Shambles!

NANCY was thunderstruck. Why would the two men talk about her in sign language? And what were they saying?

She watched them intently, wishing they would not go so fast. The girl detective tried hard to read what Otto August was communicating to his friend by filling in with blanks the letters she did not recognize.

Again she caught the words NANCY DREW. Carefully she stepped a little closer, making sure she would still be out of the men’s sight. They had paused and put their hands down.

“Oh, I hope they’ll go on, ” Nancy thought.

To her delight, they did resume their conversation. By concentrating very hard, Nancy figured out the next sentence, which read: CREW CAN -E-- --ND NEC--ACE.

Nancy tried to substitute several letters for the blank spaces, and finally came up with: CREW CAN HELP FIND NECKLACE.

Nancy caught her breath. Did they mean the crewmen on the Winschoten or some other crew? And were they talking about a stolen necklace?

She watched the men continue in sign language, but they were gesturing at such speed that she could not follow. She emitted a frustrated sigh. “I wish I remembered more of those letters! ” she thought. Then she recalled the scene at the dock in Rotterdam. “I suppose these people not only use the finger alphabet when they have to, as they did in the ship-to-pier episode, but as a general means of communication, ” she thought. “It’s a clever way to talk to one another and be sure not to be overheard.”

She became more suspicious than ever of Otto August. The man evidently was taking no chances of being overheard or having his conversation picked up by a hidden microphone.

Nancy also thought, “These men must automatically switch to finger language when they talk about their criminal activities.”

Suddenly her attention was drawn to the suspects again. They had begun to speak aloud to each other. This proved that August’s companion was not deaf. “I wonder who he is, ” Nancy thought, “and if they’re sharing a cabin. No doubt he’s one of the jewel thieves.”

The men were discussing whether they should go to the snack bar for a drink or wait until later in the afternoon. They grinned at each other, and a few seconds afterwards stood up, buttoned their shirts, and left.

Nancy hurried off because she did not want them to notice her. She went back to where her friends had been lounging, but the girls had left the deck.

“Maybe they felt they’d had enough sun and returned to the cabin to change, ” Nancy reasoned. “I’d better go there myself and tell them what I’ve just learned.”

She walked down to the lower deck and found Bess, George, and Nelda at the foot of the steps, about to ascend.

“Where have you been? ” Bess demanded. “We were worried about you! ”

“We looked for you in our cabin, but you weren’t there, ” George added.

“Listen, ” Nancy told them, “I have great news for you. How would you like to go to the coffee shop? I’m terribly thirsty. While we’re having something to drink, I’ll tell you about it.”

“Good idea, ” George said, and the others agreed, eager to hear Nancy’s story.

They went to the coffee shop, ordered sodas, and sat down at a corner table. While they were sipping the refreshing drinks, Nancy told them she had seen Otto August and a friend conversing in the finger language and spelling her name again.

Nelda frowned. “I don’t like this. Those are evil men. Nancy, do be careful.”

“I will be. But I haven’t told you the whole story.” She went on with the message she had figured out.

“Hypers! ” George exclaimed, when Nancy had finished. “That’s a new way to eavesdrop. Only one hitch. A lot of other words could end with nd besides find, which could change the meaning of the sentence. It could read: ‘CREW CAN HELP WIND NECKLACE—OR BIND.’ ”

“I know, ” Nancy admitted. “It’s a possibility. But in any case, there is no other meaning about my name. That was clear, and it was used twice.”

Bess spoke up. “Obviously they know you’re an amateur detective and they’re worried about what you might do.”

“Maybe so, ” Nancy said. “By the way, what did you do with the napkins I borrowed from the dining-room steward? I had left them by your chair, George.”

“I know.” George grinned. “We did a little sleuthing on our own with them.”

She explained that they had taken the table napkins and experimented to see where they floated to from various points of the ship.

“Did you come up with any conclusions? ” Nancy asked eagerly.

“We certainly did, ” Bess replied. “One of them came down from the promenade deck right to where little Bobby found the mask.”

Nancy was pleased. She added, “After the captain and Rod’s attackers fell down the stairs, they walked along the promenade deck and threw the masks overboard.”

George nodded. “But why didn’t they discard their robes the same way? ”

Nelda said with a giggle, “Maybe they weren’t wearing any clothes underneath! ”

When the girls reached their cabin, Nelda found that the door had been left unlocked.

“Heinrich must have been here and forgotten to lock up, ” she said, opening the door. A moment later she screamed.

The other girls crowded in close behind her and exclaimed in dismay at the sight before them.

The room was a shambles!

The room was a shambles!

Every drawer had been pulled out and ransacked, all the beds were torn apart, and every bit of luggage had been opened, the contents strewn all over the floor.

Nancy’s trunk had been yanked out and unpacked. Her clothes were scattered around.

“This is dreadful! ” Nelda burst out. “I wonder if anything was taken? ”

There was silence for a few minutes, while each girl looked for her own possessions to see if anything of value had been stolen from her luggage.

Finally Bess spoke. “Those intruders were not looking for jewelry, ” she said, “at least not my kind of costume jewelry.”

Nelda added, “And they weren’t searching for money, either. Some extra bills I had hidden in another purse are still here.”

“Oh, I’m so upset! ” Bess wailed. “All this frightens me, but it’s even worse for you, Nancy and Nelda.”

“Let’s call Heinrich and see what his reaction is, ” Nancy suggested. “Maybe he can tell us if he noticed anyone here.” She picked up the telephone. Moments later the steward arrived.

From the expression on his face they were sure that he was not guilty of taking part in the burglary

“Ach! Ach! ” he said, slapping a hand to his forehead. He went on speaking Dutch and the American girls could understand nothing he was saying. They stared at him, puzzled.

“Please tell us what you said in English, ” Nancy begged him.

Heinrich was greatly disturbed. “I locked this door—I know I did—when I finished working in the room. Someone obviously has a passkey and got in here! Oh, what am I going to do? I know I will be blamed for this. But I really do not know who was here! ”

Nancy said she was sorry the steward could not help them, but did not blame him for what had happened. She told him so. “Please don’t worry about this.”

“Thank you, ” Heinrich said, and turned around, still shaking his head in disbelief. He closed the door and walked out into the corridor.

George asked the other girls if they felt that the steward was telling the truth. All of them were sure he was.

“In any case, ” Nancy said, “the intruders did not find what they hoped to.”

She stopped speaking and looked out the porthole at the smooth green ocean. For several moments she stood lost in thought. The others glanced at her, sure she would get some idea as to who the would-be thieves were. Certainly they had not been just mischief-makers!

Mischief! At once Nancy thought of little Bobby. This was just the kind of joke he might play on the girls! “But how would he get in here? ” she reasoned, and immediately dismissed the thought that Bobby might be the culprit. “This job was more than a prank, ” she decided.

Suddenly the girl detective turned around. “I just had a horrible idea, ” she cried out. “If the intruders were the two men who were here before, looking for their trunk, maybe they found it and made a shambles of this room only as a cover-up! ”

“Oh, Nancy, you’re right! ” George said. “Perhaps the other trunk is gone! ”

Quickly Nelda got the keys for the adjoining cabin. The girls opened the door leading from one twenty-eight to one thirty and Nancy hurried in, followed by her friends.

The room was undisturbed. Hastily Nancy walked toward the wardrobe. Would the mysterious brass-bound trunk with the initials N.D. on it still be there?