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

“I am sorry,” said Miss Grimley in a tone which implied exactly the opposite, “but I will have to report this. You understand my position.”

“Please—”

“I have no choice,” Miss Grimley cut her short. “Come with me, please.”

Penny started to accompany Sally, but the forelady by a gesture indicated that she was not to come. The door closed behind them.

For ten minutes Penny waited, hoping that Sally would return. Finally she wandered outside. Sally was not on the floor and another girl had taken her place at the machine.

Seeing Joe the Sweeper cleaning a corridor, Penny asked him about Sally.

“No. 567?” the man inquired with a grin which showed a gap between his front upper teeth. “You won’t see her no more! She’s in the employment office now, and they’re giving her the can!”

“You mean she’s being discharged?”

“Sure. We don’t want no thieves around here!”

“Sally Barker isn’t a thief,” Penny retorted loyally. “By the way, how did you know why the girl was taken to the office?”

The question momentarily confused Joe. But his reply was glib enough.

“Oh, I have a way o’ knowin’ what goes on around here,” he smirked. “I figured that gal was light-fingered the day they hired her. It didn’t surprise me none that they found the stuff in her locker.”

“And who told you that?” Penny pursued the subject.

“Why, you said so yourself—”

“Oh, no I didn’t.”

“It was the forelady,” Joe corrected himself. “I seen the brass in her hand when she came out of the locker room with that gal.”

Disgusted, Penny turned her back and walked away in search of Jack. It was none of her affair, she knew, but it seemed to her that Joe the Sweeper had taken more than ordinary interest in Sally’s downfall. His statements, too, had been confused.

“I don’t trust that fellow,” she thought. “He’s sly and mean.”

Penny could not find Jack, and when she returned to Mr. Gandiss’ office, a secretary told her that the factory owner and her father expected to meet her at the main gate.

Hastening there, Penny saw no sign of them. Nor was the gateman on duty. However, hearing low voices inside the gatehouse, she stepped to the doorway. No one was in view, but two men were talking in the inner office.

“It worked slick as a whistle,” she heard one of them say. “The girl was caught with the stuff on her, and they fired her.”

“Who was she?”

“A new employee named Sally Barker.”

“Good enough, Joe. That ought to take the heat off the others for awhile at least.”

The name startled Penny who instantly wondered if one of the speakers might be Sweeper Joe. Confirming her suspicion, the man came out of the inner room a moment later. Seeing her, he stopped short and his jaw dropped.

“What you doin’ here?” he demanded gruffly.

“Waiting for Mr. Gandiss,” Penny replied. “And you?”

Joe did not answer. Mumbling something, he pushed past her and went off toward the main factory building.

“He’s certainly acting as if he deliberately planned to get Sally into trouble,” she thought resentfully.

Clayton, the gateman, showed his face a moment later, and he too acted self-conscious. As he checked a car through into the factory grounds, he glanced sideways at Penny, obviously uneasy as to how much she might have overheard.

“Been here long?” he inquired carelessly.

“No, I just came,” Penny answered with pretended unconcern. “I’m waiting for my father.”

The men did not come immediately. However, as Penny loitered near the gatehouse, she saw Sally Barker hurriedly leaving the factory building.

“Ain’t you off early tonight?” the gateman asked as she approached.

“I’m off for good,” Sally answered shortly. Her face was tear-stained and she did not try to hide the fact that she had been crying.

“Fired?”

“That’s right,” Sally replied. “Unjustly too!”

“Shoo, you don’t say!” the gateman exclaimed, sympathetically. “What did they give you the can for?”

Sally, in no mood to provide details, went on without answering. Penny ran to overtake her.

“I’ll walk with you to the boundaries of the grounds,” she said quickly. “Tell me what happened.”

“Just what you would expect,” Sally shrugged. “They asked me a lot of questions in the personnel office. I told the truth—that I knew nothing about that putrid piece of brass that turned up in my locker! Then they gave me a nice little lecture, and said they were sorry but my services no longer were required. Branded as a thief!”

“Don’t take it so hard, Sally,” Penny said kindly. “Someone probably planted the brass in your locker.”

“Of course! But I can’t prove it.”

“Why not appeal to Mr. Gandiss? He likes you and—”

“No,” Sally said firmly, kicking at a piece of gravel on the driveway, “I’ll ask no favors of Mr. Gandiss. He would have me reinstated, no doubt, but it would be too humiliating.”

“Do you know of anyone in the factory who dislikes you?”

Sally shook her head. “That’s the funny part of it. I’m not acquainted with anyone. I just started in.”

“How about Joe the Sweeper?”

“Oh, him!” Sally was scornful. “He caught me in the hall the other day and tried to get fresh. I slapped his face!”

“Then perhaps he was the one that got you into trouble.”

“He’s too stupid,” Sally dismissed the subject.

“I’m not so sure of that,” returned Penny thoughtfully.

The girls had reached the street and Sally’s bus was in sight.

“What will you do now?” Penny asked hurriedly. “Get a job at another factory?”

“I doubt it,” Sally replied, fishing in her pocketbook for a bus token. “I’ll help Pop on the River Queen. If I do take another job it won’t be until after the sailboat races.”

“I’d forgotten about that. When is the race?”

“The preliminary is in a few days—next Friday. The finals are a week later.”

“I hope you win,” said Penny sincerely. “I’ll certainly be on hand to watch.”

The bus pulled up at the curb. Swing-shift employes, arriving at the factory for work, crowded past the two girls. Impulsively Sally turned and squeezed Penny’s hand.

“I like you,” she said with deep feeling. “You’ve been kind. Will you come to see me sometime while you’re here?”

“Of course! I’ve not brought back those clothes I borrowed yet!”

“I’ll look for you,” Sally declared warmly. “I feel that you’re a real friend.”

Squeezing Penny’s hand again, she sprang aboard the bus and was lost in the throng of passengers.

Several days of inactivity followed for Penny at Shadow Island. For the most part, Jack was friendly and tried to provide entertainment. However, he was away much of the time, supervising the work of repairing and getting the Spindrift into condition for the coming trophy race.

Sally Barker’s name seldom was mentioned in the Gandiss household, though it was known that the girl intended to enter the competition regardless of her disgrace at the factory. Once Penny asked Jack point-blank what he thought of the entire matter.

“Just what I always did,” he answered briefly. “Sally never took anything from the factory. It wouldn’t be in keeping with her character.”

“Then why isn’t she cleared?”

“Father did take the matter up with the personnel department, but he doesn’t want to go over the manager’s head. The brass was found in her locker and quite a few employes learned about it.”

“The brass was planted!”

“Probably,” agreed Jack. “But it’s none of my affair. Sally wasn’t a very good factory worker and the personnel director thought he had to make an example of someone—”

“So Sally became the goat! I call it unfair. Did the thefts cease after she left?”

“They’re worse than ever.”

“Then obviously Sally had nothing to do with it!”

“Not just one person is involved. The brass is being taken by an organized ring of employes.”

“I suppose it’s none of my affair, but in justice I think Sally should be cleared. I don’t know the girl well, but I like her.”

“You may as well hear the whole story,” Jack said uncomfortably. “Father wrote her a letter, inviting her to come in for an interview. She paid no attention.”

“Perhaps she didn’t get the letter.”

“She got it all right. I met her on the street yesterday, and when I tried to talk to her, she threatened to heave a can of varnish in my face! Furthermore, she gave me to understand she intends to defeat me soundly in the race tomorrow.”

“I’ll be there to watch,” grinned Penny. “The contest should be interesting.”

While Jack was out on the river practicing for the approaching competition, Penny accompanied her father to the mainland to mail letters and make a few purchases Mrs. Gandiss had requested. In returning to the waterfront, they wandered down a street within view of the Gandiss factory.

Penny’s attention was drawn to a man who came out of an alley at the rear of the plant and stood staring at a tiny junk shop which was situated directly opposite the Gandiss factory.

“There’s Joe the Sweeper,” she observed aloud. And then an instant later added: “That’s queer!”

“What is?” inquired her father.

“Why, that junk shop! I’ve been down this street several times, but I never noticed it there before. I would have sworn that the building was empty.”

Mr. Parker gave her a quick, amused look. “It was until yesterday,” he informed.

“You seem to know all about it!” Penny suddenly became suspicious. “What are you keeping from me?”

Mr. Parker did not reply, for he was watching the man who had emerged from the alley. Joe seemed to debate for awhile, then crossed the street and entered the junk shop.

“Good!” exclaimed Mr. Parker. “Our bait seems to be working.”

“What are you talking about?” Penny demanded in exasperation. “Will you kindly explain?”

“You recall Mr. Gandiss asked me to help him solve the mystery of those brass thefts at the plant.”

“Why, yes, but I didn’t know you had begun to do anything about it.”

“Our plan may not succeed. However, we’re trying out a little idea of mine.”

“Does it have anything to do with that junk shop?”

“Yes, the place was opened yesterday by Heiney Growski.”

Penny’s blue eyes opened wide for she knew the man well. A prominent detective in Riverview, he had won distinction by solving a number of difficult cases.

“Heiney is an expert at make-up and impersonation,” Mr. Parker added. “We brought him here and installed him as the owner of the junk store across the street. His instructions are to buy brass and copper at above the prevailing market prices.”

“You expect employes who may be pilfering metals to seek the highest price obtainable!”

“That’s our idea. It may not work.”

“It should,” Penny cried jubilantly. “Sweeper Joe went in there not three minutes ago! I’ve suspected him from the first!”

“Aren’t you jumping to pretty fast conclusions?”

“From what I heard him say to the gatekeeper Clayton, I’m sure he’s mixed up in some underhanded scheme.”

“You’re not certain of it, Penny. Joe has been carefully investigated. He seems too stupid a fellow to have engineered such a clever, organized method of pilfering.”

“He never appeared stupid to me. Dad, let’s drift over to the junk shop, and learn what is happening.”

“And give everything away? No, Heiney will report if anything of consequence develops. In the meantime, we must show no interest in the shop.”

To Penny’s disappointment, her father refused to remain longer in the vicinity of the factory. Without glancing toward the junk shop, they walked on to the riverfront. The motorboat they had expected to meet them had not yet arrived. While Mr. Parker purchased a newspaper and sat down on the dock to read, Penny sauntered along the shore.

A short distance away on a stretch of beach, a boat had been overturned. Sally Barker, in blue overalls rolled to the knees, was painting it with deft, sure strokes. Penny walked over to watch the work.

Glancing up, Sally smiled, but did not speak. A smudge of blue paint stained her cheek. She had sanded the bottom of the Cat’s Paw, and now was slapping on a final coat of paint.