The Whispering Statue by Carolyn Keene Read Free Book Online

correct,” the lawyer said.
    Nancy then told her father of her job at Basswood’s Art and Bookshop. He laughed and wished her luck. But he warned her not to take any chances on the owner discovering she was Nancy Drew.
    His daughter chuckled. “Debbie will do her best.”
    The following morning Bess and George wished the young detective luck. They promised to drop into the shop later to see how she was getting along.
    “Let’s have lunch in town,” Nancy suggested. “I have two hours off.”
    During the morning Nancy made three very good sales and Mr. Basswood seemed pleased. His assistant, who never changed his expression, kept a sharp eye on her. She began to wonder whether perhaps it was Mr. Atkin and not Mr. Basswood who might be guilty of falsifying Mrs. Merriam’s account.
    About eleven o’clock a young man came in, signed the register, and went straight to the book section. Nancy was waiting on a woman interested in paintings and for a few minutes no one was in the book department. While Nancy’s customer was trying to make up her mind about an old English landscape, the girl detective saw the young man slip a book into his pocket.
    “He means to steal it!” she told herself. “And that’s a rare volume!”
    Excusing herself to the woman, Nancy hurried to the entrance hall where Mr. Atkin was standing. She whispered her suspicions to him, but he told her he could do nothing.
    “If you’re wrong, Mr. Basswood could be sued.” He turned away.
    Nancy was not satisfied. She decided to do something else. She walked casually to the register to get the name of the young man and found it was Sam Payne. She wrote on the card:
    I saw Mr. Sam Payne put an early edition of Browning’s poems into his pocket.
    She looked around for Mr. Basswood but he was not in sight, so she went back to her customer.
    “I know I’m taking a long time,” the woman said. “But after all, when one spends this much money, one should be absolutely sure.”
    Just then the front door opened and to Nancy’s delight she saw a police officer come in. She hurried over to him and put the card into his hand. She whispered, “Mr. Atkin won’t do anything about it.”
    The police officer walked toward Mr. Payne. Upon seeing him, the young man made a beeline for the front door. He opened it and hurried outside. The officer followed.
    Mr. Payne did not get far. The policeman stopped him and said something which Nancy, who was standing in the doorway, did not hear. Mr. Atkin was also watching the scene.
    The young man pulled the stolen volume from his pocket and handed it to the policeman. “I was only holding it until I made up my mind.”
    Nancy doubted that this was true and wondered what was going through Mr. Atkin’s mind. He made no comment when the policeman handed the book to him.
    The frozen expression on Mr. Atkin’s face remained as the officer said, “You can thank this young lady for retrieving that rare volume for you. Do you want to prefer a charge against this man?”
    “Mr. Basswood will have to do that,” Atkin replied.
    He made no further comment and marched back to the shelf to return the book to its place. The officer looked amazed but merely shrugged and shook his head. He gave Nancy a big smile as he went off with the suspect. She returned to her customer and sold a painting.
    At lunch Nancy told Bess and George what had happened. The cousins exchanged glances and Bess said, “I was so worried about you I asked that policeman to drop in.”
    “Good thing you did,” said Nancy.
    During the afternoon she made several sales to summer visitors in Waterford. To her chagrin Mr. Basswood told her at four o‘clock that she was not to report for work the following morning. But she was relieved when he added that she should come at two o’clock.
    In talking this over later with the girls, Nancy remarked, “I think something fishy will be going on at the shop tomorrow morning. Let’s get Dick and go down there this