(#28) The Clue of the Black Keys (4 page)

Nancy telephoned Dr. Graham’s office to arrange an appointment. Next, she asked George to accompany her.

“Hypers, Nancy, I don’t know how to talk to a doctor of archaeology! But I’ll go.”

A few minutes before three fifteen George and Nancy knocked at a door marked
Professor Graham.
A small, stooped man with wrinkled, leathery cheeks opened the door. He eyed the two girls briefly. When Nancy introduced herself and George, the professor looked at his watch.

“I see you’re punctual, Miss Drew. I like young people to be on time.” He stepped back from the door and invited them in.

Nancy told Dr. Graham that she was acquainted with Terry Scott, and through him had learned of the expedition to Mexico and the disappearance of Dr. Pitt.

“My father is a friend of Dr. Pitt and is much concerned about him,” Nancy added. “He suggested that I come and talk to you.”

The little man fixed his sharp, calculating eyes on the girl. “I suppose young Scott told you
he
found the cipher stone,” the professor remarked coldly, ignoring the reference to Dr. Pitt.

“No,” Nancy replied. “He said, ‘Dr. Pitt and I.’ Terry has a very high respect for your work, too, Professor,” she added hastily.

She could see the old man relax under this compliment. “Humph! He’s an arrogant young fellow. But he has a good mind. I suppose you want my opinion of the case.”

Nancy nodded.

“About Pitt, now.” Dr. Graham leaned back in his chair. “I don’t mind saying his disappearance hardly surprised me. I like Pitt, but he’s secretive. He’ll listen; he’ll find out what others have on their minds, but he’ll never tell what he has found out.”

“Do you believe, Dr. Graham,” Nancy spoke up, “that Dr. Pitt went off by himself to find the treasure?”

Graham shrugged. “It’s possible. Then he added, a half-smile on his face, ”Some of us scientists are a bit selfish, not in acquiring money, but we want recognition; we want to discover things for ourselves. We’re not always generous when we work together.”

“Where do you think the lost keys are
?”
Nancy asked the professor

“But I’ll give credit where credit is due,” he added testily. “Terry Scott found that half-key and I agreed to let him take charge of it.”

“Where do you think the lost keys are?” Nancy asked.

The professor said he was working on an idea. He did not care to reveal it then. “But Terry will never be able to solve the mystery alone.”

“Have you any theories about the drawing he found in Dr. Pitt’s tent?” Nancy asked.

Dr. Graham compressed his lips and shrugged. Did he know something he was not telling? Or was he too proud to admit that he could not explain the secret message?

Nancy knew it would be difficult to find out whether or not he had any suspicion about Terry in connection with Dr. Pitt’s disappearance. At last she broached the subject. Dr. Graham stood up dramatically and pounded his desk.

“The idea!” he stormed when he got the full import of her question. “Maybe we four did have our differences about what we ought to do on that expedition, but I want to tell you this: not one of us would harm another for all the treasure in Mexico!”

“That’s just what I wanted to hear,” Nancy said, rising. “Thank you for letting me come.”

Much relieved, she and George left Dr. Graham’s office. On the way home, George suggested with a sly grin, “Ned will be surprised when he learns about your interest in professors. When are you seeing him again?”

Nancy grinned back. “This weekend.”

After supper that evening Ned Nickerson telephoned from his fraternity house at Emerson College.

“You’re not forgetting our date this weekend?” he asked anxiously.

“Of course I haven’t forgotten,” Nancy assured him. “I’ve a marvelous memory for dates—especially when they’re for house parties. Bess and George are just sunk because they couldn’t accept Burt’s and Dave’s invitations.”

“Yes, it’s too bad. Nancy, I have a favor to ask of you. There’s a professor visiting River Heights —a fraternity brother of mine. He needs a lift to Emerson.”

Nancy laughed. “Why, Ned, are you asking me to drive over with another man?”

Ned snorted. “That stuffy codger? He’s probably sixty if he’s a day. He’s due to give a lecture here, and you know those weekend trains. I thought you wouldn’t mind bringing him with you Friday.”

“Glad to. Where’s he staying?”

“At the Claymore Hotel. The professor’s name is Terence Scott.”

CHAPTER V

The Highway Trap

TERRY!

Nancy gasped in surprise and amusement.

“What’s the matter?” As she hesitated in her reply, Ned asked, “You’re not backing down, are you?”

“Oh no,” Nancy assured him. She was tempted to reveal Terry’s age but decided the joke was too good to spoil. “I’m sure Professor Scott will be very pleasant company,” she added. “See you Friday, Ned. Good-by now!”

Immediately Nancy telephoned Terry and told him about Ned’s call. The young professor laughed heartily at the joke. He said he would be delighted to drive to Emerson with her on Friday.

Nancy now spoke of the obsidian half-key, saying that perhaps she should bring it along. Terry begged her to keep it.

“I haven’t given up hope you’ll agree to help me solve the mystery,” he said.

After she had hung up, Mr. Drew confided to Nancy that he was fast losing any suspicion he might have had regarding Terry. But there were still points about Dr. Pitt’s disappearance which needed explaining.

“Maybe I’ll learn more over the weekend,” Nancy said hopefully. “I’ll call on Dr. Anderson. He’s not far from Emerson.”

On Thursday Nancy busied herself with preparations for the weekend party. The next day proved to be a warm, sunny day, so Nancy decided to put down the top of her convertible. Promptly at eleven o’clock she pulled up in front of the Claymore Hotel. Terry was waiting.

Soon they were rolling along the wide highway toward Emerson College. It was not long before they found themselves once more discussing the mystery in Mexico.

“You’ve never told me much about Juarez Tino,” Nancy said.

“That’s rather a long story,” Terry answered. “Mind if I tell it while we have lunch? I’m starved.”

Nancy parked at an attractive roadside restaurant, near the brow of a hill, and they found a secluded table.

“I disliked Juarez Tino,” Terry told her, “the first day I saw him. He was a shifty sort of fellow. According to his story, he was exploring a neighboring site. But he was always coming over to see what we were doing.

“He asked hundreds of questions, and prowled around our excavation ditches after dark to see if we’d left anything around. I was sure he was up to some deviltry.”

“Did the other professors distrust him, too?”

“They didn’t suspect him in the same way I did. Dr. Pitt told me to ignore the fellow. I didn’t agree. It seemed to me that if we let Juarez hang around, sooner or later we’d have trouble on our hands.”

“Did you?”

“One day I lost my temper. I told Juarez to keep out of our excavation. We had a regular set-to, and the upshot was that I ran him off the place.”

“Did you find out anything about him?”

“Nothing very conclusive. He’d taken a few courses somewhere and had a smattering of this and that. His specialty was supposed to be ancient gems. But his reputation wasn’t good. There were rumors that he’d once tried to pass off some fake pieces.”

Nancy asked if Juarez had ever come back after he was chased away.

“Yes. Although he stayed out of my sight, he did plenty of snooping when he thought I wasn’t around. Once in a while I would get a glimpse of his wife.”

“What was she like?”

The young man frowned. “You wouldn’t like her, Nancy. She wears loud clothes and always makes herself conspicuous. She has a bold manner, and her voice is harsh. In fact, her whole personality suggested just one thing to me—cruelty.”

Nancy thought, “This couple sounds equal to taking on almost any underhanded work!”

As she and Terry stepped outdoors into the sunshine, she was not thinking of the dinner party at Emerson. She was wondering about Mrs. Juarez Tino and her husband. If Professor Pitt were in their clutches, he was not being treated well, she felt sure.

Nancy was about to step into her car when Terry touched her arm. “Look!” he said in a low, tense voice. “Those two men up the hill—I think they’re spying on us.”

When Nancy turned her head to look, the pair, with hats pulled low over their faces, stepped hurriedly into a black sedan. The car quickly got under way and passed out of sight over the top of the hill.

“Those men ran the minute we looked at them,” Terry said. “I wonder why they did that.”

“Did you recognize them?” Nancy asked.

“No.”

“We’ll watch out for them, just the same,” Nancy decided.

“I’ll feel better when we get to Emerson,” Terry replied a bit nervously. “Perhaps you’d better speed up.”

Nancy shook off her somber mood and grinned mischievously. “Do you suppose your elderly nerves can stand the strain, Professor?”

“Give them a try!”

They stepped into her car and she started it rolling once more toward Emerson. The speedometer crept steadily higher, but Nancy did not overtake the two sinister-looking strangers in the black car. Finally she and Terry began to enjoy the flying landscape, the swift rush of wind, the dips and curves of the road.

Then suddenly—too late—they saw disaster just ahead. They had rounded a bend. Beyond was a wide repair ditch. Desperately Nancy wrenched the wheel to the left.

But she could not make it in time. There was a hurtling impact as the car nose-dived into the ditch! Nancy blacked out.

CHAPTER VI

New Challenge

WHEN Nancy regained consciousness a few minutes later, Terry Scott was bending over her.

“Nancy!” he whispered anxiously.

“I’m all right,” she managed to say, but her head ached badly. “You’re not hurt?”

“A few bruises. But we’re lucky.”

The couple got out and surveyed the car. It was tilted precariously on its front end.

“There should have been a warning sign,” Nancy said grimly.

Terry pointed. “There was a sign—but not where it should have been.”

Lying at the side of the ditch was a long board. “‘Danger. Road Repairs. Drive Slowly,’ ” he read aloud. “A lot of good that does us now! The road gang shouldn’t have been so careless.”

“Don’t blame the road gang,” Nancy said. “I believe that sign was deliberately removed just before we got here.”

“Nancy, that would be murder!”

“It very nearly was murder,” she answered. “And by those two men who were watching us at the restaurant, I’ll bet.”

Terry dragged the sign around the bend to warn other motorists. He had just returned to Nancy when they heard the squeal of brakes.

Nancy and Terry relaxed as they saw a kindly-looking, middle-aged couple in the car that came around the bend.

“Oh, my dears!” the woman cried, getting out of the car. “Is anyone—”

Terry said no one else was involved in the accident. Nancy added that they were all right except she had a headache.

The man offered the young people a ride, but Nancy preferred waiting until a wrecker could come. The friendly strangers promised to stop at the next town and send back mechanics, as well as a state trooper.

A few minutes later a tow truck arrived and two men in overalls stepped out. In a short time they had Nancy’s car on the road and were checking it for damage.

Both mechanics grinned. “Some car!” one commented. “She’s got a few dents and scratches. But no real harm done by her tumble. No reason why you two can’t keep goin’ under your own power. ‘Course, you’d better check again when you get where you’re goin’.”

As the men were leaving, a state trooper rode up on a motorcycle. Nancy and Terry told him their story. He said that a watch would be set for the two men whom the young people thought were responsible for the removal of the road sign.

Then Nancy and Terry started off once more for Emerson. Terry took the wheel.

“You relax and pamper that head of yours,” he told Nancy, “or you won’t be able to show up at the dance tomorrow. I’m counting on at least one dance with you, young lady.”

“Are you going?” Nancy asked in surprise.

“Well, that depends on whether or not I get an invitation.”

“I’ll be looking for you,” Nancy said.

When they reached Emerson College, Terry got off at the president’s home, where he had been invited to stay. Nancy drove on to meet Ned Nickerson at the Chi Omega Epsilon fraternity house.

Tall, athletic Ned saw Nancy drive up and ran out to greet her. When he noticed the dents in the car, he gasped, “What happened? Were you in an accident?”

When she told what had occurred, Ned’s tanned face took on a look of deep concern. He insisted she call Hannah to say she had arrived at Emerson. Then he drove Nancy to the college infirmary for a checkup. To his relief she was pronounced all right.