Clue of the Silken Ladder Part 32

Penny shifted from one position to another, growing more impatient. Every time the man came toward the cabinet her heart beat a trifle faster. She was quite sure the Hodges had not yet returned home, and should Al Gepper discover her, he would not treat her kindly.

The medium finished his supper and stacked the dishes in the closet without washing them. Then he started to get ready for the night's seance.

Peeping from between the cracks of the curtain, Penny saw him seat himself before the easel. With painstaking care he painted a picture of a woman, using a photograph as a model. After a coating of varnish had been applied, he allowed it to dry and afterwards covered the entire picture with zinc white. The original painting was entirely hidden.

Penny knew that hours had elapsed. The room gradually darkened, and Al Gepper turned on the lights.

"Oh, dear, I must get out of here soon!" the girl thought desperately.

"But if I make a break for it he'll be sure to see me. That will ruin all my plans."

Eight o'clock came. Al Gepper put on his coat, combed his hair and was alertly waiting when the doorbell rang. However, instead of descending the stairs he shouted an invitation for the visitors to come up.

Two women in their early forties were ushered into the seance chamber, to be followed almost immediately by an elderly man.

"We will start at once if you please," said Al Gepper brusquely. "I have another engagement tonight. However, before the seance is undertaken I must ask that each of you pay the required fee, five dollars."

The money was paid, and the three persons seated themselves at the table.

Gepper switched off the lights.

The seance began in much the same manner as the one Penny had attended.

The medium called upon the spirit of a woman named Flora to appear.

"Now concentrate hard--everyone," he instructed. "Flora, where are you?

Can you not show yourself that we may know it is truly your spirit which communicates with us?"

From the cabinet, so close to Al Gepper that she could have touched his hand, Penny was able to see his every move. Yet so swift was his next action, that she barely discerned it.

Taking a wet sponge from his pocket he wiped it across the painting previously prepared. The picture immediately became visible to the audience as Gepper focused his flashlight on the canvas.

"That wasn't the way he made Mrs. Weems' picture appear," thought Penny.

"The fellow must have a great repertoire of tricks!"

The seance had become so interesting that she no longer thought of escape. Nevertheless, she came to a sudden realization of her precarious position as she heard the medium say that he would next endeavor to persuade the Spirit of Flora to take actual shape. With a shock it dawned upon her that in another moment the man would enter the cabinet to make use of the luminous gauze robe and other paraphernalia.

Knowing that she could not hide from him, Penny decided upon a bold break for freedom. Dropping the ghostly robe over her face and shoulders, she pulled aside the dark curtain and flitted into the room.

Her dramatic entrance brought gasps of astonishment from the persons who sat at the circular table. The medium, as dumbfounded as his audience muttered: "What the d.i.c.kens!" and pushed back his chair, his legs rasping on the floor.

Penny did not linger, but darted past the group and groped for the door.

In the darkness she could not immediately find it. Her shining robe, on the other hand, made her an easy target for Al Gepper.

Angrily the medium strode across the room, seizing her arm. She jerked away, but he grasped a fold of the robe. It tore and was left behind.

At that critical instant, Penny's hand encountered the door. She swung it open, and bounded down the stairway.

In the seance chamber a light went on, then the hallway became brilliantly illuminated. But by that time the girl was in the dining room.

She could hear Al Gepper clattering down the steps, intent upon capturing her. Penny was determined that he should never learn her ident.i.ty.

Letting herself out of the house by way of the kitchen door, she decided that if she attempted to cross the yard, the medium certainly would recognize her. The woodpile offered a hiding place and she crouched behind it.

Scarcely had she secreted herself, when Al Gepper ran into the yard. He glanced about carefully and circled the house twice.

Finally, convinced that the "ghost" had escaped he came back to the porch. His customers, greatly agitated by what had occurred, were demanding explanations.

"Someone played a prank," Gepper explained briefly. "It will be impossible to resume the seance for the spirits are offended. You will leave, please."

The customers departed and the medium locked himself in the house. He did not bother to lower the upstairs hall blind, and Penny caught occasional glimpses of him as he moved to and fro.

"He's packing to leave!" she observed. "Unless I act in double-quick time, he'll skip town! I must notify Dad and the police without an instant's delay!"

CHAPTER 22 _SCALING THE WALL_

The nearest drugstore with a public telephone was two blocks away. Penny ran the distance, and slipping into the booth, she dialed the _Star_ office. Informed by the building switchboard operator that neither her father nor DeWitt was available, she inquired for Jerry Livingston, and to her relief was connected with him.

"Listen, Jerry, this is Penny!" she began excitedly. "I haven't time to explain, but the lid is blowing off the fake spiritualist story! Rush the police out to the Hodges' cottage and demand Al Gepper's arrest! Send another squad or some private detectives to Mr. Henley's home."

"Henley!" Jerry exclaimed. "Say, have you gone loco?"

"I'm not making any mistakes," Penny replied tersely. "If you act quickly we may prevent a robbery. I'm on my way there now to warn Mr. Henley! Oh, yes, try to find Dad or DeWitt and warn them a big story is breaking!"

"Penny, what's this all about?" the reporter demanded. "I can't go to the police unless I know what I am doing."

"You must, Jerry. I have plenty of evidence against Gepper and his crowd, but unless you take the police to the Hodges' in the next fifteen minutes it will be too late!"

Without giving Jerry opportunity to delay her with other questions, Penny hung up the receiver. Hastening to the street, she gazed frantically about for a taxi. None was to be had.

"I'll get to the Henley place quicker in Lena than by waiting for a cab to come along," she thought.

The battered old car had been parked a short distance from the Hodges'

cottage. Hurrying there, Penny jumped into the ancient vehicle and started the motor. As usual it made a loud clatter, but she did not suspect that the sound carried far up the street. Nor did she guess that Al Gepper stood at the darkened window of his room, watching her.

Penny drove as fast as she could to the Henley home in the southern section of Riverview. Lights blazed from the downstairs windows.

Abandoning her car in the driveway, she rang the doorbell. After a long wait, a maid appeared.

"Is Mr. Henley here?" Penny asked breathlessly. "Or Mrs. Henley? It's most important that I talk with them at once."

"Mrs. Henley has been at the seash.o.r.e for a month," the maid replied in an agitated voice. "Mr. Henley is somewhere downtown. I've been trying to get him, but the telephone wire has been cut!"

"The house hasn't been robbed?"

"Mrs. Henley's jewelry has been taken! I don't know what else."

"When did it happen?" Penny asked.