Password to Larkspur Lane by Carolyn Keene

added, “Those men will be on the lookout for me in my old car and I’ll be spinning off in a shiny new one!”
    Then Nancy became serious. “I must leave here without their seeing me. You could have Mr. French bring the new car to the street behind our house. I’ll sneak out the back way.”
    “That’s what I thought,” said Mr. Drew.
    While he called Packlin Motors, Nancy hurried upstairs and told Hannah the news, then packed a suitcase for her visit at Sylvan Lake.
    After dinner she called the Comings to say she would be there later in the evening. Helen’s grandmother was delighted.
    At nine o’clock both the doorbell and the telephone rang at once. As Mr. Drew headed for the door, Nancy picked up the phone. Bess was calling to say that the cousins would meet her at the lake the next day. “Mother will drive us out. Sorry we can’t leave now.”
    “That’s okay.”
    When Nancy entered the living room a muscular young man was talking to her father. She recognized him as Henry Durkin, superintendent of the building where Mr. Drew had his law office.
    “Henry’s going to help us, Nancy,” her father explained as she walked into the room. “I called him while you were packing. Hannah can stay with her sister while you’re away. Henry will drive her and Effie there after we’ve gone.”
    “Are you coming with me, Dad?” Nancy asked, surprised.
    “I certainly am,” he said firmly. “I’m taking no chances on your being alone if those men pick up your trail. After Henry takes Hannah and Effie, he will drive my car to the Cornings’, pick me up, and take me to the airport. I have a conference in Chicago tomorrow and a reservation on the midnight plane.”
    Henry Durkin frowned. “Mr. Drew, if I were you I’d call the cops.”
    “That’ll be your job as soon as Nancy and I leave the house,” the lawyer said. “I don’t want those men in the car disturbed until then. As long as they’re parked on this street, we know where they are. Nancy,” he added, “as soon as I reach the airport I’ll call Lieutenant Mulligan and tell him about the Tooker estate. Now we must hurry.”
    While Henry Durkin brought Nancy’s bag downstairs, she rummaged in the back of her closet and found an old suitcase. She carried it to the hall below where her father was waiting.
    “I have an idea, Dad. Suppose I take my old car out of the garage and park it at the curb. If Mr. Durkin carries this suitcase out and puts it in the luggage compartment, the men in the sedan will surely think I’m leaving in that car.”
    “Good,” said Mr. Drew. He switched on the porch light. “We’ll make the front of the house as conspicuous as possible.”
    “And meanwhile,” Nancy said with a smile, “we’ll slip out the back door.” When her car was in place she gave the empty bag to Henry. “Carry that as if it’s full and heavy,” she said with a chuckle.
    As he went out the door, Nancy stepped out onto the porch and called loudly and clearly, “Thanks a lot, Henry. Put it in the back.”
    Then she went inside and followed her father to the unlighted kitchen. He was carrying her bag and his own. Together, they stepped outdoors and peered into the darkness. They wondered uneasily if there were any unseen watchers. Quietly they felt their way toward the rear of the garden.
    Nancy was first to reach the high brick walL With the help of the tough vines growing over it, she pulled herself to the top.
    “Hand up the bags,” she whispered.
    Mr. Drew did so and began to climb the wall. By now Nancy’s eyes had become accustomed to the darkness and suddenly she saw a figure detach itself from the shadow of the garage and disappear down the driveway.
    “Dad!” she whispered. “Someone was watching!”
    “We must move fast then,” he said, and dropped the bags to the ground in the adjoining back yard.
    Nancy leaped down, landing lightly a moment before her father. Mr. Drew grabbed the suitcases and they sped through the