“I quite agree with Penny,” Mr. Parker declared. “In fact, I may call at the mansion myself! I’ve become interested in Antón and Celeste—they’re a very successful pair of bluffers.”
“Oh, Dad! Will you go with me tomorrow?”
“Perhaps,” he promised vaguely. “We’ll see, when the time comes. I foresee any number of troubles far more serious than our concern with the Rhett family.”
“With both of you against me, I’m only wasting my breath,” Mrs. Weems sighed, drawing her robe tightly about her. “I may as well go to bed.”
Penny put the black packet on the dresser after her father had finished inspecting it. “I intend to wear this charm around my neck the next time I go to the Rhetts’,” she declared. “It will be fun to see how Celeste and Antón react.”
“Don’t carry your fun too far,” her father advised. “While it’s true this charm has no significance or supernatural power, Antón and Celeste may be dangerous characters. They’ll bear watching.”
“And I’m the one to do it,” Penny chuckled. “I’m not a bit afraid of them, Dad. As you said, they’re a couple of bluffers.”
“I may have used the word ill-advisedly,” the publisher corrected. “Don’t make the mistake of underrating them. The case, as you well know, has sinister aspects.”
“I’ll be careful,” Penny promised soberly.
After her father had returned to his room, she went back to bed. A chill wind whistled in through the hole in the window, but she burrowed deep beneath the blankets and soon was sound asleep.