The car sped through the streets, drawing up at last before the darkened house.
Jim paid the driver, and the young people went up the walk. Ned rang the doorbell but no response came from within the house. Again he pressed the button, holding his finger on it a long while.
“That’s enough to wake anybody,” he declared.
“I’m going inside,” said Nancy. “I wonder if all the doors are locked.”
“This one is,” Jim reported, testing the knob.
The young people circled the house and tried the rear door. It too was locked, but Ned scrambled up a trellis to a window. The sash raised without difficulty. Ned crawled through and unlocked the back door.
“The house is certainly quiet,” he reported in a whisper. “If the neighbors see us, they may report us as burglars.”
“We can explain why we’re here,” Nancy replied, switching on lights as she walked through to the living room.
When the young people reached it, they were appalled by the sight before them. The expensive tapestries had been stripped from the walls. Many of the silk chair coverings had been slashed. All the art objects were missing.
“The house has been ransacked!” Nancy cried.
“What has become of Mrs. Alexandra and Anna?” Katherine cried, picking up a torn white apron.
“I’ll look upstairs,” said Nancy.
She started up the dark stairway, calling the names of the women. There was no answer.
Jim and Ned followed close behind her, groping for an electric switch.
“There must be one here somewhere,” Nancy murmured, inching her way along the upper hall.
The next instant she stumbled over a body lying on the carpet.
“Ned! Jim!” she called, bending over the form.
Just as Nancy shouted that she had found someone lying on the floor, Ned’s groping fingers located the electric switch at the top of the stairs. He pressed the button.
Recognizing the motionless figure, Nancy gasped, “It’s Anna! She’s bound and gagged!”
Katherine raced up the stairs. With a penknife Ned severed the cords, while Nancy removed the handkerchief from the woman’s mouth. But she showed no sign of regaining consciousness.
Leaving the others to look after Anna, she hurried into Mrs. Alexandra’s bedroom. Her worst fears were confirmed. The woman lay helpless on the bed. Her hands and feet were tightly bound, and a cloth had been stuffed into her mouth. Nancy removed the gag.
“Mrs. Alexandra, speak to me!” she pleaded.
The woman’s eyelids fluttered open and then dosed again. She lapsed into unconsciousness.
“We’d better call a doctor,” Nancy said as Ned quickly cut the leg and arm cords.
Jim appeared in the doorway, carrying Anna. Carefully he laid her on the bed beside her mistress.
Nancy ran downstairs. Fortunately the telephone wire had not been cut, and she was able to summon a doctor. He arrived ten minutes later. The physician examined Anna briefly but spent a much longer time with Mrs. Alexandra.
“She’s in serious condition,” he said soberly. “I advise hospital care. I will make the necessary arrangements now.”
While the physician made a telephone call, Nancy asked Jim to summon the police. She and Katherine remained with Mrs. Alexandra and Anna, while Ned looked through the house. Nancy quickly searched the bedroom for the chest containing the Footman jewel case. It was gone! Presently the doctor came back upstairs. “The ambulance will be here soon,” he reported, pulling a chair to the bedside.
Nancy left the room and went to inspect the house. Almost everything of value except heavy pieces of furniture had been stolen. The Easter egg, a pair of gold candlesticks, the silverware-all articles that Mrs. Alexandra treasured.
“She will never survive this blow,” Nancy said to Ned. “How can we tell her the truth?”
“Maybe the police can get some of the things back,” he replied hopefully.
Within a few minutes a car arrived from headquarters. Nancy was able to give the officers a detailed description of nearly every object which had been stolen from the house.
“Any idea who committed the crime?” one of the policemen asked her.
“Yes, I have!” she answered. “The theft probably was engineered by the man who was arrested tonight on the other side of the river. I don’t know his real name-he wouldn’t tell me. He has been living here, posing as a relative and robbing Mrs. Alexandra.”
“Then the actual robbery must have been done by one or more of his pals,” the officer declared. “Mrs. Alexandra hasn’t talked?”
“No, neither she nor her maid has been able to say a word.”
“We may get something out of them after they recover from shock,” the policeman said. “In the meantime, we’ll talk to the prisoner. Maybe he’ll reveal the identity of his accomplices.”
Soon after the police had completed their inspection of the house, the ambulance arrived. Nancy and Katherine rode to the hospital with the patients. Nancy was given permission to remain in Mrs. Alexandra’s room.
“I want to be here when she recovers consciousness,” Nancy had explained to the nurse. “She may reveal something that will help the police make an arrest.”
Katherine, meanwhile, had taken up her post in another room beside Anna’s bed. Now and then she and Nancy would meet in the hall to hold whispered consultations.
“Anna-she spoke a little while ago,” Katherine reported at one of the sessions.
“What did she say?” Nancy asked eagerly.
“She keep mumbling about a stolen jewel box.”
“Then she must know what happened. Katherine, at the next opportunity try to get her to describe the man who bound her.”
“I learn what I can,” the girl promised.
Nancy returned to Mrs. Alexandra’s bedside. A moment later the nurse excused herself to get some medication from another part of the hospital. The sound of the closing door seemed to arouse the patient from her long stupor. She opened her eyes, staring at Nancy without recognition.
“Do not strike me! I will tell you where my money is hidden!”
“Mrs. Alexandra, you’re safe now,” Nancy said soothingly. “Don’t you know me? I am Nancy Drew.”
Mrs. Alexandra relaxed slightly. She reached for the girl’s hand and clung tightly to it.
“My jewels-” she whispered.
“Now don’t worry about anything,” Nancy comforted the woman.
With a deep sigh the former queen closed her eyes again.
“Mrs. Alexandra,” Nancy said, fearing that the victim would lapse into a stupor once more, “did you see the man who tied you up?”
“I was upstairs alone when he came into the room,” Mrs. Alexandra replied, speaking with great difficulty. “The man was thin, of medium height, and wore a black mask. That’s all I remember.”
Before Nancy could ask another question, Katherine appeared in the doorway. She motioned to the young detective to come out into the hall.
“Anna has talked to me!” she said as Nancy joined her. “She tell me that she was in the library when she hear a noise. As she go into the living room to investigate, a masked man leap at her. They struggled, she break away and run upstairs toward Mrs. Alexandra’s room. Just then another man step out and grab her.”
“Then there must have been at least two men in the house,” Nancy commented gravely. “Was Anna able to describe either of them?”
“She say both men wear black masks. Oh yes. She call the one upstairs wiry, of medium height.”
“That tallies with Mrs. Alexandra’s description,” Nancy said thoughtfully. “I wonder if he may be one of the pickpockets the police are after.”
Convinced that the clue was a vital one, Nancy waited until the nurse returned to take charge, then she went to a public telephone and called police headquarters. She reported the information received from the two patients. To her satisfaction, the desk sergeant promised that a special effort would be made to round up the long-sought pickpockets at once.