The Penny Parker Megapack: 15 Complete Novels (13 page)

“I guess it was my fault,” Penny said self-accusingly.

“No, it wasn’t. I must have been careless about fastening the clasp. When I leaned over it slipped off. Well, it’s gone, and that’s that.”

The cameo pin had fallen into the deepest part of the pool not far from where the alligator lay. The girls were unable to see it plainly because of the lily pads and plants which cluttered the water.

“If that old alligator would just behave himself we could wade in and get it easy,” Penny said.

“Fancy trying it!”

“I’m afraid he would take special delight in snapping off an arm or a leg. And we don’t dare ask anyone to help us get the pin or we’ll be ejected from the grounds as trespassers.”

“We may as well forget about it, Penny. Come along, I’m sick of this place.”

“No, wait, Louise. We might be able to fish it out with a stick.”

“I don’t think we’d have a chance.”

“Anyway, it will do no harm to try.”

Penny searched the woods until she found a long stick with a curve at the end. Lying flat on the flagstones at the edge of the pool she prodded for the pin.

“I can touch it all right!” she cried. “I’ll pull it over to the side.”

“Be careful you don’t tumble in,” Louise warned, anxiously holding her chum by the waist. “If you should lose your balance—”

Penny hooked the cameo pin in the curve of the stick and began raising it inch by inch up the side of the pool.

“If I can get it up high enough reach down and snatch it,” Penny advised her chum. “Oh, shoot, there it goes!”

The pin had slipped away from the stick and settled once more on the bottom of the pool.

“You can’t get it, Penny,” Louise insisted. “You’re making the alligator all excited by prodding around.”

“I don’t care about
him
. I’ll try once more if I can locate the pin. It seems to be hiding from me now.”

The water was so disturbed that Penny could not see the pin or the bottom of the pool. She waited several minutes for the dirt to settle and then gazed down once more.

“There it is!” she exclaimed. “It moved over quite a ways to the right.”

Louise flattened herself beside Penny. “Oh, let the pin go,” she said.

“No, I think I can get it. Say, there seems to be something else on the bottom of the pool.”

“Where?”

Penny pointed, and then, as her chum still could not distinguish anything, parted the lily pads with her stick.

“Yes, I do see something now,” Louise declared. “What can it be?”

“Doesn’t it look like a metal ring?” Penny asked. She had lost all interest in the cameo pin.

“Yes, it does. Someone probably threw it into the pool.”

“But it looks to me as if it’s attached to the bottom of the tank, embedded in the cement,” Penny said. She bent closer to the water, trying to see.

“Be careful,” Louise warned nervously. “That alligator might come up and snap off your nose.”

Penny paid no heed.

“It is attached!” she announced in an excited voice. “Louise, do you know what I think?”

“What?”

“It’s the ring of a trapdoor!”

“A trapdoor!” Louise echoed incredulously.

“You can see for yourself that it’s an iron ring.”

“It does look a little like one from here,” Louise admitted. “But whoever heard of a trapdoor in a lily pool? No one but you would even think of such a thing. It doesn’t make sense.”

“Does anything on this estate make sense?”

“The ring might have something to do with draining the pool,” Louise said without replying to her chum’s question. “I suppose a section of the pool could be lifted up and removed. But I’d never call it a trapdoor.”

“I wish we could tell for sure what it is.” Penny tried to prod the ring with her stick but it was well beyond her reach. “Maybe the alligator has a room down under the pool where he spends his winters!”

“You’re simply filled with ideas today,” Louise declared. “What about my pin? Shall we let it go?”

Reminded of her original task, Penny set to work once more, trying to draw the cameo to the edge of the tank. She was so deeply engrossed, that she jumped as her chum touched her on the arm.

“Listen, Penny, I think someone is coming!”

From the path at the right they could hear approaching footsteps and the low murmur of voices.

Penny struggled to her feet, dropping the stick.

“We mustn’t be caught here,” she whispered.

Taking Louise’s hand, she drew the girl into the dense bushes directly behind the pool. Scarcely had they secreted themselves when Sylvia Kippenberg and the head gardener came into view. They seated themselves on a rustic bench not far from where the two girls stood.

“I had to talk with you,” Sylvia said to the old man. “The police came this morning and asked so many questions. Mother put them off but they’ll be back again.”

“They didn’t learn about the alligator?” the gardener asked gruffly.

“No, they came here but only stayed a few minutes. I don’t think they noticed anything wrong.”

“Then that’s all right.”

“Their investigation is only beginning,” Sylvia said nervously. “Mother and I both believe it would be wise to get rid of the alligator.”

“Wise but not easy,” the gardener replied.

“You’ll see what you can do about it?”

“Yes. I’ll try to get rid of him.”

“Then I guess that’s all,” Sylvia said, but she made no move to leave. She sat staring moodily at the pool.

“Anything else on your mind?” asked the gardener.

“I—I wanted to ask you something, but I scarcely know how.”

The gardener waited, watching the girl’s face intently.

“You never liked Grant Atherwald,” she began nervously.

“Say, what are you driving at?” the man asked quickly. “You’re not trying to hint that I had anything to do with Grant Atherwald’s disappearance?”

The two faced each other and Sylvia’s gaze was the first to fall.

“No, no, of course not,” she said.

“I don’t know any more about his disappearance than you do,” the man told her angrily. “I didn’t even see him on the day of the wedding.”

“But he came here. The wedding ring was found near the pool. Surely you must have heard some sound for I know you were in this part of the garden.”

“Well, I didn’t,” the man said sullenly. “The only persons I saw were a newspaper photographer and a girl.”

“Please don’t take offense,” Miss Kippenberg murmured, getting up from the bench. “I’ve been terribly upset these past few days.”

She walked slowly to the edge of the pool. There she stopped short, staring down at an object which lay on the flagstones at her feet. It was the stick which Penny had dropped only a moment before.

“What have you found?” the gardener cried.

He went quickly to her side and took the damp stick from her hand.

“Someone has been here prying around,” he said in a harsh voice. “This was used to investigate the water in the pool.”

“And whoever it was must be close by even now. Otherwise the stick would have dried out in the sun.”

“You go back to the house,” the man commanded. “I’ll look around.”

In their hideout amid the bushes, Penny and Louise gazed at each other with chagrin. No word was spoken for even a whisper might have been heard. With a common desire for escape, they glided with cat-like tread toward the river.

CHAPTER 16

GATHERING CLUES

The girls could hear no movement behind them as they darted down the path. They dared to hope that they had eluded the old gardener.

Then as they came within sight of the river, Louise stumbled over a vine. Although she stifled an outcry the dull thud of her body against the ground seemed actually to reverberate through the forest. A black crow on the lower limb of an oak tree cawed in protest before he flew away.

Penny pulled Louise to her feet and they went on as fast as they could, but they knew the sound had betrayed them. Now they could hear the man in pursuit, his heavy shoes pounding on the hard, dry path.

“Run!” Penny commanded.

They reached the river bank and looked about for the boat which would take them across. As they had feared it was on the opposite shore.

Penny gestured frantically, but the boy did not understand the need for haste. He picked up his oars and rowed toward them at a very deliberate pace.

“Oh, he’ll never get here in time,” Louise murmured fearfully. “Shall we hide?”

“That’s all we can do.”

They realized then that they had waited too long. Before they could dodge into the deeper thicket the gardener reached the clearing.

“So it’s you again!” he cried wrathfully, glaring at Penny.

“Please, we didn’t mean any harm. We can explain—”

“This stick is explanation enough for me!” the man shouted, waving it above his head. “You were trying to find out about the lily pool!”

“We were only trying to get a pin which I dropped into the water,” Louise said, backing a step away.

“I don’t believe you!” the man snapped. “You can’t fool me! I know why you came here, and you’ll pay for your folly! You’ll never take the secret away with you!”

With a swift, animal-like spring which belied his age, the gardener hurled himself toward the girls. He seized Penny’s arm giving it a cruel twist.

“You’re coming along with me,” he announced harshly.

“Let me go!” Penny cried, trying to free herself.

“You’re going with me to the house. You’ve been altogether too prying. Now you’ll take your punishment, both of you.”

The gardener might have managed Penny alone, but he was no match for two athletic girls. As he tried to seize Louise, Penny twisted free.

Quick as a flash, she grasped the man’s felt hat, jamming it down on his head over his eyes. While he was trying to pull it off, Louise also wriggled from his grasp.

The two girls ran to the water’s edge. Their boat had drawn close to shore. Without waiting for it to beach they waded out over their shoetops and climbed aboard.

“Don’t either of you ever come here again!” the gardener hurled after them. “If you do—”

The rest of the threat was carried away by the wind. However, Penny could not resist waving her hand and calling back: “Bye, bye, old timer! We’ll be seeing you!”

“What’s the matter with that man anyhow?” asked the boy who rowed the boat. “Didn’t he want you on the estate?”

“On the contrary, he invited us to remain and we declined,” grinned Penny. “Just temperament, that’s all. He can’t make up his mind which way he would like to have it.”

Allowing the boy to puzzle over the remark, she busied herself pouring water from her sodden shoes. The visit to the estate had not turned out at all as she had planned. She had failed to talk with Miss Kippenberg, and it was almost certain that from now on servants would keep a much closer watch for intruders.

The only vital information she had gleaned resulted from overhearing the conversation between Sylvia Kippenberg and the gardener.

“She talked with him as if they were well acquainted,” mused Penny. “Miss Kippenberg must have thought he knew more about Grant Atherwald’s disappearance than he would tell. And she seems to be afraid the Law will ask too many questions. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have suggested getting rid of the alligator.”

One additional observation Penny had made, but she decided not to speak of it until she and Louise were alone.

The boat reached shore and the two girls stepped out on the muddy bank.

“Will you need me again?” inquired the boy.

“I may,” said Penny, “and I can’t tell you exactly when. Where do you keep your boat?”

“Up the river just beyond that crooked maple tree. I hide it in the bushes and I keep the oars inside a hollow log close by. You won’t have any trouble finding it.”

Penny and Louise said goodbye to the lad and scrambled up the bank.

“I’m sure I’ll not be going back to
that
place,” the latter declared emphatically. “I just wonder what would have happened if we hadn’t broken away.”

“We might have been locked up in the stone tower,” Penny laughed. “Then another one of my theories would have proven itself.”

“Oh, you and your theories! You can’t make me believe that gardener didn’t mean to harm us. He was a very sinister character.”

“Sinister is a strong word, Lou. But I’ll agree he’s not any ordinary gardener. Either he’s been hired by the Kippenberg family for a very special purpose or else he’s gained their confidence and means to bend them to his own ends.”

“His own ends! Why, Penny, what do you mean? Have you learned something you haven’t told me?”

“Only this. I’m satisfied Old Peter is no gardener. He’s wearing a disguise.”