The Secret of the Old Clock

Nancy is about to find a phone to notify the police when she makes the risky decision to search the van (which, luckily, is in a barn) for Crowley’s clock. Locating the keys inside the cab, she unlocks the back and rummages through the stolen goods until she locates the timepiece. By now, she hears voices approaching and barely has time to exit the cargo area and replace the keys before the thieves return to their vehicle.

Climbing back into her car after the burglars drive away, Nancy can’t resist the urge to search the clock. She discovers an extra cardboard backing behind the clock face. Inside is Crowley’s journal. The detective slips it into her pocket, intending to read it at home. Back on the highway, she intercepts a patrol car and points the police down the road the thieves took. A short chase follows until the van tips over and lands in a ditch.

Nancy identifies the three thieves as the men who locked her in the Topham cabin. One of the policemen says, “They’re no doubt the men who have been stealing various things from around Moon Lake for a number of seasons. The residents will be mighty grateful for what you’ve done” (140-41). Nancy asks to have her name kept out of the report, and the police agree to do so. When one of the officers asks Nancy to drive him back to the station, she realizes that he’ll see the clock in the front seat.

Nancy explains that she searched the van for items she recognized as belonging to the Tophams but didn’t have time to put the clock back. The state trooper accepts this explanation and takes the item as evidence. Nancy arrives home very late that night, but nobody is worried because her father is out, and Hannah assumed that she was still at Moon Lake.

Nancy decides to wait up until her father gets back as she peruses Crowley’s journal. Much of it is an accounting of his vast assets. On the last page, Nancy finds a small key and a notation that reads, “To whom it may concern: My last will and testament will be found in safe-deposit box number 148 in the Merchants Trust Company. The box is under the name of Josiah Johnston” (148).

Nancy is thrilled to have verified the existence of the definitive will and tells her father the whole story when he returns. She says that Crowley must have gone to the Masonville branch of the bank because he’d been spotted in that town several times. Mr. Drew agrees to contact the bank the following morning. He tries to discourage his daughter from getting her hopes up too high about the contents of the box, but Nancy remains stubbornly optimistic.

The next day, Nancy and Mr. Drew meet with the bank president and the trust officer. They open the safety deposit box and find Crowley’s will. The two witnesses who signed the document died earlier in the year, which explains why nobody contested the Topham claim. The Drews request photocopies of the handwritten will, which they then take to the legal office to be typed out.

A few days later, all the interested parties assemble at the Drew home for a reading of the new will, and the Topham family arrives with their lawyer. In the will, Crowley leaves the bulk of his $100,000 estate to the Turners, the Mathews brothers, the Hoovers, and Abby Rowen. He gives $5,000 to Richard Topham. All the personal furniture that the Tophams confiscated is to go to the Hoovers. Mrs. Topham is furious and says she’ll contest the will.

The Topham lawyer doesn’t believe that the family will win in court, and they leave the meeting in a huff. Everyone else rejoices about their inheritance, but Mr. Drew cautions the beneficiaries to wait for a resolution in court before spending their money. A week later, Nancy’s father informs her that Crowley’s will was upheld. The Tophams are angry, and Mr. Topham is in financial difficulty because of heavy losses in the stock market. The family will be forced to move into a less pretentious home, and the daughters will need to get jobs.

The next day, Nancy makes the rounds to give the beneficiaries the good news about their inheritance. They all express their gratitude toward the intrepid detective. The Hoovers now have some of Crowley’s possessions, and they give Nancy the old clock as a memento:

She little dreamed that in the near future she would be involved in [...] a far more baffling case than the one she had just solved. But somehow, as Nancy gazed at the timepiece, she sensed that exciting days were soon to come (180).