Chapter 18 The Mystery of the 99 Steps by Carolyn Keene
Dungeon Laboratory
The singing ceased abruptly. Had the footsteps of Nancy and the cousins alerted the woman? A moment later the girls heard someone scrambling among the bushes ahead, but the underbrush was too dense for them to see anyone.
“Do you really think that was Lucille Aubert?” Bess whispered.
George answered, “If she had nothing to hide, why would she run away?”
“What puzzles me is,” said Nancy, “if she is Mrs. Blair’s former governess, how did she get mixed up with a crook like Louis Aubert?”
The words were hardly out of her mouth when George caught her friend’s arm. “Look over there!”
Some distance ahead in a clearing on a hillside the girls glimpsed the corner of a tumble-down chateau. A woman had darted from the woods toward the ruin. She was a tall, slender, graying blonde of about fifty-five.
“Do you think that’s the governess?” Bess asked.
“She’s about the right age,” Nancy replied. “Come on!”
The three girls dashed forward up the hill, but when they reached the ruined chateau, there was no sign of the woman. Was she concealed nearby or had she gone on through another part of the woods?
Suddenly Nancy said, “Perhaps we shouldn’t have given ourselves away. The woman may have gone to warn somebody else that we’re here. We’d better hide!”
“Oh yes, let’s!” Bess begged. “I don’t want to be caught off guard by that awful Louis Aubert.”
The girls ducked behind a cluster of trees and waited for over ten minutes. There was not a sound except the chirping of birds. No one appeared. Finally Nancy said, “I guess it’ll be all right to investigate now. Shall we see if we can track down a few ghosts?”
“I’m game,” George answered, and Bess reluctantly agreed.
Nancy led the way in the direction the woman had taken. They did not see her, but Nancy was fascinated to discover a very steep flight of stone steps leading down into the basement of the chateau. Suddenly the girls became aware of a faint roaring sound coming from below.
Nancy was very excited. Intuition told her she had found the right 99 steps! “I must go down there!” she exclaimed.
George grabbed her friend’s arm. “Not alone!” she said with determination.
Bess did not want to participate in the venture. “I think you’re taking a terrible chance, Nancy. You know what you promised your father. And frankly I’m scared.”
George snorted. “Oh, Bess, don’t be such a spoilsport. This could be Nancy’s big chance to crack the mystery.”
“Tell you what, Bess,” said Nancy. “We really should leave somebody on guard here at the top of the steps. Bess, suppose you stay. If anybody comes, give our secret bird whistle.”
“All right, but don’t go so far underground you can’t hear me if I have to warn you.”
Nancy descended the steps, counting as she went. George was at her heels. Farther down, the daylight grew dim. To the girls’ amazement two lighted lanterns hung from the crumbling walls. Somebody was below!
When Nancy reached the bottom, she could hardly keep from shouting for joy! She had counted exactly 99 steps!
Ahead was a narrow corridor leading to a huge old-fashioned wooden door. In the upper part was a small square opening containing parallel iron bars.
“This must have been a dungeon!” the young sleuth thought. Cautiously she and George peered through the barred opening. Nancy gasped. A medieval lab! Maybe it once had been an alchemist’s prison!
The laboratory was fully equipped with an open furnace in which a fire roared, and there were numerous shelves of heavy glass beakers, pottery vessels, assay balances, crucibles, flasks, pestles, and mortars. At the rear were several long benches, one of which held bottles of assorted liquids.
What amazed the girls most, however, was a man in Arab garb standing sideways at one of the benches! Nancy and George glanced at each other. Was this Louis Aubert again in disguise? The light was too dim for them to be sure.
The girls watched the man intently. In his left hand he held a black chunk which the girls guessed might be charcoal. In his other hand he had a knife and was busy gouging a hole in the chunk.
Evidently deciding it was large enough, the Arab picked up a large nugget of gold from the bench and dropped it into the hole. Next, he opened a jar and with one forefinger took out gobs of a pasty black substance and filled the opening.
Immediately Nancy recalled the old alchemists’ experiments with metals and wondered if the nugget were real gold. Watching closely, she detected a look of satisfaction on what little she could see of the man’s face. Now he set the charcoal on the bench, walked to the rear end of the laboratory, and went out a door. Before it closed, Nancy and George caught a glimpse of a corridor beyond.
The girls were wondering what their next move should be, when they heard Bess give the secret birdcall. The sound came loud and clear and was instantly repeated. The double call meant:
Someone is coming. Hide!
“Hide where?” George asked in a whisper.
Without hesitation, Nancy opened the laboratory door and motioned George to follow her. She tiptoed across the room to several large bins holding logs and charcoal. The girls ducked behind them.
They heard footsteps descending the stairway and a moment later Monsieur Leblanc strode in! Immediately he reached up above the barred door and pulled on a cord which rang a little bell. Within seconds the Arab walked in through the rear entrance. He bowed and said in a deep voice:
“Monsieur, you are welcome, but are you not a day early? Tomorrow is the magic number day. But it is well that you came.” Suddenly his manner changed. He added gruffly, “I cannot wait longer.”
Monsieur Leblanc’s face took on a frightened expression. “What do you mean?”
The robed chemist replied, “I have finished my last experiment! Now I can turn anything into gold!”
“Anything?” The financier grew pale.
“Yes. Surely you do not doubt my power. You have seen me change silver into gold before your very eyes.”
Monsieur Leblanc stepped forward and grabbed the Arab’s arm. “I beg you to wait before announcing your great discovery. I will be ruined. The gold standard of the world will tumble!”
“What does that matter?” the Arab’s eyes glittered. “Gold! Gold! All is to be gold!” he cried out, rubbing his hands gleefully. “The Red King shall reign! And when everything is gold, the metal will no longer be rare and precious! The value of money will collapse.” He laughed aloud.
Monsieur Leblanc seemed beside himself. “Give me a little time. I must sell everything and buy precious stones—they will never lose their intrinsic value.”
The chemist walked up and down for several moments. Then he turned and said, “Monsieur Leblanc, your faith in me will be profitable. Watch while I show you my latest experiment.”
He picked up a bottle filled with silvery liquid which Nancy guessed was mercury. He poured a quantity into a large crucible.
“Now I will heat this,” the Arab said, and walked over to the open furnace on which lay a grate. He set the crucible on it.
The chemist waited. When the liquid was the right temperature, he took the piece of charcoal from the bench and started it burning. Presently the man dropped the mass into the crucible.
Nancy and George never took their eyes from the experiment. Once George leaned too far out beyond the bin, and Nancy pulled her back.
Blue flame began to rise from the crucible. The Arab placed a pan on a bench near the furnace, then picked up the crucible with the tongs and dumped its contents into the container. The charcoal had disappeared, and out of the mercury rolled the lump of gold!
Monsieur Leblanc cried out, “Gold!”
George looked disgusted, and Nancy said to herself, “That faker! He has Monsieur Leblanc completely bamboozled. Why doesn’t he see through the trick?”
Both girls had a strong desire to jump up and expose the whole procedure. But Nancy was afraid the swindler would break away from them, and decided that it would be better for the police to arrest him.
Monsieur Leblanc seemed to be in a daze, but presently he pulled a large roll of franc notes from his pocket and handed them to the Arab. “Take these, but I beg of you, do not make your announcement yet. I will come at this same time tomorrow with more money.”
“I will give you twenty-four hours,” the Arab said loftily. “This time the price of my silence will be five thousand dollars.”
The demand did not seem to faze the financier. As a matter of fact, he looked relieved. He said good-by and left the same way he had come in. The Arab went out the rear door.
The two girls arose from their cramped position, hurried outside, and up the 99 steps. Bess was waiting anxiously at the top.
“We must run,” Nancy exclaimed, “and notify my father immediately that Monsieur Leblanc is being swindled!”