(#24) The Clue in the Old Album by Carolyn Keene Page A

with me?”
    The officer listened carefully as she gave a summary of all the things that had happened in which she thought certain gypsies had been involved. She felt the guilty persons might be hiding in that tribe.
    “We’ll start searching at once and let you know what we find out,” the officer promised.
    While waiting to hear from him, Nancy dashed over to Mrs. Struthers’ home to show her the strange blanket. Rose was having a music lesson and Nancy could hear the dear, true notes of a violin.
    Nancy thought the teacher must be playing, but Mrs. Struthers smiled proudly and said, “That’s Rose. Isn’t she doing well? And her dancing is remarkable. Oh, Nancy, she’s so happy now, and I have you to thank for everything. If only we could find her father and the mysterious doll.”
    “I have a new idea,” Nancy announced. “It came to me after looking at this gift from some strange gypsy woman.”
    Mrs. Struthers gazed in awe at the blanket and felt sure it carried an unfriendly warning. Nancy said she did not share the woman’s anxiety.
    “I have a new theory I want to work on. To start I’d like a little more information about your daughter’s last illness. Would you mind if I ask the doctor about it?”
    “No, indeed. The physician was Dr. Tiffen. I’m sure he’ll talk with you, although he always says Enid’s illness was a puzzle to him.”
    Nancy went to Dr. Tiffen’s office and learned that the illness was not so much a puzzle as he had pretended to Mrs. Struthers and her daughter.
    “I did not think it wise to tell them. I knew Enid could not live long,” the doctor revealed. “What did puzzle me, though, was that at times she seemed to have abundant energy, and at others she had almost none.”
    “You gave her medication?” Nancy asked.
    “Oh, yes, but that was to ease the pain. In cases like hers, I know of nothing to prescribe to give a patient energy.”
    “Dr. Tiffen,” Nancy said, “I have a theory, which may sound crazy, but if you have time, may I tell you what it is?”
    “Every once in a while,” he said, smiling, “a layman hits upon an idea that is a great boon to mankind.” Nancy explained that she had figured out that “source of light” meant the sun. Since energy comes from the sun, possibly, through some secret known to her, Rose’s mother had received momentary energy.
    “You may be right,” Dr. Tiffen said.
    “If you think there’s something to my theory, I’ll try to find that ‘source of light,’ ” the young detective declared.
    Before Nancy reached her car, Dr. Tiffen called her back. “Mrs. Struthers is on the phone.”
    She told Nancy that the police had just notified her that they had located part of her stolen property in a Winchester pawnshop.
    “They’re holding several suspects and one of them may be the thief who stole my jeweled bag. He may also be the one who robbed the house. Could you go over to Winchester, Nancy, and identify him?”
    The girl glanced at her wrist watch. She could just about make it there and back before dark, and thus keep her promise to her father and Hannah that she would not stay out alone at night while working on the Struthers case.
    “I’ll run right over,” she agreed.
    For the second time that day Nancy headed her car for Winchester. Should any of the men in the police line-up be those suspected as thieves, she hoped they would confess and clear up a large part of the mystery. Unfortunately she had never seen any of them before.
    Early the next morning Nancy received a call from a state police officer. “Miss Drew,” he said, “we’ve located those gypsies. They’re on the south side of Hancock. One of the men from the barracks near there will go with you. What time can you reach Hancock?”
    “About nine-thirty. Thank you very much.”
    As soon as Nancy and Hannah had had breakfast, the girl detective went off, her hopes high. Now perhaps she would find Romano Pepito! If not, surely she would pick up