#1 The Secret of the Old Clock

10/7/2016 The Secret of the Old Clock
Helpful Disclosures
CHAPTER IX
NANCY watched Abby Rowen intently as the mantel clock finished striking. The elderly woman's lips had
begun to move.
"The clock!" she whispered. "That was it! The clock!"
Nancy gripped the arms of her chair in excitement. "Josiah Crowley hid the will in a clock?" she prompted.
"Nono, it wasn't that," Abby murmured, sighing again. "I know Josiah said something about a clock, but
whatever it was has slipped my mind."
Silence descended over the room. Nancy was wondering what connection the timepiece could have with the
missing will. Mrs. Rowen was staring at the clock, evidently still trying to probe her memory.
Suddenly she gave a low cry. "There! It came to me just like that!"
"What, Mrs. Rowen?" Nancy urged quietly, lest she startle the old woman into forgetfulness.
"A notebook!" Abby exclaimed triumphantly.
Nancy's heart gave a leap, but she forced herself to say calmly, "Please tell me more about this notebook."
"Well, one day not long before he passed away, Josiah said to me, 'Abby, after I'm dead, if my last will isn't
found, you can learn about it in this little book of mine.' "
"Do you know what became of the notebook, Mrs. Rowen?"
"Oh dearie me! There goes my memory again. No, I don't."
Although baffled, Nancy felt a growing conviction that the whereabouts of the Crowley will was definitely tied
up with a clock of some kind. But, she pondered, why did the striking of the mantel clock remind Abby Rowen
of the notebook?
Impulsively Nancy got up and went over to the mantel. She looked inside the glass front and in the back. There
were no papers inside.
Returning to her chair, Nancy asked the elderly woman, "What became of the furnishings of the Crowley home
when he gave it up?"
"The Tophams got 'most everything."
"There must have been a family clock," Nancy mused, half to herself.
"A family clock?" Abby repeated. "Oh, yes, there was a clock."
"Can you describe it?"
"It was just an ordinary mantel type, something like minetall, with a square face," the woman told Nancy.
"Only Josiah's was fancier. Had some kind of a moon on top."
"What became of the clock?" Nancy questioned.
"I suppose the Tophams got it, too."
At last Nancy, sure she had done all she could for Abby, and that she had learned as much as possible for the
present, rose to depart. After saying good­by, she stopped at a neighboring house and asked the occupants to
look in occasionally on the ailing woman.
"I think maybe one of the county's visiting nurses should see Mrs. Rowen," she suggested.
"I'll phone the agency," the neighbor offered. "Meanwhile, I'll go over myself. I'm so sorry I didn't know about
Mrs. Rowen."
As Nancy drove toward River Heights, she jubilantly reviewed the new facts in the case. "Now, if I can only
locate Mr. Crowley's notebookor clockor both!"
Nancy's brow knit in concentration. How would she go about tracking down the old timepiece?
"I guess," she concluded, "if the Tophams do have the clock, I'll have to pay them a visit!"
While she did not relish the idea of calling on the unpleasant family, Nancy was determined to pursue every
possible clue. "I can just see Ada's and Isabel's expressions when I appear at their front door," Nancy thought
wryly. "Well, I'll think of some excuse to see them."
She was still mulling over the problem when she pulled into the driveway of her home and heard a familiar
voice calling her name.
"Why, Helen Corning!" exclaimed Nancy, as a slim, attractive school friend of hers ran up. "I haven't seen you
for days."
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