A few yards back of Nancy was Ned Nickerson. And a short distance behind him, Pietro. Both young men raced forward.
Ned grasped Nancy and swung her away from the lion. The angry, confused beast landed one claw on the boy’s hand and raked it badly.
Ned’s action had startled Kroon, who fell backward. The lion hesitated a moment as though undecided whether to slink away or jump forward. For a fearful second everyone wondered whether the beast would get loose.
Pietro saw a long whip lying on the ground. Quick as a flash he picked it up and cracked it across King Kat’s nose. The lion snarled and bared its teeth. One paw, halfway through the opening, was keeping Pietro from closing the cage door. With another crack of the whip he struck the lion’s paw and the beast jumped backward with a roar of pain. The clown slammed and locked the door.
By this time there was terrific commotion in the circus. Every workman and many of the townspeople had come on the run to see what had happened. In the melee, Kroon disappeared.
“Oh, Nancy!” Lolita cried. “Are you all right?”
Nancy nodded. Recovering from her shock, she saw that Ned’s hand was bleeding profusely.
“Ned!” she said quickly. “You must go to Dr. Jackson at once!”
Then, realizing that she had not thanked him for his brave rescue, she added, “Ned, you saved my life. How can I ever thank you?”
Ned gave a wry smile. “Don’t even try, Nancy. I’m only thankful I was here to do it.”
Pietro, too, came in for his share of praise.
Quickly Nancy looked around. “Where did Mr. Kroon go?” she asked.
No one had noticed him leave. Nancy, fearful that he would escape, asked Lolita to take Ned to the doctor.
“Pietro,” she said, “we must find Mr. Kroon.”
The man was not on the circus grounds and Mrs. Kroon also was missing. Pietro reported that the ringmaster’s car was gone. Nancy telephoned State Police headquarters and spoke to the sergeant on duty. She was told that the police had just received word from New York to apprehend Kroon and were about to pick him up at the circus.
“Thank you, Miss Drew,” the sergeant said. “I’ll send a detail out at once and we’ll set up a road block.”
The Kroons were picked up a short time later on the highway and taken to headquarters. Nancy, Lolita, Pietro, and Ned were present at the interrogation.
Kroon, finding that denials of his crooked schemes were futile, and that even his two spies, the tramp clown and the giant, had not been entirely loyal to him, made a full confession. He did not spare the Tristams, on whom he put a great deal of the blame. At Kroon’s request, Tristam had come to River Heights and stolen the horse-charm bracelet. He had brought it to Kroon, who years before had had a cheap duplicate of Lolita’s horse charm made. He had kept the original, hoping to obtain the valuable bracelet. He had finally succeeded.
But when Nancy had stymied his plan to sell it, Kroon and Tristam together had engineered the kidnaping of Nancy and George. Learning that this had failed, Tristam had found out where Nancy had gone and followed her to New York. He had tried to stop Nancy’s trip to England by engaging a professional thug to put the acid in her overnight bag.
While Kroon and Tristam had managed to steal the dividend checks which had come to Lola Flanders from her securities, they had never dared to try selling the securities themselves. Lolita was thrilled to hear that they were still intact for her mother.
When Kroon finished his confession, the police asked Nancy and the others if they had any questions. The girl detective spoke up.
“I have just one,” she said. “Mr. Kroon, who was it who went to the riding academy and attacked Señor Roberto?”
The ringmaster said Tristam had done this also. Both he and Kroon felt that Hitch was in the way. Tristam had meant to attack the stableman, but had, in the semidarkness, mistaken Roberto for him. Just as he had discovered his error, Tristam heard voices in the distance and fled.