CHAPTER 22 _THE SECRET STAIRS_
In the darkness, Penny felt something soft and covered with fur brushagainst her face. She recoiled, nearly screaming in terror. Recoveringher poise and realizing that she had merely touched a garment which hungin the closet, she flattened herself against the wall and waited.
The outside door opened and soft footsteps approached the wall switches.Lights flashed on. A tall, swarthy man in a gray business suit blinked atthe sudden flood of illumination. After a moment he stepped over to theteletype machines, and throwing a switch, started them going.
Sitting down to the keyboard he tapped out a message. Then he lit acigarette and waited. In a few minutes his answer came, typed out fromsome distant station. The man ripped the copy from the machine and readit carefully. Its contents seemed to please him for he smiled broadly ashe arose from the chair, leaving the teletypes still running.
Penny froze with fear when she heard the man stride toward the closetwhere she had hidden herself. Instinctively, she burrowed back behind thefur garments which her groping hands encountered.
The door was flung open and light flooded into the closet. However, theteletype attendant seemed to have no suspicion that anyone might behiding there. He pressed a button on the wall and then heaved against thepartition with his shoulder. The section of wall, suspended on a pivot,slowly revolved. After the man had passed through, it swung back into itsoriginal position.
Penny waited several minutes and then came out of her hiding place. Sheflung open the closet door to admit more light.
"Just as I thought!" she muttered.
The closet, a long narrow room, was hung solidly with fur coats!
"So Maxine Miller was working for the hotel interests after all," Pennytold herself. "I've stumbled into something big!"
Groping along the wall of the storage room, she found a switch andpressed it. Again the partition revolved, revealing a flight of stairsleading downward. She slipped through and the wall slid into place behindher.
The stairway was lighted with only one weak electric bulb. Penny's bodycast a grotesque shadow as she cautiously descended. There were so manysteps that she decided they must lead to a basement in the hotel.
She reached the bottom at last and followed a narrow sloping tunnel, pasta large refrigerated vault which she reasoned must contain a vast supplyof additional furs, and kept on until a blast of cool air struck herface. Penny drew up sharply.
Directly ahead, at a bend in the tunnel, sat an armed guard. He wasreading a newspaper in the dim light, holding it very close to theglaring bulb above his chair.
Penny dared go no farther. Quietly retreating the way she had come, shestole back up the long stairway. At the top landing she found herselfconfronted with a blank wall. After groping about for several minutes,her hand encountered a tiny switch similar to the one on the oppositeside of the partition. She pressed it, and the wall section revolved.
Letting herself out of the storage closet, Penny started toward the door,only to pause as she heard one of the teletypes thumping out a message.She crossed over to the machine and stood waiting until the line had beenfinished and a bell jingled. The words were unintelligible in jumbledtypewriting, and Penny had no time to work out the code.
Tearing the copy paper neatly across, she thrust it in the pocket of herjacket.
Fearing that at any moment the printer attendant might return, Pennydared linger no longer. She went to the door but to her surprise it wouldnot open.
"Probably a special trick catch which automatically locks wheneverclosed," she thought. "The only way to get in or out is with a key, and Ihaven't one. That means I'll have to risk my neck again."
Going to the window she raised it and looked down. All was clear below.Two courses lay open to her. She could return the way she had comethrough the hotel, or she might edge along the shelf past two otherwindows to the fire escape, and thence to the ground. Either way wasfraught with danger.
"If I should happen to meet Ralph Fergus or Harvey Maxwell, I might notget away with my information," Penny decided. "I'll try the fire-escape."
Closing the window behind her, she flattened herself along the buildingwall, and moved cautiously along the ledge. She passed the first room insafety. Then, as she was about to crawl past the second, the square ofwindow suddenly flared with light.
For a dreadful moment Penny thought that she had been seen. She huddledagainst the wall and waited. Nothing happened.
At last, regaining her courage, she dared to peep into the lighted room.Two men stood with their backs to the window, but she recognized them asHarvey Maxwell and Ralph Fergus.
Penny received a distinct shock as her gaze wandered to the thirdindividual who sat in a chair by the bed. The man was old Peter Jasko.
A low rumble of voices reached the girl's ears. Harvey Maxwell wasspeaking:
"Well, Jasko, have you thought it over? Are you ready to sign the lease?"
"I'll have the law on you, if I ever get out of here!" the old man saidspiritedly. "You're keepin' me against my will."
"You'll stay here, Jasko, until you come to your senses. We need thatland, and we mean to have it. Understand?"
"You won't get me to sign, not if you keep me here all night," Mr. Jaskomuttered. "Not if you keep me a year!"
"You may change your mind after you learn what we can do," said HarveyMaxwell suavely.
"You aim to starve me, I reckon."
"Oh, no, nothing so crude as that, my dear fellow. In fact, we shalltreat you most kindly. Doctor Corbin will be here presently to examineyou."
"Doctor Corbin! That old quack from Morgantown! What are you bringing himhere for?"
Harvey Maxwell smiled and tapped his head significantly.
"To give you a mental examination. You are known to the good people ofPine Top as a very peculiar fellow, so I doubt if anyone will questionDoctor Corbin's verdict."
"You mean, you're aimin' to have me adjudged insane?" Peter Jasko askedincredulously.
"Exactly. How else can one explain your fanatical hatred of skiing, yourblind rages, your antagonism to the more progressive interests? While itwill be a pity to bring disgrace upon your charming granddaughter, thereis no other way."
"Not unless you decide to sign," added Ralph Fergus. "We're more thanreasonable. We're willing to pay you a fair price for the lease, morethan the land is worth. But we want it, see? And what we want we take."
"You're a couple of thievin', stealin' crooks!" Peter Jasko shouted.
"Not so loud, and be careful of your words," Harvey Maxwell warned. "Orthe gag goes on again."
"Which do you prefer," Fergus went on. "A tidy little sum of money, orthe asylum?"
Peter Jasko maintained a sullen silence, glaring at the two hotel men.
"The doctor will be here at ten-thirty," said Harvey Maxwell, looking athis watch. "You will have less than a half hour to decide."
"My mind's made up now! You won't get anyone to believe your cock andbull story. I'll tell 'em you brought me here and held me prisoner--"
"And no one will believe you," smiled Maxwell. "We'll give out that youcame to the hotel and started running amuck. Dozens of employes willconfirm the story."
"For that matter, I'm not sure you don't belong in an asylum," mutteredFergus. "Only a man who isn't in his right mind would turn down theliberal proposition we've made you."
"I deal with no scoundrels!" the old man defied them.
Harvey Maxwell looked at his watch again. "You have exactly twenty-fiveminutes in which to make up your mind, Jasko. We'll leave you alone tothink it over."
Fergus trussed up the old man's hands and placed a gag in his mouth. Thenthe two hotel men left the room, turning out the light and locking thedoor behind them.