“I’ve just heard the strangest—most mysterious thing!” she gasped.
“You would!” Peggy declared. “But that’s nothing unusual for you. You’re always hearing and seeing mysterious things.”
“What was it?” Florence called from the bed.
“Well, just as I had reached your door and was about to knock, I heard a man in the room directly across the hall say in the most earnest voice imaginable, ‘I’m afraid I’m going to lose my life before this is over.’”
Both girls stared wide-eyed at Jo Ann; then Peggy, recovering from her first shock, asked half doubtfully, “You’re sure you didn’t misunderstand him? Your imagination runs riot now and then. Perhaps you just thought you heard him say that.”
Jo Ann shook her head vigorously. “No imagination about it. I heard him as distinctly as I do you now.”
“What on earth made him say that, do you suppose, Jo?” Florence asked curiously.
“That’s what I’d like to know.”
“What can that man be—a gangster?” Without waiting for an answer Peggy added, shuddering, “The idea of that man’s being right across the hall from us gives me the creeps.” She flew back to the door to see if she had locked it.
“I believe he must be a detective; I feel sure he wasn’t a gangster,” Jo Ann said quickly. “He didn’t look like one.”