Read The Secret of the Wooden Lady Online

Authors: Carolyn Keene

Tags: #Women Detectives, #Detective and Mystery Stories, #Girls & Women, #Mystery & Detective, #Boats and Boating, #Juvenile Fiction, #Adventure and Adventurers, #Girl Detectives, #Mysteries & Detective Stories, #Fiction, #Ghost Stories, #Mystery Fiction, #Mystery Stories, #Mystery and Detective Storeis, #Boston Harbor (Mass.), #Drew; Nancy (Fictitious Character), #Ghosts, #Clipper Ships, #Figureheads of Ships, #Mystery and Detective Stories

The Secret of the Wooden Lady (10 page)

BOOK: The Secret of the Wooden Lady
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No one knew what had happened to the Dream of Melissa. She had simply disappeared. So far as was known, no trace of the ship or cargo had ever been found. Neither captain nor crew had ever been heard from again!
Nancy’s eyes were bright with excitement. The Melissa’s captain, Perry Rogers, had the initials P. R. The snuffbox could have been his! The figure on it was a dreamy-faced woman. She might well be the Melissa of the ship’s name!
The Dream of
Melissa
had carried a costly cargo of rugs, silks, and perfumes.
“Surely a pirate’s prize!” Nancy reflected.
Captain Easterly had told her that the clippers sailing to and from the Far East had often been attacked by pirates. He had even mentioned that the islands off Java were a favorite hideout for these sea gangsters.
Perhaps, Nancy thought excitedly, pirates had seized the Dream of Melissa. If they intended to keep the ship, of course they would have to change her name. And naturally they would get rid of the figurehead—it was too good a clue to the ship’s identity.
Nancy closed the book. “The
Bonny Scot,”
she told herself, “may really be the Dream of
Melissa.”
Her eyes aglow, she ran to the first floor to speak to Mr. Frisbie. All she found was a crisp note:
Lock up when you leave.
Smiling, Nancy looked at her watch. Six o’clock! She locked the barn door, hurried to the dinghy, and made fast time out to the clipper. Her eager face told the others she had found something this time.
“Out with it,” George demanded.
After Nancy had told her story, Bess shivered. “My goodness, to think I may have been sleeping in some pirate’s bunk!”
“Those stowaways may know about the pirates and think there’s hidden loot on board!” George added.
“Now just a minute, girls,” Captain Easterly spoke up. “Seems to me you’re jumping to conclusions. In the morning we’ll make plans for tracking down this dream ship of yours, Nancy,” he said. “No more work tonight.”
But Nancy could not get the Dream of Melissa out of her mind. She lay awake, wondering if the Bonny Scot could have borne that other name. If it had been captured by pirates, what had happened to Captain Perry Rogers? Was it to his mate Grizzle Face had referred?
Such exciting thoughts kept Nancy wide awake until after midnight. Captain Easterly, she knew, had been too tired to remain on watch and had gone to his cabin. George and Bess were sleeping peacefully in their bunks. Nancy heard nothing but the soft slap of water on the ship’s side and the creaking of the masts.
Suddenly a new sound made her sit straight up, nerves tingling. Just outside her porthole she heard a soft thump, thump,
thump!
Nancy slid out of her bunk and threw on a coat. Slipping a flashlight from under her pillow, she tiptoed into the passageway and knocked on the captain’s door.
“Captain Easterly, there’s someone on boardl” she called softly.
Then, without waiting for him to appear, she ran up to the deck.
CHAPTER XIII
The Shadowy Figure
NANCY stopped at the top of the companionway. She could see nothing clearly. If someone had come aboard he might be crouching close to her on the shadowy deck. She moved forward cautiously.
Heavy mist swirled about the ship, making the masts and rigging seem vague and unreal. Somewhere in the distance a foghorn wailed.
Suddenly Nancy froze, her hands clenched. A figure was coming over the rail, directly in front of her! Nancy slipped quickly into the shadows. Whoever he was, he had not seen her. She had the advantage!
The intruder dropped catlike to the deck, then moved quickly out of sight in the mist. Nancy made her way cautiously after him. If only she could see the stranger’s face!
Would he turn around if she flashed her light on him?
“I’ll try it,” she decided, and snapped on the light.
The man was startled but did not turn around. Bent almost double, with his sleeve raised to conceal the side of his face, he scurried ahead into the shrouding mist.
Nancy ran after him, but he disappeared in the inky shadows. She had not heard a splash. He must still be aboard!
Nancy’s heart beat rapidly. It was one thing for her to follow a fugitive she could see, but quite another to have a stranger jump at her from some dark spot.
Where was Captain Easterly? Nancy thought uneasily as she pondered what to do next. To her relief, the skipper’s voice boomed out behind her.
“Nancy, where are you? What’s up?”
Quickly Nancy retraced her steps and in whispered tones told him what had happened. “I’m sure the man’s still aboard,” she concluded. “Maybe he’s gone below.”
“We’ll look up here first,” the captain ordered. Swinging their flashlights, he and Nancy covered the damp planking, the coiled ropes and hawsers, the rigging, the hatch covers. There was no sign of the man they were hunting. Before going below to continue the search, Captain Easterly said: “Where did he come aboard?”
Nancy led the skipper to the spot where she had seen the intruder come over the side. As they reached it, their flashlights revealed a rope wriggling over the rail. A moment later it dropped to the water. Together they bent over the rail, sweeping the water with their flashlights. A man was sitting in a rowboat!
“Who are you? Stop!” the captain roared.
The fugitive did not answer. He hunched his head into his shoulders, shoved an oar against the Bonny Scot, and the rowboat slid away into the billowing mist.
“Oh, dear,” Nancy sighed. “I didn’t get a good look at him. Did you, Captain?”
“No, but he’s probably a desperate character, Nancy. You were mighty foolish to come up here without me.”
“I know,” Nancy said contritely, “but I was afraid we’d lose him.”
In the dim light Nancy could see the captain’s face break into a broad smile. He took her arm. “Now that I’ve scolded you, I want to thank you for driving him off the ship. Better get below and finish your night’s sleep,” he added.
“Wait, Captain Easterly!” Nancy begged. “That man may have dropped something that will identify him. By morning it might be gone.”
“You’re right. I wouldn’t have thought of such a thing,” the skipper said.
“Stop!” the captain roared
Already Nancy was hurrying toward the spot where the intruder had come aboard. She beamed her flashlight around the planking all the way to the rail. A moment later she stooped down, picked something up, and cried out:
“He did leave a clue! Captain Easterly, it’s a good one! He dropped a book of matches!”
The skipper came running up. “A book of matches?”
Nancy grabbed his arm. “Captain, look! It’s an ad for the Owl Restaurant in River Heights!”
“You mean where you live?” the captain asked, astounded.
“Yes. And that means—”
Nancy paused a moment as more evidence presented itself. Upon opening the matchbook, she had seen something scribbled in pencil.
“What does it say?” the captain demanded, looking over her shoulder. “My eyes aren’t that good.”
“M-a-r-v-i-n.” Nancy spelled out the crudely printed name, which was followed by Bess’s address. Without doubt the matchbook belonged to the man who had stolen the Marvin jewelry. The person whom they had chased off the clipper was Fay, The Crow! Captain Easterly had been correct in his hunch. Their caller was a desperate character!
It took Captain Easterly a few minutes to follow Nancy’s reasoning. When he did, he became very much concerned.
“What was this unsavory character doing on my ship?” he stormed. “I don’t understand.”
Nancy agreed it was puzzling. “I’m sure now that Flip Fay and Red Quint are working together. Grizzle Face notified him where we are.”
“But what are they working at, that’s what I want to know.” The captain pounded the rail. “What is on this ship that robbers and kidnappers go creeping through her like a lot of devilish ghosts!”
Nancy gave him a puzzled smile. “I don’t know, Captain, but I’m going to find out what it is and where it is before somebody steals it!”
“Fine, fine,” he agreed. “But let’s not worry any more about it tonight,” he added, calming down. “That crook won’t be back in a hurry. He knows we’re waiting for him. Go to bed, Nancy, and be sure to lock your cabin door. We’ll have a conference over the breakfast pancakes.”
Nancy went below and slid quietly into her bunk without waking the other girls. She lay there a long time thinking about the many baffling things that had happened on the Bonny Scot since the first day when she and her father had come aboard to meet Captain Easterly.
She wondered whether Flip Fay and Grizzle Face had known each other before Fay came to Boston. Perhaps they had been to sea together and had learned something that had led them to the clipper. Could it be that Fay was the “mate” that Grizzle Face had referred to on the dunes? And what about the man who had drugged and kidnapped the captain—was he Fred Lane? What had become of him?
Nancy always came back to the original question—what was the true name of the Bonny Scot? It seemed impossible to get anywhere with the puzzle until they knew that. Undoubtedly Quint, Fay, and Lane called the ship something else.
They had heard some tale about the clipper’s past which had led them to believe a treasure was concealed on it. What was the treasure? Something very small, Nancy decided, or it would have been found long ago. Something small and priceless, something ...
Nancy awakened to the delicious odor of frying bacon, floating in from the galley. The bunks were empty. It must be late, she thought, jumping up.
Nancy quickly dressed and joined the captain and the girls, who were already at breakfast in the officer’s quarters. Bess and George were talkative, but Captain Easterly was silently thoughtful. He set down his cup of coffee onto the saucer with a little click of finality.
“Girls,” he announced with effort, “you can’t stay here any longer. None of you must remain another day on the
Bonny Scot!”
“What!” The three girls stared at him in amazement.
“It isn’t safe. Flip Fay was on board last night.” The skipper frowned. “And Nancy was up on deck chasing him.”
“Nancy, you weren’t?” Bess shuddered.
“Hypers! Why didn’t you call me?” George demanded.
Nancy said she would have, if she had guessed what was going to happen. She told them about the matchbook, and about her thoughts of the night before.
“We
must
find out if the original name of this clipper was the
Dream of Melissa,”
she said earnestly. “Captain Easterly, wouldn’t a ship’s name be marked on furniture and things?”
He gave her a shrewd smile. “You’re trying to distract me. The question before the council is, When do you girls leave?”
Bess protested vigorously, “We’re not going, Captain. We can’t leave you here all alone with these vicious characters sneaking around.”
“That goes for me, too,” George said stoutly.
“So you see, Captain,” Nancy concluded, “you may as well forget about dropping your crew over the side and take up the matter of the true name of the Bonny Scot.”
Captain Easterly rubbed his face with a big red hand and looked from one to the other. “I surrender. You may stay, but I’m going to arrange for a guard to watch this ship tonight. Now about the name being on furniture—how long do you think seagoing furniture lasts? The clipper’s been scudding around this world a good many years, and I would guess that most of her original fittings have been replaced.”
“Perhaps something remains,” said Nancy.
George rose to make more pancakes and went into the galley. She was gone an unusually long time.
“George, what’s keeping you?” Bess called.
A moment later her cousin cried out excitedly, “Come here, everybody! I’ve found it!”
CHAPTER XIV
A Strange Warning
NANCY and Bess dashed into the galley, followed by Captain Easterly.
George was on her hands and knees, her head under a crude wooden bench nailed to the floor. In her hand was a spoon which had fallen under the bench.
“Poke your head down here and look at thisl” she exclaimed.
Nancy dropped to the floor. On the underside of the bench she saw carved letters that made her gasp.
“Captain,” she cried, “it says Dr. of Mel. The
Bonny Scot
is the Dream of
Melissa!”
“What? Let me see!” Captain Easterly got down on his knees. “You’re right!”
“The snuffbox fits in, too,” Nancy reasoned, “because the master of the Dream of Melissa was Captain Perry Rogers.”
“And the carving on the snuffbox must be a copy of the figurehead of Captain Rogers’ ship!” George exulted.
Bess sighed thoughtfully. “That woman looked like somebody sweet and dreamy who might be named Melissa.”
BOOK: The Secret of the Wooden Lady
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