The Penny Parker Megapack: 15 Complete Novels (37 page)

Retreating without drawing attention to herself, Penny debated her next action. Unless she found a way to enter one of those two rooms of mystery, her night would be wasted.

Moving softly down the hall, she paused to test the door to the right of Room 27. To her astonishment, it swung open when she turned the knob. The room was dark and deserted.

Penny stepped inside, closing the door behind her. Her flashlight beam disclosed only a dusty, bare bedroom, its sole furnishing a thickly padded carpet.

Going to the window, Penny raised it and gazed at the wide ledge which she had noted from below. If she had perfect balance, if the window of Room 27 were unlocked, if her lame ankle did not let her down, she
might
be able to span the distance! It would be dangerous and she must run the risk of being observed by persons on the grounds of the hotel. Penny gazed down at the frozen yard far below and shuddered.

“I’ve been pretty lucky in my falls so far,” she thought. “But I have a feeling if I slip this time it will be my last.”

Penny pulled herself through the window. As the full force of the wind struck her body, threatening to hurl her from her precarious perch, she nearly lost her courage. She clung to the sill for a moment, and then without daring to look down, inched her way along the ledge.

Reaching the other window in safety, she tried to push it up. For a dreadful instant, Penny was certain she could not. But it gave so suddenly she nearly lost her balance. Holding desperately to the sill, she recovered, and raised the window.

Penny dropped lightly through the opening into the dark room. Pains were shooting through her ankle, but so great was her excitement she scarcely was aware of any discomfort.

She flashed her light about the room. As she had suspected, there were two teletype machines, neither of which was in operation. A chair had been pulled up to a direct-keyboard machine similar to one Penny had seen in her father’s newspaper office. Save for a wooden table the room contained nothing else.

Penny went over to the machines and focused her light upon the paper in the rollers. It was blank.

“This is maddening!” she thought. “I take a big risk to get in here and what do I find—nothing!”

Footsteps could be heard coming down the hallway. Penny remained perfectly still, expecting the person to pass on. Instead, the noise ceased altogether and a key grated in the door lock.

In panic, Penny glanced frantically about. She could not hope to get out the window in time to escape detection. The only available hiding place was a closet.

Switching off her light, Penny opened the door. Stepping inside, she closed it softly behind her.

CHAPTER 22

THE SECRET STAIRS

In the darkness, Penny felt something soft and covered with fur brush against her face. She recoiled, nearly screaming in terror. Recovering her poise and realizing that she had merely touched a garment which hung in the closet, she flattened herself against the wall and waited.

The outside door opened and soft footsteps approached the wall switches. Lights flashed on. A tall, swarthy man in a gray business suit blinked at the sudden flood of illumination. After a moment he stepped over to the teletype machines, and throwing a switch, started them going.

Sitting down to the keyboard he tapped out a message. Then he lit a cigarette and waited. In a few minutes his answer came, typed out from some distant station. The man ripped the copy from the machine and read it carefully. Its contents seemed to please him for he smiled broadly as he arose from the chair, leaving the teletypes still running.

Penny froze with fear when she heard the man stride toward the closet where she had hidden herself. Instinctively, she burrowed back behind the fur garments which her groping hands encountered.

The door was flung open and light flooded into the closet. However, the teletype attendant seemed to have no suspicion that anyone might be hiding there. He pressed a button on the wall and then heaved against the partition with his shoulder. The section of wall, suspended on a pivot, slowly revolved. After the man had passed through, it swung back into its original position.

Penny waited several minutes and then came out of her hiding place. She flung open the closet door to admit more light.

“Just as I thought!” she muttered.

The closet, a long narrow room, was hung solidly with fur coats!

“So Maxine Miller was working for the hotel interests after all,” Penny told herself. “I’ve stumbled into something big!”

Groping along the wall of the storage room, she found a switch and pressed it. Again the partition revolved, revealing a flight of stairs leading downward. She slipped through and the wall slid into place behind her.

The stairway was lighted with only one weak electric bulb. Penny’s body cast a grotesque shadow as she cautiously descended. There were so many steps that she decided they must lead to a basement in the hotel.

She reached the bottom at last and followed a narrow sloping tunnel, past a large refrigerated vault which she reasoned must contain a vast supply of additional furs, and kept on until a blast of cool air struck her face. Penny drew up sharply.

Directly ahead, at a bend in the tunnel, sat an armed guard. He was reading a newspaper in the dim light, holding it very close to the glaring bulb above his chair.

Penny dared go no farther. Quietly retreating the way she had come, she stole back up the long stairway. At the top landing she found herself confronted with a blank wall. After groping about for several minutes, her hand encountered a tiny switch similar to the one on the opposite side of the partition. She pressed it, and the wall section revolved.

Letting herself out of the storage closet, Penny started toward the door, only to pause as she heard one of the teletypes thumping out a message. She crossed over to the machine and stood waiting until the line had been finished and a bell jingled. The words were unintelligible in jumbled typewriting, and Penny had no time to work out the code.

Tearing the copy paper neatly across, she thrust it in the pocket of her jacket.

Fearing that at any moment the printer attendant might return, Penny dared linger no longer. She went to the door but to her surprise it would not open.

“Probably a special trick catch which automatically locks whenever closed,” she thought. “The only way to get in or out is with a key, and I haven’t one. That means I’ll have to risk my neck again.”

Going to the window she raised it and looked down. All was clear below. Two courses lay open to her. She could return the way she had come through the hotel, or she might edge along the shelf past two other windows to the fire escape, and thence to the ground. Either way was fraught with danger.

“If I should happen to meet Ralph Fergus or Harvey Maxwell, I might not get away with my information,”Penny decided. “I’ll try the fire-escape.”

Closing the window behind her, she flattened herself along the building wall, and moved cautiously along the ledge. She passed the first room in safety. Then, as she was about to crawl past the second, the square of window suddenly flared with light.

For a dreadful moment Penny thought that she had been seen. She huddled against the wall and waited. Nothing happened.

At last, regaining her courage, she dared to peep into the lighted room. Two men stood with their backs to the window, but she recognized them as Harvey Maxwell and Ralph Fergus.

Penny received a distinct shock as her gaze wandered to the third individual who sat in a chair by the bed. The man was old Peter Jasko.

A low rumble of voices reached the girl’s ears. Harvey Maxwell was speaking:

“Well, Jasko, have you thought it over? Are you ready to sign the lease?”

“I’ll have the law on you, if I ever get out of here!” the old man said spiritedly. “You’re keepin’ me against my will.”

“You’ll stay here, Jasko, until you come to your senses. We need that land, and we mean to have it. Understand?”

“You won’t get me to sign, not if you keep me here all night,” Mr. Jasko muttered. “Not if you keep me a year!”

“You may change your mind after you learn what we can do,” said Harvey Maxwell suavely.

“You aim to starve me, I reckon.”

“Oh, no, nothing so crude as that, my dear fellow. In fact, we shall treat you most kindly. Doctor Corbin will be here presently to examine you.”

“Doctor Corbin! That old quack from Morgantown! What are you bringing him here for?”

Harvey Maxwell smiled and tapped his head significantly.

“To give you a mental examination. You are known to the good people of Pine Top as a very peculiar fellow, so I doubt if anyone will question Doctor Corbin’s verdict.”

“You mean, you’re aimin’ to have me adjudged insane?”Peter Jasko asked incredulously.

“Exactly. How else can one explain your fanatical hatred of skiing, your blind rages, your antagonism to the more progressive interests? While it will be a pity to bring disgrace upon your charming granddaughter, there is no other way.”

“Not unless you decide to sign,” added Ralph Fergus. “We’re more than reasonable. We’re willing to pay you a fair price for the lease, more than the land is worth. But we want it, see? And what we want we take.”

“You’re a couple of thievin’, stealin’ crooks!” Peter Jasko shouted.

“Not so loud, and be careful of your words,”Harvey Maxwell warned. “Or the gag goes on again.”

“Which do you prefer,” Fergus went on. “A tidy little sum of money, or the asylum?”

Peter Jasko maintained a sullen silence, glaring at the two hotel men.

“The doctor will be here at ten-thirty,” said Harvey Maxwell, looking at his watch. “You will have less than a half hour to decide.”

“My mind’s made up now! You won’t get anyone to believe your cock and bull story. I’ll tell ’em you brought me here and held me prisoner—”

“And no one will believe you,” smiled Maxwell. “We’ll give out that you came to the hotel and started running amuck. Dozens of employes will confirm the story.”

“For that matter, I’m not sure you don’t belong in an asylum,” muttered Fergus. “Only a man who isn’t in his right mind would turn down the liberal proposition we’ve made you.”

“I deal with no scoundrels!” the old man defied them.

Harvey Maxwell looked at his watch again. “You have exactly twenty-five minutes in which to make up your mind, Jasko. We’ll leave you alone to think it over.”

Fergus trussed up the old man’s hands and placed a gag in his mouth. Then the two hotel men left the room, turning out the light and locking the door behind them.

CHAPTER 23

RESCUE

After the door had closed there was no further sound for a moment. Then in the darkness Penny heard a choked sob.

Moving closer to the window she tried to raise it. Failing, she tapped lightly on the pane. Pressing her lips close to the glass she called softly:

“Don’t be afraid, Mr. Jasko! Keep up your courage! I’ll find a way to get you out!”

The old man could not answer so she had no way of knowing whether or not he heard her words. Moving back along the ledge she reached another window, and upon testing it was elated to find that it could be raised up.

She climbed through, lowered it behind her and hastened to the door. Quietly letting herself out, she went down the deserted hall to the next door. Without a key she could not hope to get inside. For a fleeting instant she wondered if she were not making a mistake by delaying in starting after the authorities.

“I never could get back here in time,” she told herself. “Maxwell will return in twenty-five minutes with the doctor, possibly earlier. Jasko may sign the paper before help could reach him.”

Penny was at a loss to know how to aid the old man. As she stood debating, the cleaning woman whom she had seen upon another occasion, came down the hall. The girl determined upon a bold move.

“I wonder if you could help me?” she said, going to meet the woman. “I’ve locked myself out of my room. Do you have a master key?”

“Yes, it will unlock most of the bedrooms.”

“The doors on this floor?”

“All except number 27.”

Penny took a two dollar bill from her jacket pocket and thrust it into the woman’s hand.

“Here, take this, and let me have the key.”

“I can’t give it to you,” the woman protested. “Show me your room and I’ll unlock it for you.”

“We’re standing in front of it now. Number 29.”

The woman stared. “But these rooms aren’t usually given out, Miss.”

“I assure you number 29 is very much occupied,” replied Penny. “Unlock it, please.”

The woman hesitated, and finally inserted the key in the lock.

“Thank you,” said Penny as she heard the latch click. “No, keep the two dollars. You are welcome to it.”

She waited until the maid had gone on down the hall before letting herself into the dark room. Groping for the electric switch, she turned it on.