Part 41 (1/2)
Penny could force herself to no greater effort. Breathless, she reached the gearhouse and groped frantically under the door. Had Th.o.r.n.y failed to hide the key there? No, her fingers seized upon it.
Trembling with excitement, she turned it in the lock. The door of the gearhouse swung open. Now could she remember how to lower the bridge? Any mistake would be costly, for by this time she could hear the cruiser racing down the river at full speed. If only it were light enough so that she could see the gears!
She pulled a lever and her heart leaped as the motor responded with a pleasant purr. The power was on!
”Now to lower the bridge!” thought Penny. ”But which lever is the right one? I'm not sure.”
With a prayer in her heart she grasped the one closest at hand and eased it forward. There was a grinding of gears as the tall cantilevers began to move. They were coming down, but oh, so slowly!
”Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!” Penny whispered, as if her words could speed the bridge on its journey.
The white cruiser drove onward at full speed. Lower came the bridge.
Penny held her breath, knowing it would be a matter of inches whether or not the boat would clear. The man at the wheel, aware of the danger, did not swerve from his course.
The bridge settled into place. As the crash came, Penny closed her eyes.
”_I did it! I've stopped them!_” she thought, and sagged weakly against the gear house.
CHAPTER 25 _VICTORY FOR PENNY_
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.”
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.”