The Cry at Midnight Part 4

"Just let me out anywhere," she said presently.

"Anywhere?" Penny repeated.

"Will we pa.s.s the river docks on this road?"

"Yes, at the next turn."

"Then let me off there, please."

"The river docks!" exclaimed Louise. "At this time of night? No boats are running and there are no houses or business places close by. Only deserted fish houses and the like."

"Please, that's where I want to get off."

Penny and Louise gave up trying to figure out their strange pa.s.senger. At the next turn in the road, they pulled up near a dimly lighted street corner.

The girl opened the car door and reached for her suitcase.

"Thanks for the ride," she said in a low voice. "I'm sorry if I seemed rude and unfriendly. There are things I can't explain."

Before Penny or Louise could answer, the car door closed firmly in their faces.

"Well, how do you like that?" the latter demanded furiously. "If she isn't a cool cuc.u.mber!"

"She may be running away from home," Penny said, frowning. "Why otherwise, would she refuse to tell her name?"

"And why did she insist in getting out on this corner, of all places?"

"It's a bad section of town, Louise. No one seems to be about, but even so, a girl shouldn't be wandering around here alone."

"We tried to warn her. She seemed to know what she wanted to do."

"All the same, I feel sort of responsible," Penny returned uneasily. "I hope nothing happens to her."

After leaving the car, the girl walked toward the river. Now at the corner, she paused beneath a street light, and glanced back.

"She's waiting for us to go on!" Penny guessed shrewdly. "For some reason, she doesn't want anyone to know where she's going!"

"Then let's wait and watch!"

"We'll learn nothing that way. She can tell we're keeping our eye on her." Penny threw in the clutch and the car rolled away from the curb.

"Tell you what, Lou! We'll drive around the block."

"Good idea!" approved her chum. "That way she'll think we've gone and we can see where she really goes."

Penny turned at the first corner and made a quick trip around the block.

As they again came within view of the ice-locked river, the girls looked quickly up and down the street for a glimpse of their former pa.s.senger.

"There she is!" Louise cried. "Why, she's walking straight to the docks!"

The two girls now were completely mystified and not a little worried. At this late hour, the waterfront was deserted.

Penny watched the retreating figure for a moment, and then swung the car door open.

"That girl can't know what she's doing!" she decided. "I'm going after her!"

"For our pains, we may be told to mind our own affairs."

"That's beside the point, Lou. Something's wrong."

Without taking time to lock the car, the two girls hurried down the dark street toward the docks. Far ahead they could see the one they pursued walking swiftly. Then in the blinding, whirling snow, they lost sight of her.

Reaching the waterfront, Penny and Louise gazed about in disbelief and bewilderment. The girl had vanished.

"Now where could she have gone--" Penny murmured, only to break off as her gaze fell upon a trail of footsteps.

The prints led along the dock for a short distance, only to end at the river's edge.

CHAPTER 4 _VANISHING FOOTPRINTS_

"That crazy girl must have jumped off here!" Louise exclaimed, as she too saw the footprints on the snowy planks.

"The river is solid ice--at least six inches thick," Penny pointed out.

"She couldn't have crashed through."

"Then where did she go?"

Far upstream toward the Main Street Bridge, an iceboat could be seen tacking back and forth. Otherwise, the river was a gleaming ribbon of deserted ice.

"The only place she could have gone is under the dock," Penny said, her eyebrows knitting into a puzzled frown.

"_Under_ it?"

"That's what she must have done," Penny insisted. "I suppose the planking would give some protection from the storm."

The snow was coming down harder now than ever, in huge flakes. Trailing the footprints to the dock's edge, Penny flattened herself on the planks and peered over the side.

"I can't see a thing!" she complained. "Dark as pitch!"

"Listen!" commanded Louise.

Both girls became quiet. Distinctly they could hear a faint creak of snow as someone walked beneath the dock, a long distance away.

"h.e.l.lo, down there!" shouted Penny.