The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes (15 page)

“I think we should return to Douglas House at once,” said Nancy, “and inform the police office of our latest findings.”

They sped back to the house and Nancy put in the call. After hearing the story, the officer promised to post men at the broch and try to catch the thieves red-handed.

“I will let you know as soon as we have any news,” he promised.

The next day the girls attended church services and awaited word from the police. It was not until the following morning that the superintendent telephoned to say that nothing suspicious had happened at the broch.

“But down at Dumbarton on the Clyde,” he added, “inspectors have come upon an illegal shipment of wool and sheepskins aboard a freighter destined for the United States.”

After the call was ended, Nancy said to the other girls, “Dumbarton is directly south of where the houseboat stood on Loch Lomond. I’ll bet that’s the place Paul Petrie was heading for when we were chasing him.”

George spoke up. “But Dewar and the other thieves weren’t caught there. Where are they?”

Nancy shrugged. “They’re not at the croft, not at the houseboat, and not at the broch. They’re holed up somewhere, and it’s my idea that they’re waiting for a signal.”

“From whom?” Fiona asked.

“Paul Petrie!”

The others were startled but could see the logic of Nancy’s deduction. Bess and George recalled the bagpipe music in Mr. Dewar’s room. “It could have been Petrie practicing,” George said. “Then there was the piper on Ben Nevis who played the very same tune.”

“I’ve just had a brainstorm,” Nancy declared. “Great-Grandmother, it’s a daring one, but I hope you won’t have any objections. I’d like to dress in the Cameron kilt and the rest of the costume I wore before, climb Ben Nevis to the point where I saw that piper, and play Scots,
Wha Hae
.”

“You can play that on the bagpipes?” Lady Douglas asked in amazement.

Nancy confessed that she could render only the first few bars on the chanter, but they were all the mysterious piper had played. She would use the full instrument, however, to imitate him. She went on to explain about the whistling on the bagpipes, which was apparently the second signal used by the gang.

“I’ll need a chanter that can produce a whistle,” Nancy told her relative. “Can you help me obtain one?”

Lady Douglas was intrigued by the scheme. She said, “Tweedie was once a reedmaker in a factory. In fact, he has several bagpipes, although he can’t play. I’ll ask him to bring them.” She pulled the bell cord.

In a few minutes Tweedie appeared. He was surprised at Lady Douglas’ request, but was glad to assist. He invited the whole group to his own little sitting room and workshop where he kept his bagpipes.

“They are all in working order,” he said proudly, and invited Nancy to try them.

She did, and found one which was not so heavy to carry as the others. After playing the first phrase of Scots,
Wha Hae
several times she did it like a professional.

“Could you make me a reed that whistles and put it into a chanter?” Nancy asked Tweedie.

“Aye, and that I could,” he replied. “I can have it ready in an hour. Will that be all right?”

Nancy said she would like to use it that evening, and since it stayed light so late, there was no hurry.

As Lady Douglas and the girls went back to her sitting room, Bess said, “Now, Nancy, tell us your whole idea.”

The young detective smiled. “I thought we four girls could go to Ben Nevis glen this evening and camp out. Near sunset I’ll climb the mountain to the spot where I saw the piper, and play the two signals. If the thieves are in the area—and I have a hunch they are—my signaling may start something.”

“It sounds fine,” said Bess, “but I think we should take a couple of police officers with us for safety.”

Lady Douglas agreed She herself telephoned the superintendent, who said he would send two men up in the early evening. Nancy was delighted later when Tweedie handed her a chanter containing the new reed. She practiced on it until she could obtain a good strong whistle.

The officers who arrived at Douglas House were Anderson and Buchanan! Both carried binoculars.

Morag had packed a picnic supper and the group set off in two cars. Soon after reaching the campsite they ate, and for a while sat around discussing the mystery. When the light began to wane, the group started up the mountain.

Anderson was carrying Nancy’s bagpipes and talking with her animatedly in low tones. Bess giggled and whispered to George, “Ned Nickerson ought to see her now! Bet he’d be jealous.”

About halfway to their goal, Nancy heard a stealthy sound to her left beyond some boulders and trees. She darted off by herself to investigate. On the far side of a thicket she saw a lone lamb which started to bleat pitifully. Nancy walked over to comfort the baby animal.

Suddenly she felt the presence of something behind her and turned to look. Poised on the limb of a nearby tree, and about to spring toward her and the lamb, was a large wildcat!

 

 

 

FOR a moment Nancy panicked. Would the wildcat pounce on her for interfering with his intent to attack the lamb?

A sudden thought came to Nancy. She had once heard that yelling loudly and heaving stones could scare off a wildcat. Though she knew it might ruin her chances of tricking the sheep thieves by alerting them, she had to take that risk.

Nancy, at the top of her lungs, shouted repeatedly,
“Scat! Get out of here!”
She kept hunting for a stone, found a good-sized one a moment later, and threw it at the hissing animal.

The wildcat leaped off the branch to keep from being hit but did not attack. Apparently frightened, the beast turned tail and ran off!

Nancy, weak with relief, sat down beside the baby lamb. She gave her a hug and said, “You go find your mother! Run, now!” She gave the animal a gentle slap and watched her start down the mountainside.

The commotion had brought Bess, George, and the two inspectors on the run. Nancy told them what had happened, and said she hoped her scheme for bringing the thieves into the open had not been ruined.

“We must take that chance,” said Anderson. “I’m glad you weren’t mauled.”

Nancy felt encouraged. “Let’s go!” she said.

As soon as they reached the ridge, Anderson handed her the bagpipes. Nancy stood alone on a little promontory, while the others remained hidden. She played the first phrase of Scots,
Wha
Hae loudly and clearly.

In the meantime, the two inspectors had trained their binoculars oh the landscape. Far below, in a natural hollow, stood a flock of sheep. Four shepherds were tending them.

Buchanan handed his binoculars to Bess and asked if she could identify any of the men. It was fully a minute before she could get a good look at their faces. Suddenly she said excitedly, “One of them is Mr. Dewar!”

Just then, Anderson, through his glasses, spotted a large, covered truck parked on the nearby country road. The vehicle was well. screened by trees.

Inspector Anderson said, “Mr. Buchanan and I will circle around to that spot and watch what’s going on. You girls wait here. Give us twenty minutes, Miss Drew, and then play the whistling sound on your bagpipes.”

George said, “May we borrow the binoculars so we can see what’s going on?”

Anderson laughed as he turned his over to her. “Aye, and I don’t blame you for wanting to watch.”

The two inspectors scrambled down the mountainside. Nancy changed the chanter on the bagpipes and then kept her eyes on her wristwatch, while George trained the binoculars on the flock of sheep.

“Here goes!” said Nancy finally.

Putting the mouthpiece to her lips, she made a whistling sound. It was exactly the same as the one she had heard several times before.

Within a few seconds George began to report what she was seeing through the binoculars. “Those four men have some kind of guns and are spraying the sheep!”

Nancy, Bess, and Fiona could vaguely make out the scene below and were horrified a minute later to see the animals toppling over.

The men dragged the motionless sheep one by one to the rear of the truck. Finally the van was filled, and the thieves drove off.

The girls were speechless until Bess burst out, “Why didn’t the inspectors stop them?”

“Perhaps,” said Nancy, “they’re going to follow those men to get more evidence.” As the truck pulled out of sight, she added, “Let’s go back to Douglas House and wait for word from the police.”

When they arrived, Nancy’s great-grandmother was relieved to see them. She was astounded at the girls’ story, and said, “My congratulations!”

Nancy smiled. “Let’s not celebrate until the case is ended. I still must locate the missing heirloom.”

The young sleuth found sleep impossible. She kept trying to figure out what Anderson and Buchanan had been doing. Finally a thought came to her. “Maybe they had an infrared camera to take pictures, in the dark, of the crooks’ operations as evidence before nabbing them!”

An early-morning phone call from the police office confirmed Nancy’s guess. The men in the truck had been caught and had confessed to their part in the sheep racket. The superintendent requested that Nancy and her friends come to headquarters as soon as possible.

Later at the police office the four girls learned how Anderson and Buchanan had trailed the truck. They had taken photographs of the thieves’ every activity, which was irrefutable proof of their operations.

Mr. Dewar flew into a rage. If the Glasgow hotel had not made a mistake in the names, he ranted, and if dumb Paul Petrie had not translated the directions for the sheep smuggling into Gaelic to impress his boss, the scheme might have gone on successfully. He had slipped into Dewar’s room and put the note in a bureau drawer when a chambermaid left the door unlocked while she went down the hall to the linen closet for clean towels.

“As for you, Miss Drew,” Dewar rasped, “Petrie was supposed to keep you away from Inverness-shire. He bungled that job too.”

Nancy learned that Petrie had caused the smashup of her car in River Heights, then followed up with the warning note with the piece of plaid. To scare her further, he had planted the bomb in the mailbox and telephoned the threat to Ned. In Scotland he had attempted to force Nancy’s car into a ditch so that she would be injured and unable to proceed with her sleuthing.

At this point, Petrie was brought into the room. The superintendent ordered him to confess his part in the scheme.

The American glared at Nancy. “She’s too smart. Sure, I gave the story about her to the River Heights
Graphic.
It was to throw suspicion away from Dewar and me.” Petrie suddenly grinned. “She’s smart, oh yes, but I sure gave her the slip in Edinburgh,” he boasted, “when I used a stolen pass to get into the court building.”

Petrie went on to say he took care of the wool and sheepskins which were smuggled by freighter into the United States. Two crewmen had already admitted being involved in the dishonest operation.

“When I found you were coming to Scotland,” Petrie said to Nancy, “I thought I’d better get here ahead of you and keep track of your movements. I left a note in Dewar’s room to notify him I was here. I suggested the bagpipe signals. You heard me practicing in Dewar’s room.”

Nancy said, “We figured out most of your Gaelic code message. But we’d like to know the full meaning.”

Dewar told her that it indicated the route of the thieves’ truck—first a deep ditch to be followed; then a warning to lock the rod on the rear of the covered vehicle carrying the sheep, not merely to close the doors; finally, to transport the wool and sheepskins to the houseboat and to await word about taking the loot to Dumbarton.

Nancy said she had figured out all the sketches on the message except the cradle. “What is the significance of that?”

The prisoners looked at one another, but none answered. Nancy shot a question at them. “Which one of you has a wife who resembles me?”

This time Dewar and Petrie exchanged glances. Finally Petrie shrugged.
“I
brought my wife over here with me. With a little fixing up, she looks enough like your photograph on the magazine to pass for you. Several years ago she visited Culzean Castle and saw a cradle there in the shape of a boat. When our son was born, she had a cradle made just like it. The sketch was to indicate to Dewar that she was in this country, ready to do her job.”

Nancy said she felt very sorry that Petrie’s wife had been dragged into the men’s dishonest activities. “Then she is the one who was passing the worthless checks and using my name on them? And it was your wife you were phoning in the drugstore to tell her you got my autograph?”