Chapter 13 The Mystery of the Ivory Charm by Carolyn Keene
Following Clues
Ned caught Miss Allison as she fell, easing her gently to the ground. The woman’s eyelids fluttered open as Nancy and her chums bent over to minister to her, but she did not appear to recognize them.
“The treasure!” she whispered. “My precious treasure!”
“It is safe. Don’t worry about it now,” Nancy said kindly.
“Ned and I will take the boxes to a bank vault for you if you wish,” Mr. Drew added.
Miss Allison did not appear to comprehend. A dazed, far-away look came into her eyes and she muttered incoherently.
“What is the matter with her?” Bess whispered anxiously. “I never saw anyone act like this before.”
“I think she’s going into a trance,” Nancy declared.
As minutes passed and Miss Allison made no effort to arouse herself from the state of semi-stupor, Carson Drew grew impatient. He was half inclined to believe that Miss Allison made no effort to control her nerves and actually tried to create highly emotional scenes.
“Something must be done about the treasure,” he observed to Ned. “I suggest that we take the boxes to a bank vault while Nancy and the girls remain here with Miss Allison. If the woman isn’t better by the time we return we’ll summon a doctor.”
The strange lady paid scant heed as the jewels which had fallen out on the ground were gathered up and replaced in the broken box. Ned and Mr. Drew carried all of the crates and cartons to the lawyer’s automobile, returning to ask Miss Allison the name of her bank. She did not appear to understand the question.
“Where shall we deposit the treasure?” Mr. Drew asked. “Have you any preference as to a bank?”
“Please don’t trouble me now,” Miss Allison murmured indifferently. “I am meditating.”
Finally, after several attempts to discuss the matter, Ned and the lawyer gave it up in disgust. They decided to take the boxes to the River Heights National Bank, and accordingly drove away.
Left alone with Miss Allison, Nancy and her chums tried to arouse the woman from her state of stupor. She paid no attention to anything they did or said until Nancy, hopeful of gaining information, deliberately mentioned Coya’s name. The word seemed to arouse a strange train of mental pictures in the woman’s mind, for she began to mutter again.
At first the girls could distinguish nothing, but as Nancy bent over the relaxed figure, she caught enough to comprehend that Miss Allison was speaking of reincarnation.
“Gracious!” George exclaimed. “That’s a theory of life, isn’t it?”
“It’s something to the effect that after death you’ll be reborn as another person or animal,” Bess said with a shudder.
“I imagine I’ll be a goat!” George chuckled. “Or an animal equally attractive!”
“Sh!” Nancy warned, for she did not wish to miss a word of what Miss Allison was saying.
The woman lapsed into another silence, seemingly disturbed by the interruptions.
“You were just speaking of reincarnation,” Nancy prompted quietly.
Miss Allison made no immediate response. Her eyes had focused upon the elephant charm which hung from its velvet cord about Nancy’s throat. With trembling fingers the woman reached out and touched it reverently.
“The Ivory Charm will bring you good luck,” she murmured. “Both in this world and the next. After death you will be reborn—you will enter a higher sphere and enjoy a life more splendid. You, Nancy Drew, will be reborn as a beautiful princess of India!”
“Oh, Nancy, please don’t ask her another question,” Bess pleaded, shivering. “I’ve never heard such dreadful talk before in all my life. It isn’t normal. It frightens me.”
“Don’t encourage the woman to say such strange things,” George added in a pleading whisper. “Just allow her to remain quiet until your father returns.”
Nancy’s curiosity had been whetted by Miss Allison’s startling prediction. She longed to question the woman further, but with both Bess and George opposed to such a policy, she obediently submitted to their will.
Miss Allison lapsed into a moody silence. Presently she fell into a natural sleep from which she awakened in a quarter of an hour.
“Dear me, have I been sleeping?” she inquired, looking about in bewilderment. “Where am I?”
“Don’t you recall the cave-in?” Nancy questioned in amazement.
“Oh, yes, now that you speak of it, I do.”
“Surely you must remember that we carried out several boxes of treasure,” Nancy reminded her, “and that a small box of jewels was dropped on the ground.”
Miss Allison’s blank expression made it evident to the girls that the incident had left no impression upon her mind.
“You remember nothing of what you said to Nancy?” George inquired incredulously.
Before Miss Allison could answer, Ned Nickerson and Mr. Drew, who had returned from their hasty trip to River Heights, joined the group.
“You’re looking much better than you were, Miss Allison,” the lawyer said.
“I feel quite my usual self, thank you. If you’ll excuse me, I believe I’ll go to my car now.”
“Just a minute, Miss Allison,” Carson Drew interposed. “Don’t you care to hear what disposition we made of your boxes?”
“Boxes?”
“Yes, the treasure which we took from the tunnel. Ned and I deposited everything in a vault at the River Heights National Bank. Here is a receipt and your credentials.”
Almost stupidly the woman reached out to accept the papers.
“Thank you,” she murmured. “Thank you for your trouble.” Abruptly turning, she walked swiftly down the wooded trail toward her car, which had been parked along the road.
“Well, is that all the appreciation we get for lugging her heavy old boxes?” Ned demanded gruffly when the woman had disappeared. “She made enough fuss about the treasure before we carted it to the bank.”
“I don’t believe Miss Allison is entirely herself,” Nancy said. “She’s been talking very wildly.”
“I doubt that she understood what I was telling her,” Carson Drew added with a troubled frown. “At any rate, I hope she doesn’t lose those papers.”
“Perhaps we can catch her before she leaves and explain matters again,” Nancy suggested.
They all hastened to the roadside but Miss Allison had driven away. Mr. Drew consulted his watch and remarked that it was not too late to attend the circus.
“You’ll come with us, won’t you, Ned?”
The youth glanced quickly at Nancy, and upon receiving her eager affirmative signal declared that he would be pleased to join the party.
Hanover was crowded with automobiles, and the streets in the vicinity of the fair grounds where the huge circus tents had been erected were jammed with people, all traveling in the same direction. Carson Drew and his young friends joined the gay throng. Soon they heard the first strains of carnival music and were accosted by ticket-sellers, popcorn men, and vendors of red balloons.
“This will be heaps of fun and well worth the trip even if we don’t find Rai,” Nancy declared, skipping gaily along between Ned and her father.
“Are you quite certain that Rai wasn’t just an excuse for the outing?” the lawyer teased.
Nancy shook her head. “No, I’ll be bitterly disappointed if we don’t find him. We will, don’t you think?”
“Now how should I know, Nancy? I haven’t Miss Allison’s psychic powers. I hope as you do that we’ll be able to talk with the man, but he may be traveling with another unit of the Bengleton Circus.”
“I never thought of that,” Nancy acknowledged, looking troubled.
“As I regard it,” Mr. Drew said boyishly, “the main objective of this trip is to have a good time. So let’s have it! We’ll worry about Rai later.”
Opening his wallet, the lawyer stripped off several bills and thrust them into Nancy’s hand. “Take in the side-shows and buy all the pink lemonade you can drink! Ned and I will meet you inside the big tent. You’ll find us by the monkey cage.”
“By it, did you say?” Nancy laughed. “Or in it?”
The girls linked arms and strolled from one booth to another, listening to the barkers extol the merits of the entertainment within. Now and then they ventured inside, but usually were sorry that they had used up so much precious time.
“The circus will soon be starting,” Nancy presently warned, looking at her wrist watch.
Even then they could not hurry as they moved along the lanes of caged wild animals. They paused to study an ugly snake which lay coiled in its box.
“It looks a little like your old friend—the one who gave you such a loving squeeze,” Bess teased Nancy. “And he’s eyeing you speculatively now.”
“Then let’s move on,” Nancy shuddered. “I don’t trust that fellow.”
The three girls elbowed through the milling throng, clinging to one another to avoid being separated. As they approached the monkey cage the crowd became even denser, drawn by the comic antics of the animals. It seemed hopeless to find Mr. Drew and Ned in such a mob.
“Oh, I see them!” Nancy cried presently. “Over there on the opposite side of the cage.”
Before the girls could reach the pair, the crowd grew wildly excited, pushing and shoving in an attempt to move away from the vicinity.
“What’s wrong?” George asked, clinging tightly to her chums.
Then she saw that a careless guard had left the monkey cage door unbolted and now a dozen of the mischievous little animals were escaping. One athletic fellow perched himself atop the cage, two others clung to the outside wire network, while the rest began to terrify the crowd by leaping from one person to another.
Nancy and her chums were tempted to laugh, until they found themselves being pushed and trampled by frightened spectators whose only thought was to escape from the scene. The excitement subsided somewhat when a band of guards arrived and by persuasion and force finally caged the truants.
Ned and Mr. Drew joined the girls at the first opportunity.
“Dad, I’m surprised that you’d deliberately unlock a cage door!” Nancy laughed. “Were you trying to get in?”
“At least no one has tried to feed me peanuts,” Mr. Drew rejoined.
The circus was just starting and the party hurried to locate their seats. As they passed near one of the main rings where the show was in progress, a painted clown sighted Ned, and to the hilarious laughter of the audience pretended to pull a squawking live chicken from beneath his coat. The youth flushed in deep embarrassment and was especially annoyed because Nancy and her chums joined in the merriment.
Bess’s chuckles were of short duration, for a moment later, as she hastily mounted the board seats, her slipper caught fast and before she could save it, tumbled to the ground some distance below. Ned gallantly went after the shoe and helped her to slip it on again. Before the two reached their seats they both felt that they had supplied the audience with far more entertainment than had the circus acts which were in progress.
“I’m so humiliated I could die,” Bess breathed as she squeezed in between Nancy and George.
“Forget about it and enjoy the show,” George said. “No one is looking at you now.”
The equestrian acts were under way and the girls were intrigued by the skill displayed by one youthful rider. The aerialists provided many thrills; the animal acts were interesting, though not as exciting as some they had witnessed at other circuses. Nancy began to stir restlessly in her seat.
“I wish the elephant act would start!” she declared.
“Seemingly your wish is to be granted,” Mr. Drew smiled. “Here it comes now.”
Nancy leaned forward in her seat, her eyes alight with expectation. This was the important moment for which she had waited. She caught a fleeting glimpse of the elephant trainer as he entered the big tent in full regalia.
“Is it Rai?” she whispered tensely. “It looks like him from here!”