The Search
“Miss Drew, you may as well wait in one of the sheds where you’ll be out of the rain,” Captain Dudley said, addressing Nancy. “I’ll have the motorboat dragged up to the dock where it will be safe to board her. It will take only a few minutes.”
“Thank you,” Nancy replied quietly.
“Since you’re through questioning me, I want to go to a hotel,” Mary Mason declared angrily. “My clothes are soaking wet and—”
“If you make the slightest disturbance, we will call the police without waiting for Miss Drew to produce the jewels,” the captain told her severely.
“She can’t do it!”
“Take the three prisoners into the boathouse,” Captain Dudley ordered.
In spite of her protests, Mary was marched along with the others. Though no compulsion was placed upon Nancy, she followed, to get out of the rain which had chilled her to the bone. Her serene expression did not disclose that she was troubled, but in reality she was in far from a comfortable state of mind. Only too well she knew that if she failed to produce the Crandall jewels it would only be a case of her word against that of Mary Mason.
“If I just knew where to hunt!” she told herself anxiously.
She was soberly contemplating the work before her when Captain Dudley came to the door to inform her that the motorboat had been