Saboteurs on the River Part 35

"Noah! Noah!" the parrot croaked. "Heave out the anchor! Help! Help!"

"Keep it up, Polly," Penny encouraged, rocking the cage.

The parrot squawked in righteous rage and the other birds chirped excitedly. In the midst of the commotion, a heavy step was heard on deck.

Noah, finding the door to the bird room locked, shook it violently.

"Unbolt this door!" he shouted. "Unlock it, I say, or I will break it down!" And he banged with his fists against the flimsy panel.

"What's coming off here?" demanded another voice, that of Wessler. "Have you gone completely crazy?"

"I want to know why this door is locked!" Noah said wrathfully. "Unlock it or I will break it down!"

Completely aroused, the old man backed away as if to make a running attack. Wessler drew his revolver, but Noah paid not the slightest heed.

"Let me get at my birds!" he cried. "Stand back!"

"Better humor him," Breneham said uneasily. "Unless you do, he'll arouse the countryside."

Wessler returned the revolver to its holster beneath his coat. "Calm down, Grandpa, calm down," he tried to soothe the old man. "No one is going to hurt your precious birds."

"Then open that door!"

"Go ahead," Wessler directed his companion. "If he makes any more trouble we'll lock him in with the girls."

"There are no doors on this ark strong enough to hold me," said Noah.

"Open it I say!"

The command was obeyed. The old man stumbled across the threshold and began to murmur soothing words to the birds. At first he did not see Penny and Louise. Finally observing them, he spoke rather absently:

"Good evening, my daughters. I am happy that you have come again to my ark, but I am afraid you have disturbed my birds."

Penny chose her words carefully for Wessler and his pal stood in the cabin doorway.

"The birds do seem excited for some reason. No doubt they're alarmed by the approaching storm."

"Yes, yes, that may be it," Old Noah murmured. "And the porthole is covered. That should not be. I will fix it."

Pushing past the two men, Old Noah went outside the cabin to jerk away the canvas covering. He came back in a moment, bearing a sack of bird seed.

"Upstairs!" Wessler tersely ordered the girls.

In crossing the room, Penny deliberately stumbled against the box of blue corked bottles.

"With another storm coming up, I suppose you'll be throwing out more of your messages," she said jokingly to Noah.

Penny had hoped that the suggestion might presently cause the old man to dump the contents of the box into the water. She neither expected nor desired that he would attempt the task in the presence of the two saboteurs. However, Old Noah immediately dropped the sack of bird seed and strode over to the box of bottles.

"Yes, yes, I have been neglectful of my duty," he murmured. "With the Great Flood coming, I must warn the good people of Riverview. I shall bid them seek refuge here before their doom is sealed."

Old Noah selected a half dozen bottles and started to heave them through the porthole. Before he could do so, Wessler blocked the opening.

"Just a minute, Grandpa," he said. "What's in those bottles?"

"Messages which I wrote with my own hand," Old Noah replied earnestly.

"Would you like to read them, my son?"

"That's exactly what I intend to do," said Wessler.

With a suspicious glance directed at Penny and Louise, he reached into the box and selected one of the corked bottles.

CHAPTER 24 _A MESSAGE IN THE BOTTLE_

Failing easily to retrieve the message in the bottle, Jard Wessler smashed it against a wall of the ark. Picking up the folded paper, he flashed his light across the writing.

"'The hour of the Great Deluge approaches,'" he read aloud. "'Come to my ark and I will provide shelter and comfort.'"

Penny and Louise relaxed. The message was one that Old Noah had written.

Unless Wessler opened another bottle he would not suspect that they were the authors of other messages pleading for help.

"Stand back and allow me to throw my bottles into the stream!" Old Noah cried angrily. "Even though you are a guest aboard my ark, your actions are not pleasing."

"Go ahead, Grandpa," Wessler said with a shrug. "Heave out your bottles if it will keep you happy."

As Old Noah began to toss the bottles out of the porthole, Wessler again ordered Penny and Louise from the cabin.

"Upstairs!" he said, giving them a shove toward the stairway.

Penny glanced quickly toward sh.o.r.e. The gangplank had been raised, but the distance was not great.

As if reading her mind, Wessler said: "I wouldn't try to make a leap for it if I were you, little lady. Behave yourself, and you'll be set free before morning."

Penny and Louise were forced to go upstairs to the third floor of the ark. Although Old Noah's living quarters were more comfortable than the bird room, they provided less privacy. Wessler and his companion remained on the floor, and not a word could the girls speak without being overheard.

Old Noah soon appeared. In a much better mood, he chatted with the two men. Finding them uncommunicative, he picked up his banjo and began to sing spirituals to its accompaniment. His voice, as cracked as the fingers which strummed the strings, drove Breneham into a near frenzy.

"There's a limit to what a guy can stand," he said meaningly to Wessler.

"It won't be much longer now," the other encouraged, glancing at his watch.

"Why can't we pull the job now and get out?"

"Because the car won't be waiting for us. Everything's got to move on schedule."

As the night wore on, a light rain began to fall. Wessler and his companion went frequently to the windows, seemingly well pleased by the change of weather.