The Locked Drawer Mystery

That afternoon Dick Prince and Art Dane could not come to the meeting of our Detective Club because they had to attend a meeting of the sports committee at the high school. They said they might come later. There was nothing for us to detect that week so we settled down on Dot Carver’s porch to read a few chapters of a mystery story. “You read a chapter first, Madge,” Betty Bliss said, handing me the book, and I had just opened it when I saw a girl stop at the front gate. She hesitated, looked at us uncertainly, then opened the gate and came up the walk. She was no one we knew. She was a plain-looking girl, quite simply dressed and old enough to be through high school, but what we all noticed first was the unhappy and worried look on her face. “Please excuse me,” she said, looking up at us from the bottom of the porch steps, “but is this Mrs. Carver’s house? I went to Mrs. Bliss’s house and she told me to come here. I’m looking for some girls who have a detective club.”