The Mystery of the Fire Dragon

by Carolyn G. Keene

  “Hi, girls!” she said, but the cousins noticed that she was very pale and her voice sounded weak.

  “I’m so thankful the accident was no worse,” Aunt Eloise said. “But we’re going home. Mr. Wong, the owner, has kindly consented to pack our dinner to take with us. We’ll eat it in the apartment. Nancy should go right to bed.”

  At that moment the outer door of the restaurant suddenly burst open and a group came directly into the office. A red-haired man was being hauled in by a policeman and two Chinese men. Nancy sat up.

  The officer began to speak. “These two men”— he indicated the Chinese—“say this man ran from the building after the accident. They had seen the flowerpot hurtle down and thought he might have tossed it on purpose, so they went after him. I was on the corner and took up the chase. Have any of you ever seen him before?”

  “I’ll say I have!” George declared. “He tried to kidnap me once!”

  “And me another time!” Bess added.

  “What!” the policeman exclaimed.

  “You’re crazy!” the prisoner shouted. “I never saw these girls before in my life!”

  “Perhaps you don’t recognize me,” George said with a bitter smile. “The last time you saw me, you thought I was Chi Che Soong.”

  The man started perceptibly, but he kept up his bluster. “Officer, this is ridiculous. I admit I was in the apartment house. I went to the third floor to visit the people there but nobody was at home. I don’t know anything about a flowerpot. You have no right to hold me.”

  “Yes he has,” Bess spoke up. “My friend Nancy Drew and I were trailing you that day you tried to kidnap my cousin. You found out from the driver of the stolen car that you had grabbed the wrong girl. Then you jumped into the car alone and raced off with the driver. We found out later you had stolen the car.”

  “There’s not a word of truth in what she’s saying,” the prisoner insisted. “I’m leaving!”

  “You’d better not even try,” the policeman told him firmly. “Is there anything else you girls can tell me about this man?”

  Nancy answered. “Everything my friends have said really happened, Officer. Also, the driver who was waiting for this man told him he had phoned to somebody named Ryle.” She turned to the prisoner. “Who is he?”

  “I don’t know anybody by that name,” the man replied defiantly.

  “Suppose you tell us who you are,” the policeman prompted.

  The man refused to talk, so the officer went through his pockets. He pulled out a wallet and opened it. It contained a driver’s license issued to Ferdinand Breen.

  “I think we have enough evidence to hold you, Breen,” the officer stated.

  “If you don’t,” George spoke up, “here is something else. We heard that the man named Ryle and a companion were trying to sell some jade that was thought to have been smuggled into this country.”

  Once more the prisoner jumped and gave George an angry look. But he said nothing.

  The policeman asked to use the desk telephone. Mr. Wong nodded and the officer called for a patrol car. Soon it arrived and the prisoner was led away.

  “I’m sorry that you have had this unpleasant interruption in your business,” Aunt Eloise apologized to Mr. Wong.

  “I am always glad to see law and order carried out.” The restaurant owner bowed. “Please, Miss Drew, do not let the matter disturb you. The package containing your dinner is ready. I have called a taxi and it is waiting at the door.”

  “Thank you very much,” Aunt Eloise and the girls said, as Nancy arose and they walked out. Nancy added, “I spoiled our little party, but someday I shall come back.”

  Mr. Wong smiled and said he was glad to hear this. As soon as they reached Aunt Eloise’s apartment, Nancy had some hot tea and went to bed. Soon she was sound asleep. After the others had eaten the delicious Chinese food, George said, “It isn’t too late. Bess, let’s go to the hospital and see Grandpa Soong. Maybe we can cheer him up.”

  “You’re not going to tell him what happened today?” Miss Drew asked quickly.

  “Oh, no,” George replied.

  “All right,” Aunt Eloise said. “But please take a taxi both ways for safety.”

  The two girls promised to do so and left. Aunt Eloise went to the telephone and called Captain Gray to relay the Chinatown incident. He told her he had just read of Breen’s arrest on the police teletype. The officer inquired solicitously about Nancy’s health and was relieved to hear she had not been severely injured. “I am going to talk to the prisoner right now,” he said.

  Bess and George reached the hospital only twenty minutes before visiting hours would be over.

  The cousins were shocked when they saw Grandpa Soong. He was very listless and pale. A nurse who was in the room told them he had eaten practically nothing that day.

  “I am not hungry,” the Chinese said weakly. “I am greatly worried about my Chi Che.”

  The nurse stepped from the room and both George and Bess tried to bolster the man’s lagging spirits by remarking that Chi Che probably was having a delightful time with her friends. To their amazement the elderly man shook his head.

  “At first I believed that what Chi Che wrote was true,” he said. “But now I am sure something has happened to her. We must have enemies—I do not know why. For a while I thought Chi Che was being held until the thief who took my manuscript could accomplish that evil deed. Then she would return. But she has not come back.”

  Bess and George looked at each other, at a loss for words. Grandpa Soong went on, “I had a strange dream. Chi Che was far away. She was being guarded by a fire dragon and was unable to escape. My poor Chi Che! She kept calling to me and to Miss Eloise Drew to save her.”

  Bess leaned forward and took the elderly man’s hand in her own. “Grandpa Soong,” she said, “that was a frightening dream. But you know that really there are no dragons.”

  The patient had been staring into space as if in a trance. Bess was sure he had not heard a word she said. Presently he asked:

  “Do you girls believe in thought transference?”

  They both admitted that they did. Then Grandpa Soong said, “There are men in this world who are more dangerous than fire dragons. I am sure my Chi Che is being held by one or more of them and really was calling out in her thoughts to me and to Miss Drew for help.”

  George felt that since Grandpa Soong was so suspicious of the truth, Nancy would agree that this was an appropriate time to reveal some of the girls’ findings in connection with his granddaughter’s absence. She told him about the various episodes in the bookshop where Chi Che had worked, including the fact that Nancy had seen a man open the safe in the private office and take out what appeared to be a manuscript.

  “We all think it was your stolen work,” George went on.

  “The police have been notified?” Grandpa Soong asked excitedly.

  “Yes,” George replied. “One of those ‘dragons’ is now in jail.”

  “Did he reveal where my Chi Che is?” the elderly man queried.

  “Unfortunately, no,” George answered. “But we have several clues to the rest of the gang.”

  George stopped speaking, for at this moment the nurse returned. She had a delicious-looking eggnog on a tray.

  “Mr. Soong, won’t you please drink this?” she asked, smiling.

  Without being helped, the elderly man suddenly sat up in bed. “I feel much better,” he said. “My visitors have cheered me considerably. Yes, I will drink the eggnog.”

  The nurse looked pleased. She set it on his night stand and again went off. As Grandpa Soong sipped the drink, he begged to hear more.

  Bess and George told how Mr. Stromberg seemed to be mixed up with the “dragons” and that it was just possible he and some of his friends had fled to Hong Kong.

  “Nancy and George and I are flying to Hong Kong in a couple of days,” Bess told him.

  “Hong Kong!” Grandpa Soong repeated excitedly. “If my Chi Che ha
s been taken there, she surely will be found. That is my twin brother’s home. You must contact him as soon as you arrive.”

  “We will be very glad to do that,” Bess said.

  “My brother, Lee Soong, is retired now,” Grandpa Soong went on. “But at one time he was head of the police department of Shanghai.”

  “Oh, this is wonderful news!” Bess exclaimed. “We will all work together. Between the New York and Hong Kong police and your brother and Nancy Drew, this mystery should be solved very quickly!”

  A bell rang, indicating visiting hours were over. The girls quickly said good-by to Mr. Soong. They could hardly wait to get home and tell their news about the Shanghai ex-police chief Mr. Lee Soong.

  Aunt Eloise opened the apartment door. “Sh!” she said. “Nancy mustn’t hear me, but I’m terribly worried!”

  CHAPTER XIV

  A Hidden Microphone

  “NANCY is worse?” Bess and George cried together fearfully.

  “No,” Aunt Eloise replied. “Come in and I’ll tell you.”

  When the three were huddled in the living room, the older woman whispered, “A little while ago I had a threatening phone call. The man said ‘This snooping into other people’s affairs by Nancy Drew has got to stop! And if she goes on that plane, it’ll be blown up!’ ”

  “Oh, how horrible!” Bess exclaimed in an undertone.

  George, equally worried, frowned. She rarely paid attention to anonymous threats, but for Nancy’s sake she felt this one could not be overlooked. “That man probably means what he says!”

  “It is a dreadful situation,” Aunt Eloise remarked. “Perhaps, in order to save many lives, you girls should give up the trip.”

  Bess was inclined to agree but George declared she was not going to let any dragon scare her off. “Anyhow, let’s wait until morning and see what Nancy thinks.”

  The three went to bed but slept fitfully. They were concerned about the dangers which they had experienced in connection with the case.

  The following morning Nancy was up, and except for a sore bruise on the back of her head, she declared she was back to normal. As the group cooked breakfast, they discussed the happenings of the evening before at great length—Nancy’s accident, Grandpa Soong’s story of his brother, and finally the threatening telephone message.

  “The gang certainly has a good spy system,” Nancy remarked, puzzled. “How in the world do they find out all our plans?”

  Then suddenly she put her forefinger to her lips. The others kept quiet as she began to tiptoe around, looking behind the stove, the refrigerator, inside the cabinets, and finally back of the dainty curtains at the windows.

  Presently Nancy nodded and motioned the others to come forward. She pointed out a tiny disk fastened to the window frame under the valance of the curtain. From the disk a tiny wire ran outside the window and down the side of the building.

  Nancy picked up an order pad and pencil. On it she wrote:

  “That disk is a microphone, and probably was hidden here the day the intruder broke in. Our enemies have been picking up all our conversations in the kitchen and recording them somewhere below. I suggest that we turn the tables. Let’s all talk as if we were worried to death about the bomb scare and are going to give up the plane trip.”

  The others, astonished, nodded. Then Aunt Eloise began the conversation.

  “Why are you girls so quiet?” she asked. “Don’t tell me. I know. You’re all very brave but this bomb threat really has you upset.”

  “I’m afraid you’re right,” said Bess, making her voice tremble. “I don’t know about the rest of you but I’d like to be counted out. I’m sure my mother and dad would never approve of my going on a plane that might be blown up!”

  “You have a point there,” George agreed. “If my parents knew about this, they’d put both feet down hard. But it burns me up. Here I was looking forward to a nice trip and someone we don’t know steps in and ruins everything.”

  “Yes,” said Nancy. She gave a tremendous sigh. “We were just getting some good clues and now this has to happen. Well, I suppose I’d better call my dad and tell him we’re canceling our flight tomorrow. He’ll be angry, I know, but I’m sure he’ll tell me to stay home.”

  “Do you think we could keep on with our sleuthing in New York City?” George put in.

  Nancy said she wondered whether this would be worth while. She was sure that most of the members of the gang who were holding Chi Che had left town. “Otherwise,” she added, “the police would have picked them up.”

  Aunt Eloise Drew remarked that she was so sorry everything had turned out the way it had. She laughed. “I suppose, Nancy, you can’t expect good luck in solving every mystery you undertake.”

  “No,” her niece agreed. “Just the same, I hate to leave Chi Che in such a dangerous situation.”

  “Yes,” said Bess, giving a little sob. “Goodness only knows what torture they may be putting her through.”

  “Then we’re all agreed we’re giving up the trip?” Nancy asked. There was a chorus of “ayes.”

  The group stopped speaking. Nancy opened a cabinet drawer and took out a pair of scissors with wooden handles. Then, closing the window tight on the wire, she snipped it and wound the outer end around the curtain rod to keep it from falling to the ground when the window was opened again.

  As George started to speak, the young sleuth held her finger to her lips. Once more signaling to the others to follow, she began a systematic search of the rest of the apartment to locate any other hidden microphones. But a thorough hunt revealed that the only one seemed to be in the kitchen.

  Bess flopped into a chair. “Nancy Drew, you’re something!”

  “You sure are,” George agreed. “I almost talked myself into giving up that trip during our act, but I’m not going to!”

  “Nor Il” said Nancy.

  Bess was a little more hesitant but finally decided that their broadcast had been convincing enough to keep any of the gang from placing a bomb on the plane.

  Nancy now went to the telephone and called Captain Gray. When she had explained the whole incident, he said he would detail two men to shadow the person who came to pick up the record.

  “No doubt it’s in some device hidden at the ground level of the apartment house,” the officer surmised. “We’ll let the fellow hang himself so to speak. That is, we’ll give him a chance to pass the word along that you girls have given up your sleuthing, then we’ll nab him. I’ll keep you posted.”

  After breakfast Aunt Eloise went off to school. The three girls met Captain Gray at the passport office, where he vouched for the emergency aspect of their flight. Passports were quickly issued.

  “I’ll call you as soon as we have any news on the tape recorder,” the officer said as he dropped the girls at Aunt Eloise’s apartment.

  Later that afternoon when the telephone rang, Nancy ran to answer it. Captain Gray was on the line. “Good news, Nancy,” he said. “We picked up the man responsible for the hidden mike and tape recorder at the apartment house. We gave him time to listen to what all of you had said and go to a phone booth.

  “One of our plain-clothes men was nearby. He knew from the spaces between the numbers and letters what the fellow was dialing. Then our men picked him up. In the meantime, we were able to locate the party he called—a man known as Smitty. We find he was the one who accompanied Breen to Chinatown the day you chased them.”

  Nancy was thrilled to hear this. “And who was the man you picked up in the phone booth?”

  Captain Gray chuckled. “One of the top members of the gang. His name is Reilley Moot. His nickname is Ryle.”

  “Oh, that’s marvelous!” Nancy exclaimed. “And has he confessed to anything?”

  “Not exactly,” the officer answered. “But we found a giant firecracker in his pocket.”

  “He must be the one responsible for causing the explosions here!” Nancy broke in.

  “Right. Looks as if things are clo
sing in on the gang,” the captain said. “You’ve done some fine sleuthing, Nancy. The police department can never thank you adequately.”

  He added that through communications received from Interpol, the police thought the men who were in jail, and their accomplices still at large, were members of a large smuggling ring.

  “Just what they’re smuggling we don’t know,” the officer went on. “But we hope to find out soon.” He laughed. “If their headquarters are in Hong Kong, perhaps you will find out what they’re smuggling before we do!”

  “That sounds almost like an assignment.” Nancy laughed too. Then she became serious. “Captain Gray, there is one thing which is being overlooked and to me that is the most important of all—-finding Chi Che Soong.”

  She begged the officer to concentrate on that angle of the mystery, then said good-by. Before long, Aunt Eloise came home and announced she was going to take the girls to the theater. “I suggest that we do not mention the mystery or your future plans just in case any spies may be following us,” she advised.

  The girls agreed and dressed for the festive evening. They had dinner at an uptown French restaurant, then saw a gay musical comedy.

  “New York is just thrilling!” Bess exclaimed as they emerged from the theater.

  Nancy and George echoed this and Nancy added, “Thanks a million, Aunt Eloise. This has been a terrific farewell party.”

  The following morning Miss Drew and the girls exchanged fond good-bys. Aunt Eloise said it had been a wonderful visit and she hoped they would soon come again.

  At three o’clock the girls set off. To keep any spies from suspecting they were headed for the International Airport, Nancy asked their taxi driver to take them to Grand Central Station. Once there, she had him drive on and finally head for the East Side Airlines Terminal. There the girls’ baggage was weighed and the travelers hurried into a limousine which took them to the airport.

  Almost the first person Nancy saw in the waiting room was her father. But as previously arranged, Mr. Drew and his daughter pretended not to recognize each other.