Ghost Beyond the Gate Part 18

"The woman must be a rank amateur or she wouldn't have arranged a meeting in the way she did!" Detective Brandon a.s.sured Penny. "Now let's find out where Baldiff Road is located."

Using a large map, he circled an area several miles south of Riverview.

Penny was surprised to note that Baldiff Road branched off from the same deserted thoroughfare which she and Louise had followed on the night of the blizzard. The cemetery, Oakland Hills, was situated perhaps a mile from the old Harrison place where Mose Johnson had claimed to have seen a ghost.

"It shouldn't be hard to nab the woman when she shows up," Detective Fuller declared. "d.i.c.k and I will get there early and keep watch."

"Just what am I to do?" Penny inquired. "Shall I take the reward money with me?"

"We'll give you a package of fake money," the detective answered. "Drive to the cemetery alone at the appointed hour. If the woman shows up, talk to her, try to learn what she knows. We'll attend to the rest."

Penny returned home to consult with Mrs. Weems. How to reach the cemetery was something of a problem. Her own car, minus its wheels, remained at the Yacht Club, and Mr. Parker's automobile had been hauled to a garage for extensive repairs.

"Can't you borrow a car from someone at the _Star_ office?" suggested the housekeeper. "And do take a man with you when you drive to the cemetery."

"No, I must go alone," insisted Penny. "That part is very important."

In the end she was able to borrow Salt Sommer's coupe. A little after seven o'clock she set off for Baldiff Road with the package of fake money in her possession. The night was not cold, but a stiff wind blew through the evergreens; whirlwinds of snow chased one another across the untraveled road.

"What a dreary place for a meeting," Penny shivered as she glimpsed the bleak cemetery on a hilltop.

The area, a full half-mile from any house, was bounded by a high snow-covered brick wall. Beyond the barrier, starlight revealed a cl.u.s.ter of rounding tombstones layered with white. No one was visible, neither the woman nor members of the police force.

Penny glanced at her watch. It lacked ten minutes of eight o'clock. She parked not far from the cemetery entrance and switched off the engine.

Twenty minutes elapsed. Nervous and cold, Penny climbed from the car and tramped back and forth to restore circulation. She had begun to doubt that the woman would keep the appointment.

Then, coming swiftly down the road, she saw a strange looking figure. The one who approached wore a long, tight-fitting coat. A hat with a dark veil covered the woman's face.

"There she is!" thought Penny, every nerve tense.

The woman came closer. While still some distance from the cemetery entrance, she suddenly paused. Her head jerked sideways. Then to Penny's dismay, she turned and fled toward the woods.

"Wait!" Penny shouted. "Don't be afraid! Wait!"

The woman paid no heed. Lifting her coat the better to run, she disappeared among the trees.

CHAPTER 12 _FLIGHT_

As Penny wondered what to do, Detectives Brandon and Fuller leaped from their hiding place behind the cemetery wall. Their car had been secreted in a clump of bushes farther down the road. By pure mischance, the woman in the black veil had seen it as she approached, and fearing treachery, had fled.

"Quick, d.i.c.k, or she'll get away!" Fuller shouted.

Penny did not join in the pursuit. Reentering her car, she waited anxiously. From the crashing of underbrush, she knew the detectives were having difficulty in following the woman. In the dark forest it would be very easy for her to elude the officers.

Three quarters of an hour elapsed before the men returned.

"We lost her," Detective Brandon reported. "No use searching any longer."

Sick at heart, Penny drove slowly toward home. Her hopes had been completely dashed. Not only had she failed to contact the mysterious woman, but there now seemed little likelihood of doing so.

"I may receive another telephone message," she thought, "but I doubt it.

That woman probably will be too badly frightened to try to contact me again."

At the exit of Baldiff Road, Penny headed down the winding hillside highway which she and Louise had followed on the night of the blizzard.

The route, although slightly longer, would take her close to the Riverview Yacht Club.

"I'll go that way and see if my car is still there," she decided. "Then tomorrow I can have it hauled home and jacked up. I should have looked after the matter long ago."

The coupe rounded a curve and the road dipped between an avenue of swaying, whispering pines. To the left, shrouded in snow, loomed the old Harrison house. The estate was picturesque in itself, and Mose Johnson's tale about a ghost had intensified the girl's interest.

"Wonder who owns the place now?" she speculated. "Probably not any member of the Harrison family, as I believe they were old-timers in Riverview."

Penny slowed the car to idling speed. Deliberately keeping to the left hand side of the road, she studied with deep interest the long, snow-frosted fence which bounded the grounds. The barrier was an unfriendly one, high and spiked at the top.

Suddenly her attention focused upon a well-beaten path in the snow just inside the fence. The footprints, plainly visible in the bright moonlight, extended the full width of the grounds.

Into Penny's mind flashed the wild yarn told by Mose Johnson.

"Ghost tracks!" she thought. "At least those prints must have been made by whatever he saw beyond the gate."

So interested was Penny in the path that for an instant she completely forgot her driving. The front left wheel of the car struck a tiny mound of ice and snow at the road's edge.

Barely in time to avoid an accident, the girl twisted the steering wheel and brought the car back on the highway.

"Another second and I'd have been in the ditch!" she thought shakily. "If I must look for a ghost, guess I'll do the job right."

Penny pulled up, this time at the opposite side of the road. Getting out, she crossed to the iron fence and peered through it. The path which had attracted her attention had been pounded hard by someone who had walked just inside the enclosure.

"Odd!" she reflected. "Maybe Old Mose's ghost has more substance than I thought."

Penny glanced toward the big house, dark and majestic in its setting of evergreens. Obviously the place had been closed for the winter. Walks were not shoveled, blinds had been drawn, and no tire tracks led to and from the three-car garage.

"Wonder who or what could have made that path?" she mused. "Certainly not an animal."

Unable to solve the mystery, Penny turned to re-enter the parked coupe.

Before she could cross the road, a light went on in a third floor room of the estate house. Startled, she stared at it. As she watched, it was extinguished.

"Someone must live here!" thought Penny. "Or am I seeing spooks myself?"

For a long while she watched the upper floor of the house. The light did not reappear. At length, wearying of the vigil, she returned to the car.

Penny started the engine and bent down to open the fins of the heater.

Straightening, she cast a last, careless glance toward the old estate.

Her heart did a flip-flop.