The Kay Tracey Mystery Stories
Volumes 10 through 18

"Snakes!"  The place is alive with them.  They're dropping from that tree!"  While Betty and Wilma Worth run for safety, Kay goes to investigate the weird attack, which she finds has not happened by accident, but has been planned by a thief after their pocketbooks.

Kay, though alert to danger, finds herself each day more deeply involved in a strange mystery.  It leads her finally to the Moleson Mansion, where the "murmuring portrait" of a gypsy hangs.  Suddenly the picture vanishes, then reappears.  Why?  And where is the sinister-looking person who poses for it?  Is the missing Moleson heir the same person?

"Tell Father to send help—"  The frantic call sends Kay dashing to the home of her friend Rosa Lusardi.  When she pushes open the door an astonishing scene meets her eyes.  Rosa Lusardi sits bound hand and foot to a chair by the telephone table.  She has managed to work the gag free of her mouth and has knocked the telephone from its cradle so she can call Kay.  Her pet dog, badly beaten, lies in a corner of the room.  And her father's valuable violin—a Stradivarius—has been stolen!

Kay Tracey's determination to track down the heartless thief leads her and her friends, Betty and Wilma Worth, into one exciting adventure after another.  At one point Kay's eagerness backfires when she fails to get off a departing ship and finds herself hauled before the captain as a stowaway.

As Kay Tracey walks into the flower shop, a smiling young stranger hails her with, "Hello there.  Grand party last night, wasn't it?"  Kay has never seen him before!  Neither does she know any of several other people who greet her that morning as an old friend.  Mistaken identity?  More than that!  Double trouble!

This time Kay is in collision with a deep and intriguing mystery which threatens to land her in a tight spot.  Even Betty and Wilma, the Worth twins, cannot uncover the slightest hint as to who looks so much like their best friend.  When Kay finally picks up the faint thread of a clue, it leads to the sunken garden of an old mansion where a ghostly figure wheels and pirouettes in the dim light.

Kay's club, the Pathfinders, travels to Florida for a vacation, and Ethel Eaton's rival club, the Bittersweet Society, follows the Pathfinders, causing trouble along the way.  Once in Florida, Kay searches for Emily Dodd, who is missing, and investigates strange events at a nearby estate.  The owner, Jasper Jackson, is unfriendly and hateful towards Mrs. Dodd, and Kay wonders if he might have something to do with Emily's disappearance.  After the girls see a ghostly figure on Jackson's property, they know something sinister is behind it.  Kay divides her time between her investigation, spending time with her friends, and warding off Ethel Eaton's attacks.

Sparks shower down upon Kay Tracey as she watches firemen battle a blaze in Brantwood's library.  This distraction, however, does not prevent the teen-age detective from spotting two sinister-looking figures intent on stealing valuable art objects from the burning building.  Kay hops into their truck as they drive off.  From that moment on she becomes entangled in the weird mystery of the Sacred Feather.

Unlike many others in Brantwood, Kay cannot believe the signs which point to elusive Abou Menzel as the firebug menacing her home town.  Together with the Worth twins, peppy Betty and dreamy Wilma, Kay sets about using her skills as a detective in an effort to solve this baffling case.

Two fleeing figures scramble up the lonely hillside and disappear from Kay's view behind a rock ledge.  Breathless, she climbs after them, determined to question them about the strange happenings at Owl's Hole, a summer resort.  Suddenly a boulder comes crashing down the slope directly at Kay.  She dodges quickly, the massive rock missing her by inches.  By the time she has recovered and reached the ledge, the fugitives have accomplished a getaway!

But Kay is far from discouraged.  She has been asked to solve the mystery of the summer resort, and is determined to do it.  Mysterious fires have broken out.  Valuables have vanished.  Weird voices groan after dark, and stealthy shapes follow unwary strollers.

"Here is your pay."  Kay is dumbfounded as she watches her host, Alice Janey, give a mysterious witchlike woman some money.  Kay later learns that Nanna is Miss Janey's clairvoyant and that Nan revealed the location of Miss Janey's missing luggage.  Miss Janey has full confidence in Nanna, since her luggage was indeed found in the exact location described by Nanna, but Kay remains suspicious.

First, Nanna owns the house in which the luggage is found, and second, the valuable contents of the luggage are missing when the luggage is recovered.  Kay believes that Nanna is scheming against Miss Janey, but proving it to Miss Janey will be difficult.

What is going on inside the spooky old Greely mansion?  Peering into the deserted house, Kay Tracey sees a mysterious figure prying open the seventh step of the spiral staircase.  Startled, the intruder flees through the dark halls and gets away.  Kay, sixteen-year-old girl detective, has for the moment lost the prowler, but she finds herself head over heels in another baffling mystery.  The chase is on!

What is hidden in the seventh step?  The question sets Kay's sleuthing brain into high gear.  Kay's cousin Bill, a young lawyer, becomes involved in the strange doings when he tries to sell the Greely estate.  Even Kay's jealous schoolmate, Ethel Eaton, sees a chance to get even with Kay, with a scheme that ultimately backfires.

"Stay away from the Witch!  It's a jinx boat!"  Such a grim warning would surely frighten a less courageous girl than Kay Tracey.  To Kay, whose skill as an amateur detective is already well known in her home town, the threat is a challenge that cannot be ignored.  She must find out why someone is trying to keep her from going aboard the Witch!

Defying the jinx, Kay and her friends the Worth twins, peppy Betty and studious, quiet Wilma, board the trim little houseboat for a summer trip down the Sharon River.  Sailing close behind and always mooring near them, is the strange black Ajax, guarded day and night by a vicious watchdog.  Two mysterious, unfriendly men are aboard, armed with guns and wary of any boat approaching them.

Kay, Wilma, and Betty find their holdiay cruise has turned into a precarious chase.  The trail finally leads the girls to a dangerous spot from which there seems to be no escape . . .