The Clue Of The Tapping Heels Part 9

"Not much likelihood of that," Hannah replied, shaking her head.

Nancy took Mrs. Gruen's bag and led the way up the stairs to the second floor. Mrs. Bealing greeted her old friend affectionately. Then Hannah was taken to meet Miss Carter.

"I'm sorry you've been having so much trouble," the Drews' housekeeper said to her.

The actress smiled. "It's said that bad luck comes in threes. I've had mine-first a broken leg, then a mysterious tapper, and finally stolen cats."

Mrs. Gruen remarked that with all the locks on the house changed, she did not see how anyone could get inside.

"And I believe the person who came to steal your Persians the second time got a good scare. I doubt that he'll be back."

Hannah's a.s.surances made Miss Carter feel better at once. Soon the three women were engaged in a lively conversation. Nancy, Bess, and George left quietly.

"When are you going to get your own car back?" George asked Nancy as they rode off in Ned's convertible.

"I don't know. Ned's coming to take me to the rehearsal."

When the girls reached Bess's home, Nancy asked the cousins to call her when they were ready to return to Miss Carter's. She dropped George at the Fayne house, and a few minutes later pulled into her own driveway.

As she unlocked the kitchen door, the place seemed very different. For an instant Nancy wondered why, then realized she missed the fragrant scent of cooking food. There was always a lingering aroma of some special concoction of Hannah's in the air.

"It's just not the same without her here," Nancy thought wistfully.

Within a few minutes Mr. Drew drove in. While Nancy was preparing dinner from a menu Hannah had left, the lawyer related what he had found out about the Woontons.

"Through a stroke of luck I got the information from a lawyer friend of mine who is the attorney for the Beverly, a private hospital. It takes boys and young men who are having mental problems of one sort or another.

"One of their patients was named Gus Woonton. At the time his parents put him there, they were living in Berryville. I haven't found out anything yet as to where Mr. and Mrs. William Woonton went after they sold their house."

Nancy was excited. "Is this Gus Woonton well enough to be interviewed?" she asked.

Mr. Drew's answer was a surprise. "Gus Woonton ran away from the Beverly several weeks ago and there hasn't been any trace of him since that time."

"Oh!" Nancy exclaimed.

She told her father of her suspicion that the man using the secret bedroom and bath in the bas.e.m.e.nt of Miss Carter's house might be Gus Woonton.

"And he might be the tapper," she added.

"You could be right, Nancy. That pudgy man who followed you and who attacked Ned at the school fits the description of the Gus Woonton who ran away. He had a penchant for running away since the time he was a little boy."

"You mean running away from home?" Nancy asked.

Her father nodded. "Yes, and also from school and camp, and at times from hotels when the family was on a trip. When Gus reached his late teens, he became worse, so his parents finally took him to the Beverly."

"What about the guardians?" Nancy asked.

"There was no mention of them. But the Beverly's lawyer promised to call me if he finds out anything more about the William Woontons."

"And there are no clues as to where Gus was running to this time?" Nancy queried.

"Not one, and I think your guess is as good as anybody else's," her father remarked. "Tonight we'll have the police keep an even closer watch on Miss Carter's house. Since all the locks on the entrance doors have been changed, the tapper won't be able to get inside. The officers can close in quickly and grab him if he comes to the house."

As Nancy continued preparing the meal, she and her father speculated about whether or not Gus Woonton lived in the house regularly or just slept there once in a while. And was he the tapper? If so, why was he tapping? Was he just acting spooky to annoy the people in the house, hoping to get them out? Or was there a more sinister motive behind his actions?

Just as dinner was ready, the bell rang. Ned Nickerson had arrived. At once he asked Nancy if she had solved the mystery.

"It's not solved, but we have some good clues," she replied, and briefed him on the latest developments.

"Sounds like progress all right," he commented.

After the meal was over and the kitchen had been tidied, Nancy and Ned had to hurry to make the rehearsal on time.

As they walked into the school a few minutes later, he said, "Tonight, instead of sittin in the auditorium, I think I'll play detective and walk around the corridors to keep a lookout for that pudgy fellow."

They separated and Nancy went up to the stage. Ned made sure that the front door was securely locked as well as all the side entrances. On one of his trips into the corridor back of the stage, he thought he smelled smoke.

"It seems to be coming from under the stage," Ned decided, and opened the door to a stairway. He ran down the steps.

A thin wisp of smoke was coming from the prop room next to the dressing rooms. A fire extinguisher hung on the wall. He grabbed it. Turning the heavy spray can over, he sent a volume of foam onto a pile of clothes which were on fire in the center of the floor.

"I hope this does it," he thought.

In the meantime Nancy found herself with a fifteen-minute recess from the rehearsal.

"I'll see if Ned has learned anything," she told herself, and went out into the corridor back of the stage.

As she neared the doorway to the bas.e.m.e.nt, Nancy smelled smoke. She hurried down the stairway and saw Ned busy with the extinguisher.

"Oh, Nancy, I'm glad you've come. I'm afraid this is too much of a blaze for me to put out alone."

Nancy agreed. "I'd better call the fire department right away."

"Good idea," Ned replied.

She dashed up the stairway and turned the k.n.o.b on the door which had closed. It was locked!

Frantically Nancy knocked on the door but she had little hope that anyone would hear her. The orchestra was playing loudly.

Nevertheless, she thumped until her knuckles hurt. Still no one came to open the door!

CHAPTER VIII.

Missing Diary

FOR a moment Nancy panicked. The situation was desperate. She and Ned must get out of the bas.e.m.e.nt!