The Clue of the Broken Locket by Carolyn Keene

those self-locking doors!”
    She tugged and pushed, but the door would not budge. Had it locked automatically—or had the door been bolted from the inside by one of the Driscolls? And if so, what was the reason? The only explanation she could think of was that these mysterious people wanted to keep her out of the house until they had accomplished something about which they did not want her to know.
    Nancy looked off into the distance, wondering if she could possibly signal Bess. But at that same moment she saw her friend come from the cottage, lock it, and then hurry up the path to where the car was parked. The faint sound of a motor came to Nancy’s ears and she knew Bess had set off for the village.
    Nancy tried the door once more with no luck. She began to pound on it loudly. She rapped until her knuckles were sore, but no one came to let her in. Maybe everybody had left the house, she thought.
    Exasperated, Nancy began to cry out, “Help! Help! I’m locked out on the roof!”
    She kept repeating her plea, but if anyone heard it, he had no intention of coming to her aid.
    “I wonder if there’s any way to get to the ground from here except through that door.” Nancy walked toward the lake side of the house. She leaned over the railing and thought she saw what might be a fire escape. Here the roof sloped sharply. A drainpipe led down it to the gutter.
    Nancy decided to lie flat on the roof and edge herself along, holding onto the pipe. If she were right about the fire escape, she could reach it from this angle. Her heart thumping, the young sleuth climbed over the railing and tested the drainpipe. It seemed to be firm.
    Nancy let herself down the roof gingerly, and indeed found what was once a fire escape. But time and weather had loosened it from the wall. She knew it would be too hazardous to try climbing down. Besides, there was a ten-foot drop from the end of it to the ground. There was nothing to do but go back to the attic door. “I guess I’ll have to break it down!” Nancy thought wryly.
    When she reached the door, she blinked unbelievingly. It was open a crack!
    “I didn’t just dream it was locked,” Nancy told herself. “Someone was playing a grim joke on me!”
    She hurried down the attic stairs. As she started along the hall Nancy heard quarreling adult voices coming from one of the rooms near that of the twins’.
    The next instant the door opened with a bang and Vince Driscoll stepped out. Seeing Nancy, the burly man seized the girl’s arm roughly. His face was red with rage and fire seemed to leap from his eyes.
    “What are you doing here?” he demanded.

CHAPTER IX
    The Vandal
    INDIGNANT, Nancy shook herself loose from Vince Driscoll’s grasp. At that moment his sister-in-law came from the same room and glared at him. “Karl and I gave Miss Drew and her friends permission to come here and hunt for an iron bird,” she said coldly.
    “Why didn’t you tell me?” Vince asked sullenly. “I’d have warned you not to. She’s snoopy and a troublemaker.” He turned to Nancy. “Don’t show up here again!”
    Mrs. Driscoll set her jaw firmly. “That’s for Karl to decide, not you.”
    Vince seemed about to retort, but instead kept still and stalked on down the hall. Nancy then told Mrs. Driscoll about having been locked out. The woman said, “Vince didn’t know you were here and went up to the attic. That door to the roof is not supposed to be open so he locked it. After a while I went up to see why you’d been there so long and found out what had happened. Since you weren’t on the balcony I assumed you were somewhere on the roof, and unlocked the door.”
    “I appreciate that,” said Nancy. “I could just picture myself staying out there all night!” She decided to make light of the matter and pretend that she accepted the explanation without question. But she was very suspicious.
    Suddenly she thought of the closed-up room with the bull’s-eye window. Had the Driscolls locked