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Mark of a Thief






 

NANCY tore the coat from her face. She was in small dark space, surrounded by clothing 01.ooks and hangers. It must be the captain’s wardrobe, she thought, as she tried to force the doo pen. It would not budge.

She could hear the intruder moving quickly bout the cabin, upsetting things, careless nov of the noise he made. If only she could catch glimpse of him!

Nancy put her eye close to the keyhole, but th they was in the lock and she could see nothing but glint of light. She began a careful search of the toor panels for some tiny crack through which he might watch the man’s movements.

At last she found one—a small hole halfway u he right panel where someone had driven a nai Nancy glued her eye to the tiny opening an waited with bated breath for the prowler to cross her line of vision. When he did, Nancy gave a little gasp.

Grizzle Face!

He had a chisel in his hand and began forcing the lock of one of the desk drawers. The fine wood splintered. Seizing the drawer, the man dumped its contents upon the floor. Then he did the same to the other two drawers. What was it he hoped to find?

Whatever the sailor wanted, it was not in the drawer. He abandoned the heap of things he had dumped out and began to explore the polished oak wall next to it. His big hands passed quickly over the wood, pressing here and there. Was he looking for a secret spring which would open one of the panels?

Then, as suddenly as he had come, Grizzle Face left. The cabin was silent. Nancy waited, wondering if he would return. Perhaps he had gone for an accomplice.

“Or he’s searching in another part of the ship, ” she said to herself.

Once more Nancy tried to force the door. It was heavy, and her only reward was a bruised shoulder. The air was becoming bad, too.

In a moment she sighed with relief. She had heard two familiar voices. Bess and George were coming down the companionway! She shouted and pounded on the wardrobe door.

“Nancy! ” Bess cried in a panic. “Where are you? ”

“I’m locked in the wardrobe, ” Nancy answered, but George had already turned the key to let her out.

“Hypers! ” George breathed. “Who locked you in here? ”

“Grizzle Face, and look what he did to Captain Easterly’s desk! ” Nancy said, pointing to the heap of assorted articles from the drawers. “He’s searching desperately for something—he even felt along the wall as if he hoped to find a secret panel.”

Nancy said she was sure he had been frightened off the clipper by the approach of the cousins.

“Then why didn’t we see him? ” Bess countered, edging toward the door.

Nancy reminded her of the mysterious exit of the old fellow that morning. He had probably left the same way.

“And I’m going to find out where the place is, ” Nancy determined.

“Not now, ” George suggested. “Let’s investigate this cabin. Do you suppose there is a secret panel? ”

“Oh, come on, ” Bess pleaded. “We can return in the morning, and Captain Easterly will be here to protect us, ” she urged.

“Why don’t you go ashore and wait? ” George suggested. “Nancy and I want to see if there’s anything to this secret-panel idea.”

Bess hesitated. She did not want to stay on the clipper, yet she did not like the idea of being thought a poor sport. Suddenly she had an idea. She would ask the dock guard to come aboard. Without telling the others her plan, Bess left the cabin.

George and Nancy continued their search. George had taken off one of her sandals and was tapping along the wall with it.

Bess had been gone only a minute when there came a bloodcurdling scream. Nancy and George rushed into the passageway and around a corner. Bess was huddled against the wall, shivering with fright.

“Oh, Nancy, ” she whispered, “a head came right up through the floor! ”

“What? ” George exclaimed in disbelief,

“It did. I saw it.”

“Where did you see it, Bess? ” Nancy asked quietly.

“Down there, in the middle of the passageway.” Bess pointed a shaking finger.

Nancy and George went to the spot and bent over to examine the floor. Nancy discovered a small hatch with an iron ring. She and George lifted it, despite Bess’s fearful protests.

“There’s a ladder, ” Nancy said excitedly. “It’s an escape hatch leading from the hold. If we’re going down, we’d better have a flashlight.”

“Nancy, you’re not going down there! ” Bess screamed. “He’s there! I know he is! ”

“That’s what we want to find out, ” Nancy told her firmly.

She already was hurrying back to the captain’s cabin, where she grabbed the flashlight from the shelf over the bunk, and then joined the others.

“Come on, George, ” she said, starting down the narrow wooden steps.

“What am I supposed to do? ” Bess wailed.

“Stand guard here, ” George told her.

Bess, not in the least comforted by this thought, decided to go with the others. Nancy, who was in the lead, stopped on the steps and swung her flashlight over the rough planking at the foot of the long, steep ladder. They could see some kegs and barrels, an oil drum, and a packing case.

There were plenty of places, Nancy decided, where a man could hide. It was completely dark, and the flashlight in her hand illuminated only a small space. She descended slowly, careful not to proceed until she was sure no one was hiding underneath the ladder.

The three girls reached the bottom of the steps. Staying close together, they began to work their way among the cases and barrels and coils of rope. After a while Nancy became convinced that there was no one else in the hold. George must have reached the same conclusion, for she said: “Nancy, he got away. I’m sure he’s not down here.”

“I wish we could be sure, ” Bess said weakly.

The girls quickly investigated as much of the cluttered space as they could without climbing over the stacked-up articles, but they found no trace of the intruder.

Then Nancy went forward alone. “Here’s the answer, ” she called, swinging her light over another ladder which led up to the lower deck. “He escaped through this hatch.”

The three girls hurried to the deck and went ashore. Nancy walked over to a warehouse guard lounging against a wall.

“Did you see a man come off the clipper a few minutes ago? ” she asked.

“Sorry, girls.” He shook his head. “I haven’t seen a soul. Has the captain been telling you his ghost stories? ”

“Captain Easterly is a truthful man, ” Nancy said loyally. “I saw the intruder myself—twice. He is about sixty, and has a grizzled beard.”

The watchman gave Nancy an odd look from under his black eyebrows. “I never saw anybody of that description around here, young lady. You a friend of Captain Easterly? ”

Nancy said she was, and hurried away before he could ask any more questions. The girls found a taxi and went straight to the hotel.

Bess threw herself on the bed and breathed an immense sigh of relief. “Am I glad to get away from that horrible old ship! ” she said. “No more mystery today! ”

After dinner the three girls went to a movie. Nancy was surprised that her father had not returned. He was not back by morning, either. Bess had lost her fright of the day before. The clear, warm day seemed to give her courage. After breakfast the three girls returned to the harbor.

They boarded the Bonny Scot, expecting to find Captain Easterly. Nancy shouted a “hello” into the interior. The only reply was the slight creaking of the vessel.

The captain’s morning paper, neatly folded, lay on the deck where it had been pitched by a delivery boy.

“Maybe something has happened to him in his cabin. I’m going down and take a look, ” Nancy declared.

“Please don’t, ” pleaded Bess, whose apprehension had returned. “Let the police investigate this.”

“If anything’s wrong with the captain, he needs us immediately, ” Nancy reasoned, hurrying down the companionway.

She found the door to his cabin standing open. The girl was shocked at the sight that met her eyes.

The captain’s bunk was torn apart, and the drawers beneath it had been forced out and splintered. The wardrobe door gaped open and clothing was strewn about the room. An old chest looked as though it had been hacked with an ax, and there were great gashes in the beautiful paneled walls.

“Oh, Nancy, ” Bess gasped, “who would do such a horrid thing? ”

“Who would do such a horrid thing? ” Bess gasped

 

George shook her head. “The captain will be terribly upset when he sees this. Old Grizzle Face must have come back during the night.”

“I’m calling the police right now, ” declared Nancy.

Detectives Mallory and O’Shea of the Boston Police Department arrived promptly. With thoroughness and efficiency they examined the damage in the captain’s cabin, and investigated the entire ship looking for some clue to the vandal. In the meantime, the girls straightened up Captain Easterly’s quarters as best they could.

Finally the detectives returned and summed up the situation. Detective O’Shea said, “There’s been unlawful trespass and considerable property damage, that’s plain. Whether there’s been robbery, too, only the captain himself can say. Know when he’ll be back? ”

Nancy told the officer she had not heard from the captain for two days. “My father and I were to meet him here yesterday morning. But Captain Easterly didn’t appear.”

“Know where the captain can be reached? ”

Nancy shook her head, frowning. “I honestly don’t think he expected to be away. He was very anxious to have my father—he’s a lawyer—trace the ship’s title. He’d surely want to keep the appointment.”

“And another thing, Captain Easterly knew someone had been coming aboard the Bonny Scot secretly. He wouldn’t leave it unguarded—the whole night.”

Mallory’s eyes narrowed. “Think there’s been foul play, Miss Drew? ”

“I hope not, ” Nancy said earnestly. She told the officers about the anonymous telephone call to her father in River Heights, warning him to stay away from the clipper ship. She also spoke of the mysterious sailor who had pushed her into the wardrobe.

“Describe him, please, ” O’Shea requested.

“We call him Grizzle Face, ” George put in. Nancy gave the detectives a detailed description of the sailor in dungarees. “Whoever he is, ” she added, “he must be looking for something of great value. That’s why I’m worried about Captain Easterly.”

“You mean you think the skipper has been kidnapped? ” Bess asked excitedly.

Detective Mallory frowned. “Let’s stick to facts, girls. Is there any other information you can give us? ”

Nancy, wondering if Flip Fay might be involved in any way, asked if they had been notified that the robbery suspect might be in Boston. O’Shea said he had seen the report on Fay.

“Do you know him? ” Mallory inquired.

“We all do, ” Nancy said. “He used to work at a service station in River Heights.”

“Why don’t we give you girls a ride to police headquarters? ” O’Shea suggested. “I think the lieutenant would like to talk to you.”

“Nancy, you can tell the lieutenant everything he wants to know, ” Bess suggested. “We’ll do some sightseeing and meet you at lunchtime.”

They settled on a restaurant in the center of the city. George and Bess left for a tour of the historic spots in Boston, and Nancy accompanied the detectives to headquarters to meet Lieutenant Hennessy.

At the lieutenant’s request, Nancy recounted once more the strange events which had taken place in River Heights before she and her father had come to Boston. She also described Flip Fay as accurately as she could.

“Anything else? ”

“Fay dropped a ring, which I found after the robbery and gave to the River Heights police. There was a strange F on it.”

“Strange? ” Hennessy repeated.

“Yes, it looked like—” Nancy searched her mind for the right word—“like a crow’s foot.”

Hennessy’s eyes widened. “Did you say a crow’s foot? ”

“Yes.”

The lieutenant went to a file of records, pulled out a folder, and handed Nancy a sheet of drawing paper.

“Something like this? ” he asked.

Nancy’s heart gave a leap. On the paper was the sketch of a symbol—the identical crow’s-foot F she had seen on Flip Fay’s ring!

“That’s exactly like it, Lieutenant Hennessy! ” she exclaimed.

The officer leaned back in his swivel chair, a smile of satisfaction on his face. “You say you think you saw this man here in Boston? ”

Nancy nodded. “Yesterday. Down at the waterfront, near the Bonny Scot. He drove away in a taxi, and I tried to follow in mine, but lost him.”

“Young lady, ” the lieutenant said gravely, “you’ve given us some very important information. This peculiar-looking F is the mark of a dangerous criminal. He’s known to the police as The Crow! ”






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