“I can’t find it.” Sighing, Nancy returned the figurine to her hostess. “Someday, with your permission, I would like to try again.”
“By all means.”
A clock chimed the hour of two-thirty. Reminded that she should leave at once for the fashion show, Nancy hurried away.
A few minutes later, upon reaching the Woman’s Club, she was surprised to see an excited crowd near the main entrance. A policeman had placed someone under arrest.
Approaching closer, Nancy observed that the suspect, who was arguing with the officer, closely resembled David Dorrance. At once the man turned and recognized her.
“Miss Drew, tell this policeman he’s made a mistake!” he pleaded.
“I’m not sure-” she began.
“Sure, you recognize met See!”
He gave the familiar white handkerchief signal. Nancy had but a moment to spare, because she was late now. She did not know what to say. As she hesitated, Dorrance added:
“I came here to see the show.”
Nancy was convinced that he was the man who had come to her home. The policeman knew Nancy and asked her for a definite identification. She hesitated to answer, because she had not forgotten the double handkerchief episode on Main Street. Finally she told the officer she could not identify Dorrance as the wanted pickpocket.
“I don’t believe this is the man you want. At least, he’s not the one who stole Mr. Baum’s wallet.”
“Go on in, then,” he told the man. “Sorry.”
Dorrance would have lingered to chat with Nancy, but she had no time. She hastened to the dressing room and donned the Renaissance gown just as the orchestra began to play.
“I’ll try to do better than yesterday,” she said to Katherine when it was her turn on stage.
With perfect composure and the grace of a professional model, Nancy went through her simple routine. She returned to the wings amid thunderous applause.
“You were a sensation!” Helen exclaimed. “You and that gorgeous gown are the talk of the show!”
During a brief intermission Nancy wandered out into the audience. Before she got all the way down the center aisle, a woman close by uttered a piercing wail.
“My pocketbook! It’s been stolen!”
Immediately the entire room was thrown into confusion. In the resulting excitement, Nancy spied David Dorrance slipping out the exit.
Forgetting her part in the show, Nancy sped after the fleeing man. When she reached the door, he was hurrying toward an alley.
“Wait!” she called.
The man turned, but did not pause. Nancy spied two little boys directly ahead and shouted:
“Stop that man! Don’t let him get away!”
The boys attempted to block his path, but he shoved them away angrily. Nancy ran after him as fast as she could. The long evening gown impeded her progress.
Nevertheless, she began to gain on the thief. At the end of the alley, the man darted around a corner. He saw a long coil of barbed wire lying on the ground. Seizing it, he threw it in such a way that Nancy could not fail to run against the sharp barbs.
Unsuspecting, she ran straight into the wire. Her gown caught in a dozen places, tearing badly. Aghast, she halted.
“Oh, this beautiful gown!” she thought, seeing that it had been torn beyond repair. “I’ve ruined Katherine’s chances completely!”
Out of breath and disheveled, Nancy returned to the clubhouse. It was time for the second half of the fashion show to begin.
Suddenly in the throng Nancy saw David Dor rance!
“Why, Miss Drew, what has happened to you?” he asked, walking over to her.
The man was perfectly composed. There was no indication, either in his breathing or the color of his face, that he had been running.
“I mistook him again for the pickpocket!” Nancy thought, chagrined.
“Just a little accident,” she replied, and dashed to the dressing room. A sudden thought came to her.
“It’s uncanny that Dorrance and the thief are so often in the same place! I’m going to talk to the police about it!”
Nancy found Katherine and Helen waiting for her. When they saw the ruined gown, they were dismayed.
“Oh, Nancy, how did it happen?” Helen managed to say at last.
Nancy told about pursuing the pickpocket. “I ought to stick to sleuthing and give up trying to model in fashion shows,” she concluded grimly. “The two certainly don’t mix.”
“What are we to do?” Helen asked, sinking into a chair. “The dress can’t be mended.”
“I don’t appear in the show again until tomorrow afternoon. That gives us twenty-four hours. Couldn’t you duplicate the dress, Katherine? You had a good bit of material left over.”
“In so short time! No, no.”
“Maybe part of it could be saved,” Nancy added. “The sleeves are in perfect condition.”
“And so is all the back except the train,” Helen encouraged her. “Couldn’t you just make a new front and replace the train, Katherine?”
“I could sew all night, if necessary,” Nancy offered.
The designer made a hasty examination of the gown. A minute later her eyes lighted up. “I can do it!”
The girls hastened to Katherine’s shop. For two hours they sewed steadily. By then it was evident that the work could be finished in time.
“We go home now and rest,” Katherine urged. “I finish the dress tomorrow.”
The young designer locked the shop, and the three girls walked down the street. At the comer Nancy left the others to go to police headquarters. There she reported her suspicions regarding Dorrance and his double.
“It seems strange to me that those two men should always be in the same place at the same time,” she said to Chief McGinnis.
The officer gave her a friendly smile. “Do you think they are brothers-twins maybe?” he asked.
“They look enough alike,” Nancy replied. “At first I thought only one was a thief, but now I’m wondering whether Dorrance is really innocent.”
“I’m glad you’ve told me this,” said the chief. “As you know, my men haven’t been able to catch that pickpocket, or solve the mystery of the rash of thefts going on in River Heights. You’ve given us a new clue.”
When Nancy arrived home she found an urgent telephone message awaiting her from Anna. It requested her to come to the Alexandra house as soon as possible.
“Of course I’ll go,” Nancy said to Hannah Gruen, “but I hate to meet Michael.”
Nancy thought it best to go to the rear entrance and parked on a back street. Anna met her at the door, and they conversed in the kitchen.
“Is Mrs. Alexandra ill?” Nancy inquired anxiously. “Your note-”
“She is sick here.” Anna indicated the region of her heart. “Sick because of Michael.”
“What has he done now, Anna?”
“I learned something dreadful only yesterday. Madame Marie has given him many valuables to sell.”
“I knew Mrs. Alexandra had sent him once to Mr. Faber.”
“Not once, but many times. And he has gone to other shops. The prices paid have not been high. Much too low for their value.”
“How dreadful!” said Nancy.
“Something is wrong,” Anna declared. “I say it is time to ask questions of Michael. But Madame Marie will not do it!”
“Doesn’t he bring back signed receipts?”
“He gives her nothing, except a few dollars.”
Nancy’s mind was working fast. “Anna, can you give me a list of the pieces Mrs. Alexandra has sold through Michael? Also the amounts he gave her?”
“I have it all here,” the woman declared.
“Then I’ll check the items at once with the shopkeepers,” Nancy promised.
At that moment a door slammed and Michael’s whistle was heard in the hall.
“I must go quickly before he sees me,” Nancy whispered, opening the screen door.