The Penny Parker Megapack: 15 Complete Novels (124 page)

“Well, what will we do?” Penny asked, scarcely able to hide her growing irritation. “It’s still foggy on the river. I’ve put up signal lights, but an approaching freighter might not see them in time to change her course.”

“There’s nothing more to be done,” Carl Oaks responded with a shrug. “The Coast Guard boat will come along after awhile. I’m not going to worry about it—not me! I’m done with this lousy job, and you can tell your father so.”

“My father can bear the shock, I think,” Penny answered coldly.

Thoroughly disgusted at the indifferent attitude of the watchman, she ran out on deck. Looking down over the side, she saw Louise waiting anxiously in the dinghy.

“Oh, there you are!” her chum cried. “I thought you never were coming!”

Penny explained that she had found Carl Oaks lying bound and gagged inside the deck house. As the old watchman himself came up behind her, she could say nothing about his indifferent attitude.

“I wondered how you got out to this barge,” Oaks commented, gazing down at the dinghy. “You can take me to shore with you.”

“Isn’t it your duty to remain here until relieved?”Penny asked.

“I resigned, takin’ effect last night at midnight,”Oaks grinned. “I’ve had enough of Riverview. I’m getting out of this town.”

Penny faced the watchman with flashing eyes.

“My father obtained this job for you, Mr. Oaks. You’ll show very little gratitude if you run off just because you’re in trouble again.”

“A man’s got a right to do as he pleases!”

“Not always,” Penny corrected. “Saboteurs are at work along this waterfront, and it’s your duty to tell police what you know.”

“I didn’t see the men, I tell you! They came at me from behind.”

“Even so, you may be able to contribute information to the police. In any case, you’ll have to stay here until relieved—”

“Penny!” interrupted Louise from below. “There’s a boat coming!”

The steady chug of a motor could be heard, but for a moment the swirling mists hid the approaching vessel. Then a pleasure yacht, with pennants flying, came into view.

“It’s the
Eloise III!
” Penny cried, recognizing the craft as one belonging to Commodore Phillips of the Riverview Marine Club.

Waving their arms and shouting, the girls tried to attract the pilot’s attention. To their relief, the yacht veered slightly from her course, and the engines slackened speed.

“Yacht ahoy!” called Penny, cupping hands to her lips.

“Ahoy!” came the answering shout from Commodore Phillips. “What’s wrong there? Barge adrift?”

Penny confirmed the observation and requested to be taken aboard. Although she was not certain of it, she believed that the
Eloise III
was equipped with a radio telephone which could be used to notify Coast Guards of the floating barge.

Leaving Carl Oaks behind, the girls rowed to the yacht and were helped aboard. Commodore Phillips immediately confirmed that his vessel did have radio-telephone apparatus.

“Come with me,” he directed, leading the girls to the radio room.

The Commodore sat down beside the transmitting apparatus, quickly adjusting a pair of earphones. Snapping on the power switch, he tuned to the wave length of the Coast Guard station. While the girls hovered at his elbow, he talked into the radio telephone, informing the Coast Guard of the floating barge and its position. The message, he explained to Penny and Louise, would be received in “scrambled speech” and automatically transformed into understandable English by means of an electrical device.

“How do you mean?” inquired Louise, deeply puzzled.

“Nearly all ship-to-shore radio telephone conversations are carried on in scrambled speech,” the Commodore replied. “Otherwise, eavesdroppers could tune in on them and learn important facts not intended to be made public.”

“But you spoke ordinary English into the ’phone,”Louise said, still perplexed.

“The speech scrambler is an electric circuit which automatically transposes voice frequencies,” the Commodore resumed. “The words are made unintelligible until unscrambled by a similar device at the receiving station. For instance, if I were to say ‘Mary had a little lamb,’ into this phone, anyone listening in would hear: ‘Noyil hob e ylippey ylond.’ Yet at the receiving post, the message would be unscrambled to its original form.”

“I wish our telephone at home was fixed that way!”Penny declared with a laugh. “Wouldn’t some of the neighbors develop a headache!”

Having been informed that a Coast Guard cutter would proceed at once to the locality, the girls felt relieved of further responsibility. As Commodore Phillips said that he would stand by with his yacht until the cutter reached the scene, they finally decided to return to shore. Once well away from the yacht they raised sail and tacked toward their own dock.

“I hope the Coast Guard gives Carl Oaks a good lecture,” Penny remarked, turning to gaze back at the slowly drifting barge. “Why, he wasn’t one bit concerned what might happen to other vessels!”

“I never did like him,” said Louise with feeling. “He complains too much. Was it his fault that the barge was cut adrift?”

“Not according to his story. Three men attacked him while he was in the deck house. Of course, he couldn’t have been too alert.”

“Carl Oaks wouldn’t be!”

“There was one rather peculiar thing,” Penny said slowly. “It never occurred to me until now.”

“What’s that?”

“Why, Mr. Oaks’ bonds were very loose. If he had tried, I believe he could have freed himself.”

“That does seem strange,” agreed Louise. “You don’t think he allowed those saboteurs to board the barge?”

Penny brought the dinghy around, steering to avoid a floating log.

“I wouldn’t know,” she replied soberly. “But I’m glad we forced Mr. Oaks to wait for the Coast Guard. I hope they question him until they get to the bottom of this affair.”

CHAPTER 17

A STOLEN BOAT

The mists were lifting as Penny and Louise sailed slowly past the Ottman Dock toward their own snug berth. Sara, in blue slacks, a red bandana handkerchief over her head, was trying to start a stubborn outboard motor. Glancing up, she called a greeting, and then asked abruptly:

“Say, what’s that barge doing out on the river? It looks to me as if it’s adrift, but I can’t see well enough to tell.”

Penny and Louise, eager to impart information, brought the dinghy to a mooring at the floating platform. Sara listened with interest as they revealed how they had boarded the barge, released Carl Oaks, and then notified the Coast Guard.

“Neat work!” she praised. “That Carl Oaks! He’s one of the most shiftless men I ever knew. He doesn’t deserve to hold a job.”

Penny glanced about the dock, searching for Burt Ottman.

“Your brother isn’t here?” she remarked absently.

“No, he isn’t,” Sara replied, rather defiantly. “If you think he had anything to do with that barge—”

“Why, it never entered my mind!” Penny exclaimed.

“I’m sorry,” the older girl apologized. “I shouldn’t have said that. I don’t know why I’m so jumpy lately.”

“You have a great deal to worry you,” said Louise sympathetically. “And you work too hard.”

“I’ll be all right as soon as Burt’s trial is over. He’s not here this morning—” Sara’s voice broke. “In fact, I don’t know where he is.”

Louise and Penny said nothing, though the remark astonished them.

“Burt was out all last night,” Sara spoke and then seemed to realize that her words easily could be misinterpreted. She added hastily: “He’s been trying to gain evidence which will prove his innocence.”

“You mean your brother went away yesterday and failed to return?” Penny asked after a moment.

Sara nodded. “He’s on the trail of the real saboteurs, and it’s dangerous business. That’s why I’m so worried. I’m afraid he’s in trouble.”

“Have you talked to the police?” Penny inquired.

“Indeed, I haven’t.”

“Didn’t your brother tell you where he was going when he left home?”

“No, he didn’t. He keeps things from me because he says I worry too much now.”

“I suppose he never explained what happened at The Green Parrot?”

“He said he couldn’t remember. Oh, everything’s so mixed up. I try not to think about it, because when I do my head simply buzzes.”

Once more Sara tried to start the balky engine, and this time her efforts brought success.

“Thank goodness for small favors!” she muttered. “Now I’ve got to go out on the river and look for our stolen boat. Hope no one runs off with this place while I’m gone.”

“You’ve not had another boat stolen?” Louise asked in surprise.

“I figure that’s what happened to it. Late yesterday afternoon a man came here and rented our fastest motorboat. That’s the last I’ve seen of him or it.”

“Didn’t you report your loss to the Coast Guards?” inquired Penny.

Sara answered with a trace of impatience. “Of course, I did. They searched the river last night. No accident reported, and no trace of the boat.”

“The man might have drowned,” Louise offered anxiously.

“It’s not likely. If he had gone overboard, the boat would have been found by this time. No, it’s been pulled up somewhere in the bushes and hidden. Last year one of our canoes was taken. Burt found it a month later, painted a different color!”

“Didn’t you know the man who rented the boat?” questioned Penny.

“Never saw him before. He was tall and thin and dark. Wore a brown felt hat and overcoat. I noticed his hands in particular. They were soft and well manicured. I said to myself, ‘This fellow doesn’t know a thing about boats,’ but I was wrong. He handled that motor like a veteran.”

“The man didn’t look like a waiter, did he?” Penny asked quickly.

“You couldn’t prove it by me.”

Penny groped in her mind to recall a characteristic which definitely would describe the head waiter of The Green Parrot. To her chagrin, she could think of only one unusual facial characteristic, a tiny scar on his cheek. She did remember that the man had worn a large, old fashioned gold watch which might have been of foreign make.

“Why, the fellow who rented the boat did have such a watch!” Sara cried when Penny mentioned the timepiece. “I didn’t notice the scar. What is his name?”

“Louise and I never were able to learn,” Penny replied with regret. “The Green Parrot has closed its doors, so I don’t know how you can get in touch with him.”

Sara sighed. Placing an oar, a bailer, and a can of gasoline in the boat, she prepared to leave the dock.

“I’ll be lucky if I ever see the fellow again,” she commented. Hesitating a moment, she asked diffidently:“Don’t suppose you girls would like to go along?”

Penny and Louise wondered if their ears had betrayed them. It seemed beyond belief that Sara actually would invite them to accompany her.

“Why, of course, we’d like to go,” Penny accepted, before her chum could find her voice.

Scrambling out of the dinghy, the girls made it fast to the dock and transferred to the other boat. Sara opened the throttle, and they shot away, leaving behind a trail of churning foam. Out through the slip they raced, rounding a channel buoy at breakneck speed.

“You can certainly handle a boat,” Penny said admiringly.

“Been at it since I was a kid,” Sara grinned. “I could cruise this river blindfolded.”

They passed the floating barge, observing that a Coast Guard cutter was proceeding up river to take it in tow. Turning upstream, Sara swung the boat toward shore.

“Keep close watch of the bushes,” she directed the girls. “If you see anything that looks like a hidden boat, sing out.”

At low speed they crept along the river, watching for marks in the sand which might reveal where a craft had been pulled out of water. Once, venturing too close in, Sara went aground and had to push off with the oars.

“It doesn’t look as if we’ll have any luck,” she remarked gloomily. “The boat’s probably so well hidden, it would take a ferret to find it.”

They kept on upstream toward the Seventh Street Bridge, a structure much in use since the more modern Thompson’s Bridge had been closed to auto traffic. Penny, watching the stream of vehicles passing above, remarked that Riverview commerce would be paralyzed should anything occur to damage it.

“The Seventh Street Bridge now is the only artery open to the Riverview Munitions Plant,” Sara added. “I understand it’s being guarded day and night. By a better watchman than Carl Oaks, I hope.”

Without passing the bridge, the girls turned downstream, searching the opposite shore. Before they had gone far, Sara beached the boat on a stretch of sand.

“It was along here that Burt found our canoe last year,” she explained. “If you don’t mind waiting, I’ll get out and prowl around a bit.”

“Aren’t we near Bug Run?” Penny inquired.

Sara pointed out the mouth of the stream which was hidden from view by a clump of willows.