The Spider Sapphire Mystery by Carolyn G. Keene Read Free Book Online Page A

exciting!”
    “Well—uh—I screamed because I didn’t think this was quite fair to Hal,” Gwen said lamely,
    George burst into laughter. “Better straighten your wig, Gwen, or Hal won’t love you any more.”
    In disdain Gwen quickly pulled her false hair into place and went to her seat.
    “For Pete’s sake,” said Hal, “what were you up to?”
    “I was trying to put some sense into that pilot’s head,” Gwen answered defiantly.
    Nancy, Bess, and George exchanged glances and George remarked, “Do we have to put up with that pain on this whole trip?”
    Nancy grinned. “How would you like to try changing her?”
    “No thanks. I’ll leave that to you and Bess. You’re better at that sort of thing than I am.”
    Aunt Millie Stanley came forward and stood beside Gwen. “I’m terribly sorry you were so frightened,” she said. “I guess everyone was. Do you feel all right now?”
    “Yes, thank you. I lost my head. Sorry.”
    The Emerson students and their friends went back to sleep. A few hours later the pilot announced that they were approaching Nairobi.
    When the group entered the airport building, Nancy looked around to see if Jahan and Dhan might be spying on them. As she and Ned waited in line to go through Immigration and Customs, she said, “I have a feeling we’re being followed.”
    Ned grinned. “Don’t let your imagination run away with you.” Then he said seriously, “I guess you and I had better be on our guard at all times.”
    There was no sign of the two Indians here or at the attractive hotel where the group was to stay. The Stanleys announced that they were all to meet in an hour for a bus tour of the city.
    Nancy found the trip fascinating. The Emerson group was divided among three buses that were painted with black and white zebra-like stripes. The buses were camouflaged so that when traveling in wild animal country, from a distance they would look like a small herd of zebras.
    The bustling city of three hundred and fifteen thousand inhabitants was international in character. There were white people, blacks, coloreds—which were a combination of black and some other race—Arabs, and Indians.
    “Don’t you love the Indians’ native dress?” Bess asked Dave.
    “They sure are colorful,” he replied, “but I’d just as soon wear American-type clothes.”
    The men wore white turbans and a fringe of beard, but English business suits. The women’s saris were made of several layers of veil-thin pastel materials. Scarfs covered their hair. Some of the women had a jewel embedded in their foreheads.
    In contrast the Arab women were somberly swathed in black. Some had the lower part of their faces covered.
    Professor Stanley, who was seated in the front of the bus, arose from time to time and gave statistics about the city. He said that the Arabs and Indians spoke their own languages and English. The blacks spoke Swahili.
    “Some of them have learned English and for this reason are able to obtain better jobs.”
    The bus stopped in front of a Moslem mosque. To reach it one had to cross a long flagstone pavement. A guard told the group that they must remove their shoes before walking on it.
    George exclaimed, “Ouch! These stones are boiling hot!”
    Nancy grinned. “Don’t forget we’re not far from the equator.”
    The inside of the building was like a large lobby with niches and a place for the priest to stand. In one corner a man lay asleep on the floor. When Burt expressed surprise at this, a guard said that all Moslems were welcome to come in out of the midday heat and take a nap.
    Back in the bus again, Professor Stanley told the students, “It is believed that the Arabs were the first foreigners to set foot on African soil. They went pretty far inland and became traders. It is through them that African art was brought to the outside world.”
    After a restful lunch and a short stroll, the young tourists were ready to start on a trip to Nairobi National Park, a wildlife