“Yes, we’re waiting now to have a tire patched.”
“You’re the second party through here today that’s heading for Raven Ridge,” Mrs. Stevens informed. “A man stopped for lunch about an hour ago. Only he thought it wasn’t cooked well enough for him.”
“He must have been particular,” Penny commented. “What did he look like?”
“He was tall and dark and he had a sharp way of watching one.”
“I wonder if it could have been that man who passed us on the road?” Penny mused. “Was he driving a gray coupé?”
“Yes, I believe he was.”
Penny was convinced that the man Mrs. Stevens described was the same person who had declined to help her on the road. She wondered what business took him to Raven Ridge. Could she have been mistaken in believing him to be the thief who had stolen the diamond ring?
Paying for the luncheon, the girls went back to the garage. The tire was ready for them. Soon they were on their way again.
They had driven for perhaps an hour when Penny observed that the road seemed to be leading them out of the mountains. She began to wonder if they had taken a wrong turn. She stopped at the next filling station to inquire. To her dismay, she was told that she had traveled nearly twenty miles out of her way.
“I thought this didn’t seem like the right road,” Penny declared ruefully to her companion. “Now we’ll be lucky to get to Raven Ridge by dinner time, to say nothing of returning to Mt. Ashland tonight.”