“I wonder if Raven Ridge will be as pretty as this?” Rosanna mused.
“It’s even more beautiful,” Mr. Nichols told her. “The scenery is very impressive.”
Before they arose from the table it was growing dusk for they had lingered to watch the sunset.
“It’s just as well that I wired ahead for hotel reservations,” Mr. Nichols remarked as they hurried to the parked car. “Getting in after dark it wouldn’t be so pleasant to find all the rooms taken.”
At exactly nine o’clock the twinkling lights of the Mt. Ashland Hotel were sighted, and a few minutes later the automobile drew up in front of the large white rambling building. An attendant took the car and they all went inside.
“I doubt if you’ll get rooms here tonight, sir,” a bellboy told the detective as he carried the luggage to the main desk. “There’s been a big rush of guests this week-end.”
Mr. Nichols was not disturbed. At the desk he merely gave the clerk his name, claiming the two rooms which he had reserved by wire.
“We saved two very fine rooms for you,” the clerk returned politely. “Both overlook the valley.”
While Mr. Nichols signed the register, Penny and Rosanna sat down nearby. Their attention was drawn to the main entrance. A large touring car had pulled up to the door. A pompous looking woman of middle age and a younger woman, evidently her daughter, had alighted. Both were elegantly if somewhat conspicuously dressed. Several suitcases, hat boxes and miscellaneous packages were unloaded. The older woman carried a fat lapdog in her arms.
“They seem to have brought everything but the bird cage,” Penny said in an undertone.