Carolyn Keene - The Ringmasters Secret

"I'll ask George to run down to headquarters and take my message to the chief," she decided.

Opening the door, Nancy was amazed to find that her friend was gone. As she looked around, suddenly a thick dark cloth was drawn over her head—tighter and tighter.

Nancy struggled, but it was useless. She finally blacked out!

CHAPTER XVIII George's Discovery

Nancy became conscious of the rumble and harsh clatter of wheels. At first it seemed far away, then grew louder and louder.

Slowly she opened her eyes but could see nothing. Her brain was foggy and she had no idea where she was. As her mind cleared, Nancy realized she was bound and gagged.

"Oh, yes," she recalled. "When I came out of that telephone booth, someone put a cloth over my head and I blacked out."

Nancy now realized that she was in a moving vehicle. The steady rhythm of the wheels told her that she was in a train. Was it a sleeping compartment?

"Probably not," Nancy decided. "I'm lying on the floor. I must be in a freight car."

As her strength returned, she tried to get out of her bonds, but her struggles were futile. Whoever had tied the knots had done a good job.

"Oh, if I could only remove this gag!" she thought.

She tried rubbing her cheek against the floor to accomplish it, but again her efforts were unsuccessful. There was not a sound within the car and Nancy decided that she was alone. As she wondered where the freight train was going and now long a trip it might be, someone not far away from her gave a great sigh. Nancy shuddered. Was this person a guard?

Once more she endeavored to loosen the ropes which bound her arms and legs. She managed to slide them an inch, but they still remained tightly around her.

As Nancy got over her fright, it occurred to her that the other person in the car might be a prisoner as well. George had disappeared rather mysteriously. Could she be the person who had sighed?

Nancy wriggled herself in the direction from which the sound had come. Finding the other person's hand, she squirmed. It was cold and unresponsive. But upon investigation, she was convinced of one thing: it was a girl's hand.

Inching herself upward, Nancy's hand came to a rope. The other person was bound as well as herself!

Moving still farther along the floor, Nancy felt the girl's face. There was a gag over it, but by twisting and turning, Nancy managed, after some difficulty, to loosen the knot and remove the gag.

Nancy ran her fingers over the girl's features and came to the conclusion that she was indeed George Fayne. She mumbled as loudly as she could:

"George! George! Wake up!"

Presently the girl stirred and Nancy's heart leaped in relief. After muttering some unintelligible words, George finally said:

"Where am I?"

"Oh, George, I'm so glad you've wakened," Nancy mumbled.

"Nancy, where are we? What happened?"

The girl detective replied that they were in a freight car. Where the train was going, she had no idea—it might be heading for the coast.

"But we're going to get out of here," she said with determination. "George, can you turn on your side? I'll try to loosen these ropes, then you can do the same for me."

"You must have a gag over your mouth," said George. "Your voice sounds so different."

"I have," said Nancy. "See if you can get it off." She turned her head away from George, and after several futile attempts, George finally managed to loosen it.

"That's better. Thanks a lot," Nancy said. "Now I'll unfasten your ropes."

George turned on her side and Nancy felt for the knots. Untying them was slow work. Her hands ached from the effort.

George, freed, suggested that she untie Nancy's hands before freeing her own legs. She felt for the knots. Upon finding the first one, she began the difficult task of loosening it.

"I've never seen a more stubborn knot in my life," she said.

But she persevered and at last was rewarded. There were two other ropes bound around Nancy's arms, and it was a good twenty minutes before George was able to get them off.

"Oh, that feels wonderful!" Nancy said. "Now to get these ropes off our legs."

As George struggled with hers, she remarked, "It will be twenty-five miles more before I get these untied."

The process did take a long time, and while the girls were at it, they began to discuss what had happened to them.

"I guess I'm responsible for all this," said George. "That boy who took the package to the post office possibly told Mr. Kroon what happened the minute he got back to the circus.

Nancy agreed and added, "He wanted to make sure that we didn't communicate with the police before he had a chance to retrieve the package."

"You mean he'll try to get it from the post office?"

Nancy said that she did not think the ringmaster would dare attempt this. But he probably had planned to keep George and Nancy prisoners until the package could reach New York and be delivered.

"But here's where my work to stop him begins," she said resolutely. "Here goes the last knot."

Within a few minutes George also was free.

"After being in this darkness so long," said George, "my other senses seem to be keener. I'll bet I can walk right to the side door of this freight car."

She was about to try when the freight went around a curve and she was thrown to the floor. When the train was once more on the straightaway, both girls made their way to the side of the car. The door was easy to find, and the mechanism which opened it. But try as they might, they could not budge the door an inch.

"It's probably locked from the outside," Nancy decided.

"Then we're stuck," George said in disgust. "Hypers, Nancy, we've got to get out of here before someone comes along and captures us all over again."

Nancy concurred wholeheartedly.

Suddenly George had an idea. "Maybe there's a hatch in the roof of this car," she said.

"I don't think so," Nancy answered. "Only refrigerator cars have them. But I'll be glad to find out. Do you think you can hold me on your shoulders while I investigate the roof?"

"Sure," her companion answered.

George leaned over and Nancy climbed to her shoulders. But trying to stand up straight and balance herself in the swaying car was even more difficult than standing on a cantering horse. Twice she had to jump off to keep from pitching headlong, and once she just missed crashing into the side of the freight car.

At last Nancy was able to stand on George's shoulders and reach up to the roof of the car. After feeling around for several minutes, Nancy came to the conclusion that there was no hatch. She jumped down.

"George," she said, "we never thought of a door on the other side of this car."

Annoyed at themselves, they hurried to find out. Their fingers found a latch! The girls hardly dared hope the door would be unlocked, but as they pulled on it, the sliding panel moved!

"Thank goodness!" George cried. "Now we can get out of this prison."

"Not yet," Nancy told her, as she saw the scenery flashing past them. "We're traveling about fifty miles an hour."

She guessed at the time. It must be an hour or so after dawn.

"Where do you suppose we are?" George asked.

On every side stretched cultivated fields, but there was not a house in sight.

"I wonder what the chances are of the freight slowing down," said Nancy.

As if in answer to her wish, the train reached a long grade and began to lose speed. In a short time it was moving very slowly.

A few minutes later the freight train slowed down to about five miles an hour. The two girls selected a favorable spot and jumped from the slowly moving train. They were free!

Nancy and George started rapidly across a field before anyone on the freight train might become aware of their presence. A quarter of a mile farther on, the girls came to a road.