(#24) The Clue in the Old Album by Carolyn Keene Page B

a clue to the whereabouts of Anton, Nitaka, and perhaps even Murko. He might tell her who left the blanket with the strange message.
    At exactly nine-thirty Nancy walked into the Hancock Barracks’ office. A uniformed state policeman named Wicks was assigned to accompany her to the gypsy settlement. As they approached the secluded place, the callers were greeted by barking dogs.
    The warning sent gypsies scurrying toward their trailers. Women who had been cooking meat over brilliant-red fires hastily gathered their playing children and retreated. When the policeman addressed a question to a young woman who hurried past, she replied, “Ci janav.” He explained to Nancy that this mean, “I don’t know.”
    The same reply was received from other fleeing figures. Evidently the gypsies had no intention of giving any information to the police!
    One man did come forward and make a pretense of welcoming the couple. Nancy had never seen him before, nor any of the gypsies who were looking curiously from the doorways and windows of their trailers. So far as she could judge, these were not the people she had visited before.
    Politely she asked if Zorus, Murko, Romano Pepito, Anton, Nitaka, Tony Wassel, or Henrietta Bostwick were there. The man shook his head at mention of each name.
    “The persons I’m looking for aren’t here,” she said to Wicks.
    “Just the same, we’ll make sure and not take anyone’s word for it,” he replied.
    The officer investigated on his own, but came back convinced that the purse snatcher was not hiding in the camp.
    “If he was here, he fled before we came,” Wicks decided.
    Nancy bought a string of beads from a young woman. Then she and Wicks left.
    Nancy reached River Heights just as the clock in the town-hall tower chimed the midday hour. She loved to listen to it and often laughingly told Hannah that it made her feel as though the old bell were announcing the end of one adventure and the beginning of another.
    “But today it means nothing more mysterious than a luncheon date with Bess and George, and a look at the mannequin doll’s wedding party,” she reflected with a chuckle.
    At one o’clock she met the cousins at the new restaurant Bess had recommended.
    “Let’s walk to Taylor’s from here,” Bess suggested after they finished a hearty meal. “I feel ten pounds heavier.”
    The department store was only two blocks away. George told her cousin she should climb up the five flights to the doll exhibit as well, if she expected to reduce. Bess grimaced and got in the elevator.
    The roped off area was already crowded when the girls entered, but they managed to make their way to the front and were thrilled at the exquisite scene on stage. Six dainty bridesmaids stood in attendance on a beautiful bride.
    “Did you ever see anything so lovely?” Bess whispered. “Especially the bride! She looks real enough to walk right down the aisle!”
    As Nancy gazed at the bride mannequin, her thoughts roved. She recalled the gypsy wedding at the carnival and how the child bride had received a symbolic doll as part of the ceremony. Then she recalled the photograph Mrs. Struthers had shown her of Rose’s mother in her white bridal gown.
    “Girls,” she whispered, excited, “we must go at once to Mrs. Struthers’. I believe I have the answer to the mystery! it’s in the old album after all!”

CHAPTER XV
    A Detective Fails
    BESS and George were startled by Nancy’s sudden declaration.
    “In which old album?” George asked. “You’ve uncovered so many I can hardly keep track of them all.”
    Nancy grinned at her friend. “It’s not that confusing, George,” she said. “I’m sure we can find the clue in that old album of Mrs. Struthers’.”
    “The one the precious stones were stolen from?” Bess questioned.
    “Right!” Nancy answered. “Let’s hurry over to her house and I’ll show you what I mean.”
    The three girls soon reached the Struthers home and hurried inside.