The Ringmaster's Secret (4 page)

“I’m not so sure of that,” Nancy remarked.

Quickly she related what she knew of the charm bracelet’s history: that the shopkeeper in New York from whom her Aunt Eloise had bought the jewelry had hinted at a mystery. The original owner, supposedly a circus performer, had sold the bracelet because she needed money.

Pietro stared at Nancy in amazement. “That’s very interesting,” he said. “I’ve suspected for a long time that there’s some secret in connection with the Kroons and Lolita. But whenever I suggest this to her, she becomes frightened and asks me not to talk about it.”

Suddenly a look of alarm came over Pietro’s face. “Here comes Kroon now. Run!” he advised. Like a shot he was off, dodging among the various animal cages and trucks until he was out of sight.

Nancy decided not to avoid the ringmaster. She wanted to find out about Lolita’s condition. But she had no opportunity to speak to him. He turned abruptly into a nearby tent.

The young detective wondered whether to question any other circus people about Lolita’s real parents. She concluded that it would be better to talk with the girl first.

“I’ll attend the evening performance,” Nancy decided. “Perhaps I’ll have a chance to interview the girl then.

“I have a date with Ned,” she reminded herself. “I’m sure he’ll be glad to come to the circus.”

At eight o’clock Ned Nickerson, Emerson College’s star football player, arrived at the Drew home. He was a tall, good-looking athlete. Nancy showed him her gold-horse bracelet and told him of the new mystery. Then she asked him if he would take her to the circus.

“Glad to.” He grinned. “But listen here, young lady,” Ned said, “don’t get yourself so mixed up with clowns and aerialists that you can’t even find time to talk to me!”

Nancy laughed, but she knew Ned had good reason to scold her. Many times when they had a date she changed the plans completely and involved him in some mystery she was trying to solve.

“Lolita is the most wonderful aerialist I have ever seen,” Nancy remarked as they neared the circus grounds.

“I just can’t wait to see her,” Ned teased. “I may hire myself out as one of those princes.”

Nancy made a face at him as he walked up to the ticket office.

“Two in the front row as near the center as possible,” Ned told the ticket seller.

“Sorry, sir,” the man replied, “there’s not even standing room left.”

NANCY looked pleadingly at the ticket seller. Suddenly she had an idea. “Couldn’t we just go in to see the animals and side shows?”

The ticket seller thought a moment. “I guess that wouldn’t be against fire rules,” he said. He called a guard taking tickets at the gate and told him to admit the young lady and her escort.

Nancy and Ned thanked him and hurried inside. Ned inquired what the next move was to be.

Nancy smiled. “First of all, I want to locate Lolita and have a talk with her.”

She walked up to one of the midgets, who had just finished entertaining the crowd with a card trick. “Will you please tell me where Lolita’s tent is?” she asked him.

He replied in a high-pitched voice. “I’m not allowed to tell.”

Nancy was surprised. She wondered if the little man was trying to be funny, or if this was really a rule of the circus. She moved on to the fat lady, who was seated on a platform next to the midget and repeated her question.

“Sorry, miss,” the four-hundred-pound woman answered, “but we’re not allowed to give out any information. Mr. Kroon’s orders.”

Nancy decided she would have to find Lolita’s tent by herself! She left Ned watching the fire-eater and hurried off. Walking to the outer fringe of the tent colony, Nancy saw several trailers. Perhaps Lolita, as a star, lived in one of these!

“I’ll just wander around among them and see what I can find out,” Nancy decided.

Luck was with her. As she approached the first trailer, Nancy could hear two persons arguing heatedly.

“You’ll perform tonight and put on a good act, too!” The harsh voice of the ringmaster came to Nancy’s ears.

“But, Father, I don’t feel well enough to perform! I’m afraid I’ll fall again!” It was the young aerialist speaking.

Then Kroon thundered, “I’ll give you exactly fifteen minutes to make up your mind, Lolita! Then I’ll be back. You’d better decide to perform, because if you don’t I’ll fire every friend of yours in this circus!”

With that, he rushed out of the trailer and strode off. His face was livid, and Nancy wondered whether the man could be in his right mind.

When he was out of sight, she went to the door of the trailer and tapped. At first there was no response, then a tearful voice said, “Come!”

Lolita was startled at seeing Nancy in the doorway. But when she realized that Nancy wanted to be friendly, she smiled through her tears.

Nancy held, up the beautiful charm bracelet. “Pietro tells me you have a gold charm that matches these little horses,” she said. “I just couldn’t resist the temptation to come and see if by chance it might be the one that is missing from this bracelet.”

Lolita fingered the exquisite little horses. Then, going to a bureau drawer, she brought out a dainty gold chain. Hanging from it was a golden horse. The miniature animal, wrought exactly like those on Nancy’s bracelet, was a duplicate of the cantering horse charm.

“Your bracelet may have belonged to my lovely mother,” said Lolita sadly. “She died when I was only eight years old, but I remember very well how she looked.”

“Perhaps she sold the bracelet,” Nancy suggested.

Lolita agreed this was possible, but said it would be difficult to determine this definitely. Whenever she asked Mr. and Mrs. Kroon about her parents, the couple changed the subject, saying they did not like to talk about the Flanders’ terrible accident.

Leaning close to Nancy, Lolita whispered, “Sometimes I wonder if it’s true that my parents are dead.”

“Would you like me to help you find out?” Nancy asked on the spur of the moment.

“Oh, could you?” Lolita exclaimed, giving Nancy an impetuous hug.

Nancy told the girl that she had solved a few mysteries and would be glad to find out what she could. She asked if Lolita could give her any information at all, but the young aerialist shook her head.

“As I told you, my foster parents are very close-mouthed. Sometimes I think there must be a reason why they won’t tell me anything.”

Suddenly Lolita looked at a clock on the wall. The fifteen minutes were up!

“You’d better go,” she said abruptly. “Mr. Kroon will be here any moment and he mustn’t see you.” Suddenly Lolita put her arms around Nancy again. “I never met you until a few minutes ago,” she said, “but already you are my friend. I feel much better. Doing my high-wire act seemed impossible before, but now I’ll be able to put on a good show.”

As they stepped outside, Lolita asked where Nancy would be sitting and said she would wave to her. Learning that the girl and her escort had been unable to obtain tickets, Lolita declared that she would get two for her. She called to a man who was walking past the trailer.

“Dan,” she said, “will you come here, please?”

Lolita introduced him as Dan Webster, one of the horse trainers. Then she laughed, saying she had failed to ask her caller’s name. When Nancy told her, Lolita said, “Please get Nancy two of the special seats and bring them back here.”

As Dan hurried off, Nancy saw Kroon approaching. Quickly she ducked around the corner.

When Kroon reached the trailer, he glared at Lolita. “Well, what’s your answer?” he stormed.

“I feel better, Father. I’ll do my act,” Lolita said quietly.

The man snorted, took her by the arm, and led her away. “Get into your costume,” he ordered.

A few minutes later, Dan Webster returned with the tickets. He walked with Nancy as far as the side shows. On the way she told him of her riding lessons with Senor Roberto, who used to be with Sims’ Circus.

“So that’s where Roberto is,” Dan Webster exclaimed. “I wondered where he’d gone. I’d like to run out to see him tomorrow morning. What’s the address of his riding academy?”

Nancy gave him directions, then left Dan to find Ned. When Nancy showed Ned the tickets, he shook his head in amazement. “I might have known you would accomplish the impossible.”

The seats were in the front row of a box directly along the tanbark. To her surprise, Nancy noticed that the other seats in the box were empty. With the house sold out, why had no one claimed them?

Nancy watched eagerly for the clowns to appear. Every one of them came out except Pietro.

“Maybe Kroon is responsible,” Nancy thought.

A few moments later Kroon stepped to the center of the ring and announced that the next performance would be a horse act.

“This is the world’s smartest horse!” the ringmaster proclaimed. “He thinks like a human being.”

All the lights went out except the spotlight on the ring. A beautiful pure-white horse trotted in from the wings.

Nancy was vaguely aware that a man had slid into the seat directly behind her. But she was too intrigued by the beautiful horse to pay attention to the latecomer. Suddenly she felt something tighten against her throat. She was being choked!

Nancy’s hand flew to her throat. To her horror she felt a cord around her neck. It was being drawn tighter and tighter.

Objects swam before Nancy’s eyes. With a gasp she reached for Ned’s arm, then fainted. Ned turned. Horrified, he quickly unwound the cord.

“Nancy!” he cried. “Are you all right?”

Quickly Ned massaged her neck and arms. In a few minutes Nancy sat up and looked around questioningly.

“Nancy, are you all right?” Ned repeated anxiously.

“Y-yes. What happened to me?”

He told her, pointing to a souvenir whip on the floor. Then he added, “It must have been the work of a maniac!”

Suddenly remembering the man who had sat down behind her, Nancy turned around. The seat was vacant. Nancy questioned a woman in the box directly behind theirs, but although she admitted having seen a man come in and leave, she could not give a description of him. Ned hurried off to report the incident to the police.

Nancy picked up the short whip. It was the type sold as souvenirs at the circus. Calling to a nearby vendor, Nancy asked if he had sold a whip to a man who was sitting behind her.

“Naw,” the vendor replied disgustedly. “I ain’t sold one of them all evening!”

When Ned returned, Nancy whispered to him, “I think the choker was somebody connected with the circus.”

Ned agreed and added the thought that the box might be reserved for circus personnel.

Shortly after that the Cinderella act began. The handsome prince whom she had promised to marry while at the ball swung gracefully to her platform. In his hand was a glass slipper. When he found that it fitted Lolita’s foot, he embraced her. Then came a fascinating trapeze act, with the two swinging back and forth, first alone, then together.

The sides of the gleaming coach and the two white steeds and Cinderella’s spangled dress were drawn up by pulleys. Lolita put on the beautiful white ball gown as the pumpkin and mice were covered by the stately carriage and horses. Then she and her prince stepped inside and were brought down to the ground. They emerged from the coach and took bow after bow amid thunderous applause. Lolita looked in Nancy’s direction and blew her a kiss.

“That was superb,” Ned remarked when the couple had hurried out of the ring. “Anything else would be tame. How about leaving, Nancy?”

Nancy agreed. “I want to find out about this box,” she said. “That man must have had a ticket to it.”

The ticket booth was closed, but Nancy saw an attendant and asked him who owned Box AA.

When he told her that it was kept by the circus management for special people, Nancy said to Ned, “Now I’m convinced that my attacker was someone who works here.”

“But why would anyone try to choke you?” Ned asked.

Neither could answer this question. Nancy went up to one of the clowns and inquired about Pietro. When she heard that he had been ill, Nancy asked, “Would you mind giving him a note?”

“Glad to,” the clown replied.

Taking paper and pencil from her bag, Nancy quickly scribbled a message. In it she asked Pietro if he could bring Lolita to her house between shows the next day. She wished to talk about finding Lolita’s mother.

It was late when Nancy arrived home and said good night to Ned. As soon as she reached her room, the young detective’s mind went back to her harrowing experience with the whip.

As she pulled her dress over her head, a wild thought struck Nancy. Had Kroon found out she was interested in helping Lolita and therefore was afraid some sinister affairs of his own might be uncovered? If so, he might want to put a stop to her work.