CHAPTER 5
ANOTHER THREAT
Rat-tat-tat on the door.
“Who can that be?” Penny demanded. “We’ve simply got to get these clean curtains up before the first guests arrive.”
Phil, who was helping her, said from the top of the stepladder, “Probably your laundry man, Mr. Taggart. Ann Mary or Marjorie can take care of it.” He climbed down the ladder. “Now what?”
“Draperies,” Penny said. “I’ve already put in the pin hooks so it won’t take long.”
Rat-tat-tat again.
“Oh, dear,” she moaned. “Marjorie and Ann Mary are probably out in back and can’t hear. Everyone else is in the village. That’s someone at the front door so it couldn’t be Mr. Taggart. He always parks his car by the Donahues’ cabin. I’d better run down and see who’s knocking.”
Phil moved his ladder to the window where the draperies were to be hung. “Wait a minute,” he said. “Just hand me up those things and then go.” He stared out of the window as he climbed up. “Say, that must be your laundry man’s car out there by the Donahues’ cabin now. Pretty classy, isn’t it?”
“It certainly is,” Penny agreed hurriedly. She gave him the draperies and ran down the stairs from the balcony. At the bottom she stopped. Someone was rummaging around in the storeroom in the back of the house.
“Marjorie,” she called, rather crossly. “What are you doing in there? This is no time to explore! And didn’t you hear someone knocking on the front door?” She hurried down the hall muttering to herself: “With all I have to do, it seems to me that child could at least stop looking for hidden treasure long enough to answer the front door!”