Hoofbeats on the Turnpike Part 37

"Let's post ourselves by the road where we can see incoming cars."

"What about the pictures we planned to take here?"

"I do want to snap one or two," Penny admitted. "It's embarra.s.sing though, just to walk up to a group and ask to take a picture."

As the girls debated, the door swung open. Into the already over-crowded room stumbled a new group of refugees.

Suddenly Penny's gaze fastened upon a haggard woman who looked grotesque in a man's overcoat many sizes too large for her. The face was half-buried in the high collar, and she could not see it plainly. Then the woman turned, and Penny recognized her.

"Mrs. Burmaster!" she cried.

The woman stared at the two girls with leaden eyes. She did not seem to recognize them.

"Oh, we're so glad you're safe!" Penny cried, rus.h.i.+ng to her. "Your husband?"

Mrs. Burmaster's lips moved, but no sound came. She seemed stunned by what she had gone through.

"Do you know what happened to Mrs. Lear?" Penny asked anxiously. "Have you heard?"

Even then Mrs. Burmaster did not speak. But a strange light came into her eyes.

"Tell me," Penny urged. "Please."

Her words seemed to penetrate the befogged mind of the dazed woman. Mrs.

Burmaster's lips moved slightly. Penny bent closer to hear.

"Mrs. Lear is dead," the woman whispered. "She was drowned when she saved me."

CHAPTER 25 _MISSION ACCOMPLISHED_

The information shocked Penny.

"Mrs. Lear--dead," she repeated. "Oh, I was hoping that somehow she escaped."

"She would have if it hadn't been for me," Mrs. Burmaster said dully.

"Ten minutes before the dam gave way, a telephone warning was sent out.

Mrs. Lear thought my husband and I might not have heard it. She rode her horse to Sleepy Hollow, intending to warn us."

"And then what happened?"

"Just as Mrs. Lear reached our place, the wall of water came roaring down the valley. We all ran out of the house, hoping to reach the hills. We did get to higher ground but we saw we couldn't make it. Mrs. Lear made my husband and me climb into a tree. Before she could follow us, the water came."

"Mrs. Lear was swept away?"

"Yes, we saw her struggling and then the water carried her beyond sight."

Mrs. Burmaster covered her face. "Oh, it was horrible! And to think that it was all my fault!"

"Where is your husband now?" Penny inquired kindly.

"Outside, I think," Mrs. Burmaster murmured. "We were brought here together in a boat."

Penny and Louise went outdoors and after a brief search found Mr.

Burmaster. His clothing was caked with mud, his face was unshaven and he looked years older.

To his wife's story he could add little. "This has been a dreadful shock," he told Penny. "Now that it's too late I realize what a stubborn fool I was. My wife and I are responsible for Mrs. Lear's death."

"No, no, you mustn't say that," Penny tried to comfort him. "It was impossible for anyone to predict what would happen."

"Sleepy Hollow is gone--completely washed away," Mr. Burmaster went on bitterly. "The estate cost me a fortune."

"But you can rebuild."

"I never shall. My wife never could be happy in Red Valley. Now that this terrible thing has occurred, it would be intolerable to remain. I've been thinking matters over. I've decided to deed all the land I bought back to the valley folk. It's the least I can do to right a great wrong."

"It would be very generous of you," said Penny, her eyes s.h.i.+ning.

The girls talked with Mr. Burmaster for a little while and then started toward US highway 20, intending to watch incoming cars. Ambulances, army and supply trucks now were flowing into Delta in a steady stream.

However, midway there, they spied a car coming toward them which bore "_Riverview Star_" on its winds.h.i.+eld.

"There's Salt now!" Penny cried, signaling frantically.

The car stopped with a jerk. The _Star_ photographer sat behind the wheel, while beside him were two men from the paper's news department.

"Well, well," Salt greeted the girls jovially. He swung open the car door. "If it isn't Penny, the child wonder! Meet Roy Daniels and Joe Wiley."

Acknowledging the introduction, Penny and Louise squeezed into the front seat of the sedan. Driving on, Salt plied them with questions. Penny told him how rival newsmen had tried to buy her camera pictures.

"Good for you, hanging onto them!" Salt approved warmly. "Our car never did break down. By the way, where can we set up our portable wire photo equipment?"

"There's only one possibility. The telephone company. Right now they have the only wire service in Delta."

Penny directed Salt through the few streets that were clear of debris to the telephone building. There the portable wire photo equipment quickly was set up. Penny's camera pictures were developed, and though some of the shots were over-exposed there were four good enough to send over the network.

"Mr. Nordwall has six toll lines out of Delta now," Salt told the girls jubilantly. "He's letting us have one of them."

Carefully the photographer tested the controls of the wire photo machine.

He listened briefly to the hum of the motor. Satisfied that everything was running properly, he attached one of the freshly printed pictures to the transmitting cylinder.

"Okay," he signaled to Mr. Nordwall. "Give us a toll to the _Riverview Star_."

Within a few minutes the order came: "Network clear. Go ahead, Delta."

Salt turned on a switch and the sending cylinder began to revolve. One by one Penny's pictures were transmitted over the wire.

"Your shots are the first to get out of Red Valley!" Salt told her triumphantly. "Your work's done now. Better crawl off somewhere and sleep."