“It looks new,” Nancy said, delighted.
“It’s practically new,” the man told her. “I don’t know why the owner wanted to sell it. Normally we don’t buy private cars but this was such a good bargain we couldn’t pass it up.”
Nancy eagerly got behind the wheel and waved to the girls. George started the Billington car and headed for home. Nancy chose a different route. She was making good time along the highway when suddenly a motorcycle roared up behind her. Riding it was a policeman.
“Pull over!” he ordered. “Let me see your license.”
Nancy was sure she had done nothing wrong but did not question the officer. She showed him her license.
“Where did you get this car?” he asked.
Nancy gave the name of the rental agency and showed the receipt. The officer looked at her sharply, then said, “Are you aware you’re driving a stolen car?”
The young detective gasped. “I certainly wasn’t.”
“Follow me!” the motorcycle policeman said. “We’ll go back to that agency and see what it’s all about.”
The man in charge was shocked when he learned about the theft. He assured the policeman he was innocent, and explained that his company had purchased the car from an individual.
“What was his name?” Nancy asked.
“Rimmer,” the clerk said. “Robert Rimmer.”
The policeman said, “I suggest that you give this young lady another car and a new receipt.”
The exchange was made and Nancy went on her way. When she reached home and told about the incident, Hannah Gruen began to laugh. “Nancy Drew,” she said, “it seems as if you can’t go anywhere without having an adventure.”
“But I just love it,” Nancy replied with a broad grin. “Dad, have you any news?”
“No, I’ve been checking to find out if there has been any word on Max Ivanson. It certainly looks as if he’s the one who carried the explosive oranges into the Base.”
Mr. Billington spoke up. “And there’s no clue to who set fire to the packing house and started the blazes in the grove. Ivanson might have done that too.”
He added, “I’m well-covered by insurance, but a lot of time will be lost in building up a grove. You can construct a packing house fairly quickly, but you can’t make an orange tree grow overnight!”
All this time Tina had been buzzing around, setting the table and going up and down the hall. Nancy suspected that the woman was not missing a word of the conversation.
Presently the Drews and their friends sat down to luncheon. Mrs. Billington asked, “Nancy, what time are the boys arriving?”
“We’re to meet them at the airport at four o’clock,” she replied. “By the way, we’re not officially starting the house party until tomorrow. We girls thought it would be nice to give Ned a chance to visit with his parents before we all move in there. And Mrs. Nickerson agreed.”
Soon afterward the girls began their long drive to the Melbourne airport. The plane was on time. Ned was the first of the boys to alight. Seeing Nancy, he rushed up to her.
“How’s my little sleuth?” he asked, kissing her.
“I’m fine and have a million things to tell you.”
Bess and George had found Dave and Burt. On the way to the Nickersons’ the boys plied the girls with questions.
“We’re going to start you working on the mystery Monday,” Nancy told them. “At noontime we’re to station ourselves at the Real Eight Treasure Museum and see if we can spot a few criminals.”
“You mean it?” Dave asked.
Nancy explained her plan and the boys were eager to help.
Ned remarked, “Thinking up that coded message was pretty clever, Nancy.”
“I only hope it works,” she answered.
The boys were dropped off at the Nickerson home. They said they would come over to see the girls after dinner. “Is there some place we could all go and have fun?” Burt asked.
“I have an idea,” said Nancy. “The Billingtons have a neat motorboat. Why don’t we make use of it?”
“Good idea,” Dave remarked. “I’ll bring my guitar.”
The three boys arrived at eight o’clock. Nearly an hour was spent talking with Mr. Drew and the Billingtons. Since the Resardos were out, the mystery could be discussed freely.
“It sounds complicated to me,” Dave remarked. “I’d like to have some time free from mystery. May we borrow your boat?” Mr. Billington nodded.
“I’ll get the Starbeam’s key,” Nancy said. She had noticed it on top of the TV set.
The young people excused themselves and walked down to the dock. Nancy turned on the boathouse lights, then she and her friends climbed into the motorboat.
“Which way?” asked Ned, who had taken the wheel.
Nancy suggested that he turn right and cruise around a while, then come back and go past the Webster property.
Half an hour later they pulled up to the Webster dock. “The house!” Bess exclaimed. “It’s all lighted up!”
Everyone was puzzled. Had Mr. Drew stopped in? Or was an intruder there?
“We’d better investigate,” Nancy said quickly. “Ned, let’s tie up at the dock.”
He pulled alongside and the group scrambled out. While the boys secured the boat, the girls ran ahead. They had not gone far into the small orange grove when the lights in the house were extinguished one by one. When the visitors reached the back door, the place was in total darkness.
“Watch to see who comes out,” Nancy called to Bess and George. She herself ran around to the front entrance. No one emerged from the house. By this time the boys had caught up.
“Do you suppose someone’s hiding in there?” Bess asked Dave.
“Could be,” he replied.
Nancy turned to Ned, who had found her. “Will you go back and use the phone in the boat? See if Dad is there and whether he has been here.”
Ned hurried off. The others continued to watch the house, but nobody appeared.
Finally Ned returned. “Your father hasn’t been here, Nancy,” he reported. “But Mr. Drew said he’ll be right over.”
In a short time the lawyer arrived with Mr. Billington. “Did you bring the Websters’ house key, Dad?” Nancy asked.
“No. None of us knew where you had hidden it,” he answered.
“In my raincoat pocket,” she said. “It’s in my closet.”
Mr. Drew had brought several flashlights which he distributed among the three couples.
“Let’s look through the windows,” Nancy suggested, and beamed hers through a front window.
“Oh!” she exclaimed. “The place is flooded with water!”
CHAPTER XVI
Misfit Shoes
“A PIPE must have burst!” Nancy cried out. “Oh dear! I wish I’d brought the key. We must do something fast!”
Mr. Drew decided to break a windowpane and crawl inside the house. Ned offered to do it and Nancy’s father nodded.
“But go around to the back where the break won’t show,” Mr. Drew suggested.
Ned dashed off with the rest of the group following. As if about to punt a football, Ned made a run of several feet, lifted his right foot, and aimed it at a kitchen window.
Crash!
Ned reached inside, opened the latch, and raised the window frame. He pulled himself through the opening and unlocked the rear door. The others trooped inside. Nancy, making sure she was standing in a dry spot, clicked on the kitchen light.
Less than two feet away water was slowly flowing toward her! The faucets in the sink had been turned on full and water was pouring out. It was spilling over the edge and cascading onto the floor. George jumped forward and turned off the faucets.
At once a search for the intruder began. Mr. Drew called out, “Don’t touch anv switches if vou are standing in water!”
“I won’t,” Bess assured him. “I don’t want to be electrocuted.”
Water had already flowed into the other first-floor roo
ms. It was also spilling down the stairway. Burt and Dave rushed up to shut off faucets in the bathrooms.
“Ned, let’s look for the main valve and turn off the water,” Nancy suggested. “I think it may be in the utility room.”
The two dashed into the room adjoining the kitchen. They found that the faucets in a sink and a laundry tub had also been opened. Ned closed them, while Nancy looked for the main valve. She located it and turned off the flow.
When everyone assembled in the living room to compare notes, each declared he had seen no sign of the intruder.
“I guess he escaped by the front door before you got there, Nancy,” Burt stated.
Bess gave a great sigh. “I’d say we have an all-night mopping job ahead of us!”
Dave grinned at her. “You forget I’m mop-up man for the Emerson football team. It won’t take long. Let’s go!”
Every broom, mop, and rag in the house was put to use. George and Burt found a couple of electric fans and plugged them in.
“Operation Dry-out is in good hands,” Mr. Drew said with a grin.
He and Mr. Billington returned home ahead of the young people. The front light was on. As the two men walked up to the door, Mr. Drew bent down and picked up a shiny object.
“What is it?” Mr. Billington asked.
“A key. Someone must have dropped it.”
Mr. Billington took the key. “This isn’t ours,” he said. “Why, look, it has the letter W cut into it.”
“W?” Mr. Drew repeated. “Do you suppose it could stand for Webster? Maybe this is the key Nancy hid. Someone may have stolen it, then had no opportunity to replace the key, so he left it here.”
When the men entered the house, Mr. Drew told Hannah Gruen about the find.
“That’s strange,” she said. “Nobody has come here this evening except the Resardos and they’ve been in their room all the time.”
“Nancy hid the Webster key in her raincoat pocket,” Mr. Drew remarked.
“I’ll get it,” Hannah offered.
Mrs. Gruen was gone only a couple of minutes, then returned holding the key. They compared it with the one Mr. Drew had found. It matched exactly.
“Queer things happen everyday,” Hannah remarked. “I wonder what will be next.”
Mr. Drew did not answer. He went to the telephone and spoke to the police captain about the flooded house and the key he had found on the doorstep. The officer promised to send a couple of men to the Webster house immediately.
Over at the soaking wet home the mopping-up operation was almost finished.
Nancy and Ned searched the house but found no clues to the intruder. While they were still hunting, the police car came in. Nancy spoke to the two men.
“The intruder must have had a key to this house,” she said.
The police identified themselves as Needham and Welsh. They told of Mr. Drew’s having found a key with a W on it near the Billingtons’ front steps. Nancy and Ned looked at each other. Had Scarlett dropped it—or perhaps Antin?
As she and Ned walked to the rear of the house with the two officers, Nancy beamed her flashlight toward the river.
Suddenly she exclaimed, “I see some shoe prints!”
They stepped forward to examine them. “The guy sure has big feet,” Needham commented. “I think we should take plaster impressions of these.” He requested his partner to drive back to head quarters for the equipment.
Nancy knelt on the ground and examined the prints, which went toward the water. Did she imagine it or were they wobbly looking as if the person was unsteady on his feet?
“Or,” Nancy thought, “did the intruder deliberately put on shoes much bigger than his feet to disguise his size? He even took long strides and that too could account for the wobbliness.”
She and Ned and Officer Needham followed the prints. Possibly the vandal had hidden a small boat among the bushes along the shore. The three made a thorough search but the only boat around was the Billingtons’.
The officer stopped to look at it. “She’s a beauty!” he said. “It’s a good thing that intruder didn’t help himself to it!”
“It’s locked,” Ned said, “and I have the key in my pocket. Apparently the vandal escaped in his own boat.”
By the time the searchers had returned to the house, Officer Welsh had come back with the plaster cast kit. While he was working, Nancy and Ned took his partner through the house, pointing out the damage.
The officer made a lot of notes and said the case would be put on the police blotter at once and a search started for a tall man with long feet. Nancy mentioned her own theory about his wearing oversize shoes and Needham was impressed.
“That’s an idea,” he said. “I’ll jot it down.”
Just then Officer Welsh came in. He said he had completed his work and if Needham was ready they might as well leave. House lights were turned off and the front door slammed shut.
As Nancy and her friends trudged through the orange grove and down to the river, Burt remarked, “We boys didn’t have to wait long after our arrival for some excitement.”
“It always happens,” Bess added. “I vote that for the rest of the evening we forget about detective work.”
She had hardly said this when George and Burt, who had started ahead, cried out in dismay.
“Our boat’s gone!” George exclaimed.
The others ran to the dock. They could not believe their eyes. Mr. Billington’s motorboat had been securely tied and Ned had locked the motor.
“There’s only one way it could have been taken,” Nancy spoke up. “It was towed away!”
“By whom?” Dave asked.
No one had an answer. A few seconds later Bess gave one of her great sighs. “It’s a long trek from here to the Billingtons’ house.”
“It sure is,” George agreed, “but let’s get started.”
Nancy said, “You all go and ask Mr. Billington to call the police about the stolen boat. Ned and I will stay here a while. I want to hunt for clues to the thief.”
The other four hurried off. With her flashlight Nancy searched for footprints.
“Here they are!” she cried gleefully. “The thief was the same person who was up at the house!”
Ned looked at her, puzzled. “But how could he have been? We were down here after he’d gone and our boat was still at the dock.”
Nancy pointed out that the man could have towed the boat away when the police and everyone else were in the house.
“Or he might have been hiding up the shore a distance and a pal came to pick him up. Together they tied Mr. Billington’s craft to a motorboat and went off.”
Just then they heard a motorboat in midstream. “Let’s hail it!” she said. “Maybe the pilot passed our boat.”
Ned shouted lustily. The pilot heard him and slowed his motor. He steered for the Webster dock and called out, “Somebody need help?”
Quickly Ned explained. The pilot said he had not seen the stolen craft, but added, “How about hopping in here and we’ll look for it?”
Nancy and Ned did not need a second invitation. As soon as the motorboat pulled up to the dock, they climbed in.
CHAPTER XVII
Tear Gas
NED introduced Nancy and himself. Their teen-age pilot said his name was Bud Musgrove. As his small motorboat sped along, they looked into every cove and indentation of the river, going up one side, then starting down the other. So far there had been no sign of the Billingtons’ craft.
“I’m sorry,” Bud said. “You say you have the key to the motor, Ned. Then the person who took your boat might have known about it and has a duplicate. Have you any idea who he is?”
Instantly Nancy thought of Antin, but said nothing. Was he accustomed to borrowing the craft whenever he pleased?
She asked herself, But why should he have gone to the Webster home? As Nancy was trying to puzzle this out, Ned suddenly exclaimed, “I think I see our boat! Over there at that rickety old dock.”
&n
bsp; Bud headed for the spot. A house on the property had burned down. The area was secluded.
“It’s a good place for someone to hide a stolen boat,” Nancy thought. “And for a thief to hide too!” Aloud she said, “Cut the motor! Quick!”
Bud obeyed. In the sudden silence Nancy spoke softly. “The thief may be hiding there, too. Let’s go quietly and take him by surprise!”
The momentum of the craft carried it along quietly as Bud steered toward the dock. He pulled alongside the stolen boat.
“No one’s in it,” Ned announced. He looked around. “I guess this has been abandoned.” He pulled the key from his pocket and jumped in.
Nancy was about to follow, but Bud held her back. “Better wait and see if the Starbeam starts.”
Ned turned on the motor but there was not a sound. He tried again and again without result.
“That thief probably tampered with the boat and now it won’t run,” Nancy remarked. “Is the motor warm?”
“No,” Ned replied, “so the Starbeam must have been towed here.”
Bud jumped into the craft and together he and Ned examined the engine while Nancy beamed a searchlight on it.
Finally Bud said, “Several parts are missing. You won’t be able to run this boat until they’re replaced. I’ll tell you what. Let’s tie it to the back of my motorboat and I’ll tow you home.”
“Great! Thanks,” Ned replied.
When they arrived at the Billingtons’ dock Nancy invited Bud to come in.
The young man smiled. “Sorry, but I’m supposed to be on my way to a party. My date will think I’ve fazed her out.”
The group at the house was amazed when they heard Nancy and Ned’s story. Mr. Billington called the police to report that the boat had been found.
He said to the others, “I’m certainly burdening the authorities lately. We make at least one call a day to the police!”
Everyone smiled and Nancy thought, “We’ve come up with a few clues for them, too!”
Bess told Ned that his mother had phoned and was preparing a midnight snack for the young people. She was hoping the girls would move over there at once to start the house party officially.
“I’m all for that,” Bess added, “Tonight’s adventures have given me a tremendous appetite.”