woman to look after the old lady during her absence, but she said nothing of this, as she knew Abigail would protest.
After attending to the mission, she sprang into her roadster and started for River Heights.
Nancy Drew was highly elated at the information she had gleaned, and was now more interested in the case than ever.
“I’ll not tell the Horner girls what I have learned,” Nancy advised herself. “At least not until I have learned more about the family clock. If nothing comes of my theory, Allie and Grace would only be disappointed. I’ll not raise their hopes until I have something important to tell.”
As Nancy drove along on the West Lake Road she reviewed the facts of the Crowley case. Unquestionably, Josiah Crowley had made a second will. According to Abigail Rowen he had secreted it in a safe place and had written its location in a little notebook. He had told Abigail where the notebook could be found in case of his death, and with the passing years, the knowledge had slipped away from the old lady.
“It’s my opinion that Josiah Crowley hid the notebook in the family clock,” Nancy reasoned. “Otherwise, why would Abigail have said anything about it?”
Nancy was at a loss to know how to proceed. She knew that her next step in unraveling the mystery was to search the Crowley clock, but this would not be easy to accomplish. If, as Abigail had indicated, the clock had fallen into the hands of the Tophams, the task might be an impossible one. Then, too, it was not at all unlikely that the Tophams had already discovered the notebook.
“In that case they would have destroyed it,” Nancy told herself. “Still, from the conversation I overheard in the park, I feel reasonably certain