“Buzby!” Nancy exclaimed. “He’s the one who probably stole the briefcase and planned to sell the letters! But go on.”
Henri continued, “It seems Renee had rented this place, but Buzby was using it while Renee was off on a false lead Red had given him. The day after we arrived here, Buzby got word that Renee was returning in a rage, so we were taken to another deserted farmhouse located not far from here.”
“Then it wasn’t you two who were in the car that Ned saw leaving here yesterday,” Nancy said.
“No. We were already at the other farmhouse. We managed to escape a little while ago, when we found our guard had gone off duty.”
Helene took up the story. “We phoned your house at once. When Hannah Gruen told us that you were here, we were fearful for your safety and came right over.”
Nancy was touched deeply by their loyalty. “If your kidnappers come here, they’ll be met by a policeman,” she said. “Now please go on with the story. But first, I want to tell you that these papers are Mr. Koff’s. I found this briefcase.”
“How wonderful!” Helene exclaimed. Then she said, “Henri and I were so happy at the Nickerson lodge. Then late one afternoon two strange men came to the door—Buzby and Duparc. They threatened us with guns and there was nothing we could do but follow them to a car. There was no time to leave a note.”
Helene said that she had phoned Nancy from the farmhouse, but Buzby had caught her. He had already sent a woman friend to the telegraph office with a fake message for Nancy.
Henri smiled slightly. “But we told Buzby that Nancy knew about the smuggling racket and was closing in on the gang.”
“Then what happened?” George prompted.
“They sneered and said nobody could prove them guilty. But since we were never going to be free, they would tell us the whole story.”
The Fontaines said that Renee and Amien were partners in the theft of the Centrovian jewels from the underground and in the smuggling racket. They had worked on it for months and everything had gone smoothly. First the bisque figurines were sent to the United States, then eleven of the paintings.
“But before the last picture was ready to be shipped,” said Henri, “Amien double-crossed Renee. He secretly sent the portrait with the scarlet slippers. Under the paint was a good part of the loot. He was in league with a New York art dealer named Duparc. Amien came to this country to share the money from the sale of the jewels with Duparc.”
“And left Renee out?” Bess asked.
“Yes. Duparc is Amien’s brother-in-law. He also uses the name Warte.”
Nancy said excitedly, “I see how you Fontaines figured in it. Amien sent you the warning note in France to make you flee and thus look guilty, so Renee wouldn’t suspect his partner of double-crossing him.”
“Exactly.” Henri nodded. “But after a while, when no money came to Renee from the sale of jewels; he became suspicious and sailed for the United States. When he learned Duparc had disappeared, he was convinced he had been cheated and set out to find Amien and Duparc and us.”
George said, “I don’t see where Buzby figures in the deal.”
Henri explained that Buzby was serving both sides and getting money from everyone. Actually, he was a small-time racketeer who was related to Mrs. Amien, alias Mrs. Judson.
“Buzby,” said Henri, “acted as a spy for Amien. When Amien learned that Renee was in the United States, he sent Red Buzby to meet him. He found Renee eager to catch up with his crooked partner and Buzby assured him he knew just where to find Raoul Amien. But he led Renee on a merry chase to keep him from finding Amien.”
“But I suppose,” said Nancy, “that Renee caught on.”
“Yes. He accused Buzby of tricking him.”
“What did Buzby do then?” Bess asked.
Henri said that Buzby’s glib tongue and quick brain had saved him. He told Renee he knew all about the man’s crooked operations in France, that the authorities there were looking for him, and that he could make plenty of trouble for Renee.
“Buzby is a bad one,” Helene said. “Renee tried to get away from him. He began to look for Amien himself and trailed him to River Heights. At this point Amien became desperate and sent a second note to Henri and me to flee.”
“But that was where his plan went wrong,” George remarked. “Nancy stepped into the picture and really whisked you folks out of sight, which frightened Amien.”
As George finished speaking and Henri said, “That is true,” Nancy suddenly sniffed. Then she glanced toward the sill of the closed door.
Smoke was seeping into the room!
Nancy jumped to the door. Flinging it open, she found the hall filled with smoke.
“The house is on fire!” she cried in dismay.
Nancy could now hear flames crackling below. She slammed the door shut and rushed to the window, looking for a means of escape. To her horror, she discovered that the grass, bushes, and side of the house were ablaze.
“Oh, what will we do?” Bess wailed.
The others ran from room to room and glanced outside. A wide band of fire completely encircled the house!
“We must try the stairs,” Henri ordered.
Covering their faces with handkerchiefs, the group tried to descend the steps, but flames and smoke drove them back. The first floor of the old wooden structure was completely ablaze. Escape down the stairs was impossible.
“The kerosene!” Nancy thought ruefully. “Someone soaked the premises inside and out and made an inferno of this place.”
“The house is on fire!” Nancy cried.
As she dashed back into the bedroom, where the briefcase and letters lay, she wondered about Officer Donovan. He must have been knocked out! Her suspicions were confirmed a moment later when, through the haze outside, she saw him lying at the edge of the woods.
“Nancy, oh Nancy, we’ll die!” Bess murmured, clinging to her friend.
With escape cut off, it seemed as. if Bess might be right!
CHAPTER XX
Grand Finale
HENRI had dashed to the telephone to summon help, but the wires had been cut.
“There’s only one chance for escape!” Nancy declared. “We’ll have to make a rope out of sheets and blankets, and swing out the window beyond the flames!”
As she and George dashed to a bed, Helene, standing near a window, cried, “Renee is outside!”
Henri rushed to her side and peered below. “And that’s Red Buzby with him!”
“Help! Help!” Bess screamed.
The men looked up and sneered. Turning on their heels, they went down the lane.
“They can’t run off and leave us!” Bess wailed frantically.
There was no doubt now in Nancy’s mind that the men had purposely set the fire after knocking out Officer Donovan. But there was no time for reflection. Nancy and the others tore the bed sheets and knotted them together.
One end of the life line was tied securely to a leg of the bed, which was shoved close to the window. At this moment they heard a car pull away and concluded that Renee and Buzby had gone off.
“George,” said Nancy, “suppose you climb out first.”
The athletic girl gripped the rope, started down the side of the building, then kicked herself away from it. She half leaped, half fell, safely to the ground, just beyond the burning area of grass.
George held onto the end of the line to keep it from falling into the flames and swung it over a branch of a scorched maple nearby. She held it taut as Bess swung hand over hand to safety. Helene followed, then Nancy, the papers from Koff’s briefcase stuffed in her pockets, and finally Henri.
No sooner had the young man jumped to the ground than the whole farmhouse seemed to collapse. The group was hardly conscious of the intense heat from the flames as, in relief, they hugged one another, alternately laughing and crying hysterically. Their faces were black with soot and the smoke made their eyes smart.
“Let’s go!” Bess urged. “I can’
t get away from here fast enough.”
Suddenly Nancy remembered Officer Donovan. They found him at the edge of the woods. The guard was just regaining consciousness.
A car turned into the lane at that moment. “Oh, it must be those dreadful men!” Bess cried. “We’d better hide, so they can’t harm us!”
Nancy agreed but not for the reason Bess had given. She felt that it would be an excellent opportunity to capture Buzby and Renee.
To Bess’s relief, the occupant of the car was Ned Nickerson. As he leaped to the ground, Nancy and the others stepped out from hiding. Ned looked at the Fontaines as if he were seeing two ghosts. Then he stared at the disheveled group and at the burning farmhouse.
“Whatever happened?” he asked.
Explanations were quickly given. Then Nancy asked how Ned knew where they were.
“I called your house, Nancy, to find out how you felt today,” the young man replied. “Your father answered. He said you were here and that he had been trying to get you on the phone, but there was no answer. He seemed quite concerned, so I offered to come and find you.”
“Did Dad say why he was trying to get me?” Nancy asked.
Ned smiled. “He has solved part of your mystery, Nancy. He found out from the French embassy that 10561-B-24 is the number of the passport issued to Raoul Amien.”
“Oh, Nancy, you were right!” George declared “Now Judson can’t deny who he really is!”
Nancy felt that they should notify the fire department and the police at once.
“Maybe the barn can be saved,” she said. “And furthermore, I have a hunch Renee and Buzby will come back here to see the result of their horrible deed.”
Officer Donovan said he would radio headquarters and the fire department from the police car. He set off to the spot in the woods where the sedan had been secreted.
“The rest of us can hide until the police come,” Nancy said. “If Renee and Buzby should show up, you boys can take care of them.”
“Nothing would please me better,” said Ned, and Henri added, “Just let me get my hands on either one of them!”
Shortly afterward, Officer Donovan joined the group. He said that the police and fire trucks would be there immediately. Then he told them about his being slugged.
“I kept smelling kerosene and was trying to investigate where it was coming from when someone came up from behind and hit me on the head.”
Suddenly Ned grabbed Nancy’s arm and pointed. “Sh!” he warned the group.
Coming from the woods at the back of the barn were Renee and Buzby!
Ned and Henri, crouching low, cautiously inched their way forward. When the men were almost opposite them, they leaped from their hiding place and hurled themselves at the two suspects. The ensuing fight was of short duration. While Ned and Henri held Renee and Buzby in viselike grips, Officer Donovan handcuffed the prisoners.
Renee began to whine. “You have no right to hold me. I haven’t done anything. This is my home that burned down. You ought to have a little sympathy instead of putting handcuffs on me.”
“One or both of you men set fire to the house and tried to burn it down with us in it,” Nancy challenged.
Both prisoners vehemently denied the charge.
“Anyway, there is another serious charge against you, Buzby, which you can’t deny,” declared Henri. “Kidnapping!”
“And now, Buzby,” said Nancy, “suppose you tell us where Raoul Amien is.”
Buzby smirked. “What would it be worth to you to know? My price is high.”
Nancy looked at the man in disgust. “Right now, you’re not in a very good bargaining position,” she said. “We’ll find out soon enough. Mrs. Amien is in jail, and when she finds out you people are prisoners, she’ll tell us where her husband is.”
At that moment they heard the sound of fire sirens and presently several pieces of apparatus pulled into the lane. Within fifteen minutes the fire was under control.
Captain Crane arrived in a police car with several officers. The men praised Nancy and all her friends for their part in the capture of Renee and Buzby. Captain Crane said that Mrs. Amien had broken down and given her husband’s address. Officers had been sent to get him.
“Suppose we go back to headquarters and try to get statements from the whole gang,” the captain suggested. Then he read the captives their rights.
He invited Nancy to ride with him and the two prisoners, who would be handcuffed to another officer in the rear seat of his car.
“You probably have a few questions to ask them,” he said, a twinkle in his eye.
Nancy was glad for this opportunity. When she brought up the subject of Mr. Koff’s briefcase, Buzby admitted having been on the plane and switching cases while pretending to comfort the distraught man.
“I had heard that Koff was working for the Centrovian underground,” said Buzby, “and when he started making a fuss on the plane, I was sure he had some valuable information in his briefcase. So I decided to get it. My own briefcase was almost a duplicate of his, so it was easy to make the switch.”
Nancy then asked if he and Amien, alias Judson, had worked the scheme of trying to get money from Mr. Koff. Buzby confessed that the two had worked it out together, but the plan had failed when Koff had turned the matter over to Mr. Drew.
Nancy learned also that it was Amien who had trailed Koff and his daughter Millie to Cliffwood. Also, it was Amien’s idea to use his passport number under stamps as an identification mark on all correspondence between members of the conspiracy. Anyone sending phony orders could be detected.
The suspect was amazed to learn that one of the slips containing the number had been found in the figurine. He surmised that it had been slipped in accidentally when the jewels were being secreted.
“You’re too smart, Miss Drew,” he said. “But one of these days you’ll come across somebody you won’t be able to outsmart!”
Nancy ignored the remark and asked if it were Buzby and Duparc who had sold the figurines and paintings in which the jewels had been smuggled to the United States.
“Yeah,” said Buzby. “We saw a way to make a few extra bucks and get rid of the hot paintings, too.”
He glared in hatred at Nancy when she told him that the smugglers had failed to remove a few of the jewels.
“Who called my father that night, pretending to be Koff, and asked him to go to New York?” Nancy asked.
“Duparc,” Buzby answered. “He’s good at imitating voices and was able to convince your father he was Koff.”
Captain Crane parked the police car in front of headquarters and they all went inside. Mr. and Mrs. Amien, alias Judson, were waiting. Renee sprang at the husband like a cat but was quickly dragged away.
Amien and his wife looked balefully at Nancy, but remained quiet and finally answered the questions put to them. Nancy learned that it was Amien who had written all the threatening notes, both to the Fontaines and to her.
Finally, Nancy turned to Mrs. Judson and asked, “What was your part in this business?”
“My husband forced me to do all sorts of things,” she replied. “He made me write the anonymous notes to the parents of the dancing school kids. One day when I went over to River Heights to check with Red Buzby, I decided to steal the scarlet slippers.”
“That was your husband’s idea, too?” Nancy asked.
“No,” Mrs. Amien admitted. “That was my own idea. I heard my husband say to Duparc that the jewels had been hidden in the scarlet slippers. I didn’t know he meant the ones in the portrait, so when I saw the pair on the wall of the dancing school, I decided to take them. Of course there wasn’t anything in the slippers.”
Before Nancy and her friends left headquarters, Renee and Buzby admitted setting fire to the farmhouse. The police had taken Duparc into custody. He had been trying to make a getaway with the man and woman Ned had thought were the Fontaines. They were part of the smuggling ring. The foreign authorities had already been notified to
investigate Amien’s Parisian friend who had sent the letter Mrs. Amien had picked up at the River Heights post office.
The next day, the River Heights Gazette and newspapers all over the country featured the story of Nancy Drew and the mystery of the scarlet slippers. The young detective was deluged with telephone calls and wires.
One call made her smile broadly. It came from Mrs. Parsons who said, “Nancy, even if you couldn’t dance a step, I would have had you in our charity show. Why, my dear, you’re the talk of the town!”
Nancy was glad to escape for a short time to the Nickerson cabin on Cedar Lake. Here the Fontaines, Mr. Koff and Millie, Bess, George, and Ned held a private celebration of their own. At the party Nancy found herself wondering when another mystery would come along. She had no way of knowing that within a very short time she would be involved in The Witch Tree Symbol.
Nancy’s thoughts were interrupted when she realized that Henri and Helene were thanking her and her friends over and over again for what they had done.
“You’ll never know how grateful we are,” Helene declared. “You saved our lives, our reputation, and our school. And you’ve done a great service for the struggling, freedom-loving people of Centrovia.”
“Do you think you’ll ever go back to Centrovia?” Bess asked them.
The Fontaines smiled and Henri said, “Maybe someday to visit, after peace is restored. But now we would like to become citizens of your grand country.”
“How wonderful!” Bess exclaimed.
“And,” Helene added, tears in her eyes, “we could never think of leaving such a fine friend as you, Nancy Drew. And you, Bess and George, you’re just marvelous, too.”
Henri nodded and said, “Nancy, I haven’t forgotten my promise of a gift to you to show my appreciation. I shall finish your portrait and it will be my finest work.”
“And it should be titled,” Ned said, smiling at Nancy, “America’s Loveliest Sleuth.”
Match Wits with The Hardy Boys®!
The Scarlet Slipper Mystery Page 11
