Free 078 The Phantom Of Venice by Carolyn Keene

ecstasy!
    Conversation ranged over all sorts of topics, including the Marchese’s masquerade ball the followingevening. “I’m going as a masked bravo, an old-time hit-man,” Don chuckled. He recommended a shop where a wide assortment of costumes could be rented inexpensively.
    Nancy was floating on a cloud when they returned to the palace. She went looking for her father and found him in a sitting room, listening as Katrina van Holst, seated at a piano, played a heart-melting Chopin sonata.
    My goodness, Nancy thought with a gentle inward smile, are things getting serious?
    “Well! We missed you at dinner, honey,” Carson Drew remarked as she came into the room.
    “I suspect she and Don didn’t miss the rest of us in the least,” Katrina added humorously.
    Tara Egan was waiting in their room. She seemed in a contrary mood. Nancy gathered that Gianni Spinelli had taken her to dinner at some not very romantic spot, and that Tara was still feeling resentful over the afternoon’s events.
    “I don’t understand you at all, Nancy!” she complained. “Are you in love with Gianni?”
    Nancy was surprised that her own attitude hadn’t seemed obvious. “Not at all,” she declared. “Cross my heart, Tara!”
    “Then why don’t you stop playing games? You didn’t have to come sightseeing with us!”
    For the life of her, Nancy couldn’t think how to reply. How could she possibly explain that shethought Tara was emotionally vulnerable and that Gianni was just a macho stud, out to exploit her longing for affection and romance?
    In the end, she shrugged, “I’m sorry, Tara. From now on I’ll try to stay out of the way.”
    Tara seemed mollified and ready to make up. Nevertheless, the bedtime atmosphere remained a trifle strained. Luckily Nancy was tired from her long, full day and quickly drifted off to sleep.
    She was awakened some time later by a piercing scream. She jerked upright, striving to clear away the mists of sleep from her brain.
    A faint sheen of moonlight was filtering into the room through the draperied windows—enough to reveal a dark something or someone in the center of the room.
    Nancy’s heart leapt to her mouth. She reached out in the gloom, groping for her bedside lamp, and switched it on.
    A hooded figure was moving toward Tara’s bed! It seemed to hear Nancy’s stifled gasp and whirled around sharply.
    Her eyes widened in horror as she saw a hideous skull face!

9
Ghost Story
    Nancy willed herself to leap out of bed and confront the ghastly intruder. But she was petrified with fright and her limbs refused to obey.
    Another scream by Tara sent the weird phantom darting toward the doorway. It seemed to pause for just a moment, as if reluctant to be driven out by mere flesh-and-blood humans. Then as Nancy finally launched herself out of bed, it streaked into the corridor and the door closed behind it.
    Nancy started in pursuit, only to stop short as Tara cried out fearfully, “Oh, my God—no! Don’t go, Nancy! Don’t leave me— please!”
    She sounded hysterical. Nancy turned and hurried to her bedside and put her arms around the terrified girl. “It’s all right, Tara! There’s nothing to be afraid of! The spook’s gone now, whatever it was!”
    “Oh, N-N-Nancy! Did you see its face?”
    “Yes. . . . I was hoping you hadn’t,” the teen sleuth added with wry humor, trying to relieve the tension.
    “It was h-h-horrible!” declared Tara, shuddering. “When I woke up, that thing was coming toward me—and j-just for a second, the moonlight shone on its face! It was like a skull!”
    The recollection brought on another spasm of weeping. Nancy held her close until the sobs died away. Then she rose from Tara’s bedside and started toward the doorway.
    “For heaven’s sake, Nancy—be careful!”
    She opened the door and looked out. The corridor was in semi-darkness, illumined only by the dim glow from a light in the gallery overlooking the ground floor. As Nancy’s eyes