Nancy followed the woman, her heart beating furiously. She was ready to grab at any straw to get a clue to her father's whereabouts!
"Hello, Miss Skade," the taximan said. "How are you today?"
"Oh, I'm all right," the nurse responded. "Listen, Harry. You told this young lady that you didn't carry any passenger yesterday that looked like her father. Now I saw one get into your cab. What about it?"
Harry hung his head. "Listen, miss," he said to Nancy, "I got three kids and I don't want nothin' to happen to 'em. See?"
"What do you mean?" Nancy asked, puzzled.
When the man did not reply, Miss Skade said, "Now look, Harry. This girl's afraid that her father has been kidnapped. It's up to you to tell her all you know."
"Kidnapped!" the taximan shouted. "Oh, goodnight! Now I don't know what to do."
Nancy had a sudden thought. "Has somebody been threatening you, Harry?" she asked.
The cab driver's eyes nearly popped from his head. "Well," he said, "since you've guessed it, I'd better tell you everything I know."
He went on to say that he had taken a passenger who fitted Mr. Drew's description toward Twin Elms where he had said he wanted to go. "Just as we were leaving the station, two other men came up and jumped into my cab. They said they were going a little farther than that and would I take them? Well, about halfway to Twin Elms, one of those men ordered me to pull up to the side of the road and stop. He told me the stranger had blacked out. He and his buddy jumped out of the car and laid the man on the grass."
"How ill was he?" Nancy asked.
"I don't know. He was unconscious. Just then another car came along behind us and stopped. The driver got out and offered to take your father to a hospital. The two men said okay."
Nancy took heart. Maybe her father was in a hospital and had not been abducted at all But a moment later her hopes were again dashed when Harry said:
"I told those guys I'd be glad to drive the sick man to a hospital, but one of them turned on me, shook his fist, and yelled, 'You just forget everything that's happened or it'll be too bad for you and your kids!'"
"Oh!" Nancy cried out. and for a second everything seemed to swim before her eyes. She clutched the door handle of the taxi for support.
There was no question now but that her father had been drugged, then kidnapped!
CHAPTER XIIThe Newspaper Clue
Miss SKADE grabbed Nancy. "Do you feel ill?" the nurse asked quickly.
"Oh, I'll be all right," Nancy replied. "This news has been a great shock to me."
"Is there any way I can help you?" the woman questioned. "I'd be very happy to."
"Thank you, but I guess not," the young sleuth said. Smiling ruefully, she added, "But I must get busy and do something about this."
The nurse suggested that perhaps Mr. Drew was in one of the local hospitals. She gave Nancy the names of the three in town.
"I'll get in touch with them at once," the young detective said. "You've been most kind. And here comes your train, Miss Skade. Good-by and again thanks a million for your help!"
Harry climbed out of his taxi and went to stand at the platform to signal passengers for his cab. Nancy hurried after him, and before the train came in, asked if he would please give her a description of the two men who had been with her father.
"Well, both of them were dark and kind of athletic-looking. Not what I'd call handsome. One of 'em had an upper tooth missing. And the other fellow—his left ear was kind of crinkled, if you know what I mean."
"I understand," said Nancy. "I'll give a description of the two men to the police."
She went back to the telephone booth and called each of the three hospitals, asking if anyone by the name of Carson Drew had been admitted or possibly a patient who was not conscious and had no identification. Only Mercy Hospital had a patient who had been unconscious since the day before. He definitely was not Mr. Drew—he was Chinese!
Sure now that her father was being held in some secret hiding place, Nancy went at once to police headquarters and related the taximan's story.
Captain Rossland looked extremely concerned. "This is alarming, Miss Drew," he said, "but I feel sure we can trace that fellow with the crinkly ear and we'll make him tell us where your father is I doubt, though, that there is anything you can do. You'd better leave it to the police."
Nancy said nothing. She was reluctant to give up even trying to do something, but she acquiesced.
"In the meantime," said the officer, "I'd advise you to remain at Twin Elms and concentrate on solving the mystery there. From what you tell me about your father, I'm sure he'll be able to get out of the difficulty himself, even before the police find him."
Aloud, Nancy promised to stay on call in case Captain Rossland might need her. But in her own mind the young sleuth determined that if she got any kind of a lead concerning her father, she was most certainly going to follow it up.
Nancy left police headquarters and strolled up the street, deep in thought. "Instead of things getting better, all my problems seem to be getting worse. Maybe I'd better call Hannah."
Since she had been a little girl, Nancy had found solace in talking to Hannah Gruen. The housekeeper had always been able to give her such good advice!
Nancy went into a drugstore and entered one of the telephone booths. She called the Drew home in River Heights and was pleased when Mrs. Gruen answered. The housekeeper was aghast to learn Nancy's news but said she thought Captain Rossland's advice was sound.
"You've given the police the best leads in the world and I believe that's all you can do. But wait—" the housekeeper suddenly said. "If I were you, Nancy, I'd call up those railroad lawyers and tell them exactly what has happened. Your father's disappearance is directly concerned with that bridge project, I'm sure, and the lawyers may have some ideas about where to find him."
"That's a wonderful suggestion, Hannah," said Nancy. "I'll call them right away."
But when the young detective phoned the railroad lawyers, she was disappointed to learn that all the men were out to lunch and none of them would return before two o'clock.
"Oh dear!" Nancy sighed. "Well, I guess I'd better get a snack while waiting for them to come back." But in her worried state she did not feel like eating.
There was a food counter at the rear of the drugstore and Nancy made her way to it. Perching on a high-backed stool, she read the menu over and over. Nothing appealed to her. When the counterman asked her what she wanted, Nancy said frankly she did not know—she was not very hungry-
"Then I recommend our split-pea soup," he told her. "It's homemade and out of this world." Nancy smiled at him. "I'll take your advice and try it."
The hot soup was delicious. By the time she had finished it, Nancy's spirits had risen considerably.
"And how about some custard pie?" the counterman inquired. "It's just like Mother used to make."
"All right," Nancy answered, smiling at the solicitous young man. The pie was ice cold and proved to be delicious. When Nancy finished eating it, she glanced at her wrist watch. It was only one-thirty. Seeing a rack of magazines, she decided to while away the time reading in her car.
She purchased a magazine of detective stories, one of which proved to be so intriguing that the half hour went by quickly. Promptly at two o'clock Nancy returned to the phone booth and called the offices of the railroad lawyers. The switchboard operator connected her with Mr. Anthony Barradale and Nancy judged from his voice that he was fairly young. Quickly she told her story.