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beneath it had been forced out and splintered. The wardrobe door gaped open and clothing was strewn about the room. An old chest looked as though it had been hacked with an ax, and there were great gashes in the beautiful paneled walls.
    “Oh, Nancy,” Bess gasped, “who would do such a horrid thing?”
    George shook her head. “The captain will be terribly upset when he sees this. Old Grizzle Face must have come back during the night.”
    “I’m calling the police right now,” declared Nancy.
    Detectives Mallory and O’Shea of the Boston Police Department arrived promptly. With thoroughness and efficiency they examined the damage in the captain’s cabin, and investigated the entire ship looking for some clue to the vandal. In the meantime, the girls straightened up Captain Easterly’s quarters as best they could.
    Finally the detectives returned and summed up the situation. Detective O’Shea said, “There’s been unlawful trespass and considerable property damage, that’s plain. Whether there’s been robbery, too, only the captain himself can say. Know when he’ll be back?”
    Nancy told the officer she had not heard from the captain for two days. “My father and I were to meet him here yesterday morning. But Captain Easterly didn’t appear.”
    “Know where the captain can be reached?”

    “Who would do such a horrid thing?” Bess gasped
    Nancy shook her head, frowning. “I honestly don’t think he expected to be away. He was very anxious to have my father—he’s a lawyer—trace the ship’s title. He’d surely want to keep the appointment.”
    “And another thing, Captain Easterly knew someone had been coming aboard the Bonny Scot secretly. He wouldn’t leave it unguarded—the whole night.”
    Mallory’s eyes narrowed. “Think there’s been foul play, Miss Drew?”
    “I hope not,” Nancy said earnestly. She told the officers about the anonymous telephone call to her father in River Heights, warning him to stay away from the clipper ship. She also spoke of the mysterious sailor who had pushed her into the wardrobe.
    “Describe him, please,” O’Shea requested.
    “We call him Grizzle Face,” George put in. Nancy gave the detectives a detailed description of the sailor in dungarees. “Whoever he is,” she added, “he must be looking for something of great value. That’s why I’m worried about Captain Easterly.”
    “You mean you think the skipper has been kidnapped?” Bess asked excitedly.
    Detective Mallory frowned. “Let’s stick to facts, girls. Is there any other information you can give us?”
    Nancy, wondering if Flip Fay might be involved in any way, asked if they had been notified that the robbery suspect might be in Boston. O’Shea said he had seen the report on Fay.
    “Do you know him?” Mallory inquired.
    “We all do,” Nancy said. “He used to work at a service station in River Heights.”
    “Why don’t we give you girls a ride to police headquarters?” O’Shea suggested. “I think the lieutenant would like to talk to you.”
    “Nancy, you can tell the lieutenant everything he wants to know,” Bess suggested. “We’ll do some sightseeing and meet you at lunchtime.”
    They settled on a restaurant in the center of the city. George and Bess left for a tour of the historic spots in Boston, and Nancy accompanied the detectives to headquarters to meet Lieutenant Hennessy.
    At the lieutenant’s request, Nancy recounted once more the strange events which had taken place in River Heights before she and her father had come to Boston. She also described Flip Fay as accurately as she could.
    “Anything else?”
    “Fay dropped a ring, which I found after the robbery and gave to the River Heights police. There was a strange F on it.”
    “Strange?” Hennessy repeated.
    “Yes, it looked like—” Nancy searched her mind for the right word—“like a crow’s foot.”
    Hennessy’s eyes widened. “Did you say a crow’s foot?”
    “Yes.”
    The lieutenant