Guilt of the Brass Thieves by Mildred Augustine Wirt (unputdownable books txt) 📕

house stands on stilts over the water, and is a meeting place for the scum of the city!”

“Sally!” her father reproved.

“Well, it’s the truth! Ma Harper and her no-account husband, Claude, run an outdoor dance pavilion, but their income is derived from other sources too. Black market sales, for instance.”

“Sally, your tongue is rattling like a chain!”

“Pop, you know very well the Harpers are trash.”

“Nevertheless, don’t make statements you can’t prove.”

Sally’s outspoken remarks worried Penny because of their bearing upon Mr. Gandiss’ son. “You don’t think Jack is mixed up with the Harpers in black market dealings?” she asked.

“Oh, no!” Sally got up from the deck chair. “He goes there to have a good time. And if you ask me, Jack ought to stop being a playboy grasshopper!”

Captain Barker knocked ashes from his pipe and put it deep in his jacket pocket. “The shoe pinches,” he told Penny with a wink. “Sally never learned to dance. I hear tell there’s a girl who goes to the Harper shindigs that’s an expert at jitter-bugging!”

“That has nothing to do with me!” Sally said furiously. “I’m going to bed!”

Captain Barker arose heavily from his chair. “How about the day’s passenger receipts?” he asked. “Locked in the cabin safe?”

“Yes, we took in more than two hundred dollars today.”

“That makes over five hundred in the safe,” the captain said, frowning. “You’ll have to take it to the bank first thing in the morning, I don’t like to have so much cash aboard.”

Going to the cabin they were to share, Sally and Penny undressed and tumbled into the double-deck beds. The gentle motion of the boat and the slap of waves on the Queen’s hull quickly lulled them to sleep.

How long Penny slumbered she did not know. But toward morning she awoke in darkness to find Sally shaking her arm.

“What is it?” Penny mumbled drowsily. “Time to get up?”

“Sh!” Sally warned. “Don’t make a sound!”

Penny sat up in the bunk. Her friend, she saw, had started to dress.

“I think someone is trying to get aboard!” Sally whispered. “Listen!”

Penny could hear no unusual sound, only the wash of the waves.

“I distinctly heard a boat grate against the Queen only a moment ago,” Sally pulled on her slacks and thrust her feet into soft-soled slippers which would make no sound. “I’m going on deck to investigate!”

Penny was out of bed in a flash. “Wait!” she commanded. “I’m going with you!”

Dressing with nervous haste, she tiptoed to the cabin door with Sally. Stealing through the dark corridors to the companionway, they could hear no unusual sound. But midway up the steps, Sally’s keen ears heard movement.

“Someone is in the lounge!” she whispered. “It may be Pop but I don’t think so! Come on, and we’ll see.”

CHAPTER
13
THE STOLEN TROPHY

Hand in hand the two girls tiptoed to the entranceway of the lounge. Distinctly they could hear someone moving about in the darkness, and the sound came from the direction of a small cabin which the Barkers used as an office room.

“Pop!” Sally called sharply. “Is that you?”

She was answered only by complete silence. Then a plank creaked. The prowler was stealing stealthily toward the girls!

“Pop!” shouted Sally at the top of her lungs, groping to find a light switch.

Before she could illuminate the room, a man brushed past the two girls. Penny seized him by the coat. A sharp object pierced her finger. She was thrust back against the wall so hard that it knocked the breath from her. The man twisted, and jerking his coat free, dashed up the stairs.

“Pop!” Sally called again.

Captain Barker, armed with revolver and flashlight, came out of his cabin. By this time, Sally had found and turned on the light switch.

“A prowler!” she cried. “He ran up on deck.”

“Stay below!” ordered the captain. “I’ll get him!”

Penny and Sally had no intention of missing any of the excitement. Close at Captain Barker’s heels, they darted up the companionway to the deck. To the starboard, the trio heard a slight splash, then the sound of steady dipping oars.

“Someone’s getting away in a rowboat!” Sally cried.

Captain Barker ran to the railing. “Halt!” he shouted. “Halt or I’ll fire!”

The man, a mere shadow in the mist arising from the river, rowed faster. Captain Barker fired two shots, purposely high. The man ducked down into the boat, and a moment later switched on an outboard motor, which rapidly carried him beyond view.

“Did you see who the fellow was, Sally?” the captain demanded wrathfully.

“No, it was too dark. Do you think he got away with the money in the safe?”

Fearing the worst, the trio descended to an office room adjoining the passenger lounge. A chair had been overturned there, but the door of the safe remained locked.

“You girls must have surprised him before he had time to steal the money,” Captain Barker declared in relief. “No harm done, but this is the first time in six years that anyone tried to sneak aboard the Queen. We’ll have to keep a better watch from now on.”

As the girls turned to leave the cabin, Sally saw that Penny was looking at the third finger of her right hand.

“Why, you’re hurt!” she cried.

Penny’s hand was smeared with blood which came from a tiny pin-prick wound on the finger.

“It’s nothing,” she insisted.

Sally ran to a cabinet for gauze, iodine and cotton. “How did it happen?” she asked.

“I tried to stop the prowler. As I grabbed his coat, something stuck my finger. It must have been a pin.”

The wound was superficial and did not pain Penny. Sally wrapped the finger for her, and then after Captain Barker had said he would remain up for awhile, they returned to bed.

Throughout the night there were no further disturbances. At dawn the girls arose, feeling only a little tired as the result of their night’s adventure. They had time for a quick swim in the river before breakfast and disgraced themselves by eating six pancakes each.

“The crew will be coming aboard soon,” Sally said, glancing at her watch. “I usually sweep out the lounge and straighten up a bit before we make our first passenger run.”

Penny, who had nothing to do until Jack could come to take her back to the island, eagerly offered to help. Armed with brooms and dust rags, the girls went below.

In the doorway, Penny paused, staring at the overhead beam.

“Why, Sally,” she commented in astonishment. “What did you do with the lantern trophy? Take it down?”

“No, it’s still there.”

Alarmed by Penny’s question, Sally moved past her, gazing at the beam. Where the brass lantern had hung, there now was only a neatly severed chain.

“Why, it’s gone!” she exclaimed in disbelief.

“Wasn’t it here last night when we went to bed?”

“Of course.”

“Then it was stolen last night!”

Dropping broom and dustpan, Sally brought a chair and inspected the chain. Obviously it had been cut by sharp metal scissors.

“That prowler who came aboard last night must have done it!” she exclaimed angrily. “Oh, what a mean, low trick!”

As the full realization of what the loss would mean came to her, Sally sank down on the chair, a picture of dejection.

“I’m responsible for the trophy, Penny! I’ll be expected to produce it before the final race. Oh, what can we do?”

“Why do you suppose the thief took the lantern and nothing else?”

“Someone may have done it for pure spite. But I’m more inclined to think the person came aboard to steal our money in the office safe. The lantern hung here in a conspicuous place and he may have taken it on impulse.”

Intending to notify Captain Barker of the loss, the girls started up the companionway. Abruptly, Penny paused, her attention drawn to an object lying on one of the steps. It was a circular badge with a picture and a number on it. No name. Such identifications, she knew, were used by many industrial plants.

“Where did this come from?” she murmured, picking it up.

The face on the badge was unfamiliar to her. The man had dark, bushy hair, sunken eyes and prominent cheekbones.

Sally turned to examine the identification pin. “Why, this badge came from the Gandiss factory!” she exclaimed, and studied the picture intently.

“Did you ever see the man before?”

“I can’t place him, Penny. Yet I know I have seen him somewhere.”

“The man should be easy to trace from this picture and number. When I caught hold of his clothing last night, I must have pulled off the pin. That was how my finger was pricked.”

As the girls examined the pin, they heard a commotion on deck and the sound of voices. Before they could go up the steps to investigate, Jack Gandiss came clattering down to the lounge.

“I came to take you back to the island, Penny,” he informed. “Ready?”

Then his gaze fastened upon the beam where the brass lantern had hung.

“Say, what became of the trophy?” he demanded sharply. “You decided to take it down after all?”

“It’s gone,” Sally said, misery in her voice. “Stolen!”

The two girls waited for the explosion, but strangely, Jack said nothing for a moment.

“You warned me,” Sally hastened on. “Oh, it’s all my fault. It was conceited and selfish of me to display the trophy here. I deserve everything you’re going to say.”

Still Jack remained mute, staring at the beam.

“Go on—tell me what you’re thinking,” Sally challenged miserably.

“It’s a tough break,” Jack said without rancor.

“This will practically ruin the race,” Sally accused herself. “I can’t replace the trophy for there’s no other like it. An ordinary cup never would seem the same.”

“That’s so,” Jack gloomily agreed. “Well, if it’s gone, it’s gone, and there’s nothing more to be done.”

The boy’s calm acceptance of the calamity he had predicted, astonished Penny and Sally. Was this the Jack they knew? With a perfect opportunity to say, “I told you so,” he had withheld blame.

Sally sank down on the lower step. “How will I face the racing committee?” she murmured. “What will the other contestants say? They’ll feel like running me out of town.”

“Maybe it won’t be necessary to tell,” Jack said slowly. “One of us is almost certain to win the race next Friday.”

“Yes, that’s true, but—”

“If you win, the lantern would be yours for keeps. Should I win, no one would need to know that you hadn’t turned it over to me. You could make some excuse at the time of the presentation.”

Sally gazed at Jack with a new light in her eyes. “I’m truly sorry for all the hateful things I’ve said to you in the past,” she declared earnestly. “You’re a true blue friend.”

“Maybe I’m sorry about some of the cracks I made too,” he grinned, extending his hand. “Shake?”

Sally sprang up and grasped the hand firmly, but her eyes were misty. She hastened to correct any wrong impression Jack might have gained.

“I’m glad you made the offer you did,” she said, “but I never would dream of keeping the truth from the committee. I’ll notify them today.”

“Why be in such a hurry?” Penny asked. “The race is a week away. In that time we may be able to find the trophy. After all, we have a good clue.”

“What clue?” asked Jack.

Penny showed him the pin. As he gazed at the picture on the face of the badge, a strange expression came into his eyes.

“You know the man?” Penny asked instantly.

“He works at our factory. But that’s not where I’ve seen him.”

“At the Harpers?” Sally asked.

“Yes,” Jack admitted unwillingly. “I don’t know his name, but he is a friend of Ma Harper and her husband.”

“And of that no-account Joe, the Sweeper?”

“I don’t know about that.” The questioning had made Jack uncomfortable.

“The man should be arrested!”

“We have no proof, Sally,” Penny pointed out. “While we’re satisfied in our own minds that the man who took the lantern is the person who lost the badge, we