(#39) The Clue of the Dancing Puppet Read Online Free PDF Page B

so,” Nancy agreed. “How can we get into the theater?”
    Mr. Spencer said they would need a key but he had none with him. “I’ll hurry to the house and get one,” he said. “Are you afraid to wait here alone?”
    Nancy smiled. “Of course not, but do hurry!”
    The actor sped off across the lawn and into the kitchen. He was gone so long that Nancy felt precious time was being lost. Finally Mr. Spencer returned and unlocked the stage-door entrance. It was pitch dark inside. He snapped on lights.
    “Now where did that puppet go?” he asked, looking all around but seeing no sign of it.
    “How many other doors are there?” Nancy asked.
    “The only other one is the main entrance,” Mr. Spencer told her. They walked through the theater to inspect it.
    “Locked!” Mr. Spencer said. “And bolted from the inside!”
    “Then no one came out this way,” Nancy said thoughtfully. “And there are no windows—the theater is air-conditioned. Let’s make a thorough search,” she proposed.
    Nancy and Mr. Spencer looked in and behind every seat in the theater, back of all scenery, and in closets. The puppet was not there.
    Nancy was extremely puzzled. Aloud she said, “If I weren’t so practical, I’d think that dancing figure evaporated into thin air.”
    “Well,” Mr. Spencer said, “we’ve lost our chance for tonight, I guess. We may as well go back to the house.”
    On the way, he added, “I’m glad you saw the dancing puppet, Nancy. You know now that it wasn’t a figment of my imagination.”
    Nancy asked him if the strange apparition had ever caused any damage.
    “No,” Mr. Spencer replied, “I can’t say it has. What worries me most is that the story will leak out and people will be afraid to come to our performances.”
    “A few might,” Nancy answered. “But a good many people might come out of curiosity. However, the only times you’ve seen the dancing puppet are late at night. Isn’t that true?”
    “Yes.”
    “Then, if I had to guess why the puppet is here,” Nancy said, “I’d say it’s to scare you and your wife and Mr. Calhoun away from the property.”
    As she prepared for bed, Nancy kept mulling this thought over in her mind. It was evident that somebody was back of the strange performance. But what was the reason? And why should anyone want to frighten people out of the house? Was there something hidden in the house?
    The following morning Nancy told Bess and George of her strange adventure and suggested that the three girls go back to the stage and hunt for a secret entrance to the attached barn.
    “You figure that’s the only way the puppet could have been hidden from you?” George asked.
    “Yes.”
    By ten o’clock Nancy and the cousins were standing on the empty stage gazing at the rear wall. Seeing no opening, they began shifting scenery to take a look. But they found no door or sliding panel.
    “Maybe there’s an opening up higher,” George suggested. “There might have been a ladder to it, which has been removed.”
    One of the props for the current Civil War play was an old farm wagon. George climbed up into it and gazed above her head. Suddenly she called, “I think I’ve found the door!”
    The other girls climbed into the wagon and confirmed George’s finding. Above them was indeed a door with an inconspicuous handle.
    “You think the person with the puppet went through there?” Bess asked. “How could anybody ? We can’t even reach it from here.”
    Nancy suggested that the person might have had an accomplice to help him. By standing in the hands of one man, the other, holding the puppet, could have been lifted up to the door. “Let’s try that!” she proposed.
    She made a cup of her hands and lifted George high. George reached the door and opened it. “Goes into the haymow,” she told the others. She pulled herself up into it. A moment later she said, “Here’s the answer. A ladder!”
    She lowered it to the floor of the stage, and Nancy and