Penny Nichols Finds a Clue Part 21

"How did you get here?" she gasped.

"We've been trailing you all day," the investigator explained as he deftly searched his prisoner for concealed weapons. "The entire week for that matter. Your father's orders."

"You mean he's had me shadowed?" Penny demanded indignantly.

"Mr. Nichols was afraid something like this might be attempted."

"I guess it was lucky for me that I was trailed," Penny acknowledged gratefully. "Otherwise, I'd have been kidnapped."

She watched as the prisoner was led to the waiting car.

"Do you know who he is?" she asked a detective.

"Looks like Angel Face Myers, one of Molberg's boys. Can't be sure 'till we've mugged and finger-printed him at the station."

The three men from the Nichols Agency plied the prisoner with sharp questions. He maintained a sullen silence.

"I'd guess he was taking Miss Nichols to that abandoned house at the top of the hill," one of the detectives surmised shrewdly. "I'll stay here and guard the prisoner while you fellows investigate the place.

Don't let anyone get away from you."

The other two detectives disappeared into the darkness. Twenty minutes later they returned to report that they had found no one at the old house, although there was evidence of a hurried departure. The shots previously fired by the detectives had served as a warning.

Riding back to the city with the handcuffed prisoner, Penny wondered how faithfully her father's investigators had followed her movements of the evening. Had they noted her call at the Davis home or the visit she and Susan had paid to the Hamilton building?

"I suppose I've been trailed everywhere to-night," she ventured conversationally.

"You almost gave us the slip," one of the detectives told her with a smile. "In fact, you did for awhile."

"When was that?"

"Right after you left the library."

"You turned off somewhere and we lost you for a time. Didn't locate you again until you turned up at your own home."

Penny was relieved. The detectives could not possibly be aware of the secret entrance into the Hamilton Plant. She would still be the first to report the discovery to her father.

The detectives dropped Penny at her own home after explaining that it might be necessary for her to appear in court later on to identify the prisoner.

"I'll be very glad to do it," Penny promised.

As she ran up the front steps the door was flung open and Mrs. Gallup rushed out to meet her. She flung her arms about the girl.

"Penny!" she cried tremulously. "How thankful I am that you are safe!

Your father came home fifteen minutes ago. Then we knew that the telephone call was a fake."

"Where is Dad now?"

"He started for the police station."

"Then I guess he'll learn the truth in a few minutes if he's still there."

"Tell me what happened, Penny."

In the midst of the tale, a car was heard on the driveway, and a minute later Mr. Nichols entered the house. Although he was never inclined to be demonstrative, the detective clasped his daughter in his arms and Penny noticed that his hands trembled slightly.

"I've just heard the entire story at the police station," he told her.

"You gave me a terrific scare, Penny."

"I gave myself one, too. If it hadn't been for your men who shadowed me, I'm afraid I'd never have returned to tell the tale."

"I doubt that the gangsters would have actually harmed you, but they would have used you as a weapon to strike back at me. I am sorry about having you trailed, Penny, but you understand my position. I was afraid of this very thing."

"It's all right," Penny smiled. "Only your men aren't so clever at keeping me in sight. I unintentionally gave them the slip earlier in the evening."

Mrs. Gallup had gone to the kitchen to prepare sandwiches and an iced drink. Taking advantage of her absence, Penny gave a detailed report of her visit to the Hamilton Plant. At first her father listened almost incredulously.

"It sounds fantastic, Penny. And yet, it's just the sort of trickery which would appeal to Rap Molberg. You say the door is operated by means of a photo-electric cell?"

"That's what I think. At least when the beam of my light struck a certain spot on the wall, the door opened."

Mr. Nichols arose and paced rapidly back and forth across the floor.

"I'm going to take you into my confidence, Penny," he said quietly.

"For days my men have been circling in on Rap and his gang. We've located one of their hideouts, and we're raiding the place tomorrow night. It now seems advisable to surround the Hamilton building simultaneously. Then there will be no chance that any of the crooks can use the underground ramp to make a get-away."

"Will the police make the raid?" Penny inquired curiously.

"Yes and no. So far I have taken only one man into my confidence."

"And who is that?"

"Jerome Davis."

"I was at his house this evening," Penny announced. "A threatening note was thrown through the window while I was there."

She repeated the contents of the message.

"No doubt it came from the Molberg gang," her father said. "They are doing everything in their power to intimidate Jerome Davis. But I believe he is a man who can be trusted. Tomorrow night at eleven o'clock he will be ready with a picked group of policemen. No one but himself will know any of the details of the raid until it is actually on. In that way there will be almost no danger of the information leaking out."

"Where is this other hideout which is to be raided?"

"I can't tell you that. It isn't that I don't trust you, but sometimes an unguarded word will destroy the work of weeks."

"I guess it's just as well I don't know too much about it ahead of time," Penny agreed.

The conversation was checked as Mrs. Gallup came from the kitchen with a tray of sandwiches and a tall pitcher of fruit juice. For a time Penny and her father confined their talk to less vital subjects. But when the housekeeper had gone from the room again, Mr. Nichols took up the matter where it had been dropped.

"If my raids tomorrow night are successful, it will end the case. We may need you, Penny, to show the officers how to get into the Hamilton building."