A Strange Adventure

BESS screamed in terror. George, with more presence of mind, groped along the wall until she found a light switch she had noticed earlier. In another moment the room was bright again.

Both girls gasped in horror at what they saw. On the floor, almost at their feet, lay the photographer, unconscious! Bess started toward the man, but checked herself as George demanded:

“Where’s Nancy? ”

Their friend had vanished from the studio!

In their alarm, the cousins temporarily forgot the photographer. Frantically they ran into the darkroom, then into an adjoining kitchenette.

“Nancy! ” George shouted. “Where are you? ”

There was no answer.

“Nancy’s gone and that photographer isn’t regaining consciousness, ” Bess wailed. “What shall we do? ”

“We must call the police, ” George decided.

Rushing out of the studio and down the iron steps, the girls ran through the deserted courtyard to the street. Fortunately, a policeman was less than half a block away. Hurrying up to him, George and Bess gasped out their story.

Immediately the patrolman accompanied the girls to the studio. As they entered, the photographer stirred slightly and sat up.

“What happened? ” he mumbled.

“That’s what we want to know, ” demanded the policeman. “What goes on here? ”

“I was showing these girls a plate I’d just developed, when the lights went out. Something struck me on the head. That’s all I remember.”

“What became of the girl with us? ” Bess asked.

The photographer, pulling himself on to a couch, gazed at her coldly and shrugged.

“How should I know? ” he retorted.

“And where is the plate with the writing on it? ” George suddenly demanded.

“The spirits must have been angry and taken it, ” the photographer said. “I’ve known them to do worse things than that.”

The policeman appeared to be skeptical. He searched the building thoroughly, but no trace of Nancy or of the missing plate could be found.

Worried over Nancy’s safety, and scarcely knowing what to do, Bess and George demanded the arrest of the photographer. The policeman, however, pointed out that they had no evidence against the photographer.

“Now don’t you worry, young ladies. Your friend can’t be far away. We’ll have some detectives on the job right away. But I’ll have to ask you to step around to the precinct station and give us a description of Nancy Drew.”

Shortly afterward, Bess and George, considerably shaken, returned to their hotel. There, nervously pacing the floor, they debated whether to send a wire to River Heights.

“If Nancy doesn’t show up in another half hour, we’d better notify Mr. Drew, ” Bess quavered. “To tell the truth, I’m so scared—”

“Listen! ” George commanded.

Footsteps had sounded in the corridor, and now the door of the suite was opening. The two girls waited tensely. Nancy tottered in. Her hair was disheveled and her clothing wrinkled and soiled. Wearily she threw herself on the bed.

She greeted them with a wan smile. “Hello.”

Bess and George ran to her solicitously. “Are you all right? What happened? ”

Nancy told them how the hand had clutched at her throat when the lights went out in the studio.

“I tried to scream and couldn’t. I was lifted bodily and carried out of the room.”

“Where? ” George asked.

“I couldn’t see. A cold, wet cloth was clapped over my face. I was taken to the basement of a vacant house not far away and left there, bound hand and foot.”

“How did you get away? ” George questioned.

“I kept working until I was able to wriggle out of the cords. Then I climbed through a window and came straight here.”

“Did you get the number of the house? ” asked George. “I think we should get a policeman and investigate.”

Nancy nodded. “We’ll go to the police station as soon as I have a bath and change my clothes.”

While Nancy was dressing, the girls discussed their recent experiences. George and Nancy were equally sure the photographer had resorted to trickery in putting the message on the plate.

“He could do it easily, ” George argued. “Maybe he used a plate which already had been exposed to the printed words.”

“I believe there’s more to it than that, George, ” Nancy told her. “I think the woman who spoke to us on the plane figures in it. I saw her at the studio, ” Nancy disclosed. “I’m convinced the photographer was part of a scheme and only pretended to be knocked unconscious. We must get that plate with the message on it.”

“It’s gone, ” said George.

This news added to Nancy’s suspicions about the whole adventure. As soon as she was dressed, the girls returned to the police station, and an officer was assigned to accompany them. A careful search was made of the vacant building where Nancy had been imprisoned, but not a clue could be found. Even the cords which had bound her had disappeared.

To their surprise the policeman remarked soberly, “This isn’t the first time queer things have happened in this section of the city.”

No additional information was gained by calling on the photographer, who maintained his innocence in the affair. Bess and George obtained their pictures, but the man insisted that the plate with the spirit writing had disappeared.

When the girls were in their hotel suite once more, George remarked, “Queer about the warning message—‘Beware your client’s request.’ Do you think it meant Mrs. Putney’s case? ”

“I’m sure it does. But, ” Nancy said with a determined smile, “now I’ll work even harder to solve the mystery! ”

“Nancy, ” said Bess, “is there anything else we can do down here? I feel we should go home and report to Mrs. Putney.”

“Maybe she’s had another message! ” said George.

“Do you suppose she goes to sé ances? ” Bess asked, “and then later dreams she’s hearing her husband talk to her? ”

“It’s possible, ” Nancy replied. “But it would be hard to get her to admit it.”

Bess and George were glad to leave New Orleans. Nancy’s experience had frightened them, and they felt that some sinister motive was back of her temporary abduction. Nancy herself was reluctant to leave.

“I think several people were involved in an effort to get me out of the way so that I couldn’t find out too much, ” she said.

Despite the danger, she thought a further search should be made for the mysterious woman. Yet she agreed there was some justice in the girls’ argument that Mrs. Putney should be consulted.

Learning that a plane which stopped at River Heights left within an hour, the girls quickly packed and reached the airport just in time. The trip home was uneventful, but during the flight, Bess revealed that she had a little mystery.

“That’s what I wanted to ask Amurah, ” said Bess. “You remember Mrs. White, who comes to our house once a week to clean? She has a daughter, Lola, who is eighteen. Her mother’s terribly worried about her.”

Nancy recalled the woman, a very gentle, patient person who had suffered a great deal of misfortune. At present her husband was in a sanatorium, and she was struggling to pay the debts his illness had piled up.

“Where does the mystery come in? ” Nancy asked.

It seemed that lately, Lola, ordinarily good-natured and jolly, had become unnaturally subdued. She acted as if she were living in a dream world. Mrs. White said there had been no broken romance, nor had her daughter lost her job.

“In fact, ” said Bess, “Lola earns good wages at a factory and used to give her mother most of the money. Now she gives her practically nothing but won’t say why. Something has happened to her, ” Bess insisted. “Oh, Nancy, won’t you go to see Lola? Maybe she’ll tell you what’s wrong.”

“All right, I will, ” Nancy promised.

Nancy kept her promise the day after she returned from New Orleans. After calling Mrs. Putney and making an appointment for the following day, she started for Lola White’s home, wondering what she would say.

Evidently Bess had told Mrs. White she might expect the visit from Nancy. No sooner had Nancy rapped, than the door was opened by Lola’s mother. It was evident that she had been crying.

“Oh, Nancy, I’m so relieved you’ve come! ” she said, her voice trembling. “Lola didn’t go to work today. Ever since breakfast she’s acted like someone in a trance. Please see if you can do something for her! ”