The attractive, eighteen-year-old girl stepped into the hall and stopped in surprise. Behind Hannah stood a slender young policewoman in a blue uniform.

            "This is Lieutenant Masters, dear," said Hannah. "She arrived just before your car turned into the driveway."

            "I can't stay long. Nancy," the officer said, "so I'll come right to the point. Will you help solve a mystery?" The woman's dark eyes gazed into Nancy's steadily. "I'm sure you can do it."

            Nancy was amazed, but merely said, "I'd like to hear about it. Won't you come in and sit down?" She led the officer into the living room.

            Nancy's zest for adventure came to her naturally from her father, Carson Drew, a well- known lawyer. While helping him, she had solved her first case. The Secret of the Old Clock. Since then she had been successful in finding the solutions to several mysteries, the most recent one The Secret in the Old Attic. By now Nancy had an outstanding reputation, even with the police, as an amateur sleuth.

            "Chief McGinnis recommended that I ask you," Lieutenant Masters said, seating herself on the sofa. "He told me you have great insight into character." The trim, dark-haired officer explained that she had just joined the River Heights Police Department. "This case is related to one of mine. I'm in charge of juvenile offenders."

            "Then your mystery involves a child?"

            "Yes. A pretty little eight-year-old girl named Joan Fenimore. She's been in trouble with the law and will be in more, I'm afraid, unless we can find her aunt. Nancy, have you ever heard of Juliana Johnson?"

            "She was a dancer, wasn't she?" Nancy asked.

            "Yes. She disappeared ten years ago at the height of her career."

            "And she's Joan's aunt?"

            "Yes. Juliana must be found within the next three weeks or lose an inheritance that a friend willed to her. If we can find her, surely she'll help Joan and her mother and make a new way of life for Joan."