The Clue of the Broken Locket (14 page)

“You can bet I’m not going to sound mine,” Ned answered.

He had driven only a short distance beyond the curve when the trio saw the truck turning around in a widened place in the road. It started forward —straight for the boys!

“That guy’s not going to stop!” Ned exclaimed, and began to back up. He negotiated the curve successfully, but had to go so slowly that the truck overtook them. It hugged the inside of the road and squeezed the boys’ car toward the deep ditch.

Ned’s car skidded, and swerved to the edge. He applied the brake, but it was hopeless. The next moment the car dropped backward and crashed into the ditch.

THE truck roared away down the narrow road. Ned, Burt, and Dave had instinctively let their bodies go limp and were only badly shaken up when the car had plunged into the ditch.

They scrambled out and surveyed the situation. At first glance the boys were sure a wrecker would be needed to pull out Ned’s car.

“It’s going to be a long walk in the rain,” Dave complained. “I’d like to get hold of that Vince Driscoll and let him have it!”

“I would too, but right now we’re stuck,” said Ned. “Let’s try to get this bus out of here. First, I’ll see if it still runs.”

To his relief, the engine started at once. Ned climbed out and together the three athletes tried to shove the car onto the road. They found it was impossible to move it up the steep side of the ditch, but in the glare of the headlights, Ned saw that the ditch grew shallower a short distance ahead. Together, the boys pushed the car through the mud and weeds until they reached this spot. Then, with a mighty heave, they managed to get one front wheel onto the pavement. A few minutes later the car was back on the road.

The boys grunted in satisfaction. Burt remarked, “I never thought we’d do it. Well, let’s get those pirates!”

“I don’t think there’s much chance of that now,” Ned said. “I’ll stop back at the service station and phone the Baltimore police.”

When Ned pulled in, the attendant looked at the boys in surprise, then at the mud-covered car.

“We were forced off the road,” Ned explained. “I’d like to use your phone again.”

“Help yourself.”

When Ned talked to a sergeant on duty, the officer surprised him with some good news. “The State Police nabbed those men in the truck. They’re being held at Sayreville.”

“That’s great!” Ned said. “Have they confessed?”

“They won’t say a word. But we’ve got that load of records.”

Ned started to ask if anyone from the State Police had gone to Pudding Stone Lodge. Then the line went dead. He hurried outside and reported to the other boys.

“We’d better get back there pronto ourselves,” Ned urged.

He jumped behind the wheel and drove off. Despite the heavy rain, they made good time to the cottage. No one was there and the boys were concerned about Nancy and her three friends.

“They must still be staking out the lodge,” Burt suggested. “Let’s go there and see if the second truck has gone yet.”

When they reached the garage, it was empty. “The truck may be at the house getting loaded,” Burt ventured.

Ned suggested that Dave go to town and notify Chief Stovall of what had happened and bring back help.

“To tell the truth,” he added, “I’m worried about Nancy and the other girls. Burt and I will sneak up to the lodge and see if they’re around.”

Some time before this, Nancy, desperate to get into the beach house, had beamed her light around the hidden door. Finally she had found an old-fashioned key hanging under some vines. In a jiffy she unlocked the door, put the key back in place, and then quietly opened the door.

By the dim light inside, Nancy and Cecily saw a medium-sized room cluttered with machines, including a movie projector. Against one wall was a cot. On this a young woman with red hair lay bound and gagged.

“Susan!” Nancy and Cecily cried together, rushing to the girl’s side.

Quickly they untied her. As she sat up, Susan stared at Nancy and Cecily. “I thought you were working for the Driscolls in some way!” she said in amazement. “That’s why I ran each time I saw you.”

“It’s just the opposite,” Nancy replied. “We’re trying to capture them.”

“You know about their racket?” Susan asked incredulously.

“Yes. Some friends of ours are trailing them right now. Susan, are you the daughter of Kenneth Wayne?”

“Yes!” was the amazed answer.

Cecily spoke up. “You look so much like me, Susan. I am sure you’re a relative. Did you drop a bracelet with half a locket in an old abandoned rowboat?”

“Oh, is that where I lost it? I had been carrying the bracelet in my purse, but I was afraid the Driscolls would take that away from me, which they did later. I took out the locket—which I’ve had since I was a child—and kept it in my pocket.”

Cecily now excitedly told the story behind her half locket. “I put yours and mine together, and they’re a perfect fit,” she concluded. “That’s another reason I think we’re related.”

Susan cried out, “Oh, I’m so happy to have a cousin like you. If we can only find your share of our family treasure!”

The girls begged Susan to continue her own story.

“The second time I escaped from the Driscolls I got as far as that old boat and thought maybe I could get away in it. The locket must have dropped out then. But that awful man, Vince Driscoll, and somebody they call Jake grabbed me and locked me up again.”

“You poor girl!” Cecily said sympathetically. “But why are the Driscolls holding you prisoner?”

“It’s a long story, but I’ll try to explain.”

“I think we’re safe for a while,” Nancy declared, “and we’re dying to hear your story!”

Susan explained that she had been married four years earlier. Her name was now Talbot. “Pudding Stone Lodge belongs to my family. No one is left but me and my two brothers and they’re in the Navy.”

Nancy nodded, telling of their inquiries in Baltimore. “You had a special reason for coming here, didn’t you?” Nancy asked gently.

Susan burst into tears. “Yes. The twins!”

Nancy’s heart leaped. “Susan, am I right? Are you the mother of those adorable twins?”

“Y-yes, I am. And I won’t leave here without them!”

Cecily stared at her cousin in utter amazement. “But why do the Driscolls have them, and claim the children as theirs?”

“It’s complicated, but I’ll tell you as quickly as I can,” said Susan. “When I was married, my husband and I moved out to the Middle West. A little over a year ago, when Kathy and Kevin were two years old, my husband and I took them on a camping trip. One night, when the children were asleep in the tent, and my husband and I were sitting a little distance away near the road, a crazy driver came careening along, lost control of the car, and ran right into Steve and me.”

“How horrible!” Nancy murmured.

Susan went on to say from then on, the whole thing had been a nightmare. “I guess the driver was afraid the accident would be traced to him. Someone found us and took us to a hospital. Unfortunately, we had no identification on us.”

Susan choked up. “My darling husband died. I was unconscious a long time and did not regain my memory or health for nearly a year. Then I asked for my children. No one knew anything about them. The only explanation I could think of was that either the hit-and-run driver—or someone else who came along later—stole all our things and took the children. I reported this to the police, but they could find no trace of the twins.”

“You must have been frantic!” Cecily cried out.

“I was. But one day I saw a picture in a newspaper of two acrobatic brothers. With them were twins who looked like Kathy and Kevin. I decided to investigate on my own and went to the town mentioned in the newspaper. I found out where the acrobats, whose name was Driscoll, lived, but when I went there I found the Driscolls and the wife of one of them had left with the twins. The only clue the landlady could give me was that they had mentioned a place called Pudding Stone Lodge!”

Susan said the woman had remembered that the twins’ small trunk had borne the name of the lodge on the lid. “I was sure it was the same trunk I’d had as a child,” Susan added. “I had given it to Kathy and Kevin. Pudding Stone Lodge was my childhood home.”

Nancy and Cecily listened with bated breath as Susan continued her story. She had immediately started to Misty Lake. If she discovered her children at Pudding Stone Lodge, she intended to go to the local police for help.

“And did you see your twins?” Cecily asked.

Susan nodded sadly. “When I reached the lodge, no one answered my ring. The door was open and I was so eager I walked in. As I stood in the hall I heard loud arguments coming from the living room. It all concerned the cutting of illegal records. Suddenly I caught sight of Kathy and Kevin at the top of the stairs. I started up, but Vince Driscoll discovered me. Evidently he was afraid I would go to the police about what I had heard, and he and his brother Karl tied me up and kept me gagged most of the time. Once I was able to scream, but it didn’t help. Another time when my hands were free, I tossed back a stone someone pitched through the window.”

“But Eddie at the soda shop says you ordered a record,” Nancy said. “When and why did you do that?”

Susan explained that when she had first arrived in Misty Lake she had gone into the soda shop to inquire if anyone was living at the lodge. Eddie had been playing Niko’s record and she had ordered one to give him a little business.

“Everything is becoming clearer now,” Nancy remarked. “But I wonder how the Driscolls got hold of your children. They certainly don’t act as if they did it for love!”

“That should be cleared up when the police arrest the Driscolls,” Cecily suggested.

Nancy started. “We’d better go rescue the children!” she urged. “I was so interested in Susan’s story that I forgot Karl and Raskin are coming back for her.”

Hoping to avoid the men, the three girls hurried up the passageway from the beach house to the cellar of the lodge. Fortunately, the chest was still pushed aside, and they opened the door easily. The girls made their way through the cellar and up the stairway to the kitchen. Hearing voices in the front hall they tiptoed through the darkness and Susan pushed open the swinging door that led to the hall. Mrs. Driscoll was there with the twins. All three were dressed, ready to leave the house.

Susan rushed forward impulsively and cried out, “They’re my babies. You can’t take them away!’.

At that very moment Karl Driscoll opened the front door. He darted forward and grabbed Susan in an iron grip!”

Nancy and Cecily, who had waited in the kitchen, were about to rush forward and help the girl, when the back door opened. The next thing they knew, powerful arms engulfed them.

“You snoopin’ busybodies!” Raskin’s voice snarled in Nancy’s ear. “This is the last time you’re goin’ to get in our way!”

The young sleuth struggled hard, but she was no match for the muscular man. Cecily had already been overpowered by a heavy six-foot stranger.

“We’ll tie’em good this time so they’ll stay put,” Raskin ordered. “Get busy, Jake!”

Apparently prepared for such emergencies, the two men pulled heavy cords from their pockets and tightly bound the girls.

Karl Driscoll dragged in Susan, who was also tied up, and the three girls were forced roughly down the cellar stairs, through the passage, and into the beach house. Raskin locked the cellar door from the inside and pocketed the key. Jake swung open the exit to the beach. As the heavy door closed behind the men and was locked from the outside, Karl rasped, “You girls will never see daylight again!”

WHEN Raskin, Karl, and Jake dragged the girls away, Mrs. Driscoll grabbed the twins by the hand and pulled them out the front door. As they stepped onto the porch, Bess and George ran up. The woman attempted to brush by them, but George caught hold of Kathy. Kevin pulled loose and ran to Bess.

At that moment Ned and Burt dashed up the steps. “Where are Nancy and Cecily?” Ned asked.

Bess and George turned questioningly to Mrs. Driscoll. The woman’s lips tightened firmly and she glared at the young people.

“The bad men took the pretty ladies to the cellar!” Kevin sobbed.

“The door is in the kitchen,” George called as Ned and Burt raced into the house. They dashed down to the cellar and ran along the passageway. It took only a minute for them to break down the door at the end.

“Ned! Burt!” Nancy and Cecily exclaimed when the boys burst into the beach house.

“Oh, Ned,” Nancy cried, “I’ve never been so glad to see you!” Quickly she introduced the boys to Susan and told them the high points of her story.

As soon as the ropes had been removed from the girls, Susan ran to the door. “I must get my babies!” she declared.

By the time the five young people reached the front hall, they found Dave, Chief Stovall, and two policemen there. With them, handcuffed together, were Karl Driscoll, Neal Raskin, and the man called Jake. Bess had the twins by the hand while George firmly held Mrs. Driscoll’s arm.

“We found these men trying to escape in a boat,” Chief Stovall told Nancy, “but they refuse to talk. Perhaps you can help us.”

Susan ran up to the children and put her arms around them. Before she could speak, the little girl said, “Are you Mommy?”

“Yes, darling,” Susan said gently. “Come into the living room with me and I’ll tell you all about it.”

The little boy and girl smiled happily. “I’m glad,” Kathy said shyly. “You’re nice!”

Bess and George were amazed by this revelation and overjoyed at the happy reunion. When Susan and the twins had left, Nancy told Chief Stovall the conversation she and Cecily had overheard in the beach house. “I’m sure you’ll find a load of counterfeit records in the truck outside.”