Penny Nichols and the Mystery of the Lost Key Part 10

She clutched Penny by the arm.

"What is it?" the latter muttered drowsily.

"Wake up! I think someone is trying to break into the house!"

As the words penetrated Penny's consciousness, she became instantly alert. She too sat up, listening. Someone was pounding on the front door.

"What shall we do?" Rosanna whispered in terror.

Penny sprang from bed and snapped on the light. "I'm going to dress and go down. It may be Caleb Eckert."

"Or a ghost," Rosanna chattered. "If you're going down, so am I."

With the appearance of a light in the bedroom, the clanging on the door increased in violence. Penny, who was dressing as rapidly as she could, began to grow irritated.

"Are they trying to break down the door?" she grumbled. "I should think whoever it is would know we're hurrying."

Without delaying to lace up her shoes, she ran down the stairs, Rosanna close at her elbow. Before snapping on the living room lights the girls peered out the window.

Slightly rea.s.sured by the appearance of the midnight visitors, they cautiously unbolted the front door.

Mrs. Everett Leeds and her daughter Alicia, swept into the room. Both were bedraggled and obviously out of sorts.

Mrs. Leeds shook the rain from her cape, flung her wet hat into the nearest chair, and then coldly surveyed the two girls.

"What are you doing here, may I ask?" she inquired.

"We _were_ sleeping," Penny smiled.

"I mean, what are you doing in this house?"

"It seems to belong to Rosanna," Penny said evenly. "She inherited it from her uncle, Jacob Winters."

Mrs. Leeds' expression was difficult to interpret. For an instant she looked stunned. But she quickly recovered her poise.

"Nonsense!" she said shortly. "This house belongs to me. Jacob Winters was my cousin. He died recently, leaving me everything. I have a letter and key to prove it. Naturally I couldn't use my key to get into the house for you had it bolted from the inside."

Mrs. Leeds looked accusingly at the girls as she offered the letter to Penny. A casual glance a.s.sured the girls that it was identical with the one Rosanna had received and lost.

"It's too late to go into this tonight," Penny protested. "Let's discuss it in the morning."

"Very well," Mrs. Leeds agreed coldly. "Where are we to sleep?"

Penny informed her that there were several empty bedrooms upstairs. She led the way to the upper floor. Opening the door of one of the rooms, she was surprised to see that it was not as well furnished as the bedroom which she and Rosanna shared. Mrs. Leeds uttered an exclamation of disgust.

"Surely you don't expect me to sleep here, Miss Nichols. The room is dirty. Positively filthy."

"Look at that long cobweb hanging from the ceiling!" Alicia added indignantly. "I'd have hysterics if I slept here."

"Perhaps the adjoining room is better," Penny commented.

An inspection revealed that if anything it was even more neglected.

"I'm afraid you'll just have to make the best of it for tonight," Penny declared, "unless you care to drive on to the next town."

"We'll stay," Mrs. Leeds decided instantly. "I'd prefer to sit up all night, rather than brave those horrible mountain roads again."

"We slipped into a ditch coming here," Alicia informed. "That's what made us so late. We've had a terrible time."

In a closet at the end of the hall, Penny and Rosanna found blankets and linen. As they made up the beds, neither Mrs. Leeds nor her daughter offered to a.s.sist. It was after one o'clock when the girls went back to their own room.

"Mrs. Leeds means to make trouble about the inheritance," Penny remarked in an undertone as they snapped out the light once more. "I wonder if by any chance she could have picked up your letter and key?"

"Oh, I doubt it," Rosanna returned. "I remember when we were at Mt.

Ashland she dropped the hint that she was going to Raven Ridge. At least, she acted strangely when we mentioned the place."

"Yes, she did. I had forgotten for the moment. Oh well, in the morning we'll learn exactly what she intends to do."

Penny rolled over and soon was sleeping soundly. Toward morning she awoke to hear a clock somewhere in the house chiming four. At first she thought nothing of it, then it occurred to her that no one had wound any of the timepieces the previous evening. While she was musing over such an odd happening her keen ears detected the sound of soft footsteps in the long hall outside.

"It's probably Mrs. Leeds or her daughter," she reasoned.

The sounds persisted. At length Penny quietly arose and tiptoed to the door. She looked out into the dark hall. No one was within sight. Mrs.

Leeds' door was closed.

Penny went back to bed, taking care not to awaken Rosanna. Scarcely had she pulled the blankets up than the soft pad of footsteps could be heard again.

"I hope it isn't that ghost Caleb warned us about," she thought uneasily.

"Oh, bother! I know there aren't any ghosts!"

Penny closed her eyes and tried to sleep but found it quite impossible.

Even after the noise in the hall ceased she caught herself listening for the footsteps. At a quarter to seven she dressed and stole downstairs to see what she could find for breakfast.

At eight o'clock when Rosanna came into the kitchen, Penny had coffee, cereal and crisp bacon ready.

"The larder seems very well supplied," she informed cheerfully. "Someone left milk on our doorstep too. I imagine it must have been Caleb."

"I'm hungry enough to eat anything," Rosanna declared. "Shall I call Mrs.

Leeds and Alicia?"

"Yes, do, although I don't know how they'll take to my cooking."

Rosanna went upstairs to rap on Mrs. Leeds' door. She returned a minute later, reporting that neither of the guests would be down for breakfast.

"They were quite put out at being disturbed so early," she told Penny ruefully.

"We'll let them get their own breakfasts then. Come on, we'll have ours anyway."