by Mabel Maney
"I can't get this damn girl to talk," the priest scowled, glaring daggers at Velma. "Perhaps one of her little friends would like go for a swim. Then maybe she'll remember where she hid that negative," he cackled, turning toward what he thought were his cohorts. His smile crumbled when he found himself looking down the barrel of a gun.
"Don't shoot!" he cried, grabbing the back of Velma's chair and tipping her dangerously near the bubbling pool of scalding water. "If I go down, she goes with me," he hissed. "Hand over the gun."
"No...no," Midge said, her voice trailing off into a little sob. She laid her gun on the floor, and kicked it over to the priest. He let go of the chair and picked up the gun. He pointed it straight at Midge.
"You have the wrong girl there," Midge cried. "I've got what you want."
"Where is it?" the priest cried, his eyes narrowing with suspicion.
"First, let her go," Midge demanded.
"Not until you show me the negative," the priest cried, his voice shaking with rage.
"I have it in safekeeping with a friend," Midge said. "If you let Velma go, I'll lead you right to it." She could tell he didn't believe her, so she described the negative to him.
"It'll look great on the front page of every newspaper in America," she added. "Which is where it will be if we don't get out of here alive.
"I'll lead you to it, but only if you let the girl go!" she repeated. "You and I will walk out of here together."
Beads of sweat appeared on the priest's upper lip. His eyes darted back and forth nervously. "He looks like a cornered rat," thought Midge, "only not so intelligent."
"Midge, if you don't make it, I don't want to either," Velma cried. "I couldn't bear life without you!"
"My, what a touching little scene," the priest cooed viciously.
"He'll shoot you for sure, once he gets what he wants. Why, I overheard him say he's going to blow up the convent!" Velma burst into tears.
"Shut up, you," the priest cried, smacking Velma across her pretty face.
Midge forgot all about the gun pointed straight at her and lunged at the evil priest. She grabbed him around his scrawny neck and squeezed with all her might. The strong girl shook the man to and fro, squeezing his neck until his eyes threatened to pop out of his face. His arms flailed about like a rag doll's. The gun went off.
Velma screamed. "Behind you, Midge! Someone's been shot!"
"Oh, my god, Lauren!" Jackie cried.
Midge released her hold on the priest, who slumped to the ground gasping for air. A look of despair crossed Midge's face when she saw the limp figure of the girl sprawled across the doorway. She raced to her side.
Jackie knelt over Lauren's body. "We were just rushing in to help, and she took a bullet in the chest," she cried, checking Lauren's pulse. "She's still alive, but her pulse is faint!"
"Such a sweet kid," Midge murmured.
"Midge! Look out!" Velma cried.
But they were too late, for the evil priest had recovered, and was advancing on the girls. In his shaky hand was the gun!
"Now you're all my prisoners," he growled, rubbing the bruises on his throat. "I don't believe you've hidden that negative. Hand it over."
But Midge refused. She knew that their only chance of staying alive would be to hang on to that negative!
Just then an altar boy sporting a black eye hobbled in, carrying a tray of food. "I've got your stewed prunes, Father," he said. He hopped over Lauren's body, put down the tray and made a face at the girls. "These are the nasty girls who beat me up," he whined.
"Search her," the priest commanded, pointing to Midge.
The boy complied without a word. Midge grimaced as she felt his slimy hands running over her body. He found the envelope containing the negative in the right heel of Midge's sturdy black loafer.
The priest examined the negative carefully. "This is it," he cried, jigging for joy. He cackled with delight as he danced over to the pool and dropped the negative in.
"Now that I've discovered where those crazy nuns hid that body, thanks to you girls, all the evidence is destroyed. Get up against that wall-now!" he snapped, waving toward the wall with his gun.
"And you," he said, pointing to the altar boy. "Get that body out of the doorway. And then scram."
Tears filled Jackie's huge black eyes when she saw Lauren's limp body being dragged across the floor.
"You'll never get away with this," Jackie threatened.
"Sure I will. It's all worked out just the way I planned."
He related a tale so ghastly the girls gasped in horror. The more he talked the giddier he got, until the girls knew every gruesome detail of his fiendish plot.
"When Bishop Clarence ordered me to seize this land, I thought it would be a simple matter of getting rid of the Mother Superior. But it wasn't that simple. I discovered that instead of naming the church as beneficiary, as good nuns do, the willed all her property to some damn woman!
"I had to have this land!" he shrieked. "The Bishop said if I took care of this, I'd go all the way to Rome!"
"So one day I followed your Mother Superior on one of her many trips to San Francisco. I followed her to Lindy Lane, where I overheard her discussing plans to renovate the underground rooms of the convent with her friend Gertrudethat nosy dame who's been hanging around here for years. I should have put a stop to that long ago," he grumbled.
"They're both down there now," he gloated.
"I broke into her house and found all the evidence I needed to implicate these nuns in the biggest kidnapping ring of the century. It will be quite a feather in my cap to find all those missing wives and children!
"You should have seen her expression when I told her I was going to inform the authorities of the devilish activities going on here! She promised me she would pack and go, and sign over the land to me, too.
"But then my beautiful plan was foiled by some nun with a camera. That murder wasn't even my fault," he complained. "I struck out in self-defense to keep that nosy accountant from the Catholic Men's Club from going to the police with his little story of embezzlement.
"I was trapped! What could I do? I had already told the Bishop the land was practically mine! Then that damn Mother Superior skipped town with the negative, but I got her back. I had to kidnap a few more nuns than planned, but now I've finally got the negative back, too.
"We've been trying to tame this bunch of nuns for a long time, and we're finally going to succeed. Ha, ha, ha!" he laughed victoriously. He backed toward the door, his gun trained on the girls. "I've got a bomb hooked up in the bell tower. When the bell chimes three o'clock, it will detonate, and this place will be blown to smithereens!
"I'd shoot you now, but I think you'll want to use this last bit of time to reflect upon your sins," he sneered.
Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, Cherry Aimless came hurtling through the open doorway, knocking the priest so hard that he flew right into the deadly pool!
"Golly," she cried, racing to the edge of the pit and reaching out a helping hand. "Don't worry, I'm a nurse."
"Don't save him!" Midge cried. "He imprisoned your aunt and countless other women!"
Cherry searched her heart, but she could find no compassion for this man. She snatched away her outstretched hand and the priest slipped into the steamy abyss.
Quick as a flash Midge untied Velma, who fell into her arms. "I can't believe he killed that little girl," she sobbed.
"I am not a little girl," Lauren hollered. She sat straight up. "And I'm not dead either!" She pulled the stuffed bear out of the front pocket of her overalls. "Billy took the bullet for me," she said solemnly, pointing to a hole in the bear's head.
Jackie swept Lauren up in her strong arms and exclaimed, "You are one lucky little punk." Lauren squirmed in embarrassment. "Put me down," she demanded, secretly pleased by the attention.
"I'll never make fun of that stupid bear again," Midge said solemnly.
Lauren rubbed a bruise on her temple. "I mus
t have knocked myself out when I hit the floor," she said. "What's going on?"
"All this is a mystery to me, too!" Cherry cried.
"Good work, Cherry," Jackie beamed. "Your timing was perfect."
"Is this who I think it is?" Jackie asked, reaching out to shake hands with the titian-haired stranger at Cherry's side.
Midge slapped Cherry on the back after Nancy introduced herself. "Good work!" she cried. "You're a better detective than I thought.
"We've all got a lot of explaining to do," Midge added, "but first we've got to disarm a bomb and free some nuns. Does anyone besides me know how to dismantle an explosive?" They all shook their heads.
"They don't allow girls on the Bomb Squad," Jackie said. She laughed. "I think they're afraid to let girls learn too much about bombs."
"I'll have to do it, and the rest of you will have to find the nuns."
"And there are more armed deacons somewhere in the convent," Jackie added. "So we're not out of danger yet."
"But I don't know anything about capturing criminals," Cherry protested.
"I do," Nancy volunteered, remembering that in The Case of The Twice-Burnt Toast she had overpowered a gang of criminals using just the contents of her purse.
"I'd better get to the bell tower," Midge said. Velma, refusing to be parted from Midge for another second, insisted she would accompany her on her mission.
"And the rest of us will find the nuns and free them! But no matter what, we all have to be out of here within twenty minutes," Jackie said sternly.
Everyone agreed, and after synchronizing their watches to Cherry's sturdy nurse's watch, the girls hurried out of the boiler room to complete their dangerous assignments.
* * *
CHAPTER 20
* * *
The Countdown Begins
Midge led them back into the cellar. "Remember what I told you earlier about the tunnel under the hamper?" she said to Jackie. "That leads to underground rooms."
Cherry checked her watch. "Golly, we've got to hurry. There's only seventeen minutes left!" Midge grabbed Velma's hand and started up the spiral stone stairway.
"I've had lots of experience with tunnels," Nancy called up the stairs after her. "I feel confident that we can find our way."
Under Jackie's guidance, the girls pushed the heavy hamper aside. Jackie knelt down and rapped on the solid slab of stone underneath.
"This must lift up somehow," she said, feeling around the edges for a crack. She found a space big enough to put her fingers in, and after rolling up her sleeves, she lifted the slab out of their way. Cherry secretly thrilled at the sight of Jackie's powerful arms straining under the weight of the stone. Underneath was a chute, but it was too dark to see where it led!
Nancy fearlessly jumped into the chute.
"Oh, I hope I don't get too dirty," moaned Cherry, as she, too, lowered herself into the opening. Halfway down the chute she got stuck, and it took some pushing from Jackie to dislodge her. Cherry and Jackie tumbled through the duct, and landed together on the stone floor.
"Oh!" Cherry cried, struggling to pull down her skirt, which had flown up above her waist.
Jackie rolled off of her and grinned. "Let me get that for you, Cherry," she offered helpfully.
Cherry stood up and smoothed her skirt. "It's awfully warm in here!" she exclaimed, her face blazing with embarrassment.
Jackie rose to her feet just in time to catch Lauren before she hit her head for the second time that day. The girl had impetuously jumped head-first through the chute.
"Hey, look!" Lauren cried.
For there in the corner sat Nancy Clue, with the three armed deacons bound and gagged at her feet!
"Wow!" Jackie cried. "Some day you've got to show me how you did that so fast."
"Oh," Nancy said modestly, "it was nothing."
Cherry , checked her watch. "We must hurry," she urged. "Time's running out." The girls rushed off down a brightlylit passage. No more than a dozen feet into their journey, they were surprised to find the tunnel split off in two directions.
"Midge didn't say anything about a fork in the road!" Nancy cried. "This must be a recent addition." She put her finger to her pretty face and frowned. "Let's see. There was a tunnel in The Case of the Lingering Lilies. I got trapped in one. Why, I would have perished had my little clog Gogo not alerted my chums Bess and George to my whereabouts!
"I stayed in that tunnel for three clays before being freed. Luckily I had a loaf of bread, chocolate bars, oranges and some milk in my purse," she recalled. "But that's really of no hell) to us," she added sadly.
"Would this help?" Cherry said brightly, pulling out the map she had found in Aunt Gert's secret room. "I was just fishing through my purse for some chewing gum when I found it. It could be a map of these tunnels."
Nancy's bright blue eyes flashed with delight. "This has got to be it," she said, after examining the piece of paper in Cherry's hand.
"Yes, look. On this map, the tunnel leading to the dormitory branches off to the left," Jackie pointed out. "Let's go!" she said, leading the way down the path.
Lauren trotted along eagerly behind her.
Cherry slipped out of her heels. "It's so much easier now to walk," she sighed.
Nancy put her arm around Cherry's shoulder. "And now you're a perfect fit," she murmured.
"This must be it," Jackie called back to them.
"Yeah, hurry up, you two," Lauren added, holding open a door at the end of the tunnel.
"Why, it looks like people live down here all the time!" Cherry cried. Toys and books were scattered everywhere among the neat rows of narrow beds. The cold stone floor had been made more cheerful by the addition of thick rag rugs.
Cherry exclaimed over the unusual statues set into nooks in the wall.
"They're the ancient goddesses," Lauren explained, adding that she was studying mythology in school. "Why would a bunch of nuns have statues like these?" she wondered.
"No one's here," Cherry frowned. "But there are signs of life everywhere," she said, pointing to the clothing lying on the beds. Cherry was frankly scared. According to her watch, they had just twelve minutes left!
"Somewhere there's got to be a way through here," Cherry said, frantically passing her hands over the stone wall in a vain attempt to find loose stones that might indicate a secret entry.
Suddenly, she gasped in horror.
"Oh, no!" Cherry cried. "I broke a nail!"
"Those nails have got to go," her titian-haired chum whispered. "I was going to talk to you about them later."
"There's got to be another hiding place," Lauren said determinedly, looking under the beds for the entryway to another tunnel. When she couldn't find one, she ran to a shelf and started yanking books from it.
"What are you doing?" Nancy gasped.
"Looking for a secret door," Lauren said. "You got a better idea?"
Nancy rolled her eyes. "You girls read too many detective stories when you were kids," she said, going over to the far wall and pulling aside a heavy tapestry. "How about through there?" she asked, pointing to a thick wooden door behind it.
Lauren looked chagrined and ran to the door. But it was locked! Nancy called out, but there was no answer. "This place is going to blow!" she yelled, but there was still no answer.
Jackie deftly produced the deacons' keys and quickly unlocked the door, which flew open to reveal Gertrude Aimless in a nun's habit!
"Oh, Aunt Gert!" Cherry sobbed, falling into her arms.
"Cherry, I knew you'd come; I prayed for you to rescue us!" her aunt cried back, covering Cherry's wet cheeks with kisses.
"I don't want to break up this happy scene, but we've got to move quickly!" Jackie exclaimed.
Cherry checked her watch. "Aunt Gert, we've got only seven minutes left before a bomb explodes. We've got to get out! "
Gert turned back into the cluttered storage room, stacked high with old furniture. She clapped her hands smartly, and from the shadows
emerged more nuns than Cherry had ever seen before, each with a makeshift weapon in hand. Behind them were many women and children.
"What did you do with the deacons?" Aunt Gert wondered aloud. Jackie quickly explained the fate of the men, and a sunny in broke over Aunt Gert's handsome face.
"Let's go," said Gert, waving them forward in her best military manner. The nuns were a blur to Cherry as they raced out of the room, through the dormitory and to the tunnel.
"We'll never make it," Cherry cried. "Why, all these people have to get back to the cellar and climb up that chute. It will take forever!" she exclaimed.
"Nonsense," her aunt said briskly.
"There's an escape tunnel to the outdoors," Nancy guessed. "At any rate, there was one in The Secret of the Shivering Sheltie."
"Bingo!" Aunt Gert cried. Cherry blushed. She felt like a silly goose for losing her head that way. Nancy saw her consternation and gave her chum a little squeeze.
"Follow me," Aunt Gert directed, as she raised her habit high above her ankles and ran.
"The other branch of the tunnel leads to the outdoors," she called out over her shoulder. Cherry checked her watch as she hurried to catch up to the nuns. Only three minutes remained!
They raced around the corner and started down the righthand tunnel. Cherry gripped Nancy's hand. Would they make it in time?
"We're here!" Aunt Gert called out. With Jackie's help, she moved a circular stone from the wall. Cherry could see daylight at the end of a long escape hatch. One by one the women and children passed through the pipe, which emptied out onto the banks of a river. Soon they were all in the brilliant sunshine, surrounded by the sweet scent of lavender, which grew wild around the convent.
Cherry checked her watch and gasped. Where were Midge and Velma? They had only one minute left!
* * *
CHAPTER 21