The Ringmaster's Secret

by Carolyn Keene

  “Nancy, eh?” the ringmaster yelled. “You’re Nancy Drew, that self-styled detective, and you sneaked in here to spy on the circus!”

  Nancy said nothing. This seemed to infuriate the man. Towering above her, he waved a finger in her face.

  “I knew you’d joined the circus and I let you stay because you were a good rider,” he raved. “But I’ve had spies trailing you. Don’t think you’ve put anything over on me, you little sneak!”

  “Nancy has done nothing wrong,” Lolita said stanchly. “She’s performed beautifully in this circus.”

  “Is that so?” Kroon said harshly. “I suppose you were snooping through this bureau because Nancy Drew told you to. What were you looking for?”

  “Why, you little double-crosser!” the ringmaster shouted.

  Lolita turned pleadingly to Nancy. She did not know how to answer.

  Nancy decided to speak. “What’s so terrible about your daughter’s looking through your bureau? Goodness, whenever I want a big hanky I go to my father’s chest of drawers.”

  Kroon was not fooled by Nancy’s play acting. At the top of his lungs, he shouted, “You get out of this circus and stay out!”

  “What about the Vascons’ act?” Lolita cried.

  The ringmaster said that Rosa would perform that afternoon or the whole troupe could leave the circus. In no case was Nancy Drew to appear. She was to leave the grounds at once.

  In the doorway Dan Webster could remain silent no longer. Stepping inside, he pleaded for Nancy to remain. Kroon would not listen.

  Seeing that it was useless to argue with him, Nancy looked straight at Kroon and said, “I’ll go but not until you give me back my bracelet!”

  Kroon gave a slight start but instantly recovered his poise. “What are you talking about?” he bellowed.

  “I’m talking about a gold bracelet with horse charms. It was stolen from my house and I have good reason to believe that you have it.”

  Kroon’s eyes blazed. He said that he ought to have Nancy arrested for defamation of character. It was only because of her youth that he would not prosecute.

  “Now get out of here, all of you!” he yelled, shoving them through the doorway. He followed the others outside, then slammed and locked the door.

  “Lolita,” he said, “go to your quarters. And if you ever dare to communicate with Nancy Drew again, I’ll punish you in a way you won’t forget.”

  The ringmaster strode away. Lolita, ill from fright, hurried off to her own trailer. Nancy felt it best not to follow.

  She walked off with Dan Webster, who asked her if she were willing to take a chance and remain with the circus. Surprised, the young sleuth remarked that this would hardly be safe.

  “I’d hate to see the Vascons fired,” Dan said. “But I’m afraid that’s what will happen. I dropped into the doctor’s this morning. He said Rosa would not be able to stunt ride for at least a couple of weeks.

  “If you could just finish out the week, I’m sure we can find another substitute rider by that time,” Dan pleaded.

  Nancy said she was willing if she could possibly get away with the subterfuge. It would give her a chance to learn more about what was going on in the circus. On the spur of the moment she thought of a plan.

  “Suppose I room with someone else in the circus,” she said. “Rosa can move back to Erika’s tent. Since Mr. Kroon probably will be watching, Rosa might dress and ride in the parade. Then, when it’s time for her act, I’ll substitute for her.”

  Dan Webster smiled. “We’ll do it! I’ll arrange for you to stay in the hospital tent. Kroon would never think of looking for you there.” He winked. “Besides, the doc and his nurse are good friends of mine.”

  Nancy now told the horse trainer that she was afraid Kroon might return to his trailer and take the bracelet away. She did not want this to happen and she asked if Dan Webster could possibly help her again.

  “You did very well the last time you became a sleuth,” she encouraged him.

  The horse trainer laughed and said that he did not believe he could get away with it a second time. Kroon would be sure to know something was up. Dan suggested that one of his midget friends act as lookout.

  “Little Will can be trusted implicitly,” he said.

  Nancy knew the pleasant man and consented to the plan. Then she told Dan that she was going to telephone her friends Bess and George in River Heights and ask them to drive to Danford.

  “Kroon may discover our plan,” she said. “In that case, I’ll need transportation home. Besides, the girls can relieve Little Will in watching Mr. Kroon’s trailer.”

  A few minutes later Nancy telephoned George, who promised that she and Bess would start immediately for Danford.

  “I’ll be hiding in the hospital tent, George. Come there.”

  The cousins arrived shortly before the afternoon performance. Bess was aghast to hear what had been happening and tried her best to coax Nancy to go home with her and George at once. But the girl detective contended that it was important to stay.

  Just before parade time, Dan Webster came to tell Nancy that Little Will had watched the trailer constantly. Mrs. Kroon had entered it directly after luncheon and had not come out since.

  “How would it be if I relieve your midget friend now?” George proposed.

  Nancy thought this was a good idea. George went off, and Bess remained with Nancy. She would act as a messenger, carrying the riding costume back and forth.

  Presently the gong sounded for the parade to begin. Rosa, seated on the beautiful horse, took her position, and Nancy watched from a nearby place of concealment. As the girl detective had predicted, Kroon was on hand to meet her. He smiled in satisfaction.

  Apparently convinced that his orders were being carried out, the ringmaster did not stay in the tent after he introduced the Vascon troupe. Nancy felt a little nervous but she did her part well.

  When the act was over, Nancy quickly ran to the hospital tent. She removed her costume and Bess hurried with it to Rosa. She returned in a few minutes and reported that her cousin was still on duty. Little Will had gone to eat his supper, then would take George’s place until he had to perform again.

  Three supper trays were brought in, and Nancy and Bess began to eat.

  “Nancy, why don’t you turn this case over to the police?” Bess suggested.

  Nancy said she hated to do so without more evidence.

  “But you can’t keep up this watching and performing. You’ll need sleep,” Bess argued. “And George and I can’t help you much longer. We’ll have to start home in a little while.”

  “Oh, please stay overnight,” Nancy begged. “By tomorrow I’m sure we’ll find out about the bracelet. Won’t you call home and tell your mother and George’s that you’ll be here?”

  Bess finally agreed and made the call. George arrived in a few minutes to eat her supper. She had left Little Will on guard. Kroon had not entered the trailer and Mrs. Kroon had not left it.

  The evening performance closed without arousing the ringmaster’s suspicions that Nancy had been pinch-hitting for Rosa. Relieved, Nancy had just reached the hospital tent when George rushed in.

  “Nancy! News!” she cried.

  Breathlessly, she told Nancy that Kroon had sneaked up to the trailer from the rear shortly after the evening performance had begun. Mrs. Kroon had handed him a small package through the window. The ringmaster had then given it to the son of one of the aerialists and told him to mail it.

  “I followed the boy toward the post office,” George went on. “As we got under a light, I pretended to bump into him. When he dropped the package, I read the address on it. And listen to this! It was going to Lola Flanders, care of Tristam Booking Agency in New York City!”

  “Oh, George, you’re wonderful!” Nancy cried gleefully. “We’ll call the local police and have them get in touch with the New York police. They’ll be able to investigate the package and the booking agency and maybe find Mrs. Flanders!”r />
  The excited girls raced from the tent and over to the telephone booth. George waited outside while Nancy stepped in to make the call. She picked up the receiver and put in a coin. When there was no response, Nancy realized the telephone was out of order.

  “I’ll have to go down to headquarters,” she decided.

  Opening the door of the booth, Nancy looked around. George was not there. The next instant a thick dark cloth was thrown over Nancy’s head. She struggled, but it was useless. Suddenly she blacked out!

  CHAPTER XIV

  George’s Discovery

  NANCY became aware of the rumble and harsh clatter of wheels. At first it seemed far away, then it grew louder and louder.

  Slowly she opened her eyes but could see nothing. Her brain was foggy and she had no idea where she was. As her mind cleared, Nancy realized she was bound and gagged.

  “Oh, yes,” she recalled. “When I came out of that telephone booth, someone put a cloth over my head and I blacked out.”

  Nancy now realized that she was in a moving vehicle. The steady rhythm of the wheels told her that she was on a train. Was it a sleeping compartment?

  “Probably not,” Nancy decided. “I’m lying on the floor. I must be in a freight car.”

  As her strength returned, she tried to get out of her bonds, but her struggles were futile. Whoever had tied the knots had done a good job.

  “Oh, if I could only remove this gag!”

  Nancy tried rubbing her cheek against the floor to accomplish this, but again her efforts were unsuccessful. There was not a sound within the car and Nancy decided that she was alone. While she was wondering where the freight train was going and how long a trip it might be, she heard a muffled sound from someone not far away from her. Nancy shuddered. Was this person a guard?

  Once more she tried to loosen the ropes that bound her arms and legs. She managed to slide them an inch, but they still remained tightly around her.

  As Nancy got over her fright, it occurred to her that the other person in the car might be a prisoner as well. George disappeared rather mysteriously. Could she be the person who had made the sound?

  Nancy wriggled toward the direction from which the sound had come. Finding the other person’s hand, she squirmed. It was cold and unresponsive. But upon investigation, she was convinced of one thing: it was a girl’s hand.

  Inching herself upward, Nancy’s hand came to a rope. The other person was bound too!

  Moving still farther along the floor, Nancy felt the girl’s face. There was a gag over it, but by twisting and turning, Nancy managed, after some difficulty, to loosen the knot and remove the gag.

  Nancy ran her fingers over the girl’s features and came to the conclusion that she was indeed George Fayne. She mumbled as loudly as she could, “George! George! Wake up!”

  Presently the girl stirred, and Nancy’s heart leaped in relief. After muttering some unintelligible words, George finally said, “Where am I?”

  “Oh, George, I’m so glad you’ve awakened,” Nancy mumbled.

  “Nancy, where are we? What happened?”

  The girl detective replied that they were in a freight car. Where the train was going, she had no idea—it might be heading for the coast.

  “But we’re going to get out of here,” she said with determination. “George, can you turn on your side? I’ll try to loosen these ropes, then you can do the same for me.”

  “You must have a gag over your mouth,” said George. “Your voice sounds so different.”

  “I have,” said Nancy. “See if you can get it off.” She turned her face away from George, and after several futile attempts, George finally loosened the gag.

  “That’s better. Thanks a lot,” Nancy said. “Now I’ll unfasten your ropes.”

  George turned on her side and Nancy felt for the knots. Untying them was slow work. Her hands ached from the effort.

  George, freed, suggested that she untie Nancy’s hands before freeing her own legs. She felt for the knots. Upon finding the first one, she began the difficult task of loosening it.

  “I’ve never met a more stubborn knot in my life,” she said.

  But she persevered and at last was rewarded. Two other ropes bound Nancy’s arms, and it was twenty minutes before George was able to get them off.

  “Oh, that feels wonderful!” Nancy said. “Now to get these ropes off our legs.”

  As George struggled with hers, she remarked, “It will be twenty-five miles more before I get these untied.”

  The process did take a long time, and while the girls were at it, they began to discuss what had happened to them.

  “I guess I’m responsible for all this,” said George. “That boy who took the package to the post office possibly told Mr. Kroon what happened the minute he got back to the circus.”

  Nancy agreed and added, “He wanted to make sure that we didn’t communicate with the police before he had a chance to retrieve the package.”

  “You mean he’ll try to get it from the post office?”

  Nancy said that she did not think the ringmaster would dare attempt that. But he probably did plan to keep George and Nancy prisoners until the package could reach New York and be delivered.

  “But this is where my work to stop him begins,” she said resolutely. “Here goes the last knot.”

  Within a few minutes George also was free.

  “After being in this darkness so long,” said George, “my other senses seem to be keener. I’ll bet I can walk right to the side door of this freight car.”

  She was about to try when the freight went around a curve and she was thrown to the floor. After the train was once more on the straight-away, both girls made their way to the side of the car. The door and the mechanism that opened it were easy to find. But try as they might, they could not budge the door an inch.

  “It’s probably locked from the outside,” Nancy decided.

  “Then we’re stuck,” George said in disgust. “Hypers, Nancy, we’ve got to get out of here before someone comes along and captures us again.”

  Nancy concurred.

  Suddenly George had an idea. “Maybe there’s a hatch in the roof of this car,” she said.

  “I doubt it,” Nancy answered. “Only old refrigerator cars have them. But I’ll be glad to find out. Do you think you can hold me on your shoulders while I investigate the roof?”

  “Sure.”

  George leaned over and Nancy climbed onto her shoulders. But trying to stand up straight and balance herself in the swaying car was even more difficult than standing on a cantering horse. Twice she had to jump off to avoid pitching headlong, and once she just missed crashing into the side of the freight car.

  At last Nancy was able to stand on George’s shoulders and reach up to the roof of the car. After feeling around for several minutes, she concluded that there was no hatch and jumped down.

  “George,” she said, “we never thought of a door on the other side of this car.”

  Annoyed at themselves, they hurried to find out. Their fingers found a latch! The girls hardly dared hope the door would be unlocked, but as they pulled on it, the sliding panel moved!

  “Thank goodness!” George cried. “Now we can get out of this prison.”

  “Not yet,” Nancy told her, as she saw the scenery flashing past them. “We’re traveling at about fifty miles an hour.”

  She guessed at the time. It must be an hour or so after dawn.

  “Where do you suppose we are?” George asked.

  Cultivated fields stretched on every side, but there was not a house in sight.

  “I wonder what the chances are of the freight slowing down,” said Nancy.

  “Now we can get out of this prison,” George cried.

  As if in answer to her wish, the train reached a long uphill grade and began to lose speed. In a short time it was moving very slowly.

  A few minutes later the freight train was moving at about five miles an hour. The two girls selected a fav
orable spot and jumped from the slowly moving train. They were free!

  Nancy and George started rapidly across a field before anyone on the freight train might become aware of their presence. A quarter of a mile farther on, they reached a road.

  “Oh, hurray! There’s a farmhouse!” George cried. “I never was so glad to see a house in my life!”

  Nancy grinned. She was delighted herself. At the farmhouse they found an elderly couple. They looked searchingly at the girls’ disheveled appearance when Nancy asked to use their telephone.

  “I guess so,” the man answered. “Where you two be comin’ from this early hour of the mornin’?”

  “Why—uh—we were out riding,” Nancy replied haltingly. “We—uh—left our car over by the railroad.”

  “Broke down, eh?” the man said, as he led her to the telephone.

  Nancy put in a call to her home, reversing the charges. It hardly seemed as if the telephone had started to ring when Hannah answered. The frantic woman wanted to know if Nancy was all right.

  “I’m fine, Hannah,” she said. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be home after a while.”

  “Where are you?” the housekeeper asked.

  “Just a minute. I’ll find out.”

  Nancy turned to the man and asked where she was. He said they were not far from the town of Black River. The girl relayed this to Hannah.

  “My goodness,” she said, “that’s about a hundred miles from here.”

  Nancy said that if she needed any assistance getting home she would call again. She asked the housekeeper to notify George’s parents that their daughter was with her and was all right.

  After she had completed the telephone call, Nancy asked the farmer if it would be possible for him to drive the girls to town.

  “I’ll be glad to,” he said. “I was going anyway, just as soon as I have my breakfast. Have you eaten yet?”

  When they said no, the farmer’s wife invited the callers to join them.

  During the meal, the kindly couple were curious to learn more about their visitors, but the girls were wary of saying anything.

  Upon arriving in Black River, the pair immediately went to the State Police Office, gave their names, and explained what had happened to them.