Penny Nichols and the Mystery of the Lost Key Part 1

Penny Nichols and the Mystery of the Lost Key.

by Joan Clark.

CHAPTER I

A Valuable Letter

"Hurry, Susan! We have only ten minutes before the store closes!"

Penelope Nichols, the slender girl in blue, urged her companion into the revolving doors at the entrance of the Bresham Department Store. A vigorous push sent the barriers spinning at such a rate that other shoppers turned to stare at the two girls.

"You nearly took off my heels that time, Penny," Susan Altman protested with a laugh as they emerged into the crowded store.

"Sorry, but we've no time to waste if I get that pair of white earrings.

The clerks are starting to put things away already."

Threading their way through the outgoing stream of shoppers, the girls went directly to the jewelry counter. Penny peered anxiously into one of the gla.s.s cases to see if the coveted ivory ornaments were still on display. They had not been sold.

"Do you think they'll look all right with my red party frock?" she asked her chum as they stood impatiently waiting for a clerk. In matters of dress she valued Susan's opinion more highly than her own.

"Stunning. With your coloring you can wear anything. Now if you had a skin like mine and a snub nose--"

Penny did not hear the remainder of her chum's oft-repeated complaint for she was trying vainly to attract the attention of a clerk. The only available girl at the counter was occupied in showing a tray of fine rings to a tall man in gray tweeds.

"We'll never be waited on," Penny murmured in annoyance. "You can tell it's going to take until closing time before he makes up his mind which ring he wants."

Susan turned to survey the customer. He was expensively dressed and upon a casual inspection appeared to be a gentleman of considerable means.

Although the clerk offered several diamond rings for his approval none of them satisfied him.

"Haven't you anything better than this?" he questioned. "Show me that large diamond, please." He tapped the gla.s.s case lightly with his cane.

The clerk obligingly placed the ring before him. The man examined the diamond closely, comparing it with another ring previously shown him. For the first time he appeared aware of Penny and Susan.

"Wait on these young ladies while I make up my mind which ring I prefer,"

he urged the clerk. "I am in no hurry and I can see that they are."

The clerk hesitated. The rings in which the customer was interested were valuable ones. It was a rule of the store to keep them always in the locked case. Yet it would take her only a minute to wait upon the girls, and obviously the man was a gentleman. She turned to serve Penny.

"I'll take that pair of earrings," Penny announced, indicating the ivory pieces. "They're three dollars, aren't they?"

"Yes, that is correct. I'll have them wrapped for you."

Penny offered the girl a five dollar bill in payment. She could not restrain a little sigh as she saw it deposited in the store's cash drawer. Perhaps she had been foolish to buy the earrings. It meant that she must do without a great many little things in order to keep within her allowance. Penny sighed again. At times it was trying to have a father who believed in maintaining his daughter strictly upon a budget plan.

Her eyes roved aimlessly toward the man at the ring counter. She saw him cast a quick glance about. Then he walked rapidly away, making for the nearest exit.

Penny's keen blue eyes riveted upon the ring tray. The large diamond was missing.

She had not seen the customer actually take it--his movements had been too deft for that--yet she knew for a certainty that while the clerk's back had been turned he had secreted it somewhere upon his person.

Penny did not hesitate. She darted after him.

"Stop!" she cried. And then to the surprised shoppers who turned at the sound of her voice: "Don't let that thief get away!"

The man wheeled sharply, his face convulsed in anger. With his cane he struck viciously at a stout woman who clutched him by the coat.

A store detective blocked the main exit.

Recognizing that he could not hope to escape that way, the thief turned and bolted up a moving escalator which was carrying a capacity load of pa.s.sengers to the second floor.

Penny, the detective, and a few of the more energetic customers took up the pursuit.

In a desperate attempt to escape, the thief elbowed women roughly aside as he darted up the stairway. Upon the uncertain footing of the moving treads, several stumbled and fell. In an instant hysterical women were screaming and clutching at one another for support.

A slender girl in a shabby business suit was rudely jostled. Penny, half way up the moving stairway, tried to save her from a hard fall. She was not quick enough. Down the girl went, and as she fell, the contents of her pocketbook spilled out upon the moving stairway. The thief took advantage of the resulting confusion to melt into the throng of shoppers at the top of the escalator. While store detectives carried on the pursuit, Penny tried to help the terrified women to alight from the stairway.

"Are you hurt?" she asked the girl who had fallen, trying to a.s.sist her to her feet.

"Never mind me! Save my pocketbook!" the other cried, frantically beginning to gather up the scattered objects.

The other pa.s.sengers upon the stairway were more of a hindrance than a help. Yet by working fast Penny managed to acc.u.mulate nearly all of the lost articles before the brief ride approached its end.

"My letter!"

At the other girl's shrill cry, Penny saw a white envelope riding serenely on the uppermost step. With a bound she covered the distance which separated her from it, pouncing upon the letter an instant before the moving belt disappeared into the flooring.

Clutching it triumphantly in her hand, she turned to a.s.sist the girl who had lost it.

"Why, you're limping," she observed. "Here, lean on me."

"It's nothing," the girl maintained staunchly. "I twisted my ankle when I fell."

Penny helped her to a nearby chair. Despite the girl's brave words, her lips quivered when she spoke and her attractive face had taken on an ashen hue. Yet, strangely, her interest centered not in her injury but in the letter which she had nearly lost.

"Thank you for saving it," she told Penny gratefully. "I don't know what I should have done if I'd lost that letter. It means everything to me."

Penny stared at the envelope a trifle curiously but she was too well bred to ask personal questions. Before she could make any response store officials hurried up to take charge of the situation. The girl's name was Rosanna Winters, Penny learned, by listening. She lived at a rooming house on Sixty-fifth Street, not a great distance from Penny's own home.

Rosanna firmly turned down the suggestion of store officials that she be sent to a nearby hospital for first-aid treatment.

"It isn't necessary. I merely twisted my ankle. I'll soon be able to walk on it."

"Let me take you home," Penny offered. "My roadster is parked just outside the store. We live close to each other."

The girl hesitated, then smiled as she said: "That's very kind of you, I'm sure. You don't really mind?"