The Ringmaster's Secret by Carolyn G. Keene

is helping him cheat Lolita out of her money?” Nancy asked.
    Her father smiled. “I believe you’ve hit the nail on the head, Nancy. And this might pertain to something else that happened in River Heights. The night Hannah and I attended your first performance,” the lawyer said, “your lovely horse-charm bracelet was stolen!”

CHAPTER XII
    A Secret Search
    THE gold bracelet with the dainty little horse charms stolen!
    Nancy was upset to hear this news from her father. It had been her best clue to solving the mystery of Lolita’s parents. Now she could not compare the little charms to see if the one Lolita wore was a fake.
    “Don’t take it so hard,” Mr. Drew advised his daughter, seeing her deep frown. “I have asked Chief McGinnis to help. He’ll turn up something.”
    Nancy told her father what the old clown Sanders had inferred about Lolita’s trinket—that it was only an imitation.
    “I strongly suspect,” Nancy said, “that Kroon or Mrs. Kroon may have sold the original trinket and had a cheap substitute made.”
    “No doubt,” the lawyer agreed.
    “Besides wanting to solve this mystery and help Lolita,” said Nancy, “I’d just love to find the sixth horse to my bracelet.”
    Her father smiled. “And I dare say,” he remarked, “that when you do, you’ll give the whole thing to Lolita Flanders for a wedding gift.”
    “Not unless it rightfully belongs to her,” Nancy said. “After all, Aunt Eloise gave me the lovely gift, and it won’t be easy to part with it.”
    Mr. Drew rose. “I must hurry back to River Heights, Nancy. Incidentally, Hannah and I miss you very much. We’ll be glad when your week in the circus is up.”
    Nancy laughed. “If things go wrong here, I may be back sooner than that. By the way, Dad, have you had a chance to get in touch with anyone in England about Lola Flanders?”
    Mr. Drew said that he had cabled a lawyer friend of his in London, but there had been no time for an answer.
    “I’ll let you know as soon as I hear anything,” he promised, kissing her good-by, then leaving.
    Erika came in a few moments later and at once asked what had happened to her.
    “What do you mean?” Nancy asked.
    “Because you look as if you’d lost your best friend.”
    Nancy recounted all the news Mr. Drew had given her. Erika said she was glad the mystery about Hitch had been cleared up, but she had to admit that his story about the Kroons had complicated matters.
    “Do you suppose Mrs. Kroon kidnapped Lolita?” she asked, her eyes opening wide.
    Nancy shrugged and asked Erika to keep the matter in strictest confidence. If Kroon should find out what Hitch had told the police, there was no predicting what the ringmaster might do.
    “I saw Mr. Kroon a couple of times this morning,” Erika told Nancy. “He seemed to be in worse humor than usual. Do you suppose it has anything to do with the mystery? He might even have found out that Lolita and Pietro had planned to elope and then changed their minds because of your suspicions about him.”
    “It’s possible,” said Nancy. “Pietro once remarked that there was a spy in the circus who carries tales to Mr. Kroon.”
    Nancy did not tell Erika another suspicion of hers—that the stolen bracelet might be at the circus. She was sure that whoever had stolen it had done so at Kroon’s request.
    “I must find out,” the young sleuth told herself. “But how?”
    Erika remarked that she hoped Nancy’s concern about the mystery would not affect her performance that afternoon. Nancy laughed and assured Erika that she would do her best. And she did. Later, her roommate remarked that Nancy had never done her stunt riding better.
    Nancy made a point of sitting next to Lolita at supper that evening. As soon as she had an opportunity, she asked Lolita whether she had ever mentioned her bracelet to her foster parents.
    “Why, yes, I did. Is something the matter?”
    Nancy did not reply, but asked Lolita if she could remember