"Why, Ned," she said, "what a funny thing to say!"
"It's not funny at all," Ned argued. "I understand Pietro is going to stay over there."
Then Nancy caught on. She started to laugh and could not seem to stop.
"Why, Ned Nickerson, you old ninny!" she said. "Just because Kroon has told Lolita that she can't marry Pietro, there's no reason why he should want to marry me."
"I'm not so sure," said Ned. "Way off in s foreign country after a flight across the ocean—"
"Now, Ned, you're just being silly," said Nancy sternly. "I'll come back to the good old U.S.A. and bring Lola Flanders with me."
"Is that a promise?" Ned asked her, reaching across the table for her hand. Then she put her own hand in his and said, "Yes, that's a promise."
Picking up her fork once more, Nancy suddenly smiled. She reminded Ned that she had just promised to bring back Lola Flanders.
"How I hope that will come true!" she said.
As soon as luncheon was over, Nancy insisted upon returning to the apartment. She said that she wanted to telephone Captain Smith and find out what more had been learned about the Tristam Booking Agency. When they got back, she put in the call at once.
"I think we have a rather important clue," the officer told her. "Our men have been watching the mail which has been arriving for Lola Flanders. She has been receiving dividend checks in rather large amounts."
The captain went on to say that it seemed very strange for a young dancer of Lola Flanders' apparent wealth to be tied up with a second-rate booking agency. And furthermore, why would she have this kind of mail sent to the agency, anyway?
Nancy had formed her own conclusions on this matter. It seemed to her proof that Reinhold Kroon was using the agency as a cover-up. He was stealing money which belonged to the real Lola Flanders and using Millie Francine as a front.
As Nancy discussed the latest findings with her father, she remarked, "Do you suppose Millie Francine is innocent and that Kroon and Tristam have given her the name Lola Flanders to make their underhanded schemes seem legitimate?"
Mr. Drew said this was very likely. He hoped that by the time he and his daughter returned from England the police would have found the answer to her question. He looked at his watch.
"We'd better leave now," he told the others.
On the way to the airport, Nancy's heart began to beat a little faster. She was off on another exciting adventure!
The Drews and Pietro checked in. Each had a large suitcase for the baggage compartment and an overnight case to carry. While waiting for the moment when she might board the plane, Nancy and her friends walked outside.
At this moment a six-engine craft swooped in. It was the largest one any of them had ever seen and they watched it in fascination as the pilot landed the great ship.
"My, she's a beauty!" Ned exclaimed admiringly.
Nancy was so intent that for a moment she did not notice a strange man who had joined the group. Then, suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she realized he had picked up her overnight bag and was running off with it. Without waiting to tell the others what had happened, she ran after the thief.
"Stop!" she called to him.
He went on and now was holding the case in front of him. As Nancy lessened the distance between herself and the fleeing man, she thought he was trying to open the bag which was not locked. Why? Surely there was nothing in it worth removing.
"Stop!" Nancy shouted again.
Bystanders, thinking she was merely trying to attract the man's attention did not interfere, so finally Nancy cried:
"Stop, thief!"
This time the command was heeded. The man dropped the bag and fled. Nancy picked it up and started to follow the thief but decided it probably would be a long chase and she might miss the plane.
Noticing that a corner of her pink-flowered robe was protruding from the bag, Nancy was sure the man had opened it. She must find out what he was up to!
Nancy hurried into a women's lounge and sat down in a chair. As the attendant looked on, Nancy put the overnight case on her lap and opened it wide.
Acrid fumes rose from among the disarrayed clothes and toilet articles. An open bottle lay in their midst. Before Nancy could close down the lid, she began to cough and choke. The next moment, the acid affected her eyes.
"I can't see!" Nancy groaned in alarm.
CHAPTER XXIA Lucky Hunch
At Nancy's outcry, the attendant rushed forward, "What's the trouble, miss?" she asked.
"My eyes!" Nancy repeated. "Someone put acid in my bag. Oh, please do something!"
The frightened attendant said she would take Nancy to the first-aid station. Guiding the stricken girl through the waiting room with one hand and carrying her bag in the other, the woman led Nancy to the airport's infirmary. A nurse hurried forward to take charge.
Nancy quickly explained what had happened, and at once she and her bag were taken into the doctor's office.
The odor of the fumes was very evident and the physician recognized them at once. He took down a bottle of oily fluid and gauze sponges from a shelf. Soaking a sponge, he dabbed it on her eyes.
"Take that bag out in the fresh air!" he ordered.
The nurse hurriedly went off with it. The physician continued to work on Nancy. Presently she was able to see but only dimly.
"Will my sight be permanently impaired?" she asked fearfully.
"No, fortunately. If you had spilled the acid in your eyes, you would have been blinded. But the fumes merely affected them momentarily."
The soothing medication did its work well, and in a few minutes Nancy was able to see distinctly again. She thanked the physician for his quick help.
"I'm glad I was handy," he said, smiling. Then he sobered. "Would you mind telling me why you were carrying that deadly acid with you?"
Nancy told as much of the story as she felt was advisable. The physician's eyebrows raised in amazement.
"So you're a girl detective?" he said admiringly. "The man who tried to harm you ought to be jailed for maliciousness."
Outside, Mr. Drew and his companions wondered what had happened to Nancy. She had disappeared so suddenly while they were looking at the incoming plane that they had not noticed where she had gone.
"She probably went to telephone again," Ned said.
"Well, I wish she'd get back," Mr. Drew remarked. "We'll be taking off in a few minutes."
Ned had been staring at a rather unusual sight a short distance away. A woman's overnight bag lay wide open, and a white uniformed nurse and a policeman were examining its contents.
Ned laughed and pointed out the scene to Miss Drew. "That has all the earmarks of a mystery," he said. "Nancy ought to be here to solve it."
But Aunt Eloise did not smile. She had recognized the pink-flowered dressing robe which she knew belonged to Nancy, and told the others.
"What could have happened?" Miss Drew said, worried.
The whole group hurried over to the policeman and inquired what the trouble was. He replied in an impatient tone of voice, "Oh, some fool girl was carrying a bottle of deadly acid in her bag. It got uncorked somehow. A doc in the first-aid station is taking care of her."
"What!" Mr. Drew cried. Turning to the nurse, he said he was the girl's father. "Please take us to her at once."
Reaching the infirmary, they burst into the doctor's office.
"Nancy! What happened?" Mr. Drew cried.
Quickly his daughter gave him the correct details.
"The fiend!" Pietro cried out. "I'll give up the trip and find that fellow if it's the last thing I do!"
"That won't be necessary," said Mr. Drew. "The police can take care of him."
The doctor declared that Nancy was all right to travel, so she hurried outside with the others. She could give the policeman only a hazy description of the man who had tampered with her bag, because she had seen little more than his back.