Chapter 9 The Clue of the Velvet Mask by Carolyn Keene
Kidnaped
“Oh, dear, our daughter is ill,” the strange woman proclaimed in a voice loud enough for Nancy and Bess to hear. “We must get her off the train at once!”
By this time they had reached the station. The woman seized the suitcase with the initials N.D. Her companion gathered George up in his arms, carrying her toward the front exit.
Nancy and Bess were shocked. Dreadfully alarmed, they grabbed their overnight bags and started down the aisle in pursuit. But their way was immediately blocked by the man who had seated himself directly ahead of them.
“Quick! Let us pass!” Nancy said.
“What’s the hurry, sister?” he asked, not moving, swaying from side to side to prevent their pushing past him.
Nancy knew now why he had taken that particular seat. George’s kidnaping had been planned—her abductors wanted no interference!
“Let us through!” Bess ordered. “Our friend up there is ill!”
“There’s plenty of time, girlie.”
“No, there isn’t,” Bess fairly yelled. “That girl up there. She—”
“The rear exit!” Nancy whispered.
She wheeled and Bess followed her. The man turned too. He overtook them just as they reached the back of the car and roughly pushed them aside so that he might open the door and reach the vestibule first. Planting himself directly in front of the steps he again blocked their way.
“Now don’t get mad,” he said in a wheedling voice. “You seem to be in a big hurry. I was hopin’ to get acquainted with the two of you.”
“Get out of our way!” Nancy demanded.
Enraged, she and Bess both sprang at the man and shoved him aside. They leaped down the steps and, looking up the platform, realized why they had been delayed in leaving the train. The unconscious George had been put into a waiting automobile. As Nancy and Bess ran toward it, the car raced away from the station!
“We must get that policeman and chase them!” Nancy cried, seeing an officer standing back of the station. “And, Bess, don’t let that man from the train get away!”
Poor Bess! She was so frightened that she was trembling. But as Nancy raced for the officer, Bess turned back and tried to find him. To her horror he too was driving away, but in a different direction from the one which the kidnap car had taken.
In the meanwhile, George was slowly regaining consciousness. But she could not move a single muscle, not even those of her eyelids. As if from a great distance she heard a man say:
“Well done. This time Nancy Drew wasn’t so smart. You got the mask?”
“It should be in her suitcase,” a woman’s voice informed him.
“Then dig it out fast! We haven’t got all day, you know. It has to be burned before this one comes to. Then we’ll make her talk.”
“The whiff I gave her’ll easily last that long,” the woman said.
“Cut the chatter and get out that mask!”
George could hear her snapping the locks on the suitcase. Rapidly she went through the few garments it contained.
“Something’s wrong,” the woman muttered. “It’s not here.”
“What!” the man thundered.
“Look at this blouse with the initials G.F. This girl isn’t Nancy Drew!”
“Idiot!” another man stormed. “Are you sure?”
“But we thought from the suitcase and her hair—”
“You thought!” the man mocked her. “You mean you don’t think! I’ll take a look at the girl myself.”
He pulled the car into a clump of bushes at the side of the road. Alighting, the driver walked around to the back seat and stared at the seemingly sleeping George.
“She’s a phony,” he said in a rasping voice. “Look! She’s wearing a wig!” he cried, snatching it off. “You two dunces rode with her on the train but were too dumb to see through it.”
“She kept her hat on,” the woman tried to excuse herself.
“Besides,” said her companion, “she held a magazine in front of her face most of the time.”
“You’ve been outwitted, and by Nancy Drew too!” the other man yelled. “No telling what she’s done about those dates in the velvet mask by this time. We’re in a spot. To top it off, this girl’s coming around,” he observed as George stirred. “She’ll be a nuisance to us. Blindfold her!”
George tried to open her eyes but she could not do it. Her eyelids felt so very, very heavy. The effort to raise them was too great.
“Blindfold her, I said!” the man roared.
A handkerchief was bound tightly across George’s eyes. She tried hard to resist but could not! The girl realized that she was in danger, but even this thought failed to rouse her from the stupor into which she had fallen.
“Where is the black velvet hood?” the woman hissed in her ear. “What did Nancy Drew do with it?”
There was no answer. Even had George wanted to, she would have been unable to respond. Her memory was so befogged at the moment that the woman’s question was a meaningless jumble of words.
“I’ll make her tell the truth,” one of the men said in an ominous tone. “This little—er—potion will do the trick. I keep it on hand for just such emergencies.”
George vaguely felt something sting her arm. There was silence for a short while, then the man ordered:
“Now talk.”
George felt herself becoming drowsy all over again, and a fresh sensation of numbness spread through her limbs.
“You gave her too big a dose,” the woman cried, annoyed. “Who’s the dunce this time! Can’t you see she’s going under again?”
“Yeah,” broke in the other man. “A lot of good she’ll do us now!”
“Okay, okay,” growled their companion. “So I gave her too much. We’d just better get out of here fast before the Drew dame puts the cops on us.”
“Listen! A car’s coming!” cried the woman shrilly. “Let’s get rid of the girl and her bag and scram!”
“Open the door! Quick!” commanded one of the men tersely.
Hastily George’s captors lifted her out and propped her back of a tree, together with Nancy’s suitcase and her own handbag.
“Now, young lady, how do you like that?” the woman sneered.
She grasped George’s arm tightly for an instant, whispering a threat into her ear. Even dazed as George was, the words burned deeply into her brain.
“I advise you not to forget!” the woman warned with a harsh laugh.
“Come on! Hurry!” the driver cried.
The couple jumped back into the car. It roared away in a cloud of dust. George, left alone, gave a sigh and sank back in a deep sleep.