“I knew them fairly well years ago,” she said. “I thought that after Mr. Farwell died, his widow had moved away. I’m dreadfully sorry to learn that her mind is no longer completely sound.”
“Have you any idea what the family secret in connection with the showboat may be?” Nancy asked Charles’s mother.
Mrs. Bartolome shook her head. “Surely it can’t be anything disgraceful. The De la Vernes were very fine people. Henry is a graduate of Oxford in England.”
Charles’s mother went on to say that Henry had always been intensely interested in the university and its activities, although he had graduated many, many years ago.
Changing the subject, she said, “You all must be starving. We’ll have breakfast at once.”
Because of the early hour the servants were still asleep, so the group gathered in the kitchen and prepared orange juice, bacon and eggs, toast and cocoa themselves.
Mrs. Bartolome caught Bess stifling a yawn. “Wouldn’t you girls like to sleep for a while before you return to the Havers?” she asked solicitously.
They all confessed that they would. After Frank and Jack had said good-by, the three girls went to the guest rooms and slept soundly for four hours. Then they put on their dinner frocks and left for Sunnymead.
As Nancy parked her car there, Donna Mae rushed out to meet them. “My goodness!” she exclaimed. “You really made a visit! Tell me about everything!”
“To begin with,” Nancy said, “we had a perfectly delicious dinner and breakfast.”
“The Bartolomes’ gardens are absolutely heavenly,” Bess added. “I thoroughly enjoyed my walk in them.”
George grinned impishly. “Oh, don’t be so stingy with your information, girls. Donna Mae, two charming boys came to join us. Maybe you know them—Frank Morris and Jack Memory.”
“Oh, yes, I know them,” Donna Mae replied. “Did you spend the whole evening with them?”
“The whole evening,” Nancy replied.
“Well, for goodness sake, tell me about it!” Donna Mae begged. As they walked toward the house, Donna Mae suddenly noticed that George was limping. “Oh, dear! What happened to you?”
“Oh, just a little spill,” George answered noncommittally.
“Where?” Donna Mae asked pointedly.
“On a stairway,” George replied. “Clumsy of me, wasn’t it?”
Donna Mae was silent for a few seconds. She asked no more questions. Apparently she had decided that her friends were not going to tell any more about their evening at the Bartolomes’.
Suddenly Donna Mae smiled and said, “I have some great news for you girls. You won’t have to date Charles and his friends. I’ve phoned Ned Nickerson. He’s coming to the Mardi Gras and bringing Burt and Dave with him.”
“Hypers!” George exclaimed. “They’re really coming?”
“They sure are,” Donna Mae answered. “I told you they would,” she added smugly.
She insisted that the girls change their clothes at once, so that the whole group could go downtown to pick out costumes for Ned and his friends to wear to the ball.
“Everything must be perfect.” she said. “I don’t know your friends’ sizes. So you girls will have to pick out the costumes.”
Nancy was disappointed that she could not get in touch with Uncle Rufus immediately. “But,” she consoled herself, “on second thought, perhaps I can do a little detective work in New Orleans instead.”
Inside the house the girls found Alex starting to dismantle the living room. Pappy Cole was carrying out furniture and Mammy Matilda was taking down draperies.
Mrs. Haver seemed to be flustered and upset about the whole thing. Sighing, she said, “Oh dear, I do wish the showboat could be moved here and this room not disturbed.”
Nancy agreed. Suddenly an idea came to her. She saw Colonel Haver in the garden and went out to speak to him. She inquired whether every towboat captain in the area had been approached and asked if he could move the River Princess.
“Well, I suppose so,” the Colonel replied. “Alex attended to that and I’m sure he would have exhausted every means.”
Nancy began to wonder whether Alex Upgrove had “exhausted every means.” She decided to make a few inquiries of her own while in the city. There would still be time for the River Princess to be moved before the Havers’ ball!
George begged off from the trip because her leg was sore and bruised.
Nancy and Bess changed into smart cotton knit suits. A short time later the girls drove off with Donna Mae in Nancy’s car. Within an hour they had selected three different clown suits for the boys from Emerson College.
“Before we start home,” Nancy said to Donna Mae, as they were leaving the costumer’s, “I’d like to drive down to the waterfront.”
Donna Mae agreed, so Nancy headed for the docks. As she drove past the many wharves, the young sleuth looked intently for any towboats that might be moored there. Presently she came to one and stopped.
“I want to run in here a minute,” she said. “Be right back. Wait in the car, will you?”
Fortunately, the towboat owner, a Captain Runcie, was on board. Nancy inquired if he had ever been asked to move the stranded River Princess. When he said no, she told him about the ball and the Havers’ plans.
“Captain Runcie, would you consider trying to tow the showboat out of the bayou?” Nancy asked.
“I’ll be glad to look her over and let you know.”
“Then could you come to the Haver home and talk to the Colonel?”
“I’ll be there early tomorrow morning,” Captain Runcie promised.
“Thank you very much,” said Nancy. “We’ll be looking for you.”
When she returned to the car, Nancy said nothing about her errand because she felt Donna Mae might be upset to learn that Alex had not explored every possibility in having the old boat moved. At once the girl complained about Nancy’s secrecy.
The young dectective merely laughed and said, “I’m full of secrets, all right. But I’ll let you in on one. My next stop will be the police station.”
“Oh!” Donna Mae cried out. “Why?”
“I still hope to track down my stolen car,” Nancy replied.
When they reached police headquarters, she went inside alone and introduced herself to the captain in charge. “Is there any news about my missing car or the man who stole it?” she asked.
“No, there isn’t, Miss Drew,” the captain replied. “But we do have a little news that may be a clue. My men made a thorough search of the room that fellow rented. In it they found a suitcase full of women’s clothes.”
“A suitcase?” Nancy exclaimed. “Maybe it’s my stolen bag!”
CHAPTER XVIII
The Simmering Caldron
THE POLICE captain looked at Nancy in surprise. “Your suitcase?”
Nancy explained that a suitcase of hers had been in the luggage compartment of her stolen car. “Were there any initials on the bag you found?” she asked.
“There had been,” the officer replied. “They’d been scratched off.”
Nancy asked to see the bag. Using his desk phone, the captain requested a sergeant to bring the suitcase to his office.
Upon seeing it, Nancy cried out, “It is mine! Oh, I hope my mother’s fan and shawl are still inside!”
Quickly she lifted the lid. Her clothes were intact. Rummaging among them she found that the heirlooms were there.
“Oh, I’m so relieved!” she said happily. “I’d rather lose my car than this shawl and fan!”
The captain smiled understandingly. “I’m glad that we could recover them for you,” he said. “But actually it was you, Miss Drew, who discovered the house where the suitcase was hid. den.”
At that moment the officer’s phone rang and he picked up the receiver. After listening a few moments, he put down the instrument and turned to Nancy.
“Well, this seems to be your day for recovering things. Your stolen car has been found in an out-
of-town secondhand lot.”
“Oh, how wonderfull” Nancy exclaimed.
The captain went on to say that the man who had brought the car in had given the name Ralph Winter and said he came from New York City. “He had a bill of sale, so naturally the lot man did not suspect the car had been stolen.”
“If it is my car,” said Nancy, “then the bill of sale must have been forged.”
“You’re quite right,” the captain agreed. “The car is yours, all right. My man checked the serial numbers.”
“Was the thief caught?” Nancy asked.
“Not yet,” the officer answered. “But we’ll lend out an alarm. The man bought a gray sedan.”
“Did my description of the car thief fit this man?” Nancy inquired.
“Yes, it did—dark, slender, forty years old. Small, piercing black eyes. Low forehead, hair rather coarse and stiff.”
Nancy smiled. “He’s the one, all right.” She thanked the captain for all his help and left headquarters.
When Nancy appeared at the car carrying her suitcase, Bess’s eyes grew large. “Your stolen bag!” she said unbelievingly. “Is everything in it?”
“Everything,” Nancy answered. Turning to Donna Mae, she said, “Even my mother’s shawl and fan, which I can now use at the ball.”
“I know you will look simply adorable!” Donna Mae cried out ecstatically.
On the way home Nancy announced that she would like to stop at Uncle Rufus’s cabin. Donna Mae became a little impatient. She wanted to hurry home and talk with Alex.
“Oh, I shan’t be long,” Nancy promised her.
When they reached the tiny cabin in the bayou, no one was around. Nancy suggested that the other girls wait in the car while she looked to see if the old man was in the rear of his property. She had detected the smell of smoke and thought that Uncle Rufus might be burning brush.
As the young sleuth rounded the corner of the house, she stood still in amazement. In the center of the yard a large tripod had been erected over a log fire. Swinging from the tripod was a huge iron caldron. Back of it stood Uncle Rufus, waving his arms back and forth slowly and muttering to himself.
Nancy hesitated about interrupting the voodoo preacher-doctor. He probably was brewing a potion from herbs and uttering prayers for its success and efficacy whenever it might be used by his patients.
It was fully two minutes before Uncle Rufus looked up. Seeing Nancy, he left his work and walked toward her. “Good day,” he said affably. “I ’spects you wonder what’s in this here herb pot.” The elderly man chuckled. “It’s a secret, but effen you need a tonic, it’ll fix you up right quick.”
Nancy smiled. “I’ll let you know if I need one.”
She told Uncle Rufus she had stopped to ask him if he would do some detective work for her.
He grinned. “If you con-fine it to the bayou, I will,” he said.
“Oh, I will,” Nancy promised.
She went on to tell him about the weird scenes and sounds on the River Princess but did not mention the part that the De la Vernes had played. She watched the old man’s face intently to see if he showed any signs of guilt. He definitely did not. Instead, he scratched his head and looked perplexed.
“This here is a big puzzlement to me,” he said. “Once in a while I hear a tom-tom, but lots of our folks got them. I’se sure none of those people goes near that ole showboat.”
Uncle Rufus was waving his arms and muttering
Nancy mentioned the fact that perhaps some people were using a record player there.
“Maybe so.” Uncle Rufus nodded. “But none of my people,” he denied stoutly. “Maybe I do know somethin’, though, that might help you. Last night when I was out paddlin’ I stopped to listen to an ole owl. He’s wisdom, you know, an’ I thought I might learn somethin’ from him.”
Uncle Rufus went on to say that a short distance from him he had heard two men speaking. He was sure from their accents that they were white men from the North.
“What they said was kind o’ queerlike. One said, ‘I guess the old gal hasn’t any pirate gold after all.’ The other man said, ‘I’m goin’ to keep at her till I find out!’ ”
Uncle Rufus asked Nancy if she could figure out what they meant, but the young detective shook her head. “That’s a hard one,” she said. Then she asked, “Uncle Rufus, would it be possible for you to watch the showboat for a few nights? If you learn anything, come to the Havers’ home and tell me.”
The voodoo doctor smiled. “That will be easy detective work,” he said, chuckling. “Is that all you want me to do, Miss Nancy?”
“That’s all for now. And thank you very much.”
She hurried back to the car and told the others what the old man was doing. “He’s a great character in these parts,” Donna Mae said. “It’s said that Uncle Rufus has brought about a good many cures.”
When the girls reached Sunnymead, George was waiting for them on the patio. Donna Mae went off to find Alex, and George gestured that she would like Nancy and Bess to follow her at once to the second floor.
“I wonder what’s up,” Nancy thought as she mounted the staircase.
George led the way into Nancy’s bedroom and closed the door. “Well, I think I’ve really picked up a good clue,” she said.
Excitedly George went on to say that she had spent almost an hour with Alex. “I got him to talk about New York, his travels and his education. He showed me a lot of pictures.”
“But what’s the clue?” Bess asked impatiently.
George looked intently at the two girls as she replied, “I think Alex Upgrove is a fake!”
“What!” Nancy and Bess exclaimed.
“I mean it,” George went on. “In our talk I tried to trip him and I think I succeeded. He contradicted himself several times. I’m convinced he’s either posing as Alex Upgrove from New York or else his name is Alex Upgrove, but he’s claiming a position of wealth and social standing to which he isn’t entitled.”
George opened a bureau drawer and brought out a picture. “Much as I hate flattery, I used some of it on Alex and got him to let me borrow this picture.” She made a wry face. “I think he believes I have a crush on him.”
Nancy and Bess stifled giggles, then looked at the photograph. It showed a group of students at Oxford University.
George pointed to one in the rear row. “That’s Alex Upgrove,” she explained. “Is he the man who’s going to marry Donna Mae or did he help himself to this picture of someone who looks very much like him?”
“Well, it certainly looks like him,” Bess said.
“Yes, it does,” said Nancy. Then she snapped her fingers. “I have an idea. You remember Mrs. Bartolome telling us that Mr. de la Verne is an Oxford graduate and has always kept up his interest in the university?”
“Yes,” said George, “but Alex would have been at Oxford long after Mr. de la Verne. How could he identify the person in this picture?”
“I know it’s a long shot,” said Nancy. “But Mr. de la Verne may have other pictures or records of Oxford graduates. Let’s go see him, with the excuse that we’re returning Mrs. Farwell’s ornamental hairpin.”
Nancy looked at her wrist watch. “If we hurry, girls, we can just make the trip before dinner. Come on!”
CHAPTER XIX
A Missing Suspect
TO AVOID meeting Alex or any of the Haver family, Nancy, Bess, and George slipped quietly down the back stairs and left the mansion. They hurried to their car and drove to Mrs. Farwell’s home.
Nancy rang the bell and Mr. de la Verne opened the door. He bowed, then said:
“This is an unexpected pleasure. Please come in.”
The girls stepped inside and Nancy introduced the elderly man to her friends. After greeting them, he indicated a small living room filled with beautiful antique mahogany furniture. When they were seated, Nancy drew the jeweled hairpin from her purse.
“I came to return this,” she said.
H
enry de la Verne hesitated a moment, then arose. “My sister is not too well today, but I will see if she is able to join us.”
He was gone fully five minutes, but at last returned with Mrs. Farwell. Though her face was lined and her eyes slightly dulled because of her failing health, she was still a very pretty woman. The girls were touched by the affectionate and chivalrous manner with which her brother treated her. The callers arose and he introduced them. Mrs. Farwell nodded her head graciously as each girl was named.
“I found one of your valued possessions, Mrs. Farwell,” said Nancy. “I’m so happy to be able to return it to you.”
Louvina Farwell took the proffered hairpin and stared at it for several seconds. Then she stood up very straight, gave a little toss of her head, and looked directly at the girl detective. To Nancy’s astonishment, the woman’s eyes indicated she was perfectly rational.
“Do sit down again, my dears,” urged Mrs. Farwell. After her brother had helped seat her in a chair, the woman asked, “And where did you find my missing heirloom, Nancy?”
“On the old showboat, the River Princess.”
“How very odd!” Louvina remarked. “I feel so sorry about the River Princess. Henry and I had such wonderful times on it when we were children. It is too bad that storm and flood ruined it.”
“Would you like to see the River Princess restored and moved out of the bayou?” George asked.
“Indeed I would,” Mrs. Farwell replied promptly. “And I would like to see performances given on it again.” She turned to her brother. “Wouldn’t it be fun, Henry, to go to one of those old-time shows again?”
“Yes, it would,” Henry replied. He gave Nancy a surprised glance, as if to say, “I was all wrong about the effect on my sister of the restoration of the River Princess.”
Nancy, encouraged by the friendly trend of the conversation, asked impulsively, “Before your grandfather owned the showboat, did pirates ever pilot her?”
“Oh, no,” Henry answered quickly. Then, as his sister started to speak, he tried to switch to another topic of discussion.
But Louvina would not be diverted from the pirate story. She laughed as if in recollection and her eyes lost some of their dimness. She said, “Nancy, my dear, no pirate ever owned the River Princess. But there was a story that several of them hid a chest of gold coins under a bulkhead of the showboat during the time my grandfather owned it. This happened when no one was aboard.”