The Crooked Banister

Table of Contents

 

 

Nancy and her friends Bess and George spend an exciting week exploring a mysterious zigzag house with its fantastically crooked staircase, its bizarre serpent picture, and an unpredictable robot that nearly causes the young detective to lose her life. But despite the threat of danger from the robot, Nancy is determined to solve the mystery of the weird house and to locate the missing owner, who is wanted by the police.

It takes keen logic and quick thinking for the young detective to plow through the tangled thicket of clues and find the key to this complex puzzle. With the help of her friends, Nancy captures an elusive swindler and uncovers the secret of the crooked banister, but not before they have several hair-raising adventures—one on a broken bridge over flaming water, another in a hidden room with poisoned portraits!

Copyright © 1971 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published by Grosset & Dunlap, Inc., a member of The Putnam &
Grosset Group, New York. Published simultaneously in Canada. S.A.
NANCYDREW MISTERY STORIES® is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster,
Inc. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Grosset & Dunlap, Inc.

eISBN : 978-1-101-07749-8

2007 Printing

“Do you have any plans for the next few days, Nancy?” Carson Drew asked his daughter as she walked into their living room.

“No, not especially,” the attractive girl replied. Smoothing back her reddish-blond hair, she sat down beside him on the long sofa. She added eagerly, “Dad, is there something I can do for you—for instance, solve a mystery?”

Mr. Drew, tall, handsome, and a leading attorney in River Heights, chuckled. “In a way, it is a mystery. Mr. and Mrs. Melody who live in town have been swindled by a Mountainville man named Rawley Banister. They want me to drive up there and put in a claim against him. I understand he was arrested on a similar charge.”

“Is he in jail?” Nancy inquired.

Her father shook his head. “He’s out on bail.”

“Dad, you hinted that I might help you for the next few days. I take it you plan to stay in Mountainville.”

“Correct. I wanted Mr. and Mrs. Melody to accompany me, but he can’t get away at this time.”

Nancy’s mouth puckered teasingly and her eyes twinkled. “Mrs. Melody is going, though, and you want me to make a threesome.”

Mr. Drew grinned and said, “I thought you’d be interested in seeing Rawley Banister’s fantastic home. He designed the house himself.”

“What’s fantastic about it?” Nancy asked.

“I guess just about everything. The house is on a wooded hilltop surrounded by a moat.”

“Like a castle?” Nancy commented.

Mr. Drew nodded. “People around there say the water in the moat sometimes catches fire!”

Nancy gave her father a hug. “I can hardly wait to start. When do you want to go?”

“Tomorrow morning directly after breakfast.”

“That doesn’t leave me much time to decide what clothes to take,” Nancy remarked.

She hurried upstairs to her bedroom and packed some summer knits. When the suitcase was filled, she went to the kitchen to help the Drews’ housekeeper prepare supper.

Hannah Gruen was a lovable woman who had lived with Nancy and her father since the death of Mrs. Drew when Nancy was only three years old.

As the young detective walked into the kitchen, Mrs. Gruen said, “Your father mentioned you two are taking a trip. Do be careful, my dear. You always start out solving mysteries with the idea you’ll be perfectly safe and you always end up getting into hot water.”

Nancy smiled. How true Hannah’s statement was! She said, “I’ll be as careful as possible.” Then she told the housekeeper why they were going.

“A swindler, eh?” Mrs. Gruen remarked. “The world is full of them and they always get caught in the end. Why do they do such things?”

Nancy did not comment. She agreed but was thinking that if there were no swindlers, there would be fewer mysteries for her to solve!

The following morning Nancy and her father set off in her convertible. Mr. Drew drove to Mrs. Melody’s home and strode quickly up the front walk to carry down the woman’s suitcase. She was in her early forties, and very pretty.

Mr. Drew introduced her and suggested that she and Nancy sit in the rear seat. “Mrs. Melody, will you explain to my daughter how you were swindled?”

Mrs. Melody said that a good-looking man who called himself George Ryder had sold the Melodys a piece of land in Arizona. It had turned out to be on an Indian reservation!

“Foolishly we had only looked at maps the man had and fancy booklets showing beautiful homes surrounded by lovely bushes and flowers. Later my husband had business in Flagstaff and went to see our new piece of property. It was then that he discovered the swindle.”

Nancy was puzzled. “You said the man’s name was George Ryder. I thought the one who sold you the land was Rawley Banister.”

“Actually you’re right. When my husband tried to locate this George Ryder, he found the man had vanished. Just recently I happened to pick up the local newspaper and there was his picture. Only his real name was Rawley Banister and he’d been arrested.”

Nancy remarked that he was out on bail.

“True,” Mrs. Melody replied. “That’s why your father and I thought we would go directly to the man’s home in Mountainville, which had been mentioned in the article. We’ll confront him with the fake deed, giving us title to the land.”

Mr. Drew added, “And put in a claim at once for the Melodys to get back their money.”

Two hours later they drove into Mountainville, a pleasant tree-shaded village with smart-looking shops and a motel. Mr. Drew stopped to ask a traffic policeman directions to the Rawley Banister house. The officer looked surprised but without comment gave the information.

After riding along streets lined with attractive homes, Mr. Drew turned into a hilly driveway marked PRIVATE and started up the steep slope. Woods on both sides of the road completely concealed the house, until they were within a thousand feet of it.

“What a crazy-looking and scary place!” Mrs. Melody exclaimed.

Nancy added, “It’s a real zigzag house.”

The large building was made of fieldstone and lacked symmetry. Several walls had ugly protrusions, other walls were at a slant. Rising above the two stories were three slanting chimneys and a center tower with a windowed turret.

Beyond the parking area was a moat. The callers got out of the car and walked across a narrow steel bridge that had no railings. Between the moat and the building was a poorly kept lawn and a few bushes, all of them in grotesque shapes of unbalanced geometric figures.

“I wonder if the inside is as kooky as the outside,” Mrs. Melody said.

The three walked up to the massive wooden front door, which had a large tarnished knocker but no bell. Mr. Drew lifted the knocker.

Almost at once a voice from inside said, “Mr. Banister is not at home. Come back some other time.” The message was repeated and Nancy figured it was a recording.

“I guess we’ll have to do as we were told,” Mr. Drew said, grinning.

As the disappointed callers walked across the bridge, Nancy gazed down into the water and wondered if the story about it being on fire at times was a myth.

“But such a phenomenon would certainly fit this strange place,” she thought.

When they returned to town Mr. Drew pulled into the grounds of the Ruppert Motel and went inside to inquire about rooms. A few minutes later a boy escorted them up an outside stairway to a balcony. The three rooms assigned to them were in the center and overlooked the parking area.

“I’ll meet you two in the lobby,” Mr. Drew said. “I have an errand to do.”

Nancy and Mrs. Melody partially unpacked, then went downstairs together. They walked around the motel which was surrounded by artistic flower beds. By the time they reached the lobby, Mr. Drew was there. At once Nancy detected a worried look on his face.

“Dad, is anything the matter?” she asked.

Her father nodded. “I’ve just been talking to the desk clerk. He tells me that Rawley Banister has jumped bail and disappeared!”

“What!” Mrs. Melody cried in dismay. “Then our trip has been in vain?”

“Perhaps not,” the lawyer replied. “The clerk told me that Rawley has a sister in town named Mrs. Carrier. She lives in the old family homestead.”