“Why, we’re at our destination now,” Penny protested. “I am sure that must be the building.”
She pointed to an old, rectangular brick structure only a few yards ahead. Obviously it once had been a church for there was a high bell tower, and behind the building a cluster of neglected tombstones gleamed in the moonlight.
The evenly spaced windows were illuminated, and music could be heard.
“Are you sure this is the place?” Louise inquired dubiously. “It looks like a church to me, and they’re holding a service.”
“Oh, the building hasn’t been used for such purposes in over fifteen years,” Penny explained. “I investigated, so I know its history. Until three years ago it was used as a county fire station. Only recently it was reclaimed by this Omar Society of Celestial Thought.”
The girls moved closer. Through an open window they were able to see fifteen or twenty people seated in the pews. A woman played a wheezing organ while a man led the off-key singing.
“Let’s go inside,” Penny proposed.
Louise held back. “Oh, no, we can see everything from here. It looks as if it were a very stupid sort of meeting.”
“Appearances are often deceiving. I want a ringside seat.”
Penny pulled her chum toward the entrance door. There they hesitated, reading a large placard which bore the invitation: