Part 28 (1/2)
”It ain't so easy as it looks,” he told her. ”Well, here comes the Missuz now and we're all ready for her. Last time she came along I was weedin'
out my corn patch and was she mad?”
As the black limousine rolled up to the drawbridge Penny turned her face away so that Mrs. Kippenberg would not recognize her. She need have had no uneasiness, for the lady gazed neither to the right nor the left. The car crept forward at a snail's pace causing the steel structure to s.h.i.+ver and shake as if from an attack of ague.
”Dear me, I think this bridge is positively dangerous,” Louise declared.
”I shouldn't like to drive over it myself.”
As the old watchman again raised the cantilevers, Penny studied his every move.
”For a girl you're sure mighty interested in machinery,” he remarked.
”Oh, I may grow up to be a bridgeman some day,” Penny said lightly. ”I notice you keep the gear house locked part of the time.”
”I have to do it or folks would tamper with the machinery.”
The old man snapped a padlock on the door.
”Now I'm goin' to mosey down to my garden and do a little hoein',” he announced. ”You girls better run along.”
Thus dismissed, Louise started away, but Penny made no move to leave. She intended to ask a few questions.
”Th.o.r.n.y, are you any relation to the Kippenberg's head gardener?” she inquired with startling abruptness.
”Am I any relation to that old walrus?” Th.o.r.n.y fairly shouted. ”Am I any relation to _him_? Say, you tryin' to insult me?”
”Not at all, but I saw the man this morning, and I fancied I noticed a resemblance. Perhaps you don't know the one I mean.”
”Sure, I know him all right.” Th.o.r.n.y spat contemptuously. ”New man. He acts as know-it-all and bossy as if he owned the whole place.”
”Then you don't like him?”
”There ain't no one that has anything to do with him. He's so good he can't live like the rest of the servants. Where do you think I seen him the other night?”
”I haven't the slightest idea. Where?”
”He was at the Colonial Hotel, eatin' in the main dining room!”
”The Colonial is quite an expensive hotel at Corbin, isn't it?”
”Best there is. They soak you two bucks just to park your feet under one of their tables. Yep, if you ask me, Mrs. Kippenberg better ask that gardener of hers a few questions!”
Having delivered himself of this tirade, Th.o.r.n.y became calm again. He s.h.i.+fted his weight and said pointedly: ”Well, I got to tend my garden.
You girls better run along. Mrs. Kippenberg don't want n.o.body hangin'
around the bridge.”
The girls obligingly took leave of him and walked away. But when they were some distance away, Penny glanced back over her shoulder. She saw Th.o.r.n.y down on his hands and knees in front of the gear house. He was slipping some object under the wide crack of the door.