...
"Penny, do you know whether there is a concealed safe in the Selim
house?"
The girl, startled, began to shake her head, then checked herself. "Not
that I ever saw, or knew of when Dad and Mother and I lived there,
but--" She hesitated, her cheeks turning scarlet.
"Out with it, Penny!" Sanderson urged, his voice very kind.
"It's just that, if you really think there's a secret hiding place in
the house, I believe I understand something that puzzled me when it
happened," Penny confessed, her head high. "I was at the Country Club
one night--a Saturday night when the whole crowd is usually there for
the dinner and dance. I'd been dancing with--with Ralph, and when the
music stopped we went out on the porch, where several of our crowd were
sitting. It was--just two or three weeks after--after Dad left town.
Lois wouldn't let me drop out of things.... Anyway, it was dark and I
heard Judge Marshall saying something about 'the simplest and most
ingenious arrangement you ever saw. Of course that's where the rascal
kept his securities--...' I knew they were talking about Dad, from the
way Judge Marshall shut up and changed the subject as soon as he saw
me."
"Who was on the porch, Penny?" Dundee asked tensely.
"Why, let's see--Flora, and Johnny Drake, and Clive," she answered
slowly.
Pages:
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228