The Penny Parker Megapack: 15 Complete Novels (177 page)

“Maybe she wrote it in invisible ink.”

“Oh, Penny, you certainly have an imagination,”Louise sighed.

“I suppose I imagined about the package too?”

“No, she really did bury something in the sand.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Penny demanded, leaping to her feet. “Let’s dig it up, and then maybe we’ll have the answer to a few of our questions.”

CHAPTER 14

VOICE FROM THE CAVE

From a distance Penny and Louise had marked well the spot where Mrs. Deline had buried the package. But as they approached the drift fence all of the dunes seemed strikingly similar in appearance. They could not agree as to the exact mound which contained the hidden package.

“It was buried in this one, I think,” Penny said, starting to dig. “Mrs. Deline certainly did a good job of covering her tracks.”

“You’re wasting time working on that dune,”Louise insisted. “I’ll get busy over here and turn up the package in nothing flat.”

Selecting a mound of sand several feet from Penny, she began to dig with a will. The mysterious package proved elusive. Scarcely had the girls started work than a few raindrops splattered down.

“Oh, it’s going to storm!” Louise exclaimed, turning startled eyes toward the dark sea.

The rain came down faster and faster. Faced with a choice of abandoning the search or being drenched, the girls decided to make a dash for the hotel.

As they darted up the steps at the Crystal Inn, they were surprised to see Mrs. Deline sitting on the veranda. A spyglass lay in her lap. Whether she had been watching the sea or their own antics they had no way of knowing.

“Have you seen my father, Mrs. Deline?” Penny asked, shaking the raindrops from her flying hair.

“Indeed, I don’t keep track of his whereabouts,”Mrs. Deline replied coldly. “By the way, did you find what you were searching for in the sand?”

The question caught Penny off guard. She stammered a few words which only caused the widow to smile in a knowing, amused way.

“I don’t mind telling you what I buried in the sand,” she resumed. “It may save you a little trouble. The package contained nothing but fish bones.”

“Fish bones!”

“Yes, I had just visited my friend, Jim McCoy, at the lighthouse. It’s most difficult to bury anything there because of so many rocks. He asked me to dispose of the scraps for him.”

“Oh,” Penny murmured, completely deflated.

“I’ve been watching you girls through the spyglass,”Mrs. Deline went on. “It really was amusing.”

“I can imagine,” Penny agreed grimly. “Oh, well, I’m glad to provide a little amusement for this dead place.”

She and Louise retreated until they were screened from the widow by a potted palm.

“I guess she scored on you that time, Penny,” Louise commented. “So we wasted our strength digging for garbage!”

“You needn’t rub it in.”

“But it’s all so silly. Why don’t we try to like Mrs. Deline, Penny?”

“I’ll leave that job up to you. Furthermore, how do I know she was telling the truth? Maybe she just handed us that story so we wouldn’t go on digging in the dunes!”

“That’s so!” Louise acknowledged. “Mrs. Deline isn’t the type to be doing gracious little jobs for anyone.”

“If Jim McCoy asked her to bury a package of garbage, she would have disposed of it long before she did,” Penny reasoned. “Instead, she walked quite a distance down shore. Then she seemed to select a particular dune, as if by pre-arrangement.”

“You think she may have hidden something there expecting another person to pick it up?”

“That’s my theory, Lou. Oh, I wish this rain would let up.”

Restlessly Penny walked to a window. The rain showed signs of slackening. And as she watched, a taxi drew up in front of the hotel. Jerry Livingston leaped out.

“Wait for me!” he instructed the driver. “I’ll be right back.”

Penny and Louise managed to block Jerry’s path as he came hurrying into the hotel.

“Hello, girls,” he greeted them offhanded. “Want to go for a drive into the country?”

“We certainly do,” Penny accepted for both. “What’s our destination?”

“Tell you on the way,” Jerry answered.

He disappeared into an elevator, but was back in the lobby within a few minutes. Taking Penny and Louise each by an elbow, he escorted them to the waiting cab.

“In a way, this is a secret trip,” he said after he had given directions to the driver. “Ever see a radio monitoring truck?”

“Never even heard of one,” Penny replied. “What is it?”

“Well, we have a truck equipped so that our instruments pick up the direction from which any short wave broadcast is sent. It’s not generally known that the Army’s at work here, so whatever you girls see you must keep under your sunbonnets.”

The taxi sped along the country road, following a route that was unfamiliar to the girls. By the time it drew up several miles from Sunset Beach the rain had ceased.

“Tumble out,” Jerry said, opening the cab door. “This is the end of the line.”

He went ahead, breaking a hole in the tall hedge at one side of the road. Eagerly the girls followed him through the gap. In a clearing just beyond a clump of saplings stood what appeared to be an ordinary covered Army truck.

An enlisted man came toward Jerry and the girls, saluting smartly.

“Are you picking up any signals?” Jerry asked him.

“Nothing yet, sir. The weather hasn’t been very favorable.”

“You’ve had your equipment set up here two days now?”

“Right, sir.”

“It’s not likely we’ll get anything today or tonight,”Jerry replied. “Oh, well, we’ll have to have patience. Sooner or later the station will go on the air again, and then we’ll learn its location.”

Louise and Penny were curious to learn more about the monitoring truck. Jerry took them inside, introduced them to the officers, and showed them the radio apparatus.

“Our truck is equipped with rotating antennae,” he explained. “Whenever the unknown station starts to broadcast we’ll be able to swing our loops toward the signals. Then we chart the signals and where the lines intercept, the station is located.”

“As you explain it, Jerry, finding any radio station is a simple matter.”

“It is, providing the station doesn’t move in the meantime. Unfortunately, Mr. Voice from the Cave is an elusive fellow.”

“You have no idea who the man may be?”

“No, he’s known to FBI agents only as B4 which is a code number.”

“What is the purpose behind the broadcasts?”Louise inquired. “Enemy propaganda?”

“We know that the station is enemy owned and operated,” Jerry replied. “So far that’s about all we do know, for we’ve been unable to break the code. We suspect that persons connected with the station may be aiding German prisoners to escape from the country.”

“Prisoners originally held in Canada?” Penny inquired.

“Yes, they’ve been aided by a ring of very clever spies.”

Penny was silent as she thought over the information. There were many questions she longed to ask.

“Jerry—” she began, but just then there came an interruption.

In the Army truck an officer had adjusted his earphones. His attitude as he listened was one of tense expectancy.

“Picking up any signals?” Jerry demanded.

The other man nodded. “Something’s coming in! Yes, it’s our friend, the Voice. In just a minute we should know exactly where the station is located.”

Jerry and the girls remained in the truck, eagerly awaiting a report from the efficient men who manned the radio direction finders.

“Okay, we’ve got it charted!” came the terse announcement a moment later.

“Where’s the station located?” Jerry demanded eagerly. “Let’s see the chart.”

It was thrust into his hand. Jerry stared at the intercepting lines and then at a map of the district.

“Why, the station seems to be located along the shore!” he exclaimed. “Apparently in one of the caves—Crystal Cave I’d judge.”

“That’s the cave where Louise and I were!”Penny exclaimed. “But we saw no shortwave radio apparatus. Only crazy old Skagway who was playing a tune on the stalagmites.”

“All the same, direction finders don’t lie. The broadcast came from Crystal Cave! But that doesn’t mean the station will be there fifteen minutes from now.”

“What’s to be done?” Penny asked. “Can’t the Voice be caught before he has a chance to move his portable outfit?”

“A message already has been sent to Headquarters. Army men should be on their way to the cave now.”

“Jerry, we’re not far from Crystal Cave ourselves!”Penny exclaimed, her eyes dancing with excitement. “Can’t we go there too?”

“We can and will!” Jerry laughed. “But if we expect to catch our friend, the Voice, there’s no time to lose. Come along, girls, if you’re traveling with me.”

CHAPTER 15

AFTERGLOW

Penny sprawled on the grass beside the dying embers of the camp fire. Listlessly, and with very bad aim, she hurled acorns at a brown squirrel chattering overhead.

“You’ve been in a bad mood ever since we got back from Crystal Cave,” Louise observed, coming out of the tent. “But why take it out on that poor creature?”

Penny raised herself on an elbow. She scowled and did not reply.

Louise moved over to the fire, seating herself on a log beside her chum.

“Oh, brace up,” she said, slipping an arm about Penny’s shoulders. “In all my life I’ve never seen you act so discouraged.”

“I feel lower than the worms. Nothing’s gone right since we came to Sunset Beach.”

“On the contrary, I can’t see that anything has gone so very wrong.”

“Wasn’t our trip to the Crystal Cave a bust?”Penny demanded.

“Well, it wasn’t a success.”

Louise smiled wryly at the recollection. With Jerry and the Army men, she and Penny had spent the afternoon searching various caves along the water front. Not a trace had been found of the mysterious radio station which so plagued local authorities. The search had been a long and exhausting one. In the end, though the others kept on, she and Penny had been compelled to give up.

“My feet hurt yet from scrambling over the rocks,”Penny declared. “I suppose Jerry and those Army officers will keep searching half the night.”

“And I’ll warrant they never do find the station,”Louise contributed. “This is one mystery I wish you had never stumbled into, Penny.”

“I’m beginning to feel the same way, Lou. This is supposed to be a vacation. I’d like to see Dad and Jerry once in awhile.”

“So that’s what’s bothering you!”

“Well, you know Jerry will be here only a few days at most,” Penny said defensively. “I’ve barely had a chance to say ‘hello’ to him. Dad’s always down at the hotel too.”

“What you crave seems to be male companionship.”

Penny tossed a stick of wood on the fire, making the sparks fly. “I could do with a little,” she admitted. “Life is too dull here.”

“Dull?” Louise gazed at her chum suspiciously.

“It’s no use being surrounded by mystery if one can’t get into the thick of it. So far all the adventure has by-passed us.”

“We might stir up a little excitement by looking for that package Mrs. Deline buried in the sand.”

“Not today,” Penny said with a sigh. “Too tired. Besides, I told Jerry about it and he wasn’t much impressed.”

“So that’s the reason for your gloom,” Louise remarked wisely. “As a detective you don’t rate.”

“Something like that. Jerry met Mrs. Deline at the hotel today and he thought her a very charming lady.”

“Oh!” Louise laughed. “No wonder you’re all smashed to bits!”

Penny got up from the grass and began preparations for supper. She peeled a pan of potatoes and opened a can of corn.

“We need a bucket of water from the spring,” she said suggestively. “Want to help me carry it?”

“I will,” Louise agreed without enthusiasm.

The trail led up a steep path to a rocky ledge from which cool spring water gushed out of a steel pipe. Penny drank deeply and then hung her tin bucket over the outlet to fill.

“It’s starting to get dark,” she observed, noticing how shadowy the woods had grown. “I hope Dad returns to camp soon.”

“Someone’s coming now,” Louise remarked as her keen ears detected the sound of footsteps on the trail below.

“Probably one of the rangers.”

Penny unhooked the water bucket from the pipe, and the girls started down the trail, carrying it between them. Emerging from among the trees, they glimpsed a figure below them. A woman in a dark cloak who carried a picnic hamper, was walking rapidly up the winding trail.

Penny stopped so suddenly that she spilled water on her sandals.

“Lou, that’s Mrs. Deline!” she whispered.