Hoofbeats on the Turnpike Part 22

The workman nodded. "I'm quittin' here tonight," he confessed. "Maybe that dam will hold, but I'm takin' no chances!"

Penny and Louise were even more troubled as they walked back to Mrs.

Lear's home. A fine supper awaited them. They scarcely did justice to it and found it difficult to respond to the old lady's cheerful conversation.

"She just doesn't seem to realize that she's in any danger," Louise whispered despairingly to her chum as they did the dishes together.

"Oh, she knows," Penny replied. "But Mrs. Lear is set in her ways. I doubt anyone can induce her to take to the hills."

After the dishes had been put away, the girls played card games with the old lady. Promptly at nine o'clock Mrs. Lear announced that it was bed time. As she locked up the doors for the night she stood for a time on the back porch, staring thoughtfully at the clouds.

"It looks like rain again," Penny remarked.

Mrs. Lear said nothing. She closed the door firmly and turned the key.

Once in their bedroom, the girls undressed quickly and blew out the light. For awhile they could hear Mrs. Lear moving about on the bare floor of her own room. Then the house became quiet.

"I'll be glad when we're home again," Louise whispered, snuggling down under the quilts. "Think how wet we'd get if that dam should break tonight!"

"Stop talking about it or you'll give me nightmares!" Penny chided.

"Let's go to sleep."

Try as they would, the girls could not settle down. First Penny would twist and turn and then Louise would do her share of squirming. Finally just as they were beginning to feel drowsy, they were startled to hear a drumming sound on the tin roof above their heads.

"What was that?" Louise muttered, sitting up.

The sounds were coming faster and faster now.

"Rain!" Penny exclaimed.

Jumping out of bed, she went to the window. Already the panes were splashed and rivulets were chasing one another to the sill.

"If this isn't the worst luck yet!" she muttered. "It looks like a hard rain too."

Louise joined her chum at the window. Disheartened, they gazed toward the woods and the hills. Ominous warnings arose in their minds to plague them. With an added burden of water could the dam hold? Sleep seemed out of the question. Wrapping blankets about them, the girls drew chairs to the window and watched.

Then as suddenly as the rain had started, it ceased. A moon struggled through a jagged gap of the clouds. The woods and the barn became discernible once more.

"Rain's over," Louise said, covering a yawn. "Let's go to bed, Penny."

Penny gathered up the quilts from the floor. But as she turned away from the window, an object outside the house captured her attention. For an instant she thought that she was mistaken. Then she gripped Louise's hand, pulling her back to the sill.

"What is it?" Louise asked in bewilderment.

"Look over there!" Penny commanded.

From the woods across the road the girls could see a moving light.

"Someone with a lantern," Louise said indifferently.

"Watch!" Penny commanded again.

Even as she spoke, the lantern was waved in a half circle from side to side. The strange movement was repeated several times.

"What do you make of it?" Louise whispered in awe.

"I suspect someone is trying to signal this house," Penny replied soberly. "Let's keep quiet and see what we can learn."

CHAPTER 15 _INTO THE WOODS_

For several minutes nothing very spectacular happened. At intervals the strange lantern signals were repeated.

"It looks to me as if that person over in the woods is trying to signal someone here!" Penny said, peering from behind the window curtain.

"Mrs. Lear?" asked Louise.

"Who else? Certainly no one would have reason to try to attract our attention."

"But why should anyone come here tonight?"

As the girls speculated upon the meaning of the mysterious signals, they heard a door at the end of the hall softly open. Footsteps padded noiselessly past their door.

"Are you asleep, girls?" Mrs. Lear's voice chirped.

Louise would have answered had not Penny clapped a hand firmly over her mouth.

After a moment the footsteps pattered on down the stairway.

"Where can Mrs. Lear be going?" Penny speculated in a whisper. "She wanted to make certain that we were asleep."

The girls did not have long to wait. Soon they heard an outside door close. A moment later they saw the spry old lady crossing the yard to the barn. She was fully dressed and wore a grotesque tight-waisted jacket as protection against the biting night wind.

Penny turned her gaze toward the woods once more. The lantern signals had ceased.

"What do you think is going on?" Louise asked in bewilderment.

Penny reached for her clothing which had been left in an untidy heap on the floor. "I don't know," she replied grimly. "With luck we'll find out."

They dressed as quickly as they could. As Penny was pulling on her shoes she heard the barn door close. She rushed to the window. Old Lady Lear, riding with an easy grace that belied her years, was walking Trinidad toward the road.

"Now where's she going?" Penny demanded, seizing Louise by the hand.

"Come on, or we'll never learn!"

Clattering down the stairs, they reached the yard in time to see Mrs.

Lear riding into the woods.