"The guard. Miss Drew, there's a phone call for you. The woman on the other end of the line is frantic."

Nancy unlocked the door and the girls hurried out. She relocked it, and dashed down the stairs.

Hannah Gruen was calling. "Oh, Nancy, my news is terriblel" she exclaimed. "Carol has been kidnapped!"

CHAPTER XVIII.

Valuable Clue "KIDNAPPED!" Nancy fairly shrieked. "Oh no! When? How?"

"I don't know." Hannah Gruen's voice was shaky. "Please come right home. I phoned your father's office, but Miss Hanson said he's in court and can't be disturbed."

"I'll come as fast as I can get there," Nancy promised.

When she relayed the message to Bess and George, they were horrified and dashed out to the car with her. All the way to the Drew home Bess kept murmuring, "Poor Carol," and George said, "I'm sure those awful Jemitts did it and will hold her for ransom."

Nancy remained silent. Conflicting ideas raced through her mind. She tried to convince herself that Carol had left of her own accord and would either telephone or return soon.

When Nancy reached the house, this bright thought was dashed. Hannah Gruen was pacing the floor.

"I went to the store for a short time and left Carol here," the housekeeper explained. "She promised to keep the doors and windows locked and to let no one in. Oh, what shall we do?"

George suggested notifying the police, but Nancy said, "Let's wait until my father comes. He should be home soon. Hannah, why are you so sure Carol was kidnapped?"

"Because the laundryman came here right after I got home. When I told him what I suspected, he said he'd seen a car pull out of our driveway with a young girl in it just as he arrived."

"Who was with her?"

"A couple. From the man's description, I suppose it was the Jemitts. Where do you think they took her?"

"I wish I knew," Nancy replied, terribly worried herself.

She decided to take George's advice and call Police Chief McGinnis. He was alarmed at the turn of events.

"So far no police have found any trace of the Jemitts," he said. "It's possible they're in hiding somewhere. In any case, if there's no word by tomorrow, I'll notify the FBI. In the meantime there may be a ransom note. Nancy, I think I should warn you about getting into the same predicament yourself. After all, the Jemitts no doubt consider you their most formidable enemy."

"One thing puzzles me," Nancy said. "The Jemitts were remembered in the will. Why are they acting like this?"

"Probably to coerce your friend into signing a paper promising them a large portion of her inheritance for taking care of her. They may even get her signature on a letter begging the Fernwood Orphanage to let the Jemitts remain as her foster parents."

"She'll never do it," Nancy told the chief.

"Under a threat she may."

Nancy was not convinced, but Hannah, Bess, and George were. The cousins felt that their parents should know what had happened and telephoned them. The Faynes and Marvins promised to help all they could and then came to pick up their daughters.

Mr. Drew arrived soon afterward and was as disturbed as the others by the kidnapping. He notified the orphanage of Carol's disappearance and of their suspicions. None of them ate much dinner, each lost in thought.

Finally Nancy said, "Dad, what are visiting hours at the jails?"

"They're not all the same, dear. Why?"

"I'd like to talk to Krill. Maybe I can get him to reveal where the Jemitts are hiding."

"Not a bad idea," the lawyer said. "If nothing breaks by tomorrow morning, I'll go with you to Maywood."

Although no telephone messages or callers came during the night, Hannah and the Drews slept poorly and they were up early. Mr. Drew telephoned the jail and found that in his case an exception would be made to the rule of afternoon visitors only. He and his daughter could come at ten.

As Nancy was about to go for her car, the telephone rang and she rushed to answer it. An unfamiliar voice, speaking with a foreign accent, said, "Is this Nancy Drew?"

"Yes."

"I call to warn you not try find Carol Wipple or both of you be harmed." The stranger hung up.

Hannah had been standing close enough to hear the message. She turned to Mr. Drew. "Please don't let Nancy out of your sight. Someone has just threatened her!"

"I shan't," he said.

The Drews rode quickly to the Maywood jail and were taken to Krill's cell.

The prisoner was defiant. "I said I ain't talk-in'," he greeted them.

"To the police perhaps, but how about just to us?" Mr. Drew suggested.

"Huh! And have you blab it to them? No, sir." Krill turned his back on the callers.

Nancy was convinced this man could not be wheedled into giving information about the Jemitts. She used another method.

"Mr. Krill, there's been a kidnapping and you're involved," she said.

The prisoner did an about-face and yelled, "I am not! I told Frank I wouldn't have any part of it!" Suddenly he stared at Nancy "Who was kidnapped? You were supposed to be the one!"

Mr. Drew spoke up. "Things will go a lot easier with you, Krill, if you tell everything you know."

The prisoner walked up and down nervously. "I needed money. Frank Jemitt said he knew an easy way to get it and that would square him with me. I'd done him a big favor. In return he'd pay me well to get Nancy Drew off the case and try to find some papers hidden in the tower room by the man who died.

"He told me where the ladder was. When you drove in, Miss Drew, I thought up the scheme to fool and drug you. But I couldn't take you along with me because your boy friend was around. I knew Jemitt would be mad because he told me to bring you to-"

"Yes?" Nancy said.

Krill walked back and forth several times before replying. At last he said, "I may as well tell you. The Jemitts own a little cottage along a branch of the Muskoka River. I don't know exactly where it is, but they said it was sort of in a woods at the end of a road called something like 'student.' They call the cottage Restview, I think."

Just then a guard came to say, "Time's up, Mr. Drew."

Nancy was thrilled by what they had learned. "Dad, can you go there with me right away?" she asked as soon as they were outside.

"I wouldn't miss the chance." He smiled.

Looking for a road with a name like "student" that ran to a branch of the Muskoka proved to be frustrating. After two hours of fruitless searching Nancy and her father stopped for lunch at a roadside restaurant. They discussed where to go next.

Presently they became aware of a woman at the next table who seemed to be interested in their conversation. Finally she leaned over and said, "Perhaps I can be of some help. Do you think the road you're looking for could be Steuben? There is such a road about a mile from here. It leads directly to the water."

"Oh, thank you," said Nancy. "We'll try it."

To the Drews' delight, Steuben Road led directly to Restview Cottage. There were no other houses around. No car was in sight and the place appeared to be deserted.

"I guess the Jemitts aren't using this," Mr. Drew remarked.

"But they may have left Carol here," Nancy said. "We must find out."

She and her father stepped from their car and knocked on the door. There was no answer and not a sound inside or outside the cottage.

"Carol may be tied and gagged," Nancy said. "We must make sure she isn't in there."

"I agree." Mr. Drew was grim.

They walked around the building and began looking in the windows. No one was in sight. Suddenly Nancy grabbed her father's arm and pointed into the living room.

"See those boxes along the wall? They're just like the ones Frank Jemitt was taking out of the tenant house at Asa Sidney's. And they're marked like the cartons I saw in the warehouse yard. I'm sure they contain stolen property!"

"You're probably right," the lawyer agreed. "We have no right to break in, of course. I guess we'd better-"

He stopped speaking as they heard a car coming. Nancy and her father braced themselves. Were they going to come face to face with the Jemitts and perhaps Carol?

In a few seconds they saw the approaching sedan was not that of the Jemitts, but a police car. The driver was a state trooper, who said he was on a routine checkup of all roads in the vicinity.

"You're just the man we need," Mr. Drew told him and showed his business card. "This is my daughter Nancy."

"I've heard of you both," the trooper said. "My name's Hatch. What can I do for you?"

"Tell him, Nancy."

After hearing the story, Trooper Hatch said, "We mustn't lose any time. I'll force a window and we'll go in."

The three climbed into the living room. First they looked for Carol and called her name several times. She was not there. Nancy was disappointed. Now the search would have to be continued. But where?

"Let's examine these boxes," Mr. Drew suggested.

Nancy and the two men began to untie them. She had chosen a heavy cardboard box with many perforations in the top. Nancy knelt on one knee, pulled off the lid, then shrieked in terror!

CHAPTER XIX.

A Risky Climb THE box contained a large copper-colored snake! Disturbed, it reared and the head darted toward Nancy, fangs out.

In horror she fell backward and scrambled out of the way. The snake wriggled to the floor. By this time Mr. Drew and the trooper had picked up iron fireplace tools and quickly killed the reptile.

"Oh, thank you," said Nancy. As Trooper Hatch dragged the snake outside, Nancy recovered from her fright and went to look in its box. A velvet cloth was spread across the bottom of it. Nancy whipped it off, wondering if she would find more snakes beneath. Instead, she saw a large quant.i.ty of flat silverware on which the initial S was engraved.

"Asa Sidney's silver!" Nancy exclaimed, and told the trooper about the thefts and her father's responsibility for the silver as executor of the estate.

Trooper Hatch nodded understandingly. "We'll look for anything else marked S, and whatever other objects you recognize, we'll take to headquarters."

More flatware and an initialed silver coffee service were found, but nothing else that could be definitely identified as Asa Sidney's property.

"Do you think," Nancy asked the trooper, "that the Jemitts will come here?"

"If they're sure n.o.body knows about the place, I believe they will." He grinned. "I'll have this property staked out."

Nancy and her father led the way from Steuben Road. "Do you suppose," she asked him, "that Carol knew about Restview Cottage but didn't mention it?"

"I doubt that she ever heard about it or she would have told you," the lawyer replied. "The Jemitts may have used the place as a temporary drop for their stolen goods."

Despite the progress that had been made in solving the mystery of the thefts, Nancy reflected sadly that Carol had not been found. "There's not one single clue," she said to herself.

When they reached River Heights, Nancy told her father she would like to stop at his office and make a few telephone calls. First she got in touch with Hannah, who had no news to report. Next, Nancy called the Fernwood Orphanage but they had heard nothing.

Then she tried Police Chief McGinnis. There was still no clue to Carol, or her foster parents' whereabouts, he told her.

Nancy said, "I have one good thing to tell you, Chief." She gave a detailed account of the trips to Maywood and Restview Cottage.

Chief McGinnis chuckled. "You're certainly on the job, Nancy."

After she hung up the phone, Nancy asked her father for his report from the two guards. Both had called in to say no one had come to the tenant house and the only visitor to the inn had been Jacob Sidney. "He was not admitted."

"I wonder what he wanted," Nancy said to her father, then added quickly, "Guess Ned's warning wasn't enough to keep Jacob from the Sidney mansion."

That evening Mr. Hill came to dinner. Directly afterward, Nancy said to him and her father, "I have a new idea where the Jemitts may be hiding Carol."

"Where?"

"At The Sign of the Twisted Candles."

The men were amazed at this deduction. "But with a guard there constantly, how could three of them get in without being seen?" Mr. Hill objected.

"Mr. Jemitt is clever," Nancy answered. "He probably used a key to one of the doors while the guard was patrolling the other side of the house. Dad, won't you and Mr. Hill go out there with me?"

Mr. Drew smiled. "Everything else has failed. I suppose we may as well try this."