Part 32 (1/2)

Mrs. Downey regarded Penny skeptically.

”Oh, I wouldn't get out of the sled,” Penny said.

”Is that a promise?”

”I'll make it one. Nothing less than a fire or an earthquake will get me out.”

Jake brought the sled to the door, and helped the girl into it. The day was cold. Snow fell steadily. Mrs. Downey tucked warm bricks at Penny's feet and wrapped her snugly in woolen blankets.

The ride down the mountainside was without event. Penny began to regret that she had made the trip, for the weather was more unpleasant than she had antic.i.p.ated. She burrowed deeper and deeper into the blankets.

Jake pulled up at a hitching post in front of Pine Top's grocery store.

”It won't take me long,” he said.

Penny climbed down in the bottom of the sled, rearranging her blankets so that only her eyes and forehead were exposed to the cold. She had been sitting there for some minutes when her attention was drawn to a man who was approaching from far down the street. Recognizing him as Ralph Fergus, she watched with interest.

At the drugstore he paused. As if by prearrangement, Benny Smith came out of the building. Penny was too far away to hear their exchange of words, but she saw the boy give all of his newspapers to Ralph Fergus. In return, he received a bill which she guessed might be of fairly high denomination.

”Probably five dollars,” she thought. ”The boy sells all his papers to Fergus because he can make more that way than by peddling them one by one. And he's paid to keep quiet about it.”

Penny was not especially surprised to discover that the hotel man was buying up all the papers, for she had suspected he was behind the trick.

”There's no law against it,” she told herself. ”That's the trouble.

Fergus and Maxwell are clever. So far they've done nothing which could possibly get them into legal trouble.”

Presently Jake came out of the grocery store, carrying a large box of supplies which he stowed in the sled.

”I'll get the papers and then we'll be ready to start.”

”Don't bother,” said Penny. ”There aren't any. I just saw Ralph Fergus buy them all from the boy.”

”Fergus, eh? And he's been puttin' it out that the papers never caught the plane!”

”It was just another one of his little tricks to make Mrs. Downey's guests dissatisfied.”

”Now we know what he's about we'll put a stop to it!”

”Yes,” agreed Penny, ”but he'll only think of something new to try.”

As they started back toward the Downey lodge, she was quiet, turning over various matters in her mind. Since Mrs. Downey had decided to sell her business, it scarcely seemed to matter what Ralph Fergus did.

The sled drew near the Jasko cabin and pa.s.sed it, turning a bend in the road. Suddenly Penny thought she heard her name called. Glancing back she was startled to see Sara Jasko running after the sled.

”Wait, Jake!” Penny commanded. ”It's Sara! Something seems to be wrong!”

CHAPTER 21 _OLD PETER'S DISAPPEARANCE_