The Crooked Banister (13 page)

While the Drews were enjoying a view of the surrounding countryside, the little boy said, “Long ago when the white man come to take our land, we Navahos move up here.”

Nancy recalled having heard that when the western territory of the United States was being settled, soldiers greatly outnumbered the Indians. To avoid being taken prisoner or killed, the Indians had fled to the flat tops of the mountains. When peace was restored, they had returned to the valleys.

“Now we go to see the bus,” Sleepy Deer said as the three climbed down.

He led the Drews up the main street of the village and waited. About twenty minutes later the bus arrived. Nancy and her father carefully watched the tourists who disembarked. Most of them were women and none of them looked shifty-eyed or suspicious.

The driver and the guide stayed in the bus while the passengers looked at the various articles which the Indians had brought out to sell.

“I’ll talk to the driver,” Mr. Drew said. “Maybe he can give us a clue to those swindlers. Nancy, why don’t you speak to the guide?”

As Mr. Drew was about to climb into the bus, the guide stepped out. Nancy approached him. “May I ask you a few questions?” she said.

The man looked annoyed and answered, “You’re not paying for this tour. But okay, go ahead. What do you want to know?”

Nancy was not sure how to proceed with this unpleasant person, but she smiled and said, “You’ll be surprised to hear this, but my father and I are out here tracking down a couple of swindlers.”

“What!” the guide exclaimed.

Nancy decided to tell the full story. When she finished, a puzzled look came over the man’s face.

“ ‘You know,” he said, “I may be involved in this swindle—entirely innocently, I assure you.”

“I believe you,” Nancy remarked, eager for the man to explain further.

The guide said that about eighteen months ago, two men who had been passengers on the same bus trip had asked him if he would like to earn a little extra money.

“I said sure, and they told me they’d write to me once in a while and enclose letters which I was to mail in the Leupp post office. I didn’t see any harm in that and each time they sent a letter for me to mail they enclosed two dollars.”

“What were the names of these men?” Nancy asked.

“Fitch and Rawley. But the envelopes that came to me and the letters to be mailed did not have the sender’s name or address.”

“Where had they been mailed from?” the young detective asked.

The guide said they had come from many different places. “I never paid attention to the names on the envelopes I was to mail or where they were going, so I can’t tell you anything about that.”

On a sudden inspiration Nancy asked, “By any chance do you happen to have with you one of the letters to be mailed?”

“Yes I do,” the guide replied.

He took an envelope from his pocket and handed it to Nancy, then hurried off to his group of tourists.

Nancy gasped. The letter was addressed to Mrs. Carrier!

At this moment Mr. Drew stepped from the bus and reported that he had learned nothing from the driver.

“But I learned plenty!” Nancy told him. “Look at this!”

Her father stared at the envelope in disbelief. Then he suggested that Nancy open it.

Inside was a note in the same childish handwriting as the one Bess had received. The letter contained a similar message and the signature was Mary Singing Brook Dare.

“This is great evidence!” Mr. Drew remarked.

Nancy wondered if Singing Brook lived here or in Leupp. She hurried off to find Sleepy Deer.

He said Mary was a playmate of his. “I take you to see her,” the boy offered.

As Nancy suspected, little Singing Brook had never heard of Mrs. Carrier and had received no money from her.

Mr. Drew looked grim as he said, “Those swindlers may be working their racket in other reservations. I will notify the Department of the Interior as soon as we get back to the hotel.”

As the Drews walked toward their horses, they saw the driver summoning them. Hurrying forward, Nancy asked, “What’s up?”

“Listen to this radio report!” the man said excitedly.

The announcer was saying that news of a new copper deposit had just flashed over the teletype. Already people were rushing to the area to put in claims for the surrounding land.

“It’s turning into a riot!” the announcer finished.

Nancy and her father looked at each other. Mr. Drew exclaimed, “Nancy, that’s near the property that the swindler sold the Melodys, and it’s only six miles from here!”

“Let’s go!” Nancy cried out and ran toward her horse.

THE two horses sensed that their riders were in a hurry. They galloped hard across the dry valley dotted with cacti. Presently Nancy and her father saw a sign.

“This is the end of the reservation,” Mr. Drew remarked. “We don’t have much farther to go.”

As they neared the site of the copper discovery, the Drews saw a crowd of people milling around. They had come in cars, by helicopter and on horseback. Men were shouting loudly and arguing angrily.

“I spoke for this piece first!” one man cried.

“You didn’t! It’s mine!” said another.

Nancy and her father halted at the fringe of the crowd and dismounted. In this barren area there was not even a tree to which they could tie the horses.

“Now, Black Feet, don’t you dare run away,” Nancy admonished the horse.

She and her father strode forward. Claims were being made by miners, real-estate men, and others hoping to make a quick fortune. A mannish-looking woman was haranguing the crowd, urging them to leave.

“This land-boom deal must be settled peacefully,” she shouted. No one paid any attention.

As the Drews came closer, they realized that the woman was standing up in the stirrups of her saddle so she could be heard.

Mr. Drew chuckled softly and said to Nancy, “That woman has the right idea. I think I’ll try to help her.”

He pushed his way among the fist-waving group and spoke to her. She smiled at him and said, “Come on!”

Mr. Drew swung himself up lightly in back of her. He clapped his hands loudly and asked for the crowd’s attention.

Seeing this, Nancy began clapping also and yelling, “Quiet, everybody! Quiet!”

The two commanding voices silenced the crowd. Mr. Drew said in a loud voice:

“I represent a client who received a deed to property near here. The deal turned out to be a fraud. What proof have you people that the report of a copper deposit may not have been given out by swindlers?”

His listeners looked at one another and began murmuring. Mr. Drew went on, “Surely someone has title to this property. Why don’t you find out who it is instead of trying to stake a claim? My advice to you is to leave before somebody gets hurt. If the man who has made the highest bid will give his name and address to me, I promise to put the owner in touch with him.”

A grizzled, middle-aged man, with a deep sun-tan and bright blue, honest-looking eyes, stepped forward. “Thank you,” he said and wrote his name and address on a piece of paper.

Rather grudgingly the crowd dispersed. Nancy was smiling broadly. She was so proud of her father!

The woman on the horse said to him, “I don’t know how you did it. Many of the men around here are a pretty tough lot! I came because I think this land belongs to my family.”

Mr. Drew smiled and told the woman he thought she had a lot of courage. Then he rode off with Nancy.

“It’s getting late,” he said. “I hope our pilot doesn’t take off without us.”

A strong breeze had come up and Nancy was fascinated watching the huge balls of tumble-weed rolling across the plain. The Drews made good time to Leupp and to their relief found the helicopter waiting. They returned the horses, paid the owners for their use, and said good-by.

By the time Nancy and her father reached their hotel in Phoenix, it was past eight o’clock. “I’m famished,” said Nancy.

While they were enjoying a steak dinner, Mr. Drew remarked, “Nancy, do you mind returning to River Heights alone? I have more business to attend to out here, and I’m sure you’re eager to get back to Mountainville and report what you’ve learned.”

“I certainly am.” Nancy’s eyes danced in anticipation.

A little later she got in touch with the airline and made reservations for an early-morning flight to New York, then one to River Heights.

Immediately after breakfast the next day Mr. Drew went with Nancy to the airport and wished her a good trip.

“I haven’t forgotten about notifying the Department of the Interior,” he said. “I’ll do so first thing.”

Nancy waved to him as she stepped through the cabin doorway of the plane. Hours later she reached River Heights and took a taxi home.

Hannah Gruen hugged and kissed the young detective. “Oh, Nancy, I’m so glad to see you. And how is your dad?”

“He’s fine but busy. Wait until I tell you the news!”

During supper she gave Hannah all the exciting details of her western adventure. The housekeeper’s eyes opened wide in astonishment. “So you have proof that Clyde Mead is a swindler!” she exclaimed.

They had just finished eating when Ned Nickerson telephoned. “I’m glad I found you at home,” he said. “I understand from Bess and George that you and your dad took off in a big hurry for Arizona.”

Nancy promised to tell him about it the next time she saw him.

Ned chuckled. “That’s going to be sooner than you think. Burt and Dave and I are free tomorrow. We thought we’d go to Mountainville and help on the mystery. That is, if you haven’t already solved it.”

“Only part of it,” Nancy replied, but refused to divulge any more on the phone.

“Okay,” the young man answered. Then he asked teasingly, “How about your letting us boys clear up the rest of it?”

“I dare you!” she answered.

Ned laughed. “We’ll pick you up at ten o’clock. One of the boys will call Bess and George and tell them to expect us.”

Before going to bed, Nancy unpacked the clothes she had used for her trip and substituted appropriate ones for Mountainville. The next morning she said good-by to Hannah and drove off in Ned’s car. Burt and Dave were with him.

They arrived at twelve o’clock and checked into the Ruppert Motel. Bess and George were waiting and said they had reserved a table in the dining room.

As soon as they sat down, Bess said, “I want to hear all about everything. Who wants the floor first?”

“I do,” Dave replied. “We checked on Clyde Mead’s claim that he was a professor at Emerson. He was there only three months giving special lectures on marine biology. He wasn’t very well liked and suddenly quit.”

“That sounds like him,” George remarked. “He probably had another racket coming up.”

Bess looked hurt. “You could be wrong, George. Well, Nancy, begin your story.”

“Before I start,” Nancy said, “tell me, how is Mrs. Carrier?”

“She’s fine,” Bess replied. “By the way, the poison on that portrait is aconite.”

George spoke up. “We drove over to see Mrs. Carrier this morning and got the key to Rawley’s place.”

As Nancy told what she and her father had discovered in Arizona, her listeners were spell-bound. But Bess looked downcast.

“Poor little Sleepy Deer!” she said.

All the young people vowed to help the Navaho children of Leupp and the nearby community where Sleepy Deer lived. They appointed Bess to be chairman of the committee.

After lunch Nancy and her friends decided to drive to Rawley Banister’s house. She and Ned started off in her car. The others followed in his. The convertible reached the top of the hill first. The guard’s car was there. Ned parked and they started across the bridge just as the others arrived.

Without warning the moat flamed up! Nancy and Ned hurried to get across.

“I’m glad we didn’t have to put down the saplings,” Ned remarked.

By this time Nancy was about halfway over, with Ned at her heels. Suddenly she felt the bridge sag. Before she could warn Ned to retreat, the half of the structure on which they were walking parted from the other half and began to plunge downward.

On shore Bess screamed as Nancy and Ned started to slide toward the flaming water.

“Oh no!” George cried out, horrified. Realizing their danger, Nancy and Ned acted fast. He dropped down, grabbed the wide steel beam, and held on with all his strength. Nancy managed to clasp one of his ankles with both hands. For a couple of seconds Nancy hung in mid-air, then she swung one leg over the bridge and wrapped the other around the swaying support.

“We must save them!” Bess cried out.

Burt said, “We’ll make a human chain!” He examined the section where the bridge was sagging from the shore and found that an exceedingly strong hinge was attached to an upright hidden in the embankment.