The Mysterious Mannequin (14 page)

Bess glanced at her captor and repeated the message, then he put down the phone.

Deeply worried about his date’s whereabouts, Dave waited impatiently for one of the others in the group to call. It had been arranged that he would hurry to the Hrozny house on a chance that Bess, having become separated from the rest of the group, might have returned there.

Nancy was to telephone later to find out. In the meantime they would continue the search in the bazaar. Bess’s friends queried various shopkeepers and some American tourists, but none of them had seen a girl fitting Bess’s description. Her friends became more and more alarmed.

Aisha had gone off to make some inquiries in her native tongue, hoping for some clue to Bess’s whereabouts. She returned to report a vain search also.

“It’s about time to call Dave,” said Nancy. “Aisha, where will we find a phone?”

The Turkish girl led her into a shop that sold all kinds of leather goods—saddles, riding boots, purses and luggage. Aisha made the call. Nancy was relieved when she saw a smile break over the girl’s face.

“Bess is home?” she asked as Aisha put down the phone.

“No, but she wants to meet you at the big hotel overlooking the city. I suppose she didn’t know the name of it.” Suddenly a look of concern crossed the girl’s face. “Dave said Bess gave no explanation for her disappearance—just repeated the message.”

“That’s not like Bess,” said Nancy.

“What if she’s in trouble!” George remarked fearfully.

“I know the bazaar is crowded and it’s easy to become separated,” Nancy put in, “but we weren’t walking very fast and I don’t see why Bess couldn’t have caught up to us easily. I’m terribly worried about her.”

Burt frowned. “Do you think the phone call Dave took could have been a hoax?”

“Not necessarily,” Nancy replied. “But someone may have forced her to make it. I haven’t any idea who would want to kidnap Bess or why. If Bess is really at the hotel I’ll be the most relieved person in the world.”

It was a pretty somber group that made its way by taxis through the city and up the hill to the attractive hotel that overlooked the city and its beautiful harbor. Nancy and her friends quickly alighted from the taxis and went into the spacious lobby. Bess Marvin was not in sight.

“Just as I suspected,” Nancy thought.

Dave arrived in a few minutes. “Is she here?” he asked quickly.

“No.”

The distraught boy began pacing the floor nervously. “Where is she?” He caught the worried expressions on the faces of the others. “Has something happened that I don’t know about? Tell me.”

Nancy said, “It’s only a hunch—and I hope I’m wrong—but I’m afraid Bess is being held prisoner somewhere and won’t come.”

“Then why did she ask you to meet her here?” Dave wanted to know.

“We may get another message,” Nancy answered. “I think that as long as we all stay together, there is not much likelihood of a messenger coming to me. I suggest that you all scatter and hide in advantageous places. If a stranger does come to talk to me or deliver a note, you boys follow him. Please.”

The young people sauntered off and disappeared from view, some inside the building, the rest outside.

Fifteen minutes went by. Nancy, seated in a chair facing the entrance to the hotel, had just begun to wonder if her theory was wrong when a boy about seventeen years old approached her. He bowed politely.

“Pardon, mademoiselle. I have seen pictures of you. You are Miss Nancy Drew from River Heights of USA?”

“Yes.”

“Someone admires you very much. He asked me to bring a message.”

From his shabby pocket he pulled a small letter. With another little bow he handed it to Nancy, then without saying good-by hurried off.

Nancy jumped up, her suspicions thoroughly aroused. She did not wait to read the letter. Instead she spotted Ned near a pillar and quickly gave him the high sign to follow the boy. She herself hurried out the door. George was at her heels.

“Who is he?” she asked Nancy.

The young detective did not reply. She had seen a man emerge from a taxi and go after the Turkish boy. She recognized him.

“George!” cried Nancy. “That’s Aslanapa! I’ll bet he saw us. He’s going to warn that messenger he’ll be followed and not to reveal where Bess is hidden!”

ASLANAPA was fleet-footed, but before he could overtake the messenger, he apparently realized that Ned, Burt, and Dave were after the boy. The bearded, mustached suspect suddenly turned and went down the side street.

A traffic policeman stood on the corner. Aisha spoke to him, briefly telling him that one of their party might have been kidnapped. “We think that the man we were chasing may be the guilty person.” At once the officer began running with the girls.

“There he goes!” George cried out. “Into that garden!”

The pursuers rushed in after him and the officer found the man, crouched down, hiding behind some low-growing evergreens.

“He’s the one all right!” Nancy said, seeing a gold filigree bracelet studded with turquoise on one arm. “His name is Aslanapa.”

The suspect, realizing he was cornered, was silent.

Nancy went on, “Officer, I accuse this man of having entered my home in the United States and of trying to steal a special rug made here in Istanbul. Later he came back and left a scimitar to frighten me.”

George spoke up. “He was making scimitars and master keys to sell without a license and was wanted by the police in the United States.”

Nancy added, “One of the girls in our group has disappeared. We think he is holding her somewhere, probably for ransom.”

Remembering the note in her pocket, she read it quickly and said, “Here is a message ordering me to give information about a treasure secreted in a mannequin. Otherwise my kidnapped friend will not be released.”

Aslanapa panicked and tried to climb over a garden wall near him. But the officer dragged him back and held on tightly.

“I will request my superior to send a police car,” the officer said. “Please to watch the prisoner.”

Nancy and George moved closer to Aslanapa while the policeman used his short-wave radio to call headquarters.

Aslanapa’s face was livid. His eyes bored into Nancy’s as he said, “You can prove nothing against me!”

Just then they saw a police car coming up the street. The policeman marched Aslanapa out of the garden and the others followed. At the same time a taxi pulled up. In it were Bess, Ned, Burt, and Dave!

“Bess!” George shrieked.

The young people got out of the taxi and Ned paid the driver.

“You’re all right?” George asked her cousin.

“I am now,” Bess replied. Then she caught sight of the prisoner. Quickly Nancy told her who he was.

“Aslanapa!” Bess cried out. Pointing her finger at him, she added, “You’re the one who engineered my kidnapping!”

“Tell us about it,” Nancy begged.

The traffic officer said he must return to his post. The two who had come in the police car would take care of the prisoner.

At her friends’ urging, Bess told of the kidnapping. “The boy who lied to me about where you all had gone and locked me in is Aslanapa’s brother. He came back to the place after delivering the letter to you, Nancy.

“I told the people at the rug shop I had never heard of such a treasure and that we hadn’t found the mannequin,” Bess went on, “but they didn’t believe me. I wondered how long I would have to stay.”

Bess looked gratefully at the three boys. “Just when I was feeling about as low as I could,” she said, “Aslanapa’s brother returned. When he unlocked the door and let himself in, Dave, Burt and Ned jumped him. Dave grabbed my hand and said, ‘Come on!’ and we all ran like mad out of that bazaar.”

The two officers wrote down the names of Bess and Nancy and requested that they come to police headquarters at once.

“Where are we going to find your dad?” Ned asked. “I’d say we need the services of a lawyer.”

Aisha offered to telephone the Kokten home. Fortunately Mr. Drew was there and amazed at what had taken place.

“I’ll come directly to police headqu rters.”

The others had to wait a short while for him. When he came, Aisha smiled at Mr. Drew. “There are many legal problems when a foreign tourist is involved,” she said. “I am so glad that you are an attorney.”

The Turkish authorities expressed embarrassment that one of their countrymen had abducted an American citizen and acted so badly in the United States. Aslanapa and his family had been arrested. The officers hurried with the necessary procedures so Bess and the Drews could leave. By the time they were over, everyone in the group, including Mr. Drew, said he was starving.

“Let’s go back to that lovely hotel and have lunch,” Nancy proposed.

They walked to it and ate heartily while discussing the latest events in the mystery. After the serious subjects had been discussed, Bess came in for plenty of teasing including a gibe from Burt that of all the pretty girls in Istanbul, Aslanapa had to pick her to take into his family! She made a face at Burt.

George grinned. “You had your wish. You met a handsome Turkish man!”

During the exchange of banter Nancy noticed that while Aisha smiled at the jokes, she had a sort of sweet-sad expression.

“Her mind is on Farouk,” Nancy thought. “I must help her!”

Presently she called to Aisha, “Are you ready for some more sightseeing? We’ll look for shoeshine stands and rug shops to see if we can locate Farouk.”

“That would be wonderful,” the Turkish girl replied. “But first I want to take you to the Blue Mosque.”

Aisha managed to locate the private bus in which they had started the morning’s sightseeing trip. When it arrived, they all boarded it and the driver went directly to the Blue Mosque.

“See the seven domes framed by those tall spires?” Aisha said. “The sultan who built them kept adding one after another so that he would always be ahead of any other sultan. No one ever matched the number seven.”

At the main door the visitors removed their shoes. It was dim in the interior but presently their eyes became accustomed to it. At the far end of the mosque, men were on their knees, their foreheads close to the floor. They were praying.

Some distance behind them was a group of Turkish women in the same position. They wore long black dresses with full sleeves that covered their arms completely and their large black veils entirely hid their hair and faces.

“The women are not allowed to go up front until the men leave,” Aisha explained.

The visitors stood still, looking up at the exquisite arched ceiling, with its mosaic pattern, much of it in gold. The boys were awed by the electric candles which were seventy-seven feet high.

Nancy was intrigued by the gorgeous prayer rugs that lay on the floor around her. There was enough light from the doorway for her to study the pattern in one of them. A moment later she saw something that excited her.

She whispered to Aisha, “In that rug, part of the pattern looks like marble columns rising out of water.”

As Aisha nodded, Nancy said, “In the rug that Farouk sent there was something like that. I admit, I didn’t think it had any significance, but maybe it does.”

“Oh, I believe it does,” Aisha said. “It could indicate the Great Cistern.”

“Where’s that?” Nancy asked.

Aisha said it was in Istanbul. They would go there at once. “It might mean the place where Farouk was going to meet us!”

She motioned to the others to leave the mosque. When they were in the bus once more, she directed the driver to take them to the Great Cistern. Aisha explained that it was an enormous underground reservoir and had been built in the fourth century by Constantine the Great.

“At that time there was much jealousy among the sultans and nations and wars were going on. The sultan in Istanbul was afraid the city might be besieged, and though the people could hold out for a long time behind the great wall, if they did not have water to drink, they would die. Water coming into it underground could not be cut off by the enemy. The cistern was enlarged in the sixth century by the Emperor Justinian.”

Despite Aisha’s interesting story, the others were not prepared for the tremendous sight they found at the foot of a stone stairway. The place was like a gigantic swimming pool with columns rising from the bottom to the floor of the building above it.

“Wow!” Burt exclaimed. “There’s enough water in here to keep a whole army from getting thirsty!”

Aisha smiled. “I understand that in olden days the water was deeper. It’s rather shallow now. You might be interested in the dimensions of this place. It’s four hundred and twenty by two hundred feet and it has three hundred and thirty-six columns.”

“Is it still used?” Nancy asked, going to the edge and looking down into the clear water.

“No, not any more. But in an emergency I suppose it could be.”

Ned remarked about the ceiling which was fluted and arched between columns. The others looked up.

Everyone was so intent on the exquisite architecture that they failed to notice a figure slinking toward them. Quick as a flash he came up behind Nancy and gave her a hard push.

She tumbled into the cistern and hit the side of her head on the bottom!

THERE were cries of dismay as Nancy’s friends realized she had hit her head. Like a flash Ned was in the water to rescue her. When he finally brought Nancy out, she appeared dazed.

“Oh,” wailed Bess, “we’d better take her to a hospital at once!”

Meanwhile Burt and Dave had run after the boy who had pushed Nancy into the Great Cistern. They caught him at the top of the stairway and dragged him back to the group. He struggled violently, threatening them in both Turkish and English.