Chapter 19 The Sign of the Twisted Candles by Carolyn Keene
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 quantity 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 nobody 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.”
The three set off with dire warnings from Hannah Gruen. As they reached the driveway leading to the inn, Nancy suggested that she and her companions walk the rest of the way and go cautiously.
“Good idea,” her father agreed.
He locked the car and they set off on foot. Not a word was spoken. The three walked as noiselessly as possible, but were puzzled as to why the watchman did not come to see who was approaching.
Nancy thought, “If the Jemitts are here, maybe they knocked him out!”
The Drews and Mr. Hill circled the house, but did not see the watchman. “I don’t like this,” Nancy’s father said. “But let’s walk around once more.”
As the two men started off, Nancy did not follow. She was contemplating the front of the building. Her eyes swept up and down the sprawling contours, then stopped at the window of the tower room.
“Is that a light?” she suddenly asked herself.
The window seemed to show a lesser degree of darkness than the blank panes elsewhere in the house. Nancy looked more sharply.
“I believe the window has been covered so a light won’t shine through,” she said to herself. “That certainly looks like a crack of light at the bottom.”
Nancy started for the front door but realized that her father had the key. She could not afford to lose a moment in investigating the tower room. But how would she get in?
Suddenly the young detective remembered the ladder on the porch roof, where Krill had played his trick on her. Perhaps it was still there!
Flanking the porch steps on either side were stout lattices. Nancy reached through the vines and gripped the sturdy wooden support. Her toes found a foothold, and she was soon stepping over the edge of the porch roof.
Yes, there was the ladder! It was slow work to handle the ladder without making a sound, but Nancy managed to rest the top rung just below the sill of the tower window.
She carefully mounted the rungs. The ladder gave a sickening lurch as she came close to the top. Nancy reached up and clung to the sill.
She did not dare look downward for fear of losing her balance. With most of her weight supported by her hands Nancy continued her climb. Two steps more, and she was able to put her forearm on the sill and curl her fingers around the iron peg that once had held shutters. Cautiously Nancy raised her head until both eyes were on a level with the window frame.
Nancy could hear the low rumble of a masculine voice! Frank Jemitt’s!
Taking infinite pains to retain her balance, she thrust her fingers under the edge of the window. Nancy was rewarded as the sash moved upward half an inch, an inch, and yet another half inch. Then the frame gave a tiny squeak and seemed to stick. For one breathless moment Nancy ducked her head and waited to see if anyone came to the window to investigate.
To her relief, the voice droned on without interruption. Nancy again dared to raise her eyes to the level of the sill. The cloth had evidently been fastened to the inner frame, not to the sash, because the gap she had made by raising the window was still covered.
Although Nancy could not see inside the tower room, she could hear plainly what Frank Jemitt was saying:
“—you and that Drew girl spent a lot of time up here. I’m sure you know where the papers I want are hidden. Don’t sniffle. Where are they?”
No answer.
Jemitt went on, “And there are hidden treasures in this room. If you’ll tell us where the stuff is, you’ll get your share. If you don’t, then you got to be hurt until you do.”
“I’ve told you I don’t know,” a weepy-voiced girl answered. Carol!
The relief Nancy felt at having located her friend was instantly dispelled by Jemitt’s next threat.
“I’ll give you one minute more to tell, and then you’ll get a taste of this whip!”
Mrs. Jemitt added her own threat. “What’s more, if you won’t tell us, we’ll get Nancy Drew as easy as we got you. We’ll set a trap for her because we’ll make you phone her to come to see you secretly. Then you can watch us force her to tell!”
“Oh, please don’t,” Carol begged. “I’ll do anything for you, but don’t harm Nancy.”
“Time’s up!” Mrs. Jemitt said.
Nancy, shaken with horror, lifted the cloth that hung over the window. She peered in on a strange drama.
Carol, her new dress rumpled and her hair in disarray, stood leaning against the old desk-table with the secret drawer, not three feet from Nancy. Her face was turned in profile as she stared at Frank Jemitt. His wife stood with arms folded, an evil smile on her face, while he slowly rolled up his sleeves. Then he picked up a thick willow reed.
“Open the closet, Emma,” he said. “We’ll stick this girl in there when we’re through with her.”
Mrs. Jemitt turned toward a door in the wall.
Nancy had less than a minute to act! While the attention of the couple was momentarily diverted, she reached through the opening and tapped on the desk.
“Carol!” she whispered.
At the voice coming out of nowhere Carol’s overwrought nerves snapped. She screamed loudly and toppled to the floor.
“What’s going on?” Jemitt cried.
He wheeled and saw the fluttering cloth at the window. With a snarl he rushed forward, his hands thrust out. Nancy was sure he meant to topple the ladder on which she swayed.