CHAPTER 17 _A STOLEN BOAT_
The mists were lifting as Penny and Louise sailed slowly past the OttmanDock toward their own snug berth. Sara, in blue slacks, a red bandanahandkerchief over her head, was trying to start a stubborn outboardmotor. Glancing up, she called a greeting, and then asked abruptly:
"Say, what's that barge doing out on the river? It looks to me as if it'sadrift, but I can't see well enough to tell."
Penny and Louise, eager to impart information, brought the dinghy to amooring at the floating platform. Sara listened with interest as theyrevealed how they had boarded the barge, released Carl Oaks, and thennotified the Coast Guard.
"Neat work!" she praised. "That Carl Oaks! He's one of the most shiftlessmen I ever knew. He doesn't deserve to hold a job."
Penny glanced about the dock, searching for Burt Ottman.
"Your brother isn't here?" she remarked absently.
"No, he isn't," Sara replied, rather defiantly. "If you think he hadanything to do with that barge--"
"Why, it never entered my mind!" Penny exclaimed.
"I'm sorry," the older girl apologized. "I shouldn't have said that. Idon't know why I'm so jumpy lately."
"You have a great deal to worry you," said Louise sympathetically. "Andyou work too hard."
"I'll be all right as soon as Burt's trial is over. He's not here thismorning--" Sara's voice broke. "In fact, I don't know where he is."
Louise and Penny said nothing, though the remark astonished them.
"Burt was out all last night," Sara spoke and then seemed to realize thather words easily could be misinterpreted. She added hastily: "He's beentrying to gain evidence which will prove his innocence."
"You mean your brother went away yesterday and failed to return?" Pennyasked after a moment.
Sara nodded. "He's on the trail of the real saboteurs, and it's dangerousbusiness. That's why I'm so worried. I'm afraid he's in trouble."
"Have you talked to the police?" Penny inquired.
"Indeed, I haven't."
"Didn't your brother tell you where he was going when he left home?"
"No, he didn't. He keeps things from me because he says I worry too muchnow."
"I suppose he never explained what happened at The Green Parrot?"
"He said he couldn't remember. Oh, everything's so mixed up. I try not tothink about it, because when I do my head simply buzzes."
Once more Sara tried to start the balky engine, and this time her effortsbrought success.
"Thank goodness for small favors!" she muttered. "Now I've got to go outon the river and look for our stolen boat. Hope no one runs off with thisplace while I'm gone."
"You've not had another boat stolen?" Louise asked in surprise.
"I figure that's what happened to it. Late yesterday afternoon a man camehere and rented our fastest motorboat. That's the last I've seen of himor it."
"Didn't you report your loss to the Coast Guards?" inquired Penny.
Sara answered with a trace of impatience. "Of course, I did. Theysearched the river last night. No accident reported, and no trace of theboat."
"The man might have drowned," Louise offered anxiously.
"It's not likely. If he had gone overboard, the boat would have beenfound by this time. No, it's been pulled up somewhere in the bushes andhidden. Last year one of our canoes was taken. Burt found it a monthlater, painted a different color!"
"Didn't you know the man who rented the boat?" questioned Penny.
"Never saw him before. He was tall and thin and dark. Wore a brown felthat and overcoat. I noticed his hands in particular. They were soft andwell manicured. I said to myself, 'This fellow doesn't know a thing aboutboats,' but I was wrong. He handled that motor like a veteran."
"The man didn't look like a waiter, did he?" Penny asked quickly.
"You couldn't prove it by me."
Penny groped in her mind to recall a characteristic which definitelywould describe the head waiter of The Green Parrot. To her chagrin, shecould think of only one unusual facial characteristic, a tiny scar on hischeek. She did remember that the man had worn a large, old fashioned goldwatch which might have been of foreign make.
"Why, the fellow who rented the boat did have such a watch!" Sara criedwhen Penny mentioned the timepiece. "I didn't notice the scar. What ishis name?"
"Louise and I never were able to learn," Penny replied with regret. "TheGreen Parrot has closed its doors, so I don't know how you can get intouch with him."
Sara sighed. Placing an oar, a bailer, and a can of gasoline in the boat,she prepared to leave the dock.
"I'll be lucky if I ever see the fellow again," she commented. Hesitatinga moment, she asked diffidently: "Don't suppose you girls would like togo along?"
Penny and Louise wondered if their ears had betrayed them. It seemedbeyond belief that Sara actually would invite them to accompany her.
"Why, of course, we'd like to go," Penny accepted, before her chum couldfind her voice.
Scrambling out of the dinghy, the girls made it fast to the dock andtransferred to the other boat. Sara opened the throttle, and they shotaway, leaving behind a trail of churning foam. Out through the slip theyraced, rounding a channel buoy at breakneck speed.
"You can certainly handle a boat," Penny said admiringly.
"Been at it since I was a kid," Sara grinned. "I could cruise this riverblindfolded."
They passed the floating barge, observing that a Coast Guard cutter wasproceeding up river to take it in tow. Turning upstream, Sara swung theboat toward shore.
"Keep close watch of the bushes," she directed the girls. "If you seeanything that looks like a hidden boat, sing out."
At low speed they crept along the river, watching for marks in the sandwhich might reveal where a craft had been pulled out of water. Once,venturing too close in, Sara went aground and had to push off with theoars.
"It doesn't look as if we'll have any luck," she remarked gloomily. "Theboat's probably so well hidden, it would take a ferret to find it."
They kept on upstream toward the Seventh Street Bridge, a structure muchin use since the more modern Thompson's Bridge had been closed to autotraffic. Penny, watching the stream of vehicles passing above, remarkedthat Riverview commerce would be paralyzed should anything occur todamage it.
"The Seventh Street Bridge now is the only artery open to the RiverviewMunitions Plant," Sara added. "I understand it's being guarded day andnight. By a better watchman than Carl Oaks, I hope."
Without passing the bridge, the girls turned downstream, searching theopposite shore. Before they had gone far, Sara beached the boat on astretch of sand.
"It was along here that Burt found our canoe last year," she explained."If you don't mind waiting, I'll get out and prowl around a bit."
"Aren't we near Bug Run?" Penny inquired.
Sara pointed out the mouth of the stream which was hidden from view by aclump of willows.
"If you expect to be here a few minutes, Louise and I might pay Old Noaha flying visit," Penny said eagerly. "We're curious to learn what hashappened to him."
"I'll be around for at least half an hour," Sara replied. "Take yourtime."
Penny and Louise set off along the twisting bank of Bug Run. Approachingthe vicinity of the ark, they noticed many corked blue bottles caughtamid the debris of the sluggish stream.
"I'll bet a cent and a half that Old Noah still is on the old stampinggrounds!" Penny remarked. "Sheriff Anderson probably hasn't found a wayto get rid of him. Why, unless a regular deluge floods this stream, theark never could be floated out to the main river."
"The sheriff could put Old Noah in jail."
"True, but a great many people would criticize him if he did."
A moment later the girls rounded a bend and saw the ark in its usualsetting. A long clothes line had been stretched from bow to stern, andwet garments fresh from the wash tub,
flapped in the breeze.
"Well, Noah is still here," chuckled Penny. "He's run up the white flagthough! Or should we say the white flags!"
On the deck of the ark, Old Noah was so busy that he failed to note theapproach of the two girls. He stood in the center of a ring of soiledclothes, laboring diligently over a tub of steaming suds.
As the girls reached the gangplank, a dog from inside the ark began anexcited barking. Startled, Old Noah glanced up. Unnoticed by him, hislong white beard slipped into the soapy water and he rubbed it vigorouslyon the washboard.
Scarcely able to control a giggle, Penny followed her chum aboard theark. As Old Noah kept on scrubbing his beard she could not resist asking:"Excuse me, but aren't you washing your whiskers by mistake?"
Surprised, the old man straightened to his full height. Squeezing thedripping beard, he carefully wrung it out. Next he produced a comb fromhis loose fitting brown pantaloons, and painstakingly unsnarled thetangles. Then turning to the girls, he greeted them with his usualdignity.
"Good morning, my daughters. I am glad you kept your promise to visit meagain."
"Good morning, Noah," responded Penny, trying not to laugh. "We thoughtwe would drop by and see if you were still here. I remember SheriffAnderson said he was going to call on you again."
The old man's weather beaten face crinkled into deep wrinkles. "Ho, ho!So he did, but he reckoned without the Might of the Righteous. I waswatching for him when he came."
"I hope you didn't mistreat him," Penny said uneasily.
"When I observed his approach I untied my two hounds, Nip and Tuck, andhid myself in the forest. He was gone when I returned to the ark."
"Likewise, part of his anatomy, I suppose," commented Penny.
"Nip and Tuck did cause a commotion," Old Noah acknowledged, "but theydid him no harm. When he went away the sheriff left a cowardly notetacked to a tree. It said he would return to dispossess me. Before thathappens, I will blow this ark to Kingdom Come!"
"How will you do that?" inquired Penny, rather amused.
"With dynamite."
"Do you have any aboard the ark?"
Old Noah smiled mysteriously. "I know where I can lay my hands on allI'll need. When I was hiding in the woods yesterday, I saw where theykeep it."
Penny and Louise glanced quickly at each other. While it was possiblethat Old Noah was talking wildly, the mention of dynamite made themuneasy. If it were true that he had come into possession of such a cache,then obviously it was their duty to report to the authorities.
"Who hid the dynamite?" Penny asked.
"I do not rightly know," replied Old Noah. "It may have been thosestrangers who were pestering me last night. They came to my ark and werevery nosey, asking me about this and that."
"Not officers?"
"They had no connection with the Law, speaking of it with greatcontempt."
"How many men were there, Noah?"
"Two."
"And they came by car?"
"Bless you, no," replied Noah wearily. "They arrived in a motorboat. Ofall the pop-poppin' you ever heard! It almost drove my animals crazy."
"After they talked to you, the men went away again in their boat?"
"They started off, but as soon as they had turned the bend they switchedout the motor. I wondered what they were up to, so I sneaked through thebushes and watched."
"Yes, go on!" Penny urged eagerly as Old Noah interrupted the narrativeto wash another shirt. "What did the men do?"
"Why, nothing," answered the old man. "They just pulled the boat up intothe bushes and went off and left it."
"The boat is still there?" Penny demanded.
"So far as I know, my daughter."
"Will you show us where the boat is hidden?" pleaded Penny. "And thedynamite cache too!"
"I am very busy now," Old Noah said, shaking his flowing locks. "I havethis pesky washing to do, and then, there's all the animals to feed."
"Can't we help you?" offered Louise.
"I thank you kindly, but it would not be fit work for young ladies. Ifyou will return tomorrow, I gladly will guide you to the place."
Penny and Louise tried their powers of persuasion, but the old man wasnot to be moved. In the end they had to be satisfied with a descriptionof the site where the motorboat had been hidden. Old Noah stubbornlyrefused to tell them more about the cache of dynamite.
Finally, the girls said goodbye to the master of the ark, and hastenedtoward the river to join Sara. They were greatly excited by theinformation they had obtained.
"Old Noah may have talked for the fun of it," Penny declared as theystruggled through the underbrush. "If not, I think we've stumbled into animportant clue--one which may have a bearing on the bridge dynamitingcase!"