Penny Nichols and the Mystery of the Lost Key

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 glass 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 glass 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 passengers 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 assist her to her feet.

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

The other passengers upon the stairway were more of a hindrance than a help. Yet by working fast Penny managed to accumulate 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 assist 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?"

"Of course not. Here, let me help you downstairs."

"Not by way of the escalator," Rosanna said hastily. "Hereafter I'll ride on the elevator. It's safer."

Although the store's gong had announced the closing hour some minutes previously, shoppers were slow to leave the building. As the girls returned to the street floor they were embarrassed to find themselves the target for many curious stares. Penny readily was recognized as the girl who had observed the theft of the ring.

"What became of that man who knocked me down?" Rosanna questioned. "I suppose he escaped."

"I'm afraid so," Penny admitted, looking about for Susan. "The last I saw of him he was running toward the kitchenware department with the store detective after him."

Sighting Susan near the outside door, Penny steered her new friend in that direction. Quickly she introduced the girls, mentioning Rosanna's unfortunate accident.

"I saw it all," Susan declared. "Penny, you certainly did stir up things when you set the store detective on that thief."

"And the worst of it was that he escaped," Penny acknowledged. "Of course, he may be caught here in the building but I doubt it."

In the excitement, she had completely forgotten her package at the jewelry counter. The girls would have left the store without it had not the clerk come running after them with the purchase.

"Thank you so much for calling out the alarm," she told Penny gratefully. "If the thief isn't caught I may lose my job."

"Oh, I hope not."

"So do I, but I shouldn't have broken a store rule. I was completely taken in by the man's appearance."

"I don't wonder at that," Penny said. "He certainly looked anything but a crook. Was the ring a valuable one?"

"It was priced to sell at eight hundred dollars. I don't see how I could have been so stupid."

Penny felt sorry for the salesgirl, particularly so when the floorwalker came up and began to question her sharply.

"It really wasn't the clerk's fault," Penny insisted. "I feel certain that man was a professional jewel thief."

"Did you notice his appearance?" the floorwalker asked.

"Yes, he was dressed in a gray tweed suit. I'd say he was approximately six feet in height, dark hair and eyes. His face was long and angular."

The store official noted down the description and took Penny's address in case she might be needed later on to identify the crook if he were captured.

"We're watching all the lower floor exits," the floorwalker informed, "but the chances are the man got away by means of one of the fire escapes."

The store rapidly was clearing of shoppers. Penny and her companions lingered a few minutes longer and then they too were politely requested to leave.

"I'd like to know if the store detective caught that man," Penny declared as they paused for an instant on the street. "I suppose now we'll have to find out by reading our newspapers."

Rosanna Winters turned as if to leave the girls.

"Thank you again for saving my pocketbook," she said to Penny. "My ankle is much better now so I'll just take a streetcar home."

Penny caught her by the elbow.

"You'll do no such thing. Why, I can see that it hurts you every step you take. It isn't more than a block or two out of my way to drive you home."

Despite Rosanna's protests, she urged the girl into the roadster which was parked at the curbing. Penny was very proud of her car. Although it was not a new model it ran very well and she spent most of her spare time keeping it washed and polished.

Since the Altman residence was close by, Penny dropped her chum off before taking Rosanna home. During the ride to Sixty-fifth Street, the Winters girl spoke scarcely a word. Several times Penny cast a curious glance in her direction.

Rosanna was the quiet type, she decided. A striking brunette with a thoughtful, almost sad face.

"I live at the next house," the girl said as they turned a corner. "The one on the right."

It was a modest but not unattractive boarding house. The porch was clean and the yard more orderly than the majority in the neighborhood.

"I'm only staying here a few days until I can find another place," Rosanna mentioned, feeling that some explanation was due her companion.

"You are a stranger in Belton City?" Penny guessed.

"Yes, I came here looking for work. But now that won't be necessary." Rosanna hesitated, and then, because Penny had seemed so very friendly, decided to offer additional information. "I am an orphan, Miss Nichols. Until this week I had begun to think that fortune had turned against me."

"And now you've had a piece of good luck?"

"Yes," Rosanna's face glowed as she opened her purse and took out the letter which Penny had picked up from the escalator. "If you hadn't saved this for me, I should have lost everything."

"Then I'm glad I snatched it up in time," Penny smiled.

She could not imagine the contents of the mysterious letter. It was all she could do to keep from asking questions.

"I'd like to have you read it if you care to," Rosanna said a trifle timidly. "I'm anxious to learn the opinion of another person."

"Why, I'll be glad to look at it if you wish," Penny returned, a little surprised at the request. "And as far as advice is concerned, I love to offer it."

She accepted the envelope which Rosanna proffered. As she took out the folded letter a key dropped out into her lap.

"What's this?" Penny demanded.

Rosanna laughed nervously. "If what the letter says is true, it seems to be the key to my inheritance! But read the letter for yourself."