Free The Quest of the Missing Map by Carolyn G. Keene

Chatham hovering at her side, Nancy quickly reported what had happened, then hung up the phone. She turned to the widow.
    “Please tell me what you know about the Browns.”
    “They introduced themselves as Mr. and Mrs. Fred Brown, and said they were trying to find the widow of Captain John Tomlin. They claimed to have known him well before his death.”
    “Did they question you about the map?” Nancy asked.
    “They hinted that Captain Tomlin had told them a great secret before his death and warned me to be on my guard if I were his widow.”
    “On guard?”
    “It seems that an unscrupulous man—they wouldn’t give his name—is determined to get hold of a valuable paper belonging to my first husband.”
    “Of course they referred to the map!”
    “I thought so but pretended otherwise. The Browns advised me to leave Rocky Edge before the man might threaten or harm me. I told them I wanted a friend to hear their story before I made any decision. I didn’t mention your name.”
    “My sudden appearance must have given them a great shock,” Nancy commented.
    “I wonder how much they really know about the lost map,” Mrs. Chatham said.
    “Probably not much. They may believe you have it here. Either they’re working with that man who hid in the studio, or else they hope to outwit him and get it themselves.”
    Mrs. Chatham walked nervously to the French window and gazed into the garden.
    Nancy said, “I suggest you hire guards. The Browns may sneak back and search for the map.”
    Mrs. Chatham promised to attend to the matter directly.
    “Do you feel we should give up the proposed trip to New Kirk?” the widow asked as she walked with Nancy to the convertible.
    Nancy replied quickly, “Considering what has happened, I think it’s very important to learn the contents of your husband’s safe-deposit box.”
    “Then I’ll see your father as soon as I can,” Mrs. Chatham declared.
    After saying good-by, Nancy picked up Bess and George and said she wanted to go home via Wayland and stop at the police station.
    “I’d like to talk to the chief, but not on the phone from here. Mrs. Chatham is too upset.”
    Nancy told the girls about the mysterious couple who had come to call and finished just as she reached the police station. There was no news of the Browns, but the chief confirmed Nancy’s suspicion that the one clear footprint recently made by the intruder at the Rocky Edge studio belonged to Spike Doty.
    “Spike first appeared locally while a seaman on a river steamer. After a prison sentence for burglary he was released and went to New York. We lost track of him. But we’ll keep looking for Spike and the Browns, too.”
    On the way back Bess and George picked up their car. When Nancy reached home she found a special-delivery envelope from Bill Tomlin’s father. He had enclosed the faded photograph of a man about thirty dressed in a sea captain’s uniform.
    “What a good clue!” she thought. “I must show this to Mr. Smith and Mrs. Chatham.”
    Nancy gave her father an account of her recent adventures, describing her abduction by the Browns and their unexpected appearance at Rocky Edge. She ended by asking permission to accompany Mrs. Chatham to New Kirk.
    “You may go, but only on the condition that I talk to Mrs. Chatham first,” the lawyer replied.
    That evening Nancy mulled over the strange developments in the case. “Where do the Browns and Spike and Rorke fit into the picture?” she pondered. “Are they working together or separately?”
    When Nancy finally went to bed she dreamed of a heavy-set man with evil eyes peering at her from behind various objects. In this fantasy she seemed to be standing on a high revolving platform. Regardless of which direction it turned, she kept seeing the same terrifying man in different costumes. Nancy awoke and sat up.
    “What a nightmare! I can see that face yet!”
    She realized that her mind had played a trick on her. The face in her dreams was that