CHAPTER 4 _AN UNWARRANTED ATTACK_
"Now will you tell me what I did to deserve a crack like that?" Pennymuttered as the door of the boathouse slammed behind Sara Ottman.
"Not a single thing," Louise answered loyally. "She just rolled out frombeneath that boat with a dagger between her teeth!"
"I guess I am a little prig, Lou."
"You're no such thing!" Louise grasped her arm and gave her anaffectionate squeeze. "Come along and forget it. I never did like SaraOttman anyhow."
Penny allowed herself to be led away from the dock, but the older girl'sunkind remarks kept pricking her mind. Although occasionally in the pastshe had stopped for a few minutes at the Ottman place, she never beforehad spoken a dozen words to Sara. Nearly all of her business dealings hadbeen with Burt Ottman, a pleasant young man who had painted her father'ssailboat that spring.
"I simply can't understand it," Penny mumbled, trudging along the shorewith Louise. "The last time I saw Sara she spoke to me politely enough. Imust have offended her, but how?"
"Oh, why waste any thought on her?" Louise scoffed.
"Because it bothers me. She mentioned the bridge dynamiting affair. Maybeit was my by-line story in the _Star_ that offended her."
"What did it say?" Louise inquired curiously. "I didn't see the morningpaper."
"Neither did I. I gave my story to a rewrite man over the telephone. Imeant to read the entire account, but was in a hurry to get over here, soI skipped it."
"Well, I shouldn't worry about the matter if I were you."
"I'm sure the boat used in the dynamiting came from Ottman's," Pennydeclared, thinking aloud. "Perhaps Sara is just out of sorts because sheand her brother lost their property."
Making their way along the mud flats, the girls came at last to the tinystretch of sand where the sailboat had been beached the previous night.It lay exactly as they had left it, cockpit half filled with water, thetall mast nosed into the loose sand.
"What a mess," sighed Penny. "Well, the first thing to do is to get thewet sail off. We should have taken care of it last night."
Before beginning the task, the girls wandered toward the nearby bridge toinspect the damage caused by dynamiting. An armed soldier refused toallow them to approach closer than twenty yards. All traffic had beenhalted, and a group of engineers could be seen examining the shatteredpier.
"Is Mr. Oaks around here?" Penny asked the soldier.
"Oaks? Oh, you mean the bridge watchman. He's been charged with neglectof duty, and relieved of his job."
Penny and Louise were sorry to hear the news, feeling that in a way theywere responsible for the old fellow having left his post. Unable to learnwhether or not the watchman was being detained by police, they returnedto the beach to salvage their sailboat.
Without a pump, it was a difficult task to remove the water from thecockpit of "Pop's Worry." By rocking the boat back and forth and scoopingwith an old tin can, the girls finally got most of it out.
"We'll have to dry the sail somehow or it will mildew," Penny decided."The best thing, I think, is to put it on again and sail home."
Together they righted the boat. As the tall mast flipped out of the sand,Penny caught glimpse of a shiny, blue object.
"Our bottle!" she cried triumphantly, making a dive for it.
"Your bottle," corrected Louise. "I'm not a bit interested in that sillyold thing."
Nevertheless, as Penny sat down on the deck of "Pop's Worry" and removedthe cork, she edged nearer. By means of a hairpin, the folded sheet ofpaper contained within was pulled from the narrow neck. Highly elated,Penny spread out the message to read.
"Well, what does it say?" Louise inquired impatiently.
"Oh, so you are interested," teased Penny.
"Now don't try to be funny! Read the message."
Penny stared at the paper in her hand. "It's rather queer," sheacknowledged. "Listen:
"'_The day of the Great Deluge approaches. If you would be saved fromdestruction, seek without delay, the shelter of my ark._'"
"If that isn't nonsense!" Louise exclaimed, peering over her chum'sshoulder. "And the note is signed, '_Noah_.'"
"Someone's idea of a joke, I suppose," Penny replied. She tossed thepaper away, then reconsidering, retrieved the message and with thebottle, placed it in the cockpit of the boat. "Well, it's rained a lotthis Spring, but I don't think we'll have to worry about the GreatDeluge."
"Noah was a Biblical character," Louise commented thoughtfully. "Iremember that when God told him it would rain forty days and fortynights, he built an ark to resist the flood waters. And he took hisfamily in with him and all the animals, two by two."
"Noah was a bit before our time," laughed Penny. "Suppose we shove offfor home."
By dint of much physical exertion, the girls pushed "Pop's Worry" outinto the shallow water. Penny, who had removed shoes and stockings, gavea final thrust and leaped lightly aboard. Raising the wet sail, sheallowed it to flap loosely in the wind.
"We'll have everything snug and dry by the time we reach home," shedeclared confidently. "Tired, Lou?"
"A little," admitted her chum, stretching out full length on the deck. "Ilike to sail but I don't like to bail! And just think, if you hadn't beenso crazy to get that blue bottle, we'd have spared ourselves a lot ofhard work."
"Well, a fellow never knows. The bottle might have provided the firstclue in an absorbing mystery! Who do you suppose wrote such an oddmessage?"
"How should I know?" yawned Louise. "Probably some prankster."
Taking a zigzag course, "Pop's Worry" tacked slowly upstream. Whipped bya brisk wind, the wet sail gradually dried and regained its former shape.
As the boat presently approached Ottman's dock, both girls turned to gazein that direction. Sara could be seen moving about on one of the floatingplatforms, retying several boats which banged at their moorings.
"Better tack," Louise advised in a low tone. "We don't want to get tooclose."
Penny acted as if she had not heard. She made no move to bring the boatabout.
"We'll end up right at Ottman's unless you're careful," Louise warned."Or is that what you want to do?"
"I'm thinking about it." Penny watched Sara with thoughtful eyes.
"Well, if you'll deliberately go there again, I must say you enjoy beinginsulted!"
"I'd like to find out why Sara is angry at me. If it's only amisunderstanding I want to clear it up."
Louise shook her head sadly but offered no further protest as the boatheld to its course. Not until the craft grated gently against one of thefloats at Ottman's did Sara seem to note the girls' approach. Glancing upfrom her work, she stared at them, and then deliberately looked away.
"The air's still chilly," Penny remarked in an undertone. "Well, we'llsee."
Making "Pop's Worry" fast to a spar, she walked across the float toconfront Sara.
"Miss Ottman," she began quietly, "if I've done anything to offend you, Iwish to apologize."
Sara turned slowly to face Penny. "You owe me no apology," she said in acold voice.
"Then why do you dislike me? I always thought I was welcome around hereuntil today. My father has given you considerable business."
"I'm sorry I spoke to you the way I did," Sara replied stiffly and withno warmth. "It was rude of me."
"But why am I such poison?" Penny persisted. "What have I done?"
"You _honestly_ don't know?"
"Why, of course not. I shouldn't be asking if I did."
Sara stared at Penny as if wondering whether or not to accept her remarksas sincere.
"Do you only write for the papers?" she asked, a slight edge to hervoice. "You never read them?"
"I don't know what you mean." Penny was truly bewildered. "Has thismisunderstanding something to do with the bridge dynamiting?"
Sara nodded her head grimly. "It has," she agreed. "Didn't you see themorning p
aper?"
"Why, no."
"Then wait a minute." Sara turned and vanished into the boat shed. Amoment later she reappeared, carrying a copy of the _Star_.
"Read that," she directed, thrusting the black headlines in front ofPenny's eyes. "Now do you understand why I feel that you're no friend ofmine?"