The Mystery of the Fire Dragon - Carolyn Keene [49]
“I heard the gang talking about you,” the Chinese girl whispered. “Mr. Breen took my keys. He came back to the apartment house and from the hall overheard your aunt telephoning you to come and solve the mystery. He was frightened away by the arrival of the superintendent.”
Chi Che now began to relate the amazing story which had led to her capture.
“One day when I was in the bookshop I overheard Mr. Stromberg talking on the phone. I realized he was part of a gang smuggling gold from Hong Kong into the United States. Small pieces were hidden inside the ivories and in the chests of mah-jongg sets.”
Chi Che also confirmed Nancy’s other suspicions that Mrs. Truesdale, Mr. Stromberg, and Mr. Lung were the ringleaders. Because of Mr. Lung’s name the group had adopted the dragon as a password.
“Was the owner of the stationery-and-gift shop in Chinatown a member of the gang?” Nancy asked.
“No, he is innocent.”
The Chinese girl said that after she had heard the phone conversation at the bookshop about the smuggling, she had not known what to do. “I decided to go home and talk to my grandfather about it. When I arrived, he was not there. I assumed he had gone out walking as he often did.... Nancy, how is my grandfather? This must have been a dreadful shock to him.”
Nancy told Chi Che about the stolen manuscript but skipped lightly over the fact that Grandpa Soong was in the hospital and not very well.
Chi Che caught her breath. “I must have mentioned the manuscript to Mr. Stromberg. How unfortunate!”
“Please tell me just how you were captured,” Nancy requested.
“While I was in the apartment trying to decide what to do, our buzzer sounded. I opened the door, thinking Grandpa had forgotten his key. A strange man pushed his way in and warned me to keep still. The man, who I later learned was named Breen, said Mr. Stromberg knew I had overheard his phone conversation about the smuggling.”
“He is in jail,” Nancy told her. “Also two men nicknamed Ryle and Smitty.”
Chi Che went on to tell how Breen, at gun point, had made her write the letter to Grandpa Soong on stationery which he had brought.
“Fortunately, there were two sheets,” the Chinese girl explained. “While Breen was pacing around—I suppose he was looking for the manuscript—he did not notice that I was writing the note to your aunt on the second sheet. But he told me to hurry up. I handed him the note for my grandfather, and while he turned his back a moment to put it in a prominent place, I slipped the other note under the adjoining door to Miss Drew’s apartment.”
Chi Che said she had then been taken to Mrs. Truesdale’s apartment and heavily guarded. Stromberg had tried to throw suspicion away from himself by his early-morning call at the Soong apartment. If anyone had answered the door, he would have said that he had come to find out if Chi Che was going to return to her job at the bookshop.
“When you and your kind friends and the police seemed to be nearing a solution to the mystery,” Chi Che continued, “my captors took me one night on a private plane going to Hong Kong. When we arrived, they brought me aboard this junk.
“We’ve been on the water most of the time, just putting in to shore once in a while for supplies and messages. Nancy, your capture was all planned this evening. Some of the smugglers sneaked into the party.”
Nancy now told of the imminent capture of Mr. Stromberg and Mrs. Truesdale just as she herself was dragged away. “Chi Che, we must escape from here. Can you swim?”
“Yes, I can.”
The young sleuth gave directions on how the girls would proceed. “Let’s stroll out on deck. When there’s a sampan not far away, I’ll give the signal. We’ll climb onto the side, and dive in together. We’ll head for the sampan.”
The two girls separated, Nancy going outside first. She drew in great breaths of fresh air and stretched as if weary from her cramped position. Chi Che followed