CHAPTER 25 _FINAL EDITION_
Penny and her father had no definite plan as they raced toward Johnson'swarehouse in the iceboat. Their only thought was to return and somehowprevent the escape of the tire thieves.
"Dad, is Harley Schirr one of the gang?" Penny shouted in Mr. Parker'sear.
"Schirr?" he repeated impatiently. "Of course not!"
"Then why didn't he want you to publish the tire stories in the _Star_?"
"Oh, Schirr's a natural-born coward," Mr. Parker answered. "He likes tosnoop and give unasked advice. Let's forget him."
The _Icicle_ slowed to a standstill near the warehouse. Penny and herfather leaped out and climbed the slippery bank. Nearby they saw a loadedtruck about to pull away from the building.
"We never can stop those men now!" gasped Penny.
"Yes, we can!" cried her father. "A police car is coming, and this timeit's no fake!"
As he spoke, an automobile bearing the notation, "Police Department" inbold letters, skidded into the driveway. Detective Fuller was at thewheel and at least four policemen were with him.
"Stop that truck!" Mr. Parker shouted. "Don't let it get away!"
Detective Fuller and four companions leaped from the police car. As theloaded truck started off with a roar, they blocked the road.
"Halt!" shouted Detective Fuller.
When the order was ignored, he fired twice. The bullets pierced the reartires of the truck. Air whistled out and the rubber slowly flattened.
For a few yards the truck wobbled on, then stopped. Two detectives leapedfor the cab.
"All right, get out!" ordered Detective Fuller, covering the men.
The truck driver and two others slouched sullenly out of the cab. Asflashlights swept their faces, Penny recognized one of the men.
"Hank Biglow!" she identified the driver.
"And this man is Ham Mollinberg, a brother of Ropes," said Mr. Parker,indicating a red-faced fellow in a leather jacket. "The man beside him isAl Brancomb, wanted for skipping parole in California."
"Any others in the warehouse?" demanded Detective Fuller.
"There should be," said Penny excitedly. "Where's Mr. Burns?"
"What Burns do you mean?" questioned one of the detectives.
"Connected with your police force, unfortunately," informed Mr. Parker."That's why I planned to consult the Prosecutor before I spread the storyon the _Star's_ front page. You boys have done good work in Riverview andI didn't want to make the department look bad."
"Burns, eh?" Detective Fuller repeated. "We'll find out what he has tosay!"
The policeman, however, was not to be apprehended so easily. Four men,including Ropes Mollinberg, were captured inside the warehouse. Burns hadleft the building some minutes earlier and had returned to Riverview.
"Don't worry, we'll get him!" Detective Fuller promised Mr. Parker. "Howabout these other eggs? Can you identify them?"
"They're all members of the outfit," the publisher said withouthesitation. "One of my reporters, Jerry Livingston, spent weeks watchingthese men and getting wise to their methods."
"Then he can testify against them."
"He can if he gets back," agreed Mr. Parker. "Jerry's in Canada and forsome reason we've been unable to locate him."
Penny and her father remained at the warehouse until the handcuffedprisoners had been taken away. They were jubilant over the capture. Notonly would the tire-theft gang be broken up, but the _Star_ had achievedanother exclusive front-page story.
"The best part of all is that you've recovered your memory!" Pennydeclared to her father. "After this, you won't dare fuss when I tell youI'm going ice-boating!"
"You're right," agreed Mr. Parker. "The _Icicle_ is the best pal I everhad!"
Within an hour after Penny and her father left the warehouse they werenotified that Mr. Burns had been taken into custody. Evidence piled uprapidly against the policeman. As it definitely was established that hehad accepted money from Ropes Mollinberg, he was stripped of his badgeand put behind bars.
Police were not compelled to search the Williams' garage. Before theycould act, Sam Burkholder came voluntarily to Central Station, offeringto make a clean breast of his part in the Black Market dealings. Both heand Mattie were held as witnesses against the tire thieves.
"Will Mattie be kept in jail long?" Penny asked her father.
"I doubt it," he replied. "Apparently, Sam acted alone in selling illegaltires. Since he's showing a disposition to cooperate with police, he'llprobably escape with a heavy fine."
With the tire theft case soon to come up for trial, Penny was disturbedlest Jerry Livingston fail to return from Canada in time to testify. Formany days she tormented herself with wild speculations. Then oneafternoon her worries were brought to an end by the arrival of atelegram. Nothing had happened to the young reporter. He had failed toreply to messages only because he had been out of touch withcivilization.
In his wire, Jerry stated that he would return to Riverview at once toaid in the search for the publisher.
"Jerry doesn't know yet that you've been found!" Penny said to herfather. "We must wire him right away to set his mind at rest."
The message was sent, and within a few hours a reply arrived, addressedto Penny.
"COMING ANYWAY," it read. "AM BRINGING YOU A BEAR RUG TOGETHER WITH ANICE BEAR HUG."
As if pleasant surprises never would end, still another came Penny's way.Police notified her that among the tires seized at the Johnson Warehousewas a set of five belonging to her stripped car.
"You're much better off than I," Mr. Parker teased her. "Your car now isin running order again. Mine will be in the garage for many a day. I'llhave to pay my own repair bill, too."
"Unless the hit-skip driver is found."
"I'm afraid he never will be," sighed Mr. Parker. "I'll always believethe men who crowded me off the road were hired by the tire-theft gang. Noway to prove it though."
"The car license number Mrs. Botts gave police didn't seem to beaccurate," Penny replied. "By the way, have you decided what you'll doabout her?"
"Mrs. Botts?"
"Yes, so far you've placed no formal charge against her."
Mr. Parker smiled as he reached for a final edition of the _Star_. Thepaper carried not only an account of the round-up at Johnson's Warehouse,but a full confession from Mrs. Botts.
"I bear the woman no ill will," he said. "She's already lost her positionas caretaker at the Deming estate. That's punishment enough as far as I'mconcerned."
Presently Mrs. Weems entered the living-room with a glass of milk. Whenshe tried to make the publisher take it he complained that he no longerwas an invalid.
"Now drink your milk like a good lad," Penny scolded. "Why, you're stillas thin as a ghost."
With a wry face Mr. Parker gulped down the drink.
"Let's not speak of ghosts," he pleaded. "I'm well now, and I don't liketo be reminded of those disgraceful night-shirt parades."
"Are you sure you're perfectly well?" teased Penny.
"Of course I am. My memory is as good as it ever was!"
"Haven't you forgotten a rather important financial item?"
Mr. Parker looked puzzled. Then light broke over his face.
"Your allowance! I've not paid it for a long while, have I?"
"You certainly haven't," grinned Penny. "The old till is painfully empty.I can use a little folding money to good advantage."
Her father smiled and opened his pocketbook. "Here you are," he said. "Goout and paint the town red!"
When Penny thumbed over the little stack of "folding money" she drew inher breath. Then she leaped to her feet in youthful exuberance.
"Oh, Dad, you're a darling!" she cried. "Why, this will buy a brush and awhole barrel of red paint! Look out, Riverview, here I come!"
Transcriber's Notes
--Silently corrected a handful
of palpable typos.
--Replaced the list of books in the series by the complete list, as in the final book, "The Cry at Midnight".
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends