Hadn’t that door been closed before? she thought intently. And what was that bumpy shadow along one edge of the triangle of light?
Was someone standing just outside that doorway, eavesdropping?
Nancy nudged Bess with her elbow, then tipped her head to draw Bess’s attention to the doorway. Bess looked, then met Nancy’s eyes and nodded silently.
The two slipped away from the little knot of arguers and walked quietly toward the door. They were about twenty feet away when the pool of light suddenly narrowed, then disappeared.
Someone had just closed the door.
“Come on,” Nancy murmured, dashing forward. She tugged the door open and ran into the entry hall and then out into the corridor. There was no one in sight.
Then Nancy looked at the elevator. Above the door, the arrow pointing to the floor numbers was moving downward from four.
Recalling how slowly the elevator moved, Nancy said, “Quick, Bess—the stairs. We’ll head him off downstairs!”
Pushing through a nearby door, the girls found a set of wide marble stairs. As they clattered down them, Nancy caught a glimpse of a stained-glass skylight far above. She made a mental note to come back for a closer look sometime—when she wasn’t busy chasing a suspicious character.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Nancy burst through sculpted bronze doors, into the lobby. She dashed over to the elevator. It was still on its way down. “We’ve got him,” she said as Bess caught up to her, panting. “In a few seconds, we’ll know who was trying to listen.”
They glued their eyes on the brass arrow. It reached L. Then, instead of stopping, it continued to move toward B.
“The basement?” Bess gasped. “But those stairs we came down don’t go any farther!”
“There must be another set,” Nancy said, turning to scan the lobby. On the wall opposite the elevator was a framed diagram of the floor. She hurried over and studied it swiftly, then led Bess to another bronze door in the far corner. As usual the doorman took no notice.
Behind the door was a narrower set of stairs, made of concrete instead of marble. Nancy and Bess ran down them. At the bottom, a steel fire door blocked the way. Nancy took a deep breath and pushed. The door creaked open.
She stepped through cautiously, with Bess close behind her. They found themselves inside a large, dimly lit open area. Several doors led off from the room, and a row of large trash bins on wheels rested next to what was apparently a service elevator. Otherwise the basement was completely empty. They could see into every corner, and no one was there.
The passenger elevator stood beside them, its doors wide open. Nancy hurried over to look inside. It was empty, too.
“We know he came down to the basement,” Bess said. “The elevator didn’t stop once on the way down here. Whoever was in it must be down here somewhere!”
“If there was someone in it,” Nancy replied. “We didn’t actually see him, did we? What if the eavesdropper pushed the button inside the elevator, then slipped out and hid around a corner while we chased down the stairs?”
“He’d have to be an awfully fast sprinter to do that,” Bess said doubtfully.
“I agree,” Nancy said. “Let’s not give up the chase yet. Where do all these doors go, do you think?”
As Nancy and Bess circled the room, they saw that most of the doors were padlocked shut. Thick dust lay on the doorknobs, proving that no one had touched them in a long time. One opened, but it led into a small, dusty storage closet.
They had nearly completed the round when Bess whispered, “Nancy, look—that door has no padlock. And the doorknob’s clean!”
Nancy bent down to look. A few rough swipes had rubbed away much of the dust, in a pattern that looked like gripping fingers.
She pushed the door. After a moment’s resistance, it swung inward with a groan of rusty hinges.
“Bess, look,” Nancy said excitedly, “a hidden staircase! Where do you suppose it leads?”
“To someplace dark and dank and full of cobwebs,” Bess said, shuddering. “Do we really have to go down there, Nancy?”
“You can stay here and keep watch while I check it out,” Nancy suggested.
Bess groaned, then said, “No, I’m coming. But don’t ask me to pretend I like it.”
Nancy led the way down into the dim, chilly stairwell. A damp earth smell grew stronger at every step. At the bottom of the stairs was a rusty metal door. Nancy pushed it open.
The space on the other side was almost totally dark. The light from the open doorway showed a filthy concrete floor and two brick walls that arched inward to form a vaulted ceiling. Ahead of them, the darkness seemed to stretch out forever.
“Nancy, where are we?” Bess whispered fearfully. “This place is totally weird.”
“The abandoned freight tunnels!” Nancy whispered back. “I saw a story about them on TV last year. They run under most of downtown Chicago. Coal used to be delivered through them to heat the buildings. Now they’re only used for telephone lines and stuff like that.”
“Nancy?” Bess said softly. “I just saw something move—down there.” She pointed, with a shaking finger.
Nancy looked. Far ahead of them, a faint glow of light bobbed up and down in the darkness. Someone walking with a flashlight, Nancy guessed. Straining her ears, she could make out a soft sound like footsteps.
“Let’s get him,” she breathed to Bess.
They set off into the pitch darkness, using a heel-and-toe step that combined swiftness and silence. Nancy was in the lead.
But she hadn’t gone more than twenty feet when suddenly Bess gave a bloodcurdling scream!
7
A Clue in the Dust
As soon as Bess screamed, the light they had been pursuing went out.
