Penny picked it up, training it upon the Brunner garage on the opposite side of the street.
"Why, it brings everything remarkably close! Do you sit here at the window and watch for the auto thieves?"
"Yes, we've planted several expensive new cars in key positions on the street. Our men are secretly watching them, of course. We hope that the auto thieves will select one of our models to strip."
"It is, but if we catch the gang our patience will have been rewarded."
"But what of Rap Molberg?" Penny questioned doubtfully. "Surely he must delegate the actual thievery to others."
"I'm not so sure," Mr. Nichols said slowly. "It wouldn't surprise me to learn that Molberg acts upon orders from someone higher up. However that may be, if we capture some of the lesser fry, they can be made to talk."
The detective busied himself at his desk. For a time Penny amused herself by watching pedestrians through the field glass. Growing tired of that, she buried herself in a magazine. It was not very interesting. By nine o'clock she was thoroughly bored.
"I think I'll go home," she announced. "I don't believe anything exciting will happen tonight."
"So that's why you came," her father chided. "And I thought it was because you craved my company!"
"I did, but this bare office is too depressing."
"Then I'll excuse you," Mr. Nichols smiled. "Take a taxi home if you like."
It was a pleasant mellow evening and Penny was in the mood for a long stroll. She chose a roundabout route home.
She was absent-mindedly crossing a street, thinking of nothing in particular, when an automobile without headlights shot past her at a high rate of speed. Frightened, Penny sprang backwards.
"The nerve of that driver!" she thought. "He missed me by inches."
She watched the car swerve around a corner and race up a dead-end street.
"Why, this is the very place where I lost track of Rap Molberg!" she told herself.
She rushed to the corner. Her fascinated gaze followed the retreating automobile. It tore madly to the end of the street where it abruptly halted.
Penny lost sight of it for an instant. Then to her surprise, the headlights were flashed on. In the reflected light she saw the tall walls of a large manufacturing plant.
The beam was turned off again. Darkness swallowed up the car.