(#60) The Greek Symbol Mystery Read Free

played tic-tac-toe on the back of it, then I put it into my purse before we ate?” She sank back into her seat. “Someone took it,” she added.
    She told about being half-awakened the night before when she felt the bag being moved. “But I guess I was so tired I just dismissed it.”
    “Don’t feel bad,” Bess consoled her. “At least we know that one out of all the passengers on board has contact with Dimitri.”
    “So all we have to do is interrogate 300 people!” George quipped.
    Nancy wrinkled her nose. “You and Bess take coach and I’ll go through first class,” she replied, chuckling.
    The girls dismissed the incident temporarily from their minds as they debarked and collected their suitcases. Outside, the sun blanketed the area of Glyfada in thick layers of heat.
    “It’s sweltering,” George declared, feeling the temperature seeping through her sandals.
    “We’ll get used to it,” Nancy said and darted toward a taxi stand. Within moments, the girls were on their way to the Hotel Skyros, a charming place located near Omonia Square.
    “Gor-geous!” Bess exclaimed as a porter led them to their room.
    It was large, with sliding glass doors that opened onto a terrace view of the Acropolis. On the walls were embroidered tapestries and beside each bed was a small flokati rug.
    “When we get up in the morning,” said Bess, “we’ll think we’re floating on an Athenian cloud!”
    Nancy and George laughed as they opened their suitcases.
    Nancy removed a folding umbrella and remarked, “This could have stayed home!”
    Before she could unpack anything else, there was a knock on the door. The porter had returned with a basket of delicious-looking yellow apples.
    “For you,” he said, setting it on the table in front of the glass doors.
    “Thank you,” Nancy replied.
    “Maybe Ned sent them,” Bess suggested after the porter left, referring to Nancy’s special date. “Is there a card?”
    “I don’t see any,” Nancy said. “Perhaps it’s a welcome gift from the hotel.”
    She was tempted to sample it but decided to hang up her clothes first. George, on the other hand, scooped an apple off the top. As she bit into it, she glimpsed something green and scaly inside the basket. It was slithering upward between the fruit! George dropped the apple on the floor and stepped back.
    “There’s a snake in here! Nancy! Bess!” she cried.
    Now the venomous head emerged. George held her breath and took another step away as Nancy reached for her umbrella.
    “Don’t move!” she told George, then slid the tip of the umbrella under the reptile.
    It swooped forward abruptly, then swung back again.
    “Oh!” Bess shrieked. “Be careful!”
    “Sh!” her cousin chided her.
    Seconds ticked by slowly as Nancy edged closer, hoping to bait the snake onto the umbrella. This time, to her relief, it curled across the folds of the material.
    “Get the wastebasket and one of the flokati rugs,” Nancy said to Bess. “We’ll use it as a cover.”
    Trembling, Bess obeyed Nancy’s instructions. She placed the basket near the table, dropped the rug in a heap next to it, then darted out of range. Nancy turned slowly and steadily on her heels, never letting her eyes leave the poisonous creature, and lowered the umbrella into the basket.
    “Whew!” she sighed in relief as the snake slid off.
    Instantly George stuffed the rug over it while Nancy dialed the hotel desk.
    “Someone will come to dispose of it,” she told the girls.
    “When?” Bess asked, still shivering.
    “Soon, very soon.”
    As promised, a young hotel worker appeared within minutes. He did not say anything, but when Nancy handed him the wastebasket and lifted the rug, he gasped. He turned quickly and ran down the hall with it.
    “Give him the apples too!” Bess said. “Porter! Porter!” she called after him, but it was too late. He had disappeared through a stairway exit.
    “It’s just as well,” Nancy said, removing the apples from the