Mystery of the Glowing Eye - Carolyn Keene [17]
Little by little the events of the morning in the lab were unfolded. Burt and Dave stared in astonishment.
“A bomb explosion!” Burt gasped. “You’re lucky you weren’t injured. So you think maybe Crosson was hiding something that he didn’t want anybody to see. What could it have been?”
Nancy said, “Plans and perhaps drawings for some experiment on which he was working.” Suddenly she stopped speaking and stared into space.
Then she went on, “I suspect that Crosson was trying to learn something from Ned, which I’m sure he wouldn’t reveal, so Crosson either stole it or was trying to. That file cabinet may even have contained some of Ned’s work that Crosson didn’t know about. It would be a shame if it’s ruined.”
The conversation was interrupted by a student who said there was a telephone call for Nancy Drew. She went off to answer it and found that an agent from the FBI was on the line.
“The police asked the Bureau to keep you advised of any new developments concerning Ned Nickerson,” the man said. “I regret that so far we have no trace of either him or Zapp Crosson.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Nancy replied. “My friends and I haven’t had any luck either, but we’re continuing our search.”
The agent said that two FBI men were coming to investigate Ned’s college room. “We’ll be there in about two hours. Will you try to meet us at the fraternity house?”
Nancy said she would be glad to and was looking forward to the men’s report.
In the meantime she and her friends had lunch. Burt and Dave had to leave directly afterward to attend more lectures.
“Will it be all right for Bess and George and me to go to Ned’s room to watch the FBI men work?” Nancy asked the boys.
Burt grinned. “If the agents have no objection, I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t watch. But be sure you ask for identification when the men arrive. We don’t want any impostors going through Ned’s personal belongings.”
Nancy nodded, then smiled. “Maybe by tonight we’ll have another surprise for you.”
The boys went off. Soon two men came to the house and asked for Nancy. After they had shown identification, she led them upstairs. George and Bess followed.
A sudden wave of panic came over Nancy. Would Ned ever return to this room?
“He absolutely must,” she said to herself.
The FBI agents were very thorough. They searched every inch of the room. Finally one of the men began to open the desk drawers. He called the girls’ attention to the fact that there was nothing in them.
“That’s unusual for a college student,” he remarked.
George spoke up. “Maybe Ned removed the papers.”
“But why?” Bess asked.
The agent looked up at Nancy. “Perhaps Miss Drew has an answer.”
“I can make a guess,” Nancy replied. “Did you know that there had been a burglary in one of the labs? A great deal of equipment was taken. Isn’t it possible the same burglar came here to steal some science papers that belonged to Ned?”
“Very good reasoning,” the agent said. Then he picked up a small paper which had lain upside down in the drawer. “This is the only thing in here, but it looks interesting,” he added, turning it right side up. He handled it carefully so as not to smudge any fingerprints that might be on it.
The others peered over his shoulder. Someone had drawn a sketch of an oversized eve. Under it were the letters
Everyone stared at the paper and Bess murmured, “That awful eye again!”
The agent turned to his companion. “Do you know what this says?”
“Yes,” the other man replied. “It’s Greek. I studied Greek at school. These letters spell the word Cyclops.”
Hearing this, Bess gave another little cry. “That’s the second time today we’ve come across Cyclops,” she told the agents.
Nancy informed the men that Ned Nickerson had not studied Greek so she was inclined to think that someone else had made the drawing.
Everyone started conjecturing about who had left it. The burglar? Another student? A professor? Nancy, however, was convinced that Crosson had given it to Ned or placed it in his room as a warning.
No one had any answers to the questions and the FBI agents admitted