Read The Secret of the Wooden Lady for Free Online Page B

clue to this mystery after all, Miss Drew,” he said. The man drew a slip of paper from his desk drawer and looked at it thoughtfully. “This morning I had a caller. A persistent, determined fellow. He wanted to buy the Bonny Scot at once, registration papers or not.”
    Nancy asked in alarm, “Who was he?”
    “His name is Fred Lane. I told him I wouldn’t sell to anybody until the title was clear.”
    “What did he look like, Mr. Farnsworth?” Nancy thought of old Grizzle Face, using an assumed name. “Did he have a gray beard?”
    “No, he was clean shaven. Rather tall.”
    “Did you notice his right hand? Was the middle finger unusually short?”
    Mr. Farnsworth looked surprised. “No-o-o, I did notice his fingernails. Clean and well kept.”
    The caller could not have been Flip Fay. His nails, Nancy remembered, were broken.
    “Mr. Lane left his address, in case I should change my mind,” Mr. Farnsworth said.
    He handed Nancy the slip of paper. Written on it was a number and the name of a street near the Boston waterfront.
    Nancy thanked him and put the address into her purse. Excitedly she hurried to the restaurant, where she had agreed to meet Bess and George, and had a snack with them.
    Then the three girls taxied to the address Mr. Farnsworth had given Nancy. It proved to be a drab apartment house. Inside the vestibule, they looked for the name “Lane” above the mailboxes. No such name was listed.
    Nancy rang the janitor’s bell several times. No one answered.
    Bess shivered. “Gloomy place. I bet nobody nice lives here.”
    At that moment a door opened and a shabbily dressed woman came out with a market basket. The door clicked shut after her.
    Nancy greeted her courteously. “I beg your pardon, but do you know of a Mr. Lane living at this address?”
    The old woman eyed the three girls suspiciously. Then, muttering under her breath, she hurried into the street.
    “Did you hear what she said?” asked Nancy.
    “It sounded to me like, ‘Stay out of here,”’ said Bess. “A good idea.”
    Nancy pressed the janitor’s bell once more, but in vain, before deciding to leave. She was a bit discouraged. Her clues had brought no definite results yet.
    When she and her friends arrived at the hotel, they were surprised to learn they had visitors. Three young men sitting in the lobby put down their magazines and stood up, grinning.
    “Ned Nickerson!” exclaimed Nancy. “How nice to see you!”
    “Whatever are you doing here?” asked George. “Lose that job you were going to have at camp?”
    The young man laughed. “Can’t we relax before going to work? We’re here for a weekend of fun.”
    Dave Evans and Burt Eddleton, college friends of Ned whom the girls knew well, were talking to Bess.
    “I hear you’ve been visiting an old clipper ship,” Dave remarked. “And there’s a mystery aboard.”
    “And what a mystery!” exclaimed Bess. “Nancy, you tell them about it.”
    When Nancy had finished her story, Burt clapped his hand to his head. “And I thought we were just going to do some nice quiet dancing.”
    “Sounds more exciting to me than dancing,” Ned said. “Let’s go down to the Bonny Scot and look her over.”
    After the girls had freshened up, they rejoined the young men in the lobby. Then, talking excitedly, the six young people crowded into a large taxicab and directed the driver to take them to the waterfront.
    “I wish you didn’t want to go back to that ship,” Bess told Ned. “It frightens me to death.”
    Dave laughed. “I’ll protect you, Bess—I promise.”
    “If there are any spooks,” said Burt, “they’ll have a hard time handling all six of us.”
    George suggested that they take a short walk along the waterfront “for sea flavor,” before boarding the clipper, so they got out two blocks from the ship. Ned walked eagerly ahead with Nancy, while the other two couples—George and Burt, Bess and Dave—lingered behind.
    “Let’s leave them to their