The Scarlet Slipper Mystery by Carolyn Keene Page A

forced the dog into the closet. But Togo kept barking so loudly, he frightened the couple away.”
    Nancy hugged her pet. “Togo, you’ve really done a wonderful job tonight.”
    Hannah Gruen was more composed now and gave Nancy a description of the intruders.
    “That sounds like the Judsons,” Nancy commented. “Ned, let’s look around and see if by chance they left any clues.”
    First she helped Hannah to her room; then she and Ned turned on all the lights in the house and began to check the dwelling from cellar to attic. So far as clues were concerned, it looked for a while as though the search was to be futile.
    But while the couple were in the attic, Nancy leaned over a trunk near one corner and spotted a small object on the floor behind it. In the light she saw that it was a knife. Since it did not belong to the Drews, the Judsons must have dropped it.
    “I think it’s a palette knife used by artists for mixing paints,” Nancy commented. “It probably dropped out of one of Mr. Judson’s pockets when he bent over to look behind the trunk.”
    The knife was a simple one with a polished wooden handle. Near the base of it had been carved a small R. For Raoul? Nancy speculated.
    “Does this mean that Mr. Judson is an artist?” Ned asked.
    “I wonder,” Nancy speculated.

CHAPTER IX
    Ballet Interlude
    FOR nearly an hour Nancy and Ned talked about the possible meaning of the R on the artist’s palette knife. Both were sure it had special significance.
    “Have you any idea how you might find out more about it?” Ned asked.
    “I think I’ll go over to that apartment house on Oakwood Avenue tomorrow and interview the superintendent and that Frenchman who knew the Judsons.”
    “I’ll go along,” said Ned with a wink. “Bess told me about Monsieur Guion.”
    Nancy laughed, assuring Ned that the man did not interest her. She said she would be delighted to have Ned go along.
    Early the next afternoon, a beautiful Sunday with a brilliant blue sky, Ned picked Nancy up in his car and they drove to Oakwood Avenue. As before, the superintendent did not answer his bell, so Nancy pressed the one for the Guion apartment.
    The inner door of the apartment house opened quickly, and Nancy and Ned walked down to 1A. The Frenchman stood in the doorway.
    “Ah, you have come back, mademoiselle,” he said with a smile. “And you have brought your fiancé?”
    As he spoke, Monsieur Guion twirled one end of his mustache and invited the couple in. They followed him and sat down.
    “You were a great help to me the other day when you answered my questions about the Judsons,” said Nancy. “I’d like to ask you some more.”
    “Your wish is my command,” Guion replied with a sweeping bow.
    Ned frowned but said nothing. Nancy asked the Frenchman if Mr. Judson was an artist.
    “Oh, nol” Guion said, shaking his head vigorously.
    “Does he have any friends who are artists?” the young detective asked.
    “That I do not know,” Guion answered. “We did not become good friends. He is what you Americans call a washout. He was not good company. I did not like him.”
    “You have been very kind,” Nancy said after a while, rising. Then she and Ned left. When they reached the Drew residence, Nancy was pleased to learn that her father had arrived. She asked him about the outcome of his trip to New York.
    The lawyer’s face clouded. “It was a wild-goose chase! A hoax!”
    Nancy and Ned were amazed. “You mean Mr. Koff didn’t meet you?” Nancy asked.
    “He not only didn’t meet me, but swore that he had never sent the message,” Mr. Drew replied. “I waited a long time at the New York Airport, then telephoned Mr. Koff at the Cliffwood Hotel. He was astonished to hear what had happened.”
    “But his voice?” Nancy suggested to her father.
    “Whoever called me,” said Mr. Drew angrily, “imitated Johann Koff’s voice perfectly. But I can’t understand why I was tricked.”
    His daughter told him what had