Nancy Drew #55. Mystery of Crocodile Island. Carolyn Keene

Nancy laughed. “You may have to wait twenty years before someone picks it up!”

The girls drove back to Key Biscayne, chatting about their experiences on Cape Florida. When they reached the business district, traffic became congested and momentarily stopped.

Nancy watched the scene In front of her and suddenly gasped. “Bess! George!” she said. “Do you see those two men getting into that red car up ahead?”

“I see them,” George said. “They look like Matt Carmen and Breck Tobin!”

“Right!” Bess agreed. “What are we going to do?”

Just then traffic began to move again. The suspects started their red sedan and pulled in a few cars ahead of the girls.

“Let’s chase them!” George urged.

“Yes,” Nancy said. “Only right now it’s a rather slow chase.”

At the next big intersection their quarry turned right. The girls followed and kept the sedan in sight. Soon the traffic thinned out and Nancy sped after the two suspects!

CHAPTER XIV

Periscope Pursuit

The driver of the car Nancy was pursuing seemed to be aware that he was being followed. Not only did he put on speed, but he turned corners with squealing wheels. Nancy and her friends were convinced that the men were indeed Carmen and Tobin.

Bess, who was tossed violently from side to side in the rear seat, begged Nancy to slow down, “Please don’t go so fast! We’ll overturn!”

“Sorry,” Nancy replied, then grinned. “This time those men are afraid of us. A sure sign of guilt. They don’t want us to alert the town cops.”

They reached an intersecting highway, and the men drove onto it. They were getting ahead of the girls and it was obvious that they had no intention of obeying the speed limit.

“They’re worried about being caught,” George said. “On the other hand, I’m sure they wouldn’t want to be stopped by the police to show their licenses. That would be a dead giveaway.”

Nancy did not want to disobey the traffic laws, but how else was she going to catch the two suspects? She gave her car more power and it raced along the highway.

George remarked, “If we could only get close enough to see the license number, we could report those men to the police instead of chasing them.”

Nancy agreed and asked, “Diet you notice anything on the license plate?”

“Only that it was from Connecticut,” George answered. “Maybe the car was stolen, and that’s one reason why they want to get away in such a hurry,”

The words were hardly out of George’s mouth, when the girls heard a siren behind them.

“Oh, oh!” Bess said, worried.

Obediently Nancy drove to the side of the road and waited for the police car to pull alongside her. An officer jumped out and walked up to the girls.

“You’re going over seventy in a fifty-five mile zone,” he grumbled. “What’s the idea?”

“We’re chasing a car,” Nancy said. “But now we’ve lost it. We believe one of the passengers is wanted by the Navy for going AWOL. His name is Giuseppe Matthews, but he’s known under the alias of Matt Carmen or Breck Tobin.

“How do you know about all this?”

“He owns a boat called The Whisper and has been harassing us in Biscayne Bay, Yesterday we were at the Naval Office and saw a picture of him. You can check with Captain Smith.”

The officer hesitated a moment, then said, “What did the car look like?”

“It was a red sedan with a Connecticut license plate,” George put in.

“All right. I’ll take care of the matter and send out an alarm. Since you were trying to do a good deed, I won’t give you a ticket this time. But from now on, leave chasing criminals to the police.”

Nancy nodded. “It’s just that he turned up ahead of us in the downtown traffic,” she said.

“I understand. And thanks for the information.”

The officer said good-by and went back to his car. Nancy pulled out onto the highway again and to the surprise of Bess and George did not head home. Instead she went toward the waterfront.

“Where are you going?” Bess asked.

“If the two men were Breck Tobin and Matt Carmen, they’re probably headed for The Whisper.”

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