Jack Penny

“ Two inches lower, Master Penny, and he would have been a dead man.”
“I couldn’t help it!” drawled Jack Penny. “I thought he was a savage coming to kill us. I’m always doing something. There never was such an unlucky chap as I am!”
“Oh, you meant what you did for the best!” said the doctor, laying his hand on Jack Penny’s shoulder.
“What did he want to look like a savage for?” grumbled Jack. “Who was going to know that any one dressed up—no, I mean dressed down—like that was an Englishman?”
“It was an unfortunate mistake, Penny; you must be more careful if you mean to handle a gun.” ”

“ Jack Penny did not speak for a few minutes, and I sat thinking bitterly of my weakness as I stroked Gyp’s head, the faithful beast having curled up between us and laid his head upon my lap. I seemed to have been so cowardly, and, weary and dejected as I was, I wished that I had grown to be a man, with a man’s strength and indifference to danger. ”

“ Jack Penny said to me one day in his deliberate fashion; “because if he does take hold it’s such a hard job to make him let go again. And I say, Joe Carstairs, if ever he’s by you and these niggers begin to jump about, you lay hold of him and get him away.”
“Why?” I said.
“Well, you see,” drawled Jack, “Gyp ain’t a human being.”
“I know that,” I replied.
“Yes, I s’pose so,” said Jack. “Gyp’s wonderfully clever, and he thinks a deal; but just now, I know as well as can be, he’s in a sort of doubt. He thinks these blacks are a kind of kangaroos, but he isn’t sure. ”

“ We obeyed, and though we were for the moment mastered we gave a good swing again, and it seemed as if Jack Penny must be dragged in two.
It was like playing a game of French and English, and we were in danger of getting the worst of it. We saw what the doctor wanted, and that was to get the reptile so near the surface that he could fire; but as soon as we got poor Jack nearly ashore the creature gave a tremendous tug, making the water swirl and the mud and sand from the bottom rise in clouds. ”

“ Penny returned, deliberately aloof.
“If I could do anything to prove Sally innocent you know I’d jump at the chance,” Jack argued, trying to regain Penny’s good graces.
“You really mean that?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Then why don’t you try to get a little evidence against this man Joe, the Sweeper?” Penny proposed eagerly. “You visit the factory nearly every day. Keep your eyes and ears open and see what you can learn.”
“Everyone knows who I am,” Jack argued. ”

“ As he spoke the captain threw down the thin line with which the Malay had been bound, the poor wretch snatching at it frantically; but as he did so it was pulled away from his despairing clutch.
“I could noose him,” drawled Jack Penny coolly. “I’ve often caught father’s rams like that.”
“Yes, but your father’s rams hadn’t got knives,” said the captain grimly.
“No, but they’d got horns,” said Jack quietly. “Ain’t going to drown him, are you?”
“Not I, boy; he’ll drown himself if we leave him alone.” ”

“ Penny walked along the dock searching for the Cat’s Paw. She came first to the Spindrift which was just preparing to get underway. Jack and a youth Penny did not know, were busy coiling ropes.
“Hi, Penny!” Jack greeted her, glancing up from his work. “You’re going to see a real race today! Will I take Sally Barker for a breeze!”
Just at that moment, Sally herself appeared from inside the clubhouse. Seeing Penny, she waved and called: “Come on, mate, it’s time we shove off!” ”

“ Bewilderment changed to a look of comprehension.
“I’m okay now,” he said huskily. “We’re hard aground, aren’t we?”
“Solid as a rock,” agreed Penny, wiping perspiration from her forehead. “Any ideas?”
“I’ll get out and push.”
“You’re not strong enough. You took a nasty blow on the head.”
Had not Jack looked so thoroughly miserable, Penny might have been tempted to adopt an “I told you so” attitude. There had been no excuse for running aground. Sally Barker had warned them about the shoal, and Jack deliberately had disregarded her advice. ”

“ In fact he knew that we would all have to fight in defence of our lives, and when a flight of about twenty arrows came whizzing and pattering over our heads and hurtled down upon the stony floor, I knew it too, and began to grow cool with the courage of desperation and prepared for the worst.
“Here, Jack Penny,” I whispered, “you’ll have to fight; the savages mean mischief.”
“All right!” he replied in a slow cool drawling way, “I’m ready for them; but I don’t know whether I can hit a man as he runs, unless I try to make myself believe he’s a kangaroo.” ”

“ Penny exclaimed. “Adam Glowershick!”
“Careful or he’ll hear you,” Jack warned, scowling. “I know this man. He’s here to see me.”
Penny gazed again at the stranger who had dark bushy hair and prominent cheekbones. “If that isn’t Glowershick, it’s his twin!” she thought, and asked Jack if he had the factory badge with him.
“No, I haven’t,” he answered irritably. “Furthermore, I wish you would cut out such wild speculation. He’ll hear you.”
[134]
Jack brought the boat in. Leaping ashore, he asked Penny to fasten the ropes. “I’ll be back in a minute,” he flung at her as he strode off. ”

“ I said; “and I’m sure we can’t do better than keep on.”
“I think you are right, Joe,” said the doctor thoughtfully.
“I feel sure I am,” I said. “I don’t expect to find him directly; but I mean to go on trying till I do.”
“That’s the way to find anybody,” said Jack Penny. “You’re sure to find ’em if you keep on like that. Come along.”
Jack went off; taking great strides as if he expected to be successful at once; but he did not keep up the pace long, but hung back for me to overtake him, saying:
“I say, Joe Carstairs; does your back ever ache much?” ”

“ Chapter Twenty Three. We await our Fate.
I glanced from the blacks to the doctor, to see that he was intently gazing up the gorge where the rushing water came seething down, and I read in his face that he could not see the slightest hope.
I looked at Jack Penny, who was deeply intent upon a little blue anchor that some bush shepherd had tattooed upon his thin white arm. ”

“ I said maliciously.
“P’r’aps I am, and p’r’aps I ain’t,” said Jack stoutly. “I should say I felt frightened if I was; but if you two were going to watch I wouldn’t go away and leave you with a big beast like that about. He must be a big one or he wouldn’t have frightened Gyp, who’ll tackle old man kangaroos six-foot high. You can go if you like, though.”
This was a long speech for Jack Penny, who rubbed one of his ears in an ill-used way.
“Jimmy, black fellow ’fraid um bunyip; oh, yes!” said my follower; “but Jimmy no run away.”
“We shall not leave you alone, Penny,” said the doctor, smiling. ”

“ I looked triumphantly at Jack Penny, but he only held his head higher in the air and gave a sniff, lowering his crest directly after to attend to his feet, for we were now in a complete wilderness of rocks and stones, thrown in all directions, and at times we had regularly to climb.
“It is useless to bring the men this way,” the doctor said, after a couple of hours’ labour; but as he spoke Ti-hi called a halt and pointed in a different direction, at right angles to that which we had so far followed, as being the one we should now take. ”

“ I can give him a dose that will quiet him for a couple of hours or so, but who’s to make him take it?”
“When we treed the big old man kangaroo who ripped up Pompey, Caesar, and Crassus,” drawled Jack Penny, who was looking on with his hands in his pockets, “I got up the tree and dropped a rope with a noose in it over his head. Seems to me that’s what you ought to do now.”
“Look’ye here,” cried the captain, “don’t you let your father call you fool again, youngster, because it’s letting perhaps a respectable old man tell lies. ”

“ Sally chuckled as they moored at the dock. “Get some rest now, Penny, and meet me at the clubhouse about one o’clock. The race starts sharp at two.”
Penny did not see Jack when she returned to Shadow Island, so had no chance to tell him of her plan to sail with Sally in the competition. Her father, whom she took into her confidence, was not entirely in favor of the decision.
“We are guests of Mr. and Mrs. Gandiss,” he reproved mildly. “To sail against Jack is a tactless thing to do. Though actually you may do him a favor, for you’ll likely be more of a handicap than a help in the race.” ”

“ Penny added gloomily. “What miserable luck!”
No boats were tied up at the dock, nor was there any sign of the Harpers or their friends in the crowd. Obviously, the entire party had fled.
“Isn’t there some place where we can telephone the police?” Penny suggested impatiently. “If they act quickly, these men still may be caught. They can’t be very far away.”
“The nearest house is up the beach about an eighth of a mile,” Jack informed. “Maybe we can telephone from there.”
“You two go,” Sally said casually. “I want to stay here.” ”

“ We're all ready to go ahead whenever the boss gives the word."
By this time Penny was almost certain that she was listening to the voice of Rap Molberg. Although in general the man did not resemble the photo which she had seen, the color of his eyes and the expression of his mouth were identical. His build seemed to correspond to the figures of the Bertillon record.
A minute later the man slammed down the telephone receiver and left the booth. Penny waited until he was out of the store, then dropped a nickle in the slot. She called the number which her father had given her. ”

“ Which being so, one can enjoy his work with a free conscience. It certainly seems to me very unusual in quality. The theme of the tale is the history of the Penny family, or rather of the periodical outcrop in it of a certain strain that produces Pennys dark of countenance and incalculable of conduct. This recurrence is shown in three examples: the first, Howart Penny, in the days when men wore powder and the Penny forge had just been started in what was then a British colony ”

“ When we recovered from this shattering explosion of Penny's books, a little quiet work would have begun, had not Doe, with his romantic imagination lit by the glow of Penny's audacity, started to crave the notoriety of being likewise a leader of men. He rose from his desk, approached Mr. Cæsar, and extended his hand with a belated "Good morning, sir." ”

“ CHAPTER X The Vanishing Car
Penny fully intended to tell her father of her experience, but she retired before he came home. She overslept the next morning. When she descended to the breakfast room at nine o'clock, Mrs. Gallup told her that the detective had been gone for nearly an hour.
"Your father wasn't in a very good mood this morning," the housekeeper informed as she served Penny with a steaming hot waffle. "He complained about the coffee. When he does that it's always because something's gone wrong with his work."
"You mustn't mind Dad," Penny smiled. ”

“ Francis looked up at him oddly and said in his little, old-man fashion:
“Maybe it would be best, but father says that a real man never breaks his word to a woman.”
Kurt flushed slightly. 241
“I take off my hat to you, Francis. You are right.”
Not believing that Pen would start out on foot, he went down to the garage. The cars were all accounted for. A visit to the stables proved the same as to the horses.
On his way back to the house, he met Betty, who said to him in a stage whisper.
“Uncle Kurt, Aunt Penny is going to France. She went by way of Westcott’s. Is that the way to France? ”

“ Penny shook her head and laughed. “Getting started always is quite a trick,” she replied. “Sit tight! We have a stiff breeze tonight.”
Penny and her father wore no protective goggles. The sharp wind stung their eyes even though they kept their heads low.
“How’ll we know when we get to the warehouse?” Mr. Parker shouted. “I can’t see anything!”
“Just trust me,” laughed Penny. “All I worry about is stopping this bronco when we get there!”
The boat was moving with the speed of an express train. Penny made her decisions with lightning-like rapidity, twice steering to avoid open stretches of water. ”

“ These mediums are a clever lot, Penny. They prey upon the superstitions of their intended victims.”
“I wish you would let me work on the story, Dad.”
[30]
“No, Penny,” responded her father. “You attend to your society and allow DeWitt to worry about the Celestial Temple crowd. Even if I should launch a campaign, I couldn’t allow you to become mixed up in the affair.”
The telephone bell jingled. With a tired sigh, Penny reached for the receiver.
“Society desk,” she said mechanically.
“I am trying to trace Mr. Parker,” informed the office exchange operator. “Is he with you, Miss Parker?” ”

“ What was that?” exclaimed Penny.
“A barricade. Keep back.”
To Penny’s astonishment the government man drew his revolver before entering the room. Disregarding the order to remain behind, she followed him inside.
“I might have expected this!” he muttered.
Penny’s gaze swept the room. A chair lay overturned on the floor. The bed, still bearing the imprint of a man’s body, was empty.
“Why, where’s Joe?” murmured Penny. “His clothing is gone, too!”
Mr. Moyer strode to the open window.
“You think he left that way?” Penny questioned. “He must have heard us talking!” ”

“ A gust of wind caught Penny’s felt hat, carrying it cartwheeling down the beach. She and Jerry raced in pursuit, colliding as they pounced on it together. They laughed, and as the reporter pulled the hat over Penny’s flying hair, he kissed her quickly on the cheek.
Then before she could reprimand him, he exclaimed: “Wow! That wind really is getting strong! Let’s get back to the car before we blow away!” ”

“ Penny remarked.
"Naturally not," Mr. Nichols smiled. "If they came here to report, every crook in Belton City would be aware of it within an hour."
"Then how do you keep in touch with your men?" Penny asked curiously.
"There are a few secrets which I must keep to myself. Aren't you taking a rather sudden interest in my work, Penny?"
"Perhaps I am. Since my car wheels were stolen I feel personally concerned in the case. I wish I could do something to help."
Mr. Nichols became grave. "There is nothing you can do, Penny. ”