Saboteurs on the River Part 31

"I'm going to be a nurse when I grow up. Climbing trees won't help me at that."

"Then wait here until I get back," Penny said, starting across the clearing.

As she had known, her chum could not bear to be left alone in the dark woods. Louise hastened after her and together they crept to the base of the scraggly old maple.

The branches were so low that Penny pulled herself into them without difficulty. She then helped Louise scramble up beside her. They clung together a moment, listening to make certain that no sound had betrayed them.

"So far, so good," Penny whispered jubilantly. "Now to get onto the roof.

And it does have a skylight!"

"We'll probably tumble through it," Louise muttered.

A dim light, which came from a candle, burned inside the shack.

Nevertheless, from their perch on the overhanging limb, the girls were unable to see what was happening below. Penny decided to lower herself to the roof.

"Put on your velvet shoes," she warned as she swung lightly down from the lower branch. "The slightest noise and we're finished."

Dropping on the flat roof, she waited a moment, listening. Satisfied that the men inside the shack had not heard her, she motioned for Louise to follow. Her chum however, held back, shaking her head vigorously.

Abandoning the attempt to get Louise onto the roof, Penny crept toward the skylight. Lying full length, she pressed her face against the thick gla.s.s.

In the barren room below a candle burned on a table. The head waiter whom Penny first had seen at The Green Parrot sat with his legs resting on the fender of a pot-bellied stove. Opposite him was the older man whose face she could not immediately see.

"I tell you, I'm getting worried," she heard the old fellow say. "When the Coast Guards took me off that coal barge they gave me the third degree. I can't risk having anything hung on me."

Penny pressed her face closer to the gla.s.s. Her pulse pounded. She was certain she knew the ident.i.ty of the old man.

"I wish he'd turn his head," she thought. "Then I'd be sure."

As if in response to the unspoken desire, the old man shifted in his chair. The light of the candle flickered on his face, and Penny saw it clearly for the first time.

"Carl Oaks!" she whispered. "And to think that I ever helped him!"

CHAPTER 21 _THROUGH THE SKYLIGHT_

Greatly excited to learn that the old watchman and the waiter of The Green Parrot were fellow conspirators, Penny strained to catch their words. She heard the waiter reply:

"You've done good work, Oaks. All you have to do now is sit tight for a few more hours. We'll give you a five hundred dollar bonus if the job comes off right."

"That won't do me any good if I end up in jail."

"Nothing will go wrong. Everything has been planned to the last detail."

"I'm already in bad with the police," the old watchman whined. "I wouldn't have gone in with you if I'd known just what I was doing."

"You got your money for the Thompson bridge job, didn't you?"

"A hundred dollars."

"It was more than you earned," the other replied irritably. "All you had to do was let me get away after I dynamited the bridge. You blamed near shot off my head!"

"I had to make it look as if I was doin' my duty. Those girls were watching me."

"That Parker pest came snooping around at The Parrot," the waiter said, letting the tilted chair legs thud on the floor. "Brought a reporter with her too. I got rid of 'em in short order."

"She didn't act very friendly when she found me bound and gagged aboard the coal barge," Carl Oaks resumed. "I think she may have suspected that it was a put up job. That's why I want to get out o' town while the getting is good."

"You can leave after tonight. We blast the Seventh Street bridge at one o'clock."

"And what about this prisoner I've been nursemaiding?"

"We'll plant enough evidence around the bridge to cinch his guilt with the police. Then we'll dump him in Chicago where he'll be picked up."

"He's apt to remember what happened and spill the whole story."

"Even if he does, the police won't believe him," the waiter said.

"They'll figure he's only trying to get out from under. Anyway, we'll be in another part of the country by then."

"What time will you pick me up here?" the watchman asked.

"Ten minutes till one. The automobile will arrive right on the tick, so synchronize your watch."

The two men compared timepieces, and then the waiter arose.

"Let's look at the prisoner," he said. "Is he still out cold?"

"He was the last time I looked at him. Hasn't moved since he was brought here, except once to ask for water."

The watchman went across the room to a closet and opened the door. A man lay on the floor, his hands and feet loosely bound. No cloth covered his face. Peering down from above, Penny was able to discern his features, and it gave her a distinct shock as she recognized him.

The waiter prodded the prisoner with his foot. The man who was bound, groaned and muttered, but made no other sign of consciousness.

"He'll not bother you tonight, Oaks," he said. "One of the boys can help you lift him into the car."

"I don't like this business," the watchman complained again. "What if his skull should be fractured?"

"He'll be okay by tomorrow," the waiter answered indifferently. "Heflanz gave him a little too much with the blackjack."

Penny waited to hear no more. Creeping cautiously away from the skylight, she returned to her chum who remained perched precariously on the overhanging tree branch.

"Learn anything?" Louise demanded in a whisper.

"Did I? Lou, that old man is Carl Oaks! He and our waiter friend have a prisoner inside the cabin."