“Not unless they learned it the last few days. I noticed that Celeste watches lately whenever anyone enters or leaves the library.”
“Then she may have obtained the combination. I know she was tampering with the dial yesterday. Where is she now?”
“In the kitchen, I suppose.”
Celeste, however, was not to be found there, nor was she in any of the upstairs bedrooms, or in her own room on the first floor adjoining the garage.
“I don’t know where she and Antón went,” Lorinda declared, deeply troubled. “I hate to accuse them without proof, but it does look as if they’re the only ones who could have stolen the drum!”
“How about the trophies at the thatched roof cottage? Are they safe?”
“Let’s find out,” Lorinda proposed. “Wait, I’ll get the key. Incidentally, it was mysteriously returned to my stepfather’s room yesterday.”
She returned with the key in a moment, and the girls ran down the slippery path through the falling rain. The whine of a steadily rising wind was in their ears as they opened the cottage door and stepped inside.
Lorinda looked carefully about. “Everything seems to be here—” she began, only to correct herself. “No, the crossed machetes which were on the wall! They’re gone!”
“And the rattle!” exclaimed Penny. “Where is it?”