With that, he rushed out of the trailer and strode off. His face was livid and Nancy again wondered whether the man could be in his right mind.
When he was out of sight, she went to the door of the trailer. About to knock, she heard crying within. Nancy hesitated for several moments, wondering whether she should disturb the unhappy aerialist or not.
Her sympathy and desire to help got the better of Nancy. She tapped on the door. At first there was no response, then a tearful voice said:
“Come in.”
Lolita was startled at seeing Nancy in the doorway and did not look pleased about it. Almost at once, though, she smiled, because Nancy’s warm expression revealed that she wanted to be friendly. Without mentioning the fact that she knew Lolita had been crying or that she had overheard Kroon’s threat, Nancy held up the beautiful charm bracelet.
“Pietro told me you have a gold charm that matches these little horses,” she said. “I just couldn’t resist the temptation to come and see if by chance it might be the one which is missing from this bracelet.”
Lolita misunderstood. Frowning, she said, “Oh, my goodness! You don’t think I stole it?”
Nancy was aghast. “No, no,” she said quickly. “I’m sorry. I’m just interested in knowing whether you’ve ever seen my bracelet or heard anything about its history.”
Lolita shook her head, but she fingered the exquisite little horses. Then, going to a bureau drawer, she brought out a dainty gold chain. Attached was a golden horse. The miniature animal, wrought exactly like those on Nancy’s bracelet, was a duplicate of the cantering horse.
“Your bracelet may have belonged to my lovely mother,” said Lolita sadly. “She died when I was only eight years old, but I remember very well how she looked.”
“Perhaps she sold the bracelet,” Nancy suggested.
Lolita agreed this was possible, but it would be difficult to determine the fact definitely. Whenever she asked Mr. or Mrs. Kroon about her parents, the couple changed the subject. The reason they gave was that they did not like to talk about the Flanders’ terrible accident. Leaning close to Nancy, she whispered:
“Sometimes I wonder if it’s true that my parents are dead.”
“Would you like me to help you find out?” Nancy asked on the spur of the moment.
“Oh, could you?” Lolita exclaimed, giving Nancy an impetuous hug.
Nancy told the girl that she had solved a few mysteries and would be glad to find out what she could. She asked if Lolita could give her any clues at all, but the young aerialist shook her head.
“As I told you before, my foster parents are very closemouthed. Sometimes I think there must be a reason back of why they won’t tell me anything.”
Suddenly Lolita looked at a clock on the wall. The fifteen minutes were up!
“You’d better go now,” she said abruptly. “Mr. Kroon will be here any moment and he mustn’t see you.” Suddenly Lolita again put her arms around Nancy. “I never saw you until a few minutes ago,” she said, “but already you are my friend. I feel much better than I did a few minutes ago. Doing my high-wire act seemed impossible then, but now I’ll be able to put on a good show.”
As they stepped outside, Lolita asked where Nancy would be sitting and said she would wave to her. Learning that the girl and her escort had been unable to obtain tickets, Lolita declared that she would get two for her. The aerialist called to a man who was walking past the trailer.
“Oh, Dan,” she said. “Come here quickly, please.”
As the man hurried over, Lolita introduced him to Nancy as Dan Webster, one of the horse trainers. Suddenly Lolita laughed, then remarked that she had failed to ask her caller’s name. When Nancy told her, Lolita said to Dan Webster:
“Please get Nancy two of the special seats and hurry. Bring them back here.”
As Dan hurried off, Nancy saw Kroon approaching. Quickly she ducked around the corner out of sight.
Reaching the trailer, Kroon glared at Lolita. “Well, what’s your answer?” he stormed.