CHAPTER 13 A HIDDEN PACKAGE

“Why, Mr. Emory doesn’t understand!” Penny cried, aghast. “Can’t he see that we’re stuck here with the tide rolling in?”

The girls shouted again and again. If the man heard, he gave no sign.

“I don’t believe he wanted to help us!” Penny declared furiously. “Probably he’s afraid he’ll over-strain himself pushing!”

Unwilling to give up without a last try, she sprang into the car and once more started the engine. It roared and labored but could not pull the vehicle. Sick with despair, Penny allowed the motor to idle. She slumped behind the steering wheel, only to straighten suddenly as she thought she heard her name called.

Louise too heard the cry for she turned quickly toward the main road some yards back from the beach. A young man in uniform was running across the dunes toward the girls.

“It’s Jerry!” Penny cried jubilantly. “He’ll help us!”

“He will if he can,” Louise corrected. “The tide’s coming in so fast now. I doubt anyone can get us out of here now.”

Jerry did not waste time asking questions. Taking in the situation at a glance, he instructed Penny to remain at the wheel. With the motor racing, he and Louise pushed with all their strength. At first the rear wheels kept spinning in the sand. A great wave slapped the rear end of the car, spraying Louise from head to foot.

“It’s no use!” she gasped. “We can’t do it.”

“Yes, we can!” Jerry insisted. “Try once more, Louise.”

Again they pushed and this time the car actually moved a few feet before it bogged down. Encouraged, Jerry and Louise tried harder than before. The wheels suddenly struck firm sand, dug in, and the car began to creep forward. Penny kept it moving until she was sure the footing beneath the tires was solid. Then she pulled up so that Jerry and Louise might leap aboard.

“Drive as fast as you can for the hotel!” Jerry instructed crisply. “We’ll be lucky to make it.”

Where an hour before the roadway along the beach had been wide and ample, there now was only a fringe of white sand. To avoid the incoming waves, Penny had to drive dangerously close to the dunes. And midway to the hotel, they came to a flooded stretch of beach.

“We’ll have to risk it,” Jerry advised as Penny hesitated to drive on.

The water was not deep but the sand was wet and treacherous. Choosing a moment between breakers, Penny braved it, and to her intense relief the car rolled through without sinking down.

“It’s clear sailing now,” Jerry said as a wider strip of beach opened before them. “We’re well beyond the Point.”

Mr. Emory was walking along the shore and as the car went past, he waved his hand in a friendly way. Penny did not bother to return the salute, pretending she did not see him.

“I’m sure he knew we were in trouble and didn’t want to help,” she told Jerry. “The more I see of that man the less I like him.”

“Who is he anyhow?”

“Just a vacationer. He got Lou and me all excited yesterday with his talk about that hidden radio station.”

“How do you mean?” Jerry asked with interest.

Penny repeated the conversation, and mentioned how Mr. Emory had suggested that the old beachcomber was a mysterious character that would bear watching.

“Not old Jake Skagway?” Jerry asked, amused.

“I believe that was his name.”

“Jake’s the only beachcomber I know hereabouts. He makes his living picking up things on the beach and selling them. Folks say he buries some of his loot in the caves.”

“How do you know so much about him, Jerry?”

“Oh, I used to run down to Sunset Beach real often years ago. I know this locality like a book. Guess that’s why the Army sent me here to do a little scouting around.”

Penny waited expectantly, but Jerry offered no more information as to the reason for his visit to Sunset Beach.

“Probably Lou and I were taken in by Jake Skagway,” she admitted after a moment. “If we hadn’t followed him into the cave, we certainly wouldn’t have involved ourselves in such difficulties.”

Upon reaching the Crystal Inn a few minutes later, the girls searched for Mr. Parker. He was nowhere to be found. After waiting for a time, they left the car with Jerry and hiked to the forest camp. There the early afternoon was devoted to camp tasks. When Mr. Parker still did not come, Penny proposed that they return to Sunset Beach for a plunge in the surf.

“Too cold,” Louise shivered.

“Well, let’s go down to Sunset Beach anyhow,” Penny urged. “I get restless just sitting here in camp.”

“You know you want to see Jerry again,” Louise teased. “’Fess up.”

“All right, I do want to see him,” Penny admitted unabashed. “Jerry’s my very best friend. I’ve not been with him in months and I suppose in a few days he’ll be shot off to goodness-knows-where.”

“He’s not told you very much about why he came here.”

“No,” Penny said briefly. The subject was a sore one with her. She felt that both her father and Jerry were keeping secrets.

The tide was still high when the girls reached the beach, but the flow was outward. Sprawling in the warm sand, they watched the gulls.

“Wonder what became of Jerry and Dad?” Penny speculated. “They’re probably together somewhere.”

“Or with Mrs. Deline,” Louise suggested wickedly.

She was sorry that she had spoken for Penny’s face immediately became as black as a thundercloud.

“Sorry,” Louise apologized. “I was only joking.”

Penny continued to scowl for at that moment she glimpsed Mrs. Deline walking rapidly down the beach. The widow came from the direction of the lighthouse and was alone. To avoid the incoming waves she waded ankle deep through the great sand ridges along the drift fence.

“That’s queer,” Penny muttered, sitting up.

“What is?”

“Why, Mrs. Deline apparently has been at the lighthouse again. What’s she doing now?”

The widow had paused. Carefully she gazed up and down the deserted shore, but she did not see Penny and Louise who were hidden from view by a sand dune. However, by raising up slightly, they could see her plainly.

Mrs. Deline carried a package of considerable size under her arm. Seemingly satisfied that no one was at hand to observe her actions, she moved swiftly to one of the sand dunes near the drift fence. As the girls watched in amazement, she dug a deep hole and buried the package. Her work completed, she carefully brushed sand over the spot and obliterated her own footprints one by one.

“What was the idea of that?” Louise asked in bewilderment.

“That’s what I want to know!” Penny muttered. “We’ll wait until she leaves and then find out the contents of that package!”

But Mrs. Deline did not immediately go away. Instead she sat down in the sand close by. The girls could not see very well but they thought she was writing something on the skirt of her white suit.

“Why is she doing that?” Louise asked in bewilderment.

“I’ll bet a cookie she’s writing down the location of what she hid in the sand dune!” Penny speculated. “That’s so she can find it again!”

“But why write it on her skirt? And why should she hide anything here on the beach?”

“Because she’s a spy!” Penny declared triumphantly. “I’ve been suspicious of her from the first!”

“Yes, you have, darling,” agreed Louise. “But would a spy necessarily hide a package? If Mrs. Deline had information to communicate wouldn’t she send it to her superiors? Besides, Sunset Beach isn’t even an important manufacturing town.”

“That’s true. But I’ve heard Dad say that the Coast Guards watch this place closely. Because of its isolation and jagged coastline it’s considered a likely spot for surprise night landings by the Enemy.”

“Only this morning you thought old Jake Skagway was a rascal,” Louise chuckled. “You don’t catch me falling for your theories this time.”

“Then you have no interest in that hidden package?”

“Of course I have! I merely don’t agree that Mrs. Deline is a spy.”

“Quiet!” Penny warned. “Here she comes!”

Mrs. Deline had arisen from the sand and came rapidly down the beach. She did not see the girls until she was very close to them. Involuntarily, she paused, and looked somewhat disconcerted. Recovering, she spoke coldly.

“Hello,” Penny responded, her gaze on the woman’s white flannel skirt. It bore not a single tell-tale mark.

Mrs. Deline went on down the beach.

“You see,” Louise whispered when the woman was beyond hearing, “she didn’t write anything on her dress.”

“But we saw her do it!”

“We only thought we did.”

“Maybe she wrote it in invisible ink.”

“Oh, Penny, you certainly have an imagination,” Louise sighed.

“I suppose I imagined about the package too?”

“No, she really did bury something in the sand.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Penny demanded, leaping to her feet. “Let’s dig it up, and then maybe we’ll have the answer to a few of our questions.”