This was Penny’s opportunity and she seized it. “Quite a number of things,” she answered. “For one, I can’t solve a certain mystery that plagues me.”
Joe Quigley finished making out the way bill. His eyes danced as he handed Penny her receipt.
“So you admit that you’ve met your Waterloo in our Galloping Ghost?”
“I admit nothing,” Penny retorted. “You could help me if you would!”
“How?”
“I’m sure you know the person who has been causing the Burmasters so much trouble.”
“Trouble?” Quigley’s eyebrows jerked. “The way I look at it, that Headless Horseman may do ’em a good turn. He may actually save their worthless necks by driving them out of the valley.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning that Burmaster can’t keep on in his bull headed fashion without bringing tragedy upon himself as well as the valley. Even now it’s probably too late to reinforce the dam.”
“Then what does your prankster hope to gain?”
“You’ll have to ask him,” Joe Quigley shrugged. “This is the way I look at it. Mrs. Lear and the Burmasters are deep in a feud. The old lady lost the deed to her place and she figures if she moves off, the Burmasters somehow will take advantage of her.”
“They’ve made no attempt to do so?”
“Not yet. But old Mrs. Lear is convinced Mrs. Burmaster is biding her time.”
“It all sounds rather silly.”
“Maybe it does to an outsider. But this is the serious part. If the dam should let go there’d be no chance to warn either the Burmasters or Mrs. Lear. Both places should be evacuated.”
“Then why isn’t it done?”
“Because two stubborn women refuse to listen to reason. Mrs. Burmaster won’t budge because she says there’s no danger—that it’s a scheme to get her out of the valley. Mrs. Lear won’t leave her home while the Burmasters stay.”
“What’s to be done?”
“Ask me something easy.” The telegraph instrument was chattering the Delta station call again so Quigley turned to answer it. “If you see Mrs. Lear before you leave here, try to reason with her,” he tossed over his shoulder. “I’ve given up.”
The girls nodded goodbye and went outside. Silas Malcom’s wagon was nowhere to be seen, and after a brief debate they decided to walk to Mrs. Lear’s place.
“Maybe we still can catch a ride home with Salt,”Louise remarked dubiously. “With all this talk about the dam, I certainly don’t relish spending a night in the valley.”
“Oh, Silas said there was no immediate danger unless it rains again,” Penny reminded her chum. “What Joe Quigley said about Mrs. Lear worries me. We must try to get her to leave the valley.”
“Why not move a mountain?” Louise countered. “It would be a lot easier.”
When the girls reached Mrs. Lear’s cabin they discovered that word of their arrival in Delta had traveled ahead of them.
“Your room’s all ready fer you,” the old lady beamed as she greeted them at the door. “This time I hope you’re stayin’ fer a week.”
Nothing seemed changed at the Lear cabin. Mrs. Lear had spent the morning canning fruit, and the kitchen table was loaded with containers. A washing flapped lazily on the line. While waiting for the clothes to dry, the old lady filled in her time by sewing on a rag rug of elaborate pattern.
“I’m a mite behind in my work,” she confessed to her young visitors. “These infernal rains set a body back. Fer three days I couldn’t get my washin’hung, an’ I never will git my corn dried less I do it in the oven.”
“Speaking of rain,” Penny began hesitantly,“Don’t you think it’s dangerous to remain here much longer?”
“Maybe it is, maybe it ain’t,” the old lady retorted. “Either way I’m not worryin’. There ain’t nothin’going to put me off my place—not even a flood.”
“Joe Quigley thinks that you and the Burmasters both should move to a safer place.”
“Then let ’em go fust,” Mrs. Lear declared. “Didn’t Mrs. Burmaster steal the deed to my land jest fer meanness and spite? If I was dumb enough to leave this place fer an hour she’d find some way to git it away from me.”
“That couldn’t be done so easily,” smiled Penny. “After all, Mr. Burmaster has more sense than his wife. Did you never talk to him about the missing deed?”
“We had words,” Mrs. Lear said with emphasis. “’Course he stood up fer his wife—said she’d never do such a thing. But I know better!”
“Yet since the deed disappeared no one has tried to put you off your land.”
“That’s cause the Burmasters are waitin’ their chance. Oh, they’re sly and cunning. But I’m jest as smart as they are, and they’ll never git me off this place!”
The discussion, Penny felt, was traveling in the same familiar circle. One could not influence Mrs. Lear. Her mind had been made up. Nothing would move her.
Thinking that they might at least talk matters over with Mr. Burmaster, the girls presently walked down the road to Sleepy Hollow estate. A workman who was busy with hammer and saw told them that Mr. and Mrs. Burmaster had motored to Delta for the afternoon.
“What are you building?” Penny inquired curiously. “A gate?”
“You might call it that,” he grinned. “Mr. Burmaster ordered me to knock together a couple of ’em, one for each end of the bridge.”
“Oh! I see!” Light dawned upon Penny. “Moveable barriers to trap the Headless Horseman prankster!”
“It’s a lot o’ nonsense if you ask me,” the workman grumbled. “That fellow ain’t been around here in a week. Reckon he may never show up again.”
“Yet Mr. Burmaster keeps watch of the bridge?”
“Every night. That wife of his wouldn’t give him no peace if he didn’t.” The workman hammered a nail into place and added: “The Burmasters have got something to worry about if they only had sense enough to realize it.”
“You mean the Huntley Dam?”
The workman nodded. “I’m quittin’ here tonight,” he confessed. “Maybe that dam will hold, but I’m takin’ no chances!”
Penny and Louise were even more troubled as they walked back to Mrs. Lear’s home. A fine supper awaited them. They scarcely did justice to it and found it difficult to respond to the old lady’s cheerful conversation.
“She just doesn’t seem to realize that she’s in any danger,” Louise whispered despairingly to her chum as they did the dishes together.
“Oh, she knows,” Penny replied. “But Mrs. Lear is set in her ways. I doubt anyone can induce her to take to the hills.”
After the dishes had been put away, the girls played card games with the old lady. Promptly at nine o’clock Mrs. Lear announced that it was bed time. As she locked up the doors for the night she stood for a time on the back porch, staring thoughtfully at the clouds.
“It looks like rain again,” Penny remarked.
Mrs. Lear said nothing. She closed the door firmly and turned the key.
Once in their bedroom, the girls undressed quickly and blew out the light. For awhile they could hear Mrs. Lear moving about on the bare floor of her own room. Then the house became quiet.
“I’ll be glad when we’re home again,” Louise whispered, snuggling down under the quilts. “Think how wet we’d get if that dam should break tonight!”
“Stop talking about it or you’ll give me nightmares!”Penny chided. “Let’s go to sleep.”
Try as they would, the girls could not settle down. First Penny would twist and turn and then Louise would do her share of squirming. Finally just as they were beginning to feel drowsy, they were startled to hear a drumming sound on the tin roof above their heads.
“What was that?” Louise muttered, sitting up.
The sounds were coming faster and faster now.
“Rain!” Penny exclaimed.
Jumping out of bed, she went to the window. Already the panes were splashed and rivulets were ch
asing one another to the sill.
“If this isn’t the worst luck yet!” she muttered. “It looks like a hard rain too.”
Louise joined her chum at the window. Disheartened, they gazed toward the woods and the hills. Ominous warnings arose in their minds to plague them. With an added burden of water could the dam hold? Sleep seemed out of the question. Wrapping blankets about them, the girls drew chairs to the window and watched.
Then as suddenly as the rain had started, it ceased. A moon struggled through a jagged gap of the clouds. The woods and the barn became discernible once more.
“Rain’s over,” Louise said, covering a yawn. “Let’s go to bed, Penny.”
Penny gathered up the quilts from the floor. But as she turned away from the window, an object outside the house captured her attention. For an instant she thought that she was mistaken. Then she gripped Louise’s hand, pulling her back to the sill.
“What is it?” Louise asked in bewilderment.
“Look over there!” Penny commanded.
From the woods across the road the girls could see a moving light.
“Someone with a lantern,” Louise said indifferently.
“Watch!” Penny commanded again.
Even as she spoke, the lantern was waved in a half circle from side to side. The strange movement was repeated several times.
“What do you make of it?” Louise whispered in awe.
“I suspect someone is trying to signal this house,”Penny replied soberly. “Let’s keep quiet and see what we can learn.”
CHAPTER 15
INTO THE WOODS
For several minutes nothing very spectacular happened. At intervals the strange lantern signals were repeated.
“It looks to me as if that person over in the woods is trying to signal someone here!” Penny said, peering from behind the window curtain.
“Mrs. Lear?” asked Louise.
“Who else? Certainly no one would have reason to try to attract our attention.”
“But why should anyone come here tonight?”
As the girls speculated upon the meaning of the mysterious signals, they heard a door at the end of the hall softly open. Footsteps padded noiselessly past their door.
“Are you asleep, girls?” Mrs. Lear’s voice chirped.
Louise would have answered had not Penny clapped a hand firmly over her mouth.
After a moment the footsteps pattered on down the stairway.
“Where can Mrs. Lear be going?” Penny speculated in a whisper. “She wanted to make certain that we were asleep.”
The girls did not have long to wait. Soon they heard an outside door close. A moment later they saw the spry old lady crossing the yard to the barn. She was fully dressed and wore a grotesque tight-waisted jacket as protection against the biting night wind.
Penny turned her gaze toward the woods once more. The lantern signals had ceased.
“What do you think is going on?” Louise asked in bewilderment.
Penny reached for her clothing which had been left in an untidy heap on the floor. “I don’t know,” she replied grimly. “With luck we’ll find out.”
They dressed as quickly as they could. As Penny was pulling on her shoes she heard the barn door close. She rushed to the window. Old Lady Lear, riding with an easy grace that belied her years, was walking Trinidad toward the road.
“Now where’s she going?” Penny demanded, seizing Louise by the hand. “Come on, or we’ll never learn!”
Clattering down the stairs, they reached the yard in time to see Mrs. Lear riding into the woods.
“Know what I think?” Louise asked breathlessly. “She’s the one who’s been pulling off these Headless Horseman stunts!”
“Someone signaled to her from the woods,” Penny reminded her chum. “She’s starting off to meet whoever flashed the lantern!”
To attempt to follow the old lady afoot seemed a foolish thing to do. Nevertheless, Penny was convinced that Mrs. Lear would not ride far into the woods. She argued that a golden opportunity would be lost forever if they did not try to learn where she went.
“Then come on if we must do it!” Louise consented. “It won’t be easy to keep her in sight though.”
In their haste the girls had provided themselves with no light. Nor had they imagined that a night could be so dark. Once among the trees they had difficulty in keeping to the trail that old Mrs. Lear had chosen.
“Let’s turn back,” Louise pleaded. “We’re apt to get lost.”
Penny, however, was stubbornly determined to learn the old lady’s destination. Though she could not see Trinidad she could hear the crashing of underbrush only a short distance ahead.
“Penny, I can’t keep on!” Louise gasped a moment later. “I’m winded.”
“You’re scared,” Penny amended. “Well, so am I. But it’s just as easy to go on now as it is to turn back.”
The trail Mrs. Lear had taken led at a steep angle uphill. The old lady allowed her horse to take his time. Even so, the girls were hard pressed to keep fairly close.
“Listen!” Penny presently commanded in a whisper.
No longer could they hear the sound of Trinidad’s hoofbeats.
“We’ve lost her,” Louise said anxiously.
“I think Mrs. Lear has stopped,” Penny replied, keeping her voice low. “Perhaps she heard us and suspects that we followed her.”
More cautiously than before, the girls moved forward. It was well that they did, for unexpectedly they came to a brook and a clearing. Mrs. Lear had dismounted and tied Trinidad to an elm tree close to the water’s edge.
Huddling behind a clump of bushes, the girls waited and watched. Mrs. Lear did not appear to be expecting anyone. She gave Trinidad a friendly pat. Then making certain that he was securely fastened to the tree, walked briskly toward the girls.
Penny and Louise cringed closer to the ground. The old lady passed them and went on down the trail.
“You stay here and keep watch of Trinidad!”Penny instructed. “I’ll follow Mrs. Lear.”
Louise did not want to remain alone. She started to say so, but Penny was gone.
The moment her chum had vanished from sight, sheer panic took possession of Louise. An owl hooted. The cry sent icy chills racing down the girl’s spine.
Tensely she listened. She was certain she could hear footsteps approaching the brook. Suddenly she lost all interest in solving the mystery. Her one desire was to get safely out of the woods. Shamelessly, she turned and fled.
Penny, doggedly following Mrs. Lear, was startled to hear a crashing of the bushes behind her. As she paused, Louise came running up.
“What is it?” Penny demanded. “Did someone come for Trinidad?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t care!” Louise answered grimly. “Call me a coward if you like—I’ll not stay by myself!”
Penny did not chide her chum, though she was disappointed. A moment’s thought convinced her that since Louise was unwilling to remain by the brook, it now would be better for them both to trail Mrs. Lear. If they were not to lose her, they must hasten along.
“Where do you think the old lady is going?” Louise presently asked as they stumbled over a vine-clogged trail. “Not back home.”
“No,” Penny agreed in a whisper, “we’re going in the wrong direction for that.”
Unexpectedly, the girls emerged into a clearing, Not daring to cross the open space lest Mrs. Lear see them, they huddled at the fringe of trees. Overhead, dark clouds scudded and boiled; a strengthening wind whipped their clothing about them.
Mrs. Lear moved spryly across the open space. Pausing near the edge of a cliff, she crouched beside a huge boulder. Grasping a bush for support, she peered down into the valley.
“We may be directly above Sleepy Hollow estate!”Penny whispered excitedly. “Let’s try to get closer and see!”
Treading cautiously over the sodden leaves, the girls made a wide circle along the edge of trees. Keeping a safe dist
ance from Mrs. Lear, they peered down over the rim of the valley. As Penny had guessed, Sleepy Hollow was to be seen below. A light, dimly visible, burned on the lower floor of the dwelling. They barely were able to discern the long, narrow bridge spanning the mill pond.
“Now why do you suppose Mrs. Lear came here at this time of night?” Louise speculated. “Do you think—”
Penny gave her chum a quick little jab. From far away she had caught the sound of approaching hoofbeats.
“The Headless Horseman!” Louise whispered in awe.
“We’ll soon see. Mrs. Lear is waiting for something!”
Minutes elapsed. Penny began to doubt that she had heard an approaching horseman. Then suddenly he emerged from a thicket that edged the valley road. The rider was garbed in white which plainly silhouetted his huge, misshapen body. Where his head should have been there was nothing.
The sight of such an apparition did not seem to dismay old Mrs. Lear. The old lady leaned farther over the cliff, fairly hugging herself with delight.
Having gained the road leading to Sleepy Hollow, the horseman came on at a swift pace. Sparks flew from the steel shod hoofs as they clipped smartly on the stones.
Penny’s gaze swept ahead of the ghost rider to the bridge. Her heart leaped. Even as the horseman rode onto the structure, workmen sprang from the thickets at either side of the road. High wooden barriers were jerked into place at both ends of the bridge. The Headless Horseman’s retreat was cut off.
“They’ve got him!” Penny whispered tensely. “He’s trapped on the bridge!”
The horse faltered for an instant and slackened speed. Then as the mysterious rider apparently urged him on, he bore down on the barrier blocking the bridge’s exit.
“He’s going to try to jump!” Louise murmured. “But no one could take such a high barrier!”
Nervously the girls watched. By this time they were certain that the horse was Trinidad. Magnificent though he was, age had crept upon him, and the wooden gate could prove a difficult test for a trained jumper.
If Penny and Louise were tense, Mrs. Lear was even more so. “Take it, Trinidad!” they heard her mutter. “Over!”
Trinidad did not falter. Approaching the barrier at full tilt, he gathered his strength, and cleared the structure in a beautiful, clean leap. The startled workmen, amazed at the feat, fell back out of the way. Only one made any attempt to stop the rider. The Headless Horseman plunged his gallant steed through a gap in the trees and was gone.
The Penny Parker Megapack: 15 Complete Novels Page 116
