The Stranger
Nancy Drew, hoping that she had hit upon a genuine clue at last, determined to lose no time in gathering evidence concerning Mary Mason. Yet, in considering her next move she scarcely knew how to proceed. Probably it would prove futile to question the girl, but she decided to try the method at last.
Deciding not to wait until after luncheon, she hurried out to her roadster. She started the motor, but before she could pull away Mrs. Carter thrust her head out of the front window and called to her.
“Miss Nancy, if you’re going down town will you stop at the corner grocery and see why they haven’t delivered the things I ordered?”
“All right, I will,” Nancy promised, though she would have preferred not to have been detained.
Reaching the neighborhood store, she stopped to do the errand. Upon being assured that the groceries would be delivered immediately, she went back to the roadster.
She was just stepping into it again when her attention was attracted to a man who was walking down the opposite side of the street. Ordinarily, she would not have given a stranger a second glance, but there was something about this man that commanded her attention.
It was not his clothing which held her eyes, though he was dressed in a flashy suit, but rather his entire bearing. The man walked with an exaggerated swagger which unmistakably marked him as a tough.