"I didn't get home until an hour ago," Mrs. Gallup explained. "When I found you weren't here I was frantic. I was afraid you might have been kidnapped again."
"Rap Molberg won't trouble me after this, Mrs. Gallup. He's spending the night in jail."
She then gave a glowing account of the capture at the Somm Center sawmill. The details left the housekeeper dumbfounded.
"Penny Nichols, it's plain to see you're going to take after your father," she sighed. "One detective in the family is bad enough."
"It was the most exciting experience of my life!" Penny declared, her eyes gleaming. "I suppose I shall never have another like it."
In such a prediction, she was entirely mistaken. Without the power to look into the future she could not know that an adventure of far different character, though even more thrilling, awaited her. _The Mystery of the Lost Key_, the second volume in the Penny Nichols series, relates her escapades at Raven Ridge.
Events had moved with such rapidity that until Mrs. Gallup brought a tray of steaming food from the kitchen and set it before her, Penny had not realized how very hungry she was. She had just finished the supper when Mr. Nichols came home.
"Brunner and Molberg are both behind bars where they belong," her father reported. "Brunner is trying to raise bail and may get out by morning."
"Oh, then he may escape the law after all."
"No danger of that, Penny. He'll be watched from the instant he leaves the jail and kept in sight until he appears for trial."
"I feel sure of it. If you testify against him he hasn't a chance. Will you mind going to court?"
"I'd love it!" Penny returned instantly. "Nothing would give me greater satisfaction than to serve as a witness against both of those men."
"Brunner was the real brains behind the gang," Mr. Nichols went on. "He had everyone fooled, including myself. You did a fine piece of work to-night, my dear."
"If it hadn't been for your arrival at the critical moment, all my information would have been worthless. I guess I was very foolhardy."
"Perhaps you were, a trifle," the detective smiled. "But an investigator must take certain chances. Not that I'd want you to do the same thing again," he added hastily.
"You didn't tell me what the police did about Jimmie Davis," Penny reminded him. "I hope he wasn't sent to jail too."