Chapter 12 The Secret of the Wooden Lady by Carolyn Keene
An Unusual Box
About a yard from the charred flooring, beneath the newly made hole, lay a hatchet. Nancy and Ned had the same thought. They had surprised someone at work! The stowaway had felt safe to search while the ship’s passengers were busy elsewhere.
“Where can he be?” Ned asked, looking behind the piles of boxes and crates.
Nancy examined every inch of the old walls, which were full of markings of a bygone day. She hoped that among them might appear the outline of a secret door. She found none. Ned was no more successful.
“Your guess about two stowaways was right, Nancy,” he said as he gave up the hunt. “And one of them is still aboard.”
It was maddening—and ridiculous—that he and Nancy could not catch him, Ned added. The stowaway seemed to be able to come and go as easily as a ghost.
“We must tell Captain Easterly at once,” Nancy said.
They went directly to his cabin, but he was not there. Nancy, seeing a small object on the floor near the captain’s desk, bent over and picked it up.
“An old snuffbox,” she said. “Isn’t it pretty?”
On the lid was a cameo—the slanting figure of a lovely woman. She had long curling hair and a sweet, serene face.
“Ned, this may be just what I’ve been looking for!” Nancy exclaimed suddenly.
“What do you mean?”
“This woman on the box is probably the copy of a figurehead on a ship. She may be the one from the Bonny Scot!”
Ned smiled. “Aren’t you jumping to conclusions?”
Nancy raced up to the quarter-deck where Captain Easterly was scanning the overcast sky.
“Where did you find this snuffbox?” she asked him excitedly, holding it under a light.
The captain looked at the article on the girl’s outstretched hand. “I never saw it before,” he answered.
“Then the stowaway dropped it,” Nancy told him, and brought the skipper up to date on the finding of the hole and the hatchet, proving that some mysterious intruder was still aboard.
Captain Easterly frowned. “But where in thunder can he be?”
Nancy’s eyes lighted up. “I think I know how we might catch him.”
“How?”
“He’s raided the galley once, and I have a hunch he’ll come back for drinking water. Ned, let’s set a watch for him!”
Ned’s eyes sparkled. “You really keep trying—that’s what I like about you, Nancy.”
Captain Easterly smiled tolerantly. “You’re such a good sleuth, Nancy, I might as well say yes to your scheme. Ned and Dave can watch.”
He glanced at the sky and frowned. “We may be in for a squall. I’m going to shorten sail.”
The captain put Ned to work. Nancy joined the girls, who were talking with Burt and Dave. She told them the plan to surprise the stowaway in the ship’s galley that night. One of the boys would wait inside the galley door, while the other rested in a small cabin directly across the passageway.
“If we hear you cry out, we’ll come on the double-quick,” Nancy said. “And now I have something to show you.”
She held out the snuffbox. “I think our stowaway must have dropped this. Perhaps he found it during one of his hatchet parties.”
“Or he may have brought it aboard with him,” suggested Burt, as he and Dave went to help Ned.
Studying the box more closely, Nancy discovered the initials “P. R.” and the date 1850.
“I’m sure we’ve hit upon a clue,” she remarked to the girls. “Captain Easterly said this clipper might have been built about that time. And Dad thought the original name might have been changed to Bonny Scot.”
“You mean P. R. might be this clipper’s initials?” Bess asked.
“Maybe. Let’s see what we can find in the captain’s book.”
They went to his cabin and found the book which listed famous clipper ships. They read the names together: Rainbow, Flying Cloud, Sea Witch, Sovereign of the Seas, Red Jacket, Lightning.
“Romantic names they gave those old clippers,” Bess sighed. “But none of them has the initials P. R.”
Nancy frowned thoughtfully. “As soon as I’m ashore again, I’m going to do some research. There must be records even of the smaller clippers like this one.”
George had taken off the lid and was smelling the inside of the box. “It’s a snuffbox if you say so. But it’s never had any snuff in it.”
“Maybe there was something valuable inside—a note or a paper of some sort,” Bess suggested. She yawned. “I’m fearfully sleepy, girls. Why don’t we go to our bunks? Stowaway or not, I’ve got to get some sleep. I’ll lock my door.”
“After you’re sure no one’s under the bunk.” George grinned.
Nancy and Ned rigged up an alarm system in the galley with string and a pile of cooking pans. “If our stowaway gets rough,” Ned laughed, “I can use this rolling pin.”
Through the night he and Dave took turns watching. By four o’clock no one had come near the galley. Nancy had dropped into an uneasy sleep when she was awakened by the sound of running feet and distant shouting.
She sat up. There was a crash in the galley.
Nancy raced from her cabin. In the darkness she ran full tilt into someone.
“Ned!” she gasped.
“I’m all right,” he told her, jumping to his feet. “No stowaway, Nancy. I rang our alarm by mistake when I heard the captain calling. Let’s get up on deck and see what’s wrong.”
As she raced up the companionway Nancy could feel the clipper heaving and tossing. On deck they found the captain shouting orders to Dave, who was going aloft to struggle with a whipping sail on the mainmast. Burt was at the wheel.
“Got to shorten more sail,” Captain Easterly bellowed. “Going to be a blow. We tried to run for it, but we’re caught. All we can do now is make things fast and ride her out. Nancy, you and Ned take the wheel and relieve Burt. I need him.”
The wind increased to hurricane proportions. The waves rose mountain-high and crashed over the deck. It was all the couple could do to hold the ship on the course the captain had set. The rain pelted down in the inky darkness.
“Think we’ll make it?” Nancy asked.
Ned did not answer. He did not want to admit that he did not see how they could possibly ride out the storm.