Ghost Beyond the Gate Part 21

Picking up a wrench from the desk top, the woman left the office.

"I guess I didn't approach her the right way," remarked Penny sadly.

"Either that, or our information was incorrect. Louise, are you sure--"

"Oh, I am!" her chum insisted. "The two women I overheard, distinctly said Mattie Williams' garage. Of course, they might have been wrong about it."

Before Penny and Louise could leave the office, a middle-aged man with gla.s.ses came in through the street door.

"Sam Burkholder here?" he demanded, warming himself by the stove.

Penny started to say that she did not know. Just then Mattie Williams'

partner came in the other door.

"Hi, Sam!" the stranger greeted him. "I've got the car parked around back. Are you ready to put on that tire?"

Sam frowned, darting a quick glance at the two girls.

"Oh, the one I patched for you!" he returned. "Sure, it's fixed. Drive your car in the back entrance and I'll take care of it."

Both men went out into the main part of the garage. Just beyond the door they paused for a whispered conference, then separated.

"Shall we go?" inquired Louise, glancing at her chum.

"Not just yet," replied Penny. "I'm curious to see that patched tire.

Let's kill a little more time here."

Pretending to warm themselves by the stove, they waited ten minutes.

Then, without attracting attention, they sauntered out onto the main garage floor. Mattie Williams was busy was.h.i.+ng a car and did not see them.

The garage workroom was divided into sections, separated by a double door which was closed. Penny strolled over and pushed it open just enough to see through the crack.

Sam Burkholder was working on the stranger's car. He had removed an old tire and wheel, and was replacing it with one whose tread appeared new.

"A patched tire, my left eye!" Penny whispered to Louise. "It's just as we thought! This garage must be a Black Market place!"

CHAPTER 14 _A FAMILIAR FIGURE_

Only for a moment did the girls dare remain at the door watching Sam Burkholder mount the tire. Then, their curiosity satisfied, they moved quietly away. Without speaking to Mattie Williams, they returned to the parked automobile.

"Well, wasn't I right?" Louise demanded triumphantly. "What do you think we should do?"

The question plagued Penny. "I don't know," she confessed. "If only we were absolutely sure the tire was new--"

"It certainly looked new."

"Yes, but it could have had some wear. It's possible, too, that the customer had a legal right to buy a new tire."

"Then you don't intend to report to the police, Penny?"

"I want to talk to Salt about it first. We must move carefully, Lou. You see, my main objective is to learn the names of the higher-ups involved in the tire-theft racket."

"And where does this garage fit into the picture?"

"If it fits at all, my guess is that Sam and Mattie are buying illegal tires--perhaps from the same men who stripped my car and threatened Dad."

Driving slowly toward Riverview, Penny reviewed what she had seen. She was convinced the information was valuable, yet she scarcely knew how to use it.

"If Salt suggests that I report to the police, that's what I'll do," she decided.

Enroute home, Penny stopped at another garage to make arrangements to have her stripped coupe hauled into the city.

"How about the _Icicle_?" Louise asked, thinking her chum had forgotten the iceboat.

"It will have to stay where it is for the time being," Penny replied. "If it's stolen, I won't much care."

At the Sidell home, the girls separated. Thanking Louise for the use of the car, Penny returned afoot to the _Star_ office. Salt Sommers was absent on a.s.signment, so she did not linger long. As she rounded a street corner on her way home, a newsboy for a rival paper blocked her path.

"Read all about it!" he shouted. "Anthony Parker Believed Kidnaped!

Paper, Miss?"

Penny dropped a coin into the lad's hand and hastily scanned the front page. The story of her father's disappearance was a highly colored account, but contained not a useful item of information. Tossing the sheet into a street paper-container, she moved on.

She was pa.s.sing the Gillman Department Store when her attention was drawn to a woman who waited for a bus.

"I've seen her somewhere before," thought Penny, pausing. "Last night--"

The woman wore a small black hat and a long, old-fas.h.i.+oned dark coat which came nearly to her ankles. It was the shape of the garment and its unusual length which struck Penny as familiar. Why, the woman resembled the one who had fled from the cemetery!

Penny pretended to gaze into the store window. Actually she studied the woman from every angle. She might have been forty-seven years of age and was large-boned. Her face was heavily lined, and her long hands were covered by a pair of cheap, black cotton gloves.

"Can it be the same woman?" thought Penny in perplexity.

A bus bearing a county placard glided up to the curb. The woman in black was the only pa.s.senger to board it.

"That bus goes out toward Baldiff Road and the cemetery!" Penny told herself. "And that's where I'm going too!"

An instant before the folding doors slammed shut, she sprang aboard.

Paying her fare, she sought a seat at the rear of the bus.

No sooner was the coach in motion than Penny regretted her hasty action.

What could she hope to gain by pursuing the strange woman? She was not certain enough of her identification to make a direct accusation. County buses ran infrequently. In all likelihood, she would find herself stranded in the country.

Penny arose to leave the bus. Then changing her mind a second time, she sat down. Try as she would, she could not rid herself of a conviction that the woman she followed was the same one who had visited the cemetery.