The Mystery of the Fire Dragon - Carolyn Keene [4]
Nancy took hold of Bess’s arm. “Wait! I’d like to keep the picture and note for a little while,” she said. “An idea just came to me.”
“A brain storm?” George asked, chuckling.
“I guess you might call it that,” Nancy replied, smiling. “I think the dragon is a definite clue. But before I tell you any more of my plan, I have another suggestion. I feel sure Mr. Soong as well as Chi Che may be in real danger. The person who lighted that giant firecracker rang Mr. Soong’s buzzer. Perhaps he planned to have the baby bomb go off in the poor man’s face. It might have blinded him! Anyway, I believe we should protect him as well as try to find Chi Che.”
“I agree with you a hundred per cent,” Aunt Eloise declared. “What do you suggest?”
Nancy said she thought they should obtain Mr. Soong’s consent to keep the door between the two apartments unlocked. “We can run in every once in a while and see if he’s all right. Also, being alone, he may not eat properly. How about inviting him to share meals with us?”
“I think that’s a splendid idea,” said Aunt Eloise. “But before I ask him, what is this other scheme you have up your sleeve, Nancy?”
The young sleuth smiled. “It’s a very daring plan, I warn you.”
CHAPTER III
Campus Sleuthing
“GEORGE FAYNE,” Nancy said, “you are about to become Chi Che Soong!”
“What!” George cried out.
Nancy smiled. “I’m sure that with a little change in your hair style, you could pass for Chi Che. We’ll shape your eyebrows and make them heavier. We’ll place a bit of rouge high on your cheekbones and change that boyish hairdo of yours into a pixy cut.”
Nancy picked up the picture of Chi Che. “Look at this photograph and tell me what you think.”
After the others had studied it a moment, Bess gave Nancy a hug. “You’re a genius. It wouldn’t be hard to do at all, and if George puts on the dress Chi Che’s wearing in the picture, I’ll bet people will think she’s Chi Che, at least from a distance. Nancy, what do you have in mind for George to do?”
Nancy said that first they must get Grandpa Soong’s consent to keep the door between the two apartments unlocked. After George was made up, she was to leave by way of the Soongs’ entrance. “Bess, you and I will follow at a distance and see if anyone is trailing her.”
“You mean I’m just to walk up one street and down another and wait to be hit on the head?” George asked with a grin.
“Oh, do be sensible,” Nancy begged. “I haven’t decided yet where I’d like you to go. But please don’t leave this apartment until you go out dressed as Chi Che Soong.”
“I won’t mind,” said George. “There are some good books here to read. But you know me—I like action. So don’t make it too long.”
Bess now spoke up. “I was under the impression, Nancy, that you thought Chi Che was a prisoner. But if George is going to parade around the streets,” she added, “this puts a different light on the mystery. You don’t think Chi Che is being held after all, do you, Nancy?”
Nancy said she had not reached a conclusion as yet. “Chi Che may be a prisoner, or she may only be in hiding. But if the person from whom she’s hiding thinks he sees her on the street, we may be able to find out something worth while.”
Aunt Eloise and the cousins approved Nancy’s idea and George said she would be willing to undertake the experiment.
“Then the next thing,” said Aunt Eloise, “is for me to go next door and make the arrangements with Grandpa Soong.” She left and the girls continued to talk about the mystery until her return.
“I had no trouble at all,” Miss Drew reported. “Grandpa Soong was delighted to accept our invitation, and incidentally we are to call him when supper is ready. The door is unbolted now on his side. Come, I want to show you something exquisite.”
Aunt Eloise went to the connecting door and unlocked it from her apartment. Directly behind the door hung a large silk scroll which reached to the floor.
“This is a perfect screen,” Miss Drew remarked. “Anyone coming into the Soong apartment wouldn’ t know there is a door behind it.”
Nancy and her friends squeezed past the scroll and