Nancy Drew Solves Another One

By Elton Camp

(When my daughter was young, I often read her books in the Nancy Drew series.
This is intended in a spirit of fun only. They were good for light reading to girls and
even as a middle-aged father, I enjoyed them. This is a light spoof of certain strange
or predictable elements of those stories. If you have never read the books, you
won’t understand this at all.)

1Nancy and her girl pal, George, emerged from Mrs. Grissom’s Tea House beside
Lilac Inn. Nancy observed with suspicion, “George, I think that dirty-looking man
creeping up behind us is up to no good.”

“You really think so?” George responded.

A shabbily-dressed man about 40 years old edged nearer the girls while trying to
give the appearance that he was not interested in them. A stubble of a beard and the odor
of cigarette smoke made him even more odious as he passed alongside them. Suddenly,
he spun around and jerked Nancy’s purse from her hands and fled down the sidewalk. It
contained a mysterious letter that she had not yet read.

“Stop thief!” Nancy commanded as she and George pursued the miscreant as he
turned into an alley.

Several feet into the dark, littered alley, the thief abruptly turned to face the girls.

“You said stop and I have. What now?” he demanded with a menacing sneer on
his cruel face.

“Uh, uh” Nancy muttered in confusion as she looked desperately at George for
support. “I wasn’t expecting this.”

The athletic short-haired George spit out, “We’ve said that to dozens of criminals
and you’re the first one to obey. I don’t think you have the concept of robbery down just
right.”
 “You two are coming with me,” the man ordered as he pulled a revolver from his
side pocket and brandished it in the direction of the cowering detectives. “And not a
sound out of either of you.”

“I wish Ned Nickerson were here to sock that man,” Nancy whispered to her pal.
I know he’s enrolled at Emerson College and is captain of the football team, but he can
always take time off anytime I need him. That college must have the most liberal
attendance policy in the nation.”

The man forced the girls into the back seat of an old-model Buick sedan and raced
away, leaving a trail of rubber and smoke. Nobody on the crowded street seemed notice
anything out of the ordinary in the incident. Some distance into the country, after passing
a haunted showboat, and crossing a haunted bridge, they spotted a sign that pointed
toward Red Gate Farm. He turned right into an unpaved road named Larkspur Lane
which led by a circuitous path to a run-down, moss-covered mansion almost obscured by
trees and untended shrubbery. He brought the sedan to a sliding stop near the front steps.
A sign above the door read, “Blackwood Hall.”

“Inside you go!” he commanded as he jerked open the rear door of the vehicle and
pointed his weapon at the two sleuths. “And thanks for riding all those miles and not
jumping out of the car and running even when you have every reason to think I intend to
kill you.”

The interior of the mansion had once been magnificent with soaring ceilings and
ornate furniture, but the man glanced at an old clock. “Some say there’s a secret in that
clock, but I doubt it.” On each side of the timepiece were twisted candles.

Directing the girls toward a solid oak door at the end of the foyer, the man
removed a large old key from his belt. The door creaked ominously as it rotated inward.

“Get moving!” he growled as he shoved the sleuths ahead of him into the dimly lit
room. With a laugh, he slammed the door behind them and locked it with a resounding
click. They heard his footsteps recede as he approached the house’s main exit. The
sound of his car roaring away told them that he had abandoned them to an unknown fate.

“What are we going to do?” George wailed.

As Nancy’s eyes adjusted to the dim light, she saw a brass-bound trunk, but it
proved to be empty. The she noticed a shape on the floor a few feet from them. “Look,
George, what’s that,” she inquired. A low moan revealed that it was another captive.

Moving near the man, Nancy took out a small flashlight that she always kept
concealed in her shoe and turned its beam onto the prone figure.

“Dad!” she cried. “What are you doing here?”

 Carson Drew, the famous lawyer, looked up at his daughter and replied, “Nancy,
I’m sure glad to see you! I’ve been kidnaped. It turned out that the case you were
working on is tied in with mine. I can’t imagine such a coincidence, but the result is that
all of us are in big trouble.”

“Dad, you have been kidnaped more than anybody I ever heard of,” Nancy said
kindly. “You really must enroll in the Ace Detective School and learn how to avoid
danger,” she continued. “You never see me pushing foolishly into dangerous situations.”

The girls helped the middle-aged man to his feet. He staggered unsteadily and
rubbed the knot on the back of his head.

“Don’t worry Dad, I’ll get us out even if it does take quite a bit of doing,” Nancy
assured him. “There must be some other exit from this room even if there are no
windows.”

“A shrew observation,” Carson Drew replied as he looked fondly at his 18-year-

old daughter with the long blond hair. “Every old house we’ve been involved with is full
of secret doors and tunnels. Why should this one be different?”

Opening a storage cabinet on the right wall, Nancy searched through the tightly-
packed items. At length she exclaimed, “This is just what we need. What luck.”

From the back of a lower drawer she extracted a battery-powered ultrasound

device with a viewing screen.

“This will locate any cavities behind the walls,” she said as she began moving the
machine slowly along the rough wood of their prison. “I only hope the battery is still
charged enough to make it operate. No doubt it’s been here, unused, for many years.”

After several attempts, a weak pinging sound announced a substantial space

behind a recessed panel. Immediately after the revelation, the battery died and the screen
went dark.

“This is it,” Nancy cried as she ran her hands over the board and immediately
located the hidden trigger that would open it. Nobody ever did a good job of concealing
those things.

As Nancy rotated a knob that was disguised as a screw, the secret door swung
inward, revealing a hidden staircase with a crooked banister that led sharply downward
into a dark tunnel. Quickly Nancy and George aided the still-groggy attorney into the
passageway that wound on for some miles.

“It sure would have taken a lot less digging if this tunnel had been made straight,”
George exclaimed. “Somebody must have enjoyed manual labor.”
 Finally, the passage turned sharply upward before terminating at a second door
that was set into a brick wall. Shoving it outward, the trio emerged into a brightly-lit
room to hear a mixture of voices and ringing telephones.

“Nancy Drew,” what are you doing here, Chief McGinnis exclaimed with surprise
as he motioned for other officers of the Riverview police force to help the unexpected
visitors to find seats.

Nancy quickly filled the chief in on their recent exploits as he listened in

amazement.

“To think that we have used this station all these years and never discovered the
significance of that doorway” he exclaimed in admiration. “I had just assumed that it was
a closet. What a wonderful detective you are, Nancy. We will see that those criminals
are arrested and put away for a long time.”

To assist the offices in making the arrest, Nancy took out a set of colored crayons
she always carried with her and quickly made a sketch of the lawbreaker. Fortunately,
the man had returned her purse before locking them in the room.

The chief drove Nancy, George and Mr. Drew to Nancy’s sporty convertible
which was parked outside the tea house and the three sped to the attorney’s home.
Hannah Guren met them at the door with a worried look on her face. “I see that you have
been taking risks again, but never fear. Although I had no idea when you’d return, it just
so happens that I have a hot meal and fresh apple pie all ready on the dining room table.
Sit down and eat while you tell me all about it.”

“Oh, we can’t eat until we call Bess to come over,” Nancy protested. “She just
enjoys a feast too much to leave her out!”

Learning that food was on the agenda, the stout girl rushed over and quickly
began devouring a huge plate of choice selections. “I’d have been too scared to confront
those criminals,” she remarked as she took a big bite of pie. “I’m a little surprised that
you girls keep involving me in your adventures since I’m such a coward.”

“I have another mystery for you girls to work on,” Carson Drew explained. “As
long as you all make it to Gambia in Africa by next week.”

“Oh, of course,” George and Bess replied. “Although we are through high school,
don’t attend college, and don’t have jobs, we always have scads of money. It’s never a
problem for us to make any trip even on short notice. When do we leave?”

Carson Drew never hesitated to allow his teenage daughter, his only child, to be
exposed to extreme danger. He smiled, knowing that it wouldn’t be long before Nancy’s
cunning would be tested to the limit as the girl sleuths took on the Case of the Howling
Monkey.