The Clue Of The Tapping Heels Part 23

"Who can open windows," George added. "Of course we have no idea how long these prints have been here. Someone could have climbed up a ladder before we came on the case."

"That's true," Nancy conceded, "but I have a hunch these marks were made recently." Her eyes lighted up. "I'm going to rig something to try catching anybody who comes in this way again."

Nancy explained her scheme. She would attach an unseen cord to the window and run it down to her bedroom.

"If anybody opens this window," she said, "it will ring a bell near me. Then I can race up here and grab him."

"Not without me," George spoke up firmly.

"All right," Nancy agreed.

Later, as the girls prepared for bed, they wondered if there would be a visitor that night. They fell asleep. Around one o'clock in the morning Nancy's bell began to ring!

CHAPTER XVII.

Rooftop Escape

IN a jiffy Nancy was out of bed and putting on robe and slippers. She dashed into the room where Bess and George were sleeping and woke them.

"What's up?" George asked.

"The bell rang!" Nancy whispered. "Come on! Hurry!"

She was more than halfway up the attic steps before the girls overtook her. Nancy beamed her flashlight into every dark corner of the attic, since the overhead light was a dim one. No one was hiding there.

"Maybe when the tapper heard the bell," Bess suggested, "it scared him and he went back out the window. Let's see if he's hanging on."

They rushed over and looked out. There was no sign of an intruder.

"Of course he had plenty of time to get down," George remarked.

Nancy reminded the others it was a pretty precarious climb hanging onto a vertical wall. "It couldn't be done quickly."

"Right," said Bess. "And I don't see how he could do it, anyway."

Puzzled, the girls gazed across the roof. They could see only part of it, since the house had two gables. The moon was shining and everything stood out clearly.

Suddenly George grabbed Nancy's arm. "Look! Over by the chimney! There he goes!"

For a few seconds a pudgy figure was silhouetted on a far peak. Then it disappeared.

"We can catch him yet!" Nancy exclaimed. "He can't get down as fast as we can."

She led the way downstairs, two steps at a time. The girls dashed to the first floor and outside.

Taking opposite directions they raced around the house, all the time looking upward for the climbing figure. In the bright moonlight they could not have missed anyone descending from the roof, yet no person was visible.

"He's gone again!" Bess wailed. "I don't fancy running into somebody dangerous, but just the same I'd like to know who the climber is and how he gets up and down."

At that moment they heard a motor start and hurried to the street. A car, which was not the Bunces's, pulled away from in front of their house with a roar.

The driver, who had no pa.s.senger, held a hand over the side of his face so he could not be identified. He suddenly turned out his lights, making it impossible for the girls to read his license number.

"Now who was he?" George asked. "Perhaps Fred Bunce came back for more of his things."

"I doubt it," Bess replied. "He must know by now that the police are looking for him. He wouldn't dare come here."

"It might have been the pudgy man we saw on the roof," Nancy remarked.

"What do we do now?" Bess asked.

Nancy said she was going to alert the police. Two officers arrived in a little while and Nancy briefed them on the details of the man who had been on the roof and escaped. The police made a thorough search of the entire house, even the secret room, which Nancy showed them.

"Man alive! What a prison!" one of the officers exclaimed. "Staying in here for any length of time is enough to drive a person crazy even if he didn't start that way."

Nancy made no comment. At times she felt sorry for Gus Woonton and figured that if he had had psychiatric help as a child he might not have turned out the way he had.

"It may not be too late," she thought but kept the supposition to herself.

Finally the two officers, convinced that the intruder had gone, said they must leave but would check the house again in about an hour.

"If you hear anybody in the meantime, let us know," one said.

The commotion had awakened Miss Carter and Mrs. Bealing, who wanted to know what had happened. They were given a full report.

At the end Nancy said, "Unfortunately we've learned almost nothing. But the tapper-or whoever got into the attic-knows by now we've rigged up a way to snare him. So I figure there's a good chance he won't be back."

Actually Nancy said this to allay the women's fears but deep in her heart she did not believe it. Anyone as determined as the tapper would return.

Finally everyone went to bed for the second time that night. There was absolute silence in the house. Nancy did not drop off to sleep at once. Suddenly she jumped from the bed and started for the hall doorway.

She had heard tapping-heel sounds on the second floor!

By the time Nancy reached the hall, the tapping had stopped. She waited. There was not a sound.

An eerie feeling came over Nancy, as if she were being watched by unseen eyes. The young sleuth stood still for a long time, but there was not another sound either from the second floor or anywhere else in the house.

"I couldn't have dreamed hearing the tapping," she thought, going back to her room and dropping into bed.

Nancy did not get much rest that night. The mystery had begun to disturb her. She felt she was getting nowhere in solving it. Finally, utterly weary, Nancy fell asleep.

She had promised to take Mrs. Bealing to River Heights early in the morning so the woman could spend Sunday at home. Nancy was up, bathed, and dressed before anyone else was ready.

Bess and George had promised to care for Miss Carter while her nurse was gone. They planned to hurry with the housework because in the afternoon their Emerson college friends, Burt Eddle ton and Dave Evans, would arrive and stay to supper. Ned had told Nancy he would come to her house by bus and the two would drive to Berryville n her car.

"I'll ride back to Emerson with the boys," he had said.