The Message In The Hollow Oak Part 1

The Message in the Hollow Oak.

CHAPTER I.

Indian War Secret.

"NANCY," said the voice on the telephone, "you are wanted in New York City!"

The eighteen-year-old girl detective looked a bit startled. Was this a joke? Or true? "Why, Aunt Eloise, what for?"

Eloise Drew laughed at the apprehension in her niece's voice. "For a mystery," she replied.

Nancy relaxed. "Oh! For a moment you had me scared. Your announcement sounded as if I was being brought up on some police charge." Then she added, "Tell me about the mystery. That's more to my liking!"

To Nancy's disappointment, her aunt said it was too long a story to explain over the phone. "I was calling to see if you would like to visit me and meet a friend of mine, a detective. He wants some help on a baffling case."

Nancy's pulse quickened. She was only an amateur detective. How could she possibly a.s.sist a man with professional training and ability in capturing criminals?

"Aunt Eloise, please tell me more!" Nancy pleaded, rumpling the reddish-blond hair that framed her attractive face.

"No, I'll leave that to my friend. His name is Boyce Osborne. All I can say is that the case involves a trip to Illinois."

"It sounds interesting," Nancy replied. "I'll have to ask Dad if he has made any plans for me this weekend."

Her aunt laughed again. "We're one step ahead of you. He has already given his permission for you to come. Can you be here some time tomorrow afternoon?"

"Yes," the young detective answered. "See you then, Aunt Eloise."

Nancy hung up. She was excited at the thought of a puzzling new case to solve. Going into the Drews' cheerful living room, she exclaimed, "Well! The things that go on behind my back!"

Carson Drew, a prominent lawyer in River Heights where he and Nancy lived, glanced up from his paper. He was a tall, handsome man who had been a widower since Nancy was three years old.

Seeing his daughter's teasing expression, he relaxed. "Going visiting?" he asked.

"Of course," she replied. "Have you ever known me to turn down a mystery? Maybe Bess or George will drive me to the airport tomorrow."

Bess Marvin and her girl cousin George Fayne were Nancy's closest friends and she was eager to tell them about her latest a.s.signment. She secretly hoped that somehow they could be included in it.

Nancy hurried to the telephone and called the two girls. Both of them were excited at her news and agreed to take their friend to the airport.

After hanging up, Nancy went to the kitchen to tell the housekeeper, Mrs. Hannah Gruen, about the trip to New York. The motherly woman, who had taken care of Nancy since the death of Mrs. Drew, smiled. "Please give your aunt my warmest wishes," she said.

"I certainly will," Nancy replied.

The following noon Bess and George arrived. Bess was a slightly plump blond with delightful dimples. George, in contrast, was very slender and athletic looking and wore her dark hair short. Both of them had on casual summer dresses.

"Oh, Nancy, you look neat!" exclaimed Bess as she and her cousin admired the young detective's smart beige suit.

After saying good-by to Hannah, they drove at once to the River Heights airport and Nancy hurried off to catch her plane to New York.

By midafternoon she was entering her aunt's apartment house. To Nancy's surprise the elevator was no longer manned. A self-service car had been installed. It was standing open. She walked in and pushed the fourth-floor b.u.t.ton.

The door closed and the car slowly started upward. Halfway between the second and third floors it stopped suddenly. The next moment the lights went out.

"Oh dear!" thought Nancy. "The power is off!"

She took a flashlight from her purse and beamed it on the bank of b.u.t.tons near the door. She pushed one marked "Emergency," but it did not ring.

"Now what am I going to do?" she asked herself. "Without power, there's no way of moving this car."

Nancy waited several minutes for the electricity to come back on, but nothing happened. She began to pound on the door. Surely someone would hear the noise and investigate. But no one did.

Nancy decided to shout. "Help! Help! I'm stuck in the elevator!"

It seemed to her like a very long time before there was any response. Then faintly she could hear a man's voice.

"I've been ringing for the elevator. There must be a power failure. Where are you?"

"Between the second and third floors," Nancy called. "Please get me out!"

"Hold on!" the man yelled back.

There was silence for the next ten minutes and Nancy became disheartened. Had the man gone off and failed to keep his promise? How long would she be a prisoner?

Nancy shouted, "Help! Help! I'm stuck in the elevator!"

Finally the stranger called loudly, "Can you hear me?"

"Yes," Nancy responded. "Is somebody going to start the elevator?"

"I'm afraid not," he called back. "I reported this to the superintendent and he called the elevator company. There's nothing they can do. It's a power failure in this part of town. You'll just have to be patient."

Nancy stifled a groan. "Just as I was about to find out about my new mystery!" she said to herself. Then she thought of her aunt and Boyce Osborne. They would be wondering what had become of her.

"Are you still there?" she shouted.

"Yes."

"I'm Nancy Drew and I've come to visit my aunt, Miss Eloise Drew. She lives on the fourth floor. Would you mind going to her apartment and telling her what happened?"

"I'll do it at once," the man promised.

By this time the superintendent had come and other tenants on the third floor had gathered. There were exclamations of "You poor thing!" "Keep your chin up." "I think this is terrible."

In a few minutes a welcome voice called down. "Nancy?"

"Aunt Eloise!" How relieved Nancy felt!