“That floor doesn’t sound very safe,” Bess whispered to Nancy.
“No, it doesn’t,” Nancy agreed.
The stillness was suddenly shattered by a shout from Ned. “The mystery is solved!” he called down.
“What did you find?” Nancy asked.
“The canoe! The self-propelling canoe!”
“How marvelous!”
Ned called out, “Burt, Dave, Don! You grab the canoe as I slide it through the opening.”
The girls moved out of the way and the boys took their positions under the attic opening.
“Here goes!” Ned cried out.
As he started to shove the canoe over the edge, there was a splintering sound and the whole floor at one end of the opening gave way. Ned and the canoe dropped into space!
While Burt and Dave braced themselves to catch Ned, George and Nancy leaped forward to help Don keep the canoe from smashing to the floor. Ned was caught neatly and the craft lowered with only a slight bump.
Mrs. Tarpey, almost beside herself with excitement, said, “Well of all things! Those wicked people! And now I’ll have a big repair bill on that ceiling.”
The young people began to examine the canoe. Ned pointed out a complicated set of gadgets under both the front and rear seats. One motor worked the front paddle, another the stern. Both were attached by permanent swiveling fixtures. Still another motor was used to receive remote-control signals.
“Actually it’s very ingenious,” said Don.
Just then they heard voices outside and two police officers walked in. Mrs. Tarpey had reported the check swindle and the men had come to investigate the cottage.
Mrs. Tarpey introduced them to the group, then said, “I guess these young folks have solved the mystery of the ghostly happenings on Lake Sevanee.”
She told the officers of Nancy’s hunch there might be a clue in the attic and that the canoe had been found there.
The men looked at Nancy and smiled. “You have great sagacity, young lady,” one of them said. “You’ve saved us a lot of trouble.”
Bess showed the officers the Florida newspaper and they decided to take it along as well as the canoe for possible evidence against the Prizers. Since there was nothing more the ghost hunters could do at the cottage, Nancy suggested they leave. Mrs. Tarpey and the officers thanked them for their help as they said good-by.
Climbing the hill to their cars, Bab said, “I’m glad this case is closed. Now we can go on to the next one. That really should be exciting.”
“You mean the medium at whose hut thunder always rolls during her séances?” Don asked.
“Yes.”
Nancy reminded them that even though the ghost hunters had found the mysterious canoe and had unearthed information concerning the nefarious activities of the Prizers, they still had not caught them.
Bab sighed. “As long as we debunk the ghost business, do we have to capture the villains?”
George answered, “We usually do. Nancy never leaves a case unfinished.”
Ned laughed. “That’s right, and I’ll bet she’ll catch up with the Prizers.”
When they reached the lodge, Nancy told Mr. Leffert what they had learned. He was delighted and relieved that the Prizers had left town.
“Now I can fill my camp with guests and nobody will be afraid to go in or on the lake! I just can’t thank you young people enough!”
Nancy said she and her friends were sorry to leave such an attractive place. “But we have another job to do, so we’ll be checking out soon.”
The other ghost hunters were consulted and it was decided to leave early the following morning. Their destination was Vernonville. When they reached there, Helen and Jim made arrangements at an attractive one-story motel. As soon as the group had checked in, Helen asked the desk clerk, Miss Adelaide, about the medium and when she held séances. She consulted a calendar of local events. “Madame Tarantella is having a séance this evening just for women. Before it starts, she will hold consultations with troubled souls.”
This struck George funny. Striking a pose with her feet far apart and her hands on her hips, she said in a nasal tone, “Nancy, Bess, all of us are in real trouble, ain’t we?”
The other girls burst into laughter. Becoming serious, they decided they would go to Madame Tarantella’s directly after supper. Each would try to see her privately. The other women ghost hunters decided to attend the seance but not to go early for separate consultations.
“I’m surprised that you want one,” Rita said to Nancy. “You’re so practical.”
Nancy smiled. “My main reason for going is to study the woman and her hut.”
As the three girls drove off later in Nancy’s car, George remarked what a beautiful evening it was. “If there’s any thunder during the séance tonight, it’ll have to be artificial. I guess the medium pulls this trick to scare people.”
A few minutes later Nancy drove up to a wooden shack with a sign PROPHECIES on the door. The building seemed out of place in an area of small apartment houses.
“I guess we’re first to arrive,” said George.
A small man dressed like a gypsy admitted the girls and escorted them to a rear room. The light was dim but they could distinguish a rather heavy-set woman dressed as a gypsy fortuneteller. She was seated at a table.
Bess began to count the bracelets on her arm, but before she could finish, the woman said in a deep, husky voice, “I will take this young lady first.” She raised herself up a little to touch Nancy’s shoulder. “Will you two please remain outside.”
Bess and George left the inner room and sat down in the larger area where the séance would be held.
Madame Tarantella asked Nancy to be seated in front of her across the table. She took the girl’s right hand in hers, but did not look at it. She merely stared at Nancy’s face and began to talk.
It was a surprise to Nancy that the medium told her so many things about herself that were true. She did not see how the woman could possibly have found them out, since she did not know Nancy was coming.
The medium smiled at her. “You’re a sweet, understanding young lady. As a result, you have many friends. A tall, dark good-looking college man is very dear to you. In the future you will be asked to make a decision involving this friend.
“You’re a happy person by nature but always longing for a mystery to solve. Usually you are trying to help someone, but my advice to you is to be very careful in the future. So far you have had good luck, but this may run out at any moment.”
Madame Tarantella stopped speaking. Suddenly she got up from her chair, came around the table, and faced the young sleuth. She moved her head in a swaying motion, her eyes rolling in strange fashion. Nancy was a bit frightened. She rose, thinking she had better leave.
Before she could move, the medium stiffened and clutched Nancy by her shoulders in an iron grip. She looked straight at Nancy, her eyes glowing like coals of fire.
In an awesome stage whisper, she said, “You can help me right now. In fact, you must do it and without hesitation!”
“What do you mean?” Nancy asked.
“That you are in my power and must help me!”
Nancy’s one thought was to get away from this woman but she was unable to do so. Madame Tarantella put both arms around her shoulders and closed them like a vise!
CHAPTER VII
The Mysterious Box
IN the séance room Bess and George began to worry about Nancy.
“I think we’d better go inside and see how Nancy is making out,” said Bess.
George agreed and the two girls walked into the back room. They were horrified by what they saw. Madame Tarantella, her eyes gleaming, held Nancy in a viselike grip.
“Stop that!” George exclaimed, and Bess added, “Let her go at once!”
Although Nancy seemed to be calm, the cousins had a distinct feeling that their friend had had a rather bad fright. She smiled at the girls as the medium released her.
/> “Thanks,” Nancy murmured.
The woman shook her head and shoulders as if coming out of a trance and said, “Forgive me. I just had a frightening premonition.”
“About me?” Nancy asked.
“No, no. It had to do entirely with me. I could see a man coming to attack me. I felt as if he were going to kill me.”
“How dreadful!” Bess said.
George spoke up. “Why would he want to do that?”
The medium blinked her eyes rapidly as if trying to shut out the awful sight. “He wanted me to give him certain papers of a highly secret nature.”
“You don’t have to do it,” George remarked.
“Oh, you don’t know this man,” Madame Tarantella said. She turned to Nancy. “You are always ready and willing to help people. Now I implore your help. You must take the papers with you and keep them for me.”
Nancy was startled by the suggestion. She had no intention of acceding to the request but her instincts told her that she might have stumbled upon a clue to the mystery of the woman and her strange life.
“My father is a lawyer,” she said finally. “I will ask him if it will be all right.” In her heart she was sure he would not allow it.
“I can’t wait that long,” Madame Tarantella replied. “You must take them tonight.”
George interrupted. “Why don’t you put the papers in a safe-deposit box?”
The woman did not answer. Instead she rolled her eyes around again. Bess was beginning to quiver with fear. She was about to urge that they all leave, when the medium suddenly looked perfectly normal, smiled sweetly, and said to Bess:
“You’re very pretty. Do you have a problem?”
Bess did not reply. She said to Nancy and George, “Let’s get out of here!”
“Don’t be in a hurry, my dear,” Madame Tarantella said. “When I have premonitions, I sometimes act strangely, people tell me. I assure you I would not do you any harm.”
The medium looked at a clock on the wall. “It will soon be time for the séance to begin. I must have a few minutes in which to get myself ready and composed. Please wait in the large room. There will be some interesting messages relayed tonight that I will receive from the spirits.”
“How much do I owe you?” Nancy asked the medium.
The woman smiled. “I have no fee. My clients pay me in proportion to the help they feel they have received. In this case I am asking your help, so there will be no charge.”
The three girls filed out and at once Bess urged that they leave the hut. “While the going is good,” she added. “I want no part of this strange, fake setup.”
“The other women will soon be here and you’ll be perfectly safe,” Nancy said soothingly.
“But this place gives me the shivers,” Bess argued.
George chuckled. “A little shiver now and then won’t hurt you.”
When their friends arrived, the three girls went to sit with them. In a whisper Bess told them what had happened to Nancy and how peculiar Madame Tarantella was.
Helen grinned. “It sounds as if this might be good fun.”
Bab whispered, “I hope no spirit comes down and vanishes in a swirling cloud with one of us!”
Other women and girls came in and the room was soon filled. Presently the lights were dimmed and a hush came over the place.
Madame Tarantella swept through the doorway from the rear room and ascended a little platform. She was wearing a flowing robe made of glittering material and a long-haired black wig. On her head was an iridescent crown and she carried a wand which had a tiny light on the end.
George whispered to Nancy with a soft giggle, “She looks like a cross between Cinderella and a witch!”
Reaching the center of the platform, Madame Tarantella waved the wand in a semicircle several times. Then slowly she began to speak in a deep monotone.
“Gracious spirit of those who have gone before,” she said, “bring us messages for the assembled group.”
Tiny flickering lights began to glow above her head. Within seconds a high-pitched feminine voice spoke as if coming from a great distance. It murmured, “My daughter is sitting among you. I —want to tell you, Martha, to be—more careful —with your money.”
As the so-called spirit voice stopped speaking, Madame Tarantella raised her wand high, looked out over the audience, and asked, “Is Martha here?”
A sob came from somewhere in the audience and a woman cried out, “Oh yes! Oh yes! My mother! She was always warning me to take better care of my money!”
Bess grabbed Nancy’s hand. “I don’t like this. I’m afraid of it. Let’s go. Please.”
Before the girls could make a move, Madame Tarantella began to speak again. Waving her wand toward the audience, she said, “There is a frightened, doubting girl here. Her name is Bess. O spirit world, can you send her a reassuring message?”
Bess sat petrified. Did the woman mean her?
Nancy and George were amazed and remained motionless, listening intently for what was about to come from the spirit world.
Presently a man’s deep voice said in a harsh whisper, “I was once in charge of the marriage license bureau in your town. Bess Marvin, I have a message for you from the spirit world. Soon you will be going to the license bureau to prepare for your own wedding.”
Bess buried her face in her hands. Then she leaned toward Nancy and began to cry.
She whispered, “It can’t be true! Dave has to finish college first!”
Nancy put an arm around the distraught girl. At the same time George murmured, “Perhaps we’d better go.”
This time Nancy agreed. Just as the girls were about to get up, there was a deep reverberating roll of thunder.
Bess, even more worried now, said, “Oh, I don’t want to go out in a thunderstorm! I don’t like thunder and lightning!”
“Don’t you remember?” Nancy whispered. “This may be part of the séance. It doesn’t necessarily mean a rainstorm.”
Holding Nancy’s arm, Bess got up and left the hut with her chums. There was no rain, but a storm was brewing. The girls walked quickly toward their car.
Not far away was a small park with a steel flag-pole. Without warning a bolt of lightning came from the sky. It hit the pole and raced to the ground.
“Oh!” George cried a moment later.
She had been knocked to the ground by a shock wave from the discharge. Nancy and Bess felt the tingle of electricity passing through their bodies.
“Are you hurt?” Nancy asked George quickly.
Her friend stood up and declared, “I’m all in one piece, but I don’t want any more shocks like that. I’ll have more respect for lightning after this.”
The girls walked on to the car. When Nancy tried to open the door on the driver’s side, she looked puzzled.
“I didn’t lock this door,” she said. “Did either of you?”
“No,” the cousins replied.
The door on the opposite side was also locked and Nancy wondered who had done it. George suggested that possibly some teen-ager going past had done it for a joke.
“Maybe,” Nancy replied, and unlocked the doors.
It was warm inside. Bess took off her sweater and tossed it onto the rear seat.
“Why do you suppose the spirit voice said I’d be going to the marriage license bureau soon?” she asked.
George grinned. “Well, you’re going sooner or later, aren’t you? That old fake spook was just guessing about when.”
Bess blushed. “Yes, but he sort of shook me up.”
When they reached the motel, she turned around and reached over to retrieve the sweater.
“Nancy,” she said, “what’s this cardboard box on the floor?”
“I don’t know,” Nancy answered. “I didn’t put it there.”
The girls stepped out of the car and Nancy picked up the box. “It’s pretty heavy,” she said. “I wonder what’s in it.”
Suddenly a frightening idea came to Bes
s. “Nancy, put it down! Don’t open it! There might be a bomb inside!”
CHAPTER VIII
Rare. Medium. Well Done.
GINGERLY Nancy set the mysterious box in the driveway of the motel. She eyed it meditatively.
Finally she said, “I don’t believe there’s a bomb inside. If it was intended for us, it would have gone off by this time or be ticking.”
Bess urged Nancy not to open the box. She said, “Maybe when you lift the lid, the thing will go off.”
By this time George’s curiosity was getting the better of her. “I’d like to know what’s in the box,” she said.
Nancy looked around for something with which to pry it open.
George spotted a long-handled garden tool propped against the garage. “That rake’s just what we need.”
She got the rake and handed it to Nancy. Then, keeping at what she considered a safe distance, Nancy gently pried up the lid. It fell to one side.
The three girls burst into laughter. The box was full of papers!
“What a mean joke!” said Bess.
Nancy and the cousins walked over and looked more closely. There seemed to be an assortment of letters and documents inside. On top lay a hand-printed request:
NANCY DREW, I BEG OF YOU, KEEP THESE PAPERS SAFE UNTIL I COME FOR THEM.
There was no signature, but Nancy told Bess and George she was sure these were the papers which Madame Tarantella had begged her to take along.
George snorted. “She certainly was determined that you’d get them. What are you going to do now?”
“Call my father and ask his advice.”
Unfortunately there was no answer when she dialed her home.
“I’ll call Dad in the morning,” she said.
Meanwhile, Bess and George had been discussing how and when the box had been put in the car.
“It must have been during the time we were in the séance room before Madame Tarantella came in,” George surmised. “She was probably the one who locked the car doors so no one could steal the papers.”
While Nancy and the cousins prepared for bed, they talked about the strange turn of events and why Nancy had been chosen by the medium to keep the papers for her.