The Clue of the Broken Locket by Carolyn Keene Read Free Book Online Page B

house at the door knockers and so forth? Then I’ll walk back to the cottage and start supper.”
    “All right, but if I get too interested in my search, you’d better drive to town and pick up George and Cecily.”
    Bess nodded and went out the front door, as Mrs. Driscoll led Nancy up the stairs. They walked a short distance down a hallway past several rooms with closed doors until they reached one which the woman opened. It revealed the attic stairs.
    At that moment Nancy heard children’s voices. They were coming from one of the bedrooms.
    “Your children?” she asked Mrs. Driscoll with a smile.
    “Yes.” An instant later the door burst open and identical twins—a boy and a girl about three years old—rushed out. Both were crying.
    “Uncle Vince is mean!” the little girl sobbed.
    “Yes, he is!” the little boy echoed. “We don’t want to play with him!”
    Mrs. Driscoll was annoyed. She grabbed the children and shoved them back into the room.
    “Don’t you dare leave here again!” she said angrily.
    Taking the key from the inside of the door, she slammed it shut and locked it from the outside, pocketing the key. At once the children began to cry and scream loudly while kicking and banging on the door.
    Nancy was appalled at such treatment and barely refrained from protesting. She wondered about the strange girl in the woods. Was she the Driscolls’ nursemaid and where was she?
    Mrs. Driscoll marched back along the hall to the attic stairway and told Nancy to go up. As she herself followed, Mrs. Driscoll explained that as a sideline the brothers had an acrobatic act. Vince was trying to teach the twins to perform and made them practice their stunts over and over again.
    “You know how children are,” Mrs. Driscoll said. “They’d rather just play.”
    Nancy made no comment. She felt that three years of age was pretty young for children to be handled in such a manner.
    In the attic Nancy looked around for the bull’s-eye window but did not see it. There were two regular-shaped windows, both of them too high up to reach. They cast a dim light around the place, which was filled with an assortment of old trunks and boxes.
    Turning, Nancy noticed a closed door, which evidently opened into a third-floor bedroom. That must be where the bull’s-eye window was! She asked Mrs. Driscoll about this.
    “Oh, you noticed that from the outside?” the woman queried. “Yes, that’s where the circular window is. The room is locked. The owner keeps some things stored in there, I guess.”
    She showed Nancy a small door which opened onto a flat section of the roof with a low railing.
    “I think what you have in mind, Miss Drew, is dangerous. But if you insist upon looking around, you can do so from here. As you can see, part of the roof is flat, but part is pretty steep. I warn you to watch your footing!”
    Nancy promised she would do so and stepped outside. Mrs. Driscoll said she would go down stairs now and attend to the children.
    From where she stood Nancy could see the entire lake and all the cottages which faced it. She saw Bess just entering the front door of the cottage.
    “I guess she didn’t find anything,” thought Nancy.
    She looked over as much of the roof as she could see, but there was nothing resembling an iron bird. Spotting a ladder against the chimney, toward the front of the house, Nancy climbed over the railing and carefully made her way down the sloping roof to the ladder. Quickly she climbed it, and holding onto the chimney for support, was able to view the entire layout of the roof. There was not a sign of a decorative bird in any section.
    Nancy thought, “Maybe the bird isn’t a fixed ornament, and Simon Delaroy hid it on the property.” A worrisome thought struck her. What if someone had already located it?
    Nancy climbed down the ladder, and made her way back to the attic door. To her amazement, it would not open.
    “Oh, dear!” Nancy murmured. “I hope it’s not one of