(#26) The Clue of the Leaning Chimney Read Online Free PDF Page B

from Nancy’s.
    “It all happened so fast!” George said. She took a deep breath. “I thought I’d lost the men. When I turned around to go back to you, one of them jumped out of the bushes and tied my scarf over my eyes. I screamed and tried to tear it off. But another man bound my hands and told me to keep still!”
    “Did you see either of them?” Nancy asked.
    “Not enough of their faces to identify them.”
    Nancy led the way out of the woods to the road. The girls, disappointed and chagrined, but thankful nothing harmful had happened, climbed into Nancy’s car and headed for home.
    Suddenly George shook off the mood and grinned. “Those fellows were pretty dumb,” she said. “You have their license number.”
    “And they left some other evidence.” Nancy told of the pieces of the bowl still in her purse. “One of the men might have been Manning.”
    Some time later Nancy stopped in front of George’s house, and her friend got out. “See you tonight at Helen’s birthday party.”
    “You bet. I wouldn’t miss it for anything!”
    Nancy drove to the motor-vehicle office to learn the name of the owner of the maroon coupé, if possible. The man in charge knew her, and after hearing her story, obligingly telephoned state headquarters for the information.
    “You just got here in time,” he said, while holding the telephone. “We’re about to close.”
    He found that the license plates had been issued to a Paul Scott of Masonville, and that the coupe had been reported stolen that very afternoon!
    “I’ll bet those men planned to hide the car in the woods until they could paint it another color and put different license plates on it,” Nancy said to the man. “May I call the police?”
    “Sure thing. Use my desk phone.”
    After Nancy had talked to Police Chief McGinnis, she drove to Dick Milton’s shop and told him about the leaning chimney in Masonville. Dick was disappointed that the clue had not led to a China clay pit. Then Nancy left him and headed for Mr. Drew’s office. She had promised to pick up her father at six o’clock.
    Fortunately an automobile pulled away from the curb in front of the building where Carson Drew had his law office. Nancy skillfully guided the convertible into the vacant spot. As she was about to get out, she saw a short Chinese gentleman with spectacles and a tiny goatee emerge from the building.
    “Mr. Soong!” she called.
    The Chinese smiled and came over to her.
    “You’re just the person I want to see!” Nancy greeted him. “Can you spare a minute?”
    Mr. Soong nodded. He looked very natty in a gray felt hat and a blue pin-striped suit. He carried a handsome Malacca cane. Nancy opened the door and he seated himself beside her.
    “May I drive you home?” she asked.
    “That would be very kind. I must hurry to keep an engagement.”
    On the way, she told Mr. Soong of her day’s adventures. The Oriental gentleman’s face reflected his amazement. He could not identify John Manning, but he begged Nancy to be extremely careful in further investigations.
    When Nancy pulled up at Mr. Soong’s home, she opened her bag and took out the wrinkled newspaper which held the broken fragments of a Chinese bowl. But first she showed Mr. Soong the symbols she had copied.
    “I hope they’re not as mystifying to you as they are to me,” Nancy remarked.
    It is no mystery what they mean,” he replied.
    He translated the first set of symbols on the sheet, pointing his finger at each character as he spoke. “Made in the studio of deep peace.”
    Nancy looked at him, perplexed, but he went on to the second group of characters. “Made for the hall of fragrant virtue,” he translated.
    Mr. Soong smiled at Nancy’s puzzled expression. “Each set of symbols is a sort of Chinese hallmark,” he explained. ”That is to say, they’re like the little mark an American manufacturer sometimes stamps on his products.”

    “It is no mystery what the symbols mean,”
Mr. Soong