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Show - 135 - "Come on Vicky, let's go up to the attic" urged Penny. "Whatever for?" said Vicky in an annoyed voice. "We've gone over everything up there and saw nothing that would give us any clue as the the whereabouts of Dirk. Besides I must finish writing my letter to Mama and Papa in time for the afternoon mail. The postman will be here any moment. This is the last letter that will reach them before they start home." She could see that the ghost was dominating every thought and action of Penny's and she was determined that this was not going to happen to her. "I know," answered Penny. "But now I'm going to search with a different thought in mind, plus I want to look at the locket and letters again as well as those old newspapers in the trunk. We just concluded that they were the letters Dirk wrote Claudine while she was in France. We did not read them. Well, I'm going." Whenever Penny went up into the attic she always walked over to one of the gables and looked out toward the west. She wondered if Claudine had ever stood here and marveled at the view as she was doing now. The rolling hills and windswept mists that came in from the ocean beyond gave the landscape an appearance of unreality. She turned to the gable facing the front of the house and, from where she was standing, the road stretched out before her. She could see Vicky by the mail box speaking to a stranger. She gestured toward the house and the man followed her gaze. For an instant Penny felt a shiver of apprehension flow through her body because he seamed to be looking straight into her eyes. How silly she was! The man was too far away to even see her. From a distance there was very little she could make out about his appearance, except that he wore a long overcoat and a hat covered the upper part of his face. Penny turned from the window and went over to the small trunk that they had discovered last year. She opened the lid, picked up one |