Penny Nichols and the Mystery of the Lost Key Part 17

"And allow you to have everything your way," Penny interposed sweetly.

"Now wouldn't that be nice--for you!"

She took Rosanna by the arm and urged her toward the car.

"Don't allow Miss Nichols to poison your mind!" Mrs. Leeds pleaded, following Rosanna to the curbing. "Unless you leave immediately you will receive no part of the fortune. If you go without making any further trouble, I might agree to some small settlement. After all, I mean to be generous."

"Thanks for telling us," Penny smiled.

She closed the car door and they drove away.

"Perhaps we shouldn't have been so short with her," Rosanna said uneasily as they returned to the house on Snow Mountain. "If it's true that the property has been left to her, then she was being generous to offer to give me anything."

"Don't worry, she'd forget her promise soon enough if she succeeded in getting you away from here, Rosanna. I detest that woman. She thinks she is so subtle and she's as transparent as gla.s.s!"

"I wonder what evidence she referred to?" Rosanna mused.

Penny started to speak, then changed her mind. Although Mrs. Leeds had no suspicion that she guessed the truth, she was well aware of the nature of the new evidence. However, she refrained from mentioning the burned will, realizing that Rosanna, in her present depressed state of mind, would be greatly disturbed by the information. If the orphan believed that she no longer had a definite claim to the fortune, she would insist upon leaving Raven Ridge without further delay.

Penny did not intend to quit the scene until she had answered several questions to her satisfaction.

The entire case seemed a trifle fantastic as she reviewed it. First, Rosanna had received the strange letter signed by a fict.i.tious name.

Then, although the orphan had lost the key, they had found the door of the Winters' mansion unlocked. Close upon the heels of their arrival, Mrs. Leeds, her daughter, and Max Laponi appeared. Since then, the house had been disturbed by haunting organ music and one baffling event had crowded upon another.

"It's all very bewildering," Penny reflected. "But I believe that everything can be fitted together if only I am able to learn the ident.i.ty of the mysterious ghost."

The night closed in dark and windy. Penny and Rosanna sat by the fire, trying to read. They were relieved when Mrs. Leeds and her daughter retired to their rooms shortly after eight o'clock for it gave them an opportunity to talk. At ten o'clock the girls went to their own room. Max Laponi had not yet returned from Andover where he took his meals.

Penny was tired and fell asleep almost as soon as her head touched the pillow. Hours later she was awakened by Rosanna who was sitting upright in bed.

"What is it?" Penny mumbled drowsily.

Then she knew. The house reverberated with the soft chords of a pipe organ.

Without switching on the electric lights, Penny drew on her dressing gown. She started toward the door, then returned to grope in the drawer of the dresser where she found the key which locked the door leading to the attic floor.

"What are you going to do?" Rosanna asked anxiously, drawing the bedclothes closer about her.

Penny already had gone. Stealing quietly down the dark hall she reached the end of it and stood listening. The door leading to the third floor was closed. She could hear the music more distinctly than before and knew for a certainty that it came from above.

She gently tried the door. It was still locked.

Penny was momentarily baffled. She had half expected to find the door unlocked. She had been so confident that by taking the key she could put a stop to the ghost music.

"How did the organist reach the third floor if he didn't pa.s.s through this door?" she debated. "That ghost must be quite a clever fellow if he can enter without keys."

The entire house had been carefully locked up for the night. Penny and Rosanna had attended to it the last thing before retiring, knowing that Max Laponi could come in later by using his own pa.s.s key. They had secured every door and window.

"Well, I won't learn anything by standing here," Penny thought uncomfortably. "I'll have to go up there." Her usual courage was at low ebb. She dreaded the ordeal.

However, before she could open the stairway door, a shrill scream echoed down the hall.

Terrified, Penny crouched back against the wall and waited.

CHAPTER X The Wall Safe

Recovering from her fright, Penny reached up and snapped on the light.

She heard a door open down the hall. Mrs. Leeds, a dressing gown clutched about her unshapely figure, stumbled toward the girl.

"There's something in my room! It struck my face while I was sleeping!

Oh, oh, such a horrible house!"

"Control yourself," Penny advised, taking her by the arm. "We'll see what it is."

Mrs. Leeds jerked away, a.s.suming an att.i.tude of tense listening. For the first time she had paid heed to the organ music from above.

"There it is again!" she whispered in awe. "This house is haunted."

Rosanna came down the hall, joining the two at Mrs. Leeds' door. Alicia huddled nearby, too frightened to speak a word.

Penny opened the door and groped for the electric switch. As the room was flooded with light, she looked quickly about. Everything was in disorder but that was because Mrs. Leeds had done no straightening or cleaning since her arrival.

Suddenly Penny began to laugh.

"Pray what do you find that is so humorous?" Mrs. Leeds demanded indignantly.

"Bats!" Penny answered, laughing again.

There were four of them blinded by the light, cowering in the corners of the room. Penny opened a window and with Rosanna's help drove them out into the night.

"They must have come in through an open window," she said to Mrs. Leeds.

"I didn't have a window open," the woman retorted. "I can't bear to sleep in this room again. Tomorrow I shall move into another. Come Alicia, we'll sit up until morning in the living room."

Returning to her own room, Penny listened for the organ music. It had ceased as mysteriously as it had begun. She glanced curiously toward the room occupied by Max Laponi. The door was closed. He alone of the entire household seemed undisturbed by the strange things which went on about him.

"I'd like to know if he really is in his room," Penny thought.

She hesitated by the door but did not have the courage to try the k.n.o.b.

After a moment she followed Rosanna to their bedroom at the other end of the hall.

Morning found Mrs. Leeds even more upset than upon the previous night.

Her eyes were bloodshot, her face sallow, her clothes unpressed. She quarreled with her daughter and ignored Penny and Rosanna. However, when Max Laponi came down the stairs looking as dapper as ever, her att.i.tude instantly changed. She spoke to him in a softer tone.

"We were beginning to wonder if the ghost made off with you last night,"