minutes later penny was still leaning limply against the building when a car drove up to the bridge. her father, salt, and a bevy of policemen and government representatives sprang out and ran to her side.
“penny, what happened?” mr. parker clasped his daughter in his arms. “you’re soaking wet! didn’t we hear gunfire as we turned in here?”
penny waved her hand weakly toward the river below.
“there’s your story, dad. pictures galore. boat smashes into dangerous drawbridge. police pursue and shoot it out with desperadoes, taking what’s left of ’em into custody. i’m afraid to look.”
“and what were you doing while all this was going on?” demanded her father.
“me? i was just waiting for the drawbridge to go down.”
[204]
mr. parker, salt, and the policemen he had brought to the scene, rushed to the edge of the bridge. a police boat had drawn up beside the badly listing cruiser, and three men prisoners and a girl were being taken off.
“how bad is it?” penny called anxiously.
“all captured alive,” answered her father. “salt, get that camera of yours into action! where’s jerry? he would be missing at a time like this! what happened anyhow? can’t someone tell me?”
penny had fully recovered the power of speech, and with a most flattering audience, she recounted her adventures.
“excuse me just a minute,” she interrupted herself.
turning her back, she pulled a sodden photograph from the front of her dress and handed it to her father.
“this picture is in pretty bad shape,” she said, “but it’s clue number one. you see, it’s a photograph of miss kippenberg, and on the back is written, ‘to father, with all my love.’ i found the picture this afternoon in room 381 at the colonial hotel.”
“then you’ve located kippenberg?” one of the g men demanded.
“i have. he’s been masquerading as the kippenberg gardener, coming back here no doubt to witness the marriage of his daughter.”
“we’ll arrest him right away,” said the government man, turning to leave. “thanks for the tip.”
[205]
“i am confident miss kippenberg and her mother had nothing to do with grant atherwald’s disappearance,” penny went on. “aaron dietz plotted the whole affair himself. i guess he must have learned about kippenberg’s cache of gold while he worked for the man. he believed that grant atherwald shared the secret and could tell where the money was hidden.”
“you’ve located the gold, too, i suppose,” mr. parker remarked whimsically.
“no, dad, i slipped up there. i thought the gold was in a secret vault under the alligator pool, but i was wrong. i don’t know where it is.”
“we’ll let the g men solve that mystery when they take kippenberg into custody,” replied her father. “our work is cut out for us now. we’ll find jerry, talk with young atherwald, and rout miss kippenberg and her mother out of bed for an exclusive interview.”
“and this time i am sure they’ll answer questions,” declared penny.
during the next hour the “story” was taken entirely from her hands. jerry, her father and salt, knew exactly how to gather every fact of interest to the readers of the star. sylvia kippenberg, overjoyed to find her fiancé alive, posed for pictures with him, and answered all questions save those which concerned her father.
[206]
not until a telephone call came from the colonial hotel, saying that mr. kippenberg had been taken into custody, would either sylvia or her mother admit that the man had posed as the gardener.
“very well, it is true,” mrs. kippenberg acknowledged at last. “james has been trying to avoid government men for over a year. wishing to return for sylvia’s wedding, he disguised himself as a gardener. then after grant’s disappearance, he remained here trying to help.”
“and it was your husband who managed to get rid of the alligator?” penny interposed.
“yes, we were afraid police might ask embarrassing questions. james disposed of it to a zoo late yesterday afternoon.”
“and the cache of gold under the lily pool,” said mr. parker. “what became of that?”
“there is no gold.”
“none at all?”
“none.”
“and there never was any?” questioned penny incredulously. “then why was the vault ever built?”
“tell her the truth, mother,” sylvia urged. “she deserves to know. anyway, it can do father no harm now.”
“at one time my husband did have a considerable supply of gold,” mrs. kippenberg admitted. “since he could not trust a bank he constructed his own vault under the pool and placed the alligator there as a precaution against prying persons.”
[207]
“my father really did nothing so very wrong,” sylvia broke in. “the gold was bought with his own money. if he chose to sell it later at a profit it was his own affair.”
“not in the opinion of the government,” mr. parker said with a smile. “he held the gold illegally. so your father disposed of it?”
“yes, he shipped it out of the country months ago. and no one will ever be able to prove anything against him.”
“my husband is a very clever man,” added mrs. kippenberg proudly.
“that remains to be seen,” said mr. parker. “i know a number of very clever government men, too.”
later, in dry clothing loaned to her by miss kippenberg, penny motored back to corbin with her father, jerry, and salt. there they learned that the three prisoners had been locked up in jail, while james kippenberg was being questioned by government operatives. he readily admitted that he had disguised himself as the gardener but defied anyone to prove he ever had disposed of illegal gold.
mr. parker did not wait to learn the outcome of the interview. instead he telephoned the big story to dewitt and arranged for complete coverage on every new angle of the case. satisfied that no more could be learned that night, the party sped back toward riverview.
[208]
“aaron dietz and his confederates ought to get long prison sentences,” penny remarked as they drove through the night. “but what will happen to mr. kippenberg, dad? do you think he will escape punishment as his wife believes?”
“he’ll get what is coming to him,” replied mr. parker. “a government man told me tonight that kippenberg’s income tax reports have been falsified. and kippenberg knew they had evidence against him or he never would have gone into hiding. no, even if it can’t be proven that he held gold illegally, he’ll certainly be fined and given a year or so in prison for tax evasion.”
“i hope he receives a light sentence for sylvia’s sake,” said penny. after a moment she added: “sylvia and grant atherwald are going to be married tomorrow. they told me so.”
“there’s a fact we missed,” declared jerry. “penny always is showing us up.”
“oh, i didn’t prove myself so brilliant tonight,” responded penny. “when i was down in that vault i decided i was just plain dumb. if you hadn’t had sense enough to guess where grant atherwald and i were being held—well, dad would have had to adopt a new daughter.”
[209]
“it was easy enough to tell what had happened,” said jerry. “you had told me you thought there was a secret vault beneath the pool. then, too, i found your handkerchief floating in the bottom. the water had only been running in a few minutes.” he fished in his pocket and brought out a pin which he handed to penny. “i also found this.”
“thanks, jerry,” said penny. “that’s louise’s cameo pin. she dropped it the day we were on the kippenberg estate together.”
“the police gave you full credit for the capture of those men, penny,” said her father with pride. “you yanked the drawbridge just in time to trap them.”
“salt did his share, too,” mentioned penny generously. “he went for the police just as soon as he realized jerry and i had been carried away on the cruiser.”
“the only trouble was that the cops wasted too much time searching for you down river,” the photographer drawled. “we finally went back to corbin and ran into mr. parker who suggested we come to the estate.”
“how did you happen to be in corbin, dad?” asked penny curiously.
“you might know—i was looking for you. isn’t that my usual occupation?”
“you’re not provoked at me, dad?”
[210]
“no, of course not,” the publisher answered warmly. “you’ve all done fine work tonight. this is the biggest story we’ve run into in over a year! we’ll score a beat on the rival papers.”
“then don’t you think jerry and salt have earned a raise?” suggested penny.
“yes,” agreed her father absently, “i’ll take care of it tomorrow.”
“and you might tack on another dollar to my allowance, dad. i’ll also have a small bill to present. there will be several dollars for gasoline, lunches going and coming from corbin, two ruined dresses, a pair of torn silk stockings, and—”
“that’s enough,” broke in mr. parker with a laugh. “if you keep on listing your expenses, i’ll be broke. you turned out to be an expensive reporter.”
“it was worth it, wasn’t it?” penny demanded, placing her hands on her hips.
her father agreed heartily. “it certainly was, penny. the riverview star obtained a smashing story to scoop all the other newspapers, and i’ve got my elusive daughter back again safe and sound.”
penny moved closer to her father. she grasped the lapels of his coat in her slender fingers and tipped her weary but still lovely face toward him.
“dad, will you promise me one thing?”
“that depends on what you are after,” mr. parker told her gravely.
“whenever the riverview star has a baffling mystery to be run down to earth, will you promise to call in your ace sleuth?”
“and who would that be?” demanded mr. parker with a puzzled frown. then as penny laughed gaily, he also started to grin. “so you are the ace sleuth? i guess i was a little slow in understanding. but you seem to be right. this is the third mystery you’ve solved. maybe we will use you on the next mystery.”
“thanks, dad,” said penny. “i just hope i won’t have to wait too long for the next mystery to come along.”
