The Clue Of The Velvet Mask Part 15

Ten minutes later she returned with the bottle of ink tucked in an office envelope. As she gave it to Nancy, Peter Tombar entered the drugstore.

He could not possibly have known what the fat envelope contained, because Nancy thrust it quickly into her handbag. Nevertheless, he regarded the two girls intently, then walked over to the soda counter.

"Miss Seeley, you are five minutes over your lunch hour," he said.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Tombar. I-I was just leaving."

"Leaving? I thought you were just coming. Didn't you hand-?"

"Are you eating here?" Nancy broke in.

Tombar glared at her but did not reply. Linda took advantage of the moment to escape.

Nancy regretted the meeting with Tombar. He could not possibly know what Linda had given her, but he might be suspicious.

No sooner had Tombar left the drugstore than Nancy returned to the laboratory. She gave the chemist the bottle of ink for a.n.a.lysis and waited for his report.

Finally it came. She was informed that the fluid was identical to the one used to write the numbers on the lining of the hooded mask.

"What a clue!" Nancy thought, and hurried from the laboratory to return the bottle to Linda.

Nancy talked with Linda for a few minutes. Then, just as she managed to slip her the envelope with the bottle in it, Tombar entered from a back room. He stopped short when he saw the two girls.

"Miss Seeley," he said coldly, "I suggest that you return to the work you left. I will help Miss Drew."

"Never mind," Nancy said quickly. "I'm just going!" She sailed out cheerfully, but her heart was thumping uncomfortably. Had the man seen the bottle change hands?

On Sunday she told her father about the ink clue. "Now I'm positive someone at Lightner's is a member of the gang," Nancy said. "If I could only work there a few days, I could watch everyone."

"Couldn't you help Linda with the office work? I'm sure Mr. Lightner would give his permission."

Nancy's father called the man's home. After a brief conversation he said good-by. "It's all settled," Mr. Drew reported. "Mr. Lightner was most agreeable to the suggestion."

Nancy appeared punctually at the Lightner Entertainment Company at nine o'clock Monday morning. She noted, with some amus.e.m.e.nt, Tombar's reaction to her arrival. After his first unfriendly stare, he pointedly ignored Nancy.

Nancy spent an uneventful morning sorting letters and rearranging files. Whenever she was about to seize an opportunity to slip into the storerooms to look for clues, Tombar would suddenly appear again.

"He may not be speaking to me, but he's surely keeping an eye on my whereabouts," Nancy thought. "I'll hold off until lunchtime. While he's out, I can do some looking around."

But when twelve o'clock came, the a.s.sistant manager did not leave, nor did he at one. To Nancy's dismay, she observed him eating sandwiches right at his desk.

"Evidently he doesn't intend to budge from here today," Nancy said to herself.

This proved to be true. By late afternoon Nancy was weary from hunger. Her eyes ached from the tedious filing, and she was discouraged.

When five o'clock came, Nancy left the Lightner offices without seeing Linda. Right after supper, however, Nancy received an urgent telephone call from the girl.

"It's happened!" she announced dramatically. "And I don't know what to do!"

"Another robbery?" Nancy gasped.

"No, not that. I've been discharged!"

CHAPTER X.

A New Ruse

LINDA poured out the story of her dismissal by Mr. Tombar, who had given her no chance to defend herself.

"He made an inventory check late Sat.u.r.day. Just a single little bottle of ink that was opened without his permission! But did he ever make a fuss! He suspected me right away."

"You didn't tell him you lent me the ink?"

"No, but from the way he questioned me I think he guessed it. Anyway, he made me admit that I had taken the bottle from the shelf. I offered to pay for a full one, but he wouldn't even listen. He just told me I was through."

"Now, Linda, don't feel too bad," Nancy comforted her. "Take it easy for a few days and I'll help you get your job back or find another-a better one where there will be no Mr. Tombar."

"Oh, Nancy, you're so kind!" Linda exclaimed and thanked her.

Though Nancy sounded confident, she was troubled. Now that Linda had been discharged there would be no source of information at the entertainment company. To make matters worse, Mr. Lightner himself called in a few minutes to say that affairs at the office were a bit confused at the moment and perhaps Nancy had better not return to work there since Linda was gone.

"I'm sorry," Nancy said. "But it will be all right if I drop in, won't it? I'd like to talk to you about several things."

"Any time."

After she had hung up, Nancy sat lost in thought. No mystery she had ever tried to solve had baffled her more. In addition, George Fayne had not recovered from her frightening experience.

"I feel simply terrible about it," Nancy told Hannah Gruen. "George is weak and has no appet.i.te. But what's even worse, she mopes around talking about the party thieves and every time I see her she begs me to give up the case."

"Those criminals probably threatened her," Hannah suggested.

Nancy nodded. "It would explain her pleas to me to drop the case," Nancy conceded.

The following morning she decided to see Mr. Lightner about Linda. As Nancy drove downtown her thoughts went to George again.

"Something must be done about her!" Nancy decided as she parked in front of the entertainment company building. "If I solve the mystery, that may do it."

She went at once to Mr. Lightner's office. He listened politely to her request that he take Linda back but shook his head.

"Usually I leave employment matters in that department entirely to Mr. Tombar," he said. "If he discharged Linda, there must have been a good reason."

"It was really my fault, Mr. Lightner," said Nancy, and explained about asking Linda to borrow the ink bottle. "If she hadn't been trying to help me, it never would have happened."

"That does change the picture somewhat," the company president admitted. "But perhaps Mr. Tombar had other reasons as well. After all, the girl has been under suspicion."