In a short while they were all crowding into Penny’s room, laughing and making fun of each other.
Marjorie and Judy were dressed alike in little Swiss peasant girl costumes. Jimmy made a very handsome cowboy and Philip was a swashbuckling pirate. A banquet was to be served at midnight after the unmasking, and since this was the event of the summer, Ann Mary had included all her specialties in the menu. She stayed at the dress rehearsal only long enough to assure them that they all looked wonderful, then hurried away.
In spite of last-minute preparations, the Allens and Peter made time for a final conference in the office.
“Let’s try to have as much fun as possible,” Peter said, “but we mustn’t forget for one minute that we’re all detectives.”
“That’s right,” Phil agreed. “If any one of us notices a guest acting suspiciously, he or she must report at once to the others. There’ll be over a hundred people here tonight, so we’ve all got to be on our toes. Every minute,” he added soberly.
Jimmy nodded. “Every minute until the unmasking anyway. Which means between the hours of ten and midnight. Not many people will arrive before ten even though we invited them to come at nine-thirty.”
Penny was sketching a floor plan of the Lodge on a large sheet of paper. “Whatever Mr. X is after,” she said, “it obviously isn’t buried on the grounds. If it were, he wouldn’t have planted those red herrings. Therefore, it’s probably in the house. If it’s upstairs, all we have to do is make sure that nobody but our house guests and help goes up without our knowing it. We all know what costumes they’ll be wearing so that’s easy. But it will be Peter and Marjorie’s job to keep an eye on the back stairs; Jimmy and I, the front.”
Everyone nodded, and Penny went on. “If it’s downstairs, Mr. X will know that he hasn’t got a prayer of searching for it, unless it’s in the office or the storage room, and I’ve locked those doors securely, so he can’t slip in and out unnoticed. The other downstairs rooms will be filled with people all the time, including the kitchen. The logical time for him to try to find whatever he plans to steal will be when everyone is gathered in one room.”
She smiled up at Peter. “In order to be sure we catch Mr. X in our trap, I have carefully dropped hints throughout the village that at eleven-thirty on the dot we’re going to show our guests the secret room. Don’t you think he’ll choose that time, when everyone’s attention will be concentrated on one spot, to do something which will attract our attention?”
“I certainly do,” Peter said. “He’ll be the one guest at that moment who won’t crowd into the alcove to see how the secret door works. Unless,” he added thoughtfully, “whatever he happens to be after is in the secret room itself.”