"Perhaps my hunch was wrong," Penny thought as she grew tired of waiting. "I really haven't much reason for being suspicious of Brunner."
After a time she used her father's telephone to call home. No one answered. Obviously, Mrs. Gallup had not returned.
"I wonder what detained her," Penny mused. "It isn't like her to stay away."
She remained at her seat by the window. Several times she was tempted to pick up a magazine and read for a few minutes. She resisted the impulse, remembering that she had heard her father say that a good investigator never took his eye from the place or person he was watching.
Another hour dragged by. Penny grew tired and bored. It was a warm night and the tiny room had become oppressive.
"I'll wait a little while longer," she decided.
Penny ate the last of her sandwiches and wished that she had bought coffee instead of milk. It would have helped her to stay awake.
Suddenly she became alert. A man stood in the doorway of the Brunner garage alley entrance. She did not need her father's field glass to see that it was the manager. He looked at his watch, then cast a glance up and down the street.
Penny studied her own wrist watch. It was exactly ten o'clock.
A garage service car rolled swiftly down the street. It swerved into the alley.
Simultaneously, Brunner swung wide the rear doors of the garage. The truck drove in, but not before Penny had riveted her eyes upon the license number.
At sight of the last three figures, her heart leaped. The numbers--684--were identical with those she had noted upon the license of the service car at the Big Dipper!
"It begins to look as if my hunch might be correct," Penny told herself. "Unless that truck merely drove into the garage for gasoline or service, things look suspicious!"
She saw Brunner follow the car into the building, carefully closing the doors.
"If everything is honest and above board, why did they use the alley entrance when the other one is far more convenient?" she reflected. "Obviously, Brunner knew the car was coming at exactly ten o'clock too."
Convinced that she was on the verge of important discoveries, Penny settled herself for a long wait. From her chair by the window she could watch both the alley and the main entrance.