utomobile, Penny deftly
slipped the package of letters into the front of her dress. She
pretended to keep on searching in the bottom of the car.

"Act as if everything is perfectly natural," she warned Susan in a
whisper.

Mr. Crocker stopped his car with a jerk and sprang out. He glanced
suspiciously at the girls as he came toward them.

"Oh, how do you do, Mr. Crocker," Penny said, climbing slowly down from
the rumble. "Dad just drove in a minute ago. I was looking for your
letters."

"Are they there?" the man asked sharply.

"Perhaps you ought to look," Penny replied, avoiding Susan's glance.
"I had just started to search when you drove up."

Walter Crocker climbed up on the step and made a careful examination of
the interior of the automobile. Penny and Susan stood watching him
with perfectly innocent faces. They knew that he would not find the
letters.

The man did not like to give up.

"They may have been pushed up forward out of sight," he said. "Do you
have a flashlight?"

"I'll get one from the garage," Penny offered.

She and Susan went into the building, lingering there while they
enjoyed a good laugh at the expense of Walter Crocker.

They were just ready to return with the flashlight when Penny suddenly
placed a restraining hand on Susan's arm.

"Wait!" she whispered.

Unaware that the girls were in the garage, Mrs. Masterbrook came
hurrying from the cottage. She went directly toward Walter Crocker,
her face convulsed with anger.

"Why did you come here?" she demanded. "You should have known better!"

"I had to come," retorted the man in an undertone. He cast an anxious
glance toward the garage. "Now get away from here unless you want to
give everything away!"

"I didn't know anyone was around," the housekeeper muttered. She
turned and fled into the house.

Penny and Susan waited a minute or two before emerging from the garage
with the flashlight.

"Sorry I was so long," apologized Penny.

"It doesn't matter," replied Walter Crocker crossly. "I've looked
everywhere. The letters aren't here."

"You must have dropped them some other place," said Susan innocently.

"Yes," nodded Penny, "you might have left them at Mr. Crocker's place.
Have you inquired there?"

"No, I haven't," the man replied shortly.

Without another word he climbed into his own car and drove away.

"That was a good quip--telling him to inquire of Herman Crocker!" Susan
laughed after the man was