(#35) The Haunted Showboat by Carolyn Keene

Author:Carolyn Keene [Keene, Carolyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin USA, Inc.
Published: 2011-11-08T16:11:51+00:00

CHAPTER XII

A Sly Getaway

“WHAT do you think Nancy is going to do?” Bess asked her cousin, as they drove on.

“Search me!” George answered. “But you can be sure it has something to do with that wad of paper.”

“You mean Nancy’s figured out that the drawing on it meant something important? And Alex wasn’t telling the truth when he said it had been drawn by a little cousin of his?”

“Something of the sort.” George grinned. “I can just see Alex’s face when we get to the parking lot. He’ll be furious.”

George’s prediction was right. Alex and Donna Mae got out of the station wagon and walked toward the spot where George was parking. Not seeing Nancy, Alex instantly asked where she was.

“Left us to do some sleuthing,” said George, as she and Bess alighted. “She told us to meet her at Broussard’s at twelve.”

Alex’s eyes flashed and Donna Mae looked hurt. “I don’t think that’s very nice of Nancy when we planned such a gay sight-seeing trip,” Donna Mae remarked.

“Well, after all, Nancy was invited down here to solve a mystery,” George defended her friend.

“I’m going to find her!” Alex said suddenly. He ran to the station wagon, got in, and roared out of the parking lot.

“And I’m going to follow,” George said to herself. She got behind the wheel of Nancy’s car and sped after the young man.

Donna Mae and Bess stared after the two cars. “Well, of all the horrid things to do!” Donna Mae cried out pettishly.

“What difference does it make?” Bess said soothingly. “You and I can have some fun shopping together.”

This did not appease Donna Mae, however. She insisted upon waiting at the parking lot. But when ten minutes had gone by and the others had not returned, she finally consented to leaving.

In the meantime, Nancy had run back to the spot where Alex had thrown the drawing into the street. Instinct urged her to find out more about the piece of paper.

To Nancy’s astonishment, the paper was gone!

“And there is no street cleaner or anyone else in sight,” Nancy murmured to herself.

Her latest suspicion that Alex was not entirely trustworthy instantly became stronger. It seemed as if the circuitous route into town might have had a real purpose behind it. Had Alex, by prearrangement, deliberately dropped the paper for someone to pick up?

Her mind racing, Nancy wondered if the paper might have been a signal, perhaps to a person in a house nearby.

“Maybe I’m being watched myself,” Nancy thought, and she was determined to find out what she could.

Standing exactly where the paper had been dropped, she studied the two facing houses on opposite sides of the street. Both were old-fashioned but well kept. Neither gave any outward indication of mysterious goings-on.

As Nancy stood reflecting what to do next, a young colored woman, with a market basket over her arm, came from one of the houses. Nancy stepped up to her and smiled.

“Would you mind answering a question?” she asked. “I’m a stranger in town—here for the Mardi Gras.

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