Part 14 (2/2)
The women lowered their voices so Nancy was unable to hear anything. She moved swiftly toward the window to listen.
”I must learn who they are,” Nancy thought excitedly. ”One of those women may be Margaret Judson!”
CHAPTER X.
Telltale Photograph
APPARENTLY the two women on the porch heard someone coming. They arose and moved away, walking hurriedly toward the garden.
By the time Nancy came outdoors, they were too far away for her to distinguish either woman in the darkness. But the young detective observed that one was dressed in a flowered silk gown which hung in long, loose folds from her shoulders.
”Could she be Margaret Judson?” Nancy asked herself.
In a few moments they had vanished. Nancy ran down the steps into the garden, sure that the women had taken one of the winding paths leading from the hotel.
”I must find them!” she thought.
A number of couples were enjoying the moonlight, some idling near the fountains. Others were walking slowly up and down as they listened to strains of music from the dance orchestra. Nancy darted here and there, searching frantically.
Suddenly, far ahead of her, she thought she saw the woman in the flowered silk dress. Nancy rushed forward. Just then a young couple came from among the trees. Nancy, unable to stop, ran full tilt into them.
”Oh, I'm terribly sorry,” she apologized. ”You're not hurt, are you?”
”No,” the man replied, ”but watch your step.”
Nancy took another path, this time more slowly. But she could not find the woman in the flowered silk and her companion. Finally Nancy gave up and went back to the hotel lobby. One of the women she sought was just entering an elevator!
”Now's my chance!” Nancy decided.
She was too late to catch the elevator but raced upstairs. Nancy reached the next floor just as the elevator stopped there. The woman in the flowered dress alighted. But she was not Margaret Judson.
On a sudden hunch Nancy said to her, ”Pardon me, but do you know where Miss Judson is?”
The woman gazed at the girl in surprise but replied, ”Probably she has gone to her room.”
Nancy was amazed to hear Miss Judson was registered at the hotel. The other day the young woman had said that she was not staying there. ”Do you know the number of her room?”
”No”
Nancy hurried downstairs to ask the desk clerk. ”She just left here,” he reported. ”Decided not to stay after all.”
”Oh!” Nancy gasped. ”Can you tell me her forwarding address?”
”She left none.”
<script>