“At midnight it struck thirteen times instead of twelve.”

“You must have dreamed it!” the man declared. “Say, what are you trying to do anyhow—start stories so I’ll lose my job?”

“Why, I never thought of such a thing!” Penny gasped. “I truly believed that the clock did strike thirteen—”

“Well, you were wrong, and I’ll thank you not to go around telling folks such bunk!” the man said angrily. “The clock hasn’t struck a wrong hour since the day it was installed. I take better care of the mechanism than Seth McGuire ever did!”

“I didn’t mean to intimate that you were careless—” Penny began.

She did not complete the sentence, for Charley Phelps slammed the door in her face.

CHAPTER
5
OLD SETH

“Well, Penny, you certainly drew lightning that time,” Louise remarked dryly as the girls retreated to Leaping Lena. “I thought Mr. Phelps was going to throw the tower at you!”

“How could I know he was so touchy?” Penny asked in a grieved tone.

“You did talk as if you thought he had been careless in taking care of the big clock.”

“I never meant it that way, Lou. Anyway, he could have been more polite.”

Jerking open the car door, Penny slid behind the steering wheel and jammed her foot on the starter. Leaping Lena, apparently realizing that her young mistress was in no mood for trifling, responded with instantaneous action.

“I guess you’re satisfied now that the clock never struck thirteen,” Louise teased as the car fairly leaped forward.

“I should say not!” Pen