(#24) The Clue in the Old Album Read Free Page B

eager to examine the album.
    “It’s possible my daughter didn’t mean this album,” Mrs. Struthers remarked thoughtfully. “She may have intended to tell me the all-important clue was hidden in an album belonging to the Pepito family.”
    “Have you talked to any of them about it?”
    “Impossible. I have no idea where they are living.”
    “Can Rose explain what her mother meant?”
    “She knew almost nothing about the Pepitos. My daughter was careful to keep such information from her. Enid told me very little. While she was here she scarcely mentioned her husband’s name, although I know Enid thought of him constantly.”
    During the next hour, Nancy carefully went through the album. She could find no clue that appeared to have any bearing on the mystery.
    “If we only had some hint about the doll your daughter meant,” Nancy said. “Even knowing if it had been misplaced, or perhaps sold, would help.”
    “I rather doubt either of those possibilities,” Mrs. Struthers replied.
    “It may have been stolen,” Nancy ventured.
    The elderly woman hesitated. “There is something rather ominous that may be connected with the doll’s disappearance,” she confessed. “The jeweled album contained a note written in a strange handwriting. I was afraid Rose might see it some day and ask questions, so I destroyed it.”
    “What did the paper say?”
    “I can never forget the words,” Mrs. Struthers replied. “ ‘The source of light will heal all ills, but a curse will follow him who takes it from the gypsies!’ ”
    “What a strange message!” Nancy exclaimed.
    “My daughter must have placed the note in the jeweled album,” Mrs. Struthers explained, “although her reason for doing it puzzles me.”
    “It may be a good clue,” declared Nancy. “Perhaps a member of her husband’s tribe sent the note.”
    “Quite likely. I have always thought the writer meant it as a warning—perhaps to frighten my daughter.”
    “True,” Nancy said. “Or even a friendly warning.”
    “What do you think the message meant?” Mrs. Struthers asked.
    Nancy shrugged. “Perhaps that the doll, which may light up or be adorned with shiny jewels, would bring bad luck to any owner but a gypsy.”
    “In that case, maybe you had better not search for it,” said Mrs. Struthers, alarmed. “I should not want any harm to come to you.”
    Nancy smiled. “Please don’t worry. I’ll be careful. The mystery is too intriguing to drop now.”
    “If you do find the doll, I’ll see that you are properly compensated,” the collector told her.
    “My reward will be the fun I’ll have searching for the doll,” Nancy said.
    “And perhaps in adding it to my collection,” Mrs. Struthers suggested.
    “I think I’d better see what dolls you have, so I won’t duplicate them.”
    During the next hour and a half Nancy inspected the figures in the cabinet. The task took longer than she had expected, for they were so fascinating she could not bring herself to pass over them lightly.
    The variety of materials the dolls were made of amazed the girl. Some were fashioned from such substances as cornhusks, dried apples, and horse-hair. One was just the bust of a lovely Asiatic lady.
    “It’s a Chinese head doll,” Mrs. Struthers explained, “made of unglazed ceramic called bisque. In the mid-nineteenth century, china heads and limbs were made to go on wooden bodies. Now this little lady,” she added, picking up one in a quaint evening dress, “is Jenny Lind, the famous singer. You know, she first appeared in this country under the sponsorship of P.T. Barnum, of circus fame.”
    “I see now that a person can learn a lot about history by collecting dolls. Where does the word ‘doll’ come from?”
    “The origin of the word isn’t clear, though many authorities believe it’s a contraction of the English name Dorothy. In old Saxon times there was a word dol, meaning figure, and the Greeks used the word ei-DOL-on, which meant