Ezekiel blew out the lantern light, looking carefully about the yard. “There hain’t no time to divide the money now,” he said. “We gotta git you through the swamp, Danny, before them snoopin’ police come around. Bring the cans and come on! We’re moving out o’ here right now!”
Hod shuffled off to get the boat ready as the others each picked up a can and followed quickly.
Penny was tormented with worry as she saw the men walk hurriedly to the creek where they launched a flat-bottomed boat belonging to Ezekiel. Soon the craft was lost in the blackness of the swamp channel.
“There goes my chance to catch Danny and recover the stolen money!” she thought. “Oh, what can I do to prevent them from getting away?”
Another boat had been tied up at the dock, but Penny knew she never would dare enter the swamp alone at night. In any case, what chance would she have against four armed men?
“If only Mrs. Jones hadn’t hurt her ankle!” she thought. “It will take her a long while to reach a telephone, and help may not get here for an hour!”
As Penny stood gazing gloomily toward the swamp, a shaft of light cut fleetingly across the water. The flash came from the headbeam of a car swinging up the lane to the Hawkins’ house.
Not knowing who the arrivals might be, the girl stepped behind a tree to wait. Soon the car came closer, halting with a jerk.
From the sedan stepped Mr. Parker, Salt, and Jerry Livingston. Scarcely believing her eyes, Penny ran to meet them.
“Oh, Dad!” she cried. “You did get Mrs. Jones’ message!”
“Message?” he inquired. “Why, no! We were worried because you had been gone so long, so we came out here to find you. What’s this all about?”
Penny rapidly told of Danny’s flight into the swamp with the stolen money.
“If Mrs. Jones reaches a phone, police should get here any minute!” she added.
“In the meantime, we can’t let those men escape!” Mr. Parker exclaimed. “Salt, you stay here and wait for the police. If they don’t come in ten minutes, go after them!”
“Sure, Chief!”
“Jerry, you come with me,” the publisher directed, untying the boat at the dock. “We’ll try to keep those men in sight and mark the way for police to follow.”
As Penny followed Jerry into the boat, her father protested quickly:
“Penny, you know you can’t go! Danny Deevers is a desperate character.”
“If you expect to capture him, you’ll have to take me, Dad. They’ll probably follow the main channel to Black Island and beyond. You’ll be lost before you’ve covered half the distance.”
“All right, come along,” Mr. Parker agreed unwillingly.
The boat shoved off into the cool night.
Fairly certain the Hawkins’ boat would pass Lookout Point, Penny directed her father and Jerry to row toward it. Soon she caught a glimpse of a moving light through the trees.
“That’s their boat!” she exclaimed. “Ezekiel must have lighted his lantern again!”
Scarcely had she spoken than those in the Parker craft were startled to hear a metallic pounding sound from the direction of the Hawkins’ farmhouse.
“The dishpan signal!” Penny cried in dismay. “We forgot about Mrs. Hawkins! Evidently she saw us leave the dock and is warning her menfolks! Now they’ll know someone is following them!”
Mr. Parker’s face became very grave as the girl revealed the significance of the signal. Penny also told him what she and Mrs. Jones had learned on Black Island.
“Unarmed, we’ve no chance to capture those men,” he commented. “Our best bet is to keep them in sight, marking the trail well for police to follow.”
“And hope they do,” Jerry added grimly.
Breaking overhanging tree limbs, and slashing trunks to blaze the trail, the party passed Lookout Point.
When they were perhaps twenty yards beyond the isle, a bullet suddenly whizzed through the trees, only a few feet above their heads. The shot had been fired from the island.
“Duck low!” Mr. Parker ordered. “They’ve taken refuge there!”
As the trio remained motionless, another bullet whined over their heads.
“Dad, it’s only a trick to divert us!” Penny whispered. “One of the Hawkins’ boys probably has stayed on the island, but the others have gone on! See through the trees!”
Jerry and Mr. Parker peered where she pointed and caught the brief flash of lantern light.
“You’re right!” the publisher agreed. “Row on, Jerry! We’re practically out of range of Lookout Point now.”
The boat pushed on. A light mist was rising from the water and the night was very dark. Shielded by the blackness, the trio slipped away without becoming the target for another bullet.
“We’ve got to keep that other boat in sight!” Mr. Parker said grimly. “If we lose it, we may never find our way out of this place!”
“And if we catch up, we may never be allowed to get out!” Jerry observed.
Penny, who scarcely had taken her eyes from the moving point of light ahead, now exclaimed:
“They’ve blown out the lantern!”
“Then they may have seen us,” Mr. Parker muttered. “If only we were armed!”
Cautiously, the party proceeded. A few minutes later as the boat passed a high point of land several hundred yards deeper in the swamp, another bullet whizzed dangerously close overhead.
“Where’d that come from?” Mr. Parker demanded, shielding Penny with his body.
Jerry pointed to the high point of land on the right hand side of the channel. “Those birds must have pulled up there and hope to pick us off!” he whispered.
Still another bullet whined close over their heads, splashing as it struck the water.
Hurriedly Jerry steered the boat into a clump of bushes. All remained motionless and silent.
Bullets kept splattering the water, though farther away.
“We’re in a pocket!” Mr. Parker fumed. “They can pick us off almost at will if we stay here!”
“What’s our move, Chief?” Jerry asked anxiously.
“Let’s back-track to the farm and await police. It’s the only thing we can do.”
As a lull came in the firing, Jerry shoved off and rowed rapidly back toward Lookout Point. All crouched low in the boat, but no shots were fired at them.
“They’re satisfied we’ve turned back,” Mr. Parker said. “That was what they wanted.”
However, as Lookout Point loomed up, the party was disconcerted to see a tall, lean figure silhouetted there.
“Stay where ye be, or I’ll fire!” the man shouted. “If ye try to pass, I’ll sink ye’r boat!”
“It’s Ezekiel!” Penny whispered.
Mr. Parker signaled Jerry to row back out of range. “We’ve trapped ourselves between two fires!” he muttered in disgust. “Ezekiel stayed here on purpose to guard the channel while the others make their getaway.”
“Danny could be captured easily if only we could get word to Salt and the police,” Jerry added.
Penny and her father nodded gloomily. Salt, they knew, would follow their trail into the swamp as soon as police reached the Hawkins’ farm. But Ezekiel from his point of vantage, would fire upon them before they realized they were running into danger.
“We could chance it and try to push through,” Jerry proposed.
“Ezekiel’s not bluffing,” Mr. Parker replied. “Those first shots were a warning. If we attempt to pass now, he may shoot to kill.”
“There’s one way we might bring help,” Jerry said, staring thoughtfully at the grim figure guarding the channel.
“How?” Penny demanded eagerly.
“You and your father would have to wait on the bank and let me take the boat.”
“Too risky,” Mr. Parker said. “You never could get through.”
“I’d try an old trick,” the reporter explained. “When Ezekiel starts shooting, I’ll upset the boat and float beneath it until I’m past the point. I’m a good swimmer and can hold my breath a long while. Anyway, after the boat is upset, there will be a pocket of air beneath it.”
“It might not work.”
“Let me try it. Unless we get word through, Danny Deevers is certain to escape.”
After lengthy whispered debate, Mr. Parker reluctantly agreed to the plan. Retreating beyond Ezekiel’s range of vision, the boat brought up on shore where Penny and her father alighted.
“Wait right here!” Jerry directed. “I’ll be back for you in a few minutes!”
Boldly the reporter pushed off alone in the boat, drifting down channel. Before he had gone many yards, Ezekiel challenged him.
“Ye come another foot, and I’m lettin’ ye have it!”
Jerry shouted an insult. But as Ezekiel’s gun spat, he upset the boat, disappearing beneath it.
“Oh, Dad!” Penny murmured anxiously, watching the craft float slowly downstream past the point. “Was Jerry really hit?”
“I don’t think so.”
“What if Ezekiel fires again?”
“He can’t harm Jerry now unless he’s forced to come up for air.”
Anxiously the trio watched the overturned boat. Unless Jerry had found the pocket of air, they knew not even an expert swimmer could remain so long underwater.
Finally the boat was beyond their range of vision, blotted out by darkness.
“Jerry has nerve!” Mr. Parker commented. “He’s safely through now.”
Nervously the publisher and Penny kept attentive watch of Lookout Point, fearful lest Ezekiel launch a boat and try to capture them. To their intense relief, the swamper made no such move. Occasionally, they caught brief glimpses of him as he shifted his position.
Directing all their attention upon Ezekiel, Penny and her father paid less heed to the channel. Near them was a passage so narrow a boatman could have reached out to touch bushes on either side.
A slight rustling sound close by suddenly startled Penny.
“What was that, Dad?” she whispered.
“Only the wind,” he reassured her. “Ezekiel’s still over there on the point. We’re safe enough.”
Even as he made the observation, a boat moved out from behind the screen of leaves. Penny and her father found themselves gazing directly into the barrel of a gun.
“Safe, are ye?” Coon Hawkins shouted in glee. “We got ye now, ye sneakin’ snoopers! Ye won’t do no more spyin’ in this swamp!”
With him in the boat were his brother and Danny Deevers.
“Git in!” Coon ordered sharply.
“What will you do with us?” Mr. Parker asked, trying to stall for time.
“We’re takin’ ye to Black Island,” Coon replied, prodding the publisher with his gun. “Move!”
One glance at the grim, determined faces of the men convinced Mr. Parker and Penny it would be folly to resist. Silently they entered the boat.
Hod pushed off and the craft moved noiselessly away into the night.
For an endless time, it seemed, the party moved deeper and deeper into the swamp. As the night became cool, Penny shivered and leaned close to her father.
Worn out, she slumped against his shoulder and finally dropped into a light sleep. When she opened her eyes, a pale moon had risen over the treetops, lighting the way.
At last, the boat brought up in a cove at Black Island.
“We’re leavin’ ye here,” Coon informed the prisoners. “Maybe ye’ll be found tomorrer or next week after we’re safe away. If not, well hit’s jest too bad!”
Penny and her father were hustled ashore. Despite vigorous struggles, Mr. Parker then was bound by Coon and Hod and lashed with his back to a tree. Before Penny could be treated likewise, a dog began to bark.
“It’s Bones!” she cried. “You have him here on the island!”
“Sure, we got him,” agreed Hod indifferently.
Penny loudly called the dog’s name and he bounded through the brush toward her. His long hair was matted with burs, but he seemed in good health and well fed.
Before Penny could get her hands on him, Coon seized and tossed the dog into the boat.
“Please let me keep Bones!” she pleaded.
“Yeah, leave the dog on the island,” growled Danny Deevers. “He’ll be a bother to us.”
“Git the dog then, gal,” commanded Coon.
Penny scrambled aboard the Hawkins’ boat. Bones had crawled far forward.
As she bent to gather him into her arms, her hand encountered a gunny sack. Inside were wrapped three hard, round objects.
“The cans of stolen money!” Penny thought, her pulse jumping.
Without considering the punishment that might be meted out to her, she seized the sack.
“Hey!” shouted Coon furiously. “Drop those cans!”
He sprang aboard, intending to strike her a stunning blow. Penny leaped for shore, but the boat shot from beneath her feet.
Misbalanced, it went over, tumbling Coon and herself into the water.
But as Penny went down, she clung fast to the cans of money. Fortunately, the muddy water was shallow. Her feet touched bottom and she came up sputtering.
Hod and Danny started for the boat on a run, intending to seize her. Suddenly, they halted, listening intently.
“What was that?” Danny demanded. “Thought I heard the splash of a paddle!”
“Two boats are coming!” Hod cried hoarsely. “Police!”
“Come on!” ordered Danny, seizing one end of the overturned boat. “Help me right this! We’ll still get away! The girl goes with us as a hostage!”
Hod grasped Penny’s arm, while his brother aided Danny with the boat.
“No go!” ordered a cool voice from the thicket. “I gotta you covered!”
As the three men whirled around, Tony, rifle in hand, came out of the deep shadows.
“Stand-a by tree!” he commanded, motioning with the gun. “Keep-a hands up!”
Sullenly the three men obeyed. Tony guarded them closely until policemen swarmed over the island.
In the first boat were Salt, Jerry and several officers. Behind came a second boat, also loaded with policemen.
Danny, Hod and Coon quickly were handcuffed and placed under heavy guard. Tony then helped Penny release her father.
“What about Ezekiel?” the publisher asked. “We ought to get him too!”
Jerry revealed that the swamper already had been taken prisoner at Lookout Island. Two policemen had remained behind to guard both him and his wife.
“Oh, Jerry! I’m so glad you got through safely!” Penny declared. “Did you have any trouble?”
“Not a bit,” he replied. “When I reached the farmhouse, police already were there. Mrs. Jones had telephoned them.”
“We arrested Mrs. Hawkins,” Salt took up the story. “Then we captured Ezekiel at Lookout Point, and followed your boat here. Most of the time we had you in sight, though from a long distance.”
Penny was greatly relieved to be able to turn over the three cans of stolen money to police officers. By lantern light a hasty count was made and it was disclosed that a sizeable portion of the funds were missing.
However, when Danny Deevers, Hod, and Coon were searched, a large roll of bills was found in the escaped convict’s pocket.
“This should account for it all,” said the police officer, taking charge of the money and adding it to the other. “So you were trying to double-cross your pals, Danny? Figured on keeping the lion’s share!”
Danny glared at the officer, refusing to answer.
“So you got nothing to say, eh?” the officer prodded. “Maybe you’ll be in a more talkative mood when we get you back to the pen. You’ll do double time for skipping out!”
Danny’s sullen gaze fastened briefly on Jerry Livingston.
“I got only one regret!” he muttered. “I wish I’d slugged that guy harder when I had the chance!”
“May I ask the prisoners a question or two?” Penny asked the officer in charge.
“Sure, go ahead,” he nodded. “If you get anything out of ’em, you’re good.”
Penny knew that Danny, a hardened criminal, would never give her any information, so she centered her attention upon Hod and Coon.
At first, they only eyed her sullenly, refusing to speak. But after she had pointed out that a more cooperative attitude might bring a lighter sentence, they showed a little interest.
“How did you come to be mixed up with Danny?” she asked. “Were you all together in the big bank robbery?”
The question drew fire from Hod.
“No, we weren’t!” he shouted. “We never even knowed where Danny hid the money until tonight!”
“Then why were you so willing to hide and help him?”
“’Cause him and Paw always was good friends! Danny come here, saying the cops was after him and would we give him some clothes and hide him fer a day or two? So like fools we was, we took him in and kept him in the woodshed. It would have been safe enough if you hadn’t come snoopin’ around!”
“No doubt you all would have gone free if you hadn’t made the mistake of keeping Louise’s dog,” Penny retorted. “However, you seem to forget you were operating a still illegally.”
“Anyone else in on that business?” the policeman cut in. “How’d they market the stuff?”
“Through a trucker at Hartwell City,” Penny exclaimed. “I think they called him Ike.”
“Too bad the bird will go free, while these eggs do a stretch in the pen,” commented the policeman. “You can depend on it though, they’ll never do the smart thing and turn him in.”
“Oh, wouldn’t we?” growled Hod. “He was no pal o’ ourn!”
“Would it git us a lighter stretch if we was to turn him in?” asked Coon craftily.
“It might.”
“His name’s Ike Glanzy and he stays mostly at the Devon Club in Hartwell City,” Hod volunteered.
“We’ll pick him up,” said the policeman. “Depend on it, he’ll be behind bars before another twenty-four hours. Now let’s get out of here!”
As the boats began to load for the return trip through the swamp, Penny glanced anxiously about the tiny clearing.
“Where’s Tony?” she asked.
No one had seen the Italian lad in the last few minutes. Unnoticed, he had slipped away into the interior of the island.
“We can’t leave without Tony!” Penny protested. “He’s afraid he’ll be sent back to Italy, so he’s run off somewhere!”
“He can’t have gone far,” said Salt. “We should be able to find him.”
However, an intensive search of the bushes nearby did not reveal the missing youth. At last, in desperation, Penny called his name several times.
“Please, Tony, give yourself up!” she pleaded. “You won’t be sent back to Italy! I’m sure of it! Please come out of hiding!”
“If that appeal doesn’t fetch him, nothing will,” said Salt. “We’ve held up the party too long now, Penny. We’ve got to shove off.”
Penny nodded disconsolately. When the photographer took her arm and started back toward the waiting boats, she did not resist.
But after they had gone a few yards, she abruptly halted.
“Tonyisclose by!” she insisted. “I canfeelthat he’s watching us now! Listen! Don’t you hear the bushes rustling?”
“I do hear something. Maybe it’s only an animal.”
“Tony,” Penny made one last appeal, “if you’re back there in the dark, please come out. Don’t you understand? You were a hero tonight—you saved the day by popping out of the bushes at just the right moment. Please don’t fail me now.”
The leaves were stirring again. Then, to Penny’s joy, the branches parted. Grinning sheepishly, Tony shuffled out.
“You call-a me?” he grinned.
“Oh, Tony!” Penny seized his arm and held fast. “We’ve practically torn out the lining of our lungs, trying to find you! Come on! You’re going back with us!”
“Not to Immigration mens!”
“Oh, don’t worry about that now, Tony! My father has a little influence and he’ll help you all he can. Besides, you’re almost certain to win a portion of the reward offered for Danny Deevers’ capture.”
“Money no good if they send-a me back to Italy!” Tony said stubbornly. “Want-a stay in America. I work-a hard. Go to school!”
“I think perhaps it can be arranged,” Penny promised recklessly. With Salt’s help, she kept steering the boy toward the boat. “After all you’ve done tonight, Immigration authorities couldn’t be hard-hearted enough to refuse you citizenship.”
Tony allowed himself to be persuaded and entered a boat with Penny and other members of the party. After a long and tiring but uneventful trip through the swamp, the Hawkins’ farm finally was reached.
At the farmhouse, Mrs. Hawkins and her husband were being held prisoners by other policemen. Also waiting were the Widow Jones and Trapper Joe Scoville, whom she had summoned.
“Praises be! The police got to ye in time!” the widow exclaimed, giving Penny’s hand an affectionate squeeze. “If harm had befallen ye this night, I never would have fergiven myself fer having taken ye into the swamp.”
“Maybe what happened’ll teach ye a lesson, but I got m’ doubts,” interposed the old trapper with a chuckle. “Wimmin is mighty stubborn critters!”
As Mrs. Hawkins and her husband were led out of the house, the woman caught sight of her two sons handcuffed to officers. “Hod! Coon!” she screamed hysterically.
She tried to break away from the policemen who held her, and would have attacked Danny Deevers had they not restrained her.
“Ye’r the one who got us into this mess!” she accused the convict. “I hope they lock ye up fer the rest o’ y’er life!”
Much later, after all the prisoners had been confined in Riverview jail, Mr. Parker and Penny obtained custody of Tony. Arrangements were made so that the lad might remain in the Parker home while Immigration officials considered his case.
The Italian boy proved to be a perfect guest. Not only did he help about the house and yard, but he never overlooked an opportunity to improve his education. Many a time Penny or her father came upon him in the library, reading a book.
“If he doesn’t get to stay, it will be a crime!” the girl declared. “Oh, why doesn’t the Immigration department reach a decision?”
Despite Penny’s fretting, weeks dragged on and still Tony’s case hung fire. Many telegrams went back and forth between Riverview and Washington, D. C. So involved did the affair become that even Mr. Parker began to lose hope the boy could be kept in America.
But at last word came that the last bit of red tape had been cut. A high immigration official had ruled that although it was irregular, Tony might remain in Riverview, providing someone would guarantee his support.
Mr. Parker willingly signed the necessary papers. A job next was in order, but this Penny easily arranged through Mark Fiello, the hamburger shop man.
As for Danny Deevers, the convict promptly was returned to prison, and the stolen $50,000 turned over to the Third Federal Bank.
In due time, Ezekiel, Coon, Hod and Mrs. Hawkins were convicted on charges of harboring a fugitive from justice. At their trial, evidence also was introduced, showing they had operated a still illegally.
For many days theRiverview Starcarried front page stories of the happenings. Penny wrote several of the articles, while others carried Jerry’s byline.
“The best part of all is that with Danny behind bars, you’ll no longer be in danger,” the girl remarked one day to the reporter. “He really was out to get you.”
“I suppose so,” Jerry agreed, “but I never was much worried. Danny’s real motive in coming back to Riverview was to recover the hidden $50,000. Running into me—and particularly you—proved his undoing.”
In days that followed, Penny drove many times to the swamp to see Mrs. Jones and Trapper Joe. Both rejoiced that Danny Deevers and the Hawkins family could cause no more trouble.
One afternoon as the girl paid the widow a long call, they fell to talking over their swamp experiences.
“It was mighty excitin’ out there—you and me in the boat,” Mrs. Jones recalled. “Now that it’s all over, I hain’t ashamed to say I was plenty skeered we’d never git out o’ the swamp alive.”
“So was I,” grinned Penny.
“Revenooers was in yesterday to smash up Ezekiel’s still.”
“They were!”
“Yep, and they got track o’ that trucker who was in so thick with the Hawkins boys.” The widow sighed and pulled aside a kitchen curtain to gaze thoughtfully toward the swamp. “Well, I reckon the last bit o’ evil’s been driv’ away from Black Island. From now on, the land’ll jest lie there and belong to the wind and the rain.”
“And to us,” Penny added softly.
The widow nodded as her gaze lingered long on the fringe of towering pines. “One o’ these days, when the spirit moves us, we’ll go back there,” she promised. “The swamp always belongs to them that loves it!”