The Mystery of the Fire Dragon - Carolyn Keene [33]
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 closing 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