Another Séance

REALIZING how serious their situation was, Ned urged Nancy to pull herself out of the quagmire by using him as a prop and jumping to firm ground.

“No, don’t ask me to do that, ” Nancy replied. “I might save myself, but you would be pushed so far down, I couldn’t possibly get help in time to pull you out.”

“If you don’t do it, we’ll both lose our lives, ” Ned argued. “Hurry, Nancy! We’re sinking fast! ”

Nancy refused to listen to his pleas. Instead, she began to shout for help, hoping that some of the chanters would hear her. Ned, too, called loudly until his voice was hoarse.

No one came, and they kept sinking deeper into the quicksand. Soon Nancy was up to her chest.

“I’m afraid there’s no help for us, ” Nancy said despairingly.

The youth scarcely heard her, for just then his feet struck something hard and firm.

“Nancy! ” he cried. “I’ve hit bottom! ”

Before she knew what was happening, he grasped her beneath the armpits and tugged hard. The muck gave a loud, sucking sound as it slowly and reluctantly released its hold. A few minutes later Nancy was safe and sound and on dry, firm ground, though she was plastered from heels to head with mud.

“You all right, Ned? ”

“I’m okay, ” he answered.

Nancy scrambled to her feet. Now she must get Ned out! Desperately she looked around for something she could use to rescue him.

“Hold everything, Ned. I’ll be back in a jiffy, ” Nancy called. She had remembered the long painter with which they had moored the motor-boat to the dock.

Nancy raced through the darkness to the river-bank. She flicked on the lights of the small speedboat, untied the stout Manila rope which tied it to the pier, and a few minutes later was back at the edge of the quagmire where Ned was patiently waiting. She threw one end of the rope to the boy who calmly tied a noose under his arms. He directed her to toss the other end over the limb of a tree and then pull steadily.

Nancy struggled desperately to pull Ned from the quicksand. As the rope tightened, Ned began slowly but surely to emerge from the mire. Soon he was able to help with his arms and legs, and at last he succeeded in scrambling to safety beside Nancy.

Nancy struggled to pull Ned from the quicksand

For several minutes neither was able to speak, so exhausted were they from their violent efforts. As the two looked at each other, suddenly both Nancy and Ned began to laugh hysterically.

“If you could only see what you look like! ” they exclaimed in the same breath.

Covered with mud and shaken by their unfortunate experience, their one desire was to get into clean clothes. The mystery, they decided, as they started back toward the dock, must wait for another time.

Later, at home once more and in dry clothes, Nancy began to wonder if Mrs. Putney had returned and whether she had been attending another seance. On a chance, she telephoned, but there was no answer. As Nancy reflected on her own adventure, she recalled the sound of chanting she and Ned had heard. Could it have come from Blackwood Hall? she wondered.

Immediately after breakfast the next morning, Nancy called at Mrs. Putney’s home. The widow, looking very pale and tired, was wearing a dressing gown.

“I was up very late last night, ” she explained. Then she added peevishly, “Why didn’t you call me yesterday? It seems to me you’re always away when I need you, ” Mrs. Putney grumbled. “Oh, dear! No one seems interested in my affairs—that is, no earthly being.”

Nancy, though annoyed by the woman’s attitude, was careful to hide her impatience. She realized that Mrs. Putney was a highly nervous individual, upset by the death of her husband, and recent events, and would have to be humored.

The widow remained stubbornly silent about telling where she had been the previous evening. Nancy, following a hunch, remarked:

“By the way, what were you chanting last night just before the sé ance? ”

Mrs. Putney leaned forward in her chair, staring at Nancy as one stupefied. For a moment she looked as if she were going to faint. Then she recovered herself and whispered:

“Nancy Drew, how did you know where I was last evening? ”

“Then it’s true you were at a sé ance again last night? ”

“Yes, Nancy. I tried to call you yesterday afternoon to let you know that I had been invited to another invocation of the spirits. But I couldn’t reach you. She took me there again last night.”

“She? ”

“The woman in the veil, ” Mrs. Putney explained. “Yesterday afternoon I was instructed by telephone to go to Masonville and have dinner at the Claridge. Afterward, the car would be waiting for me. We drove somewhere into the country, ” the widow went on. “It seems strange, but I fell asleep again and didn’t awaken until it was time to leave the car.”

Nancy thought it very strange, indeed. Had the woman been drugged?

“As I opened my eyes, a long, opaque veil was draped over my head. I was led a short distance, where I was told there were several other persons who, like myself, were veiled.”

“Did you learn their names? ” Nancy interposed eagerly.

“Oh, no. My companion warned that to avoid annoying the spirits, we were not to speak to one another or ask questions.”

“Then you all sang? ” Nancy prompted as the widow stopped speaking.

“Yes, a woman led us in a prayerful chant, ” Mrs. Putney continued, her voice growing wistful at the recollection. “After a while we were taken indoors and the spirits came. They spoke to us through the control.”

“How can you be certain it wasn’t a trick? ”

“Because my husband called me Addie. My first name is Adeline, you know, but he always liked Addie better. No one besides my husband ever called me by that name.”

“Tricksters easily might have learned of it, ” Nancy pointed out. “The information could have been obtained from neighbors or relatives.”

Apparently not listening, Mrs. Putney began to pace the floor nervously. “The spirits advised each of us to contribute money to carry on their earthly mission, ” she revealed.

“And what is that mission? ”

The widow gave Nancy a quick look and replied, “We’re supposed to turn money over to the earthly beings who make spiritual communication possible for us. Full instructions will be sent later. I gave them only fifty dollars last night. I felt I had to do that because everyone was giving something.”

“A profitable night’s work for those people! ” Nancy remarked caustically. “You mustn’t give another penny.”

Mrs. Putney gave Nancy a cold stare. “Everything so far has seemed quite honest to me, ” she said.

Nancy was dismayed to realize that the widow was fast falling under the spell of the phonies who were trying to fleece her.

“Don’t forget your jewelry was stolen, ” Nancy reminded her.

“I’m sure these people had nothing to do with that, Nancy.”

“Mrs. Putney, at any time during the sé ance did you hear cries for help? ”

“Why, no, ” the woman replied, startled. “Everything was very quiet.” Then she added, “When the sé ance was over, I was taken outside again and helped into the car.”

“Still veiled? ”

“Oh, yes.” A faraway look again came into her eyes. “You know, the trip home was like a dream. To tell the truth, I don’t seem to remember anything about it. The next thing I really knew was that it was morning and I was lying on the divan in this very room.”

Nancy was greatly disturbed at hearing this. It sounded too much like the strange actions of Lola and Sadie. She asked Mrs. Putney if she had been given anything to eat or drink before leaving the sé ance. The answer was No. She had noticed no unusual odors, either. Nancy was puzzled; somehow, the mediums must have brought on a kind of hypnotic sleep.

“Please don’t ask me to give up the chance to get messages from my dear, departed husband, ” Mrs. Putney said, forestalling what Nancy was about to request.

Instead, on a sudden inspiration, Nancy told her to continue attending the sé ances, but asked to be kept informed of what happened. Pleased, Mrs. Putney promised, not realizing that Nancy hoped in this way to get evidence against the group. Then, at the proper moment, she would expose their trickery.

“I’ll have to get busy before these people become suspicious and skip, ” Nancy said to herself as she drove home.

When Nancy told her father about the strange occurrences at Blackwood Hall, he agreed that the place should be thoroughly investigated to find out if fake sé ances were being carried on there.

“Nancy, I’m afraid to have you go near that place again, ” the lawyer said. “It sounds dangerous to me. Besides, we have no right to search anyone’s property without a warrant. Perhaps your crowd of spirit-invoking fakers have rented the Humphrey mansion.”

“But, Dad, everything depends upon it. Won’t you go with me, and maybe Ned too? ”

On the verge of refusing, Mr. Drew caught the eager, pleading look in his daughter’s eyes. Also, he realized that they might very well make important discoveries at Blackwood Hall and the thought intrigued him.

“Tell you what! ” he offered impulsively. “If Ned can go with us, we’ll start out right after lunch! And I’ll take care of the warrant. Captain McGinnis will fix me up.”

Nancy ran to the telephone. “With both you and Ned to help me, ” she said excitedly, “that ghost is as good as trapped now! ”