The Clue Of The Whistling Bagpipes Part 6

THE plane continued its tossing. Bess, speechless with fear, closed her eyes, while Nancy and George gripped their chair arms.

As cups and dishes flew in every direction, their contents spattered pa.s.sengers and seats. Then the jetliner suddenly leveled off.

The captain explained apologetically, "Our automatic pilot is malfunctioning. We will continue our journey on manual control."

The girls heaved sighs of relief. There were no more scares and soon the plane was circling in for a landing at Prestwick International Airport.

"We're in Scotland!" George exulted. "Now our sleuthing begins!"

Bess frowned. "Oh, George! Can't we enjoy this lovely country without being reminded of villains?"

The others laughed as they walked into the terminal to claim their bags and have their pa.s.sports checked. When they left the building, Mr. Drew hailed a taxi. Its driver, a man of about forty, had black hair, high color, and a pleasant smile. He said his name was Donald Clark. Mr. Drew asked him to drive them to Glasgow, and climbed in front.

The three girls, seated in the rear, were delighted with Donald's broad accent and keen sense of humor. As he pointed out various sights, he would sometimes quote from Robert Burns's poems.

"Ye must get up to Bobby's cottage," he said. "And up there ye'll be seein' the Brig o' Doon."

"Oh, that's the famous bridge Tam o' Shanter rode over, isn't it?" Nancy asked.

"That it be." Donald chuckled. "A man can think of funny things when he lets his imagination get the better of him. Poor Tam-he near killed his naigmakin' him go sae fast to get awa' frae the witch hangin' on to his tail."

As the taxi reached the outskirts of Glasgow, Nancy and the cousins were intrigued by the numerous flocks of sea gulls. Donald told them that the birds followed the ocean-going ships to eat refuse thrown overboard. The girls were also interested in the rows of old stone houses with their many clay chimney pots. On one house they counted nine!

When Nancy mentioned this to Donald, he told her that the houses had no central heating. Each room had its own fireplace.

"And the apartment houses-you can look right through the center hall to the rear garden," Nancy remarked.

The taxi driver grinned. "Most of my American pa.s.sengers have never heard of our open closes and closed closes," he said.

When Mr. Drew and the girls looked utterly blank, Donald added, "Our tenements-ye call them apartment houses-have a common entrance, called a close. If it has a door, it's a closed close. If it has no door, it's an open close."

Nancy remarked with a smile, "I see we have a great deal to learn in your country. We shall probably find ourselves making mistakes and people misunderstanding us."

"Aye, and that ye will!" Donald a.s.sured them.

He drove his pa.s.sengers to an attractive hotel next to the railroad station and they alighted. Nancy, Bess, and George waited patiently in the lobby while Mr. Drew went up to the reservations desk to announce their arrival. After nearly ten minutes had gone by, Nancy wondered what was causing the delay. To her surprise, her father seemed to be arguing with the clerk. She overheard the lawyer say, "But you have my cable!"

Finally the clerk shrugged, produced two keys, and summoned a porter. On the way up in the elevator, Mr. Drew explained to the girls that apparently the hotel had marked his reservation Dewar, p.r.o.nounced Dew-ar, instead of Drew. The lawyer's room was some distance up the hall from the one the girls would be occupying.

"After we unpack, I'll get in touch with you about my day's plans," he said as they stepped from the elevator.

Nancy, Bess, and George were delighted with their room. It was large and tastefully furnished. There was an adjoining bath, and Bess declared she had never seen such big Turkish towels in her life. "They must be seven feet long!" she exclaimed.

Nancy, meanwhile, had gone to the bureau and opened the top drawer to put away some clothes. Staring up at her was a very strange note.

"George! Bess! Come here!" she called. "The mystery has followed us!"

The cousins dashed to Nancy's side and stared at the paper. "What kind of message is that?" asked George, and read aloud the strange words:"'RATHAD DIG GLAS SLAT LONG

MALL BEAN BALL GUN AIL.'".

"And what weird drawings!" Bess remarked.

In the upper left-hand corner of the paper was a bagpipe. Opposite this was a cradle in the form of a boat. And at the lower left, crowding the margin, was what looked to be a part of a one-story modern building.

Bess burst into laughter. "Mystery nothing! Some kid who stayed in this room made it."

George nodded. "The words sure sound like baby talk."

Nancy was inclined to disagree, but before she could comment, the room telephone rang. She answered it, expecting the caller to be her father. To her surprise, the desk clerk was on the wire. His voice sounded excited.

"Is this Miss Drew?"

"Yes."

"I'm most frightfully sorry," he said, "but I have given you and your friends the wrong room. I will send up a porter at once for your bags. He will take you to your new room."

When Nancy reported this to the others, Bess sighed. "I'm glad I didn't start unpacking. But I'm surprised that a hotel as fine as this one would make such a mistake."

Nancy went back to concentrate on the note. Her photographic mind made a mental picture of it and she memorized the strange words.

As the young sleuth closed the bureau drawer she said, "This note may have been intended for the person who is coming into this room."

"You mean it's in code?" George asked.

"It could be," Nancy answered.

By this time the porter had arrived with a baggage truck. The girls' new quarters were still farther down the hall in the opposite direction from Mr. Drew's room. After the trio was settled, Nancy remarked, "I'll have to tell my father we've moved." To the porter, she said, "Did Mr. Dewar show up to claim that room we left?"

"Yes, ma'am, he did, and he was black wi' rage when he learned ye'd been in his room!"

Bess laughed. "I suppose he thought we'd dropped face powder all over the place!"

Nancy doubted that this was the cause of his annoyance. She could not get the strange note out of her mind. Had Mr. Dewar's anger been caused by fear that the girls had seen it? The note might be a secret message meant only for him! Later she discussed this theory with her father at the luncheon table.

"That's possible," the lawyer agreed. "But even in perfectly legitimate business deals, codes are often used, so this may not indicate that anything is wrong."

Nancy was not convinced. "The note that was left in our mailbox in River Heights said 'Drew is going to bomb you.' Do you suppose that the person who tried to warn us got Dewar and Drew mixed up?"

"My goodness, Nancy!" said George. "Your theories certainly are way out today!"

Bess leaned forward. "There's one person who is mighty interested in what you're saying. That man at the table near us-the one who's alone. He has been trying hard to hear every word."

Nancy turned to get a look at the stranger. He was about forty years of age, well built, and had a noticeably reddish complexion. Now he quickly averted his gaze, hastily signed his check, and left the table.

Nancy's group had practically finished eating and she asked to be excused. Before the waitress could pick up the check on the stranger's table, Nancy sidled past and took a look at the check. The man had scribbled on it the number of the room which the girls had just vacated!