“Something like that would happen,” she thought. “Oh, well, even so Jerry ought to get here with the police in ample time.”
Only the waning of the moon gave indication of how swiftly the night was passing. Penny became alarmed as she observed how fast the pool emptied. Jerry would not have as long as she had anticipated. But surely, he would bring help before it was too late.
Presently, one of the men shut off the motor in the stone tower, saying with quiet jubilance:
“There, she’s empty!”
He jumped down into the tank, and almost at once uttered a cry of discovery.
“Here it is, just as he said! The ring to the trap! Give us some help, Gus.”
With Aaron Dietz and the bewildered bridegroom watching from above, the two men raised the heavy block of cement. Penny drew closer for she did not wish to miss anything. She stood in the shadow of a tree scarcely fifteen yards from where the men worked.
“A stairway leads down into an underground vault!” Jake cried exultantly. “We’ve found the hiding place of the gold.”
“Toss me your flashlight, Aaron,” called Gus. “We’ll soon have all of the treasure out of here.”
The next ten minutes brought a confused whirl of impressions. Penny’s thoughts were in turmoil. Why didn’t Jerry come with the police? As soon as the men carried the burden of gold to the boat they would discover Flora, bound and gagged. Then they would suspect that a trap had been laid. Oh, why didn’t Jerry hurry?
Gus and Jake had descended into the underground vault. As the light reappeared, Penny was dumbfounded to see that the men were empty handed.
“Nothing down there,” Gus reported in disgust. “Nothing!”
“Then we’ve been tricked!” Aaron Dietz turned furiously upon his prisoner. “You’ll pay for this!”
“I thought the gold was here,” answered Grant Atherwald.
“Lock him up in the vault and start the water running,” advised Jake harshly. “It’s a good way to be rid of him.”
The suggestion appealed to Aaron Dietz. At a nod from him, Atherwald was seized and dragged down into the pool. He was shoved into the vault, but before the two men could lower the heavy cement block into place, a signal from Dietz arrested their action.
“Wait!”
In her anxiety over Grant Atherwald, Penny had moved closer to the pool. Without realizing that she was exposing herself, she stood so that her shadow fell clearly across the open space. Before she comprehended her danger, Dietz hurled himself upon her, seizing her roughly by the arms.
Penny struggled to free herself but could not. The man’s grip was like steel.
“So you were spying!” he exclaimed harshly.
“I—I was just watching,” Penny stammered. “Don’t you remember me? I am the girl who pulled you out of the river when your car went over the drawbridge.”
The man looked closely at her, and for an instant she dared hope that he would recall her with gratitude. But his face hardened again and he said unfeelingly:
“You know entirely too much, my little girl. This is one story you will never write for your father’s paper. Your curiosity has proven your undoing. You share the fate of your very good friend.”
With a sinking heart Penny realized by the man’s words that he knew her to be the daughter of a newspaper publisher, and that he had guessed her part in the trick played upon him.
“Down you go!” Dietz said harshly.
As he dragged her toward the pool, Penny screamed at the top of her lungs. A hand was clapped over her mouth. She bit it savagely, but her efforts to free herself were of no avail.
The men shoved her headlong down the stone stairway into the pit.
“Now scream as much as you like,” Aaron Dietz hurled after her. “No one will hear you.”
The heavy stone slab dropped into place.
Penny picked herself up from the steps. Terror gripped her, and with a sob she called frantically:
“Mr. Atherwald! Mr. Atherwald!”
“Here at the bottom of the steps,” he answered with a groan.
“Are you hurt?”
“Only bruised. But my hands are still in cuffs.”
Penny limped down the stairway and helped the man to his feet.
“We’re done for now,” he said. “No one will ever look for us down in this vault. And our cries will never be heard.”
“Don’t give up,” Penny murmured encouragingly. “We may be able to lift the stone. Come let’s try.”
Mounting the stairs, they applied their shoulders to the massive door, but their best efforts did not raise it an inch.
“Listen!” cried Atherwald suddenly.
They both could hear the sound of water running into the empty pool.
“In an hour’s time no one will ever guess that a hidden vault lies beneath the tank!” Atherwald groaned. “We’re doomed!”
“If we can hear the water splashing above us, our voices might carry!” Penny reasoned. “Let’s cry out for help. Now, together!”
They shouted over and over until their voices failed them. Then, completely discouraged, they sagged down on the stairway to rest.
“Nothing went as I planned,” Penny said dismally. “I really thought the gold was hidden in this vault. If the men had found it, they would have spent hours removing the loot to their boat. Jerry would have come with the police and everything would have been all right.”
Grant Atherwald was not listening to the girl’s words. He struggled to his feet, pressing his ear against the trapdoor.
“The water has stopped running!”
“Are you sure?” Penny sprang up and stood beside him, listening.
“Yes, and I hear voices!”
With one accord, they shouted for help. Could it be imagination or did they hear an answering cry? As they repeated their frantic call, there was a scraping on the stone above their heads.
“Stand away,” ordered a muffled voice.
Before Penny and the bridegroom could obey, the great door lifted. A deluge of water poured in, its force nearly washing them from the steps. But in another moment the passage was clear and they stumbled up through the rectangular opening.
Jerry grasped Penny’s hand, helping her out of the vault. One of the blue-coated policemen aided Atherwald, unfastening the handcuffs which held him a prisoner.
“You’re all right, Penny?” the reporter asked anxiously.
“I—I feel like a drowned rat,” she laughed, shaking water out of her hair. Then, with a quick change of mood she asked: “Did you get Aaron Dietz and his men?”
“No,” Jerry answered in disgust. “When we crossed the river five minutes ago, the cruiser was still there. No sign of anyone around. I brought the police here, and now I suppose they’ve made their get-away.”
“Oh, Jerry, we can’t let them escape! Send the police—”
“Now don’t get worked up,” the reporter soothed. “A squad started back just as soon as we found out what had happened here.”
“Dietz and his men must have seen the police crossing the river,” speculated Penny. “They may have hidden in the bushes, biding their time. By now they’ve slipped away in their boat.”
“I’m afraid of it,” Jerry admitted. “I traveled as fast as I could.”
As one of the policemen lifted Penny out of the pool, a noise which sounded like the back-firing of an automobile, broke the stillness of the night. It was followed by a volley of similar sounds.
“Gunfire!” exclaimed Penny.
The policemen started at a run through the woods toward the place where the white cruiser had last been seen. Penny hesitated, and then took the opposite direction, coming out of the woods at a point directly opposite the drawbridge.
Gazing far up the river she could see the white cruiser, flashes of fire coming from the cabin window as the desperadoes exchanged shots with the police, who were concealed in the woods.
“That boat will try to run for it in ano
ther minute,”Penny thought. “If only the drawbridge were down!”
Kicking off her shoes, she dived into the water, swimming diagonally across the river to take advantage of the swift current. Her powerful strokes brought her to shallow water and she waded ashore through ankle-deep mud. As she scrambled up the slippery bank, her wet clothing plastered to her body, she heard the roar of the cruiser’s motor.
“They’ve started the engine!” she thought. “In another minute the boat will be at the bridge. Hurry! Hurry!”
Penny could force herself to no greater effort. Breathless, she reached the gearhouse and groped frantically under the door. Had Thorny failed to hide the key there? No, her fingers seized upon it.
Trembling with excitement, she turned it in the lock. The door of the gearhouse swung open. Now could she remember how to lower the bridge? Any mistake would be costly, for by this time she could hear the cruiser racing down the river at full speed. If only it were light enough so that she could see the gears!
She pulled a lever and her heart leaped as the motor responded with a pleasant purr. The power was on!
“Now to lower the bridge!” thought Penny. “But which lever is the right one? I’m not sure.”
With a prayer in her heart she grasped the one closest at hand and eased it forward. There was a grinding of gears as the tall cantilevers began to move. They were coming down, but oh, so slowly!
“Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!” Penny whispered, as if her words could speed the bridge on its journey.
The white cruiser drove onward at full speed. Lower came the bridge. Penny held her breath, knowing it would be a matter of inches whether or not the boat would clear. The man at the wheel, aware of the danger, did not swerve from his course.
The bridge settled into place. As the crash came, Penny closed her eyes.
“I did it! I’ve stopped them!” she thought, and sagged weakly against the gear house.
CHAPTER 25
VICTORY FOR PENNY
Minutes later Penny was still leaning limply against the building when a car drove up to the bridge. Her father, Salt, and a bevy of policemen and government representatives sprang out and ran to her side.
“Penny, what happened?” Mr. Parker clasped his daughter in his arms. “You’re soaking wet! Didn’t we hear gunfire as we turned in here?”
Penny waved her hand weakly toward the river below.
“There’s your story, Dad. Pictures galore. Boat smashes into dangerous drawbridge. Police pursue and shoot it out with desperadoes, taking what’s left of’em into custody. I’m afraid to look.”
“And what were you doing while all this was going on?” demanded her father.
“Me? I was just waiting for the drawbridge to go down.”
Mr. Parker, Salt, and the policemen he had brought to the scene, rushed to the edge of the bridge. A police boat had drawn up beside the badly listing cruiser, and three men prisoners and a girl were being taken off.
“How bad is it?” Penny called anxiously.
“All captured alive,” answered her father. “Salt, get that camera of yours into action! Where’s Jerry? He would be missing at a time like this! What happened anyhow? Can’t someone tell me?”
Penny had fully recovered the power of speech, and with a most flattering audience, she recounted her adventures.
“Excuse me just a minute,” she interrupted herself.
Turning her back, she pulled a sodden photograph from the front of her dress and handed it to her father.
“This picture is in pretty bad shape,” she said, “but it’s clue number one. You see, it’s a photograph of Miss Kippenberg, and on the back is written, ‘To Father, with all my love.’ I found the picture this afternoon in Room 381 at the Colonial Hotel.”
“Then you’ve located Kippenberg?” one of the G men demanded.
“I have. He’s been masquerading as the Kippenberg gardener, coming back here no doubt to witness the marriage of his daughter.”
“We’ll arrest him right away,” said the government man, turning to leave. “Thanks for the tip.”
“I am confident Miss Kippenberg and her mother had nothing to do with Grant Atherwald’s disappearance,”Penny went on. “Aaron Dietz plotted the whole affair himself. I guess he must have learned about Kippenberg’s cache of gold while he worked for the man. He believed that Grant Atherwald shared the secret and could tell where the money was hidden.”
“You’ve located the gold, too, I suppose,” Mr. Parker remarked whimsically.
“No, Dad, I slipped up there. I thought the gold was in a secret vault under the alligator pool, but I was wrong. I don’t know where it is.”
“We’ll let the G men solve that mystery when they take Kippenberg into custody,” replied her father. “Our work is cut out for us now. We’ll find Jerry, talk with young Atherwald, and rout Miss Kippenberg and her mother out of bed for an exclusive interview.”
“And this time I am sure they’ll answer questions,” declared Penny.
During the next hour the “story” was taken entirely from her hands. Jerry, her father and Salt, knew exactly how to gather every fact of interest to the readers of the Star. Sylvia Kippenberg, overjoyed to find her fiancé alive, posed for pictures with him, and answered all questions save those which concerned her father.
Not until a telephone call came from the Colonial Hotel, saying that Mr. Kippenberg had been taken into custody, would either Sylvia or her mother admit that the man had posed as the gardener.
“Very well, it is true,” Mrs. Kippenberg acknowledged at last. “James has been trying to avoid government men for over a year. Wishing to return for Sylvia’s wedding, he disguised himself as a gardener. Then after Grant’s disappearance, he remained here trying to help.”
“And it was your husband who managed to get rid of the alligator?” Penny interposed.
“Yes, we were afraid police might ask embarrassing questions. James disposed of it to a zoo late yesterday afternoon.”
“And the cache of gold under the lily pool,” said Mr. Parker. “What became of that?”
“There is no gold.”
“None at all?”
“None.”
“And there never was any?” questioned Penny incredulously. “Then why was the vault ever built?”
“Tell her the truth, Mother,” Sylvia urged. “She deserves to know. Anyway, it can do Father no harm now.”
“At one time my husband did have a considerable supply of gold,” Mrs. Kippenberg admitted. “Since he could not trust a bank he constructed his own vault under the pool and placed the alligator there as a precaution against prying persons.”
“My father really did nothing so very wrong,”Sylvia broke in. “The gold was bought with his own money. If he chose to sell it later at a profit it was his own affair.”
“Not in the opinion of the government,” Mr. Parker said with a smile. “He held the gold illegally. So your father disposed of it?”
“Yes, he shipped it out of the country months ago. And no one will ever be able to prove anything against him.”
“My husband is a very clever man,” added Mrs. Kippenberg proudly.
“That remains to be seen,” said Mr. Parker. “I know a number of very clever government men, too.”
Later, in dry clothing loaned to her by Miss Kippenberg, Penny motored back to Corbin with her father, Jerry, and Salt. There they learned that the three prisoners had been locked up in jail, while James Kippenberg was being questioned by government operatives. He readily admitted that he had disguised himself as the gardener but defied anyone to prove he ever had disposed of illegal gold.
Mr. Parker did not wait to learn the outcome of the interview. Instead he telephoned the big story to DeWitt and arranged for complete coverage on every new angle of the case. Satisfied that no more could be learned that night, the party sped back toward Riverview.
“Aaron Dietz and his confederates ought to get long prison sentences,” Penny remarked as
they drove through the night. “But what will happen to Mr. Kippenberg, Dad? Do you think he will escape punishment as his wife believes?”
“He’ll get what is coming to him,” replied Mr. Parker. “A government man told me tonight that Kippenberg’s income tax reports have been falsified. And Kippenberg knew they had evidence against him or he never would have gone into hiding. No, even if it can’t be proven that he held gold illegally, he’ll certainly be fined and given a year or so in prison for tax evasion.”
“I hope he receives a light sentence for Sylvia’s sake,” said Penny. After a moment she added: “Sylvia and Grant Atherwald are going to be married tomorrow. They told me so.”
“There’s a fact we missed,” declared Jerry. “Penny always is showing us up.”
“Oh, I didn’t prove myself so brilliant tonight,” responded Penny. “When I was down in that vault I decided I was just plain dumb. If you hadn’t had sense enough to guess where Grant Atherwald and I were being held—well, Dad would have had to adopt a new daughter.”
“It was easy enough to tell what had happened,” said Jerry. “You had told me you thought there was a secret vault beneath the pool. Then, too, I found your handkerchief floating in the bottom. The water had only been running in a few minutes.” He fished in his pocket and brought out a pin which he handed to Penny. “I also found this.”
“Thanks, Jerry,” said Penny. “That’s Louise’s cameo pin. She dropped it the day we were on the Kippenberg estate together.”
“The police gave you full credit for the capture of those men, Penny,” said her father with pride. “You yanked the drawbridge just in time to trap them.”
“Salt did his share, too,” mentioned Penny generously. “He went for the police just as soon as he realized Jerry and I had been carried away on the cruiser.”
“The only trouble was that the cops wasted too much time searching for you down river,” the photographer drawled. “We finally went back to Corbin and ran into Mr. Parker who suggested we come to the estate.”
The Penny Parker Megapack: 15 Complete Novels Page 14