The Mannequin’s Hint

NANCY rushed to the telephone and called state police headquarters. After identifying herself as Carson Drew’s daughter, she said, “Will you please try to locate the gypsies that moved out of Winchester recently? And when you do, will someone from your office go there with me? ”

The officer listened carefully as she gave a summary of all the things that had happened in which she thought certain gypsies had been involved. She felt the guilty persons might be hiding in that tribe.

“We’ll start searching at once and let you know what we find out, ” the officer promised.

While waiting to hear from him, Nancy dashed over to Mrs. Struthers’ home to show her the strange blanket. Rose was having a music lesson and Nancy could hear the dear, true notes of a violin.

Nancy thought the teacher must be playing, but Mrs. Struthers smiled proudly and said, “That’s Rose. Isn’t she doing well? And her dancing is remarkable. Oh, Nancy, she’s so happy now, and I have you to thank for everything. If only we could find her father and the mysterious doll.”

“I have a new idea, ” Nancy announced. “It came to me after looking at this gift from some strange gypsy woman.”

Mrs. Struthers gazed in awe at the blanket and felt sure it carried an unfriendly warning. Nancy said she did not share the woman’s anxiety.

“I have a new theory I want to work on. To start I’d like a little more information about your daughter’s last illness. Would you mind if I ask the doctor about it? ”

“No, indeed. The physician was Dr. Tiffen. I’m sure he’ll talk with you, although he always says Enid’s illness was a puzzle to him.”

Nancy went to Dr. Tiffen’s office and learned that the illness was not so much a puzzle as he had pretended to Mrs. Struthers and her daughter.

“I did not think it wise to tell them. I knew Enid could not live long, ” the doctor revealed. “What did puzzle me, though, was that at times she seemed to have abundant energy, and at others she had almost none.”

“You gave her medication? ” Nancy asked.

“Oh, yes, but that was to ease the pain. In cases like hers, I know of nothing to prescribe to give a patient energy.”

“Dr. Tiffen, ” Nancy said, “I have a theory, which may sound crazy, but if you have time, may I tell you what it is? ”

“Every once in a while, ” he said, smiling, “a layman hits upon an idea that is a great boon to mankind.” Nancy explained that she had figured out that “source of light” meant the sun. Since energy comes from the sun, possibly, through some secret known to her, Rose’s mother had received momentary energy.

“You may be right, ” Dr. Tiffen said.

“If you think there’s something to my theory, I’ll try to find that ‘source of light, ’ ” the young detective declared.

Before Nancy reached her car, Dr. Tiffen called her back. “Mrs. Struthers is on the phone.”

She told Nancy that the police had just notified her that they had located part of her stolen property in a Winchester pawnshop.

“They’re holding several suspects and one of them may be the thief who stole my jeweled bag. He may also be the one who robbed the house. Could you go over to Winchester, Nancy, and identify him? ”

The girl glanced at her wrist watch. She could just about make it there and back before dark, and thus keep her promise to her father and Hannah that she would not stay out alone at night while working on the Struthers case.

“I’ll run right over, ” she agreed.

For the second time that day Nancy headed her car for Winchester. Should any of the men in the police line-up be those suspected as thieves, she hoped they would confess and clear up a large part of the mystery. Unfortunately she had never seen any of them before.

Early the next morning Nancy received a call from a state police officer. “Miss Drew, ” he said, “we’ve located those gypsies. They’re on the south side of Hancock. One of the men from the barracks near there will go with you. What time can you reach Hancock? ”

“About nine-thirty. Thank you very much.”

As soon as Nancy and Hannah had had breakfast, the girl detective went off, her hopes high. Now perhaps she would find Romano Pepito! If not, surely she would pick up a clue to the whereabouts of Anton, Nitaka, and perhaps even Murko. He might tell her who left the blanket with the strange message.

At exactly nine-thirty Nancy walked into the Hancock Barracks’ office. A uniformed state policeman named Wicks was assigned to accompany her to the gypsy settlement. As they approached the secluded place, the callers were greeted by barking dogs.

The warning sent gypsies scurrying toward their trailers. Women who had been cooking meat over brilliant-red fires hastily gathered their playing children and retreated. When the policeman addressed a question to a young woman who hurried past, she replied, “Ci janav.” He explained to Nancy that this mean, “I don’t know.”

The same reply was received from other fleeing figures. Evidently the gypsies had no intention of giving any information to the police!

One man did come forward and make a pretense of welcoming the couple. Nancy had never seen him before, nor any of the gypsies who were looking curiously from the doorways and windows of their trailers. So far as she could judge, these were not the people she had visited before.

Politely she asked if Zorus, Murko, Romano Pepito, Anton, Nitaka, Tony Wassel, or Henrietta Bostwick were there. The man shook his head at mention of each name.

“The persons I’m looking for aren’t here, ” she said to Wicks.

“Just the same, we’ll make sure and not take anyone’s word for it, ” he replied.

The officer investigated on his own, but came back convinced that the purse snatcher was not hiding in the camp.

“If he was here, he fled before we came, ” Wicks decided.

Nancy bought a string of beads from a young woman. Then she and Wicks left.

Nancy reached River Heights just as the clock in the town-hall tower chimed the midday hour. She loved to listen to it and often laughingly told Hannah that it made her feel as though the old bell were announcing the end of one adventure and the beginning of another.

“But today it means nothing more mysterious than a luncheon date with Bess and George, and a look at the mannequin doll’s wedding party, ” she reflected with a chuckle.

At one o’clock she met the cousins at the new restaurant Bess had recommended.

“Let’s walk to Taylor’s from here, ” Bess suggested after they finished a hearty meal. “I feel ten pounds heavier.”

The department store was only two blocks away. George told her cousin she should climb up the five flights to the doll exhibit as well, if she expected to reduce. Bess grimaced and got in the elevator.

The roped off area was already crowded when the girls entered, but they managed to make their way to the front and were thrilled at the exquisite scene on stage. Six dainty bridesmaids stood in attendance on a beautiful bride.

“Did you ever see anything so lovely? ” Bess whispered. “Especially the bride! She looks real enough to walk right down the aisle! ”

As Nancy gazed at the bride mannequin, her thoughts roved. She recalled the gypsy wedding at the carnival and how the child bride had received a symbolic doll as part of the ceremony. Then she recalled the photograph Mrs. Struthers had shown her of Rose’s mother in her white bridal gown.

“Girls, ” she whispered, excited, “we must go at once to Mrs. Struthers’. I believe I have the answer to the mystery! it’s in the old album after all! ”