The Girl Detective Megapack: 25 Classic Mystery Novels for Girls

by Mildred A. Wirt

“I’m not defeated yet,” she thought grimly as she closed her eyes and tried to sleep. “I still have a few tricks up my sleeve!”

  When Rosanna and Penny descended the stairs the next morning they heard a murmur of voices in the library. The door was closed.

  “I imagine Laponi and Mrs. Leeds are having another one of their secret conferences,” Penny commented. “They’re up to some mischief.”

  “Why not leave this place today?” Rosanna demanded, “I don’t care about the fortune any more. I’m so tired of all this plotting and scheming. I’d rather just go away and let them have it.”

  “Now don’t look so distressed,” Penny smiled. “The battle of wits has only begun.”

  “But I don’t like to battle. It isn’t my nature.”

  “I’m your appointed gladiator, Rosanna. You have no idea how much pleasure it would give me to see these grasping imposters exposed.”

  “We haven’t any proof they’re imposters,” Rosanna said soberly. “After all, they had letters and keys to the house. I haven’t even that much.”

  “It’s too bad they were lost, but you mustn’t let it worry you,” Penny chided. “Right now I’m more concerned over another matter.”

  “The mysterious ghost?”

  “Yes, although I wasn’t thinking of that at the moment. It’s Mr. Winters’ photograph. Who tore it out of the album?”

  “For all we know it may have been removed years ago.”

  “Yes, that’s so, but somehow I have a hunch it disappeared at a far more recent date. If I don’t find a picture of Jacob Winters, I’m afraid my little plan will fall through.”

  “You haven’t told me much about this secret plan of yours, Penny.”

  “That’s because I haven’t worked it out clearly in my own mind yet. But unless I find the photograph there simply won’t be any.”

  “We might search the house again.”

  “I intend to do that if we can ever find a time when Mrs. Leeds and Max Laponi are both gone. Just now I’m eager to make another inspection of the organ room upstairs. This is our chance while those two are closeted in the library.”

  Rosanna was not especially anxious to visit the third floor again, but she offered no objection to the suggestion. Penny led the way up the creaking stairs.

  The door of the music room was unlocked as they had left it the previous evening. However, the window shades were all drawn and the room was dark. Penny raised the blinds to admit light.

  Curiously, the girls gazed about them. Everything was covered with a thick coating of dust and cobwebs hung in misty veils from the corners of the room. Penny crossed over to the organ. She indicated the bench in front of it.

  “I guess that proves whether or not our ghost was real.”

  “You mean the imprint on the dusty surface of the organ bench?” Rosanna asked doubtfully.

  “Yes, you can see where the organist sat.”

  “Perhaps one of us brushed off the dust without realizing it. You tried to play a few notes on the organ, you know.”

  “Yes, but I didn’t sit down on the bench, Rosanna.”

  Losing interest in the organ, Penny began to search for the secret panel through which she was firmly convinced that the “ghost” had disappeared. As her eyes moved swiftly over the smooth wall, she suddenly uttered a low exclamation.

  “See, Rosanna! The imprint of a man’s hand!”

  The marking upon the wall was so faint that at first the other girl did not see it. But she too became excited as Penny pointed it out.

  “How do you suppose it came to be there?” she asked in awe.

  “I suspect our friend the organist was groping about in the dark searching for the secret panel. No doubt his hand was dusty and when he pressed it against the wall it left a faint imprint.”

  “If you’re right, we have a valuable clue as to the location of the panel!”

  Penny nodded eagerly. Already she was exploring the wall with her hand.

  “It’s funny,” she murmured impatiently. “I’m as sure as anything that the panel is here—”

  She broke off suddenly as her fingers touched a tiny round object which was hidden under the wall paper.

  “I believe I’ve found it!” she exclaimed gleefully pressing the button.

  The girls heard a faint click. But the panel did not open.

  “The stubborn thing!” Penny cried impatiently. “Why doesn’t it open?”

  She pushed with both hands against the section of wall where she felt convinced the panel was located. To her own surprise and the horror of her companion, it suddenly gave way.

  Penny plunged headlong through the opening. And before Rosanna could recover from the shock of seeing her friend disappear, the panel fell back into place.

  “Penny, Penny,” she cried anxiously, pounding upon the wall. “Are you hurt?”

  For several minutes there was no answer. Then Rosanna heard a smothered little giggle.

  “All my bones are still together I guess. But I seem to have tumbled down a flight of stairs. Come on in.”

  “I don’t know how to get in. The panel slammed shut when you fell through.”

  “It’s hinged at the top I think. Find the little button and press on it. Then when you hear a click push on the panel. Only push easy or you’ll take a tumble the way I did.”

  In a minute Rosanna had located the button. She pressed upon it as she had seen Penny do. Then as the lock clicked, she cautiously pushed against the panel. Light as was her touch the sector of wall swung instantly back and she stepped through the opening. So concerned was she over Penny that she failed to hear the panel close behind her.

  At first Rosanna could see nothing. Then as her eyes became accustomed to the gloomy interior she made out a long flight of stone steps leading downward into inky blackness.

  She felt reassured when Penny grasped her hand.

  “Come on, Rosanna! Isn’t it exciting? Let’s explore!”

  “Oh, it’s too dark!” Rosanna whispered nervously. “What if we should run into that dreadful man—the organist?”

  “Well, perhaps it would be wiser to go back for a flashlight,” Penny conceded. “Only we mustn’t let Mrs. Leeds or Max Laponi suspect what we’re up to. We must keep this discovery strictly to ourselves.”

  She returned to the head of the stairs but although she groped her hand carefully along the wall she could find no hidden button or spring which controlled the panel. By this time Rosanna had grown frightened.

  “Don’t tell me we’re locked in!”

  Penny forced herself to speak calmly. She knew that it would never do to let Rosanna realize that she too was alarmed.

  “For the moment I’m afraid we are,” she admitted quietly. “But don’t give up hope. We’ll get out of here somehow.”

  CHAPTER XIII

  The Secret Stairs

  Ten minutes of unrewarded search convinced Penny that they were only wasting their time in attempting to locate the hidden spring without a light.

  “Let’s follow the steps down and see where they lead,” she suggested. “Surely there must be another exit.”

  Rosanna permitted Penny to lead her down the steep flight of stairs. They presently reached the bottom. It was too dark to see very much but by feeling along the damp stone wall they discovered that they were in a narrow passageway. As they moved cautiously forward a breath of cold air struck Penny’s face.

  “This must be the way to the exit,” she declared cheerfully. “We’ll soon be out of here now.”

  “It can’t be too soon for me,” Rosanna chattered.

  Hand in hand they groped their way along the subterranean passage. Soon they came to the end of it but instead of an exit they found another flight of steps leading downward at a steep angle.

  “Careful or you’ll fall,” Penny warned as they began the treacherous descent. “Some of the stones are loose.”

  “I wish we had a light,” Rosanna complained. “Where do you suppose
we’re going anyway?”

  “Maybe to the center of the earth,” Penny chuckled. “It seems like it anyway.”

  “Unless I’m mixed up in my directions we’re moving toward the lake.”

  “It seems that way to me too,” Penny readily agreed. “But we’ve twisted and turned so many times I couldn’t be sure of anything.”

  By this time the girls were convinced that they were underground for they had made a long, straight descent. The walls were moist and damp; the air chilly. Yet one thing puzzled them. If they actually were traveling toward the lake that meant that the tunnel had been bored into the side of the cliff. But such a feat obviously was nothing less than an engineering enterprise.

  At length the girls reached the bottom of the second flight of stairs only to find themselves in another passageway. It was much larger than the other and lighter.

  “Do you think we could be in an abandoned ore mine?” Penny suddenly demanded, pausing to inspect the walls.

  “It does look a little like it. Only I never heard of stone steps in a mine.”

  “No, they have shafts. But it strikes me that the steps may have been added later, if you noticed, the upper passage was much smaller than this one.”

  “As if it had been dug out to join with this one,” Rosanna added eagerly.

  “Exactly. It’s my theory that some person knew about this old mine and decided to connect it with a smaller tunnel which would lead up into the house.”

  “But who do you suppose conceived such a plan?”

  “I can’t answer that one,” Penny laughed. “But come on, let’s see if we aren’t approaching the exit.”

  Eagerly they moved forward, guided by the streak of light. A minute later Penny who was in the lead, gave a joyous shout.

  “We’ve come to the end of it! I can see trees!”

  “Thank goodness,” Rosanna sighed in relief. “I was afraid we’d never get out alive.”

  Penny parted the bushes which barred the exit and they peered out.

  “You were right, Rosanna. We did travel toward the lake. We’re almost in it for that matter!”

  The water came within a few yards of the entrance and during a storm the girls imagined that it must flood the lower passageway. Penny noticed a rowboat tied up in a clump of bushes.

  “I suppose that’s how our ghost makes his quick get-away,” Penny remarked dryly.

  “We might take a ride on the lake,” Rosanna proposed.

  “Don’t you think it might advertise that we’ve discovered this tunnel? Especially if the ghost should happen to see us using his boat.”

  “Of course, I didn’t stop to think. Oh, Penny if only we knew the identity of this person who annoys the household!”

  “It shouldn’t be so hard to learn it now,” Penny declared in satisfaction. “At night we’ll station ourselves here by the mouth of the tunnel and watch.”

  “It wouldn’t surprise me if it should turn out to be Max Laponi,” Rosanna remarked. “He never seems to be in his room at night.”

  Penny offered no response.

  Fearing that their long absence from the house might have aroused suspicion, the girls hurriedly left the scene. They found a trail which wound along the base of the cliff and which presently took them toward the house on the hill.

  As they passed the Eckert cabin they saw the old man cleaning fish by the back door. They greeted him perfunctorily and would have walked on had he not seemed in a mood to talk.

  “Out early this morning, aren’t you?” he questioned.

  “Yes, we were down by the lake,” Penny answered.

  “You must have crawled out of bed before the sun was up. I’ve been cleaning fish here all morning and I didn’t see you go past.”

  “We went around a different way,” Penny answered, and then before he could ask another question, interposed one of her own. “By the way, do you know where I could get a picture of Jacob Winters?”

  Old Caleb dropped his fish knife. It took him a long time to recover it from the ground.

  “What do you want of a picture?” he questioned gruffly.

  “Oh, I just need it,” Penny said evasively.

  “I’d like to have one myself,” Rosanna added sincerely. “I never had a photo of my uncle.”

  “If you find he’s cut you out of all his property I guess you probably won’t be so anxious to have a picture of the old cod,” Caleb observed.

  Rosanna drew herself up proudly.

  “It wouldn’t make the slightest difference, Mr. Eckert. After all, my uncle never saw me so why should he have left me any of his money? You say such disagreeable things!”

  “I’m a disagreeable old man,” Caleb admitted cheerfully, “but my bark is worse than my bite.”

  “Well, please don’t call my uncle names,” Rosanna went on with spirit.

  “Names?”

  “You spoke of Uncle Jacob as an old cod. I don’t like it a bit.”

  Old Caleb was startled by the outburst. But his eyes twinkled as he replied soberly:

  “Well, now, Miss Rosanna, I didn’t mean to offend you or to speak disrespectfully of Jacob either. It was just my way of talking.”

  “Then I’ll forgive you,” Rosanna smiled.

  The girls were on the verge of moving off when Caleb checked them with a question.

  “You haven’t heard Mrs. Leeds or that Laponi fellow say anything about leaving have you?”

  “I don’t believe they intend to go unless they’re put out,” Penny responded. “I heard Mrs. Leeds say the other day that she had sent for her lawyer.”

  “They stick tighter than cockle burs,” Caleb commented. “If only I had the right, I would send them both packing. Especially that Max Laponi. I don’t trust him.”

  “Neither do I,” Penny agreed promptly. “That’s why I think you should try to help me clear up this dreadful muddle.”

  “What can I do? I have no authority.”

  “It will help if you can find me a photograph of Mr. Winters.”

  Caleb’s face puckered into troubled wrinkles.

  “It’s too late,” he muttered under his breath. “It wouldn’t do any good.”

  “What was that you said?” Penny questioned sharply.

  “Nothing. I was just talking to myself. About the picture. I’ll see what I can do. Don’t count much on getting it though because I doubt if I can locate one for you.”

  The girls chatted a few minutes longer but Caleb was not very good company. He responded briefly if at all to their conversational sallies and for the most part seemed lost in thought. They soon left him to his fish cleaning and went on toward the house.

  “I wonder what got into him all at once?” Rosanna mused. “Perhaps he was offended at the way I spoke to him.”

  “I don’t think he gave it a second thought,” Penny responded. “I suspect Caleb rather likes to have folks talk up to him. No, I’m sure it wasn’t anything you said that annoyed him. Likely enough it was my request for Mr. Winters’ photograph.”

  “Why should that bother him?”

  “That’s what I’d like to know. Caleb is a queer one to say the least.”

  “Do you think he’ll ever produce the photo?”

  Penny laughed shortly.

  “It would be a great surprise to me if he did. And yet from the way he acted, I’m convinced he could get me one if he chose. Like as not he has one in his cabin now.”

  Penny lapsed into a moody silence. From the day of her arrival at Raven Ridge she had sensed old Caleb’s reluctance to help her. While she could not say that he was exactly unfriendly he had made no positive move of assistance. She had believed for a long time that he knew a great deal more than he would tell regarding Jacob Winters’ absence.

  The girls entered the house by a side door. They noticed that Mrs. Leeds’ car no longer stood on the driveway and took it for granted that she and her daughter had driven to Andover as was their daily custom.

  They glanced casu
ally into the library and noticed that it was empty. However, Penny’s keen eyes traveled to the desk. She observed that the ink bottle had been left uncorked and that a pen had been removed from its holder.

  “I wonder what Mrs. Leeds and Laponi were up to?” she speculated. “Oh, well, I’ll probably find out soon enough.”

  “I believe I’ll go upstairs for a few minutes,” Rosanna excused herself. “I haven’t straightened my things yet this morning.”

  Left alone, Penny crossed over to the desk and examined the paper in the wastebasket. She looked closely at the blotter, even holding it to the mirror, but it had been used so many times that the words which appeared upon it could not be read. There was not a scrap of evidence to show what Mrs. Leeds and Max Laponi had been writing.

  In disappointment Penny picked up a book and sat down to read. Presently she heard soft steps in the hallway but paid slight attention thinking that it was Rosanna.

  She was on the verge of calling her friend’s name when she thought better of it. The sound of the footsteps told her that the person had gone into the living room. And by this time she was convinced that it was not Rosanna.

  She waited, listening. She heard a faint metallic click which caused her to lay aside her book and quietly steal to the doorway of the living room.

  Max Laponi stood with his back toward her, so absorbed in what he was about that he had not the slightest suspicion that he was being observed.

  Penny saw him carefully remove the oil painting from the wall. He deftly opened the panel, exposing the safe. Then, with a sureness of touch which amazed Penny, he began to spin the dials.

  CHAPTER XIV

  A Diamond Ring

  “Mr. Laponi, kindly move away from that safe!”

  Penny spoke sharply as she quietly stepped into the living room. The man whirled and saw her. Taken by surprise, his hand fell away from the dials and he looked confused.

  “You seem to be very much interested in Mr. Winters’ valuables,” Penny said sternly.

  By this time Max Laponi had recovered his composure.

  “Why shouldn’t I be?” he retorted. “After all, I am Mr. Winters’ heir.”

  “That remains to be seen, Mr. Laponi. You appear to be very handy at opening safes, I notice.” Penny crossed the room and after turning the handle to make certain that Laponi had not succeeded in his purpose, closed the panel and returned the oil painting to its former position.