Mystery of the Glowing Eye Part 1

Mystery of the Glowing Eye.

CHAPTER I.

Runaway Helicopter.

THE hall telephone rang persistently. Nancy Drew, however, sat in the living room, lost in thought.

"What did Marty King mean by her remark?" the young detective mused.

Absentmindedly Nancy arose and went to the phone. It had stopped ringing and now no one was on the line.

"Oh dear! The call may have been important!" Nancy chided herself. Then, hoping the caller would try again, she sat down on the chair near the telephone table.

At once her mind reverted to Marty King. The twenty-four-year-old platinum blond was a recent graduate of nearby Bushwick Law School. She was working in Mr. Drew's office as a researcher.

"And not as a detective!" Nancy fumed. "She can't take the Anderson case away from me!"

The telephone rang again. Nancy's close friend Bess Marvin was calling.

"Hi!" said Nancy. "Have you been trying to get me?"

"No. Why?"

Nancy replied, "How about you and George coming over? I'll tell you why. I can't leave the house because Dad is expecting a new letter file to be delivered for his den, and I'm alone here."

The two girls arrived shortly. They were cousins and often a.s.sisted Nancy in her detective work. The three girls were a striking trio-Nancy, an attractive, slender, strawberry blond; Bess, a dimpled, blue-eyed blond, slightly overweight; and George Fayne, who enjoyed her boyish name and had short dark hair and a slim, straight figure.

"What's worrying you, Nancy?" Bess asked. "On the phone you sounded as if something horrible had happened."

"It's not that bad," Nancy replied, forcing a smile. "I guess it's a case of just plain jealousy."

"You jealous?" George scoffed. "That's one trait you don't have. Well, out with it!"

"It's about a young woman named Marty King who has recently come to work for Dad. She's a lawyer."

"Uh-uh!" Bess said with a little giggle. "You think she has a romantic interest in your dad, and/or vice versa."

Nancy was startled by the suggestion and hastened to a.s.sure her friends this was not the situation. "Marty King is trying to be an amateur detective-"

"And," George finished, "take your place." Nancy nodded. "Dad mentioned he has a case he thought I'd like to work on with you girls. It's about a glowing eye."

"Glowing eye!" George echoed. "Sounds intriguing."

"Yes," Nancy agreed. "But this morning Marty called me and said I wouldn't need to help-that she already had partly solved the case."

"The nerve of her!" George burst out. "What did your father say?"

"I haven't told him," Nancy replied. "And what's more, I'm not going to. Maybe he asked Marty to take over and-"

"Don't be silly," Bess cut in. "I'm sure your dad would never do such a thing."

Nancy wanted to believe this was true. But as Bess tried to console her friend, the young detective's thoughts drifted off. Would her father ever again discuss with her the cases that troubled him? What would it be like without a mystery for her to solve?

Tears formed in Nancy's eyes, but she smiled and said, "Thank you, Bess. Maybe I'm just making a mountain out of a molehill."

George put an arm about Nancy's shoulder. "Or maybe Miss King thinks she's a queen!" With a broad grin, George added, "Which mystery does my lady wish to solve today? Or shall we slay the wicked dragon-?"

"Enough, enough," Nancy interrupted, though she could not refrain from laughing at the pompous expression on George's face.

Paying no attention to her friend's remark, George bowed deeply. "Your Highness," she said, brandis.h.i.+ng an imaginary sword at her cousin.

"Your Low-ness," Bess replied. "How low will you go?"

George bent over so far that she lost her balance and fell forward. "Is that low enough?" she said, resting on her elbows and looking up into Bess's dimpled smile.

At that instant the three girls became aware of a loud whirring noise. It grew louder.

"That sounds like a copter!" Nancy exclaimed. "And it's right overhead!"

She dashed out the front door with her friends and looked up. A small twin-motor helicopter was descending.

"Nancy, it's going to land on your front lawn!" George cried out, and Bess ran back inside the house.

Nancy and George watched in fascination. The rotors suddenly stopped and the helicopter plummeted the last fifty feet. It hit the gra.s.s with a thud and the door flew open.

"Nancy, it's going to land on your lawn!" George cried out.

"The pilot!" Nancy exclaimed. "He must have been injured!"

She and George hurried to the helicopter. They could not see the pilot, so the two girls climbed up and peered inside.

No one was there!

By this time Bess had run out and joined the others. "I called the police. Was anyone hurt?" When she heard that the craft was a pilotless helicopter, she stared in amazement. "Are you sure?" she asked.

"Not a soul here," Nancy reported with a bewildered shrug.

The young detective, hoping to find a clue to the missing pilot, hopped aboard.

Nancy picked up an envelope which lay on the floor, face down. She turned it over. Her eyes opened wide in disbelief. The name on it was her own! There was no address.

"Did you find something?" George called up.

Nancy jumped down and showed her friends the sealed envelope. The handwriting, which they all recognized immediately, was that of her special friend Ned Nickerson. For a moment she could not speak.

But finally she said, "Perhaps Ned was in the copter and had to bail out!"