Mystery of the Glowing Eye - Carolyn Keene [4]
As Nancy and her father started for the front door, their housekeeper, Mrs. Hannah Gruen, arrived in a taxi. She alighted and stared in astonishment at the helicopter, then at the Drews. Mrs. Gruen, middle-aged, and adored by Nancy, had lived with the Drews since the death of Nancy’s mother when the girl was only three years old.
Mr. Drew smiled. “We had a robot visitor,” he told the housekeeper. “Nancy will tell you the whole story. I must run back to the office, but I’ll be home by ten tonight. Please call Miss King and tell her I’m returning.”
Nancy made no comment. The last thing in the world she wanted to do was talk to Marty King. She turned to Hannah. “Will you do it, please?”
Unaware of Nancy’s reason for the request, the housekeeper made the call, then went to the kitchen to start dinner preparations.
Nancy followed. “Don’t cook much for me. I’m not hungry.”
“Why, what’s the matter, dear?” Hannah asked.
“Lots of things. But worst of all, we think Ned has been kidnapped.”
“What!”
Nancy explained and ended by saying, “I want to find Ned, but I don’t know which direction to go.”
“That’s not like you,” the housekeeper said kindly. “You’ve had a bad shock, dear. I suggest you eat a simple dinner and go right to bed. In the morning you’ll be refreshed and ready to start on the case.”
“But which case?” Nancy asked. “Ned, the robot copter, Cyclops, the glowing eye—”
“Stop!” Mrs. Gruen exclaimed. “That’s three too many. Nancy, do be sensible. Why not concentrate on Ned? Call Burt or Dave and see if there’s any news.”
Nancy took Hannah’s advice and went to the phone. Burt answered quickly, hoping the police were calling to report a clue to Ned’s whereabouts. He told Nancy there was no news from or about Ned.
“Have Mr. and Mrs. Nickerson been notified?” Nancy asked.
“Yes, and they haven’t heard anything. Apparently you’re the only one who received a message.”
During dinner Nancy and Hannah discussed the strange happenings of the day, but the young detective refrained from mentioning Marty King and her part in trying to solve the glowing eye mystery.
Later Nancy called the Nickersons, expressed her concern, and told them about the note signed by their son. “Do you know anything about Cyclops?”
“Cyclops? No,” Mr. Nickerson replied, and his wife on an extension phone said, “We never heard Ned mention it, so I’m sure it must be some new contact. Oh, Nancy, use your best detective instincts and find him,” Ned’s mother pleaded.
“I’ll do my best,” Nancy promised.
By nine-thirty Nancy felt so exhausted she decided not to wait for her father’s return, but to go to bed. She soon drifted off into a sound sleep. Several hours later she was awakened by a tremendous racket on the front lawn and jumped out of bed.
Nancy rushed to a window just in time to see the robot helicopter rising from the lawn!
CHAPTER III
A Glowing Eye
By the time Nancy had put on robe and slippers and had run into the hall, her father and Hannah Gruen were already there. Without a word all three rushed down the front stairway and out the door. Mr. Drew switched on a light that flooded the lawn.
The guy ropes which had held the helicopter down now lay on the ground. The craft itself was out of sight, but the moving lights in the sky indicated the copter had taken a northeasterly direction.
“That’s toward Emerson,” Nancy said. Then her thoughts turned to the officer who had been left by the police to watch the helicopter. “Where’s the guard?”
He was not in sight and Hannah suggested, “Maybe he was kidnapped too!”
“And possibly taken away in the copter,” Mr. Drew added.
Nancy had a different idea. “He may have been knocked out and left behind. Let’s look around.”
They did not have to search far. The guard was lying unconscious in the Drews’ garage. The officer did not respond to their first-aid treatment, so Nancy’s father phoned headquarters to report the incident and request medical help.
An ambulance with a police surgeon and a patrol car with two other officers reached the house within minutes. Dr. Tompkin quickly examined