The Mystery of the Fire Dragon - Carolyn Keene [11]
“I have never met him,” said the archaeologist, “so I consider it very kind that he has taken an interest in me.”
Nancy and Bess wondered how the bookshop owner had learned of the attack on Mr. Soong. Had someone at the apartment house told him?
On the bureau in the room stood a beautiful bouquet of yellow chrysanthemums. When Bess admired them, Grandpa Soong said, “I do not know who sent them. The card of good wishes which came with the flowers has no name on it.”
“How strange!” Nancy remarked. “May I see the card?”
“Certainly. It is in the top drawer of the bureau.”
As Nancy took out the card, she gave an involuntary start. In the lower right-hand comer was a hand-painted dragon! Printed on the card were the words: “Best wishes for a speedy recovery.”
Nancy turned to Mr. Soong. “Surely you must have an idea who sent these?”
“Only a guess,” he answered. “The person who gave my Chi Che the stationery may have heard of my illness and sent the flowers, but did not want me to feel obligated to write a note of thanks.”
Nancy was glad that Grandpa Soong had no suspicions regarding the sender of the flowers. She herself was worried. The user of the dragon stationery obviously knew that Mr. Soong was in the hospital. Did this mean that the person had something to do with the attack?
Trying not to show her true feelings, the young sleuth said lightly, “Well, Grandpa Soong, you must have an unknown admirer. Isn’t that exciting!”
She slipped the card back into the drawer and closed it.
“We must go now,” she told Mr. Soong. “But we’ll come again soon and make a longer visit.”
“I shall look forward to seeing you. And I hope next time you will bring some letter or message from my Chi Che,” Grandpa Soong added wistfully, handing Nancy the key to his lobby mailbox.
“Oh, something is bound to arrive,” said Bess cheerfully. But as the girls walked down the hall to the elevator, she whispered to Nancy, “I wish I could have meant that. To tell the truth, I don’t like the looks of things at all.”
“It certainly is a puzzling situation,” Nancy admitted. “Well, let’s see what happens from here on.”
“I’ll tell you what may happen,” Bess said. “If some of the Chinese students we met yesterday at Columbia see us and think Chi Che is with us, and then find out she’s not Chi Che, it will give the whole thing away!”
Nancy agreed, and said that she and Bess would stay far enough behind George not to arouse any suspicion. When they reached the lobby, they walked into one door of the gift shop. George, seeing them, left by another. They followed a few seconds later.
When the girls reached the Columbia campus, George smiled at various students as they came along. Suddenly she was thrilled to have someone wave to her from a distance and call out, “Good to see you back, Chi Che!”
Nancy and Bess stayed far enough behind George not to arouse suspicion
Nancy and Bess had heard the remark. “The disguise is working!” Bess whispered excitedly.
As they went on, over a dozen young men and women students, some Oriental, others American, also waved and called to “Chi Che.”
“Oh, isn’t this exciting!” Bess exclaimed.
“Yes, but it doesn’t seem to be leading us to the real Chi Che,” Nancy replied.
The words were hardly out of her mouth when a young man, tall, red-haired, and very slender, rushed up to George. As he reached her he cried out, “How did you get away, Chi Che Soong? You little fool!”
Bess grabbed Nancy’s arm. What was going to happen now?
George, though startled, played her role magnificently. She did not speak, merely shrugged her shoulders and extended the palms of both hands in a gesture of “You guess!”
The next instant the man seized George roughly by her arm and led her away. George pretended to go willingly. Nancy and Bess, with pounding hearts, kept pace with the two ahead.
CHAPTER VI
The Chase
WITH Nancy and Bess close on her heels, George was led by her captor from the campus and