(#30) The Clue of the Velvet Mask by Carolyn Keene Read Free Book Online Page B

not they had taken the right route as they followed the winding Old Mill Road.
    Presently Whyte radioed to headquarters, reporting failure so far and asking if there was any news from surrounding towns which had been alerted. He was told that the abductors had not been picked up.
    The officer had just replaced his transceiver when Nancy cried out, “Stop! Look over there!”
    Her alert eyes had caught sight of a girl propped against a tree at the edge of a woods.
    “It’s George!”
    The titian-haired wig was gone and she appeared to be only semiconscious. Nancy and Bess leaped from the car and ran to her. As they shook George gently she opened her eyes.
    “Nancy! Bess!” she murmured, and started weeping hysterically on Nancy’s shoulder.
    “Everything’s all right, George,” Nancy said.
    Bess slipped a protective arm about the trembling girl’s waist.
    “Nancy, you must give up the case,” George sobbed. “I insist!”
    “Give it up?” Nancy echoed in disbelief. “Why, George, it’s astounding to hear you suggest such a thing! You’re the one who has been urging me to solve it.”
    The troopers had come up and were listening to the girls’ conversation. Quickly Bess gave a glowing account of Nancy’s brilliant sleuthing on the Velvet Gang case.
    “That’s amazing!” Lieutenant Whyte remarked. “If you track down the party thieves, my hat’s off to you.”
    “But she mustn’t do any more work on it,” George mumbled.
    Nancy and Bess exchanged glances. This was not the old George Faynel What had happened?

CHAPTER VIII
    Telltale Tag
     
     
     
    APPARENTLY George had been badly frightened by her abductors, but after a good night’s sleep she would be her normal self, Nancy figured.
    Lieutenant Whyte knelt down beside George, and taking her wrist counted the girl’s pulse beat. He puckered his brow.
    “Tell me exactly what happened,” he said.
    “A woman leaned over me in the train and put a handkerchief over my nose and mouth. It smelled very sweet and made me black out.”
    “When did you first wake up?” Whyte asked.
    “I don’t know. What time is it?”
    “I mean, did you wake up while you were in the car or after?” the officer questioned.
    “There were voices—I—”
    George stopped speaking and again lost consciousness. By the time they reached town George had revived somewhat and was examined by the police physician in his office. He said it was impossible to determine what drug had been administered to the girl but advised that she be taken home and put to bed for a few days.
    “I’ll phone Mother to come and get us,” Bess offered.
    When Nancy telephoned her father’s hotel in Amstar to explain the delay, she was amazed to hear that he had checked out late that morning.
    “Then the telegram was a hoax,” she thought. “Those people certainly are clever. They were eavesdropping at my house and heard us making plans!”
    She dialed her home and learned that Mr. Drew was in his law office. She called him there and explained what had happened.
    “I don’t like this at all,” he said. “That gang is dangerous. You’d better forget the whole thing,” he advised.
    “But, Dad, you gave me a job to do and I want to finish it!” Nancy protested.
    “Well, all right,” he agreed reluctantly. “But do your sleuthing in safer places. You’ll be home tonight?”
    “Yes, Dad.”
    While waiting for Mrs. Marvin to arrive, Nancy decided to search at the railroad station for the object she had seen drop from the abductors’ car.
    “Oh, Nancy,” George said weakly, “please don’t do another thing about those awful people.”
    Seeing how deeply worried her friend was, Nancy decided she would not go. But a moment later George had dozed off on the couch in the physician’s office.
    “I’ll be back before she wakes up,” Nancy whispered to Bess and left the room.
    Going directly to the railroad station, she spent twenty minutes searching along the tracks. Just as she was