Chapter 25 The Clue of the Tapping Heels by Carolyn Keene
The Tapping Heels
That evening while Bess and George remained upstairs with Miss Carter, Nancy hid herself in the cellar. For an hour nothing happened. Now and then a cat would meow or make a slight sound as it prowled about in the dark, but there were no tapping noises.
Several times the girl was tempted to give up her vigil, for she was growing weary. Yet she remained at her post, hoping to solve the mystery of the strange sounds.
At nine o’clock the door at the head of the stairs opened and Mrs. Bealing set down a pan of meat for the cats. The instant the door closed Nancy saw a dark form move past her. Then she heard the tapping of heels on the stairway.
Darting from her hiding place she was in time to see a boy snatch scraps of food from the pan. He ate ravenously, as if he were starved.
Nancy caught the lad by an arm, holding firmly to him when he tried to break away.
“Don’t be frightened,” she said soothingly. “I’ll not harm you.”
Mrs. Bealing had heard the girl’s voice, so she opened the door again. A beam of light fell upon the boy, revealing a wild, unkempt creature whose gaze was like that of a hunted animal.
“Mercy upon us!” exclaimed the housekeeper.
“I’ve solved the mystery of the tapping noises,” Nancy said quietly. “Mrs. Bealing, this boy is half starved. He’s been climbing into the cellar through the window and living on scraps of food intended for the cats.”
“I’ll find him some decent nourishment this minute,” the woman declared. “Bring him right up into the kitchen.”
Miss Carter, supported on either side by Bess and George, hobbled out to look at the boy.
“Why, it’s poor Gussie!” she cried.
“Gussie come back to nice Miss Carter,” the boy babbled, grinning at the woman in a childish way. “No one else likes Gussie.”
“You have many good friends,” the actress told him gently. “From now on they will look after you. You’ll never be abused again.”
While Mrs. Bealing gave food to the unfortunate lad, the others went into the living room to discuss what should be done with him.
“I recall that Superintendent Johnson told me Gussie might be restored to normal by an operation,” Nancy remarked thoughtfully.
“Operations cost money,” Bess replied, “and since the boy is Fred Bunce’s son, he has no inheritance.”
“I’d be only too happy to pay for the surgical treatment if I had the money,” Miss Carter said quickly. “I have sold my play, ‘The Tapping Heels,’ but it may be months before any royalties come in. Then, if the show succeeds, Miss Barrett has promised that she will repay me the amount of money I have advanced to her. If all this comes to pass I’ll surely try to help the lad.”
“You’re far too generous for your own good,” Nancy said kindly. “You’ve done quite enough to help people. This time I’m sure someone other than yourself will look after Gussie.”
She intended to speak to Mr. St. Will about the boy, feeling certain that he would be glad to donate some of the Woonton money for the purpose of restoring Gussie to mental and physical health. In this thought Nancy was quite correct. Weeks later the operation was performed by a skilled surgeon, with the result that after many months in a hospital, Gussie was sufficiently restored to be able to take his place with others of his age.
For the time being, however, it was decided that the lad should remain with Miss Carter. He seemed delighted and said over and over to her, “My Aunt Pretty, Aunt Pretty.”
“Now that our ‘ghost’ has been discovered there’s no reason why I can’t go on living here with my cats,” the actress declared happily. “If my play is a success I’ll have enough money to keep me all my days.”
“I’m sure the play will be all you wish it to be,” Nancy said confidently. “The newspapers are giving it wonderful write-ups.”
“Yes, everyone has been more than kind,” Miss Carter said, tears coming into her eyes. “I feel so grateful about everything, and that’s why I shall reveal an important secret.”
“A secret?” asked the girls in surprise.
“Yes,” the actress smiled. “Nancy, run up to my bedroom. Open the lower bureau drawer and bring me a blue cardboard box.”
The girl did as she was told. She could not imagine what the box might contain for it was not heavy.
Returning to the living room she placed the container in Miss Carter’s hands. The actress opened the box and lifted out two curious objects. For a moment the chums could not figure out what they could be.
“I can see that you are rather disappointed,” laughed Miss Carter. “These objects are nothing more than the heels from a pair of dancing shoes—but what a pair of dancing shoes!”
“Is there any particular story about them?” Nancy asked doubtfully.
“Not a story, my dear. These are magic heels. Each one is equipped with a mechanical device so that it will tap by itself.”
“And you once wore them on the stage?” Nancy inquired, beginning to understand what the actress meant.
“Yes. In my play, a long, winding staircase of stone was built which led to a tower. In white I flitted down the steps, attempting to escape from my arrogant pursuer. I kicked off the tapping shoes which continued to click on the stone, thus giving myself an opportunity to throw the man off my trail by the ruse.”
“It must have been very mysterious,” decided her listener.
“Naturally the echoing was spirit-like. The scene grew very dark and foreboding.”
Suddenly the Drew girl had an idea. “Oh, Miss Carter!” she cried. “If only Beverly Barrett could borrow your tapping heels! They would assure the success of your play.”
“I shall lend them to her,” the actress smiled happily.
During the next few weeks Nancy and her chums could think of little else save the forthcoming performance. They were permitted to attend rehearsals, where they particularly enjoyed watching Beverly Barrett portray her part. They often commented upon the change in the young woman’s attitude. She paid frequent visits to Miss Carter, and in many ways tried to show her the appreciation she felt for all the woman had done for her.
At length came the night of the grand opening at the local theatre. The girls arrived early and Nancy went back-stage to wish the members of the cast luck. “Every seat is sold,” she reported to Miss Barrett. “The play is certain to be a success.”
“One can never be sure,” the actress replied uneasily. “Everything depends upon the big scene in the first act.”
“The mechanical tapping heels will carry the mystery along,” said Nancy. “The spirit dance is everything. The audience will be so intrigued by the echoing, it cannot fail.”
“I had the heels built into new silver dancing slippers,” the actress declared. “Would you like to see them?”
She looked about the cluttered dressing room but could not find the shoes.
“They’re gone!” she cried in distress. “Someone has taken my slippers!”
Nancy helped the young woman search for the mechanical heels, but they could not be found anywhere.
“Oh, what shall I do?” Miss Barrett wailed. “It’s nearly curtain time and I can’t attempt the scene without those shoes!”
“I don’t understand who would want to steal them,” Nancy said in perplexity. “I’ll look outside the dressing room.”
As she stepped into the corridor almost the first person she saw was Miss Carter, who had come to offer Beverly Barrett encouragement.
“Perhaps I shouldn’t have done it,” she admitted to Nancy, “but I brought Gussie with me. I had no one with whom I could leave him.”
“Where is the boy now, Miss Carter?”
“He’s somewhere back stage. I’ll take him out front with me before the show starts.”
Unwittingly Miss Carter had given Nancy a clue to what might have become of the mechanical heels.
“Listen!” the girl commanded.
In a dressing room at the far end of the corridor they could hear a faint tapping sound. Without taking time to explain to the puzzled actress, Nancy darted down the hallway and opened the door. On the floor sat Gussie playing with the clicking shoes.
“Oh, Gussie!” Nancy chided, taking the heels from him, “you’ve caused no end of worry and excitement.”
She ran back with the slippers, arriving in the actress’s dressing room just as the buzzer warned her that the curtain would go up in three minutes.
“You’ve saved the show, Nancy!” Miss Barrett cried gratefully. “I’ll never forget it.”
The Drew girl barely had time to reach her reserved seat in the audience when the curtain went up. For a few minutes she sat tense and nervous. Then as she realized that everything was going well on the stage, she relaxed and thoroughly enjoyed herself.
“The play is a hit!” Bess whispered to her at the end of the first act. “Miss Barrett’s tapping was marvelous, especially the part where the sounds seemed to echo from the stone tower.”
The applause was tremendous. The three girls could not help but feel elated, for they realized that it was through a series of events in which they had played no small part, that the performance was a perfect one.
“Mr. St. Will is so wonderful, I believe Miss Carter will now marry him,” whispered the romantic Bess. “She just couldn’t refuse him again.” Later on Bess Marvin’s statement proved to be true.
Another bit of intuition, spoken aloud by her some little time later, was to become an important clue in another case when Nancy would be implicated in “The Mystery of the Brass Bound Trunk.”
“We’ll never forget our own tapping code,” said George to the other girls during intermission. “Perhaps we could incorporate it into a skit ourselves.”
“Perhaps,” laughed Nancy gaily, as the handclapping broke out anew. “But tonight is Miss Carter’s big night, and that makes me very happy!”
THE END