The Crowning Terror by Franklin W. Dixon Read Free Book Online

It wasn't locked.
    The pounding of footsteps greeted him as he stepped back into the entryway. They were coming after him, but it didn't matter. The front door was only a few feet away, and they would never be able to get down three flights of stairs before he made it to the street.
    Except, he realized, he hadn't found what he needed to find. What was the woman's connection with his uncle Hugh? He couldn't leave before he found out.
    The footsteps sounded louder. They were probably on the third landing. He dashed to the room off the hallway and peeked in. It was a study - Charity's study, he deduced from the purse on the desk. The desk appeared to be as old as all the other furniture in the house, a monstrous carved-oak banker's desk. The footsteps reached the second landing. He had only a moment to decide what to do.
    He ran to the front door again and flung it open, then doubled back down the hall. As Tony leaped over the last banister and landed on the rug at the foot of the stairs, Joe ducked into the study and crossed his fingers.
    Tony shouted something in Chinese, then said, "He got away." He pointed an accusing finger at Charity. "This is your fault."
    Charity glanced at him angrily, and turning to Kwan, she said, "Remind your boy who's employing whom here. And do it on your way out."
    "What about this Joe Hardy?" Tony demanded.
    "Get out there and find him!" Charity said explosively. "Must I do all your thinking for you? He can't have gotten far. Find him and bring him back. Go!"
    Kwan nodded and Tony left, slamming the door behind him. "Your activities have been compromised?"
    "I don't think so," Charity replied. "He didn't have time. But let me check."
    Joe slipped across the study and behind the desk as Charity backed into the same room. Her attention was focused on Kwan, so she hadn't seen him. He crawled beneath the desk and pressed against the back of it.
    Charity walked behind the desk as he pulled his hands out of sight. The center drawer opened, casting its shadow over him. "No," Charity said. "Everything's still here, in order. He didn't touch it."
    "Then you will continue?" asked Kwan.
    "Of course," she replied with a soft laugh. "One more obstacle isn't going to faze me."
    "Of course," Kwan said. Joe heard his steps trail away, and then the front door opened and closed. Kwan had left.
    "Of course," Charity repeated after a long pause. Then the drawer slid shut. Joe could see her face as she stepped away from the desk, but she didn't look down. Without another word, she left the study and went back up the stairs.
    After a few minutes Joe slid out from under the desk. There was no sound anywhere in the house. He tried the drawer and found it locked. On top of the desk was a pencil holder, and in it a few pens and a letter opener. Joe took the opener and rammed it into the space between the drawer and the desk.
    He pushed down, using the opener as a lever. The drawer bolt popped out of the desk, and Joe pulled the drawer open.
    Inside the drawer were a dozen photographs of a glass museum case. Inside the glass case was a golden crown.
    He took a magnifying glass from the drawer and studied the photos carefully. Below the glass was a small plaque. "Incan Crown," it read. "C. 1350." It went on with a brief explanation of the history of the Inca nation that had conquered much of South America before the arrival of the Spaniards. Then it described the Inca craft of gold working that had resulted in the fine crown made from a single thread of gold braided back and forth on itself. The crown was then decorated with polished stones. Joe could see nothing else on the photographs. He turned them over. On the back of one was a sloppily scrawled note: "Cariyle Museum. Est. val. $100,000." He slipped the photos back into the drawer and closed it, more puzzled now than when he had begun. It was obvious to him that the woman intended to steal the crown, but what did that have to do with his uncle Hugh? Watching for any