Penny Nichols Finds a Clue

by Joan Clark

  CHAPTER IX

  A Trap

  "Wait! I want to talk with you!" Penny called.

  The boy paid no heed. As she ran after him he darted into the nearestalley.

  Provoked, Penny hastened back to the car where Susan was waiting.

  "Let's try to catch him," she proposed, springing in beside her chum.

  Susan turned the coupe in the narrow street and drove into the alley.They could see the boy only a short distance ahead.

  "We'll overtake him," Penny cried jubilantly.

  Aware that he was being pursued, the boy ran faster. Then noticing anopening between two buildings, he squeezed through it and was lost toview.

  Penny tried to follow afoot but soon gave it up. She returned to thecoupe disheartened.

  "He eluded us this time, Sue. I suppose that boy thought I meant tohave him arrested. Actually, I only wanted to question him."

  For some twenty-five minutes the girls cruised around the block, hopingto sight Jerry Barrows again. Although they kept close watch of thealleys he did not reappear.

  "Did you notice anything peculiar about that boy's appearance?" Pennyinquired as they turned toward home.

  "No, why?"

  "He was dressed much better than on that night when we caught him inour garage. He doesn't look as if he had ever had much hard luck."

  "I imagine his entire story was a lie," Susan declared. "He didn'tkeep his promise to call at your father's office, and now he runs likea coward when we try to talk with him."

  "I don't see how I was taken in so easily," Penny confessed ruefully."I couldn't help liking the boy. I hoped he would turn over a newleaf."

  Alighting at the Nichols home, she invited her chum to remain fordinner.

  "I can't tonight," Susan told her regretfully. "We're having guests."

  "I suppose I'll have to eat alone then. No use expecting Dad home."

  In this she was mistaken. Entering the house, she discovered Mr.Nichols submerged in his favorite easy chair.

  "I didn't look for you home so early, Dad."

  "Nor did I expect to make it when I left the house this morning.However, I must return to the office immediately after dinner."

  "Is it so very important?" Penny demanded.

  Her father smiled.

  "Lonesome?"

  "Not exactly, only the evenings seem so long."

  "Why don't you go to a moving picture show?"

  "I've seen every good one in town. Besides, I'm tired of movies."

  "I realize I am being a very poor father," Mr. Nichols acknowledged,reaching over to squeeze her hand. "You might come back to the officewith me."

  "I'd like that," Penny said instantly.

  "It will be very dull," her father warned.

  Directly after dinner, they motored to Mr. Nichols new office oppositethe Brunner garage. Since the detective expected to occupy it only afew weeks at the most, it was equipped with the barest of necessities.There was a battered desk, three chairs and two telephones. Nothingmore.

  "What in the world do you do here?" Penny questioned.

  "Mostly sit and wait," the detective admitted. "I receive reports fromsome of my men here. During the day I watch the street."

  With a wave of his hand he indicated a powerful field glass which layupon the desk.

  Penny picked it up, training it upon the Brunner garage on the oppositeside of the street.

  "Why, it brings everything remarkably close! Do you sit here at thewindow and watch for the auto thieves?"

  "Something like that. We've set a trap."

  "A trap?" Penny was all interest.

  "Yes, we've planted several expensive new cars in key positions on thestreet. Our men are secretly watching them, of course. We hope thatthe auto thieves will select one of our models to strip."

  "It must be tedious waiting."

  "It is, but if we catch the gang our patience will have been rewarded."

  "But what of Rap Molberg?" Penny questioned doubtfully. "Surely hemust delegate the actual thievery to others."

  "I'm not so sure," Mr. Nichols said slowly. "It wouldn't surprise meto learn that Molberg acts upon orders from someone higher up. Howeverthat may be, if we capture some of the lesser fry, they can be made totalk."

  The detective busied himself at his desk. For a time Penny amusedherself by watching pedestrians through the field glass. Growing tiredof that, she buried herself in a magazine. It was not veryinteresting. By nine o'clock she was thoroughly bored.

  "I think I'll go home," she announced. "I don't believe anythingexciting will happen tonight."

  "So that's why you came," her father chided. "And I thought it wasbecause you craved my company!"

  "I did, but this bare office is too depressing."

  "Then I'll excuse you," Mr. Nichols smiled. "Take a taxi home if youlike."

  "No, I think I'll walk."

  It was a pleasant mellow evening and Penny was in the mood for a longstroll. She chose a roundabout route home.

  She was absent-mindedly crossing a street, thinking of nothing inparticular, when an automobile without headlights shot past her at ahigh rate of speed. Frightened, Penny sprang backwards.

  "The nerve of that driver!" she thought. "He missed me by inches."

  She watched the car swerve around a corner and race up a dead-endstreet.

  "Why, this is the very place where I lost track of Rap Molberg!" shetold herself.

  She rushed to the corner. Her fascinated gaze followed the retreatingautomobile. It tore madly to the end of the street where it abruptlyhalted.

  Penny lost sight of it for an instant. Then to her surprise, theheadlights were flashed on. In the reflected light she saw the tallwalls of a large manufacturing plant.

  The beam was turned off again. Darkness swallowed up the car.

  While she was straining to see, Penny heard the shrill blast of awarning siren from far up the street. The next instant, a police radiocruiser shot past.

  With a loud screaming of brakes, the police car came to a stop not farfrom Penny.

  "Did you see an automobile without headlights come this way?" thedriver asked tersely.

  Penny was only too glad to offer information.

  "It turned into this dead-end," she began.

  The officers did not wait to hear more. With a roar, the cruiser wasoff again. It reached the end of the street and halted because itcould go no farther.

  Penny, bent upon missing nothing, followed as fast as she could.

  By the time she reached the radio cruiser one of the officers hadalighted. He was looking carefully about. Sighting Penny, he walkedover to her.

  "Say you! I thought you told us that car came this way."

  "It did," Penny maintained staunchly. "I saw it go to the very end ofthis street. The lights flashed on for an instant. Then the carseemed to vanish. I think it must have gone into that building."

  She indicated the Hamilton Manufacturing Plant. The officer surveyedit briefly.

  "Don't kid me!" he snapped. "Only a Houdini ever went through solidwalls!"

  He climbed back into the police car, saying gruffly to the driver: "Getgoing, Philips. It was a wrong steer. We must have missed that car atthe turn."

  Penny waited until the cruiser disappeared around the corner. Then shecrossed the street and stood staring meditatively at the tall walls ofthe Hamilton Plant. There was no doorway leading into the building.

  "It's uncanny," she murmured. "Yet I know very well that car went inthere some way." The building was entirely dark. There were nowindows on the street side. Only a vast expanse of unbroken wall.

  "It's too dark to see anything tonight," Penny decided after a briefhesitation. "Tomorrow I'll come back and perhaps make a fewinteresting discoveries!"

  And with that resolution, she turned and walked rapidly toward home.