The Penny Parker Megapack: 15 Complete Novels (80 page)

Undisturbed by her chum’s teasing, Penny parked Leaping Lena at the entrance to the lane, and the girls walked to the cabin.

“It doesn’t look as if anyone is here,” Louise remarked, rapping for the second time on the oaken door.

“I’m sure there is,” Penny replied in a whisper. “As we came up the lane, I saw the curtains move.”

Louise knocked a third time, so hard that the door rattled.

“At any rate, no one is going to answer,” she said. “We may as well go.”

“All right,” Penny agreed, although it was not her nature to give up so easily.

The girls walked down the lane until a clump of bushes screened them from the cabin.

“Let’s wait here,” Penny proposed, halting. “I have a hunch Mrs. Davis is hiding from us.”

“What’s to be gained by waiting?” grumbled Louise.

Nevertheless, she crouched beside her chum, watching the house. Ten minutes elapsed. Both Louise and Penny grew very weary. Then unexpectedly, the cabin door opened and Mrs. Davis peered into the yard. Seeing no one, she took a wooden water bucket and started with it to the pump which was situated midway between cabin and stable.

“Now’s our chance!” Penny whispered eagerly. “Come on, Louise, we’ll cut off her retreat and she can’t avoid meeting us!”

CHAPTER 6

TALL CORN

Hastening up the lane, Penny and Louise approached the pump in such a way that Mrs. Davis could not return to the house without meeting them. Not until the woman had filled the water bucket and was starting back did she see the two girls.

“Well?” she demanded defiantly.

By daylight the woman appeared much younger than Penny had taken her to be the previous night. Not more than thirty-two, she wore a shapeless, faded blue dress which had seen many washings. Rather attractive brown hair had been drawn back into a tight, unbecoming knot that made her face seem grotesquely long.

“I don’t suppose you recognize me,” Penny began diffidently. “My father and I were here last night with Sheriff Daniels.”

“I remember you very well,” the woman retorted. “What do you want?”

“Why, I should like to buy some melons,” Penny replied, the idea only that instant occurring to her. “Have you any for sale?”

“Melons,” the woman repeated, and the hard line of her mouth relaxed. “I thought you came to pester me with questions. Sure, we’ve got some good Heart o’ Gold out in the patch. How many do you want?”

“About three, I guess.”

“You can pick ’em out yourself if you want to,”Mrs. Davis offered. Setting down the water bucket, she led the way through a gate to a melon patch behind the cabin. Her suspicions not entirely allayed, she demanded: “Sheriff Daniels didn’t send you out here?”

“Indeed not,” Penny assured her. “I haven’t seen him since last night.”

“It’s all right then,” Mrs. Davis said in a more friendly tone. She stooped to examine a ripe melon. “I figured maybe he sent you to find out what became of my husband.”

“Oh, no! Didn’t Mr. Davis return home last night?”

“Not on your life!” the woman answered grimly. “And he won’t be back either—not while Sheriff Daniels is looking for him.”

From Mrs. Davis’ manner of speaking, Penny was convinced that she had been in communication with her husband since the sheriff’s visit. Trying to keep her voice casual, she observed:

“Don’t you think it would be wise for your husband to give himself up? By hiding, he makes it appear as though he actually did set fire to the Preston barn.”

“Clem would be a fool to give himself up now! Why, they’d be sure to hang the fire onto him, even though he wasn’t within a mile of the Preston place.”

“Then couldn’t he prove it?”

“Not a chance,” the woman said with a short, hard laugh. “Clem was framed. He never rode the horse last night, and that black hood was planted in the stable.”

“Does your husband have any enemies?”

“Sure, he’s got plenty of ’em.”

“Then perhaps you can name a person who might have tried to throw blame on your husband.”

“I could tell plenty if I was a mind to,” the woman said significantly. “I’d do it in a minute, only it would make things worse for Clem.”

Penny started to reply, then remained silent as she saw that Mrs. Davis’ gaze had focused upon a section of cornfield which fringed the melon patch. The tall stalks were waving in an agitated manner, suggesting that someone might be moving among them.

“Here are your melons,” Mrs. Davis said nervously, thrusting three large ones into Penny’s hands. “That will be a quarter.”

As the girl paid her, she abruptly turned and hurried toward the house.

“Just a minute, Mrs. Davis,” Penny called. “If you’ll only talk to me I may be able to help your husband.”

The woman heard but paid no heed. Picking up the water bucket, she entered the cabin, closing the door behind her.

“Well, we gained three melons, and that’s all,”Louise shrugged. “What’s our next move?”

“I think Mrs. Davis was on the verge of telling us something important,” Penny declared, her voice low. “Then she saw someone out there in the corn field and changed her mind.”

“I don’t see anyone now,” Louise said, staring in the direction her chum had indicated. “The stalks aren’t even moving.”

“They were a moment ago. Clem Davis may be hiding out there, Lou! Or it could be some of Sheriff Davis’ men watching the cabin.”

“Or an Indian waiting to scalp us,” teased Louise. “Let’s go back to the car.”

Penny shook her head and started toward the corn patch. Reluctantly, Louise followed, overtaking her at the edge of the field.

“Sheriff Daniels!” Penny called through cupped hands.

There was no answer, only a gentle rippling of the corn stalks some distance from them.

“Whoever the person is, he’s sneaking away,” Penny whispered. “Come on, let’s stop him!”

“Don’t be foolish—” Louise protested, but her chum had vanished into the forest of tall corn.

After a moment of indecision she, too, entered the field. By that time there was no sign of Penny, no sound to guide her. Wandering aimlessly first in one direction, then another, she soon became hopelessly lost.

“Penny!” she shouted frantically.

“Here!” called a voice not far away.

Tracing the sound, and making repeated calls, Louise finally came face to face with her chum.

“Such a commotion as you’ve been making,” chided Penny. “Not a chance to catch that fellow now!”

“I don’t care,” Louise retorted crossly. Her hair was disarranged, stockings matted with burs. “If we can get out of this dreadful maze I want to go to the car.”

“We’re at the edge of the field. Follow me and I’ll pilot you to safety.”

Emerging a minute later at the end of the corn row, Penny saw the stable only a few yards away. Impulsively, she proposed to Louise that they investigate it for possible clues.

“I’ve had enough detective work for one day,” her chum complained. “Anyway, what do you hope to discover in an old barn?”

“Maybe I can induce the horse to talk,” Penny chuckled. “Sal must know all the answers, if only she could speak.”

“You’ll have to give her the third degree by yourself,”Louise decided with finality. “I shall go to the car.”

Taking the melons with her, she marched stiffly down the lane and climbed into Leaping Lena. Carefully she rearranged her hair, plucked burs, and then grew impatient because her chum did not come. Fully twenty minutes elapsed before Penny emerged from the stable.

“Sorry to keep you waiting so long, Lou,” she apologized as she reached the car. “See what I found!”

Penny held up a bright silver object which resembled a locket, save that it was smaller.

“What is it?” Louise inquired with interest.

“A man’s watch charm! It has a picture inside too!”

With her fingernail, Penny pried open the lid. Flat against the cover had been fastened the photograph of a boy who might have been ten or twelve years of age.

“Where did you get it, Penny?”

“I found it lying on the barn floor, not far from the place where we picked up the black hood last night.”

“Then it must belong to Clem Davis!”

“It may,” Penny admitted, sliding into the seat beside her chum. “Still, I don’t believe the Davis’ have any children.”

“What will you do with the charm? Turn it over to the sheriff?”

“I suppose I should, after I’ve shown it to Dad,”Penny replied, carefully tying the trinket into the corner of a handkerchief. “You know, Lou, since finding this, I wonder if Mrs. Davis may not have told the truth.”

“About what, Penny?”

“She said that her husband had been framed.”

“Then you think this watch charm was left in the barn to throw suspicion upon Clem Davis!”

Penny shook her head. “No, this is my theory, Louise. Perhaps someone hid the black hood there, and rode Clem’s horse to make it appear he was the guilty person. Inadvertently, that same person lost this watch charm.”

“In that case, you would have a clue which might solve the case.”

“Exactly,” Penny grinned in triumph. “Get ready for a fast ride into town. I’m going to rush this evidence straight to the
Star
office and get Dad’s opinion.”

CHAPTER 7

MR. BLAKE’S DONATION

Not wishing to ride to the
Star
building, Louise asked her chum to drop her off at the Sidell home. Accordingly, Penny left her there, and then drove on alone to her father’s office. The news room hummed with activity as she sauntered through to the private office.

“Just a minute, please,” her father requested, waving her into a chair.

He completed a letter he was dictating, dismissed his secretary, and then was ready to listen. Without preliminary ado, Penny laid the watch charm on the desk, explaining where she had found it.

“Dad, this may belong to Clem Davis, but I don’t think so!” she announced in an excited voice. “It’s my theory that the person who planted the black hood in the stable must have lost it!”

Mr. Parker examined the charm carefully, gazing at the picture of the little boy contained within it.

“Very interesting,” he commented. “However, I fear you are allowing your imagination to take you for a ride. There isn’t much question of Clem Davis’ guilt according to the findings of the sheriff.”

“Has any new evidence come to light, Dad?”

“Yes, Penny, the sheriff’s office has gained possession of a document showing beyond question that Clem Davis is a member of a renegade band known as the Black Hoods.”

“Where did they get their proof?”

“Sheriff Davis won’t disclose the source of his information. However, our star reporter, Jerry Livingston, is working on the case, and something may develop any hour.”

“Then you’re intending to make it into a big story?”Penny asked thoughtfully.

“I am. An underground, subversive organization, no matter what its purpose, has no right to an existence. The
Star
will expose the leaders, if possible, and break up the group.”

“Since the Hoods apparently burned the Preston storage barn, their purpose can’t be a very noble one,”Penny commented. “Nor are their leaders especially clever. The trail led as plain as day to Clem Davis—so straight, in fact, that I couldn’t help doubting his guilt.”

“Penny, I’ll keep this watch charm, if you don’t mind,” Mr. Parker said, locking the trinket into a drawer. “I’ll put Jerry to work on it and he may be able to learn the identity of the little boy in the picture.”

Abruptly changing the subject, the editor inquired regarding his daughter’s success in selling Camp-Benefit tags.

“I have only one left,” Penny replied, presenting it with a flourish. “Twenty-five cents, please.”

“The cause is a worthy one. I’ll double the amount.” Amiably, Mr. Parker flipped a half dollar across the desk.

“While you’re in a giving mood I might mention that my allowance is due,” Penny said with a grin. “Also, you owe me five gallons of gasoline. I saw old Seth McGuire this morning and he agreed with me that the Hubell clock struck thirteen last night.”

Mr. Parker had no opportunity to reply, for just then his secretary re-entered the office to say that Mr. Clyde Blake wished to see him.

“I suppose that means you want me to evaporate,”Penny remarked, gazing questioningly at her father.

“No, stay if you like. It’s probably nothing of consequence.”

Penny welcomed an invitation to remain. After her talk with Seth McGuire she was curious to see the man who had caused the old bell maker to lose his position at the Hubell Tower.

“Blake probably wants to ask me to do him a personal favor,” Mr. Parker confided in a low tone. “He’s a pest!”

In a moment the door opened again to admit the real estate man. He was heavy-set, immaculately dressed, and the only defect in his appearance was caused by a right arm which was somewhat shorter than the left.