The Penny Parker Megapack: 15 Complete Novels

by Mildred Benson

  “Noah!” she cried, directing his attention to it. “Don’t you remember the Bible quotation: ‘And I do set my bow in the cloud and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.’”

  “‘And the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh,’” Noah whispered, his fascinated gaze upon the rainbow.

  “There, you have your sign, your token,” Mr. Parker said briskly.

  “Yes, yes,” whispered the old man. “This is the hour for which I long have waited! Behold the rainbow which rolleth back the scroll of destiny! Never again will the flood come. Never again will destruction envelop the earth and all its creatures.”

  “How about it Noah?” Mr. Parker asked impatiently. “If I make all arrangements will you leave the ark?”

  The old man did not hesitate. “Yes, I will go,” he said. “My mission here is finished. I am content.”

  Penny and her father did not annoy the old man with material details, but slipped quietly away from the ark. Glancing back, they saw that Noah still stood at the railing, his face turned raptly toward the fading rainbow. As the last trace of color disappeared from the sky, he bowed his head in worshipful reverence. A moment he stood thus, and then, turning, walked with dignity into the ark.

  “Poor old fellow,” said Penny.

  “I suppose you mean Noah,” chuckled Mr. Parker. “But I deserve sympathy too. Haven’t I just been knicked to the tune of an expensive truck?”

  “You don’t really mind, do you, Dad?”

  “No, it’s worth it to have the old fellow satisfied,”Mr. Parker responded. “And then, the ark brought me a big story for the Star.”

  Penny walked silently beside her father. With the saboteurs in jail, Burt Ottman free, and Old Noah’s future settled, she had not a worry in the world. Rounding a bend of the stream, she glimpsed a shining blue bottle caught in the backwash of a fallen log. Eagerly she started to rescue it.

  “Don’t tell me you expect to collect every one of those messages!” protested Mr. Parker.

  “Every single one,” laughed Penny, raking in the bottle. “You see, last night I lost a very pretty cameo pin. Until I find it, I’ll never admit that the case of the saboteurs is closed!”

  GHOST BEYOND THE GATE

  CHAPTER 1

  LOST ON A HILLTOP

  The little iceboat, with two laughing, shouting girls clinging to it, sped over the frozen surface of Big Bear River.

  “Penny, we’re going too fast!” screamed Louise Sidell, ducking to protect her face from the biting wind.

  “Only about forty an hour!” shrieked her companion gleefully.

  At the tiller of the Icicle, Penelope Parker, in fur-lined parka, sheepskin coat and goggles, looked for all the world like a jolly Eskimo. Always delighting in a new sport, she had built the iceboat herself—spars from a wood lot, the sail from an old tent.

  “Slow down, Penny!” pleaded her chum.

  “Can’t,” shouted Penny cheerfully. “Oh, we’re going into a hike!”

  As one runner raised off the ice, the boat tilted far over on its side. Louise shrieked with terror, and held tight to prevent being thrown out. Penny, hard pressed, sought to avert disaster by a snappy starting of the main sheet.

  For a space the boat rushed on, runners roaring. Then as a sudden puff of wind struck the sail, the steering runner leaped off the ice. Instantly the Icicle went into a spin from which Penny could not straighten it.

  “We’re going over!” screamed Louise, scrambling to free her feet.

  The next moment the boat capsized. Both girls went sliding on their backs across the ice. Penny landed in a snowdrift at the river bank, her parka awry, goggles hanging on one ear.

  “Are you hurt, Lou?” she called, jumping to her feet.

  Louise sprawled on the ice some distance away. Slowly she pulled herself to a sitting position and rubbed the back of her head.

  “Maybe this is your idea of fun!” she complained. “As for me, give me bronco busting! It would be a mild sport in comparison.”

  Penny chuckled, dusting snow from her clothing. “Why, this is fun, Lou. We have to expect these little upsets while we’re learning.”

  The sail of the overturned iceboat was billowing like a parachute. Slipping and sliding, Penny ran to pull it in.

  “Take the old thing down!” urged Louise, hobbling after her. “I’ve had enough ice-boating for this afternoon!”

  “Oh, just one more turn down the river and back,” coaxed Penny.

  “No! We’re close to the club house now. If we sail off again, there’s no telling where we’ll land. Anyway, it’s late and it’s starting to snow.”

  Penny reluctantly acknowledged that Louise spoke pearls of wisdom. Large, damp snowflakes were drifting down, dotting her red mittens. The wind steadily was stiffening, and cold penetrated her sheepskin coat.

  “It will be dark within an hour,” added Louise. Uneasily she scanned the leaden sky. “We’ve been out here all afternoon.”

  “Guess it is time to go home,” admitted Penny. “Oh, well, it won’t take us long to get the Icicle loaded onto the car trailer. Lucky we upset so close to the club house.”

  Setting to work with a will, the girls took down the flapping sail. After much tugging and pushing, they righted the boat and pulled it toward the Riverview Yacht Club. Closed for the winter, the building looked cold and forlorn. Penny, however, had left her car in the snowy parking lot, which was convenient to the river.

  “Wish we could get warm somewhere,” Louise said, shivering. “It must be ten below zero.”

  Pulling the Icicle behind them, the girls climbed the slippery river bank. Snow now swirled in clouds, half-curtaining the club house.

  “I’ll get the car and drive it down here,” Penny offered, starting toward the parking lot. “No use dragging the boat any farther.”

  Abandoning the Icicle, Louise went with her chum. A dozen steps took the girls to a wind-swept corner of the deserted building. Rounding it, they both stopped short, staring.

  On the snow-banked parking lot where the car had been left, there now stood only one vehicle, an unpainted, two-wheel trailer.

  “Great fishes!” exclaimed Penny. “Where’s the coupe?”

  “Maybe you forgot to set the brake and it rolled into a ditch!”

  “In that case, the trailer would have gone with it.”Her face grim, Penny ran on toward the parking lot.

  Reaching the trailer, the girls saw by tire tracks in the snow that the car had been detached and driven away.

  “I knew it! I knew it!” Penny wailed, pounding her mittens together. “The coupe’s been stolen!”

  “What’s that across the road?” Louise demanded. “It looks like an automobile to me. In the ditch, too!”

  Taking new hope, Penny went to investigate the little ravine. Through a screen of bare tree branches and bushes, she glimpsed a blur of metal.

  “It’s the car!” she cried jubilantly. “But how did it get across the road?”

  Penny’s elation quickly died. Drawing nearer, she was dismayed to see that the coupe appeared to be lying on its stomach in the ditch. Four wheels and a spare had been removed.

  “Stripped of every tire!” she exclaimed. “The thief ran the car out here on the road so we couldn’t see him at work from the river!”

  “What are we going to do?” Louise asked weakly. “We’re miles from Riverview. No houses close by. We’re half frozen and night is coming on.”

  Penny, her face very long, had no answer. She measured the gasoline tank with a stick. All of the fuel had been siphoned. She lifted the hood, expecting to find vital parts of the engine missing. However, everything appeared to be in place.

  Seeking protection from the penetrating wind, the girls climbed into the car to discuss their situation.

  “Can’t we just wait here until someone comes along and gives us a lift to town?” suggested Louise.

  “Yes, but we’re on a side road and few c
ars travel this way during winter.”

  “Then why not go somewhere and telephone?”

  “The nearest stores are at Kamm’s corner, about two miles away.”

  Louise gazed thoughtfully at the soft snow which was banking deeper on the windshield of the car.

  “Two miles in this, facing the wind, will be a hard hike. Think we ought to try it, Penny?”

  “I’m sure I don’t want to. And we needn’t either! Do you remember Salt Sommers?”

  “The photographer who works on your father’s newspaper?”

  “Yes, he spends his spare time as an airplane spotter. His station is over in the hills not more than a half mile from here! Why not tramp over there and ask him to telephone our folks?”

  “Are you sure you know the way?”

  “I was there once last summer,” Penny said confidently. “One follows a side road through the woods. I’m sure I can find it.”

  “All right,” Louise consented, sliding from behind the steering wheel. “If we’re going, let’s move right along.”

  Stiff with cold, the girls trudged past the club house and on down the road. Snow was falling faster and faster. Several times they paused to wipe their frosted goggles.

  “This promises to be a man-sized blizzard,” Louise observed uneasily. “It’s getting dark early, too.”

  Penny nodded, her thoughts on what she would say to her father when she reached home. The car had been fully insured, but even so it would not be easy to replace five stolen tires. Ruefully she reflected that Mrs. Weems, the kindly housekeeper who had looked after her since her mother’s death, had not favored the river trip.

  “Oh, don’t take it so hard,” Louise tried to cheer her. “Maybe the thief will be caught.”

  “Not a chance of it,” Penny responded gloomily.

  A hundred yards farther on the girls came to another side road which wound upward through the wooded hills. Already there was an ominous dusk settling over the valley. Penny paused to take bearings.

  “I think this is the way,” she said doubtfully.

  “You think!”

  “Well, I’m pretty sure,” Penny amended. “Salt’s station is up there on top of one of those hills. If this snow would stop we should be able to see the tower from here.”

  Slightly reassured, Louise followed her chum across a wooden bridge and up a narrow, winding road. On either side of the frozen ditches, tall frosted evergreens provided friendly protection from the stabbing, icy wind. Nevertheless, walking was not easy for the roadbed bore a shell of treacherous ice.

  Confident that they soon would come to the airplane listening post, the girls trudged on. Penny, anxious to make the most of the remaining daylight, set a stiff pace.

  “Shouldn’t we be coming to the station?” Louise presently asked. “Surely we’ve gone more than a half mile.”

  “The post is a little ways off from the road,” Penny confessed, peering anxiously at the unbroken line of evergreens. “We should be able to see it.”

  “In this blinding snow? Why, we may have passed the station without knowing it.”

  “Well, I don’t think so.”

  “You’re not one bit sure, Penny Parker!” Louise accused. “We were crazy to start off without being certain of the post’s location.”

  “We always can go back to the car.”

  “I’m nearly frozen now,” Louise complained, slapping her mittens together. “There’s no feeling in one of my hands.”

  Penny paused to wipe the moisture from her goggles. From far down the road came the sound of a laboring motor. She listened hopefully.

  “A car, Lou!” she cried. “Everything will be all right now! We’ll hail it and ask the driver for a lift.”

  Greatly encouraged, the girls waited for the approaching vehicle. They could hear it climbing a steep knoll, then descending. From the sound of the engine they decided that it must be a truck and that it might round the curve at a fast speed.

  Worried lest the driver fail to see them, the girls stepped out into the middle of the road. As the truck swerved around the bend, they shouted and waved their arms.

  The startled driver slammed on brakes, causing the big black truck to slide like a sled. Penny and Louise leaped aside, barely avoiding being struck.

  As they watched anxiously, the driver recovered control of the machine. He straightened out and brought the truck to a standstill farther up the road.

  Penny seized her chum’s hand. “Come on, Lou! He’s going to give us a ride!”

  Before they could reach the truck, the driver lowered the cab window. Thrusting his head through the opening he bellowed angrily:

  “What you tryin’ to do? Wreck my truck?”

  Giving the girls no opportunity to reply, he closed the cab window.

  Penny saw that the man was intending to drive on. “Wait!” she called frantically. “Please give us a ride! We’re lost and half frozen!”

  The man heard for he flashed an ugly smile. Shifting gears, he drove away.

  “Of all the shabby tricks, that’s the worst!” Penny said furiously. “It wasn’t our fault his old truck skidded.”

  “But it is our fault we’re lost on this road,” Louise added. “How are we ever to find the listening post?”

  Penny leaned against the leeward side of a giant pine. Already it was so dark that she could see only a few feet down the road. There were no houses, no lights, nothing to guide her.

  “Penny, are we really lost?” Louise demanded, suddenly afraid.

  “We really, truly are,” her chum answered in a quavering voice. “The post must be somewhere near here, but we’ll never find it. All we can do is try to get back to the car.”

  CHAPTER 2

  AT THE LISTENING POST

  Penny’s courage did not long forsake her. She had suggested to Louise that they return to the stripped car, but she knew that would not solve their problem. Staring up the dark road, she remarked that they must be close to the summit of the hill.

  “Then why not keep on?” urged Louise. “We set out to find the listening post, so let’s do it!”

  They trudged on up the winding road. At intervals, in an attempt to restore circulation to numbed feet, they ran a few steps. Snow fell steadily, whipping and stinging their faces.

  Gasping, half-winded, they kept doggedly on. Finally they struggled into a clearing at the top of the hill. Penny wiped her eyes and gazed down through a gap in the white-coated evergreens. A quarter of the way down the slope on the other side appeared a glowing dot of light.

  “I’m afraid it’s only a cabin,” she said dubiously. “It can’t be the airplane listening post.”

  “Let’s go there anyway,” advised Louise. “We can warm ourselves and ask how to get back to civilization.”

  They pushed on, still following the road. Downhill walking was much easier and at intervals they were encouraged by a glimpse of the light.

  Then, rounding a bend of the road, the girls came to an artistic, newly constructed iron fence, banked heavily with snow. The fence led to a high gate, and behind the gate loomed a dark, sprawling house with double chimneys.

  “The place is deserted!” Louise observed in disappointment. “What became of the light we’ve been following?”

  “It must be farther on. This house looks as if it had been closed for the winter.”

  Penny went to the gate and rattled a heavy chain which held it in place. Peering through the palings, she could see an unshoveled driveway which curved gracefully to a pillared porch. The spacious grounds were dotted with evergreens and shrubs, so layered with snow that they resembled scraggly ghosts.

  “Wonder who owns this place?” speculated Louise.

  “Don’t know,” Penny answered, turning away. “In fact, I don’t recall ever having seen it before.”

  Her words carried special significance to Louise.

  “If you’ve never seen this house before, then we’re on a strange road! Penny, we never will fi
nd the listening post!”

  “I’m beginning to suspect it myself,” Penny admitted grimly. “But we must keep plodding on. That light can’t be far ahead.”

  Turning their backs upon the gloomy estate, they again braved the penetrating wind. Soon Louise lost her footing and fell. She remained in a dispirited little heap until Penny pulled her off the ice.

  “Let’s keep going, Lou,” she urged. “It won’t be long now.”

  Louise allowed Penny to pull her along. They rounded a curve in the road, and there, miraculously, the lighted cabin rose before them.

  “At last!” exulted Louise. “The Promised Land!”

  Staggering up a shoveled path, they pounded on the cabin door. An old man, who held a kerosene lamp, responded promptly.

  “Come in, come in!” he invited heartily. “Why, you look half frozen.”

  “Looks aren’t deceitful either,” Penny laughed shakily.

  As the girls went into the warm room a little whirlpool of wind and snow danced ahead of them. Quickly the old man closed the door. He made places for Penny and Louise at the stove and tossed in a heavy stick of wood.

  “Bad night to be out,” he commented cheerfully.

  Penny agreed that it was. “We’re lost,” she volunteered, stripping off her wet mittens. “At least we can’t find the airplane listening post.”

  “Why, it’s just a piece farther on,” the old man replied. “The tower’s right hard to see in this storm.”

  While they thawed out, the girls explained that they had been forced to abandon their car at the Riverview Yacht Club. The old man, whose name was Henry Hammill, listened with deep sympathy to their tale of woe.

  “I’ll hitch up my horses and take you to Riverview in the sled,” he offered. “That is, unless you’d rather stop at the listening tower.”

  “It would save you a long trip,” Penny returned politely. “If Salt Sommers is on duty, I’m sure he’ll take us to our homes.”

  In the end it was decided that Old Henry should drive the girls as far as the post. Then, if arrangements could not be made with the photographer, he would keep on to Riverview.