Ghost Beyond the Gate Part 23

Just then the cab driver turned around, touching Penny's arm. He directed her attention to the house by saying briefly: "A light just went on."

Penny and Mrs. Weems focused their attention on the upper floor of the estate. A single light could be seen burning there, but as they watched it blinked off.

"Now if a ghost is to appear this is the time!" announced Penny. "Why don't we get closer?"

She sprang from the cab. Mrs. Weems and the taxi driver followed with less enthusiasm. The housekeeper, quivering and shaking, clutched the man's arm as she struggled against the wind.

"Joe, you stay right beside me!" she ordered.

"Sure, Ma'am," he said soothingly. "I couldn't get away if I had a mind to."

Penny, a step ahead, held up her hand as a warning for silence. She had seen the familiar white figure rounding a corner of the house.

"There's the ghost!" she whispered. "See! Beyond the gate!"

Joe whistled softly.

"A spook, sure's I'm alive!" he muttered.

"And you promised to nail him," reminded Penny, starting forward along the fence. "We'll creep a little closer. Then Joe, I shall expect you to do your stuff!"

CHAPTER 15 _GHOST IN THE GARDEN_

The three investigators moved stealthily along the high fence. Through the iron palings they could see a white-garbed figure walking with measured tread amid the shrubs of the frozen garden. Back and forth the apparition strolled, following a well-trod path between the shrunken snowdrifts.

Penny, Mrs. Weems, and the taxi driver crept closer. The ghostly one did not note their approach. Hooded head bent low, he glided to the gate, testing chain and padlock.

"Poor restless soul!" whispered Mrs. Weems.

Penny gave the housekeeper a tiny pinch to break the spell which had fallen upon her. "That's no ghost," she whispered. "Don't you see! It's a man wearing a heavy white bathrobe over his clothing. He's pulled the wide collar up over his head like a hood!"

"It's a man all right," added the taxi driver. "You can tell by the way he walks. Ghosts kinda slither, don't they?"

"I believe it's someone imprisoned on the grounds!" Penny whispered tensely. "Watch!"

The ghost, his face shadowed, rattled the chain again. Then with a distinct, audible sigh, he turned and tramped back along the fence away from the gate.

"Aw, that spook could get out if he wanted to," muttered the taxi driver.

"Why don't he climb over the fence?"

"Perhaps the man is a sleep walker," suggested Mrs. Weems nervously.

"Whoever he is, the poor fellow should be in his bed."

Penny was determined to learn the ident.i.ty of the man. Moving to the gate, she called softly. The figure in white whirled around, looking straight toward her.

Penny caught a fleeting impression of a lean, startled face. Then the man turned and fled toward the house. No longer could there be any doubt that he was a man, for as he ran the legs of his woolen pajamas showed beneath the white robe.

"Wait!" Penny called. "Please wait!"

The ghostly one hesitated, and glanced over his shoulder. But the next moment he was gone, having vanished through a side door into the house.

Penny, weak from excitement, clung to the gate. "Mrs. Weems!" she cried.

"Did you see him?"

"Yes, you frightened him away when you shouted."

"But didn't you notice his face? As he turned toward me, I caught a glimpse of it. Mrs. Weems, the man looked like Dad!"

"Oh, Penny," the housekeeper murmured, taking her arm, "you can't be right. How could it be your father?"

"It looked like him."

"Not to me," said Mrs. Weems firmly. "Why, if it had been Mr. Parker, he would have answered when you called. He wouldn't have run away."

Penny was compelled to acknowledge the logic of the housekeeper's reasoning. "I guess that's true," she said reluctantly. "I'll admit I didn't see his face plainly. I wanted it to be Dad so badly I may have imagined the resemblance."

A light was switched on in an upstairs room of the estate house. However, blinds were lowered, and those on the ground did not obtain another glimpse of the mysterious man who haunted the snowy garden. Finally Mrs.

Weems induced Penny to return to the taxi.

Speeding toward Riverview, neither of them had much to say. Penny could not blot from her mind the vision of a startled, bewildered face. Reason told her that Mrs. Weems was right--the man could not be her father. Who then, was he? Why had he refused to talk to her at the gate?

"The man may have been a sleep walker," she thought. "Possibly the owner of the estate, Mr. Deming."

The cab had reached the business section of Riverview. Upon impulse Penny decided to stop at the _Star_ plant to make sure that everything was going well.

"It won't take me long," she a.s.sured Mrs. Weems. "Why don't you wait in the cab?"

Only a skeleton night force was on duty at the _Star_ office. The advertising department had been closed, and on the floor above, scrub women were busy mopping up. A sleepy-eyed desk man greeted Penny as she entered the deserted newsroom.

"Everything's Okay," he a.s.sured her. "The final edition's out, and most of the boys have gone home. I was just taking a little cat nap."

"Any news?"

"Not about your father. The police have been kept busy chasing down false rumors. About four hours ago a report came in your father had been seen in Chicago."

"Chicago!"

"Just a fake report."

"Oh, I see," said Penny weakly. "No word from Jerry, I suppose?"

The deskman shook his head. "Plenty of mail for you though."

"Anything important?"