Read Carolyn Keene_Nancy Drew Mysteries 050 for Free Online Page A

large watering cans and pour the water into the various containers inside the cages.”
    Nancy said to Oscar, “It’s too bad Kammy left you. Where did she go?”
    Oscar explained that she had taken a room at the university until the birds were well again. The man heaved a great sigh.
    “I believe Kammy is on the level, but my wife is suspicious of her. She thinks that Kammy and Petra together have jinxed us. Of course I don’t put any stock in such nonsense, but I can’t talk Martha out of her beliefs.”
    He went off to attend to his sick birds. Nancy and Ned hurried to get the feed, then they unlocked and entered one cage after another. Ned remarked again and again how beautiful the birds were and tried to learn the names of some of the more exotic species from signs attached to the doors.
    Presently the couple finished their work but Oscar was still busy.
    “Oscar didn’t say anything about our cleaning the cages but I think they need it,” Ned remarked. “Let’s do what we can.” Nancy agreed with the young man’s suggestion.
    He got a long-handled scraper and Nancy took an extra stiff broom. They worked for nearly half an hour. The sun was going down and they decided to quit.
    “This is a tough job,” Ned remarked as they started for the main house. “Much harder than selling insurance.”
    Nancy laughed. “And more strenuous than solving mysteries.”
    Oscar joined them and the three entered the kitchen together. Suddenly they became aware of moaning sounds coming from the living room. As they rushed forward, Oscar cried out, “Martha must be in trouble!”

CHAPTER VII
    Leaping Specter
     
     
     
    OSCAR rushed toward the living room, with Nancy and Ned following. Martha Thurston was slumped forward in her wheelchair, moaning and sobbing. She rocked back and forth and wrung her hands.
    “Martha dear!” her husband exclaimed. “What is the matter?”
    She did not reply. Oscar put an arm around his wife and pleaded with her to tell him what had happened. She just kept on moaning and sobbing.
    Nancy spoke up. “Perhaps if Ned and I go outside, she will talk to you.”
    Suddenly Mrs. Thurston seemed to come out of a trancelike state. She stared at the others in the room, then began to cry hysterically.
    “It was awful! Awful!”
    “Please tell us about it,” Oscar said gently.
    “Is the specter gone?” his wife asked.
    The others stared at her, wondering if she had really come out of the trance. Suddenly she sat up very straight. Martha Thurston looked all around, blinked her eyes, and shook her head.
    “It’s gone!” she answered her own question. “I’m all right now, but Oscar, the—”
    “Are you sure you weren’t dreaming?” her husband asked softly.
    “No, no,” his wife insisted. She opened her left hand. “Here’s proof. The flying specter dropped this into my lap. The symbol is a jinx!”
    Mrs. Thurston held up a plain piece of paper, now quite crumpled, on which a crudely drawn circle was inscribed with one straight line running from north to south and another from east to west.
    “Do you know what this is?” she asked. Nancy spoke up. “No. It looks like a cross in a circle. Does it have a special meaning?”
    “Indeed it does,” Martha Thurston said. “It’s a sign of bad luck. It means imprisonment, detention, an emergency trip to the hospital, or something equally as bad. Oh, Oscar, what are we going to do?”
    Her husband asked, “You say this was dropped into your lap? How? By whom?”
    Mrs. Thurston explained that she had been dozing in her chair because the fading light of the late afternoon had made her feel drowsy.
    “I was suddenly awakened by a very bright light that shone right in front of me. It was so dazzling that I had to squint my eyes. Without warning a specter leaped from the hall all the way across this room.”
    “What did it look like?” Nancy asked. “It seemed to be the figure of a thin, tall man but his face, if he had one, was covered