Signal in the Dark Part 12

Studying the skylight with keen interest, Penny decided that it would be possible and not too difficult for a person on the roof to raise the gla.s.s panels, and by means of the chain, drop down to the floor. But could a prowler reverse the process?

Penny would have dismissed the feat as impossible, had not her gaze focused upon an old filing cabinet which stood against the wall, almost directly beneath the skylight. Inspecting it, she was disturbed to find imprints of a man's shoe on its top surface.

"Someone was in here!" Penny thought. "To get out, he climbed up on this cabinet!"

The bra.s.s handles of the cabinet drawers offered convenient steps. As she tried them, the cabinet nearly toppled over, but she reached the top without catastrophe. By standing on tiptoe, her head and shoulders would just pa.s.s through the skylight.

Pulling the bra.s.s chain, she opened it, and peered out onto the dark roof. No one was in sight. In the adjoining building, lights burned in a number of offices.

Suddenly the door of the photography room opened. Startled, Penny ducked down so fast that she b.u.mped her head.

"Well, for Pete's sake!" exclaimed a familiar voice. "What are you doing up there?"

Penny was relieved to recognize Salt. She closed the skylight and dropped lightly to the floor.

"Looking for termites?" the photographer asked.

"Two legged ones! Salt, someone has been prowling about in here! Whoever he was, he came in through this skylight."

"What makes you think so, kitten?" Salt looked mildly amused and not in the least convinced.

Penny told him what had happened and showed him the footprints on the filing cabinet. Only then did the photographer take her seriously.

"Well, this is something!" he exclaimed. "But who would sneak in here and for what reason?"

"Do you have anything valuable in the darkroom?"

"Only our cameras. Let's see if they're missing."

Striding across the room, Salt flung open the door of the inner darkroom, and snapped on a light. One glance a.s.sured him that the cameras remained untouched. But several old films were scattered on the floor. Picking them up, he examined them briefly, and tossed them into a paper basket.

"Someone has been here all right," he said softly. "But what was the fellow after?"

"Films perhaps."

"We haven't anything of value here, Penny. If we get a good picture we use it right away."

Methodically, Salt examined the room, but could find nothing missing.

"Perhaps the person, whoever he was, didn't get what he was after," Penny speculated. "I'm inclined to think this isn't his first visit here."

Questioned by Salt, she revealed Elda Hunt's recent experience in the photography room.

"That dizzy dame!" he dismissed the subject. "She wouldn't know whether she saw anything or not."

"Something frightened her," Penny insisted. "It may have been this same man trying to get in. Can't the skylight be locked?"

"Why, I suppose so," Salt agreed. "The only trouble is that this room gets pretty stuffy in the daytime. We need the fresh air."

"At least it should be locked when no one is here."

"I'll see that it is," Salt promised. "But it's not likely the prowler will come back again--especially as you nearly caught him."

It was growing late. Convinced that her father had left the _Star_ building, Penny decided to take a bus home. As she turned to leave, she asked Salt carelessly:

"By the way, did you know Ben Bartell?"

"Fairly well," he returned. "Why?"

"Oh, I met him tonight. He's had a run of hard luck."

"So I hear."

"Salt, what did Ben do, that caused him to be blacklisted with all the newspapers?"

"Well, for one thing, he socked an editor on the jaw."

"Jason Cordell of the _Mirror_?"

"Yes, they got into a fight of some sort. Ben was discharged, and he didn't take it very well."

"Was he a hard drinker?"

"Ben? Not that I ever heard. I used to think he was a pretty fair reporter, but he made enemies."

Penny nodded, and without explaining why the information interested her, bade Salt goodnight. Leaving the _Star_ building by the back stairway, she walked slowly toward the bus stop.

As she reached the corner, she heard the scream of a police car siren.

Down the street came the ambulance, pulling up only a short distance away. Observing that a crowd had gathered, Penny quickened her step to see who had been injured.

Pushing her way through the throng of curious pedestrians, she saw a heavy-set man lying unconscious on the pavement. Policemen were lifting him onto a stretcher.

"What happened?" Penny asked the man nearest her.

"Just a drunk," he said with a shrug. "The fellow was weaving all over the street, and finally collapsed. A storekeeper called the ambulance crew."

Penny nodded and started to move away. Just then, the ambulance men pushed past her, and she caught a clear glimpse of the man on the stretcher. She recognized him as Edward McClusky, a deep water diver for the Evirude Salvage Company. She knew too that under no circ.u.mstances did he ever touch intoxicating liquors.

"Wait!" she exclaimed to the startled ambulance crew. "I know that man!

Where are you taking him?"

CHAPTER 9 _THE METAL DISC_

"We're taking this man to the lockup," the policemen told Penny. "He'll be okay as soon as he sobers up."