The Mystery of the Fire Dragon (7 page)

“Any news of when Chi Che may return?” the assistant asked.

“We do not know,” Nancy replied. “I suppose you are curious why I want the samples of Chi Che’s writing. The reason is that her grandfather received a letter from her which I suspect is a forgery. I’d like to determine if it is. But please say nothing about this to anyone.”

Nancy left the young woman staring in amazement after her. She hurried directly to Captain Gray’s office and showed him both the envelope and the fire-dragon stationery with its message.

“I suspect this may be a forgery,” she told the officer. “Could you possibly have a handwriting expert analyze it?”

“Yes, at once,” Captain Gray agreed. “This may be an invaluable clue.”

Nancy also confided her fear that Chi Che might have been taken from the country. The captain frowned, and said he would notify the FBI. He then suggested that Nancy return to headquarters in about two hours. The young detective thanked him and left, but she was back soon after lunch.

“Nancy Drew, you have scored another bull’s-eye,” the officer told her. “The note in Chinese and the envelope in English received today by Mr. Soong are definitely the work of a forger.”

“Can you tell me any more?” Nancy asked.

“Yes, several things. Most important, perhaps, is that this note and envelope were written by a woman!”

“A WOMAN!” Nancy exclaimed. “I wonder who she is—probably the wife of one of the men involved in the case.”

“No doubt,” said Captain Gray.

“Will you show me some of the differences in the two handwritings, so that if I come across the fake one again, I might be able to spot the forger?”

“Be glad to, Nancy.” Captain Gray laid the envelope of the letter which had just come to Mr. Soong and the sample of Chi Che’s handwriting in English, side by side.

“One of the hardest things to imitate in handwriting is the crossing of t’s,” the officer explained. “The forger is trying to be so careful that he usually goes slower and the line is slightly more wavy than the original writer would make it. Look at these two through this magnifying glass.

“The letter ‘y’ is another interesting one to look for,” Captain Gray stated. “If it is an unfinished one with the tail going straight down, it is apt to be off center or wobbly. If it’s a completed ‘y,’ it’s even easier to spot.”

Nancy studied the y’s on the two different samples of writing. “It’s very evident,” she said. “This is fascinating.” Then her brow furrowed. “Captain Gray, do you agree that Chi Che is being held against her will?”

“I would say yes,” the officer answered. “Furthermore, she probably was taken away somewhere else before any members of the gang even thought of sending this note. For that reason, they had to forge it.”

“Shall I take this letter back to Mr. Soong?” the young detective asked. “He may become suspicious, and that’s what we’re trying to avoid.”

The officer nodded. “We have made good photostats of it. Take the letter back, but suggest to Mr. Soong that it might be accidentally thrown away in the hospital and would be safer with you. Then suppose you return it to me.”

Nancy smiled understandingly and left. She found Grandpa Soong sitting up in bed, writing. He did not object to her suggestion about the letter, so she took it back to police headquarters.

“I think I’ll drop in at Stromberg’s Bookshop and see how Lily Alys is making out,” Nancy told Captain Gray. “Perhaps she has picked up a clue already!”

Nancy hurried to the shop. There were several customers who were being assisted by both Mr. Stromberg and Lily Alys. Nancy gave no sign of recognizing the Chinese girl who presently came up to her and asked:

“May I help you?”

“Yes,” Nancy replied. “I’m looking for a book on the geology of New York State. Do you happen to have one in stock?”

“I think we have,” Lily Alys said. “Will you come over this way, please?”

The young clerk found the volume. “Is there something else?” she asked sweetly.

“I’m not sure.” Nancy looked around. “The shop is fascinating. I’d like to browse a little.”

“Very well,” Lily Alys said. “Let me know if you find anything else you wish to buy.”

In an undertone which no one else in the shop could hear, the Chinese girl said quickly, “On the third shelf of the travel books is a volume about Asia which contains an article on Hong Kong. Inside the book I found a piece of dragon stationery.”

“Was there anything written on it?” Nancy asked.

“The paper looked blank on both sides. But maybe
you
can find something.”

Quickly Lily Alys went over to the desk, made out a sales slip for the book on geology, then went up to another customer. In the meantime, Nancy wandered around glancing at various volumes. Finally she came to the travel section and found the book which Lily Alys had mentioned.

She took it from the shelf, and began to look through the volume. Presently she came to a chapter on Hong Kong. But there was no piece of stationery among the leaves!

“Someone has taken it out,” Nancy thought. “I wonder who. Mr. Stromberg? Or someone who is using the bookshop to leave or collect secret messages? Or maybe the sheet was only a mark to indicate something in the chapter,” she deduced. “I think I’ll buy this book.”

She walked back toward the desk with it and told Lily Alys that she would purchase the book about Asia as well as the other. As Nancy said this, Mr. Stromberg abruptly left the customer on whom he was waiting and rushed to Nancy’s side.

“That book is not for sale!” he informed her in a sharp tone of voice.

Nancy looked at the man in amazement. “Not for sale?” she repeated. “It was on the shelf.”

“Nevertheless, that volume is not for sale!” Mr. Stromberg cried excitedly. “Give it to me!” Without waiting for her to do so, he snatched it from her hand.

Nancy pretended to be shocked by his action. “Why, is something the matter with the book?”

“Yes—uh—it’s out of date. You’ll have to wait until the revised edition is published.”

“Oh, I don’t mind if it’s old,” said Nancy disarmingly. “I love to read about Asia.”

By this time Mr. Stromberg’s face was red with anger and he once more vehemently refused to sell the book. Nancy was sure now that the book held some clue to the mystery of the fire dragon. The question was how much did Mr. Stromberg know about it? Was he shielding someone else? Had he been asked not to sell the volume and had it inadvertently been put on the shelf?

Nancy shrugged. “If you won’t sell it, you won’t sell it,” she said. “Well, I’ll just pay for the other book I bought.”

Mr. Stromberg accompanied Nancy to the desk. He wrapped the book on geology himself and took her money. There was no chance for Lily Alys to tell Nancy any more, but the young sleuth was determined to find out later that day if the Chinese girl had come across additional information.

As Nancy walked along the street toward Aunt Eloise’s apartment, she decided to try another bookshop for a copy of the book on Asia. She found one without any trouble, then hurried home.

“Hello, everybody,” Nancy called, entering the apartment. Seeing only Aunt Eloise and George in the living room, she asked, “Where’s Bess?”

“She went marketing for me,” Miss Drew replied.

Nancy told about her experience in the bookshop and the others agreed that something strange was going on there. Next, Nancy turned to the chapter on Hong Kong in the book on Asia. First came the history of the city, then suggestions to tourists on what to see, and finally a list of shops known for fine jewelry, linen, furniture, and clothing of all kinds.

“Hong Kong is the place for expert tailoring and dressmaking,” Nancy remarked. “My, and listen to these prices. Things cost about one third what they do in this country!”

“Me for Hong Kong.” George chuckled, taking the book. Presently she said, “There doesn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary in this chapter. Maybe the contents of the book had nothing to do with the piece of dragon stationery inside.”

“Then why wouldn’t Mr. Stromberg have sold me his copy?” Nancy argued. “I think perhaps some phrase or sentence was underlined and he didn’t want anybody to see it.”

George suggested that perhaps they should have the police keep a watch on Mr. Stromberg. Aunt Eloise shook her head. “He might be innocent of anything underhanded. A customer may have asked him to reserve that particular volume, and not being a very diplomatic person, he practically lost his head because Nancy wanted to purchase it.”

Nancy said that as soon as Lily Alys was back in her dormitory at Columbia she was going to phone her. She looked at her watch. “By the way, how long has Bess been gone?”

“Too long,” Aunt Eloise replied. “She should have been back an hour ago. I can’t understand it.”

Nancy was concerned too. “Perhaps we should go out and try to find her.”

At that moment the telephone rang. It was Lily Alys. “Oh, Nancy, I’ve lost my job!” the Chinese girl said worriedly.

“I’m not surprised,” Nancy told her. “And I’m sure it’s all my fault. Mr. Stromberg became suspicious after the book episode. Isn’t that it?”

“Yes, partly,” Lily Alys replied. “After all the customers had gone, he called me to the desk and handed me a few dollars. He looked at me hard and said, ‘Young lady, I don’t know what your game is, but I want a clerk I can trust—not someone that brings customers in here to cause a scene.’ ”

“He meant me!” Nancy exclaimed. “I believe that Mr. Stromberg must suspect you and I know each other.”

“I’m afraid so,” said Lily Alys.

Nancy asked if the Chinese girl had had a chance to look at the pages between which she had found the piece of fire-dragon stationery.

“Yes, I did. In the list of shops it mentioned ‘mah-jongg sets.’ Those two words were underlined.”

“That might be a clue,” Nancy said. “Did any thing else happen to cause Mr. Stromberg to discharge you?”

Lily Alys gave a great sigh. “Just before that happened, he went into his office in the back. I wanted to ask him a question, so walked to the door. I was just in time to hear him say on the phone ‘Don’t use books again to get your message across.’ ”

The Chinese girl said she felt sure that Mr. Stromberg knew she had heard him and this actually was the reason he had discharged her. “Oh, I am sorry I failed in my mission,” Lily Alys added woefully.

“Please don’t worry about it,” said Nancy. “You’ve been a big help. Besides, I’m sure you can find a safer position somewhere else with no detective work to do.”

Lily Alys agreed. “But I had hoped to do more to help find Chi Che,” she said.

“You may learn something yet,” Nancy told her. “If you do, be sure to let me know.”

Lily Alys promised to do so, then hung up. Nancy told Aunt Eloise and George what she had just learned, then went back to the book and began to look for shops selling mah-jongg sets. There were several, and since Lily Alys had not mentioned the name of any shop, the young sleuth suggested that Lily hardly had a chance to notice the name. “She probably had to close the book in a hurry, before Mr. Stromberg saw her looking in it,” Nancy surmised.

“But I’ll bet anything he did,” George said.

Aunt Eloise, who had been gazing out the window, said worriedly, “I’m really becoming frantic about Bess. I can’t imagine why she’s staying away so long. She told me she would come directly home, since some of the groceries were needed for supper tonight.”

Nancy urged that she and George delay no longer in trying to locate Bess. They got a list from Aunt Eloise of the three stores to which Bess intended to go, then set out. At the first two stores they learned nothing, but the cashier at the third one, a large market, said she remembered pretty, blond-haired Bess.

“That girl was loaded down with bundles,” she told Nancy and George. “She and a woman behind her were laughing and talking about going in the woman’s car to help the girl get all her packages home.”

“Have you any idea who this woman was?” Nancy asked quickly.

“No, I haven’t,” the cashier answered. “I had never seen her before tonight.”

George and Nancy went out to the street, trying to guess where Bess could have gone.

“Frankly, George, I’m terribly worried,” Nancy said. “That woman who offered to give Bess a ride may be part of the gang that’s holding Chi Che. The woman could even be the forger of the letter to Grandpa Soong!”

“Oh, Nancy, I hope you’re wrong!” George said fervently. “We’d better report Bess’s disappearance to Captain Gray.”

But Nancy was not wrong. At that very moment Bess was seated on a chair, her eyes blindfolded and her hands tied behind her back. She had no idea where she was.

Bess’s heart pounded in fright. She berated herself, “Oh, what a fool I was to get into this mess!”