"I didn't get home until an hour ago," Mrs. Gallup explained. "When I found you weren't here I was frantic. I was afraid you might have been kidnapped again."
"Rap Molberg won't trouble me after this, Mrs. Gallup. He's spending the night in jail."
She then gave a glowing account of the capture at the Somm Center sawmill. The details left the housekeeper dumbfounded.
"Penny Nichols, it's plain to see you're going to take after your father," she sighed. "One detective in the family is bad enough."
"It was the most exciting experience of my life!" Penny declared, her eyes gleaming. "I suppose I shall never have another like it."
In such a prediction, she was entirely mistaken. Without the power to look into the future she could not know that an adventure of far different character, though even more thrilling, awaited her. The Mystery of the Lost Key, the second volume in the Penny Nichols series, relates her escapades at Raven Ridge.
Events had moved with such rapidity that until Mrs. Gallup brought a tray of steaming food from the kitchen and set it before her, Penny had not realized how very hungry she was. She had just finished the supper when Mr. Nichols came home.
"What news?" Penny asked eagerly.
"Brunner and Molberg are both behind bars where they belong," her father reported. "Brunner is trying to raise bail and may get out by morning."
"Oh, then he may escape the law after all."