"You'll hear all about it," Penny promised eagerly. "But let's wait until we're away from the cottage."

"Even the walls have ears?" laughed Susan.

"No, but our housekeeper has," Penny replied.

The girls soon left the cottage, walking down by the ravine where they would be alone. Penny told her chum everything that had happened since she and her father had arrived at Kendon. Susan did not feel that her friend had placed an imaginative interpretation upon any of the events.

"I'm glad you're in sympathy with me," Penny laughed. "I'm hoping that together we may be able to help little Perry Crocker. And incidentally, we might stumble into a mystery which would rival Dad's toy lantern case."

"You know I want to help," said Susan eagerly. "But I'm an awful dub.

I never have any ideas."

"I'm a little short of them myself just now," Penny admitted. "But first we'll go down to the Crocker place. I'm anxious for you to meet the main characters of our melodrama."

"I think I noticed the house on the way up the hill," Susan replied.

"Is it that ancient, vine-covered mansion?"

"Yes, Mrs. Masterbrook told me Old Herman moved in there after his sister died. He used to live in this cottage."

"And where is this young man named Michael Haymond?"

"I don't know what became of him," Penny admitted. "He should be somewhere around."

"Is he good looking?"

"You would ask that," teased Penny. "No, Michael isn't handsome, but he's nice."

"You said in your letter that you thought he might be a crook----"

"Well, he acted mysteriously at first," Penny said defensively. "But after you get to know him, he seems like anyone else, only he's very reserved."

"Perhaps Mr. Crocker will turn out that way."

"I don't think so," Penny smiled. "He's really an eccentric character.

Do you mind walking down k.n.o.b Hill?"

"Not at all. I need a little exercise."

The distance between the cottage and Mr. Crocker's house was only a quarter of a mile. Penny intended to use as a pretext for calling upon the old man that she wished to buy more eggs. However, as the girls drew near the mansion they saw Mr. Crocker's car coming down the lane.

"There goes Herman now!" Penny exclaimed. "And Perry is with him."

The car reached the end of the lane and turned down the main road toward Kendon.

"Well, it looks as if I'll not get to meet the old gentleman after all," commented Susan.

"No, but this will be a good time to see the house at close range.

With Mr. Crocker away, we can look around as much as we please."

As the girls walked on up the lane Penny told Susan about the automobile which she had seen parked in Mr. Crocker's barn.

"What do you think became of the owner?" asked Susan. "You're not intimating that Walter Crocker never went back to the city?"

"I've asked myself that question a great many times. I know that Mr.

Crocker's nephew came here to claim an inheritance, yet the people of Kendon are under the impression that Old Herman has no living relatives except Perry."

"You're making a very serious accusation against Mr. Crocker."

"Oh, I'm not saying that he had anything to do with his nephew's disappearance," Penny said quickly. "I'm just speculating about it.

For that matter, I'd not tell anyone else my thoughts."

"It wouldn't be wise----" Susan began.

Her words ended in a gasp of alarm for at that moment Mr. Crocker's hound came around the corner of the house. Both girls stopped short.

"Rudy is vicious!" Penny warned. "And he's been left unchained."

"Let's get away from here."

The girls turned and started hurriedly back down the lane, but the hound had made up his mind that they were intruders. With a low growl he leaped toward them.

"Run!" cried Susan in terror.

Instead of fleeing, Penny stooped to s.n.a.t.c.h up a stick. Rudy sprang at her, and the force of his powerful body knocked her to the ground.

Susan screamed in terror.

Help was closer at hand than either of the girls suspected. A man had been crouching behind the hedge. As Penny struggled to regain her feet, he came running toward her. It was Michael Haymond.

CHAPTER XII

The Matron's Story

"Stay where you are!" commanded the young man sternly.

He seized the stick from Penny's hand and used it to beat off the dog.

Rudy showed very little fight. When he felt the sting of the switch he ran off whining toward the barn.

Penny picked herself up and dusted off her linen dress.

"Thank you, Michael," she said soberly.

"It wasn't anything," the young man replied. "The dog is mostly bluff."

"He bluffs too realistically to suit me," Penny returned ruefully.