The Mystery of the Fire Dragon by Carolyn Keene Page B

has been a terrific farewell party.”
    The following morning Miss Drew and the girls exchanged fond good-bys. Aunt Eloise said it had been a wonderful visit and she hoped they would soon come again.
    At three o’clock the girls set off. To keep any spies from suspecting they were headed for the International Airport, Nancy asked their taxi driver to take them to Grand Central Station. Once there, she had him drive on and finally head for the East Side Airlines Terminal. There the girls’ baggage was weighed and the travelers hurried into a limousine which took them to the airport.
    Almost the first person Nancy saw in the waiting room was her father. But as previously arranged, Mr. Drew and his daughter pretended not to recognize each other.
    The three girls stood a little distance from the ramp and closely watched each passenger go aboard their plane. The only one they recognized was Mrs. Horace Truesdale. Finally Nancy and her companions were warned by a loud-speaker announcement to go aboard.
    Quickly they got on the plane and showed their tickets to the stewardess. To the girls’ annoyance, Mrs. Truesdale was standing just beyond the doorway. She looked at them in amazement.
    “Why, when did you decide to come on this trip?” she asked. “Are you students at the university? Or are you traveling first class?”
    “Neither,” Nancy replied, and started toward the rear of the plane.
    “Are you going to Hong Kong?” Mrs. Truesdale persisted.
    “Isn’t everyone on board?” Nancy countered. “Will you be visiting friends over there?” the woman pursued.
    “Yes,” Nancy replied. Secretly she was thinking that this overly inquisitive woman might try to be friendly with the girls in Hong Kong and interfere with their sleuthing.
    The stewardess asked Mrs. Truesdale please to take her seat and motioned for the girls to go to theirs. Finally the lights went on, requesting passengers to fasten their seat belts. The door was closed and locked. The giant engines roared, and finally the plane taxied to the end of the runway.
    After the great craft had stood there for over ten minutes, Bess said to Nancy and George seated alongside her, “Why don’t we take off?”
    At that moment the stewardess’s voice came over the loud-speaker. “Your attention, please! On order of the police department all hand luggage must be examined. Will you please co-operate?”
    Nancy, Bess, and George looked at one another. Were the police, perhaps, looking for a bomb after all?

CHAPTER XV
    The Mah-jongg Dealer
    “LET’S get off the plane!” Bess urged in a tense whisper.
    Nancy shook her head. “Maybe it isn’t a bomb. Perhaps someone is trying to smuggle goods out of the United States.”
    The student group sat in strained silence. They could plainly hear a woman in the first-class section arguing loudly. Nancy recognized Mrs. Truesdale’s voice.
    “This is an outrage!” she was shouting. “I am telling you here and now that it’s a disgraceful procedure. Can’t a person take a trip out of the United States without being treated like a common thief?”
    Nancy and her friends had to smile in spite of the fact that there might be a bomb aboard. George remarked, “That woman is a pain!”
    Presently two police officers came to the rear part of the aircraft and inspected everyone’s hand luggage. As they finished their checkup, and started toward the door, Nancy asked them, “Could you tell us why you searched our bags, or is that against regulations?”
    One of the officers looked at her intently, then said, “I’m sure there’s no harm in telling you. Someone phoned the airport that a bomb was being carried in the hand luggage of a passenger on this plane. It must have been a crank. We did not find anything.”
    “Thank goodness,” said Bess.
    The officers left the plane, and a few minutes later the craft finally took off. It had been in the air about an hour when Nancy saw her father walking back toward her.
    “I