Chapter 7 The Invisible Intruder by Carolyn Keene
The Mysterious Box
IN the séance room Bess and George began to worry about Nancy.
“I think we’d better go inside and see how Nancy is making out,” said Bess.
George agreed and the two girls walked into the back room. They were horrified by what they saw. Madame Tarantella, her eyes gleaming, held Nancy in a viselike grip.
“Stop that!” George exclaimed, and Bess added, “Let her go at once!”
Although Nancy seemed to be calm, the cousins had a distinct feeling that their friend had had a rather bad fright. She smiled at the girls as the medium released her.
“Thanks,” Nancy murmured.
The woman shook her head and shoulders as if coming out of a trance and said, “Forgive me. I just had a frightening premonition.”
“About me?” Nancy asked.
“No, no. It had to do entirely with me. I could see a man coming to attack me. I felt as if he were going to kill me.”
“How dreadful!” Bess said.
George spoke up. “Why would he want to do that?”
The medium blinked her eyes rapidly as if trying to shut out the awful sight. “He wanted me to give him certain papers of a highly secret nature.”
“You don’t have to do it,” George remarked.
“Oh, you don’t know this man,” Madame Tarantella said. She turned to Nancy. “You are always ready and willing to help people. Now I implore your help. You must take the papers with you and keep them for me.”
Nancy was startled by the suggestion. She had no intention of acceding to the request but her instincts told her that she might have stumbled upon a clue to the mystery of the woman and her strange life.
“My father is a lawyer,” she said finally. “I will ask him if it will be all right.” In her heart she was sure he would not allow it.
“I can’t wait that long,” Madame Tarantella replied. “You must take them tonight.”
George interrupted. “Why don’t you put the papers in a safe-deposit box?”
The woman did not answer. Instead she rolled her eyes around again. Bess was beginning to quiver with fear. She was about to urge that they all leave, when the medium suddenly looked perfectly normal, smiled sweetly, and said to Bess:
“You’re very pretty. Do you have a problem?”
Bess did not reply. She said to Nancy and George, “Let’s get out of here!”
“Don’t be in a hurry, my dear,” Madame Tarantella said. “When I have premonitions, I sometimes act strangely, people tell me. I assure you I would not do you any harm.”
The medium looked at a clock on the wall. “It will soon be time for the séance to begin. I must have a few minutes in which to get myself ready and composed. Please wait in the large room. There will be some interesting messages relayed tonight that I will receive from the spirits.”
“How much do I owe you?” Nancy asked the medium.
The woman smiled. “I have no fee. My clients pay me in proportion to the help they feel they have received. In this case I am asking your help, so there will be no charge.”
The three girls filed out and at once Bess urged that they leave the hut. “While the going is good,” she added. “I want no part of this strange, fake setup.”
“The other women will soon be here and you’ll be perfectly safe,” Nancy said soothingly.
“But this place gives me the shivers,” Bess argued.
George chuckled. “A little shiver now and then won’t hurt you.”
When their friends arrived, the three girls went to sit with them. In a whisper Bess told them what had happened to Nancy and how peculiar Madame Tarantella was.
Helen grinned. “It sounds as if this might be good fun.”
Bab whispered, “I hope no spirit comes down and vanishes in a swirling cloud with one of us!”
Other women and girls came in and the room was soon filled. Presently the lights were dimmed and a hush came over the place.
Madame Tarantella swept through the doorway from the rear room and ascended a little platform. She was wearing a flowing robe made of glittering material and a long-haired black wig. On her head was an iridescent crown and she carried a wand which had a tiny light on the end.
George whispered to Nancy with a soft giggle, “She looks like a cross between Cinderella and a witch!”
Reaching the center of the platform, Madame Tarantella waved the wand in a semicircle several times. Then slowly she began to speak in a deep monotone.
“Gracious spirit of those who have gone before,” she said, “bring us messages for the assembled group.”
Tiny flickering lights began to glow above her head. Within seconds a high-pitched feminine voice spoke as if coming from a great distance. It murmured, “My daughter is sitting among you. I —want to tell you, Martha, to be—more careful —with your money.”
As the so-called spirit voice stopped speaking, Madame Tarantella raised her wand high, looked out over the audience, and asked, “Is Martha here?”
A sob came from somewhere in the audience and a woman cried out, “Oh yes! Oh yes! My mother! She was always warning me to take better care of my money!”
Bess grabbed Nancy’s hand. “I don’t like this. I’m afraid of it. Let’s go. Please.”
Before the girls could make a move, Madame Tarantella began to speak again. Waving her wand toward the audience, she said, “There is a frightened, doubting girl here. Her name is Bess. O spirit world, can you send her a reassuring message?”
Bess sat petrified. Did the woman mean her?
Nancy and George were amazed and remained motionless, listening intently for what was about to come from the spirit world.
Presently a man’s deep voice said in a harsh whisper, “I was once in charge of the marriage license bureau in your town. Bess Marvin, I have a message for you from the spirit world. Soon you will be going to the license bureau to prepare for your own wedding.”
Bess buried her face in her hands. Then she leaned toward Nancy and began to cry.
She whispered, “It can’t be true! Dave has to finish college first!”
Nancy put an arm around the distraught girl. At the same time George murmured, “Perhaps we’d better go.”
This time Nancy agreed. Just as the girls were about to get up, there was a deep reverberating roll of thunder.
Bess, even more worried now, said, “Oh, I don’t want to go out in a thunderstorm! I don’t like thunder and lightning!”
“Don’t you remember?” Nancy whispered. “This may be part of the séance. It doesn’t necessarily mean a rainstorm.”
Holding Nancy’s arm, Bess got up and left the hut with her chums. There was no rain, but a storm was brewing. The girls walked quickly toward their car.
Not far away was a small park with a steel flag-pole. Without warning a bolt of lightning came from the sky. It hit the pole and raced to the ground.
“Oh!” George cried a moment later.
She had been knocked to the ground by a shock wave from the discharge. Nancy and Bess felt the tingle of electricity passing through their bodies.
“Are you hurt?” Nancy asked George quickly.
Her friend stood up and declared, “I’m all in one piece, but I don’t want any more shocks like that. I’ll have more respect for lightning after this.”
The girls walked on to the car. When Nancy tried to open the door on the driver’s side, she looked puzzled.
“I didn’t lock this door,” she said. “Did either of you?”
“No,” the cousins replied.
The door on the opposite side was also locked and Nancy wondered who had done it. George suggested that possibly some teen-ager going past had done it for a joke.
“Maybe,” Nancy replied, and unlocked the doors.
It was warm inside. Bess took off her sweater and tossed it onto the rear seat.
“Why do you suppose the spirit voice said I’d be going to the marriage license bureau soon?” she asked.
George grinned. “Well, you’re going sooner or later, aren’t you? That old fake spook was just guessing about when.”
Bess blushed. “Yes, but he sort of shook me up.”
When they reached the motel, she turned around and reached over to retrieve the sweater.
“Nancy,” she said, “what’s this cardboard box on the floor?”
“I don’t know,” Nancy answered. “I didn’t put it there.”
The girls stepped out of the car and Nancy picked up the box. “It’s pretty heavy,” she said. “I wonder what’s in it.”
Suddenly a frightening idea came to Bess. “Nancy, put it down! Don’t open it! There might be a bomb inside!”