The Penny Parker Megapack: 15 Complete Novels (255 page)

Scrambling up the muddy bank, the pair paused to take bearings. Voices now had died away and to all appearances the island might have been deserted.

Treading with utmost caution, Penny and the Widow Jones tramped along the shore until they came to a path. Abruptly, the girl halted, sniffing the air.

“I smell wood burning,” she whispered. “From a campfire probably.”

“An’ I smell somethin’ more,” added the Widow Jones grimly. “Cain’t ye notice thet sickish, sweet odor in the air?”

“Yes, what is it?”

“We’ll find out,” replied Mrs. Jones. “But if we git cotched, I’m warnin’ ye we won’t never git away from here. Ye sure ye want to go on?”

“Very sure.”

“Then come on. And be keerful not to crackle any leaves underfoot.”

The path led to a low, tunnellike opening in the thicket. Penny, who again had taken the lead, crouched low, intending to crawl through.

Before she could do so, she heard a stifled cry behind her. Turning, she saw that Mrs. Jones had sagged to one knee, and her face was twisted with pain.

Penny ran to her. “You’re hurt!” she whispered. “Bitten by a snake?”

Mrs. Jones shook her head, biting her lip to keep back the tears. She pointed to her ankle, caught beneath a tree root.

“I stumbled and wrenched it ’most off,” she murmured. “Hit’s a bad sprain and I’m afeared I can’t go on.”

CHAPTER 21

THE TUNNEL OF LEAVES

Penny raised the woman to her feet, but as Mrs. Jones tried to take a step, she saw that the sprain indeed was a bad one.

Already the ankle was swelling and skin had been broken. At each attempted step, the widow winced with pain, suffering intensely.

“If I kin only git back to the boat, I’ll be all right,” she said, observing Penny’s worried expression. “Drat it all! Jest when I wanted to find out what the Hawkins’are doin’ on this island!”

Supporting much of the widow’s weight on her shoulders, Penny helped her back to the skiff.

“I guess we may as well start back,” she said, unable to hide her bitter disappointment.

The widow reached for an oar, then looked keenly at Penny and put it back again.

“’Course it would be a risky thing fer ye to go on by yerself while I wait here in the boat—”

Penny’s slumped shoulders straightened. Her blue eyes began to dance.

“You mean you don’t mind waiting here while I see where that tunnel of leaves leads?” she demanded.

“’Pears like we’ve come too fur not to find out what’s goin’ on. Think ye can git in there and back without being cotched?”

“I’m sure of it!”

The widow sighed. “I hain’t sure of it, but you got more gumpshun than any other young’un I ever met. Go on if ye’r a-goin’, and if anyone sees ye, light out fer the boat. I’ll be ready to shove off.”

“Mrs. Jones, you’re a darling!” Penny whispered, giving the gnarled hand a quick pressure. “I’ll make it all right!”

Moving directly to the thicket, she dropped on all fours and started through the leafy tunnel where Hod had disappeared. The sweetish odor now was much plainer than before.

She had crawled only a few feet, when a hand reached out of nowhere and grasped her shoulder.

Penny whirled around, expecting to see a member of the Hawkins’ family. For a moment she saw no one, and then from the thicket beside the tunnel, a figure became visible. The hold on her shoulder relaxed.

“Who are you?” she demanded in a whisper.

“Friend.”

“Then show yourself!”

The leaves rustled, and a dark-haired lad with tangled curls crawled into the tunnel beside her. His shoes were ripped, his clothing dirty and in tatters. A rifle was grasped in his hand.

“Bada men,” he warned, jerking his head in the direction Penny had been crawling. “Mucha better go back boat.”

“Who are you and why do you warn me?” Penny asked, deeply puzzled.

The boy did not reply.

Light dawned suddenly upon Penny. “You’re the one who saved me from the boar!”

The boy’s quick grin was acknowledgment he had fired the shot.

“But why did you run away?” Penny asked. “Why didn’t you wait and let me thank you for saving my life?”

“You giva me to police maybe,” replied the boy in broken English. “I staya here—starva first!”

“Who are you?”

“Name no matter.”

Penny’s mind had been working swiftly. She was convinced the boy who had saved her also was the one who had stolen Trapper Joe’s gun. Evidently, he had needed it to survive in the swamp. He was thin and his eyes had a hungry look, she noted.

“How did you get to this island?” she inquired. “Do you have a boat?”

“Make-a raft.” The boy’s eyes darted down the leafy tunnel. “No good here,” he said, seizing Penny’s arm and pulling her back into the thicket. “Someone-a come!”

Scarcely had the pair flattened themselves on the ground than Ezekiel Hawkins crawled out through the tunnel, pushing his gun ahead of him. Standing upright not three feet from Penny and her companion, he gazed sharply about.

“Thought I heerd voices,” he muttered.

Penny held her breath, knowing that if the swamper should walk down the shore even a dozen yards, he would see the Widow Jones waiting in the skiff.

To her great relief, Ezekiel moved in the opposite direction. After satisfying himself that no boat approached the island, he returned through the tunnel and disappeared.

“What’s going on back in there?” Penny whispered as soon as it was safe to ask.

“Bada men,” her companion said briefly.

“You’re driving me to distraction!” Penny muttered, losing patience. “Do those swampers know you’re here on the island?”

The boy shook his tangled curls, grinning broadly. “Chasa me once. No catch.”

“You’re Italian, aren’t you?” Penny asked suddenly.

A guarded look came over the lad’s sun-tanned face. His brown eyes lost some of their friendliness.

“Now I have it!” Penny exclaimed before he could speak. “You’re Antonio Tienta, wanted by Immigration authorities for slipping into this country illegally!”

The boy did not deny the accusation, and the half-frightened, defiant look he gave her, confirmed that she had struck upon the truth.

“I no go back!” he muttered. “I starva first!”

“Don’t become so excited, or those men will hear you and we’ll both be caught,” Penny warned. “Tell me about yourself, Tony. I already know a little.”

“How mucha you know?” he asked cautiously.

“That you acted as a guide to G.I.’s in Italy and stowed aboard a troopship coming to this country. Even now, I guess authorities aren’t certain how you slipped past New York officials.”

“No trouble,” boasted the lad. “On ship my friendsa the G.I.’s they feeda me. We dock New York; I hide under bunk; all G.I.’s leava boat. Boat go to other dock. Sailor friend giva me clothes. Sailors leave-a boat. I slippa out. No one geta wise.”

“Then where did you go?”

“Stay in-a New York only two—three days. Go hitchhike into country. Work-a on farm. No like it. Hear Immigration men-a come, so I go. Come-a one day to swamp. Good place; I stay.”

“You’ve not had an easy time keeping alive in this dismal place,” Penny said sympathetically. “Isn’t that Trapper Joe’s gun?”

“Steal-a one night,” the boy agreed. “Give back some-a time.”

Penny studied the youth with growing concern. “Tony,” she said, “you can’t hope to stay here long. The only sensible thing is to give yourself up.”

“No! I die first! American best country in all-a the world! No one ever take-a me back!”

“But you can’t expect to elude Immigration officials very long. If you give yourself up, they might be lenient with you.”

“They send-a me back,” Tony said stubbornly. “I stay right-a here!”

“To starve? You’re hungry now, aren’t you?”

“Sure. But in Italy I hungry many times-a too.”

“Tony, we’ll talk about this later,” Penny sighed. “Right now, I want to learn what’s going on here at the island. Know anything about it?”

“Sure,” the boy grinned. “Know plenty.”

“Then suppose you tell me, Tony.”

“I show-a you,” the boy offered.

Avoiding the leafy tunnel, he led Penny in a half circle through another section of dense thicket.

Soon he motioned for her to drop on her knees.

The sickish odor rising through the trees now was very disagreeable again.

A few yards farther on, Tony halted. Still lying flat on his stomach, he carefully pulled aside the bushes so that his companion might see.

CHAPTER 22

HELP FROM TONY

Through the leaves, Penny saw a fairly large clearing. Three men, Ezekiel Hawkins and his two sons, were squatted about a big hardwood fire over which was a large copper cooker.

A pipe extended above the cover, connected with a series of coils immersed in a barrel of cold water.

“A still!” the girl whispered. “They’re making alcohol here and selling it in the city! That’s what those containers held that were trucked away!”

“Make-a the stuff every day,” volunteered Tony. “I watch—sometimes I steal-a the lunch. They very mad but no catch.”

“They’re probably afraid you’ll tell revenue officers,”Penny whispered.

From one of the barrels, Coon had taken a dipper filled with the pale fluid. As he drank deeply from it, his father said sharply:

“Thet’s enough, Coon! We gotta git this stuff made an moved out o’ here tonight, and ye won’t be fitten.”

“What’s yer rush, Pappy? We got termorrer, hain’t we?” Coon sat down, and bracing his back against a tree trunk, yawned drowsily.

“Ye want to be caught by them lousy revenooers?”

“There hain’t no danger. Hain’t we got a fool-proof system? If anyone starts this way, Maw’ll spot’em and give us the signal.”

“Folkses is gittin’ wise, and we hain’t none too popular hereabouts. We’re moving this stuff out tonight.”

“Jest as you say, Pappy.” Coon stirred reluctantly.

“An we hain’t operatin’ the still no more till things quiets down. I don’t like it that gal snoopin’ around here, claimin’ to be lookin’ fer her dawg.”

“Ye should have kilt the dawg, stead o’ keepin’ him,”Hod spoke up as he dumped a sack of mash into a tub. “Tole ye it would make us trouble.”

“Yer always tellin’ me!” Ezekiel retorted. “Thet dog’s handy to heve here, an I never was one to kill a helpless animal without cause. Now git to yer work, and let me do the thinkin’ fer this outfit!”

Penny’s curiosity now had been fully satisfied as to the illegal business in which the Hawkins’ family had engaged, but she also felt a little disappointed.

She had hoped the men would speak of Danny Deevers, perhaps revealing his hideout. The convict was nowhere to be seen, and there was no evidence he ever had been on Black Island.

Not wishing to leave Mrs. Jones too long alone in the boat, Penny presently motioned to Tony that she had seen and heard enough.

Inch by inch, they crept backwards away from the tiny clearing.

Then suddenly Penny stopped, for Ezekiel was speaking again:

“We gotta do something about Danny and git him off our hands.”

Penny instantly became all ears, listening intently to Coon’s reply:

“Now ye’r talkin’, Pappy. Takin’ him in was a big mistake. Hit’s apt ter land us in jail if them city officers come snoopin’ around here agin.”

“There wouldn’t have been no risk, if Hod and Danny hadn’t taken the widder’s car and drive into town. Didn’t ye have no sense, Hod?”

“Danny wanted to go,” Hod whined. “How was we ter know another car was goin’ to smash into us? Thet fool newspaper camera man an’ the girl had to be there!”

“That wasn’t the wust,” Ezekiel went on as he fed the fire with chips. “Then ye follered ’em to the theater!”

“Danny said we had ter git the picture or they’d print it in the newspaper.”

“But did ye git the picture?”

“No,” Hod growled.

“Instead o’ that, ye let Danny git into a fight.”

“’Twasn’t no fight and nobody knew it was him. He seen an enemy o’ his’n go into the building. I tried ter talk him out o’ it, but he wouldn’t listen. He crawled in through a window, and slugged the feller.”

“He did have sense enough to git rid o’ the car, but ye shouldn’t have left it so close to our place,” Ezekiel pointed out. “That newspaper gal’s been out here twict now, and she’s catchin’ on!”

“She’s only a gal,” Hod said carelessly. “Ye do too much worryin’, Pappy.”

“I do the thinkin’ fer this family. An’ I say things is gittin’ too hot fer comfort. We gotta git rid o’Danny tonight.”

“How ye aimin’ ter do it, Pappy?” inquired Coon. “Be ye fergittin’ he’s got $50,000 hid away somewheres an’ he hain’t give us our slice yet?”