“What’s that?” Mr. Burmaster demanded sharply when Penny did not speak.
Without answering, she gave him the document.
“It is the deed!” he exclaimed, dumbfounded. “Then my wife did steal it from Mrs. Lear! But why—why would she do such a thing?”
“I’m sure she didn’t realize—”
“Mrs. Burmaster is a sick woman, a very sick woman,” the estate owner said unhappily. “But what must I do?”
“What can you do except go downstairs and tell the truth?”
“Face them all? Admit that my wife is a thief?”
“It seems to me that the only honorable thing is to return the deed to Mrs. Lear.”
“The deed must be returned,” Mr. Burmaster acknowledged. “But not tonight—later.”
“I realize that you wish to protect your wife,”Penny said quietly. “It’s natural. But Mrs. Lear has to be considered.”
“I’ll pay you handsomely to keep quiet about this,”Mr. Burmaster said. “Furthermore, I’ll promise to return the deed to Mrs. Lear tomorrow.”
Penny shook her head.
“Very well then,” Mr. Burmaster sighed. “I suppose I must face them. I don’t mind for myself. It’s my wife I’m worried about. She’s apt to go into hysterics.”
Tramping down the stairs, the estate owner confronted the little group of villagers. In a few words he acknowledged that the deed had been found, apologized to Mrs. Lear, and placed the document in her hands. Throughout the speech Mrs. Burmaster stood as one stricken. Her face flushed as red as the robe she wore, then became deathly white.
“I thank you, Mr. Burmaster, you’re an honorable man,” Mrs. Lear said stiffly. “I feel mighty sorry fer the way things turned out. Maybe—”
“Oh, yes, everyone can see that you’re sorry!” Mrs. Burmaster broke in shrilly. “You’re a hateful, scheming old hag. Now get out of my house! Get out all of you and never come back!”
“About the dam—” Silas Malcom started to say.
“The dam!” Mrs. Burmaster screamed. “Let it break! I wish it would! Then I’d never see any of you again! Go on—get out! Do you hear me? Get out!”
The little group retreated toward the door. Mrs. Burmaster did not wait to see the villagers leave. Weeping hysterically, she ran from the room.
CHAPTER 18
FLOOD WATERS
Rain splattered steadily against the car windows as the noon passenger train pulled from the Witch Falls station. Penny and Louise watched the plump drops join into fat rivulets which raced one another to the sill. Since saying goodbye to Mrs. Lear, Silas Malcom, and their other valley friends, they had not done much talking. They felt too discouraged.
“I wish we’d decided to catch the train at Delta,”Penny remarked, settling herself for the long ride home. “Then we could have said goodbye to Joe Quigley. We’ll be passing through the station soon.”
Louise nodded morosely.
“Things certainly ended in one grand mess,” she commented. “Mrs. Lear got the deed to her property back, but the feud will be worse than ever now. Furthermore, we never did solve the Headless Horseman mystery—not that it matters.”
Reaching for a discarded newspaper which lay on the coach seat, Penny shot her chum a quick, knowing look.
“Just what does that mean?” Louise demanded alertly.
Penny pretended not to understand.
“You gave me one of those wise-owl looks!” Louise accused. “Just as if you had solved the mystery.”
“I assure you I haven’t, and never will now that we’re leaving the valley.”
“But you do have an idea who was back of the scheme?”
“Mrs. Lear, of course. We saw that much with our own eyes.”
“But we didn’t learn who actually rode the horse. Or did you?”
“Not exactly.”
“You do know then!”
“No,” Penny denied soberly. “I noticed something about the rider that made me think—but then I’d better not say it.”
“Please go on.”
“No, I have no proof. It would only be a guess.”
“I think you’re mean to keep me in the dark,”Louise pouted.
“Maybe I’ll tell you my theory later,” Penny replied, opening the newspaper. “Just now, I’m not in the mood.”
Both girls had been strangely depressed by their last few hours in the valley. Mrs. Lear had refused to come with them or to seek refuge in the hills. Gleeful at her victory over Mrs. Burmaster, she had seemed insensible to danger.
“Look at this headline,” Penny said, indicating the black type of the newspaper. “FLOOD MENACES RED VALLEY!”
Quickly the girls scanned the story. The account mentioned no facts new to them. It merely repeated that residents of the valley were alarmed by heavy up-state rains which had raised Lake Huntley to a dangerous height behind the dam.
“Wonder if Salt got any good pictures when he was here yesterday?” Penny mused. “Probably not. This is the sort of news story that doesn’t amount to much unless the big calamity falls.”
“You don’t think the dam actually will give way?”Louise asked anxiously.
“How should I know? Even the experts can’t agree.”
“At any rate we’re leaving here, and I’m glad. Somehow, I’ve had an uneasy feeling ever since last night.”
Penny nodded and glanced from the car window again. Rain kept splashing fiercely against the thick pane, half obscuring the distant hills. Along the right of way, muddy water ran in deep torrents, washing fence and hedgerow.
As the train snailed along toward Delta, there was increasing evidence of flood damage. A row of shacks near the railroad tracks was half submerged. Along the creek beds, giant trees bowed their branches to the swirling water. Many landmarks were completely blotted out.
“We’re coming into Delta now,” Penny presently observed. “Perhaps if we watch sharp we’ll see Joe Quigley and can say goodbye.”
The train stopped with a jerk while still some distance from the station. Then it pulled to a siding and there it waited. After ten minutes Penny sauntered through the train, thinking that if she could find an open door, she might get out and walk to the depot. Stopping a porter who was passing through the car, she asked him the cause of the delay.
“We’se waitin’ fo’ ordehs,” the colored man answered. “Anyhow, dat’s what de cap’n says.”
“The captain?”
“The conducteh o’ dis heah train.”
“Oh! And what does he say about the high water?”
“He says de track between heah and Hobostein’s a foot undeh.”
“Then that means the river must be coming up fast. Any danger we’ll be stranded at Delta?”
“You betteh talk to de conductor,” the porter said, jerking his head toward a fat, bespectacled trainman who had just swung aboard the coach. “Dat’s Mr. Johnson.”
Penny stopped the conductor to ask him what the chances were of getting through the flooded area.
“Doesn’t look so good,” he rumbled. “The rails are under at Mile Posts 792 and 825.”
“Then we’re tied up here?”
“No, we’re going as far as we can,” the conductor answered. “The dispatcher’s sending a work train on ahead to feel out the track. But we’ll be lucky to make ten miles an hour.”
Penny chatted with the conductor for a few minutes, then ambled back to the coach where she had left Louise. The prospects were most discouraging. At best it would be late afternoon before they could hope to reach Riverview.
“I’m starving too,” Louise said. “I suppose there’s no diner on this train.”
As a stop gap the girls hailed a passing vendor and bought candy bars. Having thus satisfied their hunger, they tried to read magazines.
Presently the car started with a jerk. However, instead of proceeding toward the station it backed into the railroad yard.
“Now what?” Penny demanded impatiently. “Are
n’t we ever going to start?”
The porter hastened through the car, his manner noticeably nervous and tense. He paid no heed to a woman passenger who sought to detain him.
“Something’s wrong!” Penny said with conviction.
“A wash-out, do you think?”
“Might be. Let’s see what we can learn.”
With a vague feeling of foreboding they could not have explained, the girls arose and followed the porter. Something was amiss. They were certain of it.
Losing sight of the colored man, they kept on until they reached the rear platform. Penny started to open the screen door. Just then the train whistle sounded a shrill, unending blast.
Startled, Louise gripped her chum’s hand, listening tensely.
In the car behind, they heard the conductor’s husky voice. He was shouting: “Run! Run, for your lives! Take to the hills!”
Penny was stunned for an instant. Then seizing Louise’s arm, she pulled her out on the train platform. At first glance nothing appeared wrong. The tracks were well above the river level. Between the road bed and a high hill on the left, flood water was running like a mill race, but the ditch was narrow and represented no immediate danger.
“Listen!” Penny cried.
From far away there came a deep, rumbling roar not unlike the sound of distant thunder.
Leaning far over the train platform railing, Penny gazed up the tracks. The sight which met her eyes left her momentarily paralyzed.
Down the valley charged a great wall of water, taking everything before it. Trees had been mowed down. Crushed houses were being carried along like children’s blocks. Far up the track a switch engine was lifted bodily from the rails and hurled backwards.
Penny waited to see no more.
“The dam’s given away!” she shouted. “Quick, Louise! Climb over the railing and run for your life!”
CHAPTER 19
TRAGEDY
Leaping over the platform railing, Penny held up her arms to assist Louise. Now awakened to danger, her chum scrambled wildly after her only to stop aghast as she beheld the gigantic wall of water rushing toward them.
“Jump the ditch and make for the hill!” Penny ordered tersely. “Be quick!”
Passengers were pouring from the other cars, their terrified cries drowned by the grinding roar of the onrushing torrent. The wall of water moved with incredible speed. It tore into the railroad yard, shattering a tool house and a coal dock. It roared on, sweeping a row of empty box cars into its maw.
Spurred by the sight, Penny and Louise tried to leap the ditch. They fell far short and both plunged into the boiling water up to their arm pits.
Penny’s feet anchored solidly. With a gigantic shove, she helped Louise to safety. By swimming with the current she then reached shore a few yards farther down the railroad right of way.
“Run!” she shouted to the bewildered, bedraggled Louise. “Up the hill!”
Scrambling over the muddy edge of the ditch, she raced after her chum for higher ground. Just then the wall of water swept into the siding. As the train was struck it seemed to shudder from the terrific impact, then slowly settled on its side.
“Horrible!” Louise shuddered. “Some of the passengers may have been trapped in there!”
“Most of them escaped,” Penny gasped. “There goes the water tower!”
A building borne by the flood, rammed into the ironwork of the big dripping tower. It crumpled, falling with a great, shuddering splash.
With the back-wash of the flood sloshing against their knees, the girls raced for high ground. Reaching a point midway up the hill where other passengers had paused, they turned to glance below. Yellow, angry water, rising easily ten feet, flowed over the railroad right of way.
With unbelievable speed the flood rolled on. In one angry gulp it reached a long freight train farther down the track. The caboose and a string of coal cars were lifted and hurled. Strangely, the coal tender and engine which had been detached, remained on the rails.
“Oh, look!” Louise gasped in horror. “The engineer’s trapped in the cab!”
The trainman, plainly visible, valiantly kept the engine whistle blowing. Higher and higher rose the water. Penny and Louise were certain the courageous man must meet his doom. But the crest of the flood already had swept on down the valley, and in a moment the waters about the engine remained at a standstill.
So quickly had disaster struck that the girls could not immediately comprehend the extent of the tragedy. From their own train nearly all of the passengers had escaped. But the town of Delta had not fared so well. Apparently the flood had roared through the low section, taking all before it. Farther up the valley, directly below Huntley Lake where the gorge was narrow, damage to life and property might be even greater.
“What chance could poor Mrs. Lear have had,”Louise said brokenly. “Or the Burmasters.”
“There’s a possibility they took to the hills in time.”
“I doubt it,” Louise said grimly. “The flood came so quickly.”
Already the yellow, muddy waters were carrying evidence of their work. Houses, many with men and women clinging desperately to rooftops, floated past. Other helpless victims clung to logs, orange crates and chicken coops. At terrific speed they sailed past the base of the hillside. Several shouted piteously for help.
“We must do something to save those people!”Penny cried desperately.
“What?” Louise asked.
By this time the hillside was dotted with people who had saved themselves. Several of the women were weeping hysterically. Another had fainted. For the most part, everyone stared almost stupidly at the endless stream of debris which was swept down the valley. No one knew how to aid the agonized victims who clung to whatever their fingers could clutch.
On one rooftop, Penny counted six persons. The sight drove her to action.
“If only we had a rope—” she cried, and broke off as her eyes roved up the hillside.
Two hundred yards away stood a farmhouse.
“I’ll see if I can get one there!” she cried, darting away.
The hill was steep, the ground soft. Penny’s wet clothing impeded her. She tripped over a stone and fell, but scrambling up, ran on. Finally, quite out of breath, she reached the farmhouse. A woman with two small children clinging to her dress, met the girl in the yard.
“Ain’t it awful?” she murmured brokenly. “My husband’s workin’ down at the Brandale Works. Did the flood strike there?”
“It must have spread through all of Delta,” Penny answered. “This disaster’s going to be frightful unless we can get help quickly. Do you have a telephone?”
“Yes, but it’s dead. The wire runs into Delta.”
Penny had been afraid of that. She doubted that a single telephone pole had been left standing in the town. Nor was it likely that the other valley cities had ’phone service.
“Do you have a rope?” she asked. “A long one?”
“In the barn. I’ll get it.”
The woman came back in a moment, a coil of rope over her arm.
“Send some of those poor folks up here,” she urged as Penny started away with the rope. “I’ll put on a wash boiler of coffee and take care of as many as I can.”
Half sliding, Penny descended the steep hillside. During her absence two persons had been rescued from the water by means of an improvised lasso made from torn strips of clothing. Others were drifting past, too far away to be reached.
A woman and a child floated past, clinging to a log. Penny stood ready, the rope coiled neatly at her feet. She took careful aim, knowing that if she missed she would have no second chance.
Penny hurled the rope and it ran free, falling just ahead of the helpless pair. The half-drowned mother reached with one hand and seized it before it sank beneath the surface.
“Hold on!” Penny shouted. “Don’t let go!”
Several men ran to help her. By working together, they were able to pull the woman a
nd her child to safety.
Abandoning the rope to skilled hands, Penny rounded the hill to a point providing a clear view of the flooded railroad yard. The roundhouse, the coal chutes and the signal tower were gone. But her heart leaped to see that the station was still standing. Built on high ground it was surrounded with water which did not appear to be deep.
Penny turned to Louise who had followed her. Just then they both heard someone shout that the railroad bridge was being swept away. They saw the massive steel structure swing slowly from its stone foundation. One side held firm which immediately set up great swirling currents. Any persons carried that way would be faced with destruction in the whirling pools of water.
“It’s too late to warn the towns directly below Delta!” Penny gasped. “But there still may be time to get a message through to Hobostein. In any case, we must get help here!”
“But how?” Louise asked hopelessly. “Any wires that were left standing must have been torn away when the bridge went.”
Penny gazed again toward the Delta depot. Between it and the hillside ran a fast-moving stretch of water, yet separated from the main body of the racing flood.
“If only I could get over to the station, I might somehow send a message!”
“Don’t be crazy!” Louise remonstrated. “You haven’t a chance to cross that stretch of water!”
“I think I could. I’m a pretty fair swimmer.”
“But the current is so swift.”
“There’s a certain amount of risk,” Penny admitted soberly. “But we can’t stand here and wait. Someone must do something to bring help.”
“Don’t do it, Penny!” Louise pleaded. “Please!”
Penny hesitated, but only for an instant. She understood perfectly that if she misjudged the strength of the current it would sweep her down—perhaps carry her along into the main body of water. Once in the grip of that angry torrent, no one could hope to battle against it.
The risk, however, was one she felt she must take. Struggling free from Louise’s clinging hands, she kicked off her shoes and tucked up her skirt. Then she plunged into the swirling water.
CHAPTER 20
EMERGENCY CALL
The current was much swifter than Penny had anticipated. It tugged viciously at her feet, giving her no opportunity to inch her way along the ditch. A dozen steps and she was beyond her depth, fighting desperately to keep from being swept with the current.
The Penny Parker Megapack: 15 Complete Novels Page 118