Stolen Documents

WHEN Nancy peered inside the wardrobe, she exclaimed, “Boy, am I relieved. The mystery trunk is still here! ”

“That means, ” Bess said, “that the intruders have no idea that we have access to this cabin.”

Nelda said, “Let’s take the trunk out and look for more treasure right now.”

“I’d like to, ” Nancy said, “but first, perhaps we should notify the captain about the break-in.”

Nelda nodded. “I’ll call my uncle right away, ” she offered, and went back into their own cabin to use the phone.

The captain was not in his quarters, but a junior officer who was there answered and said he would locate Captain Detweiler so he could take care of the matter at once.

While waiting for him to arrive, the girls carried the mystery trunk from the wardrobe. Nancy unlocked and opened it. Using all her fingers she felt the inside of the lid carefully. Suddenly the young detective paused.

“George, look at this spot, ” she said, “or rather, feel it. Right over here! ”

George knelt on the floor and touched the area Nancy had indicated. “It’s a bit lumpy in several places, ” she announced.

“That’s what I thought. I’m inclined to think something is hidden under here! ”

Bess and Nelda touched the places and were convinced that Nancy was on the right track.

“Before you take off the paper, though, ” Bess suggested, “maybe you’d better wait until someone comes about the break-in of our cabin.”

“You’re right. Let’s go back into one twenty-eight and wait for whoever is coming.”

The three girls put the trunk back into the wardrobe, then went into their own room. While waiting, they discussed what had happened. George said, “You have two real suspects, Nancy. Otto August and the person he was talking to in the finger language.”

Bess agreed with her cousin and said, “I’m sure that they’re at least in league with whoever broke in here. In fact, they might have been the ones! ”

“That’s right, ” Nancy agreed. “They could have done it after they left the deck and while we were in the coffee shop! ”

“But why did they tear up our room? ” Nelda asked. “They could see the trunk wasn’t in it.”

“Maybe they thought we had found the jewels and hidden them in our cabin, ” Nancy reasoned.

“And since they didn’t find what they came for, they might even try it again, ” George said with a shudder.

Nancy nodded. “I have a horrible feeling that these people will stop at nothing! ” she declared.

Guesses and theories about the subject were propounded by each girl during the next ten minutes. Then a knock sounded on the corridor door. Rod Havelock stood there.

“More trouble down here? ” he asked.

“Take a look yourself, ” Nancy replied.

The assistant purser stepped inside and gasped. “Wow! ” he said. “Your intruder did a thorough job of pulling everything apart! ”

They closed the door and locked it, then walked forward.

Nancy said, “We haven’t found any evidence as to who was here, but we have our suspicions.”

“Is anything missing? ” Rod asked.

“Not that we know of so far, ” George replied.

In a low voice Nancy told Rod about their assumption that Otto August and his friend or other gang members who might be on board had been the intruders.

“That would be very hard to prove, ” the young man said. “You say there is no evidence? ”

Nancy now told him what she had figured out from the finger language Otto August and his confederate were using. “But neither man is deaf, ” she stated. “I think they are part of a ring of jewel thieves who use the finger alphabet as a cover-up to communicate with one another for their operations.”

Rod Havelock whistled. “Nancy, you may not have any real evidence, but you’re collecting a number of damaging clues.”

“I hope they’ll lead to something in the end, ” Nancy said.

“I think we found something concrete in the trunk, ” George said, and revealed that Nancy and her friends had already started to examine the mysterious piece of luggage again.

“The inside of the lid has a number of lumps in it, ” Nancy added. “Would you like to help us uncover whatever is there? ”

The assistant purser smiled. “I’d like nothing better. Let’s go to work! ”

Bess spoke up and said she could not live in their room the way it looked. “Suppose George, Nelda, and I clean it up while you two go into cabin one thirty and see what you can find? ”

Before entering the adjoining room, Rod suggested that the whole matter be kept secret. Bess revealed that Heinrich already knew about the break-in, but had denied knowing about any intruders and what they were doing. He declared he had not seen anyone come in or leave one twenty-eight after he had tidied the cabin.

Rod said, “He probably has a bit of a guilty feeling, so I doubt that he’d talk. As for the rest of us, shall we say nothing about it to anyone else? ”

The others agreed, thinking it a wise idea. Bess grinned, “Mum’s the word.”

Nancy and Havelock entered the adjoining cabin, took out the brass-bound trunk, and once more Nancy opened it. She showed her companion the uneven places she had discovered on the inside of the lid.

“It seems suspicious, ” the assistant purser remarked. “I wonder if there are more jewels under this flowered paper.”

Nancy said, “I’ll get a steaming towel and a little chisel from the tool kit the captain lent me. The towel worked before, so I hope it will this time, too.”

“Let’s try it, ” Rod said, and Nancy went to get her equipment.

Very carefully the girl detective began to peel off the paper at one end. The work was slow, so Rod got another towel. Using this and a penknife, he began to loosen the paper on the other end of the lid. Between the two of them, they made quick headway.

Long before they finished, however, Bess, George, and Nelda had straightened out cabin one twenty-eight. They came in to watch.

“You’re making progress, ” Nelda remarked.

Finally the paper was removed in sections. Underneath lay a thin sheet of plywood.

Nancy now chose an awl from the captain’s kit and was able to pull up the plywood. Papers and documents tumbled from the lid into the trunk!

“What do you suppose these are? ” Bess asked. “Something important? ”

Rod picked up one of the papers, spread it out, and looked at the words intently.

“It’s in Dutch, ” he said. “I can read only a little of that language. Part of it is handwritten and I can’t figure it out. Nelda, how about your trying to translate it? ”

The girl from Johannesburg picked up paper after paper and read the contents. Several times she frowned as she finished one and put it down.

“What do they say? ” Bess asked impatiently.

Nelda did not reply at once. She kept going from one document to another. Some seemed to be letters; others looked like business contracts.

There was complete silence in the cabin for some time. Finally Nelda turned around and faced the others.

Her voice was tense as she said, “These are secret papers that tell of a newly discovered diamond mine in South Africa. I judge that they have been stolen from the government offices in Johannesburg. They should not be in the hands of outsiders, especially jewel thieves! ”

Everyone in the room was astonished. Each had the same question. Had these letters and documents been stolen by the same people who put the jewels in the mystery trunk, or did the girls now have another mystery to solve?