WHAT NANCY FOUND
While Nancy Drew hesitated, uncertain which way to turn, her mind
worked more clearly than ever before.
She realized instantly that she could not hope to run to the front of
the car and place the keys under the seat where she had found them.
Instead of attempting the impossible, she flung them upon the floor.
Then glancing frantically about for a hiding place, she saw an empty
manger. Running to it, she scrambled inside and dropped the blanket
over her head just as one of the barn doors swung open.
Three men came in, closing the door after them, and, as Nancy had
suspected, they were the robbers. Evidently, they had been drinking,
for they were quarreling among themselves over the division of spoils.
"Aw, shut up," the leader growled. "Get in and let's be getting out of
here before we have the cops down on our heads."
Nancy heard him rummaging under the seat of the car.
"Say, what did you do with them keys?" he demanded harshly of one of
his men.
"What do you suppose?" came the unpleasant response. "I put 'em under
the seat."
"Then come and find them, and don't be all day about it, either!"
"All right. Get out of the way and give me a chance!"
As the second robber went to the truck and began a careful search for
the keys, Nancy Drew crouched fearfully in her hiding place.
"I don't see what could have happened to them keys," the robber
complained after an unsuccessful search. "I put 'em right under this
seat."
"Say, if you've lost 'em--" the leader did not finish the threat, for
at that moment the third robber stooped over and picked up something at
his feet.
"Here they are on the floor! You must have put 'em in your pocket and
dropped 'em out."
"I didn't!" the other retorted. "I never had them keys in my pocket."
The robbers were in a quarrelsome mood and would have engaged in a
battle then and there had not the leader interposed.
"Say, cut out the comedy! We ain't got no time for a fight unless we
want to land behind the bars!"
"And if we do, it will be your fault! You left that girl to starve----"
"Shut up!" the leader snarled. He rattled the rear door of the van and
found it locked. "There's no harm done this time. No one has meddled
with the truck. Now get in before I give you a swift kick!"
After a few more angry words, the three robbers climbed into the front
seat and started the engine. Due to their inebriated condition they had
overlooked the barn doors, and before the van could be backed from the
building, it was necessary for one of the men to get out and fasten
them back.
In relief Nancy watched the men go. The moment they were a safe
distance from the barn, she scrambled out of the manger.
She paused long enough to make certain that the van had taken the road
to Garwin. Then, clutching the precious clock in her arms, she turned
and ran.
As Nancy darted into the woods, she cast an anxious glance over her
shoulder, but to her intense relief she saw that she was not being
followed. There was no one to be seen in the vicinity of the roadhouse,
and the big moving van was proceeding slowly on its way toward Garwin,
the occupants oblivious that their whereabouts had been discovered.
"I had a narrow escape that time," Nancy told herself as she ran. "I
hate to think of my fate if I had been discovered." She chuckled softly
at her own bravado and clutched the mantel clock more tightly in her
arms. "Oh, well, it was worth the risk I took!"
It was dark in the woods and Nancy could see only a few feet ahead of
her. To her chagrin she discovered that she had left her automobile
flashlight somewhere in the barn, probably in the manger. There was no
time to go back after it. Confident that her sense of direction was
good, she plunged through the bushes toward the place where she had
parked her roadster.
"I'm sure the clock is the right one," she thought. "Now, if it only
contains Josiah Crowley's notebook!"
In the timber there was insufficient light for her to examine the
clock, but from the hasty glance she had given it in the barn, she was
almost certain it was the timepiece Abigail Rowen had described to her.
If the old woman's story was correct, she would find Josiah Crowley's
notebook inside.
Reaching the roadster and finding it exactly as she had left it, the
girl sprang inside.
"I'll go for the police as fast as I can and send them after the
robbers," she decided. "The Tophams don't deserve any consideration,
but I couldn't be mean enough to sit quietly by and let them lose their
household goods."
Then, as she was about to start the motor, her glance fell upon the
Crowley clock which she had placed on the seat beside her. She was
fairly overcome with curiosity to learn what it would reveal. As
she hesitated, she found it impossible to resist the temptation of
investigating it immediately, even at the cost of a few minutes delay.
Impulsively, she opened the glass door and ran her hand around the
walls. There was nothing inside.
"Gone!" Nancy groaned.
Could it be that the Tophams had discovered the notebook only to
destroy it? Nancy discarded the thought as quickly as it came to mind,
for she recalled the conversation she had overheard between Ada and
Isabel. No, they were as ignorant as herself concerning the location of
the will.
It was more likely that Abigail Rowen had been confused in her story.
After all, she had not declared that the notebook would be found inside
the clock. Nancy had made the deduction herself.
"I was almost certain I'd find the notebook," she murmured in
disappointment. "It must be here somewhere."
Turning the clock upside down, she gave it a hard shake. Something
rattled. Hopefully, she repeated the action. Unquestionably, there was
something bulky inside.
"It must be the notebook!" Nancy thought in excitement. "Unless I'm
wrong, it's behind the face! How can I get it off?"
After a vain attempt to remove the heavy cardboard face with her
fingers, she lifted the automobile seat and found a small tool with
which she could pry. It then required but an instant to remove the two
hands of the clock and jerk off the face.
As the cardboard fell to the floor, Nancy peered hopefully inside and
gave a low cry of delight.
"Eureka!"
There, at one side of the clock, attached to a hook in the top, dangled
a tiny blue notebook!