The Sinister Omen

by Carolyn Keene

  Of course! Trying to go through the doors and windows was foolish because the wood was relatively new and the galvanized metal was firmly in place. But the original wood of the hotel, particularly the floor of the porch, was badly rotted. Perhaps she could get in by simply pulling away a few boards!

  Eagerly, Nancy dropped to her knees and felt around. She found the spot with the hole, reached in with her fingers, and got a grip on the edge of the broken board. Then she pulled. Groaning, the board came up, broke, and sent her sprawling backwards!

  8. Rats

  To Nancy, the noise was like a Fourth of July firecracker. For a full ten seconds, she lay back against the wall, convinced that she had awakened the entire neighborhood. If the crooks were actually holding her father in the Belfont, they must surely be looking for her by now!

  But then Nancy took a deep breath. "Get hold of yourself," she whispered. Probably, the noise had not been nearly so loud as she thought. Apparently, it had done nothing to arouse the neighbors, since not even a dog barked in response.

  Carefully, she got back up on her knees and felt for the hole she had made. She found that it was a good six inches wide and almost two feet long. Thank heavens for the big, wide boards they used in those old buildings! If she could pry loose one more, she could probably squeeze through the opening.

  She felt around for the next board. Luckily, it was almost completely rotted away. It came loose in her hands with half of it crumbling. She noticed a whiff of musty air rising out of the hole. Now, if she could just squeeze through!

  ''Oh!" Nancy groaned. ''If only I had dieted a little more the night before we left River Heights, instead of eating all that pizza and pistachio ice cream!"

  She started to put her feet through the hole, and then stopped. What was she doing, dropping through a hole on the porch of this terrible, old hotel? How did she know what was waiting for her below? It could be anything!

  Hastily pulling her feet back, she reached for her flashlight and flicked it on. There was a dirt floor not far below her. Of course, she thought, there's just a crawlspace under the porch. The real basement probably starts back ten feet at the hotel wall.

  Nancy again put her feet through the hole and disappeared under the porch. Then she moved slowly toward the building, looking for an opening. What if they had nailed up everything down here, too? But she dismissed that idea when a worse thought struck her. Suppose the place had no basement? Houses were often constructed that way in Florida because the closeness of the sea made it hard to keep the water out.

  But to her relief, she found an unboarded window with all the glass broken out. She shone her flashlight through and detected the basement floor about four feet down. Quickly, she crawled through the opening, and felt a heavy pipe just to her right. Putting her hands around it, she pulled her hips and legs through the window, hung for a moment, then dropped to the floor.

  She found herself in the dirtiest cellar she had ever seen. It was heaped with boxes and barrels and cans. Every known type of junk and refuse was piled and thrown about in heaps and hillocks. The dust lay almost a half inch thick, sending up clouds when she moved.

  "Boy," Nancy said, half aloud. "If Hannah could see this. What a cleaning she'd give it." But thinking of the Drews' beloved housekeeper made her remember her father. He probably was somewhere in this awful place, and she had to find him!

  Carefully, Nancy got to her feet and began moving through the debris. She had taken two or three tentative steps when she heard an uproar of snarls and squeals. A dozen soft but heavy-feeling bodies exploded around her, banging into her legs. Nancy knew from the horrible sound emerging from under her right foot that she had stepped on the tail of a rat! Apparently, she had walked directly through a nest of rats that now seemed on all sides of her!

  Somehow, she had the presence of mind not to scream. Instead, she simply took off as if she were running the hundred-yard dash, diving through the tangled jungle of the basement until she had put some distance between her and the rats.

  She had learned about rodents as a result of a school study she had done on their habits. Therefore, she was aware of the fact that people's fear of rats often got out of control. Rats avoided humans whenever they could and never attacked anyone if they could run away instead. But a rat whose tail had been stepped on had every reason to believe that if was being attacked. Nancy considered it a real miracle she had not been bitten before getting away from the nest.

  She now shone her flashlight everywhere as she walked, not only on the floor but along the shelves, where a rat might be strolling or sit-

  ting. But the animals had been warned, and she felt more and more assured that they had all gone into hiding.

  Again her thoughts went to her father. Suppose he were tied up, helpless, somewhere? Suppose he had been left on the floor with those rats around? They wouldn't bother anyone who could move, but what would happen to a person bound hand and foot?

  Nancy shuddered and climbed up the stairs to the first floor. She hurried from room to room, shielding her light, listening cautiously, waiting for some sound or sight that would give her a clue as to Carson Drew's whereabouts.

  Then, up ahead, she saw a faint light. It was only a tiny sliver of yellow under a door. Her heart pounded. It had to be her father and his captors! Who else would be in this place at this time of night?

  Creeping slowly up to the door, Nancy put her ear to it and listened. She heard rough, guttural voices. She strained to hear her father's among them, but in vain. Out of desperation she grew bold and pushed the door slightly to create a crack to see through.

  Peering in, she gasped. Her father was sitting upright in a chair to which he was bound. There was a cut on his head, and some blood had dried on his forehead, but otherwise he seemed unhurt.

  Nancy's heart beat loudly and her hands began to shake.

  Two men were in the room with Mr. Drew. One, an extremely tall, thin man looked like a cadaver since his skin was so white that it was almost transparent. The other, also tall, was swarthy, with a mustache and beard.

  Desperately, Nancy searched her mind for some way to distract the crooks so she could free her father and escape. But before she could put any of her schemes into action, she felt a powerful arm grab her right wrist. Her hand was forced up behind her back and she was propelled into the room, a captive!

  9. Nancy's Ruse

  "This makes it perfect," came the grating voice of the swarthy man. "Now we've got both the lawyer-father and the detective-daughter!"

  The cadaverous-looking crook laughed in a peculiar, almost hiccuping manner. ''Just the way Mac said it would work out."

  "Shut up about Mac," said the swarthy man. "Can't you keep your mouth closed? Here, tie up the girl. Just like her father. Peas in a pod."

  The thin man laughed again. "Yeah, peas in a pod. That's right."

  "Shut up," said the swarthy man.

  Nancy had no choice but to submit to the ropes being tied around her. She tensed her wrists and ankles against the bonds, making her muscles as tight as possible. It was an old escape artist's trick she had learned. Later, when the knots had been made, she could relax her muscles and feel a slight loosening of the ropes that, if she were lucky, would enable her to slip out of them. It didn't work all the time, but it was worth a try.

  Nancy looked over at her father, who had a gag in his mouth. "Can't you at least take the gag out?" she pleaded with the men. "No one can hear us down here. It's so unnecessary."

  "Don't tell us how to run our business!" the swarthy man grumbled. "Behave yourself, or we'll gag you, too."

  Nancy's mind raced desperately. Perhaps she could put up a bold front and fool them. Tossing her hair defiantly, she said, "You know, no matter what you do to us, you won't be able to save your gang. You're finished."

  The man who had twisted her arm was still standing in back of her in the semidarkness. Now he spoke for the first time. "I never did hear a woman run off at the mouth the way th
is girl does. Let's gag her."

  "Shut up," said the swarthy man.

  Nancy took a deep breath. "You have me and my father as captives. We're helpless. You can do anything you want to us. But you wont."

  ''Don't be too sure," the swarthy man rasped.

  "Isn't it bad enough that you can already be charged with kidnapping? Are you fully aware of what the penalty is for kidnapping in the state of Florida? You'll get life imprisonment, at least. Now, if you let us go, we won't prosecute. Just set us free and that will be the end of it."

  "No one's going to charge us with kidnapping." The swarthy man grinned. "No one's going to know!"

  "Ah, but the police do know, and they're on their way here right now. You honestly don't think that I'd come here alone without telling them, do you?"

  ''But that's exactly what you would do, Nancy Drew! That's your method. We've studied you and your father, you see. We've studied you very closely."

  "Yeah," said the tall, cadaverous man. "The Brotherhood of the Vulture has checked you out!"

  Nancy started at the words. The swarthy man lost his patience with his colleague, letting fly a stream of insults and cuffing him about the head and shoulders.

  "Stupid fool!" he screamed. "You keep quiet!

  Stop dribbling words before you get us all in trouble, do you hear me?''

  His cohort nodded, shuffled, and said nothing. At last, the swarthy man turned back to Nancy. ''Well, now youVe heard of the Brotherhood of the Vulture. But knowing a name won't do you any good."

  ''Oh, yes, it does," Nancy said coolly. "It tells me just who was behind the effort to stop me from coming to Fort Lauderdale. You must really be afraid if you're willing to go to these extremes."

  Her captor dismissed her statement with a careless wave of his hand. "You're finished, Nancy Drew. When they find you and your father, it'll look like you had an accident. No one will ever know what happened."

  "Someone will know very soon. What time is it, please?"

  The thin man looked at his watch. "Eleven twenty-seven," he replied.

  "Good, " Nancy declared. "You have exactly three minutes of freedom left, because at eleven-thirty you're going to hear axes biting into the doors here and half the police in the state of Florida are going to come pouring through!"

  Her heart was beating so fast she could hardly get her breath, but she knew that everything hinged on her ability to make them believe what she was saying. Mentally, she was kicking herself for not having let the police know.

  The swarthy man simply laughed at her. But his thin friend began to pluck at his clothes nervously. Nancy knew that he was the one she had to concentrate on. She turned and looked at him.

  ''You don't really want to go to jail, do you?" she asked. "I can see you just came out recently. Your white skin betrays you. How do you feel about going back?"

  The thin man coughed. 'Tedro, we oughta go. I don't want no jail rap, not again. We can watch the place from outside, and if she was bluffing, we can always come back. They're—"

  ''Shut up! Stop calling me by my name, you moron!"

  "I'm sorry. But listen—"

  Just then, there was a crashing noise in the basement. It startled Nancy and her father as much as their captors.

  ''I'm getting out of here!" the thin man cried and rushed to the door. Pedro hesitated only a second, then followed, and so did their other colleague. As their footsteps died away, Nancy quickly tried to loosen her bonds. The thin man, as she expected, had been the softest of the three in all ways. In tying her up, he had not pulled the ropes very tight. After a bit of exertion, Nancy freed her right hand. It was then only a matter of moments before she had extricated herself completely and was able to remove the gag from her father's mouth. He let out a great gasp.

  "Oh, Nancy, thank you. Tm so glad you came. Are the police really following you?''

  "No, they don't even know I'm here. That crash downstairs must have been the rats kicking something over. Boy, am I glad it happened just at the right time!"

  She furiously worked on the bonds that tied her father. "We'd better get out of here quickly, though. The men might come back once they realize I was only bluffing."

  "I hope they were scared enough to have run a long way," Mr. Drew said.

  "Are you strong enough to walk?" Nancy asked. "You look so pale."

  'I'd better he able to walk," her father said with a weak grin. "Come on."

  The two hurried out of the room and back into the basement. Nancy helped Mr. Drew down the stairs, but by the time they reached the window, his circulation had improved and he was able to pull himself up. A few moments later, the two surfaced on the dilapidated porch. Everything seemed quiet around them.

  ''See that old Volkswagen across the street?" Nancy whispered. "It belongs to Señor Segovia. He gave it to me to drive back to the mansion. Let's make a run for it."

  Her father nodded. "But our three friends may lie in wait for us. Let me just grab something in case we're attacked."

  He had seen a piece of lead pipe and realized it would be perfect for his purpose. Quickly, he picked it up. ''Now I feel a little safer," he said. ''Let's go!"

  The two emerged from the hole in the porch and ran toward the car as fast as they could. Nancy slipped behind the wheel and an instant later took off in a cloud of dust.

  Her father rubbed his aching ankles. "Nancy, this was a wonderful rescue. How did you know where to find me? "

  She told him about their search in the warehouse and the clue she had found. Her father smiled. "I was going to draw an arrow from the letter D to the word Belfont, but at that moment, the crooks turned to me and I almost didn't manage to hide my pen in time. Tm glad you managed to find me anyway."

  "So am I.''

  "But Nancy, I want you to promise me something."

  "Yes, Dad?"

  "Never, never do something like this on your own again. It's much too dangerous. Always inform the police and have them help you."

  Nancy nodded. "I know I should have done that. But I was so excited when I figured out the Belfont clue, and the man at headquarters who answered the phone wasn't very cooperative—"

  "With perseverance, you could have found someone who'd have helped you, " her father pointed out.

  "I know," Nancy said ruefully. "I won't do it again."

  "Pull up by that diner over there," Mr. Drew said after a while. "I want to notify the police and Señor Segovia of my rescue."

  Nancy did, and he went inside to a public telephone. When he came out, he smiled. "I was lucky to reach Señor Segovia," he said.

  ''What did he say?" Nancy asked eagerly.

  ''Well, he was delighted to hear that I had escaped. When I told him you had helped me, he was absolutely flabbergasted. He's on his way home now, and he'll tell us there what he's found out in the meantime. "

  When they arrived at the Segovia mansion, they went to their rooms for a few moments to clean up, then met Señor Segovia and the girls in the living room. Bess and George hugged Nancy and her father excitedly and congratulated their friend on her spectacular rescue. Then Nancy told the details of her adventure.

  Señor Segovia was surprised at her clever deduction that her father had been held in the Belfont, but also warned her not to undertake a search like this alone in the future.

  "I did some investigating, too," he- said. "I found out you were relocated, Carson, because the gang was worried that the warehouse wasn't safe enough, even though the company who owns it doesn't use it much anymore. But my informant didn't know where you had been moved to. It took Nancy to find that out!"

  "It was just a hunch," Nancy said with an embarrassed smile.

  "Well, Tm willing to take great stock in your hunches" Señor Segovia said. "You may be of much help in our investigation. And now, even though it's late, I just want to explain very briefly to you and your friends what it is that we're up against!"

  10. Mrs. Palmer Lashes Out!

  After making his gu
ests comfortable and having seen to it that they were served cooHng drinks, Señor Segovia outlined the details of his struggle against the stamp smugglers.

  ''As a representative of the government" he began, ''I was assigned to direct the investigation of the smuggling ring. But the crooks are so bold and contemptuous that they actually filed a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against me, charging me with libel and slander for statements I allegedly made in public."

  ''The reason for this,'' Nancy spoke up, "is probably to keep you busy with legal matters so you can't probe the gang's dealings."

  "That's correct," Señor Segovia went on. "They charged me with interfering in what they claim is a perfectly legitimate operation. That's when I called in your father"

  "As I began to gather evidence against the gang" Mr. Drew took up the story, "they became worried and kidnapped me."

  "That was a bad mistake on their part," Señor Segovia said. "It made it very obvious that their claim of legitimacy is ridiculous. I'm convinced it only happened because Stroessner is in South America. But he's coming back tonight, and when he does, there'll be some fireworks in his outfit."

  "Who's Stroessner?" Nancy questioned.

  "Otto Stroessner is the big man who runs the entire rotten syndicate," Mr. Drew put in. "He's a big bull of a man with a bald head and a monocle. But he has impeccable manners and is charming and gracious. The ladies who don't know him better think he's a romantic figure. Those who do know him realize that he is one of the top criminals in the world. He's a man who will stop at nothing."

  "Yes," Señor Segovia agreed. "He's also a man who carefully calculates his every move. And he would never have approved your kidnapping, Carson. Someone else did that."

  "McConnell, " the lawyer said. "They mentioned it."

  "Who's McConnell?" Bess asked.

  Señor Segovia laughed. "This session is supposed to brief you on what's happening and we keep dropping names you don't know. Brian McConnell is Stroessner's second in command here in the States. Why, I don't know. He's not Stroessner's type of man at all. He's a hotheaded soldier of fortune who sells himself to the highest bidder. He's been a smuggler, a gun runner, a guerrilla leader. But he has no sense. He's all bravado and does foolhardy things, thinking it will please Stroessner, and it never does."