The Mystery of the Fire Dragon - Carolyn Keene [24]
“They must be new at their racket,” Nancy remarked.
She told the cousins of her plan for sleuthing. “I thought you girls and I would go to Stromberg’s Bookshop while Mr. Stromberg’s at Mrs. Becker’s. You stand guard in the front room, while I take a look in that back room!”
The three girls had just finished their luncheon when Mrs. Becker telephoned. The woman said she had gone over to the shop during the morning but learned little. Mr. Stromberg was most solicitous in helping her pick out a book she planned to buy. There was a new young woman clerk, not too efficient, assisting.
“Mr. Stromberg is coming to my apartment at two o’clock this afternoon,” Mrs. Becker told Nancy.
“Oh, that’s fine,” the young sleuth said. “And thank you for your help, Mrs. Becker.”
At exactly two o’clock Nancy, Bess, and George arrived at Mr. Stromberg’s shop. As prearranged, the girls took up their positions. Bess at once began chatting with the clerk, and took her to a front corner of the shop where the books on fashion designing and dressmaking were located. It was easy for Bess to keep the young woman intrigued by her chatter on the subject of clothes.
George wandered around the shop, trying to pick up any clues which they might have overlooked before. Nancy, meanwhile, had slipped into the back room when the clerk was not looking. She knew that legally she must not open the drawers in the desk or the closet in the room.
“But maybe I can detect something without doing that,” Nancy told herself.
The young sleuth circled the room, looking under the desk and a table, then on the shelves hugging one side of the room. By standing on tiptoe, she could just see what was inside several open boxes on the top shelf.
Suddenly Nancy gasped. “Giant nrecrackers!”
Lying on the shelf next to the telltale box were several sheets of the fire-dragon stationery!
“Oh, this is wonderful evidence!” the girl detective said to herself. “I think I had better report this to Captain Gray at once!”
As she turned to leave the room, Nancy became aware of a familiar voice in the shop. The speaker was Mrs. Horace Truesdale, the woman who had been in the store the first time Nancy had come there.
“Oh, dear!” Nancy said to herself. “Now I won’t dare go out there. Mrs. Truesdale will be sure to see me and she’s such a talker she’ll certainly ask questions, and she may even tell Mr. Stromberg where I’ve been!”
The young sleuth decided there was nothing to do but wait for the woman to leave. But when she looked at her watch, she realized Mr. Stromberg might return at any minute.
Suddenly Nancy became aware of a scraping sound near her. Turning, she was just in time to see a trap door in the floor starting to lift.
“There’s only one thing for me to do,” Nancy thought wildly. “Hide! But where?”
CHAPTER XI
A Suspect Escapes
THERE was only one possible hiding place for Nancy Drew in the cluttered back office of the bookshop—under the kneehole desk. It had a solid front, but fortunately for Nancy it had a six-inch opening at the bottom.
Quickly the young sleuth crawled out of sight. By resting her cheek on the floor and peering out through the opening below the back panel, she could plainly see what was going on.
A moment later a man, carrying a large paper bag, stepped into the room. He was the driver who had trailed George to the hospital when she was masquerading as Chi Che! He was slender and rather short, but muscular looking. Could he be the man who had attacked Grandpa Soong, and the thief who had stolen the archaeologist’s manuscript?
Nancy was greatly excited. There was no question now but that the Stromberg Bookshop was involved in the fire-dragon mystery!
“I wonder what this man is going to do?” the young sleuth asked herself.
Quietly he moved across the room, then he crouched and moved a carton away from one part of the wall. A small safe was revealed.
With deft fingers the man swung the dial left, right, left, then turned the handle. The door opened without a sound.
As the intruder scooped up