The Clue In The Crumbling Wall Part 17

She found the housekeeper gagged and tied to a chair in the kitchen.

"Are you all right?" Nancy asked anxiously as she released the woman.

"I'm not hurt," Hannah said hoa.r.s.ely. "But the nerve of those two!" She added angrily, "I was expecting you or your father, and when the bell rang I thought one of you had forgotten your key.

I didn't look out, just opened the door. Those men pushed right in, turned off the lights, and tied me up in my own kitchen!"

A few minutes later two officers arrived. Han- nah described one intruder as tall and thin, the other as short, stocky, and powerfully built. Both were masked. Nancy suspected they were Cobb and Biggs.

"They must have been watching for me," she said, "because they apparently knew my father was out. Also, they were careful to park some distance away, so I wouldn't see a strange car in front of the house."

Before leaving, one of the policemen called headquarters and arranged for a plainclothesman to keep an eye on the Drew house that night in case the suspects made another attempt to kidnap Nancy.

Mr. Drew arrived home half an hour later. He listened, deeply concerned, as his daughter and the housekeeper told what had happened.

"You're a brave and clever girl," he said to Nancy, "but from now on you must be extra careful. Obviously these men are desperate to get you off this case."

"Someone is giving them orders," she said. "I have a hunch it's Daniel Hector."

That night Nancy lay awake long after the others in the house were asleep. "The kidnappers wanted to keep me from going to Heath Castle,"

she reasoned. "Surely not because of anything I've seen there already. It must be because of something else hidden in the place."

An amazing idea struck her. Nancy could hardly wait to call Bess and George. Early the next morning she phoned them.

"What time is it?" Bess asked sleepily. Finally she became awake enough to say yes to Nancy's request that the three girls go out to the Heath estate.

"Okay," Bess said, "but let's play it safe. I don't want to be scared to death again."

George was eager for the adventure. She put a flashlight and police whistle into her pants pocket.

All three girls left notes at their homes since the families were not yet up. Nancy added to hers, "Please phone Lieutenant Masters where I am.

I want to follow up a hunch connected with the mystery out there."

When Nancy picked up the cousins in her car, they demanded a full explanation of the day's mission.

"It's my opinion that Daniel Hector or one of his men kidnapped the real Juliana," Nancy said.

"He'll hold her until Senora Fernandez can estab- lish her claim to the fortune. He'll take the lion's share of it and then disappear."

"But what does Heath Castle have to do with it?" Bess asked. "Do you think Juliana is im- prisoned there?"

"Yes, I do. Mr. Hector found out recently that I was hot on the trail of the real Juliana and he had to get her out of the way. What better hiding place for his prisoner than the castle? Then, of course, he'd have to keep me away from there, so he tried to have me kidnapped."

"Your reasoning sounds logical," George ad- mitted. "The crippled woman could have been brought to the place the night she left Jardin des Fleurs."

At the estate Nancy and her friends scaled the wall and dropped to the ground. As the three made their way toward the castle, they did not see nor hear the dogs.

"What worries me," said Nancy, "is whether we can get in. Of course, I have a key to the front door, but it may have been padlocked."

When they reached it the girls were amazed to find the door ajar.

"Hector may be here," Bess whispered wor- riedly. "Or perhaps Cobb and Biggs."

There was not a sound of anyone stirring about the premises. Noiselessly, Nancy and the girls slipped inside the castle.

"I have a hunch," Nancy whispered, "that Juli- ana is imprisoned in the tower, not in this build- ing. Let's look there first."

The girls tiptoed along the winding corridor to the courtyard garden where the entrances to the towers were. Nancy tried the door of the one in which she had been imprisoned. It was unlocked.

"Will you two please stand guard while I go upstairs?" she asked her friends.

They nodded, and Nancy ascended the circular iron staircase. She was gone several minutes. Bess was becoming uneasy about her friend when she heard Nancy returning.

"No one there," the young detective reported.

"I looked out over the grounds, too, but didn't see anything suspicious."

"Where next?" George asked.

"Here's a trap door," Nancy replied, pointing toward the floor. "What it opens into I haven't been able to find out. But some tools that weren't here before are in that corner now. I believe someone left them to lift the trap door."

Carefully Nancy inserted a finely edged tool in the crack, then slipped a thin chisel through the s.p.a.ce and depressed a catch. Using a crowbar, the girls raised the heavy metal door.

Cautiously they peered into the darkness be- low. Nancy and George snapped on their flash- lights. They revealed a flight of iron steps leading into a long corridor. Grilled doors opened from it.

"Anyone down there?" Nancy called.

No answer. Her own voice echoed weirdly. Just then Nancy thought she heard a sound like a moan. She hurried down the stairway, followed by Bess and George. Several cells lined one wall.

Nancy flashed her light into the first cell. It was a tiny room, musty and dark. The only visible sunlight filtered in through a high, barred win- dow.

"These rooms look like old dungeons," Bess commented with a little s.h.i.+ver.

"Probably the Heaths used them for storing food and other things," George said.

The next two cells were empty. But as the girls approached the fourth, they distinctly heard some- one moan. Pausing to listen, they caught a pitiful cry from the far end of the corridor.

"Let me out! Let me out! Please help me!"

Nancy, Bess, and George hurried up the pas- sageway. A small woman, crippled and weak, had pulled herself to the grilled doorway. She clung there, frightened and beseeching.

"Juliana Johnson!" Nancy said, recognizing the lovely face in Mrs. Fenimore's photographs.

"No! No!" The prisoner shrank back. "I am Miss Fleur."

"We'll talk about that later," Nancy told her kindly, and unbolted the door.

She and Bess a.s.sisted the woman along the musty corridor, while George beamed the flash- lights. It was slow work because of Juliana's weak condition.

Nancy introduced herself and the girls. "We've come to help you," she added. "Who brought you here?"

"Have you been mistreated?" Bess put in.

"I've had enough to eat and drink," the former dancer said. "But I've been so perplexed."

Questioned by Nancy, she revealed what had happened to her. A man, who had shown an identification card of a government agent, had taken her away from Jardin des Fleurs in a car.

"It was dark when we reached this place. I was hurried inside and locked in the cell. I was told it was because of not paying enough income tax,"

she ended the story. "What does it all mean?"

"That's not true," Nancy replied. "My father inquired. A great deal has happened since you left your home ten years ago," she added.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about!"

"You are Juliana Johnson," Nancy said with quiet conviction. "Why not admit it?"

"No, no, never!"

"Do you realize where you are now?" Nancy asked, taking a different tack. "You are at Heath Castle."

"Heath Castle! You mean-Walt-?"

"Walter Heath died a number of years ago,"

Nancy said gently. "He loved you to the end and willed all his property to you."

"Walt-dead!" the woman whispered. "Then he thought of me as I used to be-beautiful, and a talented dancer."

"He loved you for yourself," Bess spoke up.

"Not for your fame."

Juliana brushed a wisp of straggling gray hair from her eyes. Her slumping shoulders stiffened.

"But I've lost all my beauty!" he cried out.

"Oh, I want to be left alone. I have my farm.

Take me back there, please!"

"You mean you don't want Heath Castle?"

George asked.

"I loved Heath Castle, and I loved Walt,"

Juliana said brokenly, "But I hid myself away so that he never would see me in this condition. Per- haps this is foolish pride, but it seems best that I finish out my days as I am doing."

"Your sister Vera wants to be with you very much," said Nancy. "She is a widow now with a little girl who looks a great deal like you."

Juliana was deeply moved. "Vera has a daugh- ter?" she murmured. "Where is she?"

"The child's name is Joan. She and her mother, now Mrs. Fenimore, live in River Heights. Joan likes flowers and gardening, just as you do. I can't tell you the whole story now, but the two of then?

need you."

"If I had known before-" Juliana began. "At the beginning of my retirement I sent a letter to my sister but it came back. I had no idea where the was."

"Mrs. Fenimore and Joan want to leave the neighborhood where they live," Nancy put in.

"Joan would be so happy in these surroundings."

"Are the gardens still beautiful?" the former dancer asked dreamily.

Nancy hated to tell the woman the truth. She tried to soften it by saying, "They have been badly neglected. But they could be landscaped again. However, only a person who truly loved the place would want to do it."

"To me it would be a challenge," Juliana said with sudden spirit. "A memorial to Walt. But the castle and its grounds really are pretty large for three people."

"What a wonderful place it would be for hand- icapped children!" Bess mused.

"And I'd like to help them!" Juliana an- nounced. "Yes, I'll make this place a beautiful spot again! I'll bring Joan and Vera here. And later we'll see about the other children."

"Good!" Nancy said. "We'll take you right to your sister, and then I'll go to settle my score with Mr. Hector."

The group had finally reached the foot of the stairway. Before the former dancer could be helped up the steps, a sardonic laugh echoed down to them.

"I'll make sure you don't get out!" a voice threatened.

The next instant the trap door dropped into place with a crash. A heavy object was placed on top of it. Then all was quiet in the dungeon!

CHAPTER XIX.

Release and Capture.

Nancy darted up the stairway to try opening the trap door. As she had feared, it did not budge.

George and Bess pushed with all their might.

"It's hopeless," said Bess, panting.