Chapter 16 The Phantom of Pine Hill by Carolyn Keene
Stolen Coin Collection
“All your money’s gone!” Bess exclaimed in dismay.
The other girls expressed their sympathy and George suggested calling the police at once.
The elderly man shook his head. “They wouldn’t believe us about the phantom, so why should they believe me now?”
The housekeeper asked gently, “Isn’t it possible that you took the money out so you’d have it for your trip to the reunion?”
Uncle John Rorick shook his head vigorously. “No.” Suddenly the memory of something came to him and he jumped up, his eyes staring into space and his hands clutched above his head. He began to pace the room, shaking his head from side to side as if in great pain.
“Is something else wrong?” Nancy asked.
Mr. Rorick turned and faced the others. “My coin collection is gone too!”
At this announcement Mrs. Holman fell into a chair. “Your coin collection! Oh no!”
There was silence for several seconds, then Bess ventured, “Was it very valuable?”
“Valuable?” Uncle John almost roared. “It was priceless!”
This statement stunned the girls.
“How were the coins kept?” Nancy asked.
“In collectors’ books. They ranged all the way from pennies up to ten-dollar gold pieces in old American money. And then, there were some very rare ones from Europe. I even had some that were minted before Christ. One was a rarity among ancient coins. It contained a female head and had been minted about 350 b.c. in Carthage. The other, showing eagles attacking a hare, was made in 410 b.c. in Agrigentum.”
The distraught man continued to walk up and down. Nancy asked him if he had a list of the stolen coins. Mr. Rorick shook his head sadly.
“I should have. But I never made one.”
“Let’s write down as many of them as you can remember,” Nancy suggested, “and we can give these to the police at least. You won’t refuse now to tell the authorities, will you?”
“No. They should know. I want that collection back! It’s worth a fortune!”
As George went to call Chief Rankin, Nancy took a pad and pencil from the desk. She wondered if the thief thought he had found part of the treasure of coins from the Lucy Belle.
Nancy began to write as Uncle John dictated. “One of my ten-dollar gold pieces was minted in 1798,” he said. “It was in very fine condition and is worth nineteen hundred dollars.”
“Nineteen hundred dollars!” Bess repeated.
“Yes,” replied Uncle John. “Then there was a half eagle, minted in 1827, that had never been circulated. That’s worth twenty-five hundred dollars!”
“Good night!” George exclaimed.
After a few more minutes of dictating, Uncle John paused. Bess asked him, “What was the most valuable coin in the collection?”
Before he answered, the girls thought they detected tears in the corners of the elderly man’s eyes. “It was a gold one-hundred ducat from Poland, dated 1621. On the obverse side is a picture of Sigismund III wearing armor and the collar of the Golden Fleece. On the reverse side there is a crowned shield. It is a real rarity among European coins.”
“How much is that worth?” Nancy asked.
“Seventy-five hundred dollars!”
There was a great gasp from the girls and Mrs. Holman. All of them came forward either to pat Mr. Rorick’s shoulder or put an arm around him.
“This is terrible, terrible!” said the housekeeper, who was fighting back tears.
The sad scene was interrupted by the doorbell. Mrs. Holman went to answer it and reappeared bringing Chief Rankin with an officer whom he introduced as Detective Newmark.
For the first time the chief admitted that a real phantom thief was plaguing Mr. Rorick. The officer expressed regret that there was not a complete list of the coins but took the paper on which Nancy had been writing. When he saw the amounts listed, his eyes widened in amazement.
Detective Newmark examined the bits of grass in front of the safe. Nancy told him how she believed they had been left there, and he thought she was right. Then he asked Mr. Rorick if the combination of the safe had been written down and hidden anywhere in the house.
The elderly man shook his head. “My housekeeper and I memorized it. No one else knows the combination and there is no written copy of it.”
The two officers gave Mrs. Holman a searching look. Mr. Rorick came to her defense at once. “Mrs. Holman is like a member of my own family. I would trust her with any secret.”
“Perhaps,” Nancy said, “the theft was done by an expert safecracker.”
“That’s a possibility,” the detective agreed.
“Then the thief is probably an ex-convict or a wanted criminal,” the young sleuth suggested.
Chief Rankin admitted this might be the case and asked Detective Newmark to get his fingerprinting materials from the car. The detective did this, and went all over the outside and inside of the safe. There was only one set of prints.
“They must be mine,” Uncle John spoke up.
The detective got another kit from the car, took the old man’s prints, and compared them with the ones he had lifted from the safe. “Yes, Mr. Rorick is correct,” he said. “Whoever the thief was, he left no fingerprints.”
Suddenly Mrs. Holman gave a tremendous sigh. “Our phantom has no fingerprints and no footprints, and he goes right through the walls!”
Neither of the officers had an answer to the puzzles, but they promised to telephone Mr. Rorick if they picked up any professional safecrackers.
After they had gone, the girls tried once more to comfort their host. Nancy remarked, “Since we can’t locate the phantom here, perhaps we can trace the coins and they, in turn, may lead us to the thief.”
Mr. Rorick sighed. “I’m going to lie down in my room,” he said. “Don’t anyone disturb me until dinnertime.”
Nancy glanced at the desk clock and remarked that she had a date with Ned to go scuba diving. She excused herself and went upstairs. She put on her swimsuit and slipped a dress over it.
Bess and George came to tell her that Burt and Dave had arrived at the house. At the boys’ request, they made tentative plans for the three couples to meet at dinnertime.
Ned arrived later. As he and Nancy left, Mrs. Holman, on her way to the kitchen, admonished the young detective to be careful.
Nancy smiled. “That’s just what our housekeeper, Hannah Gruen, would have told me,” she said. “Thank you. I promise.”
As Ned started the convertible Nancy asked if he would first drive her to the locksmith shops in Emerson. “I want to find out if Fred Jenkins or anybody else had a key made for my car.”
She told how Fred had insisted there was a key in the ignition when he had taken the convertible.
“I don’t believe that,” Ned stated firmly. “But we’ll go to the shops and find out.”
There were only two locksmiths in town and both of them told Nancy they had not made a car key for Fred Jenkins or any other person during the past two days.
“Just as I suspected!” Nancy exclaimed as Ned drove toward Settlers’ Cove. “Fred lied to me and I think I know why.”
“Then you’re a marvel.” Ned grinned.
“He took the car to make me believe that the key had been in it. Then he suggested my key had been two places at once—that there was something supernatural about the incident. He was trying to scare me.”
“But why,” said Ned, “unless he’s mixed up with the phantom?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he is,” Nancy declared.
They discussed the handy man until they reached the end of the dirt road that led to the riverbank.
“We’d better forget Fred and concentrate on our diving,” Ned remarked. “I’m as curious as you to get a glimpse of the Lucy Belle.”
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As the couple were donning their scuba gear, Burt and Dave were talking with Bess and George in the Rorick living room.
“Where would you like to go?” Burt asked.
George grinned. “Somewhere that won’t cost you a nickel.”
“Swell!” the boys said in unison.
Becoming serious, George said that she and Bess would like to do something to help Nancy with the mystery. The two couples talked for a long time but came to no conclusion.
Then suddenly Dave said, “Say, maybe that phantom goes down the chimney like Santa Claus!”
Eager for action, the four ran up to the third floor and climbed out a window onto the roof. They turned toward the chimney which led down to the dining room and library.
“Look!” said Burt. “There’s an iron ladder built on the side of the chimney. Maybe the phantom climbs up that.”
Dave offered to climb it. “I’ll play Santa!” he said.
Reaching the top, he looked inside. Apparently he saw something interesting, because he leaned far down. The next instant his feet slipped off the top rung of the ladder. Dave disappeared headfirst down the chimney!