Part 21 (1/2)

Nancy picked up a flashlight and ran outside to look around. Tire tracks were plainly visible on the sandy road. As she examined the pattern, her roving light revealed a small bundle lying close by.

”Here's something of his!” she thought, picking it up. ”This must have fallen from the car!”

Inside the house Nancy examined the package under a bright kitchen light. A crude sketch of three bells in a cl.u.s.ter had been penciled on the plain brown wrapping paper.

Puzzled, she unwrapped the bundle. Hundreds of labels bearing the Mon Coeur trademark fluttered to the table and floor.

”So that man was one of the Mon Coeur crowd!” Nancy thought excitedly. She stared at the sketch on the paper. ”I wonder if they're going to change their design from hearts to bells.”

The idea so intrigued Nancy she decided to phone her father. At that moment the doorbell rang. Startled, Nancy tiptoed to the hall and peered through the window. She could see no one and called out to ask who was there. It was Ned. She let him in and briefed him on the strange man's visit and the package he had dropped.

”I think you're lying and I won't go with you!”

”We must trail that man if we can!” she added. ”But someone may be watching the house, so I'll slip out the back way and meet you over on the next street.”

She hastily wrote a note to her friends telling them where she was going, then let herself out the rear door. By the time she reached the appointed spot, Ned was waiting in his car.

”This may be a futile chase,” Nancy said breathlessly. ”But I saw the man's car turn down this street after it left Mrs. Chantrey's.”

”Notice the make?”

”No, it was too dark to see the car plainly.”

”Then how can we trace it?”

Playing the beam of her flashlight along the roadway close to the curb, Nancy did not answer.

”What are you looking for?” Ned asked, puzzled, and got out of the car.

Nancy pointed to tire tracks plainly visible in the sandy road. She explained that they were the same pattern as those she had found in front of the Chantrey house after the man's car had pulled away.

”I noticed that the driver hugged the curb,” she added, ”so we may be able to trace him.”

”It's worth trying,” Ned agreed. ”Let's go.”

Nancy expected the trail might lead to a highway. To her surprise, the driver had selected a back street in the Candleton business district. This made it easy to follow him, for no other automobile had traveled on the same side of the street recently.

The tire tracks led to a small print shop in an alley. There the auto had turned in, apparently parked near a side entrance, then gone on.

Inside the building a light burned brightly. A man in a printer's ap.r.o.n could be seen working over one of the presses.

”It's ten thirty! That fellow must have a rush order to keep open so late.” Ned observed.

Nancy suggested they talk to the printer and find out if he knew the suspect. The thud of a hand press deadened the sound of their footsteps as Nancy and Ned entered the cluttered little shop. Not until they shouted did the stooped figure whirl around to face them.

”Doggone it all!” he protested. ”I wish folks wouldn't sneak up on me! Always think I'm about to be robbed. Anything I kin do for you?”

”We may want some stationery printed,” Nancy said as an excuse for the interruption. ”Would it be possible for you to do it soon?”