The Secret in the Old Lace Read Online Free PDF Page A

parole.”
    “How do you know th—” the intruder began, then caught himself.
    “Why were you trying to break into our house?” Nancy questioned. “You already stole Mrs. Marvin’s letter. Were you coming back for my manuscript?”
    Matey refused to answer.
    “And I suppose,” the girl detective went on, “that paint ladder came in handy again, didn’t it?”
    She pulled a flashlight from her desk drawer and shone it out the damaged window. Sure enough, the ladder was leaning against the house!
    “Too bad we didn’t think of putting it in the garage,” the girl said to her father.
    “You’re right,” Mr. Drew admitted. “We made it easy for Johnson to break in a second time. Only this time he didn’t get away with it!”
    Johnson glowered as the officers led him out of the house. Hannah Gruen locked the door behind them and yawned. “What a night!” she said.
    Nancy nodded. “You know, I’m hungry all of a sudden. Would anyone else like a snack?”
    Mr. Drew laughed, following Hannah and his daughter into the kitchen. “I guess I lost a few calories sitting on that character! How about another dish of your rice pudding, Hannah?”
    “Coming right up,” she said. “I think we all need to eat a little something to settle our nerves.” She dished out the rice pudding while Nancy made cups of steaming hot chocolate topped with whipped cream.
    “It’s too bad you didn’t get your letter back from Mr. Johnson,” the attorney said to his daughter.
    She shrugged, spooning a bit of the cream into her mouth. “I’m just glad we caught him,” she said. “The only thing that bothers me is he may have shown the letter to someone else—like André Bergère. ”
    The next morning Nancy told Bess and George all about the midnight intruder and her father’s bravery.
    “It sounds to me you were pretty courageous yourself,” Bess complimented her friend. “I would have been totally paralyzed!”
    “Oh, that isn’t true,” Nancy remarked. “You’ve been in lots of scary situations with me and done okay. ”
    Bess giggled in embarrassment. “I’m hoping, though, there won’t be any in Belgium,” she said, leading Nancy to reveal Hannah Gruen’s phone conversation with Ned’s impersonator. “Oh, no!” Bess panicked. “Maybe we ought to give up the trip!”
    “No, indeed,” the girl detective replied, “but if you want to back out—”
    “Oh, I’ll go along,” Bess agreed reluctantly, “but I know I’ll be a wreck the whole time.”
    George’s reaction was quite different. The minute she heard Nancy’s story she said, “The sooner we leave the U.S.A. the better off we’ll all be!”
    “I hope you’re right,” Nancy commented, “but we might just run into trouble in Belgium.”
    “You mean we might run into Bergère,” George said, adding crisply, “Well, let’s talk about something more pleasant. Burt says he, Dave, and Ned want to come here tomorrow to say good-bye. Since we only have a short time left before our trip—”
    “Listen,” Nancy interrupted, “I want everybody to have dinner here, all right?”
    “Fabulous,” George replied.
    The girls contacted their Emerson friends at once. When the boys arrived the next evening, Dave suggested going to a local show followed by a dance to benefit a home for handicapped children.
    Dave, who had driven Burt and Ned to the Drew house, chided himself for not thinking ahead. “I am really stupid,” he said. “There are six of us, but my car can only take four.”
    “That’s okay,” Nancy said. “Ned and I can use my car. ”
    The three couples drove off in two cars, but Dave and Ned did not follow the same route. Bess, George, and their escorts arrived first. They waited in the lobby for Nancy and Ned.
    “I wonder where they are,” Burt remarked after a while, glancing impatiently at his watch. “We’ve been here almost fifteen minutes. Did Nancy say anything about stopping on the way?”
    “No,” George