The Clue Of The Tapping Heels Part 14

The crowd below watched tensely. Finally one of the men called to her.

"Hang on! I'll toss a net up and you can catch the animal that way."

The man dashed off. He came back in a couple of minutes with a fish net, which he threw upward. It did not reach the beam. Once more he gave the net a mighty heave. Still it did not reach Nancy.

"I guess it's no use," she called down.

A very tall man among the onlookers offered to try his luck. He rolled the net into a ball and gave a mighty heave. Nancy reached down to grab the net and caught it.

But the weight of the net and her sudden shift in position caused Nancy to lose her balance!

CHAPTER XI.

Bess Plays Cupid

As Nancy slipped from the high beam, people below gasped, others screamed.

"Oh no, no!" George cried.

Nancy herself had been terrified for a fraction of a second. In a desperate attempt to save herself, she clung tightly to the beam by one arm. Then, with great effort, she swung her right leg over the beam and gradually pulled herself to an upright position.

"Bravo! Bravo!" cried several of the men below her and began to clap.

"Yea! Yea!" shouted several relieved children.

All this time Nancy had managed to hold onto the net. Now she unrolled it, and with a well-placed aim, finally snared the Persian. Its protests at being made a prisoner almost caused Nancy to lose her balance again.

There were gasps of dismay from the watching crowd and a flash bulb went off. Nancy looked down. A photographer had snapped her picture!

"Oh dear!" she thought. "This whole adventure has been such a mess."

The cat had quieted down and now Nancy inched her way backward, pulling the animal along. Slowly she shinned down the rafter to the crossbeam.

"Bess! George! Will you catch the cat?" Nancy requested.

"Yes. Let it go," George replied.

Besides the girls' outstretched arms there were several other willing hands. Nancy dropped the net containing the animal. The Persian was immediately put back into its cage, and Nancy came down the rest of the way safely. The watchers showered her with congratulations.

"Thanks a lot," she said, blushing. All she wanted to do now was to get back to Berryville.

A voice from among the onlookers called out, "I'll buy the cat! I like s.p.u.n.ky animals. How much is it?"

Before Nancy could answer, George spoke up. "The price is higher now."

People laughed and the man called out, "You mean the higher the cat, the higher the price?"

"Exactly," George said. "How about our having an auction? We'll start with the original price and go up from there."

Nancy was amused and wondered if the scheme would work.

"I'll pay exactly the figure you named," a woman said.

"And I'll give you twenty-five dollars more," a man called out.

"Anyone bid twenty-five more, twenty-five more?" said George, who began to enjoy her role as auctioneer.

As the bidding went on, Nancy and Bess became more and more astounded. The Persian cat finally sold for over three times what the original price had been!

When Nancy mentioned to Bess that she wondered if this had been the right thing to do, her chum said quickly, "I thought all along the price for a prize cat was too low. Besides, Miss Carter can certainly use the money."

The girls said good-by to the lovely Persian which was now resting comfortably in the arms of a teen-age girl whose father had purchased it for her.

She smiled at the girls. "I just love my new pet."

"I'm so glad you do," Nancy said. "Be kind to Abatha."

At that moment the young man who had taken her picture said, "I want it for our local paper. Quite a story. Please tell me your name and address."

Nancy did not relish this publicity but did not see how she could avoid it. She identified herself.

"You're from River Heights?" the photographer asked. "Are you related to the famous lawyer Carson Drew?"

Bess answered the question. "She certainly is and she does a lot of detective work in connection with her father's cases."

Nancy was embarra.s.sed, but the photographer beamed. "This will make a cool story," he said, putting away his notebook and starting off. "I can't wait to get it in the paper."

When the girls reached Miss Carter's home, they found that Mrs. Bealing had returned from River Heights. At once she said to Nancy, "I hope you're not too tired to drive me downtown. I must buy some food."

Nancy said she would be glad to take the nurse as soon as she had a chance to freshen up and change her clothes. The three girls went upstairs to Miss Carter's room. Hannah Gruen was talking to the actress,

Proudly Nancy opened her purse and took out a large wad of bills. "We sold every cat," she announced.

"That's marvelous!" Miss Carter exclaimed. "You girls are wonderful-why, Nancy, you've given me too much money!"

The three "salesmen" giggled. "No, I haven't," Nancy said, and then told the story of George auctioning off the last cat. Both women laughed. "Good work," said Hannah.

Bess spoke up. "It was all because Nancy climbed into the rafters to get the cat and twice she nearly fell off-"

"Oh my goodness!" Hannah Gruen cried out.

Nancy smiled. "Don't worry. I'm still in one piece."

Miss Carter shook her head. "I appreciate all this," she said, "but, Nancy, you shouldn't have taken the chance." Then she chuckled. "You must be as lithe as a kitten yourself!"

While Bess and George told her about the strange man with the cats at the show, Nancy took a quick shower and changed her clothes. Then she and Mrs. Bealing set off for the shopping center of Berryville.