The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Mystery of the Secret Band, by Edith Lavell

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Title: The Mystery of the Secret Band

Author: Edith Lavell

Release Date: August 28, 2013 [eBook #43584]

Language: English

Character set encoding: UTF-8

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MYSTERY OF THE SECRET BAND***

E-text prepared by Stephen Hutcheson, Dave Morgan,
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)

“Mary Lou! Mary Lou! Are you alive?” Max cried.
(Page 110) (THE MYSTERY OF THE SECRET BAND)

The
Mystery of the Secret Band

By
EDITH LAVELL

The Saalfield Publishing Company
Akron, Ohio New York

The Mary Lou Series
by
EDITH LAVELL

The Mystery at Dark Cedars
The Mystery of the Fires
The Mystery of the Secret Band

Copyright, MCMXXXV
The Saalfield Publishing Company
Printed in the United States of America

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. A Real Detective 11

II. The Job 26

III. The Book Club 38

IV. A Midnight Visitor 54

V. Another Robbery 68

VI. Saturday Afternoon 78

VII. The Abandoned House 92

VIII. Knocked Out 110

IX. Lunch at the Bellevue 120

X. In the Dead of Night 132

XI. Bail 150

XII. Detective Gay Arrives 164

XIII. A Prisoner in the Dark 178

XIV. The Secret Band 194

XV. Christmas Morning 210

XVI. Two Captures 220

XVII. A Sad Story 231

XVIII. Conclusion 246

CHAPTER I
A Real Detective

Mary Louise stamped the snow from her feet and removed her goloshes on the porch. Whistling the Christmas carol her class had just sung at school, she opened the door of her house and stepped inside.

Her mother was sitting in an armchair in the living room, sewing. She looked up with a smile at her daughter.

“How did your entertainment go?” she inquired.

“Swell!” replied Mary Louise enthusiastically. “The seniors were great. You should have seen Max!”

“I’d like to have seen Mary Louise Gay,” mused her mother. “But this snow—and your father had the car——”

“Oh, I wasn’t so hot,” laughed Mary Louise modestly. “I’ll tell you who was the star of the afternoon—little Rosemary Dotts. She was so funny. She forgot all of her piece except the second line—‘I’m going to have plum pudding!’ Well, she said that once, and then she stared around at the audience and repeated it. And still she couldn’t think of any more, so she said it again, and rubbed her fat little tummy as she repeated it. Well, she kept that up until I thought we’d just pass out laughing at her. Honestly, the tears were rolling down my cheeks. Her teacher had to come up to the platform and take her away.”

“That must have been funny,” agreed Mrs. Gay. “Well, I guess you’re thankful that it’s all over. How do you like this weather for your vacation?”

Mary Louise’s brown eyes sparkled with pleasure.

“It’s keen!” she exclaimed. She executed a little dance step in her joy. “Two whole weeks with nothing to do but coast and skate and dance!”

“And eat and