a long-handled scraper and Nancy took an extra stiff broom. They worked for nearly half an hour. The sun was going down and they decided to quit.
“This is a tough job,” Ned remarked as they started for the main house. “Much harder than selling insurance.”
Nancy laughed. “And more strenuous than solving mysteries.”
Oscar joined them and the three entered the kitchen together. Suddenly they became aware of moaning sounds coming from the living room. As they rushed forward, Oscar cried out, “Martha must be in trouble!”
CHAPTER VII
Leaping Specter
OSCAR rushed toward the living room, with Nancy and Ned following. Martha Thurston was slumped forward in her wheelchair, moaning and sobbing. She rocked back and forth and wrung her hands.
“Martha dear!” her husband exclaimed. “What is the matter?”
She did not reply. Oscar put an arm around his wife and pleaded with her to tell him what had happened. She just kept on moaning and sobbing.
Nancy spoke up. “Perhaps if Ned and I go outside, she will talk to you.”
Suddenly Mrs. Thurston seemed to come out of a trancelike state. She stared at the others in the room, then began to cry hysterically.
“It was awful! Awful!”
“Please tell us about it,” Oscar said gently.
“Is the specter gone?” his wife asked.
The others stared at her, wondering if she had really come out of the trance. Suddenly she sat up very straight. Martha Thurston looked all around, blinked her eyes, and shook her head.
“It’s gone!” she answered her own question. “I’m all right now, but Oscar, the—”
“Are you sure you weren’t dreaming?” her husband asked softly.
“No, no,” his wife insisted. She opened her left hand. “Here’s proof. The flying specter dropped this into my lap. The symbol is a jinx!”
Mrs. Thurston held up a plain piece of paper, now quite crumpled, on which a crudely drawn circle was inscribed with one straight line running from north to south and another from east to west.
“Do you know what this is?” she asked. Nancy spoke up. “No. It looks like a cross in a circle. Does it have a special meaning?”
“Indeed it does,” Martha Thurston said. “It’s a sign of bad luck. It means imprisonment, detention, an emergency trip to the hospital, or something equally as bad. Oh, Oscar, what are we going to do?”
Her husband asked, “You say this was dropped into your lap? How? By whom?”
Mrs. Thurston explained that she had been dozing in her chair because the fading light of the late afternoon had made her feel drowsy.
“I was suddenly awakened by a very bright light that shone right in front of me. It was so dazzling that I had to squint my eyes. With
out warning a specter leaped from the hall all the way across this room.”
“What did it look like?” Nancy asked. “It seemed to be the figure of a thin, tall man but his face, if he had one, was covered with white veils and he had on a long, flowing white robe. Suddenly the figure leaped back toward the hall. On the way he dropped this piece of paper in my lap.”
“Where did the specter go?” Ned asked.
“When he reached the hall,” Mrs. Thurston replied, “the light disappeared and so did he. I don’t know whether he was a ghost or not.”
The woman closed her eyes as if to blot out the sight. “Maybe he went out the door but I didn’t hear it open or close. Perhaps he vanished through the wall!”
Oscar patted his wife’s shoulder. “Try to forget the whole thing, my dear. It’s time for your medication.” He winked at Nancy and Ned.
At once Nancy asked if she might prepare some tea and toast for Mrs. Thurston and the man nodded. “And, Oscar, when you’re ready,” Nancy went on, “I’ll be glad to fix your supper.”
Mr. Thurston turned to his wife. “Do you hear that?” he asked. “Wouldn’t you like Nancy and Ned to stay and have supper with us?”
His wife’s whole attitude changed. She smiled and said, “I’m sorry I acted so badly. Your staying would be delightful, but it’s too bad to put you to so much trouble.”
Nancy chuckled. “I don’t mind. And thank you for the invitation. I’ll call home and say we’re having supper here.”
Nancy was glad to have the excuse to stay for another reason. She wanted to hunt around for clues to the specter. While she and Ned were in the kitchen, they discussed the strange incident.
“I hate to say this,” Ned remarked, “but Mrs. Thurston could have made that circle with the lines herself and then had a dream about the specter.”
Nancy considered the possibility, but said she was inclined to think the incident had really happened. “The front door was unlocked and anyone could easily come in,” she added. “Knowing that Mrs. Thurston was alone in the house, the specter took advantage of a good chance to pull his spooky trick.”
Ned remarked that he thought Oscar was the most patient man he had ever met. Nancy nodded and told him Bess’s theory that part of Mrs. Thurston’s poor health was due to fear, induced by her superstitions.
“She’s probably right.”
Oscar came into the kitchen as Ned said this and told the young people that his wife was now lying on the couch. She seemed quite composed and would likely fall asleep.
“Nancy,” he said, “do you think you could fix supper for us by yourself?”
“Certainly. Is there a special dish you’d like to have?”
Oscar said he was not fussy. “Anything will do and don’t go to any trouble.” He added that he wanted to check on the birds again.
“I might need a little help. Ned, would you be willing to go with me?”
“Glad to.”
The two men went outside. Nancy hunted for the telephone. Finding it, she called Hannah Gruen to tell her where she and Ned were and that they were staying to supper.
“I’m the cook!” she said, laughing. “Too bad you aren’t here. The meal would be so much better.”
Hannah chuckled. “You do very well, Nancy. But don’t try any fancy dishes on strangers. Nothing with a French name. Just good old American food.”
After acquainting herself with the contents of the refrigerator, Nancy decided on the menu. It would include split pea soup, broiled lamb chops, mashed potatoes and creamed spinach.
“But what about dessert?” she asked herself, seeing nothing in the refrigerator, freezer, or on the kitchen counters. She opened a cabinet door and discovered several cans of fruit.
“I’ll make boiled custard and after it’s chilled I’ll pour it over canned peaches,” she decided.
Nancy became so engrossed in cooking, she did not notice how time was slipping away. First she made the custard, and while it was cooling, went into the dining room to set the table. Everything seemed to take much longer than usual because she did not know where certain dishes and silver-ware were kept.
“This is kind of a mystery game in itself,” she said to herself.
Finally the table was ready and she went back to the kitchen. The potatoes were soft enough to be mashed, so she put on the soup to heat and cooked the frozen spinach.
Next she lighted the broiler, then checked the wall clock. “Oscar and Ned have been gone a long time,” she thought. “Oh, I hope this doesn’t mean more birds are sick!”
Nancy went in to the living room to peek at Mrs. Thurston, who was sound asleep, and returned to the kitchen window. There was no sign of the two men.
“I’m certainly not going to broil the chops until Ned and Oscar come in,” she determined.
Another five minutes went by. “I’ll walk outside and see where they are!” Nancy decided.
She turned off all the burners and the broiler, then went to lock the front door. She left the house by the kitchen door and locked that too. Pocketing the key, she hurried toward the first set of cages.
At first she could see nothing unusual, but the young sleuth suddenly detected a peculiar odor in the air.
“It smells like chloroform,” she thought. Nancy hurried on. As she neared the cage containing the sick birds, she stopped short and gasped. Sprawled on the ground not far from these helpless creatures were Oscar and Ned, unconscious!
CHAPTER VIII
Unseen Visitor
TERRIFIED about the condition of Ned and Oscar, Nancy rushed toward them. The peculiar sweetish odor she detected grew stronger as she moved closer.
“I’d better cover my nose and mouth,” Nancy thought.
She whipped off her scarf, and tied it securely over her face just below her eyes. Then she hurried to Ned’s side. His weight seemed to have doubled. With difficulty she dragged him away from the overpowering smell. Then she rushed back and pulled Oscar by his shoulders over to where Ned lay. She felt their pulses and found they were normal.
“Thank goodness,” Nancy murmured.
At this moment a cool breeze sprang up that Nancy hoped would soon restore the two men to consciousness.
“The birds!” she thought suddenly, and hurried back to the cage of sick ones. To her horror they all lay on the ground, their feet in the air.
“They’re dead!” Nancy murmured. “How terrible!”
She wondered if they had died from the disease or if the intruder had deliberately sprayed them with the killing substance. With these questions burning in her mind, the young detective hurried back to Oscar and Ned. They were still unconscious.
Nancy was alarmed that they showed no signs of recovery. “I hate to tell Mrs. Thurston. She’ll be so worried about Oscar it may have a bad effect on her health.”
As Nancy was debating what to do, she removed the scarf from her face. To her relief, Ned slowly opened his eyes. He looked at her, then closed them again.
Nancy knelt by his side. “Ned, are you all right?” she asked.
Once more he opened his eyes, then said weakly, “Where am I?”
“You’re in a safe place,” Nancy assured him. “Just take it easy.”
Her words aroused Oscar, who blinked several times, then finally opened his eyes wide.
“Who are you?” he asked, looking at Nancy. “I can’t see very well. Everything is blurry.”
Again Nancy was terrified. Had the numbing substance affected the man’s eyesight permanently?
“As soon as you feel like walking, we’ll go into the house and bathe your eyes,” she said gently.
A few minutes later both he and Ned declared they felt all right, although Ned still looked groggy as he got to his feet.
Nancy stood between them and linked arms with them. She guided the two to the kitchen, where they sat down at once.
“Oscar, tell me where your eye lotion is, and I’ll get it,” Nancy offered.
The man said it
was on the second floor in a bathroom cabinet. She went for it and as soon as she returned filled an eye cup with the fluid. After Oscar had bathed his eyes several times, he declared they were much better.
“How’s Martha?” he inquired.
Nancy said she had been resting quietly. “I decided not to tell her what happened to you two.”
“That is best,” Oscar agreed. He smiled wanly. “We’ll keep that as our little secret.”
Nancy told him and Ned that most of the dinner was ready but she had to broil the lamb chops. “Do you feel like eating now?”
“I do,” Ned said quickly, and Oscar nodded.
As Nancy turned on the stove burners again, she asked the men to tell her what had happened.
“I was going into the cage with the sick birds,” Oscar said, “and told Ned to stay outside. Before I had a chance to open the gate, somebody crept up from behind, put his arms around Ned’s and my necks, and held pieces of cotton saturated with some sweet-smelling stuff right over our faces. One good whiff and we were goners.”
Nancy suggested that perhaps they could find the discarded pieces of cotton to determine what the knockout fluid had been. All this time she had said nothing about the dead birds. But now Nancy felt she should, in case Oscar wanted to do something about them.
When he heard the sad story, Oscar lowered his head and sighed. “What’s done is done,” he said philosophically. “But it is a great loss to me, not only for sentimental reasons, but this is my livelihood. I can almost agree with Martha that we have been jinxed.”
Ned tried to console the bird owner by telling him that the man who had accosted them would certainly be caught and made to pay restitution.
“I hope so—and soon,” Oscar said.
In the meantime Nancy set the piping hot food on the table. Mr. Thurston had little appetite and had to be coaxed to eat something. To please his wife who had awakened and joined them at the table, he bravely sampled all the courses.