Mystery of the Brass-Bound Trunk

by Carolyn G. Keene

  “I hope Mr. X doesn’t expect us to hang up his suits properly,” Bess giggled, and she proceeded to pile the clothes on the bed.

  “You know, these look as if they’re different sizes,” George observed. “Those brown pants seem much shorter than the ones for that gray suit over there.”

  “Maybe he supplies his whole gang with outfits,” Rod suggested.

  When the trunk was empty, Nancy tapped all sides of it. Then she tried the bottom, pressing hard on every inch. Suddenly she smiled. “I think this is a false bottom!” she announced.

  “Really?” George asked in a hoarse whisper. “Can you tell for sure?”

  “It sounds that way,” Nancy replied and studied the flowered paper that lined the entire trunk.

  “Bess, would you mind bringing me my Bash-light?” she requested.

  Bess hurried into one twenty-eight to get Nancy’s light from a drawer. She handed it to the young sleuth, who immediately beamed the flashlight on the flowered paper.

  “There’s a well-disguised seam here,” Nancy said, pointing. “Maybe I can get the paper off without ruining it.”

  “How?” George asked.

  Nancy said, “Let’s try soaking it to see if we can loosen it.”

  Bess asked, “Why bother?”

  Nelda answered, “We don’t want to alert the owner that we have tampered with his property, even though we suspect him.”

  By this time, George had obtained a Turkish towel from the bathroom, soaked it, and brought it to Nancy. The plan worked and in a few minutes the girl detective was able to peel off the flowered paper from the bottom of the trunk.

  The others crowded around to look at what was underneath. They stared in surprise.

  “A wooden tray!” Bess exclaimed. “With a lid!”

  “Which doesn’t open,” Nancy said in disappointment, as she and Rod tried it unsuccessfully. Suddenly Nancy held up her hand. “Shh!”

  There was complete silence for a few seconds.

  “What is it?” George whispered.

  “I thought I heard a noise outside. I don’t know whether it was here or at the door of cabin one twenty-eight!”

  “What shall we do?” Bess asked.

  “I think I’d better investigate,” Rod decided. “You stay here and be very quiet.”

  “Wouldn’t it be better if I went out to look?” Nancy said. “You could be right behind me and back me up in case of trouble.”

  “Okay,” Rod agreed, and the two tiptoed into cabin one twenty-eight through the connecting doors. Nancy opened the door and looked out into the corridor. There was no one in sight!

  “I could have sworn I heard someone out here!” Nancy said. “Whoever it was must have hurried off while we were discussing what to do!”

  “Well, let’s get back to the trunk,” Rod sug gested. They locked the door again and joined the others, who had discovered a series of small holes across the top of the tray.

  “This trunk has a false bottom!” Nancy exclaimed.

  “They must be keyholes,” Nancy suggested. “Now what are we going to do?”

  Nelda answered, “Why don’t we call my uncle? I’m sure he can help us.”

  The others agreed and urged her to call the captain at once.

  He answered immediately, but said he was in bed. His niece told him what Nancy had discovered in the mystery trunk.

  “Amazing!” he replied, “This should be investigated further. I’ll be right down!”

  CHAPTER X

  Dutch Dials

  CAPTAIN Detweiler arrived in a short time. He gazed for several seconds at the hidden tray Nancy had discovered. He was as eager as the others to open it and learn what it contained.

  Nancy asked him about Lou, the locksmith. “We’ve had no luck trying to open it. Do you trust him fully?”

  The captain smiled. “I’ve known Lou for many, many years. He’s as honest and faithful as a good Dutch windmill.”

  He turned to Rod Havelock. “Please go down and get Lou. Tell him I want him up here right away with a bag of tools and devices to open locks, unusual locks, that is.”

  “Shall I wake him if he’s asleep?” the assistant purser asked.

  “Yes. It’s very important, but he’s not to mention it to anyone.”

  Havelock left at once. He did, indeed, find the locksmith sound asleep. After hearing the urgent message, Lou dressed quickly and the two men returned to the girls’ cabin, where the captain explained the problem.

  “I thought all along there was something funny about that trunk,” Lou said.

  “There is,” Captain Detweiler admitted and swore the man to secrecy. Then the girls showed Lou the tray they had found in the mystery trunk.

  The locksmith was amazed. Before he began working on it, he studied the tray with the four small holes across the top of the lid for a couple of minutes. Then he opened his bag of tools. The others watched eagerly as he tried round keys, thin flat ones, and strange-looking corrugated keys. Nothing would open the lid of the tray.

  Lou now tried thin rods. When these failed in all four of the tiny openings, he inserted slender wires. He wiggled them, frowning more deeply with each attempt.

  Finally the frustrated locksmith began to mutter to himself in Dutch. Nancy could not understand any of it, so Nelda translated and whispered in her ear.

  “He is saying, ‘Very clever, very clever. But I will conquer this thing yet!’ ”

  Nancy smiled and rooted even harder for Lou. He kept shaking his head so much that Bess whispered to Nelda, “If he keeps this up, his head will fall off!”

  At this point Nancy decided to get her magnifying glass and examine the top of the tray thoroughly. She brought it from her own trunk and scrutinized each inch of the tray. Along the bottom of the lid she could see letters and figures indistinctly.

  “They might be a clue on how to open this!” she said. “Lou, please take this glass and look at the writing. Perhaps it gives instructions on how to proceed.”

  Lou took the glass and studied the marks intently for several seconds. Suddenly he smiled. “You’re right!” he said. “This is in Dutch and says ‘Een rechts, twee links, een naar boven, drie naar beneden. ’ ”

  “How exciting!” Nelda exclaimed. “That means one right, two left, one up, and three down.”

  Lou was still studying the directions. Finally he said, “This tray may have a dial inside the lid like those used on safes in banks. Yes, it must be like that.”

  He took one of the wires, bent it at one end into a loop, and inserted it into the first hole. Then he put his ear down to listen for any response from the lock. When there was none, he pushed the wire to the right. Apparently he heard some kind of sound. He withdrew the wire and pushed it to the left, then back and to the left again. He now pulled the wire almost to the top, then lowered it three times. There was an audible click!

  As everyone waited breathlessly, Lou lifted the lid off the tray. The girls tried hard not to shout, expressing their delight in hushed voices. Captain Detweiler patted the locksmith on the shoulder. “Great work, Lou,” he said.

  The contents of the tray were covered with a cloth, which Nancy was urged to take off. As she did, a series of small suede pouches became visible.

  “What do you think is in them?” Bess whispered.

  Nancy turned to the captain. “I feel you should have the honor of opening the first pouch,” she said.

  The officer smiled. “No. You’re the one who is solving this mystery. You open it!”

  Nancy did, and out rolled a fair-sized sapphire. It glinted in the light.

  “I don’t believe it!” George whispered. “Hurry up and open the rest!”

  Nancy insisted that there were plenty of pouches and each person in the cabin should open one of them. As they did, diamonds, rubies, topazes, and garnets were revealed.

  The group were speechless. Finally Captain Detweiler said, “There’s no question but that whoever hid these in the trunk expe
cted to smuggle them into the United States!”

  Bess asked, “What are you going to do with them?”

  Rod Havelock suggested that they be taken to the ship’s safe in the purser’s office.

  But the captain had another idea. “I have a very fine secret safe in my quarters. I think the jewels should be put in there. No one but the people in this room will know about them.”

  Nancy asked, “Can you put all of them away at once without anyone seeing you?”

  The officer smiled. “Indeed, I can. Rod will stuff his pockets with pouches, and I’ll stuff mine. Then we’ll go up to my quarters immediately.”

  He turned to the locksmith. “Lou, you have been a wonderful help, and I know you’re happy to think that you’ve been able to uncover apparently smuggled gems.”

  The locksmith smiled. “You know you can rely on me, sir.” He packed his tools, said good night, and left the cabin.

  “What a nice man he is,” Nancy said. “And to think I was once suspicious of him.”

  In a few minutes Captain Detweiler and the assistant purser also went off, their pockets bulging.

  The girls put back the tray, piled the suits and work clothes into the mystery trunk, and locked it.

  “Come on, Nelda, help me lift this into the wardrobe again,” Nancy said.

  “Certainly.”

  When the trunk was safely hidden, Nelda asked, “What are we going to do with this soaking wet flowered paper?”

  In her haste to uncover the tray, Nancy had laid the sheets near the porthole window.

  “They’ll have to dry before we can paste them back,” Nancy responded.

  She looked around for a place to hide the paper and concluded that underneath the bed was the best spot. “I’ll replace them when they’re dried,” she said. The girl detective added that she hoped the paper would not wrinkle or shrink. If so, it would be a dead giveaway should the suspect locate the trunk and examine it.

  “Then we’d really be in trouble,” Bess remarked.

  “But nothing compared to the trouble the jewel thief will be in,” George predicted.

  Nelda had a faraway look in her eyes. Nancy guessed that the words “jewel thieves” had brought painful memories to her. The accusation against her had never been cleared up.

  “Oh, if only we could find that diamond bracelet,” Nancy thought.

  The girls carefully slipped the paper under the bed to dry; then they put out the lights and went next door into their own cabin. Bess made sure all the doors were locked.

  “I wonder what those gems are worth,” George said. “There were so many I didn’t even count them.”

  “A fortune, no doubt,” Bess added. “I’d love to own just one or two of them!”

  “It’s dreadfully late,” Nancy said with a yawn.

  George nodded. “What an evening we’ve had,” she said.

  “Yes, and you’re right out of the infirmary,” Bess remarked. “You were supposed to take it easy!”

  George giggled. “We’d better get out of these costumes and get to bed.”

  In the excitement all of them had forgotten that they were still in their strange-looking clothes.

  “Wait!” Bess said. “I want to take a picture of each of you!” She dashed for her camera and inserted flash cubes.

  “You can take one of me with my candle right in front of the bed,” George said. “It’s the perfect background!”

  Bess did, then had the others pose for a photograph. When she was finished, Nancy took one of Bess.

  “George, I dare you to send one of these mouse pictures to your friend Burt!” Bess teased her cousin.

  George made a face. “I never want him to see me like that!”

  “Why not? You won first prizel”

  “Sure. For the funniest-looking creature on board. Hardly something you would want to advertise to your boyfriend.”

  Finally the four girls climbed into bed. They had hardly closed their eyes, when the phone rang. Sleepily Nancy picked it up. “Hello?”

  “Nancy?” a man’s voice answered. “This is Rod Havelock. Is your door locked safely from the inside?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good,” the assistant purser said. “On the way upstairs the captain and I were attacked by two masked men. One of them said, “We know Nancy Drew has put you up to something. What’s in your pockets?”

  By this time Nancy was wide awake, and frightened. “Oh, Rod!” she exclaimed, “are you and the captain all right? And did the men get the pouches?”

  CHAPTER XI

  Bits of Evidence

  IN reply to Nancy’s excited question, Rod Havelock chuckled. “Yes, we’re okay. We weren’t seriously hurt except for a few black-and-blue marks.”

  “Who attacked you?”

  “Two men. Actually we got the better of them,” Rod said, “because both of them lost their balance and fell down the flight of stairs. You see, they were waiting at the top in one of the cross corridors and jumped us just as we came up.”

  “What about the pouches?” Nancy asked.

  “They’re safe and intact. We didn’t lose any time getting to the captain’s cabin with them,” Rod replied.

  Nancy heaved a sigh of relief. “I’m glad that you’re all right and that you saved the pouches.”

  “Thank you,” Havelock said. He laughed softly. “You’ll probably be relieved to know that I’m spending the rest of the night with the captain.”

  “I’m glad,” Nancy said.

  Havelock told her that the ship’s watchmen had been alerted, but so far they had reported seeing no one.

  “Those attackers,” Nancy said, “must have watched you and the captain come into our cabin and then waited until just before you left. I’ll bet they’re the same two who came into our room to claim the mystery trunk!”

  “Probably,” Rod agreed.

  “I’ll go right out and see if they left any clues,” Nancy offered.

  “Oh, no!” Havelock insisted. “Don’t leave your cabin now! Those people know you’re involved in this mystery, and you mustn’t take any chances. At this hour, nearly everyone is asleep, and if something were to happen to you, you might not get help in time.”

  “I suppose you’re right,” Nancy admitted. She promised to go to bed and wait until morning before doing any sleuthing. She asked, “What were your attackers wearing?”

  “Bathrobes and black hoods that came down over their entire faces.”

  “Did they wear gloves?” the girl detective inquired.

  “No, they didn’t.”

  “How about shoes?”

  Rod said that both men wore dark-colored slippers. “One masked man had on a garnet-colored robe, the other a navy-blue one with pale-blue piping.”

  “On which stairway were you attacked?” Nancy asked.

  Rod said, “On the most forward one, leading from your deck up to the top, where the captain’s quarters are.”

  Nancy thought about this a moment, then suddenly was conscience-stricken because she was keeping Havelock from going to bed. “He must be weary after his encounter with the attackers!” she chided herself. She apologized for keeping him on the phone so long and said, “Thanks for calling me. I’ll be in touch. Have a good rest.”

  Nancy herself fell into a fitful sleep. She dreamed that while she was looking for clues on the deck she found a tiny diamond glittering in one of the lounge chairs. As she approached it, the diamond became larger and brighter until it filled the whole chair.

  Nancy wanted to call out to her friends, but her voice was gone! The brightness of the stone became so intense that it hurt her eyes and she woke up. She sat upright in her bed and checked her watch. It was just six o’clock. “No use in going back to sleep,” Nancy thought. “Next time I’ll probably dream about a killer ruby!”

  She dressed quickly without disturbing the others, took her flashlight, and left the cabin. She locked the door from the outside, then, without any trouble, found the
stairway where the attackers had been.

  The steps were carpeted. She played her flashlight thoroughly on each one as she ascended. About halfway up, the girl detective saw a tiny piece of black cloth lying on the carpet. She picked it up and examined the fragment thoroughly under her flashlight. “I wonder if this could possibly have been torn from one of the men’s masks,” she speculated.

  Nancy kept examining the stairway until she was only three steps from the top. Suddenly her eyes lighted on a piece of paper. It was rolled into a tiny ball. The girl picked it up and straightened it out. Then she looked at it in amazement. It was part of a drawing of a diamond bracelet! “Wow!” she said to herself. “What a find!”

  The diamonds were a silver color against a black background, and the design was beautiful in its striking simplicity. In one corner of the paper was a very faint line.

  As the young sleuth stared at it, she wondered whether the line would give some real information if she looked at it under a magnifying glass. She put both the paper and the cloth into a pocket and ascended the stairs, going all the way to the top deck. She came across nothing else of importance.

  “I’d better get back to my cabin,” Nancy decided, “and look at this paper under my magnifying glass.”

  On the way she almost bumped into a cleaning man as she turned a corner. He said to her, “It is too early for you to be up.”

  “Oh, I like to get up early,” Nancy replied and hurried off.

  By the time she let herself into cabin one twenty-eight, the other girls were awake. They demanded to know where she had been and why. When she told them, and pulled the evidence from her pocket, they were amazed.

  Nancy went to get her magnifying glass and studied both the cloth and the piece of black paper. The cloth revealed no clues, but the line on the paper turned into letters. She could just read the indistinct letters of the word Longstreet.

  “Do you think that’s an address?” Bess suggested.

  “Could be the name of the manufacturer who makes this odd black paper,” Nelda put in.

  “Or the name of the person for whom the bracelet was created,” Nancy said.