“Shall I wait for you?” the boy asked as the girls stepped from the craft.
“Yes, but not here,” directed Penny. “You might row back to the opposite shore and keep watch from there. We ought to be ready to leave within at least an hour.”
The roof top of the Kippenberg house could be seen towering above the tall trees. But as the two girls plunged into the bushes which grew thickly along the shore they lost sight of it entirely.
“I hope,” said Louise uneasily, “that you know where you are going. It would be easy to lose one’s self in this jungle.”
“Oh, I have my directions straight. We should come out near the lily pool at any minute.”
“What do you hope to gain by coming here, Penny?” Louise inquired abruptly.
“I thought I would try to talk with Miss Kippenberg again. There’s an important question I forgot to ask her yesterday. Then I wanted to show you the estate, especially the lily pond.”
“Is there anything unusual about it?”
“I’ll let you be the judge,” Penny answered. “We’re almost there now.”
They came in a moment to a path which made walking much easier. Penny went in advance of her chum. Suddenly she halted.
“See what is ahead, Lou! I never saw that thing before.”
She stepped to one side so that Louise might see the tall stone tower which loomed up against a background of scarlet maples.
“How curious!” murmured Louise.
“This isn’t the only queer thing I’ve found on the estate.”
“What purpose could the tower have?” speculated Louise.
“Decoration, perhaps,” replied Penny, moving forward again. “Or it might have been built for a prison.”
“Listen, you have too many different theories about Grant Atherwald,” laughed Louise. “Why don’t you get one and stick to it?”
“My mind is always open to new possibilities and impressions.”
“I’ll say it is,” agreed Louise. “I suppose you think Mrs. Kippenberg is keeping young Atherwald a prisoner in yonder tower?”
“Well, no, but you must admit it would make a lovely one. So romantic.”
“Are you trying to kid me?” Louise demanded.
Penny smiled broadly as she stared up at the tower which rose perhaps twelve feet. Like every other building on the estate it had been built to resist the ages. High above her head a circular window had been cut in the wall and there was a heavy oaken door.
Reaching for the knob, Penny turned it. Then she pressed her shoulder against the door and pushed with her entire strength.
“Locked!” she announced.
“Then we won’t learn what is inside after all.”
“Yes, we will,” declared Penny. “You lift me up and I’ll peep in the window.”
“You only weigh a ton,” complained Louise.
She obligingly raised Penny up as high as she could.
“Look fast,” she panted. “What do you see?”
“Not much of anything.”
“I can’t hold you forever,” Louise said, and released her hold. “Didn’t you see anything at all?”
“Just a lot of machinery.”
“Tools, you mean?”
“No, an electric motor and something which looked like it might be a pump. Oh, I get it now!”
“Get what?” demanded Louise.
“Why, the idea of this tower. It must be used as a pump house. I wondered how the lily pool was ever drained and this must be the answer.”
“You didn’t see any prisoners chained inside?”Louise teased.
“Not one. Well, let’s be getting on to the lily pond. It must be somewhere close.”
Louise could not understand why her chum was so determined that she should see the pool. But since Penny seldom did anything without a purpose, she speculated upon what might be in store. She knew from the girl’s manner that certain facts had been withheld deliberately to make this visit the more impressive.
“Here we are,” said Penny as they came to the clearing. “What do you think of it?”
Louise was aware of a deep sense of disappointment as she gazed at the lily pool.
“I really don’t see anything so remarkable about it, Penny.”
“This was the place where I found the wedding ring. And there were footprints indicating that a struggle probably took place.”
“I read all that in the paper,” Louise said. “From the hints you’ve been passing out, I thought you brought me here to show me something mysterious.”
“Go close to the pool.”
“What for, Penny? You want to push me in?”
“Oh, you’re too suspicious! Go on and look.”
Louise went to the edge of the pool and peered down into the water.
“I don’t see anything.”
“You will in just a minute. Keep looking.”
Louise was more than half convinced that Penny meant to play some prank, but she dropped down on her knees so her eyes would be closer to the water.
“Why, I do see some large object on the floor of the tank!” she exclaimed after a moment. “What is it, Penny?”
“An alligator.”
Louise gave a smothered scream and drew back from the pool’s edge.
“I—I might have fallen in. You ought to be ashamed of yourself!”
“I only wanted you to get a nice thrill,” Penny grinned. “Pretty fellow, isn’t he?”
“I didn’t really see him,” Louise admitted.
Overcoming her fear, she again leaned over the edge of the pool but with great caution. This time she could make out the alligator’s form distinctly.
“Horrible!” she shuddered. “I wish you hadn’t brought me—”
Her words ended in a little wail as a tiny object splashed into the water directly beneath her.
“My cameo pin!” she cried. “Oh, Penny, it slipped from my dress and now it’s gone!”
CHAPTER 15
A CAMEO PIN
In dismay, the two girls watched the trinket settle slowly to the bottom of the pool.
“Oh, my beautiful pin,” moaned Louise. “Aunt Lucinda gave it to me for my birthday. I wouldn’t have lost it for anything in the world.”
“I guess it was my fault,” Penny said self-accusingly.
“No, it wasn’t. I must have been careless about fastening the clasp. When I leaned over it slipped off. Well, it’s gone, and that’s that.”
The cameo pin had fallen into the deepest part of the pool not far from where the alligator lay. The girls were unable to see it plainly because of the lily pads and plants which cluttered the water.
“If that old alligator would just behave himself we could wade in and get it easy,” Penny said.
“Fancy trying it!”
“I’m afraid he would take special delight in snapping off an arm or a leg. And we don’t dare ask anyone to help us get the pin or we’ll be ejected from the grounds as trespassers.”
“We may as well forget about it, Penny. Come along, I’m sick of this place.”
“No, wait, Louise. We might be able to fish it out with a stick.”
“I don’t think we’d have a chance.”
“Anyway, it will do no harm to try.”
Penny searched the woods until she found a long stick with a curve at the end. Lying flat on the flagstones at the edge of the pool she prodded for the pin.
“I can touch it all right!” she cried. “I’ll pull it over to the side.”
“Be careful you don’t tumble in,” Louise warned, anxiously holding her chum by the waist. “If you should lose your balance—”
Penny hooked the cameo pin in the curve of the stick and began raising it inch by inch up the side of the pool.
“If I can get it up high enough reach down and snatch it,” Penny advised her chum. “Oh, shoot, there it goes!”
The pin had slipped away from the stick and settled once more on the bottom of the pool.
“You can’t get it, Penny,” Louise insisted. “You’re making the alligator all excited by prodding around.”
“I don’t care about him. I’ll try once more if I can locate the pin. It seems to be hiding from me now.”
The water was so disturbed that Penny could not see the pin or the bottom of the pool. She waited several minutes for the dirt to settle and then gazed down once more.
“There it is!” she exclaimed. “It moved over quite a ways to the right.”
Louise flattened herself beside Penny. “Oh, let the pin go,” she said.
“No, I think I can get it. Say, there seems to be something else on the bottom of the pool.”
“Where?”
Penny pointed, and then, as her chum still could not distinguish anything, parted the lily pads with her stick.
“Yes, I do see something now,” Louise declared. “What can it be?”
“Doesn’t it look like a metal ring?” Penny asked. She had lost all interest in the cameo pin.
“Yes, it does. Someone probably threw it into the pool.”
“But it looks to me as if it’s attached to the bottom of the tank, embedded in the cement,” Penny said. She bent closer to the water, trying to see.
“Be careful,” Louise warned nervously. “That alligator might come up and snap off your nose.”
Penny paid no heed.
“It is attached!” she announced in an excited voice. “Louise, do you know what I think?”
“What?”
“It’s the ring of a trapdoor!”
“A trapdoor!” Louise echoed incredulously.
“You can see for yourself that it’s an iron ring.”
“It does look a little like one from here,” Louise admitted. “But whoever heard of a trapdoor in a lily pool? No one but you would even think of such a thing. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Does anything on this estate make sense?”
“The ring might have something to do with draining the pool,” Louise said without replying to her chum’s question. “I suppose a section of the pool could be lifted up and removed. But I’d never call it a trapdoor.”
“I wish we could tell for sure what it is.” Penny tried to prod the ring with her stick but it was well beyond her reach. “Maybe the alligator has a room down under the pool where he spends his winters!”
“You’re simply filled with ideas today,” Louise declared. “What about my pin? Shall we let it go?”
Reminded of her original task, Penny set to work once more, trying to draw the cameo to the edge of the tank. She was so deeply engrossed, that she jumped as her chum touched her on the arm.
“Listen, Penny, I think someone is coming!”
From the path at the right they could hear approaching footsteps and the low murmur of voices.
Penny struggled to her feet, dropping the stick.
“We mustn’t be caught here,” she whispered.
Taking Louise’s hand, she drew the girl into the dense bushes directly behind the pool. Scarcely had they secreted themselves when Sylvia Kippenberg and the head gardener came into view. They seated themselves on a rustic bench not far from where the two girls stood.
“I had to talk with you,” Sylvia said to the old man. “The police came this morning and asked so many questions. Mother put them off but they’ll be back again.”
“They didn’t learn about the alligator?” the gardener asked gruffly.
“No, they came here but only stayed a few minutes. I don’t think they noticed anything wrong.”
“Then that’s all right.”
“Their investigation is only beginning,” Sylvia said nervously. “Mother and I both believe it would be wise to get rid of the alligator.”
“Wise but not easy,” the gardener replied.
“You’ll see what you can do about it?”
“Yes. I’ll try to get rid of him.”
“Then I guess that’s all,” Sylvia said, but she made no move to leave. She sat staring moodily at the pool.
“Anything else on your mind?” asked the gardener.
“I—I wanted to ask you something, but I scarcely know how.”
The gardener waited, watching the girl’s face intently.
“You never liked Grant Atherwald,” she began nervously.
“Say, what are you driving at?” the man asked quickly. “You’re not trying to hint that I had anything to do with Grant Atherwald’s disappearance?”
The two faced each other and Sylvia’s gaze was the first to fall.
“No, no, of course not,” she said.
“I don’t know any more about his disappearance than you do,” the man told her angrily. “I didn’t even see him on the day of the wedding.”
“But he came here. The wedding ring was found near the pool. Surely you must have heard some sound for I know you were in this part of the garden.”
“Well, I didn’t,” the man said sullenly. “The only persons I saw were a newspaper photographer and a girl.”
“Please don’t take offense,” Miss Kippenberg murmured, getting up from the bench. “I’ve been terribly upset these past few days.”
She walked slowly to the edge of the pool. There she stopped short, staring down at an object which lay on the flagstones at her feet. It was the stick which Penny had dropped only a moment before.
“What have you found?” the gardener cried.
He went quickly to her side and took the damp stick from her hand.
“Someone has been here prying around,” he said in a harsh voice. “This was used to investigate the water in the pool.”
“And whoever it was must be close by even now. Otherwise the stick would have dried out in the sun.”
“You go back to the house,” the man commanded. “I’ll look around.”
In their hideout amid the bushes, Penny and Louise gazed at each other with chagrin. No word was spoken for even a whisper might have been heard. With a common desire for escape, they glided with cat-like tread toward the river.
CHAPTER 16
GATHERING CLUES
The girls could hear no movement behind them as they darted down the path. They dared to hope that they had eluded the old gardener.
Then as they came within sight of the river, Louise stumbled over a vine. Although she stifled an outcry the dull thud of her body against the ground seemed actually to reverberate through the forest. A black crow on the lower limb of an oak tree cawed in protest before he flew away.
Penny pulled Louise to her feet and they went on as fast as they could, but they knew the sound had betrayed them. Now they could hear the man in pursuit, his heavy shoes pounding on the hard, dry path.
“Run!” Penny commanded.
They reached the river bank and looked about for the boat which would take them across. As they had feared it was on the opposite shore.
Penny gestured frantically, but the boy did not understand the need for haste. He picked up his oars and rowed toward them at a very deliberate pace.
“Oh, he’ll never get here in time,” Louise murmured fearfully. “Shall we hide?”
“That’s all we can do.”
They realized then that they had waited too long. Before they could dodge into the deeper thicket the gardener reached the clearing.
“So it’s you again!” he cried wrathfully, glaring at Penny.
“Please, we didn’t mean any harm. We can explain—”
“This stick is explanation enough for me!” the man shouted, waving it above his head. “You were trying to find out about the lily pool!”
“We were only trying to get a pin which I dropped into the water,” Louise said, backing a step away.
“I don’t believe you!” the man snapped. “You can’t fool me! I know why you came here, and you’ll pay for your folly! You’ll never take the secret away with you!”
With a swift, animal-like spring which belied his age, the gardener hurled himself toward the girls. He seized Penny’
s arm giving it a cruel twist.
“You’re coming along with me,” he announced harshly.
“Let me go!” Penny cried, trying to free herself.
“You’re going with me to the house. You’ve been altogether too prying. Now you’ll take your punishment, both of you.”
The gardener might have managed Penny alone, but he was no match for two athletic girls. As he tried to seize Louise, Penny twisted free.
Quick as a flash, she grasped the man’s felt hat, jamming it down on his head over his eyes. While he was trying to pull it off, Louise also wriggled from his grasp.
The two girls ran to the water’s edge. Their boat had drawn close to shore. Without waiting for it to beach they waded out over their shoetops and climbed aboard.
“Don’t either of you ever come here again!” the gardener hurled after them. “If you do—”
The rest of the threat was carried away by the wind. However, Penny could not resist waving her hand and calling back: “Bye, bye, old timer! We’ll be seeing you!”
“What’s the matter with that man anyhow?” asked the boy who rowed the boat. “Didn’t he want you on the estate?”
“On the contrary, he invited us to remain and we declined,” grinned Penny. “Just temperament, that’s all. He can’t make up his mind which way he would like to have it.”
Allowing the boy to puzzle over the remark, she busied herself pouring water from her sodden shoes. The visit to the estate had not turned out at all as she had planned. She had failed to talk with Miss Kippenberg, and it was almost certain that from now on servants would keep a much closer watch for intruders.
The only vital information she had gleaned resulted from overhearing the conversation between Sylvia Kippenberg and the gardener.
“She talked with him as if they were well acquainted,” mused Penny. “Miss Kippenberg must have thought he knew more about Grant Atherwald’s disappearance than he would tell. And she seems to be afraid the Law will ask too many questions. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have suggested getting rid of the alligator.”
One additional observation Penny had made, but she decided not to speak of it until she and Louise were alone.
The boat reached shore and the two girls stepped out on the muddy bank.
“Will you need me again?” inquired the boy.
“I may,” said Penny, “and I can’t tell you exactly when. Where do you keep your boat?”
The Penny Parker Megapack: 15 Complete Novels Page 9
