"Rishi is upstairs in the loft," Nancy told the detectives, as her ropes were being severed. "Rai says he's dead, but maybe he's not! Oh, I hope he's not!"

On a sudden inspiration she asked a policeman to take the ivory charm from Rai's neck and give it to her.

"This may help," she said.

At that very moment Bess Marvin rushed into the room followed by a man.

"Mr. Tilak!" Nancy cried. "Here is the ivory charm from your family. Does it have any magical powers?"

"Yes," he replied. "It contains a special antidote against various harmful drugs."

"Then follow me," she directed, and scooted up the ladder.

Puzzled, he and Bess followed quickly. George arrived a moment later. A discouraging sight met their eyes. Rishi lay on the floor, colorless and limp. An officer was giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, with no noticeable result.

"Mr. Tilak," said Nancy, handing him the ivory charm, "this is your son Rishi. Please use the restorative quickly!"

The former maharaja was trembling with emotion as he gazed at the boy, but he took the charm and kneeled beside the young victim.

"Hold my boy's mouth open," he quietly said to Nancy.

When she did, Mr. Tilak deftly broke off one of the elephant's feet and poured the fluid it contained under Rishi's tongue. Everyone waited with bated breath for some response from the boy.

Nancy could see Mr. Tilak's lips moving as if in prayer. A few seconds later Rishi began to breathe.

"He lives!" his father exclaimed "He lives!" murmured everyone in the loft with a private prayer of thanks.

There was silence for several seconds, until the watchers were sure of this. When Rishi opened his eyes, the policemen quietly left the loft.

The young Indian boy looked at Nancy, Bess, George, and the strange man beside him.

"How do you feel?" Nancy asked.

"Rishi fine now," he replied weakly. "Rai gone."

"I have some wonderful news for you," Nancy said. "Rai is in jail and can never harm you again. And Rishi, this man is your father, who thought you had died as a baby."

Father and son gazed at each other, too overcome to speak. Nancy gave a signal to Bess and George that they should all go downstairs quietly and leave the two alone.

When the girls reached the first floor, Bess burst out, "Isn't it wonderful. Just think, Nancy, you found Rishi's father for him!"

Nancy smiled and asked, "Bess, how did you happen to come here and bring Mr. Tilak?"

Bess explained that when she finished her errands, she had stopped at Nancy's house.

"Hannah told me where you had gone. Also Mr. Tilak phoned. On the spur of the moment I asked him if he'd like to come with me to meet you. While pa.s.sing this place, I saw a lot of cars-policemen's and yours, Nancy. So I drove in."

"You certainly came at the right moment," Nancy said.

George spoke. "Nancy, if Mr. Tilak hadn't arrived to break open the elephant charm, would you have done it?"

"Yes, to save Rishi's life. I admit I had a hunch it held some form of restorative," she replied.

In a few minutes Rishi and his father descended the ladder. The boy had completely recovered and the two were smiling broadly.

Mr. Tilak held the beautiful ivory charm.

"Nancy," he said, "Rishi and I can never repay you for what you have done for us. But as a token of our appreciation, we will have this ivory charm repaired, then present it to you as our most precious material object."

"Oh, I don't want to take such a priceless treasure from you," she said quickly.

"We insist," Mr. Tilak replied. "Rishi tells me you also recovered our stolen fortune in jewels. You and your friends who helped you shall have mementos from that collection, too."

Nancy was embarra.s.sed and quickly told him she never solved mysteries for anything but the sheer delight of it. Her mind wandered a moment as she hoped another mystery would come her way soon. It turned out to be an exciting adventure about The Whispering Statue.

George suddenly grinned. "Mr. Tilak, before you repair the ivory charm for Nancy you'd better put a powerful restorative inside. She always has close calls when she solves a mystery!"

Everyone laughed and agreed the idea was a good one.

end.